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Uber to Own 9.9% of Zomato After Selling Food Delivery Business
The acquisition will give Uber a 9.99 percent stake in the Indian food delivery and restaurant discovery platform.
Zomato on Tuesday, 21 January, said it has acquired the Indian business of Uber Eats in an all-stock deal that will give Uber 9.99 percent stake in the Indian food delivery and restaurant discovery platform.
Uber Eats in India will discontinue operations and direct restaurants, delivery partners, and users of the Uber Eats apps to the Zomato platform, effective Tuesday, a statement said.
In a regulatory filing to BSE, Info Edge (India) - a shareholder in Zomato - said its shareholding in Zomato will stand reduced to about 22.71 percent on fully converted and diluted basis upon closing of the transaction.
This development was first reported back in December 2019, when talks between Uber Eats and Zomato were claimed to have reached an advanced stage.
The deal comes days after Zomato had raised USD 150 million in funding from existing investor Ant Financial, an Alibaba affiliate, at a USD 3 billion valuation.
"We are proud to have pioneered restaurant discovery and to have created a leading food delivery business across more than 500 cities in India. This acquisition significantly strengthens our position in the category," Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said.
Uber Eats, which entered India in 2017, has about 26,000 restaurants listed on its platform from 41 cities. But most people were enticed to use the platform because of its attractive discounts and low delivery charges. However, its restaurant listings didn’t expand as one would have expected, forcing its partners to stop taking delivery orders from the platform.
With this deal, India’s online food delivery market has now become a duopoly, with Zomato and Swiggy taking the lion’s share of the segment.
This is what Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi had to say about the deal announced on Tuesday.
“India remains an exceptionally important market to Uber and we will continue to invest in growing our local rides business, which is already the clear category leader. We have been very impressed by Zomato’s ability to grow rapidly in a capital-efficient manner and we wish them continued success.”Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber
It Never Clicked for Uber Eats
Many have pointed out UberEats’ delayed entry into the Indian market has played a big role in lack of demand for the service, where it has been competing with established names like Zomato and Swiggy. Even FoodPanda, after its acquisition by Ola, failed to rack up the numbers, forcing the cab aggregator to shift its business focus elsewhere.
Discussions between Zomato and Uber have been on for months. Facing stiff competition from Zomato and Swiggy, Uber Eats had been making losses.
Uber had projected an operating loss of Rs 2,197 crore in its food delivery business for the five months through December 2019, according to a valuation report prepared by KPMG affiliate BSR and was part of regulatory filings.
According to sources, Uber Eats India business contributed 3 percent of the global gross bookings but accounted for over 25 percent of adjusted EBIDTA losses for the first three quarters of 2019.
But it’s not just India where Uber Eats failed to work its way through the consumers, the ride-hailing giant had to strike similar deals in other countries as well.
Previously, it has exited from the Chinese, Russian and Indonesian market, where it struck deals with Didi, Yandex and Grab respectively. And similar to its deal with Zomato, Uber got share in the main company at Grab and Yandex.
What Happens Now?
With the sale of the food business in India, Uber can now focus on the rides business and driving it towards profitability, one of the persons said.
Uber’s app which was recently overhauled to support both ride and food ordering service, is now asking users to head over to Zomato to make future delivery orders.
Zomato has confirmed, “the delivery partners who were earlier associated with Uber Eats India will be on-boarded on our fleet. We welcome them and want to assure them we have their best interest in mind.” However, it has less rosy news for those who’ve been working with Uber Eats in the country.
According to sources quoted in the TechCrunch report, Uber Eats employees have been given the option to join the parent company, or else they’ll be asked to leave.
This deal is most likely to give Uber Eats the leadership status in the market, followed by Swiggy.
(With PTI inputs)
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COVID-19 snarled the US healthcare supply chain, but it was in trouble long before, experts say.
What's more, drug and medical-device shortages could get worse, Tammy Beckham, DVM, PhD, associate director of the US Food and Drug Association's (FDA's) Resilient Supply Chain Program at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), told attendees at this month's MedCon 2023.
"Shortages and supply chain issues don't just happen during a public health emergency," she said at the event, which was sponsored by the Association of Food and Drug Officials, the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society, and the FDA. "We've seen these before COVID, and we're continuing to see these moving into the future. Many of the issues we're facing are becoming much more complex and more systemic."
Problems that have plagued the healthcare industry for years, including scarce raw materials, sole-source suppliers, a concentrated market, quality problems and product recalls, labor issues, geopolitical conflict, and natural disasters won't go away with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
But Beckham said that CDRH is taking action in three areas to mitigate drug shortages:
- Working with trade associations, health systems, and distributors to develop a list of medical devices most important to public health
- Urging better collaboration between the supply chain and product development
- Identifying vulnerabilities and interdependencies at a high level to address shortages before they escalate
A global crisis
This month, 19 European Union (EU) member states issued a four-page report on a steady increase in drug shortages since 2022. The report cites problems such as increased demand, manufacturing and quality problems, factory closures, and supply-chain bottlenecks.
"In addition to these problems, the EU is becoming increasingly dependent on imports from a few manufacturers and regions for its medicines supply, adding a security dimension to the question," the authors wrote.
The EU has already taken actions such as creating legislation designed to improve national and European Medicines Agency oversight and mitigation of drug shortages, establishing a steering group to track the causes of shortages and monitor supply, and proposing the Critical Medicines Act to support the domestic manufacturer of drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and intermediates for which the EU depends on one country or just a few manufacturers.
Both generic, brand-name products affected
Drug shortages and the quality problems that often cause them aren't limited to generic products, as evidenced by ongoing shortages of Adderall, Wegovy, Pluvicto, and others. Recently, the FDA has reported a slew of quality problems at both foreign and domestic plants that produce both generic and brand-name drugs.
"The FDA is finding problems in manufacturing quality whether the site is new or old, whether it is producing brand or generic drugs, or whether it is run by the product sponsor or their contractor," Pink Sheet reports.
For example, on April 26, the FDA issued an eight-observation report listing quality-unit failures and controlled-document oversight, on Iceland's Alvotech facility, which manufactures the rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira. After a March inspection, the FDA released a 10-observation report on Lupin's Pithampur, India, facility that cited unreported out-of-specification results and critical equipment breakdowns.
Based in the same Indian city, Cipla in March received an eight-observation report on its manufacturing plant related to microbiological contamination, power failures, and patient complaints. In Germany, Rentschler Biopharma SE's intermediate manufacturing plant in Baden-Wurttemberg was cited for inadequate prevention of microbial contamination and too-infrequent endotoxin monitoring of some point-of-use equipment.
In the United States, Eli Lilly's Technology Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, was given a three-observation report citing insufficient aseptic technique and surface sanitization done with soiled wipes.
Lack of transparency
In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Indian manufacturer Maiden Pharmaceuticals sold cough syrups that contained the deadly poisons ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol, which are used to make antifreeze, brake fluids, and other products.
The contaminated cough syrups were linked to the deaths of more than 70 children in Gambia, most of whom were younger than 5 years and died of acute kidney injury.
Now, Reuters reports that an unnamed middleman in Mumbai sold a crucial raw material used to make the cough syrups. Corrupt people can substitute these adulterants for propylene glycol, a key ingredient in syrupy medications, because they can be less than half as expensive.
In December, India's drug regulator told the WHO that the propylene glycol used to make the cough syrups were supplied by Delhi-based Goel Pharma Chem, who imported it from South Korea's SKC Co. Goel Pharma owner Sharad Goel said he bought the ingredient in sealed barrels from a Mumbai importer who procured it from SKC but couldn't name the importer, according to Reuters.
Unfortunately, the Maiden Pharmaceuticals poisoning was not unique. "In fact, the death of over 100 patients in the United States in the 1930s due to diethylene glycol contamination led to the creation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which requires proof of safety for new drugs on the market," said David Margraf, PharmD, PhD, pharmaceutical research scientist at the Resilient Drug Supply Project (RDSP).
RDSP is part of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), publisher of CIDRAP News.
"The lack of transparency in the global drug supply chain is a major concern that impacts drug shortages and life-threatening quality issues," he said. "It is essential to identify vulnerabilities within the supply chain to ensure safe and effective drugs."

domain: news


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The development of Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update appears to be in the final stages at Apple Computer, as tipsters say the latest developer builds of the software are accompanied by only a few outstanding issues.
The near 52MB system update will be the fourth maintenance update released for Tiger in the seven months since Apple first made the operating system available to the public.
In the latest builds of 10.4.4, tipsters say Apple has made several refinements to the Safari web browser, including scrolling, download and rendering fixes. The release will also reportedly repair a hole in Safari that has blocked some users from accessing sites like GoDaddy.com.
If Apple\'s Mac OS X Update schedule in recent years is any indication, Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update should see a release just prior to the Apple\'s holiday break which occurs near the last week of December.
The most recent developer release of Mac OS X 10.4.4 is rumored to be build 8G22.


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Most college students are on a tight budget. As a result, spending textbooks that cost hundreds of dollars can be challenging. Luckily, students at Michigan State University have potential to save those money by renting them. The Textbook Rental Program started this fall at MSU.
The demand for renting textbooks is high as thousands of students have already rent textbooks. One of the advantages by renting them is students don’t have to worry about reselling them for no or little money back.


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Game production company Atari has launched a fitness app, called Atari Fit for Android and iOS devices. Atari partnered with 8BitFit, a company that develops smartphone-based fitness games, and Gametheory, a production studio, to develop the app. Atari also partnered with Walgreens to offer Balance Rewards points to users who are tracking their steps through the app.
The company said the launch of this fitness app marks their entrance into the fitness and health market and is a part of Atari's "ongoing corporate strategy to reach new audiences across a diverse set of platforms".
“With Atari Fit, players from around the globe can exercise, play and get healthy together by providing a gamified fitness experience unlike any other app currently available,” Atari CEO Fred Chesnais said in a statement. “By uniting the universal need to exercise and live healthfully with the entertaining experience unique to Atari games, we’ve created an app that proves fitness can be fun.”
The Atari Fit app offers over 150 gamified exercise routines including full-body circuits and running programs. Users can unlock additional fitness routines with points earned from burning calories or through in-app purchases. As the user exercises, the app will track distance, speed, pace, and calories burned. If users want to connect with friends, they can join a team to run or do another exercise routine with others. They can also challenge friends to workout against them.
Users can also earn in-game rewards by syncing data from wearable devices or other apps. Atari Fit will integrate the data from Apple Health. When users raise their fitness level in the app, they receive coins, and they can use the coins to unlock Atari classic games, for example Pong, Super Breakout, and Centipede. Users can also earn Walgreens Balance Rewards that they can redeem for discounts at Walgreens.
In the last few years, other game developer companies have also released fitness offerings.
In October 2013, Charles Huang and Kai Huang, founders of RedOctane, which developed the video game Guitar Hero, launched a digital fitness offering, called Blue Goji, that aims to gamify stationary exercise equipment. Blue Goji has three components. The first is an app, called Goji Play. The second component is a set of wireless controllers that can be attached to any fitness machine, including an elliptical trainer, treadmill, or exercise bike. Finally, the user is given an activity tracker to wear while exercising. From there, users can play a variety of games designed for Goji Play while the tracker sends data to the app.
The following month, Nintendo launched an activity tracking device, called Fit Meter, that could be used in conjunction with Nintendo's Wii U console.
Also in November 2013, game developer Konami released DanceDanceRevolution: Pocket Edition, which allows iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch users to play the dancing game without the need for large hardware like external dance pads. The pocket version requires that the user have Apple TV. It uses the motion sensors built into the phone to track the user’s dance moves and displays the game on the TV screen. It also tracks calories burned and other fitness statistics that can then be accessed in game, either individually or aggregated in a chart with past results.


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Apple has released a version 1.0 beta of ProRes Raw for Windows that adds support for Apple’s video codec in several Adobe apps on Microsoft’s operating system.
In the support text accompanying the download, Apple says the beta release ‘enables playback of ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ video files in compatible applications on Windows systems.’ This includes Adobe After Effects, Adobe Media Encoder, Adobe Premiere and Adobe Premiere Rush.
Assuming this support makes it out of beta and expands to other applications, this could help to make ProRes Raw a more useful standard for video work. The download, which comes in at 737KB, is available to download on Apple’s support page.
Author: Go to Source


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With all the social chatter related to brands across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more, massive new data streams are being created every second in order to better understand customer behaviour. Yet it remains a largely intimidating and unknown quantity for many companies.
A recent study by Nesta claims four in five businesses feel they are failing to utilise big data, although I would imagine that for the vast majority of those respondents merely agreeing a definition for the term would be a challenge.
Big data still seems to reside only in the domain of the largest companies - those with the scale and resource to effectively process and action such huge quantities. But I believe that 2013 will be the year that big data starts to become truly accessible.
For decades the biggest companies have built data warehouses, had scientists study the data, and used predictive modelling to make highly informed decisions rooted in an understanding of customer behaviour. It may not have always had the big data tag, but the thinking has been the same.
The approach, while immensely valuable to huge corporations, also has its limitations. It’s expensive, slow to process, difficult to store and often fragmented.
But big data is changing. Gradually, it’s transitioning from the aggregate to the individual, and thus is beginning to become actionable for smaller companies. In 2013 big data storage costs will decrease, as will the time to process and analyse this data.
What to do with the data and insights, though, will become a larger problem. The old way was to spend a month getting a huge data set from months ago into a data system, have your scientists crunch it, and then get a report back that tells you how to approach different segments. But this doesn’t necessarily help with connecting on an individual level.
Can you use the data you’re amassing to be relevant on your website, in real time, when the visitor shows up and is ready to make a buying decision? This is a key question marketers must ask and act on in 2013.
Admittedly, we’re still some way away from the day when just thinking about big data isn’t mind-boggling. The key is to not let the data paralyze you like the proverbial deer in the headlights, but rather be empowered by it, implementing a continuous improvement initiative in which you use the data to capture insights that enable you to improve and take action on that data - baby steps.
Fortunately, this is no longer in the 'too hard' pile. With the recent advancements in marketing automation platforms, the time is now to link up your data between Web, CRM, relational tables, email and beyond.
For many, the end goal of big data is to capture social interactions and take automated actions based on these social behaviours, and in 2013 we’ll start to see companies marrying social data with core marketing solutions. But even while the technology is catching up to the social explosion, there’s still plenty you can do with big data, technology is no longer the be all and end all.
Think about the different ways you could take all the information you have about your customers at the individual level, boil it up in a semi-unstructured way, and begin to use it to either prove or disprove different hypotheses that you might make about your customers, when they buy and why they react in the ways they do.
The possibilities are endless, so get started today with the data you’re currently collecting, taking it one bite at a time and integrating and appending other relational data sources, capturing more and more behaviours. By doing so, you’ll be building a strong foundation for using the 'new' big data to the fullest.


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A PORTRAIT photographer is hunting Tees Valley-based Burlesque dancers for a new project.
East Cleveland-based Keith Moss is putting together an exhibition of Burlesque photos because of a growing demand for the colourful, nostalgic images. But he is struggling to find Dita Von Teese-type models in the region.
He is appealing for women interested in the early 19th century art form to come forward.
He said: “Burlesque is both glamorous and fascinating and is enjoying a massive resurgence thanks to the likes of Dita Von Teese. There is a major demand for photography depicting the era as there is a real trend for social portrait photography in this style.
“I had planned to start shooting early in the summer, but so far I have been struggling to find local Burlesque models.
“I have been inundated with models from other areas of the country. But I would prefer to work with women from around Teesside.
“Also I am passionately against the frightening trend for so-called ‘size 0’ models and Burlesque is the perfect antithesis to this.”
Call Keith on 01287 679655, or visit www.keithmossphotography.co.uk


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LG awards 42″ LED TV to Jesse Were of Tusker Football Club for emerging the player of the month.
LG Electronics and Sports Journalists Association of Kenya(SJAK) have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see them cooperate to improve the standards of football in the country.
The agreement will mainly focus on motivating Kenyan footballers through rewarding outstanding performance in the premier league.
As part of the agreement, LG will support the associations activities including donating prizes for its footballer of the month awards and annual gala awards ceremony among others. The gala is to take place in November this year.
Today LG gave out a 42″ LED TV to Jesse Were of Tusker Football Club who emerged the best player of the month.
LG Marketing Manager Moses Marji presents a 43 inch television set to Tusker FC striker Jesse Were.
“We are extremely happy to partner with SJAK to reward best performing players in the Kenyan Premier League. We believe that our joint action will contribute to boosting players morale as well as maintain and develop interest in the sports across the country,” said Moses Marji, General Manager Marketing, LG Electronics. He was speaking during the signing ceremony held at Ruaraka grounds Nairobi.
“In a bid to spur development of sports in the country we rolled out a programme where we reward the most outstanding player in the Kenya Premier League. This is a start and we have seen it motivate the players. With such partnerships we envision a bright future for Kenyan sports,” said Chris Mbaisi, Sports Journalists Association of Kenya president.
The Sport Journalists Association of Kenya is an affiliate of the International Sports Press Association AIPS headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, which seeks to enhance the cooperation between sports media in defending sports and the professional interest of the members.


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Google also sums up 2022 by rewarding the best apps and games released for Android in the last 12 months. After all, between artificial intelligence capable of creating generative art and the exploits of mobile games, 2022 has been a decidedly intense year for the Google Play Store.
Without further ado then, let’s go see the winners for each category.
Best Android apps and games of 2022
To win the prize Best App it is Dream by WOMBO, downloaded by over 10 million users. This is an app released earlier this year that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create generative art. The app most voted by users is instead BeRealwhich finally wins an important recognition despite being present on the Google Play Store for almost three years.
Per Google the best video game on android of 2022 is Apex Legends Mobile, adaptation of EA’s popular battle royale for consoles. Apex Legend’s Mobile also won the Users Choice award for games, confirming how much the game was appreciated. A game that we at techgameworld.com really liked at the first try. Our review reads:
“What immediately strikes us is that the entire Legends experience feels like something new. As if it were a spin-off game, which does not seek comparisons with its console or PC counterpart. Apex Legends Mobile is indeed one stand alonewith its events, its updates and even an exclusive legend: Fade. This will be unlockable by obtaining all the various fragments and continuing in the levels by accumulating XP points. In fact, these will allow us to unlock new game modes. Other known Legends featured at launch are: Bangalore, Bloodhound, Caustic, Gibraltar, Lifeline, Mirage, Octane, Pathfinder e Wraith. Each of these will have unique abilities and characteristics.”


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GPHL launches a heavyweight new product at 2019 CPEO
2019-08-21 17:19:01 GPHL GPHL
From August 12th to 17th, 2019, China Pharmaceutical Enterprises Co-operation and Development Organization Summit (CPEO Summit) was held in Bo’ao, Hainan. CPEO attracted major pharmaceutical, commercial, investment, R&D, technology, medical care, health services, finance and insurance companies and organizations in the healthcare industry, providing forward-looking and systematic insight for the industry and facilitating information sharing.
GPHL’s chairman Li Chuyuan makes a speech during the award ceremony.
GPHL, the largest pharmaceutical conglomerate in China, was naturally invited. At the summit, GPHL’s chairman Li Chuyuan received a special award for his industrial leadership and achievements in exploring future of healthcare industry. Executives from large pharmaceutical chains conveyed their best wishes.
Executives from large pharmaceutical chains conveyed their best wishes.
At CPEO Summit, GPHL launched Baishikang® Jiaogulan Zongdai Pian produced by Hutchison Whampoa Guangzhou Baiyunshan Chinese Medicine Company Limited (HGB). Baishikang® Jiaogulan Zongdai Pian preserves the maximum active ingredients, ensures high absorption, effectively reduces cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and reverses liver damage. This product has received a patent for prevention and treatment of fatty liver conditions.
In addition, GPHL joined hands with around 2,600 Nepstar drugstores across China, including about 800 pharmacies in Guangdong, to organize a GPHL Herbal Tea Culture Festival. Nepstar will display and promote GPHL’s herbal tea products for free. In the future, GPHL will work together with more pharmacy chains to promote Chinese medicine culture.
Launch ceremony for the First GPHL Herbal Tea Culture Festival
Author: Michelle Wang
Editors: Monica Liu, Simon Haywood


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The digital advertising world is still dominated by American online firms, with Google being the top dog by far and Facebook performing very well too.
China is making its mark on the top 10 too, with Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent raking in their fair share.
According to eMarketer, all players are set to up their revenue considerably. Most potential for growth is thought to rest with Chinese digital media giant Tencent, whose revenue could see an increase from $5.53 billion to $7.47 billion, a rise of almost 65 per cent.
Download the chart here.
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Focusing on social and political issues, giving readers current events news in context may sound more like a news magazine than a Marie Claire, but women’s magazines have been producing this kind of content since creation, according to Kate Lewis, Hearst Digital Media’s SVP/editorial director in the US. There is good reason why it is now more noticeable...
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Nine steps to rapidly transform your legacy teams
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19th Jun 2017
Reuters Digital News Report 2017 highlights lessons for publishers across multiple markets
Growth in social media for news discovery is flattening out, ad-blocking on desktop has stalled, brand recall on social is low, voice-activated digital assistants are emerging as news platforms in some countries and regions. If the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2017 makes one thing clear, it is that the digital revolution is full of contradictions and exceptions, for the simple reason that countries and regions across the globe started this revolution at different times and places and aren’t progressing at the same pace.
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25th Jun 2017


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Faced with a growing threat to the American economy and American jobs, the President today used his statutory authority under the Taft-Hartley Act to convene a Board of Inquiry to examine the work stoppage at the West Coast ports. A Board of Inquiry is part of a framework established by Congress to address labor disputes that threaten national health and safety.
The dispute is a threat to Americas national health and safety. The health of our economy in every corner of America is in jeopardy because of the dispute. In many areas of the economy, layoffs have begun, thousands more jobs may be lost, and all Americans may soon begin to pay sharply higher prices for household goods.
Each shipping container at these ports holds a part of the national economy from produce to computers, spare auto parts to lumber, consumer electronics to grain and wheat. Any household good imported to be sold on an American store shelf can be found in these containers.
Exports, too, are critical to a growing American economy. American exporters need the ports to operate, so they can ship their products overseas, including agricultural exports such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and pork products, and manufactured goods of all shapes and sizes.
The dispute is estimated by some to be costing Americas economy as much as $1 billion a day:
West Coast ports are crucial to US trade, handling over $300 billion in trade a year. These ports handle more than half of all containerized imports and exports.
West Coast ports handle 25 percent of all US grain exports, 40 percent of all wheat, 14 percent of all corn, and seven percent of all soybeans exports.
Sixty-five percent of all US containerized food trade moved through these ports in 2001.
Layoffs have already begun in multiple industries around the country.
Millions of dollars in produce, fish, meat and poultry are rotting on docks and ships.
Trade with Asia is particularly affected. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, India, and Malaysia are the top 10 destinations for containerized US agriculture products. Together, these nations receive 85 percent of all agricultural shipments from the West Coast.
The costs to the economy become larger and more permanent the longer the ports remain closed.
Improvements in supply chain management mean that shipping delays quickly translate into empty store shelves and cancelled orders.
Air cargo carrier rates are increasing dramatically, increasing the retail cost of those goods shipped by air.
October is a critical inventory-building month for retailers: the value of imports through West Coast ports is greater in October than in any other month of the year. If the ports remain closed, revenues from the holiday shopping season will soon be affected.
As the duration of the shutdown increase, more manufacturers and retailers will use up their remaining inventory. Trucks and trains transporting goods to and from the ports are backing up the longer the shutdown continues, the more time it will take for shipping to return to normal.
Reopening the ports, even if only for 80 days, will benefit the economy. The parties will be given time to settle the dispute. Manufacturers and retailers will be given additional time to adjust and prepare.
Manufacturing is only barely beginning to recover from the recent recession, having lost nearly 1.9 million jobs in the last two years. Manufacturing cannot afford further jolts.
With modern inventory techniques and the increased integration brought by globalization, shutting off much of our trade with Asia will affect not just large importers and producers, but also the tens of thousands of smaller U.S. firms that supply directly-affected firms.
Three times as much of the U.S. economy is now directly related to trade as was the case in 1971, the last time the United States had a major West Coast port work stoppage.
The employment consequences of a continued shutdown would fall hardest on those with the least economic opportunity workers with less job seniority are likely to be laid off first, and low-income families may have little savings to weather the effects of a shutdown.
The dispute has implications for national defense. The American military relies on commercial ships using the West Coast ports to carry exports necessary for the support of armed forces. In addition, defense contractors receive components and materials through the West Coast ports that are necessary to supply the military's needs. The disruption of the flow of such military-related goods could impact national security.
The Taft-Hartley process is the governments principal legal means of addressing a labor dispute that could have a devastating national impact. The government first sought mediation as an alternative solution to this dispute. Since the beginning of the dispute, the government has made itself available to help both parties resolve their differences. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FCMS) has been on the ground seeking a solution since before the work stoppage began. However, the mediation process has not been successful, and the President has decided to take action in order to protect Americas national health and safety.
West Coast ports have been closed since the second shift on Sunday, September 29, when the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) shut down the ports in response to a reported work slow-down by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).
What Happens Next
Step 1: The Presidents Executive Order
The Presidents Executive Order establishes a Board of Inquiry. The Executive Order states that:
A labor dispute exists;
The dispute affects a substantial part of the maritime industry, an industry engaged in trade, commerce, transportation (including the transportation of military supplies), transmission, and communication among the several States and with foreign nations; and
A continuation of this lockout will imperil the national health and safety.
The law states that the President may establish the Board of Inquiry if he determines that the labor dispute issue will imperil the national health and safety. The President has determined that the short-term and long-term damage to our economy and our national health and safety constitute such a threat.
The President has appointed the following three Board of Inquiry members:
Bill Brock (Chairman) Served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1963 to 1971, as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1971 to 1977, and as U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Labor from 1985 to 1987. Currently Chairman of Bridges Learning Systems, an intervention program for academically troubled students
Patrick Hardin W. Allen Separk Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tennessee College of Law. Former Chief Counsel to the Chairman and Associate General Counsel in charge of the Division of Enforcement Litigation of the National Labor Relations Board, he has been on the faculty of the University of Tennessee since 1975. Editor-in-chief of The Developing Labor Law (3rd ed.)
Dennis R. Nolan Webster Professor of Labor Law, University of South Carolina School of Law. Professor Nolan has been on the faculty of the University of South Carolina since 1974. Currently serves as Vice President of the National Academy of Arbitrators. Author of eight books and numerous articles on arbitration, collective bargaining, and labor disputes.
The President has chosen these three individuals for the Board because they are unbiased, fair and experienced at labor and employment issues.
Under the Taft-Hartley process, the Boards job is to inquire into the issues involved in the dispute and issue a public report that outlines the facts of the dispute including each party's statement of its position. However, the law prevents the Board from making any recommendations or choosing sides in the dispute. The Board may only state the facts.
The Executive Order requires the Board to report back to the President by no later than October 8th.
Step 2: Petition for Injunction
After the President receives the Boards report, he may then direct the Attorney General to seek a court injunction to halt the work stoppage. To receive this injunction, the Government must establish that the dispute affects a substantial part of an entire industry and imperils the national health or safety.
If the court issues the legal injunction against further work stoppage, an 80-day clock begins, the ports would open, and employees would return to work.
Step 3: Reconvening the Board of Inquiry
After 60 days, if no agreement has been reached, the Board is required to issue a second public report to the President that includes:
The current positions of the parties involved;
The efforts which have been made for settlement;
A statement by each party of its position; and
A statement of the employers (PMA) last offer of settlement.
Step 4: NLRB Secret Ballot Vote
Between days 61 and 75, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will conduct a secret ballot vote of ILWU employees on the PMAs last offer of settlement. The NLRB is required to certify the results to the Attorney General no later than five days thereafter.
At the end of the 80-day period the legal injunction is discharged. If the dispute is unresolved, and if ILWU employees have rejected the PMAs final offer in the NLRB secret ballot vote, the parties become free to engage in work stoppages again.
Step 5: President Reports to Congress
The law requires the President to send a final report to Congress on the entire Taft-Hartley process. The report may include further recommendations on how to resolve the labor dispute.
The Threat to Americas National Health and Safety
The President is taking this first step to protect our economy because the West Coast port dispute is causing serious damage to multiple industries and putting thousands of American jobs in jeopardy. This growing economic damage constitutes a threat to Americas national health. The examples which follow detail some of the damage which has already occurred, and more that will occur if the plants do not reopen.
Ford Motor Co. has 14 plants -- 10 assembly plants and four power train plants -- that receive parts from affected ports in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., and Long Beach, Calif. The assembly plants that receive parts are Atlanta Assembly, Chicago Assembly, Kansas City Assembly, Louisville Assembly, St. Louis Assembly, Ontario Truck, Twin Cities Assembly, the Edison, N.J. assembly plant, the Norfolk, Va. assembly plant and an assembly and stamping plant in Hermosillo, Mexico. The power train plants affected are Cleveland Engine No. 2, Dearborn Engine, the Sharonville, Ohio, transmission plant and Van Dyke Transmission in Sterling Heights.(Detroit Free Press, October 5, 2002)
New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) of Fremont California has run out of material for their production line and has been forced to lay off two shifts, about 5,100 employees. They were told to take two days off. NUMMI builds the Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla, Voltz, and Tacoma pickups. Honda of America Manufacturing is resorting to airlifting critical parts from Japan. (Automotive News, October 4, 2002 and reports to Maritime Administration)
Matsushita Kotobuki, which manufactures televisions and VCRs for Panasonic, has had to stop production. They have laid off 150 workers in Vancouver, Washington. They could be rehired in one to two weeks. (KOIN, October 4, 2002)
Hawaiian Express Service, a freight forwarder in Hayward, California, laid off 100 employees Friday. (The Mercury News, October 6, 2002)
A shipment of blankets, clothing, and medical supplies destined for hurricane victims in Haiti has been stuck in Lynnwood, Washington, since Monday. And a container of similar supplies for Nicaragua is backed up on a rail car destined for Long Beach. (Heraldnet, October 5, 2002)
Tyson, the world's largest meat producer, said it might have to adjust production in its beef, pork and poultry operations because the fresh meat it exports is perishable. More than half of the country's beef, pork and lamb export products go through West Coast ports, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. George's Inc., a poultry and egg company based in Springdale, also is being affected. (Arkansas Democrat Gazette, October 3, 2002)
If the shutdown lasts even another week or two, it could take more than a month to unsnarl the backlog of idled or ruined goods -- a delay that could torpedo the holiday sales plans of a variety of retailers. Within three weeks, the shutdown could force companies around the country to jettison nearly a quarter-million jobs. (Contra Costa Times, October 2, 2002)
Eastern Washington farmers and others shipping perishable goods are particularly anxious because the dispute comes during apple and potato harvests. Washington, on average, exports one of every three apples picked in the state, and it's the biggest exporter of french fries in the world. Apples farmers must get off to a quick start in the fruit selling season, said Richard Thomason, who grows red, granny smith, fuji and honey crisp apples on 120 acres in Brewster. If buyers can't find Washington apples, they will simply turn to other suppliers, he added. "I think agriculture is probably going to take the biggest hit on this thing," Thomason, chairman of the Washington Apple Commission, said yesterday. Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer, October 2, 2002
Nissan North America eliminated the Saturday shift at its 6,000-employee plant in Smyrna, Tenn., and will soon shut down if the port lockout continues. The Smyrna plant manufactures almost 500,000 Altimas, Xterra SUVs, and Frontier pickups each year. (Buffalo News, October 5, 2002)
No. 1 U.S. railway Union Pacific Corp. said the stoppage was cutting sales by as much as $5 million a day. The Consumer Electronics Association, whose members include Microsoft Corp., said a prolonged lockout could cut consumer electronics sales by $22-billion this year. Financial Post, October 5, 2002
Food is rotting in cargo holds, and railroads have halted grain shipments from the Midwest. Wheat futures dropped sharply Thursday on the Chicago Board of Trade as concerns rose that the lockout would hurt U.S. grain exports. (Associated Press, October 5, 2002)
Elope Inc., a hat wholesaler in Colorado Springs, Colo., usually does brisk business this time of year. "We've already lost the Halloween business. It's Christmas I'm worried about now," said company chief executive Kevin Johnson. "If this isn't resolved in the next week, we're dead in the water." (Associated Press, October 5, 2002)
Layoffs may begin Friday for 15 full-time employees at Quality Trading, one of the largest straw exporters in Oregon. Quality Trading is made up of 22 Willamette Valley farmers who cut, bale, store and ship straw to farmers in Japan, Taiwan and Korea. (Associated Press, October 5, 2002)
Union Pacific, the nation's largest railroad, had 55 trains parked across the western United States, unable to move cargo. Grain shipments bound for export are sitting in warehouses and growers of perishable goods like apples and citrus worry that their harvests will not reach lucrative Asian markets. (Associated Press, October 4, 2002)
California almond growers, who exported $662 million worth of almonds in 2000, said each day of the shutdown threatens their ability to serve Asian consumers preparing for holidays. (Chicago Tribune, October 4, 2002)
We're already in a crisis," said James McCranie, executive vice president of marketing at Seald-Sweet, a citrus growers' cooperative in Vero Beach, Fla. McCranie said the co-op had at least 30 containers trapped at West Coast terminals, the first shipment of a crop of grapefruit headed for Japan. The fruit, which is carried in refrigerated containers that have no independent power source, will quickly rot if not handled properly. "The problem is you have no confidence that your cargo is being properly refrigerated and there's no way to divert it," McCranie said. "It's perfectly fine fruit and could be sold in Washington or Oregon. He complained that shipping lines were not able to give any information about where the cargo was and in what condition. "For a perishable, it couldn't be worse." (Journal of Commerce, October 4, 2002)
Bill Ciesinski, manager of transportation and logistics at International Forest Products in Foxboro, Mass. said that the lock-out had brought some of his business to a halt. IFP had begun to load 6,000 metric tons of woodpulp aboard a ship in Eureka, Calif. just prior to the port shutdown. Ciesinski said his company was paying detention for the ship, hoping for a quick resolution of the dispute. "I'm holding the ship there because if I don't load it, I have to wait another month," he said. He also has had shipments of waste papers delayed. "It's jeopardizing letters of credits and if it is not settled by Sunday, we are going to lose a significant number of orders," he said. (Journal of Commerce, October 4, 2002)
Phoenix-based Action Performance (ATN), a maker of die-cast model cars, was hit the day shippers locked out dock workers, on Sunday. The company had a shipment of thousands of model cars that were supposed to be unloaded that day so Action could record a sale before the quarter's end. The cars, however, didn't make it off the ship, so the company had to issue notices saying it wouldn't book $5.7 million in expected revenue for the quarter. That caused Action's stock to slide $1.10 to $19.90 Thursday, a 5.2 percent drop. (CBS Marketwatch.com, October 4, 2002)
Reports are coming in that such companies as Chiquita Brands (CQB) and Del Monte (DLM) were having to leave perishable goods on docks. Those companies, along with Dole (DOL), are expected to feel the effects. (CBS Marketwatch.com, October 4, 2002)
Gap Inc., the nation's largest clothing retailer, was hoping to receive its first shipment of apparel intended for the holiday season when the port shutdown began last Friday. (Newhouse News Service, October 3, 2002)
Retailers might not be able to get enough toys made in China in time for the holiday season. Electronics and technology companies won't be able to get television or computers assembled in the Pacific Rim, or parts for electronics they make in factories here. Foreign automakers won't be able to import cars or trucks made overseas, or the parts for cars they made domestically. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 2, 2002


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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Ride-hailing service leader Uber announced on Tuesday (May 28) that riders with low ratings may lose access to Uber.
For years, ratings did not seem to affect Uber riders, no matter how inappropriately they behave. Not any more.
“Riders may lose access to Uber if they develop a significantly below average rating,” according to a news release put out by Uber. “If your rating is lower than the average in your city, we’ll let you know how to improve.
“And if your rating is significantly below average, you could temporarily or permanently lose access to the app,” said Kate Parker, head of Safety Brand and Initiatives in the news release.
According to Uber rules, after each trip, both riders and drivers are given the opportunity to rate one another based on their trip experience. But neither parties will see the individual rating left for a particular trip.
In 2017, Uber introduced a new feature that allowed drivers to offer additional feedback about riders if something “went wrong” on the ride, such as “wait time,” “attitude,” “wanted new route,” or “other,” reported The Verge.
Riders who get the same “tag” twice within 30 days will be notified when they open their Uber app, to let them know their misbehavior is affecting their rating. And now, finally, poor behavior will cost riders something more than just a rating.
Uber also introduced a new set of global community guidelines, along with a video guide. Starting with the U.S. and Canada, users are asked to confirm that they understand the guidelines or they may lose access to the app.


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Josh Barraclough/One Trading.
Bitpanda Pro rebrands to One Trading, raises €30m Series A
The new entity will stand alone from Bitpanda, which will retain a stake in the company.
Digital asset exchange Bitpanda Pro has raised €30m Series A as it rebrands to One Trading and fully separates from Bitpanda.
The European trading company aims to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional asset trading through one regulated platform and to strengthen its offering to both retail and institutional investors.
The funding round was led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures with participation from MiddleGame Ventures, Speedinvest, Keyrock and Wintermute Ventures and Bitpanda retaining a stake in the company.
“It is our philosophy at Bitpanda that you have to stay agile and focused to provide the best services in this fast environment,” Bitpanda CEO Eric Demuth said.
“Since we first launched Bitpanda Pro, given its potential, we always knew and planned that its success would naturally make it evolve to become its own business.”
Founded by Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer in 2014, Bitpanda was predominantly focused on retail until it launched Bitpanda Pro in 2019.
Joshua Barraclough, former co-head of digital innovation at JP Morgan Chase remains CEO of the newly rebranded One Trading.
The hope is that One Trading will be able to regain trust in traders and build confidence in products at a time when crypto markets are struggling to come up with regulated solutions.
It plans to operate as a MiFID Trading Venue, which would allow it to list financial instruments and for new products to be designed.
“We want to make crypto trading safe and accessible for all and bridge the gap to provide an institutional grade platform for all customer types,” Barraclough said.
“We will be going live shortly with what we believe to be the fastest and most scalable exchange based on real world metrics available to a shared retail and institutional audience. We aim to become a utility for large liquidity providers to exchange unlimited amounts of risk under a membership model instead of pay-per-trade and have low fees and deep books for retail with a number of liquidity protections.”
After that, One Trading will start listing more products as it enters the derivatives space.


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Amelia Hamlin is wearing her heart on her wrist. The model, 19, showed off two beaded bracelets dedicated to boyfriend Scott Disick on Thursday: one spelling out “Scott” and the other, “The Lord” — a reference to his famous nickname.
Amelia stacked her sweet accessories with a diamond link bracelet and a tiny diamond cross on a chain. Disick, 37, took Hamlin and his 8-year-old daughter Penelope on a shopping trip on Thursday, though it’s unclear if the couple picked up the new baubles then or at a different time.
The couple began dating last fall and made things Instagram-official in February 2021, but have been the subject of much scrutiny since their romance started.
In March, Hamlin told fans to “calm down” over her relationship with her “dream man,” and it appears the two will be a hot topic on the upcoming season of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
Kyle Richards declared Disick “too damn old” for Lisa Rinna’s younger daughter in the Season 11 trailer, to which Rinna responded, “I know!”
Despite some apparent bristling on Rinna’s behalf, she did compliment Disick’s sense of style on Instagram.


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from the wait-for-service-pack-1 dept.
Erbo writes: "CNET reports that Microsoft has decided to drop Smart Tags from Internet Explorer 6.0, the version that will be packaged with Windows XP. They may be resurrected later, though, so don't yank those META tags out of your pages yet. Smart Tags are still part of Office XP, too."
"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."
-- Mark Twain


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A fire that officials are calling suspicious caused more than $200,000 in damage to one of ski country's most venerable equipment and apparel stores Wednesday night.
The fire began outside of Joe Jones Sun and Ski, in North Conway, N.H., around 7:30 p.m. The business was closed, and nobody was injured, but according to WMUR-TV, witnesses could see the smoke for blocks. According to North Conway fire chief Pat Preece, there was significant water and electrical damage to the building.
"We had smoke that travelled through the entire building onto the merchandise and into the merchandise," he told WMUR. Preece also called structural damage "minor," according to the Conway Daily Sun, which also reported that no other buildings were damaged.
Officials will continue to investigate the fire, but it couldn't come at a worse time for the store with ski season ramping up. Joe Jones has been in business in the Mount Washington Valley since 1955. Sun and Ski also has other locations in Pembroke and Avon, Conn. A second Massachusetts location is slated to open in Woburn on Nov. 2.
Eric Wilbur is a lifelong recreational skier who spends most of his winter and spring in the mountains of New England. He does not ski in jeans. You can read more of Eric's work here.
Heather Burke is an award winning ski journalist with over a decade of ski news coverage. As a former ski instructor and a ski parent, she knows the ski biz from the inside out. She and her family visit New England ski resorts, as well as the West and Canada, to report on the latest trends and their best family finds. Her husband Greg takes all the accompanying photos, and their work can be seen at www.familyskitrips.com and www.luxuryskitrips.com.


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How big of a problem do plastic shopping bags pose to the environment?
Since the elected supervisors of Los Angeles' City Council recently voted to ban plastic shopping bags at the city's retailers, largely in response to "clean-water" advocates, who argue that the bags "pollute the ocean and the city's waterways", we thought we'd get a sense of just how big that problem really is.
Our chart below presents the answer, which refers to data that those who support bans on plastic shopping bags frequently cite in advancing their agenda:
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The Ford EcoSport is a small utility, according to FoMoCo and was designed for emerging markets such as India and Brazil where there are plenty of scooters and small cars. Based on the Ford Fiesta, the EcoSport might also arrive in the United States as executives are hinting this.
According to Jim Farley a.k.a. global boss of sales, marketing, service and Lincoln, the company is studying very closely the issue.
Same Farley added that the sales of crossover grown 35 percent since 2005 and crossovers are on of the biggest trends.
The Ford EcoSport is sold in 10 countries this year but FoMoCo is planning to sell the “small utility” in 62 contries by 2017. Moreover, Ford is also planning to sell the Edge in 40 countries by 2017. The Ford Edge is currently sold in only 16 countries.


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FRANKFURT--Metro AG (MEO.XE) said Wednesday it hasn't ruled out exiting Galeria Kaufhof stores if a potential buyer offers an appropriate price and solid financing.
The German retailer's comment follows a report that the owner of Karstadt has offered to buy its rival's department-store chain for about 2.9 billion euros (about $3.25 billion).
"It is correct that various discussions are taking place within this context, but no results or decisions have yet emerged," a spokesman for Metro said Wednesday.
German newspaper Handelsblatt reported Tuesday that a Signa Holding GmbH subsidiary, which owns Karstadt--the other of Germany's two major department-store operators--made the bid after conducting due diligence on Kaufhof.
Metro's supervisory board discussed the offer in early May, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
"We will not comment on any speculations about a possible sale of Galeria Kaufhof," the Metro spokesman said, adding that the company still sees Kaufhof having great strategic potential.
In November, Metro confirmed media reports that it had held talks with Rene Benko--the founder and advisory board chairman of Austrian real-estate company Signa Holding, which bought Karstadt last year--but said it didn't aim to sell Kaufhof.
Write to Neetha Mahadevan at Neetha.Mahadevan@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires


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New Delhi: PC Jeweller will hit the capital market on December 10 with initial public offer (IPO) to raise up to Rs 609 crore for funding its expansion plans. (Agencies)
The company has fixed the price band of IPO, comprising of over 4.51 crore equity shares, at Rs 125-135 per share having a face value of Rs 10 each. The public issue will close on December 12.
At the upper band, PC Jeweller would raise a little over Rs 609 crore through IPO, while at lower band, the company would mop up Rs 564 crore.
The IPO would constitute 25.2 per cent of the post-issue paid-up equity share capital of the company. The company is offering a discount of Rs 5 to retail individuals.
In September last year, PC Jeweller had filed the draft document with market regulator SEBI for its IPO to raise funds for expansion and working capital requirement.
At present, the company has 30 showrooms across the country and it has plans to open 20 new retail showrooms by utilising funds raised through IPO.
The Delhi-based jeweller had posted a turnover of about Rs 3,000 crore in 2011-12 fiscal.
The company has two jewellery manufacturing facilities in Uttarakhand that cater to domestic market and two facilities at Noida for exports market. It also export gold and diamond jewellery on a wholesale basis to distributors in Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The shares are proposed to be listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BSE. The book running lead managers to the IPO are SBI Capital Markets and Kotak Mahindra
Capital Company and the co-book running lead manager is IDBI Capital Market Services.
New Delhi: PC Jeweller will hit the capital market on December 10 with initial public offer (IPO) to raise up to Rs 609 crore for funding its expansion plans.


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Müller and Robert Wiseman Dairies are talking up the benefits of the German yoghurt maker’s planned takeover of the UK milk supplier but profits in the sector have been under pressure in recent months. Dean Best looks at why Müller has made a bid for Wiseman and outlines that challenges that could await the company.
A frantic week of trading updates from some of the UK’s largest grocers culminated, as we know, with a profit warning from Tesco that shook not just the food retail sector but the business world as a whole.
The numbers from Morrisons, Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Tesco – and why some fared better than others – were covered at length on just-food last week. However, by Friday, the spotlight shifted to the biggest supplier of one of the sector’s staple products with the unexpected news that German yoghurt giant Müller was in talks to buy Robert Wiseman Dairies, the largest fresh milk processor in the UK.
This morning (16 January), it was confirmed that Müller had made a GBP280m bid to buy Wiseman. The Wiseman board has backed the bid, investors representing over 54% of the company’s shares have indicated they will accept the offer (including First Milk, the UK dairy co-op that owns 10.1% of the group) and executives at both companies were talking up the benefits of the deal.
“The combination of Müller and Wiseman makes strong commercial and strategic sense,” Wiseman executive chairman Robert Wiseman said.
“This is an exciting strategic move by Müller to enter a new market segment in the UK. The combination of these complementary businesses will form a leading dairy player,” Müller CEO Heiner Kamps claimed.
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The German firm outlined the benefits of the deal – the “complementary” nature of both companies’ product portfolios, increased scale, a “platform to enhance efficiency”.
Preben Mikkelsen, of Denmark-based global dairy analysts PM Global Dairy Consulting, admitted he was “a little surprised” at news that Müller had decided to buy Wiseman but outlined the potential benefits for the German firm.
“By acquiring Wiseman, Müller will get access to a substantial part of the UK milk sector with the aim of rationalising the processing and business operations,” Mikkelsen said. “[Müller] will increase their position towards the retail chains but also improve their position in relation to especially Dairy Crest and Arla Foods.”
Elsewhere, analysts at Shore Capital, speculating about the possible rationale of Müller’s move for Wiseman, noted potential improvements in milk procurement and collection.
However, despite the claims of the deal’s benefits, there is no doubt that Müller is set to enter a challenging market segment. Increased competition, volatile commodity costs and demands from retail customers have all put pressure on profits in the sector in recent months.
In Wiseman’s last financial year, which ran until 2 April, its profits fell by nearly a quarter. The year saw all major UK retailers put their contracts out to tender, with processors having to bid aggressively for business. Milk is often used as a loss-leader by supermarkets to bring in customers and, with retailers competing fiercely, processors often face demands on price that put pressure on profits.
It will be a tough new segment for Muller. Charles Hall, head of research at brokers Peel Hunt, played down the benefit to Muller of having a wider range of products in its portfolio. “I’m not sure it gives them a lot more clout with retailers. It’s different categories with different buyers. I don’t think you can bully retailers just because you can do yoghurt and milk,” he says.
Milk, resin and fuel costs have also weighed on Wiseman’s earnings. In November, Wiseman said profits for the first half of its current financial year dropped 41%. Commodity costs – even if they do come down from last year’s level – remain volatile. Müller pointed to the efficiency gains that it sees from the Wiseman deal but not everyone is convinced.
“The synergies are pretty limited,” Hall argues. “They are not going to be able to buy the milk any cheaper. There will be a bit of head office cost savings [but] I don’t think there will be any great savings to be had.”
Against a backdrop of retail power and volatile commodity costs, profits in liquid milk are likely to remain difficult to generate. Today, Wiseman separately announced that its third-quarter profits could come under pressure if raw milk prices fail to come down or the price it receives for milk does not increase.
Müller’s bid represented a premium of more than 59% on Wiseman’s share price on Thursday (the day before the companies said talks were taking place). Shareholders in the UK firm are likely to have welcomed the German company’s interest with open arms.
It could be argued that Müller is taking a longer term view of the sector and that the yoghurt maker is taking advantage of the current low value of dairy processors to corner a share of the UK milk sector.
Hall suggests Müller may have taken a somewhat pragmatic view when making its bid for Wiseman. “They clearly think the UK dairy sector is under-valued. Looking at the Wiseman business, profits came down sharply but it is still cash generative and profitable. It doesn’t need profits to improve that much to be a workable investment in an industry Müller knows reasonably well.”
Pragmatism aside, Müller has entered a sector with significant challenges. Commodity cost volatility and retail competition are two pressures that are unlikely to disappear completely.
Shore Capital said the outlook for Wiseman is “reasonably constrained”, with trading for retailers remaining “intense” (they pointed to Tesco’s plans to invest more in its UK business to revitalise sales) and the potential for capacity in the country’s liquid milk sector to grow (with Arla Foods set to build a mega dairy).
It is a deal that will give industry watchers plenty to chew over.


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Flytrex, a supplier of on-demand drone delivery for food and retail, announced the closing of an $8 million financing led by existing investors Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV) and btov. The financing complements a recently awarded grant from the Israel Innovation Authority for a total of $9.3 million.
The funds will be used to expand Flytrex’s footprint across the U.S. and to continue to scale-up the company’s production and R&D capabilities.
The financing follows the company’s previous round in 2019, bringing total funding to $20.3 million.
The investment comes in the wake of several significant milestones for the on-demand drone delivery company. In September 2020, a benchmark pilot project between Flytrex and Walmart was announced to deliver select grocery and household essential items from Walmart stores in Fayetteville, North Carolina using Flytrex’s autonomous drone delivery service. Previously, Flytrex – in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – launched a system delivering necessities to residents of Grand Forks, North Dakota, helping address the growing health crisis by keeping citizens in the safety of their own homes and reducing crowding and unnecessary contact at local stores.
“Our mission is to make widespread on-demand drone delivery the rule rather than the exception – and this funding is a vote of confidence from our investors that we are indeed on the way to making this a reality,” said Yariv Bash, CEO and Co-Founder of Flytrex. “Our systems are in the final stages of receiving key certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, helping us launch the drone delivery revolution across the U.S.”
Since successfully launching the world’s first fully autonomous urban drone delivery system in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2017, Flytrex has been helping drive regulatory advances aimed at getting drone delivery off the ground. Flytrex has been participating in the Federal Aviation Administration’s UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) since 2018, and was most recently selected for the FAA’s subsequent initiative, BEYOND to work with the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) as well as the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and the North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) to help tackle the remaining challenges of UAS integration. In November 2020, Flytrex was included in the FAA’s select list of several drone companies set to gain airworthiness certification, a crucial step enabling the safe integration of drones into existing airspace.
“It’s been thrilling to watch Flytrex become a world leader in the drone delivery space with multiple airborne delivery systems around the world,” said Barak Ben Avinoam, Managing Partner at BGV Europe and Israel. “The Flytrex team is trailblazing both innovation and implementation in the drone industry, and we look forward to seeing their airborne delivery reach more and more delighted consumers across the globe.”
Source: Press Release
UAV DACH: Beitrag im Original auf https://www.uasvision.com/2021/03/23/drone-delivery-company-flytrex-secures-9-3m-extra-funding/, mit freundlicher Genehmigung von UAS Vision automatisch importiert. Der Beitrag gibt nicht unbedingt die Meinung oder Position des UAV DACH e.V. wieder. Das Original ist in englischer Sprache. Für die Inhalte ist der UAV DACH e.V. nicht verantwortlich.


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A lamp with an LED in which graphene is used as a transparent conductor should be on the shelves this year. According to the makers, this is the first consumer product with the much-discussed material. The lamp would not cost more than a traditional LED lamp.
That writes the University of Manchester on its site. The development of the lamp is a product of Graphene Lighting PLC, a spin-out of the British National Graphene Institute. The company thinks that the first lamps can hit the shelves in a few months.
The University of Manchester is very fond of the material: graphene was isolated at the university in 2004 by Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, who received the Nobel Prize for it in 2010. The lamp itself looks like the classic incandescent lamp, with the LED having a graphene coating. Unfortunately, the various sources are not clear about the exact operation.
The NGI was only opened last week and cost 61 million pounds, about 83 million euros. The development of the lamp was largely paid for by Canadian investors, but the EU also contributed to the overall research center, FT writes.
Despite the scant information, Tweaker mrtnvnl found the research paper that led to this lamp. Thanks for that!


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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Big American retail stores have become a top target of cybercriminals, but the retail industry has very little incentive to beef up its security.
Massive retailers have resisted expensive changes to their point-of-sale syste
Queen Creek, AZ (abc15.com) -- Three-year-old Alexis Martin is currently the youngest person in Arizona's chapter of Mensa.
Mensa is the international club with one criterion – an IQ in the top two percent of the world.
The average person has a
The Obama administration will take the next step on Tuesday in its multi-year effort to cut emissions and reduce oil use by getting even better fuel economy from trucks.
President Barack Obama is set to announce the energy and environmental initi
The family and friends of Harry Devert, the American adventurer who disappeared in Mexico more than three weeks ago, has started a petition to try to get the attention of President Barack Obama as he heads to that country Wednesday.
Only in space would 2 million miles be considered a close call.
An asteroid with an estimated diameter of three football fields zoomed by Earth late Monday, missing our home by about that distance.
It traveled at some 27,000 miles per hour.
CHICAGO (CNN) -- Kain Colter actually got this idea sitting in a college classroom at Northwestern University.
The 21-year-old quarterback, soon to graduate with a degree in psychology, is taking the day off from training for the NFL draft to take


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If the recently leaked iPhone 6s logic board is to be believed, Apple will be using a much faster and improved LTE modem made by Qualcomm. The said LTE modem will offer 2x faster download speed at 300Mbps over an LTE connection. However, a new report from DigiTimes, who has a mixed track record when it comes to unreleased Apple devices, claims that Apple will be looking to diversify its suppliers in two years from now by adding Intel to its supply chain for baseband modems .
Intel, the chip giant known for its top of the class computer processors, has been making modems for smartphones for quite some time now. But its modems could not compete the advanced chips of Qualcomm. Nonetheless, Intel has made huge progress in making its smartphone modems faster, power efficient and improved the overall performance as well. However, it remains to be seen if these Intel modems are any better than the one made by Qualcomm.
The sources of DigiTimes believe that Intel won’t be able to secure modem chip orders for the iPhone 6s, however, Intel could make its way onto the list of Apple’s supply chain partners for the 2017 Phone devices as Apple is looking to diversify its modem chip suppliers.
The sources further said that Qualcomm, in collaboration with TSMC, is currently responsible for supplying 100% of the modem chips for the upcoming iPhone models. These new models will be manufactured using 20nm process technology which will not only make these chips faster but also power efficient. A recent report also indicated that Apple will be using a 2x faster LTE modem in its iPhone 6s.
If the recent reports are to be believed, Apple is all set to unveil iPhone 6s on September 9 with Force Touch, 12MP camera, and A9 chip as its main feature, followed by the new devices hitting shelves on September 18.


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UberSocial has fixed a bug in its Twitter software for mobile phones that put some users' privacy at risk.
Think that spending time on Facebook is a good way to relax? Well, think again -- especially if you're a woman.
Your personal data is out there. Every thought you tap out on Twitter, every status update you post on Facebook, and even the last credit card purchase you made is accessible via the Internet.
Twitter is warning users of the popular UberSocial Twitter-messaging software that direct messages they send may not be private.
Salesforce.com plans to buy social media monitoring vendor Radian6, whose technology tracks conversations occurring on social sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the company said Wednesday.
Consumers check in on Foursquare. Your employees chat with customers on Facebook. Everyone tweets. Social media is everywhere, right? Not quite.
The game of musical chairs continues at Twitter, where co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams will step down as product development leader, a role that will be taken over by Jack Dorsey, another co-founder who had distanced himself from the company'...
Poor Duke, he just can't catch a break. He's been delayed once again. Well, for a month--from May 6 back to June 14, so just after E3 2011.
If you want to share photos and videos and don't care about privacy, there's a new social network just for you.
Microsoft is recognizing enterprise realities with its new accommodations for rivals' smartphones in an upcoming version of System Center Configuration Manager, an industry analyst said on Thursday.
Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone thinks his company eventually will have to deal with China despite disagreements over censorship, but it has no plans to do so immediately.
Mobile application development, including the need to extend enterprise applications to mobile devices, is growing in prominence, according to research reported by Evans Data on Monday. Evans expects mobile and tablet applications to become a huge pa...
At 4:50 p.m. on March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey wrote "just setting up my twttr."
Twitter has wrapped up a major overhaul of its IT infrastructure designed to dramatically enhance the microblogging service's uptime, performance and availability.
Security firm Sophos is warning that a new scam is spreading virally on Twitter, and that a significant number of people have already fallen for it.
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Veteran wine critic James Sucklings’s team is calling for Oregon wines to be reviewed next month, according to an email from the Oregon Wine Board.
“The team at JamesSuckling.com invites all Oregon wineries to submit wines for review in its upcoming 2021 Oregon Report. Each producer may submit up to three different wines of any variety from anywhere in Oregon,” said an email to industry professionals. “The tastings will take place in Hong Kong, and the James Suckling team is facilitating consolidated shipping that will ensure proper conditions during transit. Please be sure to read and follow the submission instructions carefully. Wines must arrive at Northwest Distribution & Storage in Salem no later than June 14.”
See more information on the board’s website here: https://industry.oregonwine.org/news-and-media/call-for-wine-james-suckling-requests-your-wines-for-2021-oregon-report/


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"The [Dutch] non-profit organization, Fruittelers Zuid-Limburg's executive committee had a difficult meeting. It took the well-considered decision to postpone Fructura Expo to next year," the Fructure Expo team told its partners and exhibitors.
"Every three years, this is usually a highlight for the sector. We can meet up, discuss the past and look ahead to the future together. It would have been a subdued event next weekend. Not because face masks are off-putting.
"Or because we're afraid. But because we cannot gather, unrestrained. And, because COVID-19 isn't yet gone. We didn't expect this to still cause such trouble for Fructura so close to the event. It would be unwise not to give this the attention it deserves."
"Our goal isn't just a successful trade show that benefits everyone. Our desire goes much further. Our sector and the many crucial suppliers and service providers' continuity must remain secure. More than ever, we fruit growers must keep being able to count on your expertise."
"Everyone's health is crucial so the business can continue to run. It wasn't an easy decision, but it was the right one according to our partners and us. The management committee has taken responsibility and decided not to hold the fair until next year. Let's look forward together to Fructura Expo 2022."


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TOM Online, a mobile Internet company in China, today announced a strategic partnership with Sports Weekly, China's largest sports newspaper with circulation of over 4 million, to jointly develop and market sports related wireless Internet products and services over TOM Online's wireless Internet platform.
The two companies have also reached an agreement to develop and market IVR services based on Sports Weekly contents on an exclusive basis. The multi-pronged partnership includes online content development, wireless Internet product development and distribution and co-marketing program. The official collaboration will kick off during the 2004 Olympics in Athens. TOM Online and Sports Weekly will send a joint reporting crew to Athens during 2004 Olympics, to report the latest Olympics news live from the field. A suite of wireless Internet services across SMS, MMS, WAP and IVR will be available to TOM Online users, such as latest games results, interviews with winners and the Chinese Olympics team, sports fans chat rooms, image downloads and interactive games.
TOM Online also reached agreement with national and international news agencies and media such as Xinhua News Agency, Reuters, Agency France Presse, Getty Images and over 100 sports media to acquire information for Olympics fans in China.


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Japan has announced it will leave the International Whaling Commission in 2019. While commercial whaling has been illegal since 1986, Japan have been hunting whales legally since 1987 due to a loophole in the law. What is whaling? “Whaling” is practice of hunting whales for their meat, blubber or oil. Commercial whaling has been […]Read More Japan will leave the International Whaling commission and begin commercial whaling.
Everywhere you look in UK supermarkets we are surrounded by plastic. I challenge you to try do a typical weekly shop and go plastic free. It’s incredibly difficult. Plastic wrapped fruit and vegetables (of course more expensive if bought “loose”), carbonated drinks exploding in price if bought in cans or a lack of refill stations. […]Read More Plastic free swaps that supermarkets could make today.
Planet Warrior are a new British brand on a mission to keep our oceans clean. Created by two sisters with a love of travelling and the ocean they have designed yoga wear out of recycled plastic. They even have 100% recyclable packaging with dissolvable stickers.Read More Planet Warrior – Recycled plastic yoga wear.
Walkers Crisps owned by PepsiCo have announced they will launch a recycling scheme. Customers can send their crisp packets back to TerraCycle who will shred them into plastic pellets which will then be used to create items such as trays and home furniture. This year customers began protesting against plastic waste be posting crisp packets […]Read More Walkers crisps launch a recycling scheme after public protest.
Plastic is a plague on our environment and it is amazing to see big brands taking steps to make a difference. Corona will be the first beer to trail 100% plastic free six pack rings in 2019. The trail will take place in select markets initially but lets hope it is rolled out in full […]Read More Corona to be the first plastic free 6-pack rings.
For some people a zero waste, carbon neutral and a minimalist lifestyle either isn’t for everyone or too huge of a change to make here and now. If so, that’s okay. Start by making small steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle and build on those over time. Here are 10 easy steps to make small […]Read More 10 easy ways to create a more environmentally friendly home.
We can all do our bit to help our planet. Here are 5 ways we can save the environment as an individual.Read More How to save the environment.
Last night at a You Me At Six gig in Manchester I encountered another single use plastic issue. It isn’t the first time I’ve faced plastic cups at a music event with no alternative. Sadly it’s more than likely it won’t be the last too. That’s if I do want to drink anything at all […]Read More An open letter to event organisers around the world. Stop forcing plastic on us.
Ocean pollution has arguably had the most media and public attention lately of all environmental issues, mainly plastic pollution. But what is also starting to gain attention is how the products we use at home and go down our drain impact the ocean. While the ratio of cleaning products to water may seem minuscule, even […]Read More What cleaning products are polluting our ocean?
Everyone of us has a carbon footprint that leaves it’s mark on the earth. We can all do a little to reduce our carbon footprint too. This blog will offer you some easy tips on how to reduce yours. What is a carbon footprint? A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide (co2) that […]Read More How can I reduce my carbon footprint?


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TechShop Detroit Facility (Finally) Will Debut In October
It took longer than expected but TechShop will finally open…uh, shop in Detroit this fall.
The Menlo Park, CA-based company, a self-described “membership-based, do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio” will open a 12,000 square foot facility at Ford Motor facility in 800 Republic, Allen Park, MI in October, TechShop CEO Mark Hatch tells Xconomy in an exclusive interview.
TechShop will sign the lease with Ford next week. Hatch expects construction on the $2 million facility will be completed in 12 weeks.
Founded in 2006, TechShop provides inventors and entrepreneurs with equipment, software, and training to innovate and create stuff. The company currently operates studios in San Francisco and Raleigh, NC and plans to enter New York and San Jose, CA. Membership fees from $75 a month to $1,200 a year.
Ford and TechShop first hatched the idea to open up a communal work center at the 2010 Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA. Ford was showing off its “American Journey 2.0” project with University of Michigan students. As part of that program, Ford, Microsoft, and Intel gave students an opportunity to develop their ideas for future in-car connectivity using social networks, GPS, and real-time vehicle data.
But opening a Detroit-area facility proved more tricky than Hatch thought, mostly because TechShop couldn’t find local money.
“Yeah, it took a while,” Hatch says. “We were looking to the local community for help. It didn’t happen as quickly as we thought.”
In the end, Ford boosted its investment and TechShop tapped some of the $3.5 million it raised from its Series A investors and Autodesk to seal the deal.


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Lenovo has a new 42 inch Android based smart TV that’s available for pre-ordering now and is expected to launch later this month.
Unfortunately for US shoppers, it’s not available here yet.
Lenovo showed off their line-up of Android TV’s at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas back in January. Now it’s coming to market, but only in China.
Their 42 inch model is being referred to as a K71. It has Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) as an operating system and can can run Android apps. On the ‘smart’ side of things, the TV has a 1.5 GHz dual core processor, is Wi-Fi enabled, has 3-D capabilities, and includes a gaming remote control.
In addition to the K71, there are 3 other models. Another 42 inch model is being referred to as the K81. There’s a 55 inch version called K81, and another 55 inch version called K91, says C114. Other than size though, we have no information on what features those different versions include. The price for the low-end model, converted into US dollars, is just a bit over $1050.
No word from Lenovo on when these TVs might be available in the US. We’ll keep an eye on them and let you know here at CP if, and when, they do come this way.


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May 13 - AlMasar Al-Iraqi Shipping & Transport has joined the XLProjects (XLP) forwarder network, representing Iraq.
AlMasar Al-Iraqi is one of the largest private logistics companies in Iraq. XLProjects is a non-exclusive network of independent project forwarders and charterers. www.xlprojects.comwww.iraqilogistics.com
deugro has transported a 485-tonne column and other petrochemical refinery equipment from South Korea to the USA for a chemical expansion project.
The rapid recovery in earnings for multipurpose vessels is expected to slow from the second half the year as capacity constraints and supply chain disruptions in competing sectors ease, according to Drewry’s Multipurpose Shipping Annual Review & Forecast.
Royal Wagenborg’s multipurpose vessel Máxima has been certified according to the Clean Shipping Index.
Members of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) are optimistic about the post-pandemic future, according to the organisation’s Sector Benchmark Research.
Starclass Yacht Transport is working with Amasus Shipping to mobilise Eemslift Hendrika’s sister ship Eemslift Nelli to maintain its yacht transport liner service between Bergen, Norway, and Istanbul, Turkey.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has published a comprehensive guide to prepare the shipping community for threats such as piracy, kidnapping, and terrorism.
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Apple's 15 years of NeXTFifteen years ago, Apple announced plans to acquire NeXT Software, a move that would ultimately bring Steve Jobs back to the company he cofounded twenty years earlier.
In the decade and a half since the acquisition of NeXT, Apple was completely reinvented as a company, gaining new technology and direction from NeXT while being entirely rethought by a new management team led by Jobs, including many executives and engineers from NeXT.
NeXT before Apple
Prior to Apple acquiring the company, NeXT Software had spent three tumultuous years trying to figure out how to sell its advanced operating system technology after abruptly jumping out of the hardware business in 1993 —after five years of failing to find a significant market for NeXT Computers in the late 80s and early 90s.
In its three year stint as a software company, NeXT announced plans to partner with Sun (and later HP) to create OpenStep, an open specification based on its NeXTSTEP operating and development environment, capable of running on top of other operating systems from Sun's own Solaris to Microsoft's Windows NT. Both partners ultimately backed out; Sun to focus on Java and HP to join Apple and IBM on Taligent, a project to essentially duplicate NeXT's technology.
NeXT had also developed WebObjects as a way to use NeXTSTEP's object oriented development tools to build dynamic web applications. Jobs began to view WebObjects as the company's primary asset, particularly in a market increasingly dominated by Microsoft, where there was no effective way to sell an alternative third party operating system.
Apple before NeXT
By 1996, Apple had ended up the only significant computing platform to survive the rise of Windows, kept afloat by sales of its Macintosh hardware as other alternative OS licensees, from IBMs' OS/2 to Sun Solaris to the BeOS to NeXTSTEP, floundered without a critical mass of buyers and developers in a PC market captive to Microsoft's exclusive licensing agreements.
While still in business, Apple was in rough shape, with its own efforts to modernize its classic Macintosh system software failing and time running out to maintain relevance in the computing industry. Apple had partnered with IBM (and later HP) to develop a NeXTSTEP-like system called Taligent, and had attempted to deliver its own Copland operating system, but neither effort materialized into a salable product.
Apple had started talks with Be Inc, hoping that the company's experimental operating system could breathe new life into its Macintosh line. While the BeOS could already run on Mac hardware, it was far from being ready to sell as a replacement to the existing Mac OS, and lacked core features such as a printing architecture.
After examining NeXT, Apple's then chief executive Gil Amelio, who had been brought in to turn the failing company around, realized that acquiring NeXT would not only give Apple a finished, proven desktop OS to replace the rapidly aging classic Mac OS, but also powerful the WebObjects, related development tools and a legitimate enterprise business.
Mac users were less familiar with NeXT than Be, given BeOS's consumer/hobbyist focus and the fact that NeXT had been contractually prevented from entering the consumer market by Apple after Jobs left in 1985 to start NeXT with a variety of Apple engineering talent. Amelio was confident, however, that Apple could simply ship new Macs running NeXTSTEP within the next year, a strategy branded "Rhapsody."
Apple + NeXT
On December 20, 1996, Apple announced to the surprise of many that it would buy NeXT for $429 million in cash, along with 1.5 million shares going to Jobs, who would act as an ongoing consultant after the sale. NeXT's website described the acquisition as a "merger."
Virtually no one in the Microsoft-dominated personal computing industry saw Apple as a relevant player even after its acquisition of NeXT. While Apple quickly rolled out a public strategy for making its new NeXTStep operating system the new Mac OS and converting the OpenStep environment into a Yellow Box layer that could enable apps written for it to work seamlessly across Macs, Windows and enterprise Unix distributions, rather than being taken seriously Apple was shunned even by NeXT's existing customers.
Dell, a very visible client of WebObjects in its online store, abandoned its business relationship with NeXT and created a new online store with Microsoft. Sun and HP had also abandoned their OpenStep partnerships with NeXT, and few viewed Apple's backing of NeXT technology as commercially sustainable.
Apple began shifting its own goalposts as its Mac customers balked at adopting a more serious and complex Unix-based operating system. Even worse, Apple's principle Mac developers, including Adobe, Macromedia and Microsoft, indicated little interest in writing for Yellow Box, insisting instead that Apple merge the classic Mac OS and NeXT technologies to produce something modern that could still run their existing code with minimal changes.
What appeared to be a perfect merger between ideal partners began to look more like a mess. Apple was stuck in Mac OS licensing agreements with hardware makers that compelled the company to essentially give away its OS while also squandering its ability to sell its own hardware at a profit, as cloners were taking away its high end sales rather than expanding the Mac market as intended.
Apple was also straddled with retail distribution that simply sat its computers next to cheaper PCs without effectively demonstrating any differences between them. The company therefore had no obviously competitive products, no way to sell them, and no way to keep developers supporting its status quo or its intended future. Things looked pretty bleak for the Macintosh.
Apple's only other significant product was the Newton MessagePad, a tablet computer that was getting bypassed in the market by the much cheaper, simpler Palm Pilot while demanding a significant portion of Apple's attention and efforts.
On page 2 of 3: Jobs turns Apple Around, Apple goes open