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AMD earnings: If Intel gets its act together, can AMD maintain swollen valuation? - MarketWatch
How much of AMD’s share price relies upon poor execution at Intel? A ‘large part,’ one analyst says
After Advanced Micro Devices Inc. capitalized on Intel Corp.s missteps in 2020, billions of dollars depends on the company continuing on that path as its larger rival attempts to right itself.The arrival of Gelsinger is seen as a much-needed talent infusion to better counter the likes of AMD CEO Lisa Su, who in the past six years has turned the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker into a formidable rival to Intel after years of being a sad Silicon Valley stepsister. AMD rode roughshod over Intel back in July, when Intel said it would have to delay its next-generation 7-nanometer chips until 2023 because of manufacturing issues, the same chip architecture that AMD first launched in late 2019. Over the past 12 months alone, AMD shares have surged nearly 80% while Intel shares have dropped nearly 10%, compared with a 60% rise in the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, -1.84% . AMD stock doubled in 2020, after being the biggest gainer on the S&P 500 index in both 2018 and 2019, pushing AMDs market capitalization higher than $100 billion. Also: AMD to buy Xilinx for $35 billion in stock BMO Capital Markets analyst Ambrish Srivastava, who recently downgraded AMD to underperform and reduced his price target to $75, said he expects the changing of the guard at Intel to weigh upon AMDs stock price. We do think a large part of the rich valuation is also attributable to how poorly Intel has executed, Srivastava said. Which in turn has opened up a blue sky scenario for how much share AMD could gain vs. Intel driving valuation even higher. What to expect Earnings: Of the 34 analysts surveyed by FactSet, AMD on average is expected to post adjusted earnings of 47 cents a share, up from 39 cents a share expected at the beginning of the quarter and 32 cents a share reported in the year-ago period. Estimize, a software platform that crowdsources estimates from hedge-fund executives, brokerages, buy-side analysts and others, calls for earnings of 50 cents a share. Revenue: Back in November, AMD predicted fourth-quarter sales of $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion, while analysts on average had forecast revenue of $2.6 billion at the time. Now, 30 analysts, on average, expect revenue of $3.02 billion, up from the $2.13 billion reported in the year-ago quarter. Estimize expects revenue of $3.08 billion. Stock movement: In the fourth quarter, AMD shares rose 12%. In comparison, the SOX index rose 25%, the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.30% gained 12%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.09% rose 15%. What analysts are saying Cowen analyst Matthew Ramsay, who has an outperform rating, said he expects AMDs earnings and product road maps to continue to be less volatile compared with Intels in the coming year. Over the next 2+ years, we see little change competitively or fundamentally from AMDs perspective, Ramsay said. Road maps are set. While renewed focus and clarity around Intels internal priorities and road maps may garner some customer loyalty and help slightly slow its share loss in the interim, should Intel be successful in fixing its 7nm road map the earliest products would likely be at scale in 2023, the Cowen analyst said. B of A Securities analyst Vivek Arya, who has a buy rating on AMD, said that while the company announced new lines of gaming laptop and Milan data-center chips at CES earlier in the month, there were noted omissions. Arya said investors were concerned about the lack of details on Milan with no new server customers disclosed, and focus on gaming not commercial notebooks where AMD is most challenged. Also at CES, rival Nvidia Corp. NVDA, -1.12% announced a new line of gaming laptops. Benchmark analyst Ruben Roy, who has a hold rating, said he expects tailwinds to lift both of AMDs business segments. We are updating our 2021 revenue and EPS estimates to reflect modestly higher Computing and Graphics Segment revenue given continued strength in the PC market and higher semi-custom revenue given the ongoing strength of recent gaming console launches, Roy said. Analysts, on average, expect $1.77 billion in computing and graphics sales from AMD, and $1.23 billion in enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom sales, the segment containing data-center and gaming-console chips. Of the 35 analysts who cover AMD, 20 have buy or overweight ratings, 12 have hold ratings and three have sell ratings, with an average price target of $95.30.
Tesla Inc. stock outperforms market on strong trading day - MarketWatch
Shares of Tesla Inc. inched 0.20% higher to $846.64 Friday, on what proved to be an all-around mixed trading session for the stock market, with the NASDAQ...
Intel stock gains after early release of earnings - MarketWatch
Chip maker drops fourth-quarter numbers before the end of trading session, stock jumps more than 6% before the close
Intel Corp.s stock rallied to close higher in the last minutes of trading Thursday after the chip maker unexpectedly released quarterly results before the end of the trading session.Intel INTC, +6.46% shares rallied to close up 6.5% at $62.46 after releasing holiday sales and an outlook that beat expectations, and slipped 2% in after-hours activity. The chip maker reported fourth-quarter net income of $5.86 billion, or $1.42 a share, compared with $6.91 billion, or $1.58 a share, in the year-ago period. After adjusting for restructuring and acquisition-related costs, Intel reported earnings of $1.52 a share, flat from a year ago.Revenue fell to $19.98 billion from $20.21 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated adjusted earnings of $1.11 a share on revenue of $17.53 billion, while Intel had forecast adjusted earnings of $1.10 a share on revenue of approximately $17.4 billion. Intels data-center group saw revenue decline 16% to $6.1 billion, while analysts expected $5.48 billion. Intels largest segment client-computing, the traditional PC group rose 9% to $10.9 billion with analysts expecting $9.57 billion. Intel reported that nonvolatile memory solutions revenue declined 1% to $1.2 billion, while Wall Street expected $1.08 billion. Internet of Things, or IoT, revenue declined 16% to $777 million, compared with an expected $764.2 million. Mobileye revenue rose 39% to $333 million, while the Street had expected $234.2 million. For the first quarter, Intel forecast adjusted revenue of $17.5 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.10 a share. Analysts on average expect first-quarter adjusted earnings of 93 cents a share on revenue of $16.08 billion. Demand for the computing performance Intel delivers remains very strong and our focus on growth opportunities is paying off, said Bob Swan, Intels outgoing chief executive, in a statement. Last week, Intel announced that Pat Gelsinger was returning to the company to take over the CEO position from Swan. Over the past 12 months, Intel shares have gained 3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.04% which counts Intel as a component is up 7%, the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.03% is up 16%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.55% is up 44%, and the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, +1.53% is up 64%.
World's largest asset manager applies to buy bitcoins in pair of funds - MarketWatch
BlackRock set to venture into bitcoin investing
BlackRock is set to dip its considerably massive toes into the world of cryptoassets, according to public filings and reports by a number of outlets. The gargantuan money manager headed by Larry Fink has filed to offer its clients exposure to bitcoin futures BTC.1, -1.46% through funds, BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities BSIIX, +0.10% and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund Inc. MALOX, +0.86% , part of the BlackRock Funds V series, according to paperwork submitted with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing states that certain funds may buy futures contracts based on bitcoin and described its focus in the nascent industry as on cash-settled bitcoin futures traded on commodity exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The interest in bitcoin futures for the money manager that manages some $8.7 trillion comes as bitcoin prices have been seeing parabolic moves higher, with a pullback in recent days highlighting the inherent volatility in the virtual asset that came into existence just over a decade ago. Notwithstanding the recent retracement, bitcoin prices BTCUSD, -0.65% on CoinDesk have climbed 21% so far in January after a blistering run-up in 2020. Bitcoin futures tied to the blockchain asset also have been on the rise, with values up nearly 19% so far this month and 192% higher over the past three months, according to FactSet data tracking the most-active contract traded on the CME Group CME, -1.23% . BlackRocks latest moves come after Fink back in December said bitcoin, which has gained greater traction among institutional investors over the past 12 months, has caught the attention and the imagination of many people. Fink said that the distributed-ledger-backed asset could eventually evolve into a global market, but described its current status as in its infancy. Another BlackRock top dog, Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income and head of the global allocation team, last month described himself as maintaining a relatively sober view of the popular virtual asset that some bulls say is challenging gold GC00, +0.09% as an alternative investment but said that he believes cryptos are here to stay. It should, perhaps, come as no surprise that BlackRock would wade into bitcoin as an investment. Back in 2018, the money manager assembled a team to explore potential investments in digital currencies and blockchain, the underlying technology that drives cryptocurrencies, the Financial Times reported. Back then, Fink was less sanguine about bitcoin, saying back in 2018 during a Bloomberg TV interview that he doubted that there was much enthusiasm from client sfor bitcoins and its ilk. I dont believe any client has sought out crypto exposure, Fink said. Much has changed and institutional interest in bitcoin has been often credited with helping to lead a fresh run-up in values for the worlds most popular crypto and alternatives to bitcoin, like ether ETHUSD, +0.77% on the ethereum blockchain and Litecoins LTCUSD, -1.17% , a spinoff from the original bitcoin that was written into code in 2009 by a person or persons known as Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin futures are even newer than the underlying asset it gives investors exposure to. Cboe Global Markets Inc. CBOE, +0.05% launched its bitcoin futures contract, trading with the symbol XBT back in Dec. 17, 2017, during the initial fervor for all-things crypto that ended with bitcoin teasing a price near $20,000 before collapsing to a low around $3,000. Rival CME kicked off its bitcoin futures contracts about a week after the Cboe, but two years later the Cboe Futures Exchange pulled the plug on its bitcoin futures experiment rather unceremoniously, noting tepid interest in its contracts and low volumes.
Netflix tops 200 million subscribers with year-end flourish, stock jumps 10% - MarketWatch
Streaming service bounces back from third-quarter stall to top 8 million new customers in holiday period, though earnings come in lighter than expected
Netflix Inc. topped 200 million streaming subscribers for the first time at the end of 2020, as sign-ups surged yet again despite higher prices in the U.S. and Canada.On Tuesday afternoon, Netflix NFLX, +0.76% reported 8.5 million net new subscribers in its fourth quarter, a dramatic uptick from the 2.2 million reported in the previous quarter and well ahead of Netflix and analyst estimates. Netflix lured 25.9 million new subscribers in the first half of the year, as shelter-in-place orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally, for an annual net gain of 36.6 million subscribers to 203.7 million total. That performance led to Netflix revenue rising to $25 billion for the first time, and profit increasing 48% for the full year. Executives gave investors a special treat after the big gains, telling them that they expect the cash generated by the business should reliably finance day-to-day operations moving forward, after years of using massive debt to finance its growing library of video content. The news sent Netflix shares up more than 10% in after-hours trading Tuesday, despite profits being lower than expected. After big gains amid the early-2020 surge, Netflix shares had calmed down in the second half of the year, and were down more than 5% in the past three months. The No. 1 streaming service reported fourth-quarter net income of $542 million, or $1.19 a share, compared with net income of $1.30 a share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue improved to $6.64 billion from $5.47 billion a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of $1.36 a share on sales of $6.6 billion. After Netflix reported modest gains in the third quarter, there were fears that demand for Netflix was cooling amid intensifying competition, and content, from the likes of Walt Disney Co.s DIS, +0.48% Disney+ and Hulu, Apple Inc.s AAPL, +0.54% Apple TV+, AT&T Inc.s T, -0.75% HBO Max, Amazon.com Inc.s AMZN, +0.53% Prime Video, and Comcast Corp.s CMCSA, +0.32% Peacock. The big growth in streaming entertainment has led legacy competitors like Disney, WarnerMedia and Discovery to compete with us in new ways, which weve been expecting for many years, executives wrote in a letter to shareholders Tuesday. This is, in part, why we have been moving so quickly to grow and further strengthen our original content library across a wide range of genres and nations. Netflix has used massive amounts of debt to finance that content creation, but executives said in the letter that we believe we are very close to being sustainably [free-cash-flow] positive, and bolded only one bit of text in the entire letter. We believe we no longer have a need to raise external financing for our day-to-day operation, the bolded text in the letter reads. Netflix began increasing the price of popular streaming tiers in the U.S. and Canada near the end of last year as a way to counteract any slowing subscriber growth. Executives forecast that Netflix would woo a net 6 million new subscribers in the first quarter of the year, which would be a massive decline from more than 15 million who signed up as COVID-19 spread around the globe in the first quarter of 2020. While executives did not provide yearly guidance for subscription additions, they did say that operating margin growth would slow down, a signal that they expect to not add as many subscribers in 2021. After gross margin grew 5 percentage points to 18% in 2020, they expect more modest growth of around 2 percentage points, to 20%, this year. We intend to continue to grow our operating margin each year at an average rate of 3 percentage points per year over any few-year period, but we anticipate some lumpiness, executives wrote. Some years well be a little over (like in 2020), some years a little under (like in 2021). Netflix shares are up 48% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.81% has risen 14%.
In parting shot, Trump administration revokes licenses to do business with Huawei: report - MarketWatch
Intel, other suppliers reportedly have approvals revoked, while new license applications will be rejected in Trump administration’s waning days
The Trump administration has notified Intel Corp. and other tech companies that it is revoking licenses to do business with Chinas Huawei Technologies Co. and rejecting new license applications, Reuters reported Sunday.The latest move against Chinese tech companies comes just days ahead of Trumps departure from the White House on Wednesday. The U.S. claims telecom-equipment maker Huawei is a threat to national security.The Trump administration restricted U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei in 2019, but a handful including Intel INTC, -2.82% had since been granted special approval to do so. Citing unnamed sources, Reuters reported eight licenses have been revoked from four companies, and cited a Friday email from the Semiconductor Industry Association describing the Commerce Departments intent to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei. Reuters said the vast majority of about 150 pending license applications, worth about $120 billion in goods and services, were denied. The Trump administration has taken punitive action against a number of Chinese companies in recent months, including a failed attempt to ban TikTok and an executive order that forced the New York Stock Exchange to delist Chinas three largest telecom companies. It is unclear if the incoming Biden administration will continue the restrictions against Chinese companies, with some experts predicting the orders could be paused while the new administration reviews the cases.
Fear of new virus variant pushes U.S. toward more genomic sequencing - MarketWatch
The CDC said this week that the new B.1.1.7 strain may become the most dominant form of the virus in the U.S. by March
The United Kingdoms use of genomic sequencing to identify a more infectious strain of SARS-CoV-2 has largely served as a wake-up call for inadequate use of the technology in the U.S. Up until mid-December, the U.S. had sequenced about 0.3% of its COVID-19 samples, a percentage that is significantly lower than other developed countries despite the fact that it has one-fourth of the worlds cases. In comparison, the U.K. is sequencing about 10% of its samples, and Australia aims to real-time sequence all of the relatively limited number of positive COVID-19 tests there. The U.S. has been a no-show for sequencing if you look at the world stage, said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. Sequencing gives us many different things. It tells us how the virus is moving from place to place. It tells us how fast its changing. We can say it was here on this day, and it was there another day. It can tell a super-spreader. See also:Heres what we know so far about the new strain of COVID-19 Growing concern about hyper-transmissable new strains of SARS-COV-2 has raised more awareness about the nations lack of federal funding and development of the kind of genomic surveillance that helped the U.K. identify the B.1.1.7 strain and South Africa pinpoint the B. 1.351 strain in December. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday its likely that B.1.1.7 will become the most dominant form of the virus in the U.S. by March. We simply do not have the kind of robust surveillance capabilities that we need to track outbreaks and mutations, President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday, when he called for a dramatic boost in genomic sequencing and surveillance as part of his proposed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. While a good chunk of federal pandemic dollars have gone so far toward immediate needs like testing, contact tracing, and helping drugmakers scale up their vaccine manufacturing capabilities, experts are now pushing the U.S. to build a stronger genomic surveillance system that can help public-health departments identify new strains while also better addressing regional or community outbreaks. All viruses evolve, and SARS-CoV-2 is thought to develop one to two variants a month, though it mutates much more slowly than the flu virus. Back in mid-2020, researchers began talking about the 614G mutation, which is now considered the dominant form of the virus worldwide. Now, concern has shifted to the B.1.1.7 and B. 1.351 strains, which are both thought to be more infectious. The B.1.1.7 strain from the U.K. has been detected in at least 76 people in 12 states, as of Jan. 13, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The B. 1.351 strain from South Africa has not been identified in the U.S. at this time.) In the U.S., where rates of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to soar, there has been less emphasis on population-level public health initiatives when testing and care remain in such high demand. Read:Biden plans to distribute COVID-19 vaccine doses immediately Intermountain Healthcare, a hospital system based in Salt Lake City, sent off all positive COVID-19 tests for sequencing in the early days of the pandemic. But when cases began to rise, and workload increased, the process began too disruptive and time-consuming, and it was stopped, said Dr. Bert Lopansri, chief of Intermountains Division of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology. With increasing treatment options, vaccine rollout and emergence of novel variants, scaling up sequencing is critical going forward, he said in an email. If the U.S. sequenced at least 5% of positive COVID-19 tests, then it would be able to detect emerging strains or variants when they make up less than 1% of total positive cases, according to a model developed by the sequencing company Illumina Inc. ILMN, +1.24% . (Their model is set to be published this weekend as a preprint, a type of preliminary medical study.) This would cost less than $500 million in 2021, according to Dr. Phil Febbo, the companys chief medical officer. Experts say that putting money behind a national genomic sequencing surveillance network cannot only help identify new variants in the future, it could aid overworked public-health departments with giving priority to who should get tested, contact traced, and isolated. It could also be used to inform vaccine makers if there is a vaccine escape strain, a strain of the virus that could render currently available vaccines less effective or ineffective. (A study conducted in a lab in mice by BioNTech SE BNTX, -3.91% and Pfizer Inc. PFE, -0.24% showed that their vaccine is still effective against the new strains, according to the Jan. 7 preprint. Moderna Inc. MRNA, -0.21% has also said its confident its MRNA vaccine will work against the U.K. strain) When they see a small cluster of a new variant come into a community, they can react quickly, Febbo said, and they can raise awareness to those who are infected and make sure that they do their best efforts to contain that. See also:FDA identifies 3 COVID-19 tests that may be impacted by new variant Earlier this month, Illumina announced plans with a privately held testing company called Helix OpCo to develop a CDC-backed national sequencing surveillance system. Helix looks for samples from positive COVID-19 tests with the S gene dropout for Illumina to sequence. So far, theyve IDed at least 51 cases of B.1.1.7. in the U.S. Incorporating genomic sequencing into national surveillance isnt the only way to modernize the way the U.S. can track and take action against the virus. Beyond testing, contact tracing, and isolating, this could include genomic sequencing, monitoring wastewater, gathering mobility data, and using digital sensors, according to Topol. As we get vaccines out there at full tilt, were going to start seeing containment of the virus, he said. And then theres going to be places that are like whack-a-mole, where the virus tends to crop up again. If youre sequencing, doing wastewater, digital, mobility, you basically have a real time dashboard in the country, and you see that, Oh, wow, Kalamazoo is lighting up. Illumina shares have gained 18% in the last 12 months, while the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF XBI, -0.95% has gained 59% and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.73% has gained 15%.
Wells Fargo's stock slumps after revenue falls more than forecast, but profit breaks streak of misses - MarketWatch
Shares of Wells Fargo & Co. undefined slumped 2.5% in premarket trading Friday, after the bank reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat expectations for...
Shares of Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, -7.06% slumped 2.5% in premarket trading Friday, after the bank reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat expectations for the first time in six quarters, but revenue that fell more than forecast as lower interest rates weighed on net interest income. Net income rose to $2.99 billion, or 64 cents a share, from $2.87 billion, or 60 cents a share in the same period a year ago. The FactSet consensus was for earnings per share of 59 cents. Total revenue fell 9.7% to $17.93 billion, missing the FactSet consensus of $18.12 billion, as all of the bank's business segments saw revenue decline. Net interest income dropped 17% to $9.28 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $9.35 billion. Consumer banking and lending revenue fell 5% to $8.61 billion, as an 8% decline in consumer and small business banking revenue and a 7% fall in credit card revenue offset a 2% increase in home lending. "Although our financial performance improved and we earned $3.0 billion in the fourth quarter, our results continued to be impacted by the unprecedented operating environment and the required work to put our substantial legacy issues behind us," said Chief Executive Charlie Scharf. The stock has soared 51.4% over the past three months through Thursday, while the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF XLF, -1.48% has advanced 26.0% and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.35% has gained 9.0%.
Tesla's new $950 stock price target at Wedbush is the highest on Wall Street, but the analyst still won't say buy - MarketWatch
Analyst Dan Ives also boosted his ‘bull case’ target to $1,250, but kept the neutral rating he’s had on Tesla for nearly 2 years
Tesla Inc. got a another bullish endorsement Friday from Wedbushs prolific analyst Dan Ives, who raised his stock price target by 33%, but he still wont recommend investors buy the stock.Ives said the hearts and lungs of investors bull thesis on Tesla TSLA, +1.15% has been centered on China, as consumer demand has skyrocketed into 2021, not just for Teslas Model 3s, but for electric vehicles from impressive domestic competitors such as Nio Inc. NIO, -4.22% , Li Auto Inc. LI, -2.55% and Xpeng Inc. XPEV, -4.05% He said although competition is increasing, Tesla remains top of the EV mountain. And given the robust demand globally for EVs, Ives now expects Tesla to surpass the 1 million delivery threshold in 2022, and said deliveries could start to approach 5 million a year by the end of the decade. While there are 150+ auto makers aggressively going after the EV opportunity globally, right now in the EV market we believe its Teslas world and everyone else is paying rent, Ives wrote in a note to clients. He lifted his base price target for Tesla to $950, which is 12.4% above Thursdays closing price, from $715. His target is now the highest of the 37 analysts surveyed by FactSet, and nearly double the average target of $498.66. Teslas stock edged up 0.5% in premarket trading. It fell 1.1% on Thursday, to close 4.0% below the Jan. 8 record close of $880.02. Joe Biden as president and a Democrat-controlled Congress should also provide a tailwind for the EV sector, Ives said. A Blue Senate is very bullish and a potential game changer for Tesla and the overall EV sector in the U.S., with a more green-driven agenda now certainly in the cards over the next few years, he wrote. Ives also raised his bull case price target by 25%, to $1,250 from $1,000. However, he reiterated his neutral rating that hes had on the Tesla since April 2019. For Wedbush, a neutral rating means the analysts expects the stocks total return to perform in line with the medial total return of the analysts coverage universe. Ives is listed has Wedbushs enterprise software analyst, and other companies he covers include Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.11% , Uber Technologies Inc. UBER, +0.32% and Zscaler Inc. ZS, +1.19% , which he rates outperform. Teslas stock has rocketed 714.9% over the past 12 months through Thursday, while shares of Apple have rallied 65.6%, Uber have advanced 62.6% and Zscaler have soared 249.8%. Over the same time, the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.34% has gained 15.4%.
Pfizer Inc. stock falls Thursday, still outperforms market - MarketWatch
Shares of Pfizer Inc. sank 0.30% to $36.75 Thursday, on what proved to be an all-around poor trading session for the stock market, with the S&P 500 Index...
Pfizer Inc. stock falls Wednesday, underperforms market - MarketWatch
Shares of Pfizer Inc. slumped 0.86% to $36.86 Wednesday, on what proved to be an all-around mixed trading session for the stock market, with the S&P 500...
Zoom Video prices $1.75 billion secondary offering at 5% discount - MarketWatch
Zoom Video Communications Inc. undefined announced late Tuesday that it has priced its 5.1 million-plus-share secondary offering at $340 a share, roughly a...
Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM, +5.66% announced late Tuesday that it has priced its 5.1 million-plus-share secondary offering at $340 a share, roughly a 5% discount on the stock's trading range Tuesday. It anticipates gross proceeds of $1.75 billion from the offering, which is anticipated to close on or about Friday, Jan. 15. J.P. Morgan is the sole book-running manager for the offering and has been granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 735,000-plus shares. Zoom shares, widely considered a prime beneficiary of the work- and learn-from-home response to the coronavirus pandemic, have surged nearly 390% in the past year.


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Industrialist Anand Mahindra recalled the advice of former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam after shares of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) Limited touched a new 52-week high of Rs 1,006.7, on Monday. In a tweet, Mahindra narrated how Dr Kalam’s advice had helped him in keeping his team motivated after the slump in the company’s share prices in 2019. “In 2019, M&M’s share price had fallen sharply from its all-time high of Rs 984,” Mahindra tweeted while adding that he had used Dr Kalam’s advice during the company’s annual leadership conference of that year.
Mahindra wrote that Dr Kalam, while inaugurating the Mahindra Research Valley in 2012, had asked him to “Take the Hill, i.e, dare to dream.”
Anand Mahindra asked his team to ‘take the hill’ after the 2019 share slump and set the target of getting the prices back up by the 75th anniversary of Mahindra and Mahindra. While the deadline was initially missed, a year later, Mahindra & Mahindra’s shares touched an all-time high on Monday.
Congratulating his team on the feat, the billionaire lauded Mahindra Group’s MD & CEO Anish Shah and Mahindra Auto’s Executive Director- Rajesh Jejurikar, for taking the company to the hill again.
The deadline of the 75th anniversary was missed. But by only a year.The new leadership team took up the baton & today our stock closed at the round number of ₹1000-a new high. I thank & salute @anishshah21 & @rajesh664 & all their colleagues who have ‘Taken the Hill’ again (3/3 pic.twitter.com/X5WaCil8CH
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) May 30, 2022
Continuing its gains from the previous day, Mahindra & Mahindra’s share prices rallied over 3 per cent in the early trade today.
On Monday, Mahindra and Mahindra’s share price on BSE rose 4.30 per cent or 41 points to Rs 994.20. On the NSE, the share price went up by 4.41 per cent or 42.05 points.
Mahindra & Mahindra’s share prices have jumped nearly 25 per cent in 2021 whereas the auto stocks have also recorded a 10 per cent growth in the last five trading sessions.
The spike in M&M share prices comes in the backdrop of the company reporting a five-fold jump in standalone profit at Rs 1,192 crore for the quarter ending on March 31. Mahindra Group reported a 28 per cent jump in its revenue compared to the corresponding quarter of last year. From Rs 13,356 crore in the March quarter of 2020-21, the company’s revenue has now scaled up to Rs 17,124 crore.
The company, however, witnessed a slight dip in its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the March quarter.
The views and investment tips by experts in this News18.com report are their own and not those of the website or its management. Users are advised to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
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Synthetic biology promises to revolutionise everything from the fuel we use, to the clothes we wear.
In Australia the science has been used to create a raspberry flavoured glass of Chardonnay, while work continues to build the world's first fully synthetic yeast cell.
The industry is growing exponentially, but an Australian leader in the field is warning that local businesses are missing the boat.
Heinrich Kroukamp, synthetic biologist
Professor Ian Paulsen, Macquarie University
Daniel Johnson, Australian Wine Research Institute


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Last week, Microsoft announced that it would soon begin offering previews of Microsoft Office 2024, the next standalone perpetually licensed version of the Office suite. Like Office 2021 before it, Office 2024 will be part of Microsoft’s Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC), which is intended for IT administrators and users who value stability and predictability over constant iteration.
But Microsoft is being clearer than ever that it would really like people to move to using Microsoft 365 subscriptions, referring to Office 2024 as “a specialty product that Microsoft has committed to maintaining for use in exceptional circumstances.” The company will be increasing prices for businesses by “up to 10 percent” compared to Office 2021, a price hike that Microsoft says will “support continued innovation in this niche space.” Pricing for the consumer version of Office 2024 should stay the same as it is for Office 2021.
Office 2024 will receive support and security updates for five years from its release date, which will be “later this year,” along with a new LTSC release of Windows 11. The company has also committed to releasing at least one more standalone version of Office in the future. If you bought Office 2021 and you’re still happy with it, you’ll still get support (including security updates) until October of 2026. Support for Office 2019 ended in October 2023.
Highlights of the Office 2024 release include “new meeting creation options and search enhancements in Outlook, dozens of new Excel features and functions including Dynamic Charts and Arrays; and improved performance, security, and accessibility,” according to Microsoft. One missing feature of note will be Microsoft Publisher, which will be discontinued in October 2026.
Like other standalone Office releases, Office 2024’s feature set will be frozen in time without the continuous changes present in the Microsoft 365 versions of the same apps. And while the perpetually licensed versions of Office can interact with Microsoft services like OneDrive, the company says that other features like the Copilot AI assistant won’t be available in Office 2024 because it is a “disconnected product.” It’s also missing real-time collaboration features available in Microsoft 365.
Among other things, the continued existence of the standalone Office product shows that the “Office” brand name will still be with us for a while, despite Microsoft’s formal decision to retire it back in late 2022. “Office” remains useful as a noun that refers to all of these apps collectively—and separately from the Microsoft 365 subscription product. Even in places where the Office name has been removed, Microsoft seems reticent to do away with it entirely; the Microsoft 365 app that comes built into Windows has the new name and the new logo but also includes “Office” in parentheses as if to say “yes, we know what name most people use to talk about this software.”


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It’s a Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero crossover.
Bandai Namco’s online multiplayer title Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is still getting regular content updates, and the next one, due out 23rd March, adds new raid quests and much more.
Players can look forward to a new Awoken Skill: Beast, new costumes, new CC mascot (including 7 new variants) and a whopping 51 loading screen illustrations. As you can see in the trailer above it will add VS Cell Max.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com


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Posts tagged Trailer
Video: Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow 2 ‘Dracula’s Vengeance’ trailer
Konami has issued an all-new trailer, focusing on Dracula as the game’s central anti-hero.
Catch the new clip here.
Video: Call of Duty: Ghosts official launch trailer
With the launch of Activision’s latest Call of Duty instalment just weeks away, the publisher today revealed the official launch trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts.
Catch the new vid here.
Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure launch trailer
Warner Bros. and 5TH Cell have unleashed an official launch video for Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.
Video: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD gameplay footage revealed
Nintendo has released a new gameplay trailer for their upcoming HD remake for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
Ubisoft release Rayman Legends launch trailer
Ubisoft has released the official Rayman Legends launch trailer for your viewing pleasure.


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It’s fairly well known that Walt Disney World has been looking for a way to incorporate more interactivity in the parks. With their competitors down the street revealing interactive Harry Potter wands a few years ago, the need to do something has been even more… Read More »Walt Disney World announces new interactive MagicBand+ coming in 2022.
The Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. an new immersive Star Wars hotel at Walt Disney World is set to welcome its first guests on March 1, 2022 according to an announcement made this morning. The two-night Star Wars experience will invite guests to be the star… Read More »Star Wars Hotel at Walt Disney World reveals opening date
If you’re excited about the upcoming “Muppets Haunted Mansion” special coming to Disney+ next month, you’re going to love the news that it will be coming to the parks, as well. Starting October 1 at Disneyland, there will be fun photo opportunities near the Esplanade… Read More »‘Muppets Haunted Mansion’ Comes to Disneyland and Walt Disney World for Halloween
A new type of daytime show is soaring into view at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Disney KiteTails will debut on October 1 at the Discovery River Theater. The show will perform several times a day and features windcatchers and kites, some stretching to 30 feet long,… Read More »‘Disney KiteTails’ takes flight at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park
We’re at EPCOT today for the media event to learn more about what’s new and what’s next at Walt Disney World for its banner year 50th anniversary celebration. We were excited to spot that the Harmonious barges had their giant screens lit up with the… Read More »Harmonious barges lit up at EPCOT for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary
This holiday season, Disney is hoping you and your family will find yourself enchanted by the next animated feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios – “Encanto.” The studio shared a new trailer and poster for the this morning along with some breaking news for the… Read More »New trailer, poster and voice cast news for Disney’s Encanto
This Friday, October 1, the 50th Anniversary celebration kicks off at Walt Disney World, and D23 is getting in on the celebration. Tune in Friday at 9am PT/12pm ET for “D23 Inside Disney: 50 Magical Years of Walt Disney World,” a streaming special that will… Read More »D23 to Stream Tribute to Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary on Oct 1
We were excited to be invited to the media night for SeaWorld Orlando’s first separate-ticketed, nighttime Halloween event – Howl-O-Scream. Aimed at a decidedly older audience than the typical family fare that is attracted to the daytime Spooktacular, the screams and scares come at you… Read More »Ranking the scare factor for SeaWorld’s Howl-O-Scream


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UK manufacturing receive export boost
According to a new survey, a surge in export orders helped to lift manufacturing activity in July. The Markit/CIPS UK manufacturing purchasing index rose to 55.1 last month, up from 54.2 in June with figures above 50 indicating expansion within the index. The closely-watched survey found that export orders rose in July at the fastest rate since April 2010 and at the second highest rate since the survey began.
Markit revealed that the weaker pound remained the key driver of export growth. The UK pound rose to a ten month high against the US dollar after the report was published. The index results found the first growth in three months, yet Economists have warned that the figures may not necessarily boost a wider UK growth.
Director at Markit, Rob Dobson said “Although the exchange rate remains a key driver of export growth, manufacturers also benefitted from stronger economic growth in key markets in the euro area, North America and Asia-Pacific regions.”
Dobson continued “If this trend of milder price pressures is also reflected in other areas of the UK economy, this should provide the Bank of England sufficient leeway to maintain its current supportive stance until the medium-term outlook for economic growth becomes less uncertain.”
With Brexit looming, we think that the growth shown by UK manufacturing businesses is welcome news.


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Indiegogo is making a pair of changes today that are designed to compel crowdfunding campaigns to be clearer with backers about the state of their products. The first change is a requirement that tech campaigns disclose what state their product is in — be it just a concept or one ready to hit the manufacturing line. And the second is a requirement that all campaigns update their backers at least once a month about how the project is going.
If campaigns fail to do either, Indiegogo may remove them from the platform, offer refunds, and even attempt to acquire dispersed money through collections agencies. Combined, Indiegogo hopes these measures will give people more confidence when backing a project and then again later on while waiting for it to ship, which is when delays often hit and communication tends to break down.
“One of the things that we found is that in certain cases, either our backers didn't have all the information that they could use to help them make a decision to back a project, or after a campaign there was often not good communication between entrepreneurs and backers,” Indiegogo CEO Dave Mandelbrot tells The Verge. “So we've implemented a number of changes to improve the backer experience.”
Indiegogo may refund backers or call a collections agency to recover money
Indiegogo added the ability for campaigns to list what stage their product is in last year, but selecting a stage hasn’t been a requirement. And, in a cursory look through recent tech campaigns, it seems that most don’t use it. From here out, it’ll be a requirement that campaign creators select a product stage before going live, choosing between concept, prototype, production, and shipping.
Critically, Mandelbrot says that Indiegogo’s moderation team will look through every campaign and validate that the creators have accurately represented how far along they are in the process. This will happen after a campaign is already live, and there won’t be any way for visitors to see whether or not any given project has been verified. But if a live campaign is found to have misrepresented itself, Indiegogo will alert backers and offer them the chance to get a refund. “In more egregious cases,” says Mandelbrot, “we will automatically do the refund and give backers the opportunity to back again in light of the new information.”
The situation gets more complicated when it comes to enforcing Indiegogo’s new requirement for monthly backer updates. Mandelbrot says communications issues usually start after a campaign ends, and at that point, the project’s creator has taken hold of backers’ money — so there’s no easy way to grant refunds. Indiegogo plans to reach out to negligent campaigns as soon as 30 quiet days go by. Eventually, silent campaign creators will be given a deadline for posting some sort of update.
“Admittedly, that one is more challenging.”
If they don’t, Indiegogo’s options are limited. “Admittedly, that one is more challenging,” says Mandelbrot. The company’s strategy here will be to kick campaigns off the site. Indiegogo allows successful projects to continue raising money even after their campaign ends, but if they stop responding to backers before the product ships, Indiegogo can remove them so that it’s harder for the company to raise more funds. That doesn’t necessarily improve the situation for backers, but Mandelbrot says even removed campaigns should still have the necessary information to ship their products out to everyone who paid, if they ever get to that point.
That isn’t the strongest action Indiegogo can take, however. In some cases, where a campaign owner “has basically disappeared,” Indiegogo will call a collection agency and try to recover backers’ money. Mandelbrot says the company has already done this in a small number of instances and has had some success.
In most cases, Mandelbrot thinks it won’t come to that. “What happens more often is that an entrepreneur may tell us they're a little behind in manufacturing and are nervous about telling users,” he says. “We have data. Our backers understand there will be challenges but want to be communicated with.”
Ultimately, neither of these measures do much to really guarantee that backers will get their products. They’re mostly just meant to keep backers more comfortable and more informed. If a product doesn’t ship, there’s nothing in these changes that would help backers, so long as the creator is clear about the fact that production failed. “Our goal really is to ensure that the backer is making a conscious decision to back a project with an awareness of the risks involved,” Mandelbrot says.
“If we got to 100 percent [delivery], it wouldn't be crowdfunding anymore.”
Indiegogo declined to share figures on how often campaigns fail to deliver products. But a 2015 analysis of Kickstarter data found that 9 percent of that platform’s crowdfunding projects failed to deliver rewards, and only 65 percent of backers said their rewards were delivered on time. “Project backers should expect a failure rate of around 1-in-10 projects, and to receive a refund 13 percent of the time,” wrote Ethan Mollick, an associate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, who authored the study.
If the numbers are at all similar on Indiegogo, it means that backing any project remains a real gamble. While Indiegogo says it’s taking steps to help technology campaigns get to market — it has partnerships to connect campaign creators with IBM and Arrow Electronics to help them develop and produce their products — that still doesn’t provide any sort of guarantee to backers. It just ups the odds that they might eventually get something.
From Mandelbrot’s perspective, that may be the best Indiegogo can offer: the company’s CEO doesn’t think his platform should remove all the risk from crowdfunding. “If we got to 100 percent [delivery], it wouldn't be crowdfunding anymore,” he says. “In some ways, those risks are always gonna exist. Otherwise people are just preordering or buying, essentially. Participating in a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo is something quite different.”


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The new June update for Xbox One is available starting today and should reach consoles in the coming week. The new update adds the ability to use external HD's, improves SmartGlass, and more.
Giveaway: Win the Logitech G910 Orion Spark mechanical keyboard!
Six Windows 10 features not available to Insiders... yet
All the latest on Windows 10 build 10041
windows 10 technical preview
Microsoft wants to turn Android phones into Windows 10 phones
LG Windows Phone mock-up
How to get Cortana working outside of the US in preview build 10041
External hard drive
Microsoft has revealed that external hard drive support will finally be added to the Xbox One as part of its June system update, along with a way to use real names to help find friends and more.
An image posted on Reddit shows a new feature that's coming to Xbox One: External drive support. There's no ETA on when the update will hit consoles, but new info may be revealed at E3 in June.
Seagate announces new, cheaper options to give smartphone users with small amounts of storage the ability to access and store files wirelessly using their Wireless Plus external hard drives.


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What is happening to our world? Not only is the stock market in free fall (again), but Jeff Bezos appears to have been infected by a Musk-like bug that causes business executives to lose their inhibitions on social media. Today, for instance, as Amazon stock was dropping 7%, the Amazon founder was tweeting about how he’s been working hard on his “ass.” You could say Bezos is no longer laser-focused on Amazon’s business. But then that’s been evident for a while.
And sure, he’s no longer CEO of Amazon, but he’s still supposed to be executive chair of the company. Bezos could have spent time today tweeting on more sober topics. For instance, if he was monitoring the retail sector, he couldn’t fail to miss Target’s market-shaking quarterly earnings report, which emphasized rising costs and consumer anxiety. Or Bezos might have noticed New York state’s lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that it discriminates against pregnant employees and workers with disabilities. Not a good look for the e-commerce giant.


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Billions in share floats planned to capitalise on market rise
There are an estimated seven billion to eight billion worth of share market floats taking place in the run-up to Christmas, with Nine, Veda and Dick Smith amongst the biggest. However, work outsourcing company Freelancer.com made one of the most impressive debuts in recent memory, with its shares rising more than five-fold in initial trade. Analysts say the market is not yet irrationally exuberant, but investors should look carefully at a firm's finances before buying into a float.
MARK COLVIN: Initial Public Offerings, which fell out of favour after the global financial crisis, are back with a vengeance.
IPOs are floats of private companies onto the stock market and the recent trickle of listings is turning into an end of year flood.
The most recent listing is Freelancer.com, which saw its shares increase as much as five-fold as it started trading today.
Over the next few weeks, Dick Smith Electronics, Nine and Veda are among the major new listings.
Business reporter Michael Janda has more.
MICHAEL JANDA: Twitter's 70 per cent surge on its first trading day after listing on the New York Stock Exchange last week was highly impressive.
But it pales in comparison to Freelancer.com's five-fold rise during its first day on the ASX. The outsourcing website hit a high of $2.60 upon listing at 12pm, after selling shares for 50 cents a-piece during the initial public offering.
Freelancer's chief executive Matt Barrie says it reflects a growing understanding of his firm's potential.
MATT BARRIE: The concept might seem obvious now that you can, you know, use the internet to hire someone anywhere in the world but back then, you know when I pitched the idea and say did you know you can hire someone in Bangladesh to build a website for you, people would say you know where's Bangladesh, do they speak English? Do they have computers et cetera.
MICHAEL JANDA: But fund manager Roger Montgomery says the company now seems outrageously over-valued.
ROGER MONTGOMERY: A business that has revenue that is far, far less than its current price suggests is justified, it will do very well because it's so absurdly over any rational valuation people think it's going to be enormous.
MICHAEL JANDA: He says investors are simply following tech gurus into the company.
ROGER MONTGOMERY: There are some very, very high profile early investors in companies like Twitter and Facebook that have taken a stake in Freelancer and so everybody's riding on their coat tails.
MICHAEL JANDA: Whatever the reason for the company's spectacular price rise, there's no doubt most small investors would love to turn such a quick, big profit.
But Lincoln Indicators chief executive Elio D'Amato says it's usually only the big institutions that actually manage to get shares in the most popular floats.
ELIO D'AMATO: The only people that really do benefit from those significant stag profits that we all hope we achieve one day are the institutional investors who were the only ones to get access to the stock to start with.
MICHAEL JANDA: Over the next month before Christmas, there certainly won't be a shortage of IPOs to choose from.
ELIO D'AMATO: This latest period we've seen something in the vicinity of around $7 billion to $8 billion by the end of this year, so it's been quite a lucrative period for all the investment bankers out there as they've been rushing out to leverage off the renewed optimism in the share market.
MICHAEL JANDA: One of those floats will be Dick Smith. It was sold by Woolworths last year to private equity firm Anchorage for a grand total of $94 million.
Analysts estimate that Anchorage sold the existing inventory for about $70 million, leaving it with a net outlay of just $20 million for the business.
It is now planning to float the business at $2.20 a share, valuing the company at more than $500 million.
One analyst PM spoke to said the sale by Woolworths was clearly incompetently handled and value was left on the table.
But Woolworths says Anchorage was the only buyer, and getting rid of the underperforming Dick Smith stores has been one factor in a $10 billion rise its share market value.
Roger Montgomery holds a view somewhere in-between.
ROGER MONTGOMERY: My view is that is partly true, but it is also true that they wouldn't have bought it in the first place if they didn't think they could devote sufficient resources and skill to enable it to be a success. So it should be a concern for investors in Woolworths and I'm one of them, that they haven't been able to execute that successfully.
MICHAEL JANDA: While it's debatable whether Woolies shareholders got a good deal in selling to private equity, there's no doubt some investors have been burnt in the past by private equity floats - Myer being one recent example that has never traded above its IPO price.
But Roger Montgomery says he has had some great investments buying into private equity floats, such as the Reject Shop, and he doesn't think the market is too hot yet.
ROGER MONTGOMERY: I don't think we're at the point of the cycle where it's silly and we've reached irrational exuberance, not withstanding Freelancer, but we will eventually get to that point some time next year and then I'll be happy to ring the warning bell.
MICHAEL JANDA: Elio D'Amato says it's important to remember that a prospectus is a sales document, and to think hard about the prospects of any business before buying into it.
ELIO D'AMATO: Some might call it a pump and dump exercise, you know others will take the view that private equity is much like a renovater, where they buy a decrepit house and fix it up and then sell it back to market at a premium. At the end of the day the quality of the business will ultimately determine its success.
MICHAEL JANDA: So there's no blanket rule but it does pay to check the financials on any company you're thinking about buying?
ELIO D'AMATO: That should be golden rule number one when it comes to assessing an IPO; check the company's financial statements and also to see what will happen with that capital raised, will that be used as an injection into the balance sheet to possibly fund future acquisitions or will it be stripped out to pay existing shareholders?
MARK COLVIN: Stock market adviser Elio D'Amato ending that report by Michael Janda.
Author Michael Janda


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Published on February 20, 2018
Last update on February 20, 2018
After the recent inputs from our US customers, Invisible Cloud's board approved changing the name of the project Invoice Capture to Invisible Collector.
This way new customers will not be deceived thinking they are approaching a OCR tech company that digitalises paper documents.
Instead, Invisible Collector, is bringing clarity to the brand, a straight market positioning and will reinforce the link with other business units of Invisible Cloud!
Please, visit us in:


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December 1, 2010 Burnham
charity to benefit from Santa sleigh hovercraft rides
A new tourist hovercraft which has been designed to look like
Santa's Sleigh started offering pleasure trips along Burnham-On-Sea
beach on Wednesday (December 1st).
The service, run by commercial hovercraft operator Hovabout,
is offering families rides along the beach at a cost of £7
per person for a five minute trip during the run-up to Christmas
with proceeds going to charity.
Cerebral Palsy sufferer Trevor Hayes was the first customer on
the service on Wednesday, as pictured above, since Hovabout will
be raising cash for Burnham's Medical Equipment Fund.
The Medical Equipment Fund gave Trevor a £5,000 communication
device five years ago following a successful Christmas fundraising
appeal - and a fresh campaign has been launched this week for
a new communication aid.
"Trevor has a wheelchair with padding and needs a bracket
to fit his computer so that he can send emails and surf the web,"
the Medical Equipment Fund's Tom Ashton told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
"He is not able to get about so the Internet is vital to
him. The device costs just £200 and we would like to help
him by buying the device before Christmas," added Tom. "Trevor
had a beaming smile on his face after the trip on the Santa hovercraft."
Hovabout's Paul Barnett told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "Our
craft has been designed to look like Santa's sleigh and glides
along the sand with two reindeer leading the way. Having already
carried out pre-trial rides to a number of local schoolchildren,
the feedback we have received has been 100 per cent positive.
The children think it's great."
The rides will be available from December 1st-24th during the
daytime and a normal tourist service will then launch in the New
Sedgemoor District Council Chairman Jane Moreton was among the
VIPs at Wednesday's launch of the rides on Burnham beach.
Hovabout is supporting former forces members who have been injured
during conflict by employing them as pilots, also raising money
for Help For Heroes. Former rifleman Jamie Cooper is among those
piloting the craft.
live pictures See live images of the seafront and beach with
Burnham's Webcam. Click
to see and do Check the constantly updated Burnham-On-Sea.com
calendar for what's happening. Click
in Burnham! Support local traders by shopping in town -
see our A-Z index of businesses. Click
video news Watch video highlights of events across Burnham
with these video clips. Click
gallery Hundreds of photos from events across the
Burnham-On-Sea area. Click


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These are the stocks posting the largest moves before the bell.Market Insiderread more
U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open on Monday as Treasury yields rebounded to quell fears of a possible recession.US Marketsread more
The Business Roundtable, a group of CEOs of nearly 200 major U.S. corporations, gave a new definition of the "purpose of a corporation."Marketsread more
Trump said he doesn't see a recession after the bond market spooked investors and the Dow suffered its worst day of the year last week.Marketsread more
Bianco Research's James Bianco suggests Wall Street is desperately looking for a signal that a 50 basis point cut is coming next month.Trading Nationread more
Dow to jump; Trump defends economy; Huawei hopes for US reprieve; Trump and Apple's Tim Cook meet; president ties Hong Kong protests to China trade disputeMarketsread more
The U.K. prime minister prepares to meet his German and French counterparts this week.Europe Politicsread more
Amazon is raising seller fees for thousands of small and medium-sized businesses in France because of a new digital tax passed by the French government.Technologyread more
Ahead of the deadline, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that Huawei was a national security threat.Technologyread more
Target is launching its biggest brand yet, Good & Gather. Target expects the grocery label will be a multibillion-dollar brand by the end of 2020.Retailread more
Baidu is gearing up to release its second-quarter earnings on Monday with the market expecting a sharp decline in profit.Technologyread more
A 75-year-old seasoning is spicing up the Maryland beer business.
When Flying Dog Brewery, Maryland's largest craft brewery, struck a deal to license a beer made with Old Bay seasoning, brewery officials knew it would generate some buzz. But not even the man who worked to put the partnership together anticipated the frenzy the brew would inspire.
Old Bay, made by fellow Maryland-based company McCormick & Co., is a seasoning mix made with 18 herbs and spices including celery salt, red and black pepper, and paprika, that is a Chesapeake Bay-area restaurant and kitchen staple.
"We originally had in our production schedule what we believed to be enough beer to sell to anyone who wanted it up and down the east coast for five months," said Jim Caruso, CEO of Flying Dog Brewery. "In eight days, we sold that amount of beer just in Frederick and Baltimore, Maryland, alone."
It turns out the marriage of two Maryland favorites stirred up a fierce case of Chesapeake pride.
"People were ordering this beer before they even tried it," Caruso said. "We had people in Frederick trying to bribe the distributors and their drivers with $100 to give them a case of beer off the truck."
Caruso says not only did people try Dead Rise, named after the wooden-hulled fishing and crabbing boats used to navigate the Chesapeake Bay, they kept coming back for more.
Knowing they had a hit on their hands, Flying Dog made the decision to shift as much production as possible to Dead Rise. So out went the original plan of selling the beer throughout the Mid-Atlantic from New York down to North Carolina.
For about five weeks, Flying Dog shifted 65 percent of its total production capacity to focus solely on meeting Maryland's demand for the beer.
"We're selling more Dead Rise just in the state of Maryland than we are with all our other 40-plus beers combined everywhere else," Caruso said.
Still the decision wasn't an easy one for many reasons, not the least of which was focusing so heavily on the demand for Dead Rise meant the Flying Dog had to temporarily stop all beer shipments to the 26 other states in which they have distribution.
Caruso said the decision was a painful one because they didn't want to risk damaging out-of-state relationships, but being a Maryland company meant putting the Maryland market first.
"That's one of the meanings in local," Caruso said. "Taking millions dollars in profits from one part of the country and giving it to our local beer stores and bars because this is a Maryland beer, it's the right thing to do."
While Dead Rise may be an extreme example, the idea of focusing on local needs is a core part the Flying Dog philosophy.
Flying Dog and Old Bay are donating a portion of the proceeds from Dead Rise to True Blue, a program that advocates on behalf of the Chesapeake Bay's 5,500 watermen and promotes sustainably harvested Maryland Blue Crab.
The brewery also donates a portion of sales from its Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout to the Oyster Recovery Partnership. Since the program started in 2011, Flying Dog proceeds have assisted in planting nearly 3 million oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.
The local focus means, for now, the Old Bay-seasoned beer taking Maryland by storm will remain just for Maryland.
"It's humbling and flattering to know other locations want the beer, but we're saying we're only capable of producing so much and if Maryland bars and restaurants want it, they got it," said Caruso.
The licensing deal with McCormick for the Old Bay trademark only lasts through September, but based on this summer's sales, it's a good bet the Dead Rise brew will be return.
"I would hope McCormick would be interested in partnering with us again next year," said Caruso. "However, we could still do Dead Rise, it just wouldn't have the official license for the Old Bay mark on it, but we could still do a beer made with Old Bay."
—By CNBC's Tom Rotunno


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A few hours ago, Sledgehammer Games published a new shooter trailer Call of Duty: Vanguard, which unexpectedly found a place for the Activision logo. Until recently, the studio said that the absence of a logo is a creative solution, but now it has simply returned it to its usual place.
Apparently, the creative solution did not find support in the face of gamers, and the logo had to be returned.
Release Call of Duty: Vanguard will take place on November 5 on PC and consoles of both generations. From September 10 to September 20, the shooter will receive an open beta, and read all the details of yesterday’s show here.


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The UK service sector continued to expand in March, as economic recovery remained on track, according to the latest CIPS/Markit Purchasing Managers Index. Activity rose in line with higher levels of new business, and helped to support the first increase in employee numbers for just under two years.
The CIPS/Markit Business Activity Index was 56.5, down from 58.4 in February, but well above the 50.0 no-change mark. Moreover, despite the disruptions seen earlier in the year, average growth in the first quarter was broadly similar to that in last quarter of 2009.
The report said that respondents noted a more positive marketplace, with growth also supported by promotional activities. “New business has now risen for nine months in a row, with growth remaining marked despite slipping on February’s two-and-a-half year peak.”
David Noble, chief executive at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply, said: “While the services sector as a whole is recovering strongly now, smaller businesses are lagging behind. Purchasing managers reported that these businesses are still suffering from the effects of the recession and continue to lay-off staff despite large and medium sized companies expanding their payroll. It won’t be until we see these smaller businesses really start to recover that we can say the services sector is returning to full health.”


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New food guide problematic
By Kathryn Strong
Is the plate half full or half empty? The food guide icon just unveiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that Americans fill half their plates with fruits and vegetables.
This advice — and the new simple plate design — are significant steps forward. But as a dietitian, I find myself focusing on the sharp contrast between the new icon and federal agricultural subsidies.
The USDA’s new plate icon, as well as the department’s recently released dietary guidelines, advise Americans to limit high-fat products like meat and cheese. But the federal government continues to subsidize these very products with billions of tax dollars and gives almost no support to fruits and vegetables.
The federal government spends about $16 billion per year on agricultural subsidies. While more than 60 percent of agricultural subsidies in recent history have directly and indirectly supported meat and dairy production, less than 1 percent has gone to fruits and vegetables.
It’s clear that the federal government understands that the latest nutrition research supports a shift toward plant-centered diets to help fight heart disease, cancer, obesity, and the other chronic diseases that are killing so many Americans. The dietary guidelines recommend eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grains — and even include full sections outlining the benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets. But the government is still having trouble putting its money where its mouth is.
It’s an endless cycle. The government uses billions of tax dollars to encourage the production of foods that have been linked to chronic diseases, and uses billions more tax dollars to cover health-care costs for the resulting hospital bills. In 2008, the direct medical costs associated with obesity added up to $147 billion.
Since the USDA’s first Food Pyramid was introduced two decades ago, obesity and diabetes have become commonplace. About 27 percent of young adults are now too overweight to qualify for military service, and an estimated one in three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes. More than 60 percent of deaths in the United States are caused by heart disease, cancer, and other diet-related diseases.
In 1991, the USDA unveiled the first Eating Right Pyramid, which emphasized grains, fruits, and vegetables and reduced emphasis on meat and dairy products. The USDA quickly withdrew the icon because of objections from the meat industry. The next year, the department introduced a similar food guide but added recommendations for two to three servings each day from the meat group and two to three from the dairy group.
The USDA is finally taking a bold step by introducing this plate icon that encourages a shift toward diets rich in plant foods. But just as the USDA has given the food guide icon a makeover, Congress must revamp farm policy to encourage the production and consumption of healthful foods. Our health depends on it.
Kathryn Strong is a staff dietitian with the vegan group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington, D.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Sugar turns bitter as inflation shocks
Retail inflation has gone up for the first time since January this year. The real culprit, however, is sugar and vegetables.
According to the data provided by Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation on May 12, 2016, inflation in sugar and confectionery products for the month of April stood at 11.18%, second only to pulses, at 34.13%. The price rise in sugar for the rural and urban markets stood at 7.36% and 19.10%, respectively.
The Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) rose 6.58% in rural and 5.97% in urban areas taking the total price rise to 6.32% as against general inflation of 5.39%. This means that price rise in food products, like fruits, vegetables, sugar, etc has been more than the price rise in other products and services.
According to Sujan Hajra and Moumita Paul Samanta of Anand Rathi Research, in a report dated May 12, 2016, “While fuel inflation declined from 3.5% to 3%, food inflation rose sharply, from 5.1% to 6.3%. This arose due to the noticeable hardening of vegetable inflation (from 0.5% to 4.8%) and of sugar (from 3.9% to 11.2%).”
CARE Ratings, too, seconded Anand Rathi. It said, “The food basket has contributed to this increase.”
The ongoing heat waves and acute water shortages seem to be impacting both actual and anticipated food supplies said Anand Rathi research paper.
Will sugar turn sweet?
Analysts and industry experts believe that the price rise is temporary and with the expectation of a good monsoon this year, food, vegetables and sugar prices are likely to come down in the near future.
Hajra and Samanta of Anand Rathi said,”While the high temperatures and water shortages in various parts of the country are issues of grave concern and could keep certain food prices elevated for a short period, a good monsoon could reverse these.”
CARE Ratings said, “Given the monsoon forecast, the CPI inflation rate will not cross 6% but will continue to range between 5-6% for some time.”
Get Latest Business News, Stock Market Updates and Videos; Check your tax outgo through Income Tax Calculator and save money through our Personal Finance coverage. Check Business Breaking News Live on Zee Business Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe on YouTube.


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Nowadays, the rolling grasslands of Sonoita and Elgin are better known for wineries than big cattle ranches. But apparently, grapes aren't destined to be the only gold in them thar hills.
Shannon Austin Zouzoulas and Megan Austin Haller -- two 30-something sisters who just opened AZ Hops & Vines (their self-described "cheeky little winery" in Sonoita) in March of this year -- have also harvested their first crop of hops this week, the first hops commercially grown in the state of Arizona.
These chicks don't fool around.
They started out with grapes two years ago, planting six acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, Mourvedre, Grenache and Graciano. Because their grapes are still young (most wineries wait three years to harvest them for wine-making), they are currently offering six wines they've made using grapes sourced from other Arizona and California vineyards (including Stag's Leap for their big bad Imbibe).
Cheeky though they may be, these savvy sisters didn't go at this venture blindly. Haller, who came to Arizona 10 years ago, spent the last five years working at local wineries -- in various vineyards and tasting rooms alike. She's also currently studying to become a certified sommelier.
It hasn't hurt any that Kent Callaghan, a pioneer in Arizona winemaking, has helped the pair along the way, working alongside them as they've made their first wines called Milagros, Summer, First Crush, Zinnerpeace, Imbibe and The Fluffer (better Google that last one).
Because there are just as many beer buffs as wine wonks out there, the girls thought it might not be a bad idea to plant an acre of hops, just to see how that would fly. They received so much interest from home brewers and local breweries all over the state (including Four Peaks), they've already decided they'll double -- or even triple -- their hops planting next year.
This year, they grew six varieties: Cascade, Brewer's Gold, Mt. Hood, Willamette, Chinook and Nugget. And they were shocked and delighted to find that their vines were already producing. Haller views the hops as a cash crop.
AZ Hops & Vines just hosted their first vineyard dinner last Saturday, bringing in Chef Allison Embacher of Wilko (a gastropub/wine bar in Tucson) to prepare six courses that would pair nicely with the vineyard's six wines.
The meal was lovely, the pairings were spot on, and the setting -- overlooking vineyards, grasslands, sunset and distant storm clouds -- was flat out spectacular. Callaghan was on hand to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
In fact, he's been taking cues from these clever women, who have a knack for marketing, building community and creating fun, off-the-cuff events. A recent one called Bad Decisions Night involved crazy pairings with wine, beer, bacon, cheese and chocolate.
If you're interested in sampling wine, joining their beer club, attending their Oktoberfest or other future events, check out their website at azhopsandvines.com or find them on Facebook under the same name.
Trust me, you're going to want to get to know AZ Hops & Vines for a whole lot of reasons.


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Samsung users running two WhatsApp accounts on their Galaxy smartphones using the Dual Messenger feature have been reportedly facing several issues. Samsung is now said to be working on a fix. Dual Messenger allows users to run two different accounts of apps such as Snapchat and WhatsApp, etc. on a Galaxy smartphone. Many users have been reporting issues with opening and sending media on the parallel version of WhatsApp on their phones. Samsung has reportedly said it will release a fix with a future update soon.
A report by SamMobile quotes Samsung as saying that it is working on fixing an issue where users are unable to open media received on WhatsApp registered using its Dual Messenger. Users are also unable to send saved media. The issue is said to be persistent with WhatsApp version 22.214.171.124 (or later).
Till an update arrives, users have been reportedly advised by Samsung to forward the media received on their Dual Messenger WhatsApp to their primary WhatsApp and open it from there. For sending media, users are advised to send files via the Gallery or My Files app and sharing them by selecting the Dual Messenger WhatsApp.
You can activate Samsung’s Dual Messenger by going to Settings > Advanced features > Dual Messenger. Follow these steps to activate two WhatsApp accounts on your Samsung phone.
In other Samsung-related news, the South Korean tech giant is gearing up to launch the Galaxy A22 5G smartphone in India. The upcoming smartphone is expected to come in two RAM + storage configurations — 6GB + 128GB and 8GB + 128GB.


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After being unveiled as the new, real-life Lara Croft, Alison Carroll will be appearing at the flagship store of The Carphone Warehouse, this Friday 6 February 2009 at 12:15hrs.
Alison will be helping to launch two new gaming handsets from Sony Ericsson, which will be exclusively available from The Carphone Warehouse. The F305 motion-sensitive handset comes pre-loaded with over 50 free games, while the W910 Exclusive Gaming Edition has four blockbusting games stored on it, including Tomb Raider.
WHEN: 12:15hrs, Friday 4 February 2008
WHAT: Photocall, media interviews (on request)
Alison Carroll, the new Lara Croft will be appearing in store to launch two, new gaming handsets from Sony Ericsson.
WHERE: The Carphone Warehouse, 272-274 Oxford Street, London, W1C 1DU
(by John Lewis)
Notes to Editors
• For more information please contact Michelle Husain at Freud Communications on 0203 003 6434 / email@example.com
• For more information about The Carphone Warehouse visit www.carphonewarehouse.com or call 0800 925 925


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Smartphones have been under attack by hackers all year. We recently told you about an Android threat that would let anyone unlock it to do who knows what. Tap or click here for details and how to patch the issue.
Now it’s Apple’s turn. A zero-day flaw has been discovered in older Apple devices that would allow malicious websites to perform nefarious tasks in the background. The good news is there is now a fix for the issue.
Read on for details about this scary bug and how to get the fix.
Here’s the backstory
Zero-day flaws come to a developer’s attention after hackers have discovered them. Translation: These vulnerabilities are a big deal, and once there’s a fix, installing it as soon as possible is vital. The tenth zero-day flaw of 2022 in Apple devices was discovered this week.
Fortunately, the tech giant has already released a patch to fix the issue. The update is available for iPhone 6, 7 and first-generation SE. It’s also available for all iPad models and brings the operating system to version iOS 15.7.2 and iPadOS 15.7.2.
According to the patch notes, unprotected gadgets can be tricked into processing maliciously crafted web content (that) may lead to arbitrary code execution. This means that hackers can exploit the flaw to infect your device with malware and steal sensitive data.
The security update also fixes several other problems, including:
- A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved input validation.
- A logic issue was addressed with improved state management.
- Addressed a memory consumption issue with improved memory handling.
- Fixed URL spoofing issue in Safari.
How to update Apple devices
If you have one of the mentioned iPhone models or an iPad, you must update your device ASAP. Apple said that it is aware this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.1.
The good news is it’s incredibly easy to update your device. Even if you have a newer iPhone, check for an update. Apple also released iOS 16.2 this week.
Here’s how to update your iPhone or iPad:
- Open Settings.
- Tap General > Software Update
- If the update is available to you, tap on Download and Install.
Ensure that you save whatever you are working on, as your device might need to restart to enact the update. It is always a good idea to also toggle the option to download new updates automatically.
Seven important iPhone security settings to change right now
Have an iPhone 14? How to send an emergency text when you don’t have a signal


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Four units of the Spintec Aura standalone virtual multigame cabinet have been “recently installed” at Studio City, a Macau gaming property promoted by Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd. The news was included in a Monday press release from Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings Ltd (APE).
APE is a machine distribution business regionally that encompasses the Macau market and numbers Spintec d.o.o., a Slovenia-based maker of electronic table games (ETGs) for casinos, among its partner suppliers.
In Monday’s written announcement, APE said two Aura standalone cabinets were installed on Studio City’s VIP gaming floor, while the other two were deployed on that property’s mass-market gaming floor.
“Customised game themes and cabinet colours are embedded for the VIP gaming floor,” said APE. The firm said this was the “first time” for Spintec to install the Aura standalone cabinet in the Asian market.
Spintec has been expanding its presence in the Asian market, namely in Macau, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines, a company representative told GGRAsia in November.
The ETG supplier has been promoting its Aura products in recent trade shows.
Spintec describes the Aura gaming terminals as “ideal” for what it termed “amphitheatre” setups – sometimes also referred to in the industry as “stadium” configurations – whereby multiple gaming terminals can be arranged in a horseshoe pattern on the casino floor. Aura can also be used in an island format or as a standalone station for a virtual game, according to the Slovenian firm.
Oct 26, 2021Customers at Kangwon Land, South Korea’s only casino open to local players, will from November 1 need to have a “vaccine pass” proving they are fully-jabbed against Covid-19, before they can...
Oct 26, 2021
”“The Royal Commission finds Crown is unsuitable to hold a casino licence [in Melbourne] on the basis that it has engaged in conduct that is ‘illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative'”
Report from the Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence
State of Victoria, Australia


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Do you provide digital out-of-home (OOH) marketing services? Produce or use digital signage products that help clients post live tweets, hashtag streams and other social media content at events, sporting venues or prime locations? It may be time to pay up to one firm: Monster Media.
That's the takeaway from a recent court case in which the Orlando, Fla.-based media provider sued another company, Aerva Inc., for patent infringement. This past week, Aerva settled for undisclosed terms. Monster Media immediately signaled its happiness about the win:
"The ability to engage with audiences and amplify a brand's messages across multiple channels has become a critical part of an Out-of-Home network's toolkit. Our intellectual property is a key enabler of that experience and helps us defend the strategic market position for our Monster Social platform," said Stephen Randall, EVP of Mobile and Social Technology, in a press release.
What It's All About
The patents in question — US 8,886,759, US 7,450,954, US 8,615,565 and US 8,880,649 — represent "the seminal intellectual property interactive out-of-home technology."
One in particular, 8,615,565, is for "automatic content retrieval based on location-based screen tags" —in other words, what makes it possible to display social media streams on venue signage, event big screens and other digital OOH opportunities, according to digital signage management consultant Dave Haynes, who wrote on his industry blog when Monster first declared these patents:
"This is about strategic M&A on Monster's part rather than patent trolling, it appears. The firm acquired the patents when it purchased Boston-based LodaModa in July 2013 (whose CEO and founder had been Randall, so he should know their significance)."
Speaking to CMSWire after the settlement, Haynes believes there will be minimal fallout because the digital OOH has had time to consider the impact — “as notice letters from Monster have been out to some companies for many months, and I know conference calls have been held,” he said.
In response, a “handful of companies like L.A.’s EnPlug” that market socially enabled digital signal are probably wracking up “some lawyer hours looking at where they stand.”
CMS companies with social media-streaming widgets may be decommissioning them. And others will be paying Monster Media for licensing.
This Is Big
Don’t expect it to disrupt a hot marketing segment.
In its 2015-2019 global entertainment and media outlook, PricewaterhouseCoopers calculated the total digital OOH market to be $9.71 billion globally in 2014 and estimated an increase to $18.04 billion by 2019.
A "key part" of this growth will result from interactivity: i.e., apparently using Monster Media's IP (and other technologies) to allow real time social conversation between brands and consumers. Why? PwC cites the forecasted 3.85 billion smartphone connections and 1.46 billion tablet devices that will exist in the world by 2019.
In general, technologies (such as Monster's) allow marketers to increasingly provide relevant messages to population segments in ideal locations, and this capability will only increase, according to the trade group, Interactive Advertising Bureau, which cites the trend as a top five digital OOH development for 2015.
The IAB cites a study from Yule and IPG media that consumers are 41 percent more receptive to public advertising versus the bombardment they receive at home, and 16 percent more receptive at school or work than home.
Brands such as ESPN, Diageo, Tide and Levis have already used Monster Media to take advantage of that, using interactive digital OOH in prime locations like Madison Square Garden, the Orlando Citrus Bowl and the Verizon Center. Sports teams, such as hockey's New York Rangers, basketball's New York Knicks and football's Miami Dolphins, are also big customers.


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“The Karbonn Titanium S5 Ultra is an affordable 5-inch KitKat powered smartphone with an 8MP camera”
The domestic smartphone maker Karbonn has expanded its portfolio of Android devices with the launch of the Titanium S5 Ultra. Priced at Rs 6,999, the phone is exclusively available on eBay India. The phone has been released right after the launch of the company’s first smartphone under Android One initiative, the Karbonn Sparkle V (first impressions) which is exclusively available on Snapdeal.
Talking about the features, the Karbonn Titanium S5 Ultra sports a 5-inch qHD IPS display and runs the latest Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the box. It is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor, coupled with 1GB of RAM. It comes with 4GB of internal memory, which is further expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. There is an 8MP primary camera at the back with flash, and a 2MP front shooter for video calling and selfies. On the connectivity front, it offers dual-SIM slots, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and micro-USB. It packs a 2,000mAh battery, but there’s no word on its talk time and standby times.
The Titanium S5 Ultra is also loaded with iFloat touch and Tile Home Display. iFloat touch feature gives direct access to Quick Share, browser, the dialer, video player and messaging. Tile Home Display has home-screen shortcuts of apps which you access frequently.
Last week, the vendor launched the Karbonn Titanium S10 with Android KitKat for Rs 7,990. As far as specifications are concerned, the S10 features a 5-inch HD IPS display, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8MP rear shooter, 2MP front snapper, 4GB of internal storage and the regular connectivity options.


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It's time we set a few things straight – for your benefit, of course – which is why we decided to debunk some popular skincare myths…
The beauty world is teeming with new techniques and technology and it's almost impossible to keep up. From baking to non-touring, here are 12 beauty terms every beauty enthusiast needs to know.
We chat to Iris Van Herpen, the Dutch fashion visionary regarded as one of the industry’s most forward thinking creators
Vardy and his jockey Craig Zackey took home the coveted R1.5 million prize at this year's race in Kenilworth, Cape Town.
The latest winner of the Miss World, Jamaica's Toni-Ann Singh, says she wants to use her award to work for sustainable change for women.
Fashion designers and industry professionals are flocking to Dubai, which is fast making its mark in the world of haute couture.
Kenyan civil servants have been ordered to wear locally tailored clothes to work on Fridays and during public holidays to help create employment.
It's the soft, natural fabric associated with high quality and versatility. Used to make everything from jeans and t-shirts to tarpaulins, oil and cattle feed, it powers a 37 billion euros a year industry. But is cotton really as pure as it seems?
Even the best outfit can be ruined by a bad decision, and fashion mistakes that distract and take the focus away from your clothes are to be avoided at all costs!
The fashion industry is a fossil-fuel-guzzling operation as many of our clothes are made from petroleum-based textiles such as polyester.
A look at the public outfit choices the Duchess of Sussex has made since giving birth. Despite only a handful of public appearances, the Duchess of Sussex has been turning heads when it comes to fashion. Not only for her dressed-down choices but...


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When you have millions of soccer fans around the globe and some one like EA is involved, you can’t expect the game to be a flop. Fan following is one reason but the other important fact is that FIFA 12 is a game to be praised. With many new additions, we can’t say that it’s just the remake of its predecessor. The latest installment in the long running soccer series is now “the biggest video game launch to date in 2011, and the most successful launch in EA SPORTS history”.
The game snatched the first place from Gears of War 3 in UK top 10 within a week of its release and has sold record-breaking 3.2 million units to date. The game also set a record in online activity as players across the globe played the game for almost 200 million minutes this week. Other bright achievements shared on the official site include:
- Sales are estimated to be up approximately 23 percent over last year’s record-breaking launch.
- FIFA 12 for iPhone and iPad has already sold 879,000 units, and achieved the Top Grossing App for iPhone on 30 worldwide storefronts.
- October 1, 2011 was the busiest day for online gaming in EA SPORTS history. Fans registered more than 10 million EA SPORTS game sessions, including almost eight million game sessions of FIFA 12.
- Almost 350,000 fans engaged in the early web-start for FIFA 12 Ultimate Team via easportsfootball.com, and more than 14 million trades have already occurred within the Ultimate Team mode.
- For the first time ever, FIFA Ultimate Team is available on disc for fans to enjoy the thrill of building, managing and playing with their ultimate team of football superstars.
You find anything surprising in these stats or all went according to plans for EA?


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The chairman of a supermarket chain popular among Asians in the United States has finally put an end to the debate on whether the store’s name is “99 Ranch” or “Ranch 99.”
While officially known as “99 Ranch Market,” the Taiwanese American business has people debating on its name as some of its signs sometimes place the number “99” above or between the words “Ranch” and “Market.”
At the grand opening of the chain‘s latest brand called Cravings by 99 Ranch Market, company chairman Jonson Chen addressed the long-standing debate when Instagram user @merrychrisma asked him about it on camera.
“It has always been called 99 Ranch,” Chen said.
Chen’s response elicited an excited reaction from the interviewer.
View this post on Instagram
💖Pleasanton-Pacific Pearl store💖in Northern California is Now Open‼ Double Coupons Promotion is here for you! With every purchase of $20 or more, customers will receive a $1 coupon. During Monday through Friday with the purchase of $60 or more, on Saturdays and Sundays with the purchase of $80 or more, you’ll receive double coupons for every $20 you spent. Single Receipt Only. Coupons are only good for the purchase of Housemade Bakery Products and Hot Deli items.😍 For more information about the Pleasanton – Pacific Pearl store, please visit our store or website at www.99ranch.com Address: 2701 Stoneridge Drive, Pleasanton, CA 94588
While the statement absolutely solidifies the position of Team 99 Ranch, it is unclear whether Team Ranch 99 will change its stance anytime soon.
In defense of “Ranch 99.” Exhibit A. pic.twitter.com/dGcnlbmGwH
— Angry Asian Man (@angryasianman) September 5, 2018
Since their main argument is that the name “Ranch 99” has become the popular choice as it “rolls off the tongue more easily,” it is safe to say that they’ll keep calling it as they please, regardless of what the chairman says.
Due to its wide selection of products from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and other Asian countries, 99 Ranch Market (or Ranch 99 to those remaining to be stubborn) has become the go-to shopping center for many Asians and Asian Americans in the U.S.
Its founder, Taiwanese-born American Roger Chen, opened 99 Ranch’s first location in a Vietnamese American community in Westminster, California called Little Saigon in 1984.
It has since expanded to over 40 outlets across the U.S., including Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas and Washington.


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Continuing on with its efforts to refine its mapping software, Apple has apparently begun calling businesses looking to verify user-reported address corrections. In a recent Reddit post, a business owner said he had been contacted by someone with Apple Maps.
Reddit user swb1192 said he received an interesting phone call from a 408 number (a Cupertino, California area code) this week. The person said that they were with Apple’s Maps team, and that a user had reported his business address as incorrect, which it was…
Here’s the full Reddit post:
A 408 number called me from Apple Maps and let me know that a user reported my business address as incorrect. They still had my old address that was listed on Yelp so I gave them the new one. I asked when I should expect it to be updated on Apple Maps and the lady said, “We don’t have an exact timeline for updates but it should be within the next week.”
It appears that Apple pulled from Yelp awhile ago but it doesn’t actually sync the addresses and other information.
Still couldn’t believe that they called me to fix up the listing – how awesome.
Apple has really ramped up its efforts to correct Maps errors in recent months. In April, it was reported that the company was testing a push notification system to alert users when their issue had been fixed, and it’s believed it’s now posting daily updates at 3am EST.
Maps has come a long way since Apple introduced it in 2012, as many of the early-criticized issues—incorrect/missing GPS data— have been fixed. The app is now available on both iOS and Mac, CarPlay, and is expected to make the leap to the rumored iWatch this fall.


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If online advertising is going to work, tech companies are going to have to take some lessons from traditional media, whether they like it or not.
Most especially for display advertisers, most online measurements have a fatal flaw — brand building campaigns don’t always translate into click-throughs.
A recent study released by the Online Publishers Association and comScore has shown that display ads produce a 50% lift in Internet searches for brand terms within a week of viewing. But without an immediate click-through, that’s not easily measured.
And according to one Microsoft exec, the answer to this problem is a return to old media metrics.
On Microsoft’s Advertising Blog this week, Young Bean Song, senior
director of analytics at Microsoft’s Atlas Institute, wrote that
online advertisers ignore traditional media metrics for three reasons: arrogance, ignorance and fear.
According to Song, “digital folks snicker when they hear advertisers make statements like ‘TV works.’ Turns out, TV does work and there is plenty of quantitative
proof that TV advertising drives sales.”
As much as online advertisers likes to champion the medium’s intense measurability, click-throughs are a metric that works with search — where users are likely to click-through on links and purchase products they’ve searched for — and are much less useful with display.
Display ads function much more similarly to offline brand advertising, and Song argues it’s time they start being measured similiarly as well:
“As much as digital marketers
love to carry the ROI torch, what they don’t realize is that
traditional marketers live and die by the same sword. They just do it
in a different and arguably better way. The science of Media Mix
Modeling (a.k.a. Econometric Modeling) has been around for decades and
is the gold standard for analysis of how marketing investments impact
SALES. The inputs into these models are reach, frequency and GRPs
across different marketing channels.”
As Song points out, brand advertising budgets take up about two-thirds of the $186 Billion
advertising market. But only 5% of overall marketing budgets are
spent on the Web. And display advertising is just a small fraction of that slice.
In order to grow the money spent on brand building online, marketers have to find better measurements. eMarketer released a survey of marketing execs yesterday that essentially said the same thing:
“Other than the economy, brand measurement is the single biggest obstacle holding back the growth of online advertising.”
The movement to better measure display ads is picking up steam. The June OPA and comScore study, called “The Silent Click: Building Brands Online,” attempted to loosen the grip of click-throughs as a measurement of ad success online. And today, Silicon Alley Insider reported that “Hey, Online Display Ads Don’t Suck After All!“
By getting online publishers to start treating display more like traditional brand building ads, Microsoft could see a big jump in their display efforts – a point not lost on Song:
“The good news is that we can join the party, and even better, we can be
the life of the party. We know the web can deliver scalable and
impactful reach – we just haven’t proven it yet in a standardized and
easily repeatable way. That’s coming, and the first of a lot more
research from the Institute – The Planner’s Digital Dilemma – speaks to how.”