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GoSpoken, the digital book company specialising in bringing books to mobile phones, has announced a new partnership with independent online book shop Lovereading Ltd which will see GoSpoken offering the bestselling and latest ebook and audio book titles from the LoveReading.co.uk website alongside paperback & hardback formats.
Lovereading Co Founder Peter Crawshaw said “readers have enough problems choosing what to read without them having to further hunt around for a specific book format”
GoSpoken, which was co-founded by author and former-SAS member Andy McNab, has recently announced a number of deals to bring books to handset and mobile operator marketplaces. It has also recently co-operated with Blackberry in researching how technology can be used to develop literacy levels in schools.
Tony Lynch, Managing Director of GoSpoken, said: “our aim is to make it easy for publishers to create all types of e-content such as mobile e-books – downloadable audio as well a standard e-books and then link with partners like Lovereading to get that same e-content out to readers.”
The partnership launch next next month.


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Heckled by the gloomy global economy and the staggering costs of electrification, this vital sector of the German economy is preparing for the loss of at least 100,000 jobs by 2030.
In this end of year period, the German automobile has little heart to celebrate. Certainly, there has been some encouraging news in recent weeks for this sector, which occupies a special place in the country’s economy. On December 6, Daimler celebrated a new personal best: in November, worldwide sales of its brand, Mercedes-Benz, had exceeded the threshold of 200,000 vehicles sold in one month. The German manufacturer, and its two big rivals, BMW and the Volkswagen group (VW), are about to end the year at the highest.
On December 11, the federal automobile agency KBA announced another record, this time on the national market: between January and November 2019, 1.026 million 4x4s were marketed in Germany. Again, this was a symbolic milestone reached for the first time. And a trend is confirmed: despite recurring controversies about their ecological balance, sales of 4 x 4 have jumped by more than 100,000 units each year since 2015 across the Rhine. They now monopolize 31% of a growing national market: according to the Federation of German Automobile Manufacturers (VDA), the year 2019 should end with a 4% increase in sales of new cars. The VDA predicts that 3.57 million cars will be sold in the country this year. This is the best figure since 2009.
But, despite these few good surprises, 2019 will have been, in reality, a very poor vintage for this sector. Also according to the German federation, the global automotive market is expected to contract by 5% this year, against the backdrop of declining overall sales in China and sluggish global trade.
And, in Germany, the effects of this gloom are already very noticeable. According to a study by the University of Duisburg-Essen published on December 16, the production of cars should decrease for the third consecutive year, reaching 4.67 million units. “The global automotive industry is in recession,” said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, author of the study. This has a direct impact on German production. “With a decrease of 8.7% compared to 2018, the number of outgoing German factory cars will fall to its lowest level since 1996, said the expert.

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|End-of-day quote - 11/20|
Exclusive: China to inspect Argentine crushers, could unlock No. 1 soymeal market
|07/30/2019 | 12:19pm|
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - A Chinese delegation is set to visit Argentina in August to inspect soymeal crushing plants, Argentine government and industry officials told Reuters, a key step as the South American country looks to open up exports of processed soy to the world's No. 1 consumer.
Argentina, the top global soymeal exporter, has tried for years to break into the China market, the biggest consumer of the meal which it uses to feed its giant hog herd. China, with its own crushing industry to protect, has steadfastly resisted.
Global trade uncertainties - including pessimism about U.S.-China negotiations that start on Tuesday in Shanghai - has, however, strengthened Argentina's hand, grain traders said, prompting China to expand its soymeal import options.
"We will have a visit of Chinese officials as part of the process of pursuing the objective of exporting soybean meal to China," Santiago del Solar, chief of staff to Argentina's Agriculture Secretary, told Reuters.
China is the No. 1 buyer of Argentine soybeans but does not import any of its processed meal, which could be used to help feed the world's biggest hog heard as consumers in the country shift toward a diet of meal-fed pork and poultry.
"Argentina has spent 20 years trying to gain access to the Chinese soymeal market. In all that time, this is the first Chinese trade mission to Argentina specifically to discuss soymeal," Gustavo Idigoras, president of Argentina's CIARA-CEC chamber of grains exporting companies, said in an interview.
He added Chinese customs inspectors would arrive on Aug. 18 for a two-week trip and visit crushing plants operated by eight firms including Bunge Ltd, Vicentin, Molinos Agro SA, Louis Dreyfus Corp , Cargill Inc.
"It makes sense for the world's biggest and most efficient soymeal exporter to sell to the world's biggest consumer."
The firms did not immediately respond or declined to comment.
The meal manufactured in the giant crushing plants that dot the banks of Argentina's Parana River, clustered around the country's main grains hub of Rosario, is exported mostly to Southeast Asia, Europe and Northern Africa. China imports only small amounts of soymeal currently, none of it from Argentina.
Graphic: Argentina soy png,https://tmsnrt.rs/2MzR1pp
TRADE WAR SILVER LINING
The mission comes at a time when U.S. exporters are facing troubles getting farm goods approved by China due to the trade war raging between Washington and Beijing, which traders said may favour Argentina.
"This is a troubled time for the U.S.-China trade relationship. Maybe that's an opportunity for Argentina, specifically regarding value-added products like soymeal," said an executive at one of the Argentine crushing plants slated to be inspected. He asked not to be named.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed what he called a "ripoff" trade deal with the Chinese, and warned the world's No. 2 economy against waiting out his first term in office to finalise any new deal.
"I think this time, China really feels the crisis and wants to guarantee (soymeal) supplies," said a Beijing-based grains trader on condition of anonymity. Another China trader said the impact would be less immediate, but was more a "back-up plan" for China given the trade dispute.
To be sure, China will remain overall much more focused on Argentine soybeans than meal. Chinese buyers currently buy over 70% of Argentina's total exports of raw beans.
Idigoras said he was confident that China would soon open the door to Argentine soymeal, as a massive dietary shift away from rice and toward protein in the Asian country increased demand for livestock feed.
He added it would likely take over six months following the mission for any exports, during which time inspectors would have to prepare a report from the trip regarding approvals and soymeal from each plant would have to be registered in China.
He estimated a first cargo would be around 35,000 tonnes.
"In March the Chinese vice minister of food security told me that the only questions remaining about Argentine soymeal were of price and quality," Idigoras said. "We offer the best of both, so we are very confident the mission will be a success."
(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Additional reporting by Hallie Gu in Beijing, Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires, Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Marguerita Choy)
By Hugh Bronstein
Exclusive: China to inspect Argentine crushers, could unlock No. 1 soymeal...
Exclusive: ADM CEO says wrong time for 'monster' acquisitions
Exclusive: Agribusiness giant ADM made buyout approach to Argentina's...


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Sam’s Deli, located at 643 South Highland Street, traces its roots back to humble beginnings, but the husband and wife team who run the business have high hopes for both Sam’s and the south side of the University District.
Brad and Shamira Wilbanks started serving the sandwiches that are a staple of the Sam’s Deli menu out of the Sam Cooper Food Market, a gas station they owned from 2012 to 2018 at 605 North Perkins Road.
Although they had reservations about launching a successful gourmet sandwich business out of a gas station, they decided to capitalize on the high volume of customers visiting the station daily and dedicate a section of the store to a deli.
“Serving food is the biggest challenge for a business even when it’s done out of a [proper] restaurant,” said Brad Wilbanks. “I thought we may have to give them away at the beginning.”
But his fears were unfounded. They sold 30,000 sandwiches in less than a year.
The success at the gas station gave the Wilbanks the confidence to open the full-service Sam's Deli. The deli opened its doors in the University District in July 2018. It takes its name from their dog, Sam, who was a fixture at the gas station.
“I love cooking so having my own restaurant has always been a dream of mine. I look forward to continue doing what I do best — keeping our customers happy, and seeing the business grow,” said Shamira Wilbanks.
“I hope that the restaurant is here to stay for a very long time. Opening Sam’s has really been a dream come true.”
Sam's Deli owner-operators Brad & Shamira Wilbanks pose inside the restaurant. (Baris Gursakal)
Sam’s Deli offers an eclectic selection of food choices that can’t be found at an average Memphis deli. The variety spans from classic deli style sandwiches like an all beef Cuban they call “the Big Tex” to traditionally Indian dishes like chicken tikka served on a fresh, flakey hoagie. It also includes several other influences and specialties.
“Our fusion is so twisted," said Brad. "It’s Cajun, Korean, Indian, and a little bit of Middle Eastern, so it's an eclectic fusion of different spices. You’re not going to get our taste anywhere else."
“I feel like they have something for everybody,” said full-time community organizer, part-time foodie and Sam’s Deli customer Hunter Demster. “They have everything from mufulettas to cuban sandwiches and bibimbap.”
Their menu features items borrowed from Petra, a restaurant formerly located on Madison Avenue which Brad ran from 2005 to 2012. Shamira also prepares Indian plate lunches served Wednesday, Friday and Sunday every week.
“One of my favorite dishes to cook is chicken biryani. People love our butter chicken as well. Now I have people asking me when we will be serving our Indian dishes all the time,” said Shamira.
Sam’s Deli also offers off-menu items, daily and weekly specials. Savvy customers ask what's available at the time of their visit.
“People say, ‘You can’t really get creative with turkey and ham,’ but we’ve found a way to get creative where it has loads of taste,” said Brad. “We’re always doing something different.”
Everything at Sam’s is cooked to order with fresh ingredients purchased daily.
“During one visit, Shamira took the time to come out and talk to me about how labor intensive it was to make their habanero hot sauce,” said Demster. “It’s impressive that they take four hours to make their own hot sauce rather than buying it ready made. I always appreciate when the owners take the time to come out and talk to customers like that.”
“I shop daily for the first three hours of every morning,” said Brad. “I go to four or five different locations for our stuff but I get everything fresh, that way we’re always serving fresh ingredients, fresh vegetables. Our meat never stays in the fridge more than three days from the time we buy it.”
Katie Craft and Memphis 901 FC midfielder Raul Gonzalez enjoy dining at Sam's Deli. (Baris Gursakal)
According to the Wilbanks, being at the south side of Highland Street has its challenges, but they are optimistic that future development in the area will improve their business.
“Everybody thinks that this area is dangerous, but we’ve been here for nearly a year and we haven’t had any trouble so far,” said Brad. “Our biggest problems are the trains that go through here all the time and the cars that fly down the road and make it dangerous for pedestrians.”
They hope that a new walking bridge that goes over the train tracks will encourage more University of Memphis students to shop in the area.
Brad hopes that further investments by the University of Memphis in the South Highland area will mirror the effects their previous investments had on development of new businesses and housing north of the Southern Avenue railroad tracks.
The University of Memphis has announced plans to open a new middle school at the former St. Anne Catholic School located at 670 South Highland Street, less than half a mile from Sam's Deli. The Wilbanks hope it too will bring more foot traffic and improve prospects for businesses.
“The best thing about being at this location has been meeting people around the community and becoming a part of it, so I’m looking forward to seeing it grow,” said Brad.
The Wilbanks also have plans to grow Sam’s Deli with improvements to their building, as well as additions to their menu and longer business hours. They’ll then aim to open new locations in other cities.
They have plans to start serving an all-day breakfast menu and eventually obtain a liquor license to draw a late night crowd from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. on weekends.
For their building, Brad said they will expand their patio space and upgrade their signage. He has plans to install lights on the building and surrounding trees and paint a checkered pattern on their driveway in University of Memphis Tigers’ blue and gray school colors, of course.
“We’re building a Tiger’s den,” said Brad. “When people can’t make it to the stadium, we want to be a place where you can get drinks and watch the game, sit around and still be in that camaraderie of the university. In the future, we’d like to have a Sam’s Deli which serves that purpose at every college town.”


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Chinese multinational tech Lenovo revealed its ThinkPad P52 at the NXT BLD conference. The Lenovo ThinkPad P52 is a 15.6-inch laptop with VR-ready features and terrific specifications and features.
The laptop is equipped with an 8th Gen Intel Xeon hexa-core processor and a Nvidia Quadro P3200. It will also be paired with 6TB storage and 128GB RAM.
The pricing of the laptop hasn’t been revealed by the company yet. It will be available by the end of June 2018.
Lenovo ThinkPad P52 Specs And Features
The device is built with a 15.6-inch 4K/UHD 400 nits touchscreen display. According to Digital Trends, there is also an option for 1920×1080 pixel, 300 nits display with 72% NTSC.
Lenovo ThinkPad P52 is powered by 8th Gen Intel Xeon hexa-core processor. It is with a Nvidia Quadro P3200 GPU. All this is further paired with 128 DDR4 and 6TB storage.
The ThinkPad has a basic black body. It has a functional design, very similar to all ThinkPad P series laptops.
The laptop sports an infrared camera for facial recognition in Windows Hello. There is also an additional 720p webcam.
The laptop sports three USB 3.1 Type-A, two USB-C/Thunderbolt, one HDMI 2.0, one mini DisplayPort 1.4, and a SD card reader.
In terms of connectivity, the ThinkPad P52 supports Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5, optional Cat 9 4G LTE.
For developing necessities, the company has provided five operating system options– Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home, Ubuntu, or Red Hat Linux. Lenovo Vantage and a trial of Microsoft Office 2016 will be pre-loaded.
The company is currently taking registrations for the smartwatch. It’s being in China currently. The gadget has an OLED display. The Lenovo Watch X also has 45 days long standby time. It is priced at CNY 299 (approximately Rs. 3,100).
The smartwatch has been built with a metallic belt and a round dial. It is available as Watch X and Watch X Explorer Edition. Both these models will be sold in Milanese and leather strap variants. The Watch X leather strap variant will be sold at CNY 329, meanwhile, the normal variant will be sold at CNY 299. The Lenovo Watch X Explorer Edition’s Milanese variant is priced at CNY 399, and the Explorer Edition leather strap variant is priced at CNY 429.
The Lenovo Watch X is equipped with six professional sensors. They measure air pressure, heart rate, and blood pressure. The gadget has a 600mAh battery. It permits 45 days of standby time. It also has water resistance (up to 80 meters supported).
This move shows that the company is interested in the smartwatch market which has been rising.
For more information, click here.


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26 August 2019
Honor appears to be working on a new lineup of smartphones. The sub-brand of Huawei, Honor, may have something up its sleeve. Thanks to an intermediary source in Germany we know that Honor is planning on launching nine new smartphones. The smartphones have been registered at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and will soon receive other necessary certifications as well.
The Honor smartphone models registered at EUIPO include the 10N, 20N, 30N, 40N, 50N, 20C, 30C, 40C and 50C. If one follows the pattern closely, one would notice the missing 10C. If you’re wondering about the 10C, the device has already been previously registered. All of these devices were registered at EUIPO under class 9 which happens to be the category for smartphones. The Huawei 10 Lite was announced just a day ago at an event held by Honor at Beijing, China. Unfortunately, the event didn’t give any leads on what these upcoming smartphones may feature.
Sadly, apart from the model numbers, nothing else is known. Perhaps in the next few months leaks and rumours may make their way across the internet. However, specifications and features can only be confirmed once an official announcement has been made by the company.


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Manchester, NH – In a move to once again place their stake a bit deeper into the healthcare landscape, Amazon recently announced the purchase of the successful online pharmacy, PillPack. As reported by Ed Silverman, Senior Writer at Stat News, the young company makes it simpler for people with co-morbidities to receive and manage their daily medication needs. The personal touches already in place with PillPack’s fit perfectly within Amazon’s already rich mission statement and what their customers have already come to love.
“PillPack’s visionary team has a combination of deep pharmacy experience and a focus on technology,” said Jeff Wilke, who heads the Amazon worldwide consumer business, in a statement. “PillPack is meaningfully improving its customers’ lives, and we want to help them continue making it easy for people to save time, simplify their lives, and feel healthier. We’re excited to see what we can do together on behalf of customers over time.”
According to RBC Capital Market’s analyst, George Hill, PillPack is dispensing about 1.25 million to 1.5 million prescriptions a year. Combine that with Amazon’s already powerful backend and those existing customers will have a plethora of new products and solutions available at their fingertips.
You can read all of Ed’s report here, originally reported on Stat News.
Why This Matters –
Amazon’s disruption in the healthcare landscape continues to get deeper and closer to bringing new and innovative solutions to the market. This move follows several trends we’re following this year. These shifts dive deep into bringing prescriptions to your doorstep in new ways like PillPack has started as well as blockchain being the new backbone for an era of information security; a crucial part of merging personal healthcare information and a powerhouse like Amazon.
And while it will take a while to realize the benefits, it will be interesting to watch what Amazon’s entry into the pharmacy business will do for adherence, PBMs in general and how their new partnership with JP Morgan and Berkshire will influence the price debate. All topics we will be eagerly watching and reporting as it happens.


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The newly shuttered Salander-O’Reilly Gallery was allowed to reopen its doors yesterday, but only for a select audience – a gaggle of lawyers and a judge overseeing a fierce dispute over ownership of a trove of valuable artwork.
State Supreme Court Justice Richard Lowe visited the gallery, housed in a tony Upper East Side town house, in response to a flurry of lawsuits by angry art collectors and concerns over the safety of hundreds of artworks left hanging in limbo.
“We’re concerned about preservation, climate control, etc.,” Lowe said as he toured the seven-story building, where a prized Caravaggio and other paintings sat propped against walls.
The gallery was hanging a major show featuring the Caravaggio and works by other famed painters when charges of fraud derailed the event last week, leaving the rooms a chaotic mess of packing material.
Dozens of art collectors have lodged complaints against the gallery and art dealer Lawrence Salander, who they claim sold millions of dollars’ worth of art in secret and stole the money.


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Detroit, MI (PRWEB) February 17, 2013
The Development Shop (development-shop.com) announced that the store will offer deals of up to 80% off of various IT and computer networking solutions for home businesses, small businesses and corporations to celebrate the restructuring of the company's website.
The prices are slated to continue through the end of March, and will include items such as routers, servers, modems, hubs, software, switches from brands such as Cisco, TrendNet, HP and more.
The company recently underwent a complete redesign which allowed for the firm to grow overall and add over 2.5 million products to be available instantly in the company's website.
The low prices also include the new items that have been added to the store including kitchen accessories, video games, tools, cell phones and tools.
For more information, please visit Development-Shop.com.


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Stay up to date on our entrepreneurs, events, research and more. Check out our October newsletter here.
Endeavor’s affiliate offices around the world work with a unified vision of strengthening local entrepreneurial ecosystems — but the process is not always cut and dry, and the challenges local entrepreneurs face often vary significantly by country. New studies from Endeavor Jordan and Endeavor Greece shine a spotlight on the unique obstacles to entrepreneurship and ecosystem growth in their countries respectively, highlighting the different approaches needed to spur economic growth.
In their Jordan Business Migration Survey, Endeavor Jordan identified that more than 70 percent of companies would consider transferring their headquarters, operations, or both, abroad, and more than 12 percent already have. From their research, they found that one of the key reasons entrepreneurs contemplate relocating is their need to access larger markets, a motive that was shared by 74% of the respondents. Some of the other major challenges cited by the companies include high taxations, regulatory instability, limited access to funding, and rigid capital controls.
Read more about Endeavor Jordan’s findings on business migration here.
In contrast, Endeavor Greece’s research found that the rate of new company formation had dropped 50 percent in 2016 from 2008, part of a growing imbalance in the entrepreneurship ecosystem affected strongly by eight years of recession. With the Greek economy risking stagnation driven by sharp decline in healthy business formation, Endeavor Greece’s findings identified unique opportunities that could be implemented to solve decline.
Read Endeavor Greece’s research on new company formation here.
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New report reveals almost 63% of UK people blame producers for food fraud
Almost 63% of people in the UK would blame producers for food fraud when compared with retailers, distributors and farmers, according to the National Farmers Union (NFU) Mutual Food Fraud Report 2017.
Coming at a time when the UK is preparing to exit EU, the report shows that food confidence in the country has declined significantly due to fraud cases such as the horse meat scandal.
The new research by the food and drink manufacturing insurer also reveals that only 12% of people have confidence in the European food chain and just 7% in the global chain, fewer than one in every ten people.
According to the report, nearly 72% people believe that there could be an issue with food fraud in the UK, and 27% revealed that they have personally experienced it.
The survey has highlighted that nearly 33% of the people have little confidence in products and retailers in comparison to five years ago. Around 33% believe that food crime would increase in the future.
Red meat products and food supplements were rated as the least trusted products in the UK.
Only 9% still have a strong confidence on the food products available in the country.
NFU Mutual food and drink manufacturing specialist Darren Seward said: “There has never been a more important time for tackling food fraud and getting regulation right as we plan to leave the EU, but government proposals for where we will get our food from are already under tough scrutiny from industry and consumers alike with concerns over skilled labour and quality.
“Producers are under immense pressure to offset price rises caused by the weakened value of sterling and higher import costs, squeezing already tight budgets and resources and potentially cornering them into using cheaper global suppliers that may be more vulnerable to fraud.”
The NFU Mutual Food Fraud Report noted that because of the 'fraudulent practices', the UK food and drink industry could be losing up to £12bn per annum.


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By Greta Kaul
San Francisco Chronicle.
If you can dream it, you can buy it.
That’s where Pinterest — the San Francisco virtual scrapbooking site best known for wedding planning, recipes and crafts — appears to be headed, announcing Tuesday it will work with merchant partners to add a “buy it” button to some 2 million pins.
In late June, when the buttons are added, users will be able to buy everything from patterned pillows to killer stilettos without leaving the Pinterest app. Early partners include Macy’s, Nieman Marcus and Nordstrom.
“In just a few taps, that item will arrive at your door,” said Ben Silbermann, Pinterest’s chief executive officer.
Observers have long speculated that this day would come, and it’s no secret that turning Pinterest’s loyal fan base — many of them affluent women — into buyers could make Pinterest and the merchants a lot of money.
Monetization has been the million-dollar question for all social media companies, and both Facebook and Twitter began testing similar buttons last year.
As of last year, more than a quarter of online adults used Pinterest — 42 percent of women and 13 percent of men, according to the Pew Research Center.
Users on Pinterest upload and organize images, or pins, and other types of content into virtual wish lists called pinboards.
Pinboards can be organized around travel, events or ideas for home decor. When the Buyable Pins feature is introduced at the end of this month, 2 million of them, from Pinterest’s merchant partners, will appear on the site. The company will release the feature for iPhone and iPad users, then expand to other platforms later.
When users click the button to make a purchase, they will enter credit card or Apple Pay information, and their address. The app saves it, asking for additional passwords only for large purchases. The new feature will also allow users to sort Buyable Pins by price.
Founded in 2009, Pinterest has grown quickly. Silbermann said the site now has 50 billion pins, a number that’s growing by 75 percent per year.
The company has recently been piling capital on top of capital, announcing $367 million in venture funding in March for an $11 billion valuation, according to media reports. In May, it announced an additional $186 million.
While its site has always been full of pretty pictures and ideas, Pinterest was without a revenue source until last year when it began adding Promoted Pins, marked as advertisements. Search Pinterest for travel destinations, and you may well see a Promoted Pin or two from airlines.
Now, 80 percent of people who buy goods that they’ve seen on Pinterest are doing so through other merchants’ sites on their smartphones, a process that requires clicking through to an external website with “fiddley menus and a lot of data entry,” Silbermann said.
“People want to buy things on Pinterest,” he said.
Soon, with the new in-app purchases, users might buy all the gear for a camping trip or all the groceries for a recipe they found without leaving Pinterest.
There will be no additional fees for merchants or pinners, so the prices listed on Pinterest will be the same as those listed on merchants’ sites. The goal is to increase the amount of time users spend engaging with the site, which “is great for the overall ecosystem,” Pinterest said, increasing referrals to the site’s partners, some of which advertise.
The company also said it would work with established payment companies, such as Braintree and Apple, to ensure that its servers don’t touch credit card information, said Wendy Lu, a Pinterest engineer.
Sumeera Rasul, the founder of Madesmith, an online platform for handmade goods, said Pinterest’s catalog format allows her company to more effectively find the right audience. With the new Buyable Pins, she hopes to be able to get them to buy products faster, too.


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© 2023 MJH Life Sciences™ and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.
3 Must-reads for National Lost Pet Prevention Month
The latest in helping to prevent pets from getting lost this month and beyond
July marks National Lost Pet Prevention Month. To keep furry friends safe and help them return quicker in case they do get lost, discover the latest advancements and initiatives in this realm.
From how PetHub is celebrating the 9th annual National Lost Pet Prevention Month to a new Amber Alert platform for pets—there's something for everyone. Happy reading!
- Microchipping and registering pets is key to keeping them safe this summer: HomeAgain collaborated with our chief veterinary officer, Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to offfer insight on the importance of microchipping and registering a pet, plus more.
- PetHub celebrates 9th annual Lost Pet Prevention Month: In honor of the occasion, PetHub has partnered with pet industry partners and shelters to promote safety and help prevent pets from getting lost.
- PetScreening unveils “Amber Alert for Pets”: This free “lost-and-found pet platform” available to all pet owners was designed to help lost pets return home safely and quickly via SMS-text message.


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ST. PAUL, Minn.—The Minnesota Wild will unveil their new third jersey at the Minnesota State Fair.
The unveiling takes place next Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the fair’s new FAN Central building.
Left wing Derek Boogaard and Nordy, the Wild’s mascot, are scheduled to appear at the event.
The Wild are set to wear the new jersey in a game for the first time on Oct. 21 against Colorado. Fans can pre-order the jersey starting next Sunday at the Wild booth at the Minnesota State Fair and at the Hockey Lodge stores located in the Xcel Energy Center and the Mall of America.
On the Net:
Minnesota Wild: http://www.wild.com


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WhatsApp might soon get a new feature similar to Facebook’s colourful text status which will allow users to write their status update with a colourful background, font and emoji combination, which the company is currently testing.According to the reports, the new feature is a part of WhatsApp beta version 2.17.291 and could be soon available for all users. The report also stated that users who are registered with WhatsApp’s official Play Store beta program should get access to the new feature earlier than everyone else. However, it is also being said that as the new feature is a server-side test because of which it is not necessary that the new feature would be available for all users even if they have the latest android version of the app.
So, as per reports this is how the new colourful text status feature will work. WhatsApp will add a new floating pencil button above the camera icon on the Status tab. To put out a coloured text status like Facebook, WhatsApp users will just have to click on the floating pencil, write and upload it. Report also suggests that the instant messaging App will probably bring 3 options to the user with the new feature by which it will allow the user to add emojis, select font, and change background colour as well.
This will allow the users to design interesting coloured text status. After the text status is created, to upload, users will be required to click on the green arrow icon at the bottom right to post Status.As of now, WhatsApp offers more than ten background colour options for the users which include white, yellow, yellow and orange gradient, red-orange, green and blue gradient and other.
If the reports about this new feature is to be believed, this feature was rolled out in February and so far, it has managed to grab more than 250 million daily active users. This new feature is said to first appear on Android, and will be available for the iOS users very soon.
WhatsApp, which recently claimed that it has more than 200 million users in India, is planningto bring a few more features. The messaging application is reportedly working on a recall feature, by which a user can delete the message they sent it to their friends after sending it. WhatsApp is also working on integrating payment system (its own e-Wallet) within the application. The app is used by millions, and by bringing payment service on board it is aiming to make online transaction extremely simple and easy.


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Legal music-download services may come too little, too late
By Nik Bonopartis, Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal
In an effort to stem — or at least keep up — with file-sharing services, the recording industry is adapting its methods of distribution.
But fans alienated by the industry's threats of lawsuits for illegal file sharing, as well as restrictions on how that music is used and a reluctance of some artists to participate, could undermine those efforts, some industry observers say.
Two legal services — MusicNet (musicnet.com) and Pressplay (pressplay.com) — have been offering legal, for-pay downloads since 2001. Much has been made of the Apple iTunes store (apple.com/itunes), which offers songs for 99 cents per download and sold about 2 million tracks in its first week.
However, the estimated 500,000 users of iTunes don't compare to the more than 60 million Americans using peer-to-peer networks such as KaZaA, Morpheus and iMesh. And the limited availability of popular tracks on legal networks has turned away some fans who expect more content.
At the same time, legally downloaded tracks contain restrictions, both legal and software-based, such as limits on transferring tracks to portable players. While users of the Pressplay service can burn tracks onto CDs, the subscription plan that lets them do that costs more money than the service's regular downloads.
Several artists have pulled their music from the recording industry's for-pay services, and bands such as Metallica have pulled their music completely from the legal networks.
Metallica, known for opposing Napster, said it was concerned about the death of the album format because the services allow users to grab tracks that wouldn't be offered as singles in music stores. In other cases, artists pulled their music because the labels hadn't worked out a system to pay artists for music that was downloaded.
"You don't have to stick your toe very far into the water in the music business to know that musicians are extremely unhappy with record companies and with the models for distribution that are available to them right now," said Stephen Fraser, communications director at Lulu.com, a Web site that lets artists offer music directly to fans without labels as intermediaries.
Fraser said labels need to adjust to "nonexclusive distribution." In other words, he said, they need to concede that they no longer control all the avenues through which people can hear music, and adapt to the technological changes.
"The publishing industry built their business on providing exclusive distribution and controlling distribution," he said. "In exchange for that, because artists couldn't do that on their own, they were willing to give up their material."
That, Fraser said, "produces circumstances like Michael Jackson owning the Beatles catalog."
In the past, musicians were dependent on their labels to promote them on radio, on television and through advertising. Now, because musicians have found that they can reach mass audiences through the Internet largely without distribution costs, Fraser says the labels' traditional business role as distributors is outdated.
"The trade-off was control of your work, surrendered in exchange for distribution," Fraser said of the traditional way of doing things in the music business. "The trade-off is no longer a fair one."
Elan Oren, CEO at iMesh, agrees. He said the record and movie industries will not recover until they make arrangements with the file-sharing community.
"They need to make the content available legally in every channel possible, so people are exposed to it and they have the opportunity to purchase the original content," he said.
Oren, like Fraser, thinks it will be impossible for the music and movie industries to stop advancing technology. It's up to them, they say, to embrace the technology.
"The point is, when you have a new technology, can you control it?" Fraser asked. "Trying to stop it is essentially like trying to stop a dam."
Related story:As RIAA suits loom, customers often confused with criminals.


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HMV has launched a new digital music store and a smartphone app. It’s the company’s first major attempt to enter the digital entertainment sector since the company was acquired by Hilco Capital in April.
The HMV app, free on iOS and Android allows users to shop, look and listen to what’s available in HMV.
“The HMV app is the first non-iTunes-based service on Apple’s iOS platform to allow the purchase of digital music downloads through a native app experience,” says the company.
What this means is if you buy MP3s from HMV using the app, they will integrate into your existing iTunes or Windows Media library on your PC or Mac.
Another interesting feature of the app is the Sound Search function. Like Shazam, the feature will tell you what song is playing on the radio, or on the TV, or in a club and then allow you to buy that MP3 immediately.
The HMV app will be available to Irish users at the start of November 2013. It’s already available to UK users.


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Face Masks 101- The New Normal?
Posted by DigitalCoo Team on
Face Masks have become the the talk of the town during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many people have their opinions on face masks. Are they safe? Do they really prevent Covid-19? Let's discuss some main points on face masks. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that people, whether sick or healthy, wear a face mask in public settings. Face masks are not intended to protect the person wearing it – it is a way to protect those who are the most vulnerable in our community. COVID-19 spreads through respiratory droplets that can be created when someone coughs or sneezes. A face mask keeps those droplets from traveling to a commonly touched surface or onto another person’s body. When shopping for the right face mask, look into cloth face masks. You can locate cloth face masks at local retail shops as well as online shops such as Amazon and Etsy.


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The UK economy expanded at the fastest rate in two years during the third quarter, but began to show signs of slowing ahead of Brexit, as more corporate investment decisions were suspended.
In what is likely to be a peak for the economy this year, the latest snapshot from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed GDP growth in the three months to the end of September 0.6% – the fastest expansion since the last quarter of 2016.
But growth began to falter as the economy push from the heat during the summer and England's performance at the World Cup vanished.
GDP growth was planned in August and September, with signs of weakness in corporate spending, retail sales and a decline in purchases of domestic cars.
The city's economists had expected growth of 0.1% in September, although the British economy unexpectedly stagnated for the second consecutive month, while new car registrations declined by one-fifth in the worst September for trade automotive industry in a decade.
Although there are signs of weakness as the country prepares for Brexit on March 29 next year, on an annual basis, the British economy has grown by 1.5%.
Philip Hammond, the chancellor, said in a visit to the Fuller brewery in London, just two weeks after the budget, that the growth rate was "the test of the underlying strength of our economy".
There are, however, growing signs of underlying weakness, as Theresa May strives to agree on a Brexit agreement with the EU and corporate investment has fallen at the fastest rate since the beginning of 2016.
The latest data reveal a contraction in corporate spending of 1.2% during the third quarter, which was the first time that corporate investment slipped for three consecutive quarters since the global financial crisis of ten years ago.
Azad Zangana, senior European economist with City Schroders fund manager, said that concerns for Brexit were among the reasons why companies delay investment decisions.
"Although more recently, these delays are turning into cancellations, with almost daily announcements of manufacturing losses and plant closures while companies move production out of the UK," he added.
The largest contribution to growth in the third quarter came from the UK services sector. Net trade – the difference between imports and exports – contributed 0.8 percentage points to GDP growth, with exports increasing by 2.7% compared to the stagnant growth in imports.
Construction production continued to accelerate after a weak start to the year, when the "beast from the east" time freeze forced cranes and diggers across Britain to lose control. Also the quarterly production in manufacturing rose for the first time in 2018.
With a growth of 0.6% in the third quarter, the latest GDP figures indicate that the UK economy has grown three times faster than the eurozone, after the growth of the blockade of the single currency fell to 0.2%, the lowest rate in four years.
However, economists believe that UK growth has probably peaked. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the government's economic authority, estimates that growth will fall to 1.3% in 2018 from 1.7% last year, which would make 2018 the worst year for the economy since the 2009 recession.
Rob Kent-Smith, the head of national accounts at the ONS, said: "The economy has seen a strong summer, although long-term economic growth has remained modest".
Economists said that much of the acceleration of growth during the third quarter would come when companies and businesses would realize the purchases and sales they would have made at the start of the year, but they were not able to do it from the icy weather of February and March.
Samuel Tombs, of the consulting firm Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "Two consecutive months of stagnation in GDP [during August and September] stresses that the economy has little momentum and that the strong growth rate of the previous quarter simply reflects the rebound linked to weather conditions in the summer ".
Strengths and weaknesses in the UK economy
Aided by the milder climate during the summer, household spending grew by a strong 0.5% in the third quarter. The service sector, the main driver of growth in the economy, grew by 0.4%. However, consumer spending started to slow down in August and September.
Power: job market
Unemployment has been at its lowest levels since the mid-1970s, while average weekly earnings are growing at the fastest pace in almost a decade. However, households were pressured by higher inflation, with real pay again to return to the peak recorded before the financial crisis.
Weakness: corporate investment
The uncertainty linked to Brexit put the dampers on corporate investments, with a decrease of 1.2% of the amount invested by the companies in the third quarter. This marked the third consecutive quarterly decline – the first time this has happened since the global financial crisis.
Weakness: Machinery industry
Production of transport equipment decreased by 0.2% in the third quarter, in the first of these decreases from the financial crisis. Economists have seen the decline in weaker car production levels, including squeezed domestic incomes and new emissions tests.


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“I have always believed that if we go outside our country and learn and bring back and add value to our country, that is what you pay back,” Issar said.
So, armed with an MBA from Henley Business School, he joined The Park Hotels group for a stint. One thing that Issar said he learnt from his stint was how to extract revenue from every square inch of space.
It was in 2014 that he along with another Henley grad, Anuj Shah, set up their own company and launched their first restaurant Mirchi and Mime in May 2015, followed by Madeira and Mime in October 2016.
Inspired by a Toronto restaurant called Signs, which employed hearing and speech impaired workers, Issar too followed the same theme for all his front-of-the-house staff.
“They smile more, they are more focused and intuitive. For them a job in F&B industry was very aspirational as opposed to the rest of us, who may consider a waiter's job below our dignity,” he said about his staff.
Things really took off and his restaurants proved immensely popular because Issar felt, unlike the concept he had followed from Toronto (which shut down), his outlets still focused on the F&B which is served to customers, beyond the concept of having differently abled staff.
Three years after he and his partner had opened the outlets, Shah and Issar decided to exit them and concentrate on their own company called Stratix Hospitality and set up a restaurant in equal partnership with Riyaaz Amlani and Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt called Ishaara, which launched at the Palladium Mall in Mumbai on July 6, 2019.
The pandemic and its fallout changed the way that people looked at the F&B industry, and Issar felt that there was huge opportunity there.
“We decided to part ways (with Impresario as well as Shah) and I bought their stake. That's the time I called Atul Ruia and asked him whether he would like to partner with me,” Issar said.
Ruia’s F&B company Bellona Hospitality Services then invested 50 percent in Stratix and Issar began to head the company and create new concepts and brands.
“Over the last year, we've managed to create 10 concepts and 20 restaurants. I think it's been it's been very gratifying and fulfilling so far, but we are possibly five percent into our journey. We want to take it to over 100 restaurants over the next three-and-a-half years,” Issar said, adding even he didn’t expect the scaling up would be so rapid.
“This time last year, we had just opened the second Ishaara—in Bellona we had only one restaurant and a staff of about 20. Today, we have 20 restaurants and 525 staff and at a company level we are profitable just, which I think is very exciting,” he said.
“We have a certain amount of funds put in by Bellona which will see us through to another 20 restaurants at least. That along with the money generated within the company by existing restaurants should give us a restaurant a month across 40 outlets,” he said about funding his future growth—set to grow from 20 to 40 in the immediate future, adding that at some point they would like to raise funds although he believed that it debt was cheaper than equity but there were a lot of value adds that investment brought along with it.


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TikTok is testing a new feature called “Shoutouts” that lets users request and reward creators of videos.
If that sounds familiar it’s because competitor app Cameo is known for letting people tip creators for their content.
Shoutouts use an in-app currency to tip creators who in turn are able to set their own rates.
Right now, the addition is only available in select areas with Turkey and Dubai among the first countries to trial it.
Users can click on the “request” button in the app and a creator will have three days to accept the order.
Right now, it’s not yet clear if video makers are selected based on their number of followers to qualify for Shoutouts.
However, the addition shows TikTok’s commitment to bolster revenue streams for its creators and keep users more engaged.
Given that TikTok is one of the most downloaded apps of 2020, the new feature could lead to the app dipping into Cameo’s market share.


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We are delighted to introduce Arnaud Lacroix as Froilabo's Sales Manager.
We are delighted to introduce Olivier VARET, Chief Operational Officer of Froilabo.
Based in Livingston, Scotland, Froilabo have some exciting new job opportunities on offer. Explore the jobs on offer and apply today.
Froilabo, is delighted to announce today that it has secured a four-year contract with Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP) for the supply and maintenance of temperature controlled medical and scientific lab equipment.
Froilabo are today delighted to announce the launch of a new range of fully automated lab-scale bioreactors. Expanding their portfolio of temperature-controlled laboratory equipment, the bioreactors offer a great range of application possibilities suited to academia, research, process development and optimisation, scale-up and production.
The products that you have been asking for are about to arrive.
Froilabo are delighted to announce that a new range of bioreactors are launching soon.
We are delighted to introduce Nils Guerard as Sales Manager for Lab Products in the US. Having received on-site training at Froilabo’s HQ in France, in addition to wider lab product training in the UK, Nils is looking forward to strengthening the existing team at Techcomp US.
Reporting ultimately to the Chief Commercial Officer, you will become part of a growing team to provide sales and support of the Laboratory Product Business Unit in Germany, Austria and German speaking part of Switzerland.
As Sales Manager you will help us introduce new products and grow our market share. You will also help us to establish new group sales and
Our CEO, Antonin Duval, recently visited our Romanian manufacturing facility which has been updated and restructured to improve efficiencies and production workflow.
The factory has benefited from the installation of a new gas loading machine which has brought great results with swifter loading and improved performance.
Antonin enjoyed meeting the team and said “I am very impressed with the facility which plays
Techcomp Instruments Limited (“Techcomp”) is delighted to announce that Techcomp Europe has successfully completed the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Isotopx Limited, based in Middlewich, Cheshire.
For the past 13 years Isotopx has been at the forefront of mass spectrometer design and innovation. The whole team at Isotopx, led by CEO and founder Zenon Palacz, are justifiably proud of their achievements


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Local bakery La Boulangerie de San Francisco opened its newest café yesterday at 5500 College Ave. in Rockridge. The outpost is the chain's first East Bay location.
“We really wanted to be in Oakland,” said Katie Solinger, La Boulangerie's director of operations. “I feel like it’s really the place for us, and we’d been looking at this spot for a long time.”
The spot at the corner of College and Lawton avenues was previously occupied by Pasta Pomodoro until the chain abruptly closed all locations at the end of 2016. Since then, the property has remained vacant.
“Obviously, the community is ecstatic about the patio coming back to life,” said Solinger.
The Rockridge location features the same fare as La Boulangerie's other branches, including coffee from Linea, house-made baguettes, classic viennoiserie like butter and ham & cheese croissants, as well as specialties like the kouign amann, a Breton pastry of folded croissant dough that's dusted with sugar and spice.
House-bottled beverages include coconut cold-brew coffee and ginger-thyme lemonade, also made in-house from natural ingredients.
“Everything is real," said Solinger.
La Boulangerie Rockridge is at 5500 College Ave. and is open from 6:30am to 7pm Monday to Friday, 7–7 on Saturday, and from 7–6 on Sunday.


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Santander Holdings USA (SHUSA) and Santander Consumer USA (SC) are “taking steps toward integrating their operations” under the Spanish parent Banco Santander, Christopher Donat, managing director of equity research at Sandler O’Neill, told Auto Finance News.
This week Santander Consumer made several executive changes that suggested this shift, including the addition of Juan Carlos Alvarez as the new chief financial officer working under the previously announced Chief Executive Scott Powell.
Alvarez formerly served as corporate treasurer for SHUSA — which currently serves as SC’s parent company — and Powell still holds dual CEO positions at both companies.
“[Powell] is building out his leadership team as part of his work to evolve the company to operate at bank holding company standards,” a Santander spokeswoman told AFN. “That evolution includes more underwriting discipline, taking advantage of our ability to underwrite loans across the credit spectrum, strengthening risk management, and creating a culture focused on compliance and consumer practices.”
Those goals are a continuation of the company’s former CEO, so the biggest change and advantage for the company would be an easing of the corporate regulatory structure, Donat said. Investors can also expect greater influence from the parent bank.
“I don’t expect any dramatic changes here — it’s incremental,” Donat said. “Yes, you have different personalities in the CEO, CFO, and operations roles. Does that immediately change how Santander performs its underwriting policies? No. Does it change dealer relationships? No. … It certainly looks like we’re seeing Banco Santander exert its influence rather than having this business run out of Texas on its own.”
For more content like this, check out the 17th annual Auto Finance Summit, which will take place on Oct. 25-27 at the Wynn Las Vegas. To learn more about this year’s event — or to register — visit the Summit’s homepage here.


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After conducting a three-month-long mission on Jordan’s payments space, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a technical report on the viability of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The report seeks to offer Jordan’s central bank additional insights into the “pain points” a retail CBDC could address for citizens. The technical report is coming on the heels of the Central Bank of Jordan’s announcement that it is working on a CBDC feasibility report.
According to the IMF study, the Jordanian retail payment space appears healthy, allowing citizens “to make interoperable transactions between banks and non-bank Payment Service Providers (PSPs).” Despite the well-integrated nature of local financial space, the IMF points out that the cost of cross-border payments could be reduced by using a retail CBDC saddled with such functions.
“Despite generally accessible and appropriate product offerings and an enabling environment, various barriers prevent customers from extensively using digital means of payment,” said the IMF. “rCBDC (retail CBDC) might create an opportunity to overcome these barriers, thus making a cross-border rCBDC worth consideration.”
Another perk accompanying the launch of the Jordanian retail CBDC includes the improvement of financial inclusion with the functionality of allowing individuals without smartphones to interact with the CBDC. Aside from extolling the virtues of a retail CBDC, the IMF warned that delving into CBDCs could open the financial system to an array of risks.
“However, the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) should rigorously evaluate benefits against risks and costs before forging ahead,” said the IMF. “Meanwhile, the CBJ should develop the capacity to address technology, cybersecurity, financial integrity, and legal issues.”
The IMF also pointed out that launching a retail CBDC will be insufficient in solving the nagging issues of low financial illiteracy and a pervasive cash culture. Since February 2022, Jordan’s central bank has been carrying out research into the pros and cons of CBDCs, opting to adopt a slow-and-steady approach.
CBDCs face an uphill climb
CBDCs are facing a difficult patch as they scramble for consumers and market share with pre-existing payment services.
To entice users, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has added a slew of features to the digital yuan wallet, including the red packet feature allowing users to send New Year gifts to family and friends. Prior to the PBoC’s move, Chinese payment platforms like Alipay and WeChat Pay have been offering similar features to their customers.
Nigeria and its eNaira have not fared any better as the CBDC’s transaction volume fell below expectations. Bereft of options, the Nigerian central bank is turning to new technology partners to stimulate adoption amongst residents.
To learn more about central bank digital currencies and some of the design decisions that need to be considered when creating and launching it, read nChain’s CBDC playbook.
Watch: CBDCs and BSV
New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeek’s Bitcoin for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoin—as originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto—and blockchain.


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Canadian trade with the rest of the world continued its recovery to more normal levels as the global economy rebounded from COVID-19 lockdowns.
Merchandise exports rose 11.1 per cent in July, adding to a 20.5 per cent gain in June, Statistics Canada said Thursday in Ottawa. Imports increased 12.7 per cent in July, after gaining 20.3 per cent in June. Combined, exports and imports have increased 35 per cent since falling to a decade-low in April, leaving them 5 per cent shy of pre-pandemic levels.
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The figures will bolster confidence in Canada’s rebound, though economists caution a full recovery is far from assured. While global trade has been robust in some sectors like autos, other industries are still languishing, including travel.
“July’s trade data joins other indicators in confirming that Canada’s recovery has remained intact,” Omar Abdelrahman, an economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, said in a report. “However, notable headwinds mean that the road forward for both is mired with uncertainty. For one, growth in services trade, as evidenced by today’s report, is expected to remain restrained.”


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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina requested several modifications to its $57 billion International Monetary Fund financing deal, including an increase in its end-September goal for the country's primary fiscal balance, the fund said on Monday.
Argentina requested an expansion of the primary fiscal goal to a stricter 70 billion pesos, up from 60 billion pesos, the IMF said in a press release announcing its approval of the fourth review of the deal.
The IMF estimated inflation will be 40.2% in 2019, up from its previous estimate of 30.5%. The Fund also predicted Argentina's economy will shrink 1.3% in 2019, more than its previous estimate of 1.2%.
(Reporting by Eliana Raszewski and Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Updated Date: Jul 16, 2019 02:05:12 IST


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Singapore-based mobile advertising company InMobi will pay $950,000 in civil penalties and implement a comprehensive privacy program to settle Federal Trade Commission charges it deceptively tracked the locations of hundreds of millions of consumers – including children – without their knowledge or consent to serve them geo-targeted advertising.
The FTC alleges that InMobi mispresented that its advertising software would only track consumers’ locations when they opted in and in a manner consistent with their device’s privacy settings. According to the complaint, InMobi was actually tracking consumers’ locations whether or not the apps using InMobi’s software asked for consumers’ permission to do so, and even when consumers had denied permission to access their location information.
The FTC alleges that InMobi, whose advertising network has reached more than one billion devices worldwide through thousands of popular apps, offers multiple forms of location-based advertising to its customers, including the ability to serve ads to consumers based on their current locations, locations they visit at certain times, and on their location over time.
The FTC's press release is here.


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China's Huazhu Hotels Group Ltd recently published its unaudited financial report for the fourth quarter and the entire year of 2016.
China's Btg Hotels (Group) has closed the privatization purchase deal of Home Inns, which will subsequently become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Btg Hotels.
U.S.-based Digital River, Inc. has signed a payments agreement with Chinese online travel company Ctrip.
Chinese electronics retailer Gome is investing an undisclosed sum into its e-commerce travel channel.
Chinese B2C e-commerce provider JD.com and Internet tourism website Tuniu.com jointly announced that Tuniu.com has received total new investments of USD500 million, including USD350 million from JD.com.


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Kenya ICT Authority has sponsored the five Kenyan Startups who were among the 30 DEMO Africa 2016 finalist, of which Uganda sent only one startup – LipaMobile.
The five Kenyan start-ups are Boresha Ltd, Ujuzi Software Solutions Limited, MumsVillage, Strauss energy and AirKlip will be pitching their products at the fifth DEMO Africa conference taking place in Johannesburg.
The finalists were picked from a record 723 technology startups from 27 African countries that applied to launch at the event. Out of the 30, South Africa is represented by 11 startups, Nigeria 6, Kenya 5 and Ghana 3. For the first time, Morocco will have a representative in the continental faire. Other countries include Egypt, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda.
The DEMO Africa 2016 conference kicked off earlier this week and it is expected to attract venture capitalists, angel Investors, investment fund managers tech buyers, entrepreneurs, innovation supporters & media from various parts of the world.[related-posts] [CIO]


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NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — Crest Haven Farm Market has been in the Danville area for more than 50 years. Scott Keefer and Shawn Snyder took over the business in 2017 and say it's been busier than ever. They take pride in selling local products.
"That's from baked goods to canned goods to fresh vegetables, local strawberries at the moment, lots of different products that we currently have," Keefer said.
Crest Haven Farm Market expanded about two years ago, opening a second location in the Bloomsburg area.
"Same look, same feel to it. Again, more local products and it's going well there as well," said Keefer.
Crest Haven Farm Market has been recognized by the United States Small Business Administration. It received the award for Eastern Pennsylvania Entrepreneurial Success of the Year.
Mary Jane Dewald shops there often.
"I am thrilled for them. It's wonderful," Dewald said. "Quaint and wonderful, they have things that you can't find anywhere else. Their prices are fair, and it's just a friendly place to go to."
The owners give credit to their loyal employees.
"Can't say enough about them, how important they are to the whole process," said co-owner Shawn Snyder. "They've just been fabulous, and this award would not be happening without them."
Keefer and Snyder say sales and staff have tripled in the last three years.
Check out WNEP’s YouTube channel.


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$NWL has decided to sell some other businesses including its two winter sports units, Volkl and K2, its Heaters, Humidifiers, and Fans business and the Rubbermaid Consumer Storage business. Sales processes are underway and the divestitures are expected to be completed within 1H17. $NWL will retain its Dymo Industrial labeling business in Tools.
Biodefense therapeutics firm $PIP announced an all-stock merger with biotech Altimmune. The respective boards of the two companies unanimously approved the merger.
$YHOO is reporting today after market close. Nobody cares about this stock.


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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shares hit an all-time high on Wednesday, as the world's largest retailer said it is seeing growth in both large and small U.S. stores and has had a strong start to layaway sales ahead of the holiday season.
Wal-Mart U.S. has lined up $400-million in U.S. layaway sales in less than a month, half of the amount shoppers put on hold for all of the 2011 holiday season, as the chain makes a concerted push to entice shoppers before the typical start of the holiday season.
Shares of Wal-Mart reached as high as $76.66 on Wednesday as the company held its annual meeting with analysts and investors, which was also broadcast over the Internet.
In the year since the last investor meeting, Wal-Mart's U.S. arm, by far its largest business, has rebounded from a prolonged slump. At the same time, its international operations have come under scrutiny following a New York Times article in April about alleged bribery at its Mexican unit.
Investors have shrugged off the bribery probe, which has already cost Wal-Mart tens of millions of dollars as it continues to take a closer look at operations around the globe. Shares of Wal-Mart are up 22 per cent since just before the New York times story was published, compared with a 3 per cent increase in the Dow Jones industrial average, of which they are a component.
More than half of Wal-Mart's shares are owned by the family of founder Sam Walton.
PLACING BIG ORDERS FOR HOLIDAY SEASON
Wal-Mart U.S. is preparing for a strong holiday season, ordering twice as many Apple Inc iPads and other tablet computers as last year, said Duncan MacNaughton, the chief merchandising and marketing officer at Walmart U.S.
The company has seen roughly $400-million in layaway orders already, after starting the process in mid-September, a month earlier than it did when it brought the service back in 2011. With layaway, shoppers buying certain items can put them on hold and pay for them over time.
Wal-Mart U.S. has now posted four consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth after nine straight quarterly declines, though the pace of growth slowed to 2.2 per cent in the second quarter from 2.6 per cent in the first quarter. The pace of quarterly same-store sales growth trails competitors such as Target Corp and Dollar General Corp.
Plans for Wal-Mart U.S. this holiday season include offering sale prices on certain toys on Tuesdays based on weekend feedback from social media followers and using 100 "Twitter elves" to help with marketing and customer service on the popular microblogging site. At the Sam's Club warehouse chain, holiday season plans include selling Children's Place merchandise in its stores, said Sam's Club CEO Rosalind Brewer.
Wal-Mart is gaining market share nearly everywhere it runs stores and still sees its international business as a growth engine despite its decision to slow down store openings in some key countries, said Chief Executive Mike Duke.
Duke also said he believes the company is "playing to win in a very real way now" in e-commerce. He said he is pleased with Wal-Mart's progress in online search and other areas.
Wal-Mart still plans to open more stores around the world, but as it said earlier this year, it will slow down store openings in Brazil, China and Mexico. In Brazil and China, Wal-Mart has said it wants to work on making improvements in its hundreds of stores. Meanwhile, the store approval process in Mexico, where its local affiliate has more than 2,000 locations, has slowed and become more complex following allegations that the company had bribed government officials to speed up approvals.


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Ford to invest $350 mln in Livonia transmission plant in Michigan (F)
May 19 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co said it would invest $350 million to upgrade its Livonia transmission plant in Michigan as the company expands its lineup of fuel-efficient powertrains.
The investment is part of the company's commitment to invest $9 billion and create or retain 8,500 hourly jobs in its U.S. facilities in the next few years. (Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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Shares in Acadia Pharmaceuticals surged by almost 25% in the latest trading session, finishing at $32.18.*
Performance of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc over 5 years. Source: investing.com
This big jump is thanks to an exciting announcement about a deal with Neuren Pharmaceuticals. As part of the deal, Acadia will now be able to sell the drug trofinetide outside of North America. Plus, Acadia has bagged exclusive rights to a drug in development by Neuren, known as NNZ-2591, for the treatment of Rett syndrome and Fragile X syndrome. In return, Neuren will get a $100 million payment upfront, along with the possibility of further payments based on future success. Even though Acadia is expected to report a slight loss of $0.22 per share in its upcoming report, experts are feeling optimistic. They've increased their earnings estimate for the company by 7.7% over the last month, hinting at a possible increase in the share price in the future. On the other hand, Tango Therapeutics, another company in the same industry, saw a slight dip in its share price. It closed at $3.43, which is a 0.6% decrease.*
Performance of Tango Therapeutics Inc over 5 years. Source: investing.com
The company's earnings estimate for the upcoming report hasn't changed over the past month and remains at a loss of $0.35 per share.
* Past performance is no guarantee of future results
Warner Bros., one of Hollywood's legendary film studios, is facing a storm of challenges as strikes and labor disputes sweep through its production teams. These labor actions have disrupted some of the industry's most highly antici...
Japan's SoftBank Group is anticipated to announce a return to profitability in its upcoming first-quarter earnings, riding on the resurgence of its Vision Fund investing arm's tech stock portfolio.
Direct-to-consumer beauty company, Oddity Tech, saw its shares surge by around 40% in its initial trading on Wednesday. The stock, trading under the symbol ODD on Nasdaq, opened at $49.10 a share, significa...


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Updated 10/12/2018: Despite Deciem’s controversial founder and (now ex-) CEO Brandon Truaxe’s frantic claims that the cult-favorite beauty giant would be shuttering, the company’s investors have taken action to ensure this wouldn’t happen.
According to The Fashion Law, Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. (one of Deciem’s minority investors) turned to the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario this past Wednesday to intervene, stating that the brand and Truaxe haven’t “complied with the unanimous shareholds’ agreement,” resulting in Truaxe being ousted from his role as CEO and from the company’s board.
The brand’s co-CEO Nicola Kilner will be taking over as CEO, with all operations running as normal by next week. Phew!
It’s been a rough year for Deciem, the parent company of favorited skin-care brand The Ordinary.
Ever since the brand’s founder, Brandon Truaxe, gained control of the company Instagram account, he’s been very publicly driving it into the ground. From starting beef with other skin-care brands and praising Donald Trump to posting alarming videos begging for help, it’s not clear what has been going on, both with him and the company. What we do know is that Truaxe was claiming that there were some “wrongdoings” by company shareholders. Now, it seems like whatever has been going on has finally come to a head.
In Truaxe’s latest head-scratching Instagram post, the founder announced that the brand is temporarily shutting down.“This is the final post of Deciem,” he says to the camera. “We will shut down all operations until further notice.” He later stated, “Almost everyone at Deciem has been involved in a major criminal activity, which includes financial crimes.”
Things then took an even more alarming turn. “You have no idea what a soldier I’ve been. For more than 13 years, I have been made fun of—as a porn actor and as a f***ing drug dealer and everything. For 13 years. It’s all ending now.”
The message was posted along with a pretty confusing—and threatening—caption. “Every one of you who has been laughing at me will with certainty face criminal prosecution,” he wrote, naming quite a long list of people, including Tom Ford, George Clooney, and Brad Pitt.
Check out Truaxe’s post, below.


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Annapurna Pictures has hired Michael Pavlic to the position of president of creative advertising, where he will oversee all marketing efforts by the studio for its upcoming films.
“Mike and I worked together for years at Sony where I was able witness his intrinsic dedication, intelligence, and kindness firsthand,” said David Kaminow, Annapurna’s president of marketing. “Those qualities, along with his incredible eye and ingenuity with creative ad campaigns, make him one of the best in the business, and I am looking forward to working alongside him once again.”
Pavlic, prior to signing on with Annapurna, worked at Sony Pictures as president of worldwide creative advertising.
Paramount Pictures has announced several promotions in its marketing department, after significant corporate structure changes in 2017. Irene Trachtenberg has been appointed head of worldwide marketing, Beth Pinker to senior vice president of field publicity and targeted marketing and Susannah Steinberg to vice president of field publicity and targeted marketing.
“These promotions are well-deserved acknowledgements of years of hard work and dedication by a team of people who are among the best at what they do,” said Rebecca Mall, co-president of domestic marketing, in a press release.
Phil McCarn has joined The Harlem Globetrotters as vice president of global partnership marketing, to build strategic alliances for the team as it enters its 92nd season of play.
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Phil to the team,” said Howard Smith, president of the Harlem Globetrotters. “Given his more than 20 years of experience and relationships, we anticipate his efforts will bring invaluable experience to the Harlem Globetrotters and expand our partnership initiatives to new levels.”
McCarn joins the Globetrotters from IMG College, where he worked as a sales leader for the Georgia Tech IMG sports marketing team.
Gimlet Media has announced the hiring of its first-ever chief marketing officer, Jenny Wall. In addition to overseeing all marketing efforts by the company, Wall will also handle audience growth.
“Jenny brings over two decades of entertainment marketing experience, with a proven track record for sparking cultural moments through stories that matter, from House of Cards to The Handmaid’s Tale,” Matt Lieber, co-founder and president of Gimlet, said in a statement.
Prior to signing on with Gimlet, Wall served at Hulu as head of marketing, overseeing the launches of The Mindy Project, Casual and The Handmaid’s Tale. Before Hulu, Wall worked at Netflix as vice president of marketing.
Taco Bell is expanding its executive team, bringing on Julie Felss Masino as brand president, a new role devoted to in-store sales growth and customer relations.
“We are proud of the momentum the Taco Bell brand has seen globally, and the continued growth here at home,” said Brian Niccol, CEO of Taco Bell. “We are expanding our leadership team and are excited to bring on Julie as Brand President to continue our success and innovation, with a renewed focus on technology and greater access to the brand for consumers.”
Masino joins Taco Bell from Mattel, where she led the company’s Fisher Price toy division. Previously, she spent over a decade in various leadership positions at Starbucks and served as CEO for Sprinkles Cupcakes.
Volkswagen of America has appointed Duncan Movassaghi to the position of senior vice president of sales, where he will be responsible for sales region management,
“We are excited to welcome Duncan to his new position. His strong automotive and sales background combined with his experience within the Volkswagen Group will be an invaluable asset as Volkswagen seeks to grow in the U.S. market,” said Derrick Hatami, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Volkswagen of America.
Movassaghi has been with the Volkswagen group since 2010, most recently holding the position of managing director for Skoda UK.
The Rest Of The C-Suite
(Editor’s Note: Our weekly careers post is updated daily. This installment will be updated until Friday, January 12. Have a new hire tip? Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.)
PromaxBDA, an entertainment marketing trade association, has brought on Jennifer Ball as head of marketing.
“Jennifer’s strategic, creative and background will provide leadership and inspiration to the association and its members as we enter a new and exciting time in our industry,” said Steve Kazanjian, PromaxBDA’s president and CEO.
Ball joins the organization from Univision communications, where she worked as executive vice president of marketing and content partnerships.
Glamour magazine has a new editor-in-chief for the first time in 16 years, as Samantha Barry is replacing the retiring Cindi Leive. This appointment indicates a shift in focus toward digital-first content.
Before leading Glamour, Barry has held roles for BBC World News and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and most recently as a social media executive producer for CNN.
Spotify’s chief content officer, Stefan Blom, will be stepping down from his position, as reported by Recode. This news comes just after the company reportedly filed for an unconventional IPO with the FTC, and may hint at looming trouble for the company.
Fox Networks Group has hired Colin McLeod for the role of general manager for its UK division, replacing Jeff Ford, who is shifting to a consulting role.
“Colin’s blended background offers a well-rounded and hugely valuable experience to our business, and we have no doubt he will step into the role and immediately have an impact,” said Diego Londono, COO of Fox Networks Group Europe and Africa.
McLeod is a veteran of NBCUniversal, spending ten years at the network, most recently as managing director for the UK and emerging markets.
|Product Manager – APIs||Ayzenberg||Pasadena, CA|
|VP, Digital Media & Content||CBS Films||Los Angeles, CA|
|VP, Brand Partnerships||Warner Bros. Entertainment Group||Burbank, CA|
|Sr. Director, Partner Marketing||Paypal||San Jose, CA|
|Director, Digital Marketing and CRM||TOMS||Los Angeles, CA|
|Director of Global Strategic Marketing||Johnson & Johnson||Raritan, NJ|
Make sure to check back for updates on our Jobs Page.


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The Ghana Card will replace the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) of persons issued by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for tax identification purposes.
This change is in line with government’s policy on the use of a unique identifier for all transactions where the identification of an individual is required.
To ensure a seamless roll-out of this initiative, the GRA, in a statement, said registration officials of the National Identification Authority are currently stationed at 14 GRA offices across the country to register individuals who do not possess a Ghana card.
They include the Registrar General’s Department at Accra, Taxpayer Service Centre at Adabraka – Accra, Taxpayer Service Centre at Asokwa in Kumasi, Taxpayer Service Centre in Wa and Taxpayer Service Centre in Cape Coast.
Speaker Of Parliament Accepts Okudzeto Ablakwa’s Resignation Letter
Registration officials of the NIA will, however, eventually be stationed at 63 other GRA locations to serve all taxpayers.
The statement also said there will be a transition period from April 1st, 2021 to December 31st, 2021 where both the TIN and Ghana Card PIN may be used simultaneously as the unique number for tax identification purposes.
After this period, it is expected that all existing TINs will be replaced with the Ghana Card PIN.
A Self-Service portal has also been made available on the GRA website for existing taxpayers who have registered and have been issued with Ghana card to link their Ghana card PIN to their TIN.
Furthermore, any taxpayer with a Ghana card must present it at any GRA office to be registered as a taxpayer.
NDC To Scrap Parliamentary Leadership – Asiedu Nketia
The GRA said for transactions such as the filing of returns, payment of taxes, clearing of goods and registering of businesses, the Ghana card PIN should be quoted on the Application Forms, Returns and Schedules – supporting the transactions.


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Greater Manchester is asking for £98m of government funding to help local HGV, coach, van and minibus operators upgrade their fleets to Euro-6 standard ahead of the launch of its clean air zone (CAZ) in the spring of 2022. However the RHA dismissed the funding plans this week as a “very expensive sticking plaster on a misguided government policy”. Greater Manchester is requesting a total of £150m of government funding as part of its CAZ bid, of which £98m will […]
Rates pressure, diesel prices and lorry road user levy revenues are among the points the RHA wants the chancellor to consider ahead of the Budget (20 March).
Wincanton has extended its relationship with B&Q, in a deal that sees it handling inbound container logistics as well as planning deliveries across the DIY chain’s national network. The operator, which has managed B&Q’s horticulture distribution for several years, became its sole UK ports-to-distribution centre provider earlier this year. It will handle 15,000 containers a year for B&Q as a result, and by moving a quarter by rail, estimates a CO2 saving of 3,400 tonnes year. Wincanton has also since […]
Falling levels of air pollution during the Covid-19 pandemic could see Leeds and Sheffield City Councils drop their plans for charging Clean Air Zones.


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M Restaurants has announced ambitious plans for a fourth site in London.
The group has revealed a new restaurant at Newfoundland in Canary Wharf is taking shape, with the venture set to open in 2020. The Newfoundland Quay is a 220-metre high residential skyscraper currently under development on the Isle of Dogs.
The waterside location is in its early stages, so this is clearly a bold step from M Restaurants. The company said the new location will offer not just a restaurant and grill, but also a wine store, tasting room, cocktail bar, and private members’ lounge.
Newfoundland in Canary Wharf was originally created to provide 636 luxurious apartments, but now M will take over the entire first floor. Executive chef Mike Reid will serve his ‘signature menu’ at the new site. There’ll be steaks from around the world, and an extensive wine list to match.
Harden’s reporters already know how “swanky and shiny” M Restaurants can be. Readers talk about “superb” food, and the wine list is held in high regard by many.
But there are critics too. Some say the group is “massively a case of style over substance”, with “food that’s designed to sound fancy and exotic” but which seems “mediocre at the inflated prices”.
A surefire win for Canary Wharf, then?
M Restaurants founder Martin Williams said: “Since winning many awards and most importantly the patronage of so many fantastic discerning Londoners, we felt the timing was right to seek a truly iconic flagship venue.
“Canary Wharf Group’s Newfoundland building will undoubtedly become a London landmark, so we are delighted to have exchanged leases on such an epic site.”


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Why hackers love the holiday season [Q&A]
Recent high profile security breaches involving retailers like Target and Neiman Marcus mean that people are increasingly aware they may be vulnerable when shopping online. Yet many don't fully understand the landscape that lies behind hacking and why it’s such a lucrative business.
With Christmas and its associated e-commerce peak fast approaching we spoke to Kelly Yee, Vice President of secure email provider Penango who has a wealth of security systems experience in both the public and private sectors. Here are her views on how hackers work and how we can guard against becoming victims over the holiday season.
BN: Most people realize that today’s hackers are motivated by financial gain, but how do they turn stolen data into money?
KY: In the case of stolen identities, an attacker may sell a bulk package of stolen identities to the highest bidder who will pay what they think the information is worth. Selling large amounts of data in the black market is a sophisticated enterprise and has become the new "it" product to sell on the black market.
BN: Hacking seems to be changing from a solitary activity into a serious business. Is there such a thing as a 'typical hacker' and if so what is he or she like?
KY: Today one rarely sees a waitress stealing someone's credit card information and going to Bloomingdale's to buy new clothes anymore. Instead what is more likely to happen is an attack involving tens of thousands of consumers' credit card information from a business being stolen and then sold to the highest bidder on the black market. There is rarely a typical attacker and that is why it is so hard to place a face to them or stereotype them.
BN: Are some companies less vulnerable to attack than others?
KY: Unfortunately, no. As consumers, we do not know what kind of internal security measures a company has and it's unlikely that a company would be willing to share this, as attackers would love to get their hands on this kind of information. For businesses keen to beef up their security, they should investigate what their potential partners are doing to secure their data. For instance, if a company is choosing an online portal to process orders that company should definitely inquire about the security measures that portal has in place for data at rest and in transit.
BN: Is there any way for consumers to know that a particular site is visible to attack?
KY: There are small precautions users can take to help reduce the use of sites that are prone to attacks. For example, consumers should utilize sites that have "https:" as they add a protocol encryption layer (TLS/SSL) for http:.
However, even a trusted website can be attacked. Take the Heartbleed bug infiltration of TLS/ SSL. What's more, the way companies store their customers' data is what is really prone to attack. This storage system, has nothing to do with a company's website.
The bottom line is, it is very hard to know which particular website, let alone which company's security and data retention measures are prone to attack.
BN: How can individuals and companies protect themselves?
KY: As a consumer, first check your credit card statements at least once a month. This only takes a few minutes and users can generally recognize a transaction that is not familiar. Also credit card companies are fairly easy to work with if there is any suspicious activity, and they remove the charge quickly.
Second credit card companies are federally required to have policies in place to help their users when an attack happens. For this reason, consumers should opt to use their credit card over their debit card where they can.
Third, some people prefer to use cash to protect themselves from attackers altogether. However, doing this may affect individuals in other ways: one can easily lose money and returns may be harder without a card receipt. Also some credit card companies have extended warranties or return policies, so consumers should take advantage of those benefits.
Companies should ensure their data is protected at rest and in transit. Using a secure gateway for data is the first step, but what about the data at rest or stored in the company's database? Penango offers a solution to this by providing true end-to-end (at rest and in transit) authenticated and encrypted email. Even if an email is compromised, Penango can prevent an attacker from reading your messages. This is just a first step, so companies should also make sure that the have a security policy from everything to credit card information down to daily emails.


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'Destiny: Rise of Iron' Latest News, Release Date & Update: New Gjallarhorn Sparrow Vehicle Unveiled via Livestream [VIDEO]
Fans of Bungie's "Destiny: Rise of Iron" would be excited to know that the formerly rumored new Sparrow vehicle inspired by the Gjallarhorn, an exotic rocket launcher, is now a reality. Bungie took to a livestream video to announce the news, among other exciting things lined up for the game.
While "Destiny: Rise of Iron" will not be out until September 20, fans can already preorder it for PlayStation 4. There hasn't been a preorder date set for Xbox One gamers, but Bungie community manager David Dague said that the preorders for that gaming platform will be available "soon."
During the livestream, Bungie unveiled the new Gjallarhorn Sparrow vehicle called Ghallarwing, which is inspired by the design of the exotic rocket launcher called Gjallarhorn. Gamers who do preorder "Destiny: Rise of Iron" will be able to get both the black and silver version of the Ghallarwing, or opt to purchase the standard version from the Eververse Trading Company store. What's even more exciting for those preordering the game, is that the Gjallarhorn rocket launcher will come as a freebie.
More good news for "Destiny: Rise of Iron" fans, as the next reveal event will occur in August during Gamescon, Gamespot reports. The reveal event will have a Crucible multiplayer mode theme, and the studio promises to unveil new maps and new combat mode, among many other cool new features.
For the first time, "Destiny: Rise of Iron" will feature two Patrol zones in one planet: the original Cosmodrome, and another Patrol zone in the Plaguelands. Bungie is remaining tight-lipped about Plaguelands as to keep it as a surprise for gamers, but it's fairly easy to assume that some more details about Plaguelands will arrive during Gamescon.
"Destiny: Rise of Iron" is created by Bungie and published by Activision. The game is directed by Christopher Barrett and produced by Scott Taylor. The first-person shooter game will be available for PlayStation and Xbox One beginning September 20.


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Nets Group completes sale of A2A services to Mastercard for €2.85 billion
By Megha Bhattacharya
European payment provider Nets Group has announced the completion of the sale of its account-to-account based services to Mastercard for €2.85 billion. The operations sold to Mastercard represented the majority of Nets’ Corporate Services division, comprising the clearing and instant payment services and e-billing solutions, including Betalingsservice in Denmark and AvtaleGiro/eFaktura in Norway.
Bo Nilsson, Group CEO of Nets, said, “I am pleased to announce that we have completed this strategic sale to Mastercard, and under Mastercard’s ownership, I have no doubt that the account-to-account platform will continue to thrive as demand for digital payments continues. This transaction has allowed us to refocus our business model on Merchant Services and Issuer & eSecurity Services, and to increase our exposure to high-growth regions and faster-growing business segments, such as eCommerce. ”
“In the last 12 months, the demand for digital payments has accelerated amongst consumers, merchants and banks across our pan-European footprint. With substantial potential for further penetration of digital payments in all our geographies, we are extremely well-positioned for growth in general, and in e-commerce in particular, as we continue our joint growth ambitions with Nexi to become the European PayTech leader”.
According to Nets, the sale of the account-to-account business in August 2019 has allowed it to provide a greater strategic focus and increased investment in its two remaining business units, Merchant Services and Issuer & eSecurity Services.
Recently, Nets announced that it is offering PayPal as a payment option for its merchants in the Nordics. The development will allow the company’s customers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden to leverage PayPal on the Nets e-commerce platform NetsEASY. Nets already offers PayPal service in Germany along with integration with its online payment checkout in local currencies.
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DONETSK, Ukraine — Cesc Fabregas scored the deciding penalty Wednesday to give Spain a 4-2 shootout win over Portugal and a spot in the European Championship final.
Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique and Sergio Ramos also scored for Spain.
Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas saved Portugal’s opening penalty from Joao Moutinho and then Bruno Alves hit the crossbar to set up Fabregas to score the decider.
Spain will face either Germany or Italy in the final on Sunday in Kyiv.
The biggest sale of the year, on now! Find almost $4 million worth of items such as cars, trips, furniture, gift cards and more at discounts of up to 50% off. Don't miss out as savvy shoppers will move fast to take advantage of these deep discounts. Sale ends Wednesday, April 1, at 9 p.m. Like it? Buy it before its gone. Brought to you by The Vancouver Sun and The Province.


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Foxconn –Sharp deal in limbo
Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou turned conservative about his efforts to acquire Sharp on Feb.18, saying that he cannot discuss the details.
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