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Yesterday, IHG announced how it would grow its boutique Indigo brand worldwide in the coming years. Today, the company shared details on its Kimpton brand, which is poised to enter 20 global markets over the next five years.
The company plans to open more than 25 Kimpton hotels across 20 new global destinations, including Mexico City, Paris, Barcelona, Bali and Shanghai.
“We’ve seen incredible interest from hotel owners around the world,” said Elie Maalouf, CEO, Americas at IHG. “We have flagship hotels now open in London and Amsterdam, a series of fantastic hotels slated to open this year, including our first in Asia, and a growing pipeline of projects in key markets around the world.”
Together with Hotel Indigo, IHG’s boutique portfolio totals almost 170 hotels globally, with nearly 120 more hotels in the development pipeline.
Upcoming openings include: Kimpton Da An Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan and Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland, both opening in second quarter; Kimpton Barcelona opening later this year; the Kimpton Kawana Bay Resort in Grenada, Caribbean, opening in early 2020 (Kimpton’s second Caribbean resort); and Kimpton Bali opening in Indonesia in 2020.


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Julia Boorstin joined CNBC in May 2006 as a general assignment reporter. Later that year, she became CNBC's media and entertainment reporter working from CNBC's Los Angeles Bureau. Boorstin covers media with a special focus on the intersection of media and technology. In addition, she reported a documentary on the future of television for the network, "Stay Tuned…The Future of TV."
Boorstin joined CNBC from Fortune magazine where she was a business writer and reporter since 2000, covering a wide range of stories on everything from media companies to retail to business trends. During that time, she was also a contributor to "Street Life," a live market wrap-up segment on CNN Headline News.
In 2003, 2004 and 2006, The Journalist and Financial Reporting newsletter named Boorstin to the "TJFR 30 under 30" list of the most promising business journalists under 30 years old. She has also worked for the State Department's delegation to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and for Vice President Gore's domestic policy office.
She graduated with honors from Princeton University with a B.A. in history. She was also an editor of The Daily Princetonian.
Follow Julia Boorstin on Twitter @jboorstin.
Shares of Salesforce.com's stock dipped on Wednesday after reports that tied it more closely to the potential sale of Twitter.
CNBC's Julia Boorstin reports the latest on Facebook's Marketplace as within hour of launch, illegal sales were taking place on the platform.
National Amusements is asking Viacom and CBS to consider recombining, reports CNBC's Julia Boorstin.
CNBC's David Faber and Julia Boorstin report the latest on the possibility of a merger to bring CBS and Viacom back together.
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg shared her views on the internet ad market, competition and gender equality in an interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin.
CNBC's Julia Boorstin speaks to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Chief Operating Officer, about the social media giant's advertising efforts including its recent video view metric mistake.
CNBC's Julia Boorstin speaks to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Chief Operating Officer, about the social media giant's advertising efforts as well as a study about women in the American workforce.
AT&T's upcoming DirecTV Now online video service will cost $35 per month.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings expressed confidence that his company will be able to continue to ride the wave of Internet TV.
Netflix's Reed Hastings could be looking at a new, behemoth of a rival, now that AT&T has agreed to buy Time Warner, parent to HBO.
AT&T needs content, but Time Warner's wealth of series and movies shows it didn't need distribution help.
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A data-driven index of 100 large-cap companies best using technology to invest in and profit from new business opportunities.
Innovations in payments and financial services are highlighted at Money 20/20, the event where retail, data, and technology intersect.
Examining how top companies promote and manage innovation, leverage rapid change and use technology to grow exponentially.

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A Collaboration Between
Boyd's Station and
Life before Covid-19
Rough Seas Ahead
Text and Photography by Gaelen Morse
For hundreds of years, fishing vessels have sailed from the ports of Massachusetts to fishing grounds off of the New England coast. The North Atlantic fisheries are some of the most successful fishing grounds for Atlantic Cod, various kinds of flounder, lobster, sea scallops and other highly sought after species. But the great success that came from fishing in the area is a now a thing of the past.
Both lobstermen and fishermen are faced with climate change, slowly rebounding marine life populations, strict government regulation, constantly fluctuating domestic and international markets, and now reality of a global pandemic. What may already be the last of the Massachusetts dayboat fleet (small boats that only fish for one day at a time) now faces an even more uncertain future looming on the horizon.
The number of permits issued to small boat operators to catch the once plentiful Atlantic cod is a fraction of what it used to be. In the year 2000, the state issued over 1,200 groundfish permits. By 2020, that number had dropped to just below 400. Lobster require a certain temperature and acidity in the waters around them, and as the Gulf of Maine warms, the lobsters push north toward cooler waters.
When COVID-19 hit Massachusetts early in the pandemic, the economical ripple effects spread quickly as shelter in place orders were given. Restaurants closed, grocery stores saw dwindling customers and seafood exports screeched to a halt for some companies. However, Massachusetts fishermen, especially small boat operators, were insulated by the preparedness that comes from years of expecting difficulties to arise in the industry.
In early summer, local residents started buying directly from boats. When they could no longer go to restaurants or didn’t want to go to the grocery store for seafood, they went to the coastline and found a boat offloading fish or lobster. By mid-summer, the gross profit earned from selling to distributors was cut in half compared to the same prices in January.
“Things are pretty much the same except the boat price for lobsters is only $3.50,” said lobsterman Peter Mason of Plymouth, Mass. “So we’ve been selling a lot of stuff off the boat for retail price through Facebook.”
The silver lining of having local customers doesn’t change the fact that the industry may be reeling for years to come, as will many industries around the world. Rougher seas may be in store, but the steadfast tradition of fishing remains strong. “Prices are fair enough,” said fisherman Tim Barrett of Marshfield, Mass. “I’m just glad they’re buying.”
As the world struggles to control of the spread of COVID-19, concern for the world economy grows. With significant emphasis placed on how industries will survive these unprecedented times, less emphasis is placed upon what will happen to traditions and culture.
The historic commercial fishing industry in Massachusetts was already facing an uphill battle. A future in fishing for dayboat fishermen was undoubtedly questionable before COVID-19.
Now, all that remains between their trade and its demise, is the steadfastness that has so often defined the spirit of New England fishermen. For them, it’s a way of life, not a job.
I believe that documentarians such as myself must consider the importance of recording the dwindling traditions and cultures across the world, maybe more now than ever. For these fishermen, who have lived their entire lives working on the water, there is no telling what life will bring if they can no longer trawl nets behind their boats or set their lobster traps. If it is the end of an era, a disappearing of tradition within a culture, then the importance of documenting it is almost incalculable.
More from the Project
The Villages: Dueling Golf Cart Rallies
Donald Trump is popular in The Villages. This is evident with the amount of people that arrived at Lake Miona Recreation Center to participate in the golf cart parade. There’s not an accurate number for the amount of people who attended the event on September 23rd, but the oversized parking lot was packed to the brim with golf carts.
Muslims in Hawaii celebrate Eid-ul-Adha by sacrificing cattle in the rural countryside – something that is unusual to find in Hawaii’s landscape. While this is a common ritual to find in a Muslim country on the Islamic holiday, it’s unusual in an isolated state like Hawaii.
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No, not physically healthy, but financially healthy… well, do you feel fit? If you answered “yes,” then you are like a majority of Americans who noted their financial health was improving.
According to results of a recent research study conducted for M&T Bank, nearly 80 percent of consumers in a national telephone survey of 1,000 randomly selected adults reported having little-to-no debt or a “comfortable” level of debt — while only 12 percent of those surveyed by GfK Custom Research North America reported having “more debt than is comfortable” and only 8 percent “have too much debt and have trouble paying bills.” Looks like the message of controlling debt and pay bills is resonating.
The survey did also note, however, that while consumers are feeling comfortable with their own debt levels, they are a little less upbeat on the health of the economy. A full 50 percent said they think the U.S. economy is “still in a recession.” That figure is down just 6 percentage points from 10 months ago when 56 percent of consumers said the economy is “still in recession” in a similar survey conducted for M&T Bank.
You know what else? If you are blessed to have cash, equity, IRA funds or private money, opportunities to amass wealth in real estate. Get in. Don't kick yourself years from now (our collective asses hurt from the last two cycles we missed out on).


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Surprisingly, Tesla (TSLA) now claims that Nikola (NKLA) has stolen the truck design from Rimac’s designers in an update to the patent litigation update.
As previously reported, Nikola alleges that Tesla’s electric truck design infringes existing patents.
Specifically, a series of design patents obtained by Nikola for the design of several features Nicola one truck It was unveiled in 2016, a year before Tesla unveiled its own electric truck.
Nikola is demanding $2 billion in damages from Tesla.
Tesla denies the claim, but because Nikola has obtained a patent for the design, it is now in a position to show that it does not infringe or attempt to invalidate the patent.
In a new response filed this week, Tesla claimed that the patent was invalid because it did not disclose that some of the Nikola One’s features were designed by Adriano Mudri, best known as Rimac’s design director.
“Adriano Mudri is the designer of the Road Runner concept truck. Road Runner trucks are hydrogen powered concept trucks. The Road Runner concept truck participated in the 2010 Michelin Design Challenge and was selected for display at the 2010 North American International Auto Show. Several images of the Road Runner concept truck are reproduced below.”
Here is a photo that Tesla refers to in the above statement.
Tesla claimed that Trevor Milton met Adriano Mudri “during 2014 and/or 2015” and was aware of the Road Runner truck design with similar features to the Nikola One, including a Nikola-designed wrap-around windshield. Patent.
The car manufacturer has added the following documents:
“Adriano Mudri’s Road Runner concept truck design made a significant creative contribution to the invention claimed in the design patent. Adriano Mudri was not identified as an inventor while prosecuting an application that led to a design patent.”
Tesla argues that the patent office would not have issued a patent if Milton had “deceptive intent” that he did not name Mudri as an inventor in his patent application, and had known that some features were based on Mudri’s previous design.
Here is a new report from Tesla as part of the lawsuit.
When Nikola first filed a lawsuit Analyzed Nikola’s specific claims. What we believed was basically a patent trolling case in an objective manner based on design.
The truth is that the patent office should not grant a patent in the first place.
They’re all about dubious design features that existed for decades before Nicolas existed, and granting these features only opens the door to patent trolling for some malicious people.
That’s exactly what happened.
I think the only winners in this situation are the lawyers involved, such as in the case of patent trolling.
FTC: We use automatic affiliate links to earn income. more.


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Biznextindia : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday appealed the public that they should continue to accept all the coins as legal tender in all their transactions. It has also reiterated its instructions to the commercial banks to accept coins for transactions and exchange at all their branches.
“The Reserve Bank of India puts into circulation coins minted by the Government of India. These coins have distinctive features. Coins in new denominations to meet transaction needs of public and coins in new designs to reflect various themes – economic, social and cultural – are introduced from time to time. As coins remain in circulation for a longer period, coins of different designs and shapes circulate at the same time. Presently, coins of 50 paise, Rs. 1/-, 2/-, 5/- and 10/- denomination of various sizes, theme and design are in circulation” RBI said in a statement.
“It is reported that there are doubts in some quarters, regarding the genuineness of such coins which has resulted in reluctance on the part of some traders, shop-keepers and members of public to accept coins. This has impeded the free use and circulation of coins in certain pockets of the country. The Reserve Bank appeals to members of the public not to give credence to such rumours and continue to accept these coins as legal tender in all their transactions without any hesitation” it added.
The Reserve Bank of India has separately reiterated its instructions to banks to accept coins for transactions and exchange at all their branches as advised vide DCM (NE) No.G-2/08.07.18/2018-19 dated July 2, 2018 and updated as on January 14, 2019.


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The Obama administration is considering asking federal contractors to report greenhouse gas emissions data. A proposed new rule would require contractors to share the amount of greenhouse gas they emit, their emission reduction goals and targets as well as how they think climate change may threaten their business.
Google will open a self-driving technology development center in Novi, Michigan, near Detroit, as part of its push to build autonomous cars. Google is also trying to partner with car companies to build its autonomous vehicles.
FedEx’s acquisition of TNT Express was made official this week. FedEx acquired the Netherlands-based mail and courier services company for $4.8 billion.
Salesforce.com announced this week it would use Amazon Web Services’ cloud solution to expand into Canada and Australia. The deal is worth $400 million over four years.


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Anti-VAT hero supported by major firms fined... for forgetting to pay VAT
The former French resistance fighter hired by leading British pub and restaurant chains to campaign for a cut in VAT has been fined for failing to pay his own VAT bill.
Jacques Borel’s VAT Club, which has been bankrolled by companies including Wetherspoon’s and Pizza Hut, was fined £9,201 for late payment of VAT in France.
Slup: Campaigner Jacques Borel, who is fighting for a cut in VAT
The 86-year-old claims to have achieved VAT cuts for the leisure industry in many Continental countries and plans to do the same in the UK.
However, his inability to manage his own VAT affairs will not help his cause.
And an update revealed in trade paper The Publican’s Morning Advertiser showed that the VAT Club’s expenses have already totalled more than £350,000 this year, though income from its 43 member firms was less than £250,000.
Borel, who has put in £816,000 of his own money, but will get a big bonus if he achieves a cut, said membership had not grown as fast as he had hoped. He added: ‘I am not a hero and I do make mistakes.’
He will this week write to 120 MPs to argue the case for the tax cut.
He said: ‘If nothing is done the pub industry could vanish in 20 years.’
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They mean that like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) before it, Alibaba has been caught in a scandal involving how it uses data. China’s government is cracking down on its “Cloud Emperors.” The company even suffered a loss in its most recent quarter, its first.
The BABA stock price hit a peak of almost $310 a share in October. They opened May 24 at $211. I was late getting out of my most recently purchased Alibaba shares, taking a profit of just 21% after selling at $236.
But is now the time to get back in?
BABA Stock Bull Case
Around InvestorPlace, there’s sentiment for BABA bullishness. Our Tim Biggam thinks it is time to get back in. Nick Clarkson looked closely at that bad quarter. He found the loss was entirely due to a fine of $2.8 billion imposed by the mandarins in Beijing.
To Calpers, the huge California retirement system, this meant Alibaba is under government control. Managers there sold 4.1 million shares, nearly the fund’s entire position, during the first quarter.
The decision by ByteDance, owners of TikTok, to take its non-China business out of Alibaba’s cloud, meant growth there fell to “only” 37%. Last year I called Alibaba’s the world’s most powerful cloud, because it can become a customer’s entire IT department.
All this “bad news” is actually good news for the bulls. Total revenue for Alibaba was up year-over-year. The company has vowed to increase its spending to fund more growth. To some, this makes it the best deal in town, a growth stock selling at a low price.
But how much of a bargain is it? Alibaba reports in Hong Kong dollars, which sell at 7.70 to the U.S. currency. That makes its revenue for all of 2021 $106 billion, against a market cap of $581 billion.
BABA stock now sells for about 5.5 times revenue, compared with 3.8 times for Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), with which it’s often compared. But Alibaba doesn’t buy the goods it’s selling, it’s merely an agent. A purer cloud play like Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), with minimal product exposure, sells for 8x earnings.
The China Card
Whether Alibaba is cheap depends entirely on the government of China.
China has been on the war path since last year when Jack Ma, who still controls the company, spoke out against the government’s economic policies. The expected IPO of Ant Financial was cancelled. The company was forced to take more of its loan risk, and when it comes out it will be a financial holding company. Then there was the $2.8 billion fine, imposed because Alibaba was keeping its merchants from doing business through other channels.
Alibaba’s response has been to bend the knee. It has vowed to change. It has cut executive salaries. Ma has become a near-recluse, even leaving a business school he founded. Public opinion has soured.
But Ma is still worth $46 billion.
Tough Times for Cloud Czars
Life is tough right now for all the Cloud Czars, both in China and in America.
Governments around the world want to crack down on them because they’re the world economy’s landlords. Their networks of hyperscale data centers or “clouds” dominate the internet, and the internet dominates the global economy.
But China is no more likely to take ownership of its clouds than we are. To do so would risk a huge center of government power. What all sides are doing is seeking control over the clouds and, by extension, of the internet and their own economies.
Will China really go further with that than we will? I doubt it. That’s why now might indeed be a good time to find a way back into Alibaba stock.
On the date of publication, Dana Blankenhorn held LONG positions in AMZN and FB. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a financial and technology journalist since 1978. He is the author of Technology’s Big Bang: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow with Moore’s Law, available at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him at firstname.lastname@example.org, tweet him at @danablankenhorn, or subscribe to his Substack newsletter.


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This year’s FIS Flavors of Fast report shows that as real-time payments networks mature, they are bringing value beyond speed
MUMBAI, Oct 8 (BNC Network) Real-time payments in India have accelerated amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the real-time rails are now offering capabilities that extend beyond instant payments, new research released today by FIS shows.
FIS’ seventh annual Flavours of Fast report highlights that India leads global real-time payments, processing 41 transactions per day. India continues to innovate with the launch of extensive business services on the real-time rails including IPO subscription, mandate management and invoice-in-the-box.
“The current pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of instantly getting funds in the hands of those who need it, whether individuals or businesses” said Raja Gopalakrishnan, head of Global Real-time Payments at FIS. “This year’s FIS Flavors of Fast report shows that as real-time payments networks mature, they are bringing value beyond speed. At FIS, we are working to further advance the business payments experience across the global ecosystem to make it simpler, easier and more cost effective while enhancing the user experience.”
FIS is a leading provider of technology solutions for merchants, banks and capital markets firms globally. Our more than 55,000 people are dedicated to advancing the way the world pays, banks and invests by applying our scale, deep expertise and data-driven insights.
Its Flavours of Fast report says Six countries have seen a twofold or greater increase in number of real-time payments processed over the past year: Bahrain (657%), Ghana (488%), Philippines (309%), Australia (214%), India (213%) and Poland (208%). Over the same period, four countries have seen a two-fold or greater increase in the monetary value of real-time payments transactions: Philippines (482%), Bahrain (311%), Australia (231%) and Ghana (222%). South Korea reported the highest number of real-time transactions per capita, with 75 transactions per citizen, per year processed through the country’s HOFINET scheme. In the U.S, more than 130 financial institutions are currently implementing real-time payments, a five-fold increase since September 2019. More than half (56%) of all European payments service providers have joined the pan-European SEPA Credit Transfer Instant Payments network, which brings cross-border and instant payments to 20 countries. Vietnam and Hungary added real-time payments networks since last year, bringing the total number of countries with such schemes to 56.
Request to Pay (R2P), cross-border payments, and corporate treasury business-to-business payments are driving adoption of real-time payments networks globally, according to the FIS report. R2P systems offer a convenient and flexible way for people, businesses and governments to request a payment from a third party. The UK government has formally launched a framework for the development of a national R2P system built on international standards. In addition, The Clearing House in the U.S. is working with banks and billers to pilot an R2P service that is expected to launch later this year.
The 2020 Flavors of Fast report includes meta-analysis of real-time payments data research conducted in April and May 2020. The report defines real-time or faster payments as funds transferred from one bank account to another with payment confirmation in one minute or less. The full report includes interviews with real-time payments experts and analysis from FIS.


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|Nội Bài Cargo Terminal Services (NCT) reported revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 of VNĐ205.6 billion (US$8.9 million), an increase of 11 per cent in the same period last year. Photo cafef.vn
HÀ NỘI — Although the aviation industry was ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, logistics companies at airports still maintained operations.
Nội Bài Cargo Terminal Services (NCT) reported revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 of VNĐ205.6 billion (US$8.9 million), an increase of 11 per cent over the same period last year.
It announced post-tax profit of VNĐ52.5 billion, an increase of 5.6 per cent. The company attributed the profit increase to the receipt of a dividend of VNĐ7.1 billion from the out-of-business investment.
In the whole of 2020, the company achieved total revenue of nearly VNĐ697 billion, down 21.6 per cent compared to 2019, and post-tax profit of VNĐ206.75 billion, down 14.6 per cent, up 8 per cent compared to the yearly plan. Earnings per share reached VNĐ7,495.
According to NCT, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the aviation industry and air cargo services. The output of goods to and from Nội Bài international airport decreased compared to 2019.
The company always followed market developments and worked closely with other airlines to maintain operational plans, especially exploiting freight flights.
Saigon Cargo Service Joint Stock Company (SCS) announced Q4 revenue of about VNĐ197 billion, a negligible decrease compared to the same period last year, after-tax profit reached VNĐ128.5 billion, down by nearly 5 per cent.
For the whole of 2020, SCS' revenue reached nearly VNĐ693 billion, down 7.4 per cent, while post-tax profit touched VNĐ464 billion, down 7.5 per cent compared to 2019. SCS' gross profit margin decreased compared to the previous year but was still at a very high level of 78 per cent.
According to a report by Transport Intelligence (Ti), twice in the past decade, the air transport market has been propelled by inventory re-stocking cycles. These were boosted by a rapid increase in new export orders growth, which takes place at a time when the global economy and trade are rapidly developing.
However, given capacity constraints, it is unlikely that air transport will increase so strongly next year.
After the global economy plunged to its lowest levels in April and May of this year, some cargo stockpiling took place, but the shipping industry witnessed the strongest increase in volume.
Ti expects both sea and air freight forwarding to see a strong boost from the industrial and automotive sectors next year, as well as from the healthcare and medicine sectors.
Car sales have fallen by 25-30 per cent in the first half of 2020 but are expected to recover to around 17 per cent for the full year.
With the possibility of launching several vaccines, the volume of air freight will increase. In September, IATA estimated delivery of a single dose to 7.8 billion people would fill up 8,000 B747 cargo planes. While other modalities like road and rail could be used, sufficient air transport capacity is essential for global rollout, according to the Ti report.
Meanwhile, the volume of cross-border e-commerce, driven by blockade measures, has accelerated this year, and will set a strong growth path in the future.
Ti forecasts that the air freight forwarding market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (GAGR) of 5.6 per cent in the 2020-2024 period and the sea freight forwarding market will reach a CAGR of 5.2 per cent.
The air transport market has lower growth. Its recovery would depend on the recovery of the number of passengers, Ti says. — VNS


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Two brothers have created an inspiring fable called, “The Traveler,” which is getting a lot of buzz and just landed a major deal with coffee chain, Starbucks. Unlike many first time authors Daren and Daniel Simkin will not have to struggle to sell a few hundred copies of their book.
The Simkin brothers wrote and illustrated the story of boy named Charlie who goes off in search of happiness. It is described as a heartwarming tale for all ages. One brother lives in Los Angeles and the other on the East Coast. Nevertheless, they managed to get on the same page to tell the story of Charlie.
Earlier this week, Starbucks announced “The Traveler” as the next selection in its book program.”The Traveler” will be released on November 25 jointly by publishers FSG and Starbucks Entertainment.
The colorful storybook will be offered to seven thousand Starbucks retailers across the country on November 28. They’re hoping “The Traveler” will become a holiday must read, popular gift, and bestseller.


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The global IoT in retail market is expected to grow from USD 14.28 billion in 2015 to USD 35.64 billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20.07%, according to Research and Markets’ “Internet of Things in Retail Market – Global Forecast to 2020” report. The key players in this market include…Read more
Posts Tagged: arm
Marvell has introduced the world’s first 1.5 GHz tri-core application processor, the Marvell ARMADA 628. It incorporates a full System-on-a-Chip design (SoC) with three Marvell-designed, ARM-compliant CPU cores operating as the world’s first commercially available heterogeneous, multi-core, applications processor.Read more
picoChip today unveiled the PC333, the first chip specifically designed to extend the femtocell into the realm of public access infrastructure such as metro femto, rural femto and strand-mounted systems.Read more
ZiiLABS announced the ZMS-08, its 3rd generation media-rich applications processor that brings 1080p Blu-ray quality H.264 decode to low-power devices.
ZMS-08 delivers the low-power, high performance processing required of next-generation connected devices such as web tablets, netbooks, connected TVs, video conferencing systems and home media hubs.Read more


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Schaeffler Group, one of the world’s leading automotive and industrial suppliers, set new records in sales and operating results in 2010. “2010 was an extremely successful year for Schaeffler Group. With sales of €9.5 billion, up 29 percent, we managed an excellent comeback in 2010,” stated Dr. Juergen M. Geissinger, CEO of Schaeffler Group, at the annual financial press conference in Frankfurt/Main. “Both divisions – Automotive and Industrial – recorded significantly higher sales in 2010. We were able to outpace the high demand in the automotive and industrial sectors, thanks to our strong presence in regional growth markets and our focus on innovative products and solutions.” In the Automotive division sales increased 34 percent to €6,341 million (2009: €4,743 million), while sales in the Industrial division rose 20 percent to €3,012 million (2009: €2,513 million). EBIT of Schaeffler Group increased to €1,509 million, resulting in an EBIT margin of 15.9 percent.
Net income amounted to €63 million (2009: net loss of €1,204 million). Without the one-off dilution loss of €396 million in connection with the rights issue at Continental AG in January 2010, net income would have been €459 million.
Schaeffler Group’s workforce has increased by nearly ten percent to 67,509 (2009: 61,536), including 27,938 employed in Germany (2009: 26,670).


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It's not exactly like lining up outside the big-box store for 5 a.m. doorbuster deals, but the ultra-rich shopped for art and gems in a fever in November. Both Christie's and Sotheby's set record sales in a single week.
Christie's auctioned the largest vivid-orange diamond known to exist, at 14.82 carats, for $36 million. It was the highest per-carat price ever paid at auction. Not to be outdone, Sotheby's proceeded to unload the most expensive diamond ever sold at auction, the so-called "Pink Star," a 59.6-carat flawless gem, for $83.2 million.
Diamond prices weren't the only record-breakers. The most expensive work of art ever sold topped off a record haul at the Christie's auction of $691,583,000, including commissions. The painting "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" by Francis Bacon sold for $142.4 million.
Sotheby's also staged the largest auction in its history, led by another celebrated artist, Andy Warhol. His painting "Silver Car Crash (Doubled Disaster)" went for $105 million. The auction of contemporary art totaled $380.6 million.
It's not unusual for the rich to invest in tangible assets as a hedge against stock market volatility or a weak economy. But as prices soar at auction, it makes sense to take note of a potential bubble. As with any investment, the price of art depends on buyer demand and that can be fickle.
Keep up with your wealth and mortgages and follow me on Twitter.
Get more news, money-saving tips and expert advice by signing up for a free Bankrate newsletter.


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With global consumption of craft beer at record levels, discerning drinkers are not showing any signs of easing up. By 2025, global craft beer sales are projected to reach US$500 billion.
This is good news for New Zealand because our spray-free aroma hops are highly sought after by craft brewers for the unique flavours they impart in beer. The challenge is that New Zealand’s current production is nowhere near enough to meet the demand. Hop Revolution is changing that. Find out more here.


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Vivo is a Chinese technology company that has been busy testing and developing 5G technology. In addition to this announcement, the company has also announced that it will be providing 5G services in Thailand. What is 5G? 5G is a new mobile network technology that will provide faster speeds and more capacity than current networks. […]
Status posted on Facebook Facebook is starting to use a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that will find and prevent Facebook users who think they may commit suicide through mutual comments.
Facebook has long been known for its social media site where people can communicate with friends and family. But recently, Facebook has been increasing its focus on mental health care by introducing a new AI technology that will find and prevent Facebook users who think they may commit suicide through mutual comments. Background of Facebook’s […]
A Chinese startup called Moxi has developed a smartphone that can even be bent into a bracelet.
With smartphones becoming more and more popular, it’s no surprise that there are now smartphones that can be bent into bracelets! Moxi is a Chinese startup that has developed this kind of smartphone, and they’re currently looking for investors so that they can bring their product to market. If you’re interested in this kind of […]
According to a technology writer from the New York Times, mobile phone use is not completely linked to cancer.
Cancer is one of the most feared diseases in the world, and the fear is only compounded by the media. One of the biggest culprits in perpetuating this fear is research funded by Cell Phone companies. In a recent article on The New York Times website, technology writer John Markoff breaks down some of the […]
Prosecution of Ukrainian hackers who obtained information of Facebook users
Since 2014, Facebook has been investigating a group of Ukrainian hackers who obtained information on over 50 million Facebook users – including personal information, contact lists, and even the details of some secret Facebook groups. On Monday, the US Department of Justice announced that they had arrested six members of this group, including three Ukrainian […]
Russian-based cyber hackers are revealing the personal information of 81,000 accounts stolen from Facebook, bit by bit, and selling them for as little as $80 per account.
Recently, Russian-based cyber hackers have been revealing the personal information of 81,000 accounts stolen from Facebook. The data being released includes names, email addresses, and partial social security numbers (SSNs). Some of this information has already been made public and is being sold for as little as $80 per account. This situation is raising concerns […]
Ooredoo conducts digital literacy courses to increase awareness of internet usage
Ooredoo, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, is increasing its efforts to help people understand how to use the internet safely. It has launched digital literacy courses in different regions of the world, with the goal of increasing awareness and understanding of internet usage and safety. Ooredoo’s Digital Literacy Campaign As the […]
Google has signed a $1.1 billion partnership deal with HTC.
Google has signed a $1.1 billion partnership deal with HTC, in an effort to create “high-quality” VR products. The two companies have been working on this new venture for some time now, and it seems that they are finally ready to release their products to the public. What this deal means for both companies Google […]
In the current society, it can be said that the Internet has become a necessity in everyday life to become a more comfortable living system.
When we think about the Internet, most of us probably think about all the different websites we visit on a regular basis. Websites like Google and YouTube have become staples in our lives, as they allow us to easily access information and entertainment. However, there are many other types of websites out there that we […]
A mobile app where users will get free gifts
There are a lot of ways to make money online, but what if there was an app where users could earn free gifts? That’s the concept behind GiftBasketsOverseas.com, and it’s one that is growing in popularity. What is the app? The app is called “Gift of Giving”. It is a mobile app that allows users […]


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Foxtel is supremely confident subscribers won’t desert the full-service pay TV model in favour of the far cheaper streaming services.
CEO Richard Freudenstein predicts the vast majority of Australian homes will have either Foxtel or an SVOD service and many homes will have both.
Dismissing the threat from Netflix, Stan and Presto amid analyst reports that 2.1 million homes are watching SVOD platforms, he said, “Even if all those customers were paying, the total revenue for all SVOD services would be only around $150 million per year. That doesn’t provide much for programming investment compared to Foxtel’s (or free to air) programming budgets.”
Addressing an Australia Israeli Chamber of Commerce lunch, he said, “The best analogy for SVOD services is they are the digital video store. People who used to supplement free to air viewing by renting the occasional DVD are now doing so by using an SVOD service.
“This is borne out by the fact that in the US and UK SVOD and pay-per-view revenues have grown in direct proportion to the decline in DVD revenues, while subscription players have continued to grow.
"Foxtel is a premium service, which naturally costs a bit more, whereas Netflix and Presto are add-ons either to free to air for people who don’t watch much TV or to subscription TV."
The exec boasted about the addition of nearly 230,000 new customers in the last fiscal year, up 8.6 per cent, which is the highest rate of increase since 2000.
Foxtel is now in 2.84 million homes and is used by more than seven million people per month. The churn rate is 10.9 per cent, the lowest in the company’s history, down from 12.5 per cent in the previous year.
Despite dropping its entry price by 50 per cent last November, the average monthly revenue per user slipped by just 2 per cent to $93.
Freudenstein talked up the fast-tracking of the US series Fear the Walking Dead and the upcoming Australian psychological thriller The Kettering Incident and the Foxtel-commissioned A Place to Call from Seven Productions, which premieres next month.
Filming starts in Canberra next week on Matchbox Pictures’ Secret City, a political thriller directed by Emma Freeman, starring Jacki Weaver, Anna Torv and Dan Wyllie, for showcase.


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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- PriceAdvantage, a fuel-price management software company and division of Skyline Products, announced Feb. 12 that retailer Enmarket has chosen PriceAdvantage software to automate and accelerate fuel pricing at its 61 convenience stores throughout Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Enmarket selected PriceAdvantage based on the software’s ability to allow Enmarket to automatically execute fuel-price changes based on store-specific strategies, communicate those price changes to the store’s back-office systems, then push those new prices to their POS systems, pumps and price signs, allowing the fuel retailer to execute faster, more informed price changes.
“Enmarket is a market-leading independent retailer that has a reputation for selling high quality, competitively priced gasoline, as well as freshly prepared foods and locally sourced food and beverage items,” said Chip Stadjuhar, president and CEO of Skyline Products. “PriceAdvantage will enable them to maximize their fuel margins with fewer manual processes, allowing them to utilize those man-hours on store operations.”
Enmarket selected the PriceAdvantage SaaS solution to leverage the benefits of a cloud service model, including the low upfront cost, ease of implementation and the maintenance and infrastructure cost benefits, the company said. The PriceAdvantage pre-built integrations with Enmarket’s current multiple point-of-sale systems allow the chain to be up-and-running quickly.
“We know that consumers base purchase decisions on both the price of fuel and the quality of in-store offerings,” said Houstoun Demere, vice president and general manager at Enmarket. "With PriceAdvantage automations, we now have the ability to make faster, strategic price changes two or three times a day using real-time data. This will allow us to better support our brand promise of competitively priced fuel, fresh choices and friendly faces.”
Colorado Springs, Colo.-based PriceAdvantage creates "software to fuel your pricing strategy." Its solution allows fuel marketers to execute their unique fuel pricing strategy faster and more accurately by reducing manual processes and human errors. PriceAdvantage is a division of a privately held U.S. company Skyline Products.
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A new software package will be released on Friday that allows parents to secretly monitor their kids' Internet usage. While products have been used to clock netsurfing at the office for a couple of years, some people question whether or not covert supervision is a healthy way of keeping an eye on where kids are going online.
The product, called Prudence, tracks all online destinations visited by youthful netsurfers, recording URLs, bookmarks, cache activity, graphics and cookies at intervals determined by the user. Prudence can be configured to simply log the information for parental perusal, or to download and encrypt all graphics, storing them in a hidden file on the user's hard drive for later scrutiny.
For the concerned parent who doesn't want to wait until the end of the work day to discover that little Ashley or Leo has been dropping into erotic.com, Aryan Nation, or gay.net, Prudence will email logs to a parent at the office, issuing an update every few minutes.
Many of Internet monitoring and blocking packages already available are used primarily by systems administrators in the workplace – such as WebSense and LittleBrother – but Prudence is the first pitched specifically to the "parental responsibility market segment," says John Barrows, president of Blue Wolf Network, creators of the software. While corporate monitoring products typically cost hundreds of dollars, Prudence will be available from sites like buydirect.com for US$39.95.
"If a kid knows a parent is monitoring him or her," Barrows says, "they'll be less prone to going where they shouldn't."
(Prudence runs invisibly in the background, and it's left to the parents' discretion to alert their kids to the fact that they're being monitored.)
Calling blocking and filtering software like Net Nanny "practically an enticement to beat it and view porn," Barrows stresses that Prudence is not a censorship tool.
"We don't believe in censorship in this country, but we believe parents have a right to be involved in their childrens' lives," he says. "Purely from a philosophical point of view, anything that doesn't censor is better."
Barrows sees parents of 8- to 12-year-olds as the core market for Prudence, though he also says that it's "certainly a tool that could be used by businesses" to keep tabs on employee surfing habits.
He admits that Prudence could also find a market among jealous spouses or anyone else who wants to train a hidden eye on someone else's browsing patterns: "Prudence doesn't know how old you are or what role you're playing in the family ... but I'm directing this at parents who want to be responsible parents."
In a press release, Blue Wolf CFO Nancy Barrows calls Prudence (with "tongue slightly in cheek") "every nosy mother's dream."
Prudence also enables parents to shield their children from sites that they themselves like to visit. By giving parents tools to purge their browser histories and encrypt graphics in password-protected files, Prudence allows parents to view sites they consider inappropriate for children without fear that their kids will pull up XXX GIFs from the cache the next day.
"On a grander scale of things," John Barrows explains, "I hope that Prudence awakens in parents some of the responsibility that's been abdicated in the last couple of decades."
As the latest in a series of Blue Wolf products with human names, Barrows refers to Prudence as "she." When the product is released, it will be represented by a cartoon of a "young working mother with short red hair and a no-nonsense attitude," Barrows says.
Barrows conceived of the idea for Prudence while reading about the legal battle in Virginia over the installation of content-filtering software on computers in public libraries in Loudoun County.
"That was an impasse. Prudence creates a dialog as opposed to creating an impasse," Barrows declares, claiming that parents armed with logs of visits to inappropriate sites would be better equipped to open a discussion with their kids about Net use.
Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, questioned whether "believing in surveillance" is better than believing in censorship.
"You could go drop a videocamera in the kids' bedroom to find out what's really going on in there, but would you want to get to that point?" Rotenberg says.
Rotenberg cautioned parents against looking for "software solutions" to the complex task of inculcating kids with a sense of what is appropriate surfing territory for them.
"Some of these products are being driven by hype and fear that parents have about their kids using the Net," Rotenberg observes. "Good parenting is having some faith that our children are being brought up to make the right decisions."
Covertly installing "surveillance-ware" like Prudence "is not a way to build trust with your children," says Rotenberg.
Jean Armour Polly, author of The Internet Kids and Family Yellow Pages and spokesperson for a filtering product called Guardian Net, thinks "there's certainly room in the marketplace" for a product like Prudence.
"I would like to know if my son is getting into safersex.org," she says. "I would see it as an opportunity for a conversation." Polly believes, however, that use of monitoring software should be disclosed by parents.
When asked if Prudence could result in traumatic "outings" of gay kids growing up in conservative households, Barrows replied that a child concealing his identity from homophobic parents is "an unhealthy situation. I don't see any way [of] controlling a parent who's going to be pernicious."
Scott Lumish, sales director for the Kansmen Corporation, the makers of LittleBrother, says that while his company's products are used by IBM, Kodak, the Navy, and the National Security Agency to compile detailed records of Net usage by employees, he "could only imagine the Friday night dinner conversations" that might ensue from the use of monitoring software at home.
"If I needed to know stuff, I hate to think that I'd have to invade my kids' privacy to get it," says Lumish, who is the father of a six-year-old girl.
Barrows, who says he was brought up in a "fairly strict household where we were monitored a lot," admits that he "had a huge amount of guilt" when he was a kid about reading things that his parents would have disapproved of, such as Playboy.
When asked how he might have felt if there had been some covert way of supervising his reading as a child, Barrows says that the discovery that he was thumbing through Lolita could have opened up "a dialog" with his parents.
"A lot of this stuff wasn't available to you when I was a kid," he insists. "Adult content just wasn't available to kids. Now it's pervasive."


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Savings.com, the Los Angeles-based coupon site, has a new owner: Cox Target Media, the same company that owns Valpak. Savings.com
In a digital age, those blue envelopes filled with paper coupons that come in the mail seem antiquated, don’t they? Valpak owner Cox Target Media must have agreed that the category is fading because today, it announced that it has acquired the younger and social-media savvy coupon site, Savings.com, and it sister site, the London-based Savoo.co.uk.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, it means that Cox Target Media can lay claim to the 40 million households that receive Valpak coupons monthly as well as the 5 million monthly unique visitors to Savings.com, a five-year-old website based in Los Angeles. On top of the digital element is a social one: Savings.com uses bloggers and social media experts that it calls "Savings.com DealPros" to reach another 10 million visitors per month with Savings.com coupon codes and in-store coupons.
“Cox Target Media and Savings.com were both looking for ways to expand value to businesses and consumers, and realized that when combined, our resources and offerings in print, online and mobile would be powerful and unlike anything else available to marketers," said Michael Vivio, president of Cox Target Media in announcing the move.
Vivio acknowledged that “the idea that marketers can blanket consumers with bulk offer distribution is out of date," and said that being able to combine the national and local savings content of Valpak’s print, digital and mobile products with those of Savings.com will be a solution to consumer’s changing preferences.
Cox Target Media will also continue to build upon the international expansion efforts that Savings.com undertook with its U.K. site, Savoo.co.uk.
After getting an MA in journalism from Syracuse University, Teresa worked as a general assignment newspaper reporter—general on purpose because besides the usual city hall and police articles, there was the chance to fly an F-18 with the Blue Angels and tag along with bounty hunters on a stakeout—all good preparation for covering entrepreneurs.
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Post the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Facebook is under immense scrutiny from the US and European lawmakers, especially over its data sharing practices with third parties. In the latest developments, Facebook confirmed that it partnered with at least four Chinese companies to let them access some users data.
One of the partner Chinese firms includes Huawei, which is under the radar of US intelligence agencies like NSA, CIA and FBI over security concerns. The New York Times was the first to report on Facebook’s data-sharing deals with over 60 smartphone makers. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest Facebook data problems.
Facebook shared data with some device makers: What was this all about?
Last week, The New York Times published a story about Facebook letting at least 60 device manufacturers including Amazon, Apple, BlackBerry and Samsung access user data, in some cases without explicit user permission. The story had quoted Facebook officials who allegedly said that the partnership with device manufacturers has been in place over the last decade. This partnership allegedly helped Facebook broaden its reach, with the help of device manufacturers by creating a Facebook-like experience in their UI itself. But the deals are now raising privacy concerns as well.
Which device makers were on the list ?
The social networking giant confirmed that they have partnered with certain Chinese device manufacturers like Huawei, Oppo, Lenovo and TCL. It should be noted that TCL now has the license to manufacturer BlackBerry devices. The other big names are Apple, Samsung, BlackBerry (when it was still manufacturing phones), Microsoft (when it had Windows-powered Lumia phones), etc.
In total, Facebook is believed to have partnered with 60 other companies worldwide, which were given access to certain user data. Facebook also said that they have opted out of the partnership with more than half of the companies. The company claims the partnership with Lenovo will be terminated later this week.
Why is this data-sharing likely to cause trouble for Facebook?
The revelations that Facebook had data-sharing deals with Chinese companies like Huawei, etc, will not
come as good news. US intelligence officials already have security concerns over these companies and Facebook’s partnership will see more questions being raised. According to a Reuters report, US Senator Mark Warner, who is vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said, “The news that Facebook provided privileged access to Facebook’s API to Chinese device makers like Huawei and TCL raises legitimate concerns, and I look forward to learning more about how Facebook ensured that information about their users was not sent to Chinese servers.”
The problem is that in some cases user data was shared without explicit consent being given. Facebook claims the deals were legal and within the parameters of its consent decree signed with the US Federal Trade Commissions (FTC). But as the NYT investigation claimed, these device makers had access to details like political leanings, relationship status, friends list, and in some cases even access to the data of a user’s friends.
What has Facebook said on this so far?
A Facebook executive said that the company was careful about what data Chinese companies could access. “Facebook along with many other US tech companies have worked with them and other Chinese manufacturers to integrate their services onto these phones,” Francisco Varela, Vice President of Mobile Partnerships for Facebook said in a statement. The company said these integrations “were controlled from the get-go.” Varela also added that “given the interest from Congress, we wanted to make clear that all the information from these integrations with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei’s servers.”
Facebook’s Ime Archibong, who is VP of Product Partnerships, also wrote a detailed blog post explaining why they disagreed with the NYT report. “These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences. Partners could not integrate the user’s Facebook features with their devices without the user’s permission,” he explained. Facebook says it has already ended 22 of these partnerships.
What have the device makers said on this report?
So far, the major public statement from a device maker on this Facebook data sharing deal has come from Apple’s Tim Cook. During an interview with NPR, Apple CEO said that partnership with Facebook was limited to letting Facebook users share photos directly from the camera, photos app and other such integrations. “We weren’t in the data business. We’ve never been in the data business,” he was quoted as saying.
With inputs from Reuters


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Internet beats Tesco – one pound in seven was spent online in 2007
Tesco has been pretty proud of the way it rakes in one out of every seven pounds UK shoppers spend and is by far our largest money-taker – but the all-powerful internet beat it last year.
Finally living up to all those promises made by dotcom shopping businesses shortly before they went bust in 2000, The Internet raked in £46.6bn during 2007, a massive 50% increase over 2006’s pocketmoney level of £30.2bn.
That’s 15p out of every pound we spend, if that makes it easier to understand.
And during 2008, web sales are predicted to rise to one fifth of every pound we spend, as more old people stop being scared of the internet, broadband speeds make waiting for Flash shopping carts to load less of a pain and we learn to trust delivery time promises more.
So if you haven’t done so already, now might be a good time to try memorising your credit card number.
It is a good time to be an online retailer. But a bad time to be a post man.
(Via The Telegraph)
Nearly half of online shoppers are disappointed with purchases, study reveals
Twenga promises a different kind of shopping search engine
Evening Standard launches ‘Eros’ cashless shopping card


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by Brian Balfour
Senior Vice President of Research, John Locke Foundation
With the Biden administration leading the way, progressives have for months been desperately trying to shift blame for rising inflation. Putin, unused oil drilling permits, corporate greed, etc., etc., have all been used to distract from the actual cause of inflation: massive money printing by the Federal Reserve to finance historic budget deficits.
But the blame game has been a failure. Indeed, 78% of likely North Carolina voters “believe that President Biden carries some or all of the responsibility for the historically high rate of inflation, and 60.7% believe that the policies of the federal government are affecting gas prices more than the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
There is, however, a less talked about excuse for inflation that
nevertheless is worthy of our attention: rising wages. A recent New
York Times article attempted to make the case. Here’s how they explained
“Demand for services is rising just as many employers are
struggling to find workers, which could force them to continue raising wages. While positive for workers, that could keep overall inflation brisk as companies try to cover their labor costs, speeding up price increases for services even as they begin to moderate for goods.”
But so-called “wage-push” inflation is a myth.
Former Locke Foundation Senior Economist Roy Cordato explained why in this 2018 post.
Calling it a “remnant of discredited Keynesian economics,” Cordato challenged this myth with a question: “If all wages, the cost of
production, and prices are going up, i.e., if there is inflation, where does the
money come from?”
The answer: money “created out of thin air” by the Federal
Reserve. In an economy where the money supply is stable, Cordato explained, “spending more in one place means that you have to spend less
elsewhere.” For businesses, that means that rising labor costs would have
to be offset by cutting back expenses on other inputs like technology, R&D,
And without an increasing money supply, businesses would not be able to
“pass along” rising wages in the form of rising prices across the
board. Again, if some businesses were able to pass along higher prices on
their products, it would mean that consumers would have less money to spend on other items, pushing prices for those other items down.
In sum, Cordato wrote that “higher wages are not the cause of the
inflation but a symptom of it.”


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Israel’s “Startup Nation” bona fides have been firmly established over the past decade. With a population of approximately nine million and home to some 6,500 startups, Israel has the largest number of startups per capita in the world.
In the past five years or so, there’s been a marked shift toward a “Scale-Up Nation” moniker, corresponding with larger-scale investments in companies pursuing growth and the proliferation of “unicorns” – privately-held companies that reach a valuation of $1 billion or more.
The term “unicorn” to define such companies was first coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee in 2013. Originally used to portray the rarity of such companies, there are over 600 unicorns globally, including more than 60 that have been founded by Israelis.
In fact, 10 Israeli-founded, private companies have joined the unicorn club since January 2021 alone, cementing Israel’s place as a force in the world of technology in both relative and absolute terms. For reference, 16 Israeli-founded companies became unicorns in all of 2020, and 12 joined the unicorn club in 2019.
In addition, unicorns aside, Israeli companies are drawing record investments and growing at impressive speeds, with multiple firms successfully raising funding rounds of over $100 million (dubbed mega-rounds) at a time. In a single day this month, one Israeli company – retail data firm Trax – raised over half a billion dollars. Another company, insurtech outfit Next Insurance, doubled its valuation to $4 billion in six months, raising two rounds of $250 million in six months.
Yet another company, Melio, became valued at over $1 billion in just three years after raising over $250 million in two rounds in six months to fuel its digital payments platform. And cloud security startup Wiz shot to unicorn status in just over a year, securing two founding rounds of over $100 in three months.
There’s also been a boom this year in companies pursuing mergers through blank-check SPACs (special purpose acquisition company) to bypass traditional IPOs and go public at skyrocketing valuations. These include Taboola ($2.6 billion), Innoviz ($1.4 billion valuation), eToro ($10.4 billion valuation), WeWork ($9 billion valuation), Hippo Insurance ($5 billion), Cellebrite ($2.4 billion), Payoneer ($3.3 billion valuation), REE automotive ($3.1 billion valuation), ironSource ($11.1 billion valuation), Otonomo ($1.4 billion valuation), Arbe Robotics ($722 million), TalkSpace ($1.4 billion), and Valens.
In honor of Israel’s 73rd Independence Day, NoCamels compiled a list of some of Israel’s most successful and prominent enterprises, highlighting the country’s booming and ever-growing high-tech sector. We’re starting with which companies became unicorns in the first quarter of 2021 (Q1 2021), and moving onto which companies pursued or are pursuing SPAC mergers.
Unicorns – 10 Israeli companies join $1B club in Q1 2021
In January, Ra’anana-based Israeli telecommunications startup DriveNets announced the completion of a $208 Series B funding round at a valuation of more than $1 billion.
Founded in 2015, DriveNets aims to revolutionize the telecom industry by helping Communications Service Providers (CSPs) handle increased demand while remaining profitable through building agile networks and detaching growth from cost. DriveNet’s flagship product, Network Cloud, is a cloud-native software “that turns the physical network into a shared resource supporting multiple services.”
DriveNets emerged from stealth mode in 2019 and works with service providers and cloud infrastructure services worldwide.
Cloud services and recovery company OwnBackup raised $167.5 million at a $1.4 billion valuation in January. Founded in 2012, OwnBackup recovers lost and corrupted data caused by human errors, malicious intent, integration errors and rogue applications.
The company is the top-ranked backup and restore ISV on the Salesforce.com AppExchange and was selected as a Gartner 2015 “Cool Vendor” in Business Continuity and IT Disaster Recovery.
January 2021 was a big month for unicorns and K Health, the Israeli AI-powered telemedicine health platform, joined the club at that time, announcing a $132 million Series E round at a valuation of $1.4 billion.
Founded in 2016 by former Wix CEO Allon Bloch, K Health leverages AI and anonymized reports to diagnose health issues. The free app relies on a unique database that includes physician notes, lab results, treatments, medical histories and prescriptions to provide accurate, data-driven information about a user’s symptoms and health. The data was collected by Maccabi, Israel’s second-largest HMO, over a 20-year period.
Israeli fintech startup Melio, the developer of a digital payment platform focused on US small and medium businesses, raised $110 million in funding, the company announced in January, sending its valuation soaring to $1.335 billion in just three years since it was established.
Melio offers easy account payables services, simplifying the paperwork process for small businesses, and allowing them to pay vendors with credit or debit cards.
Using the Melio platform, clients add invoice details for a vendor manually and they can then manage and schedule payments using their method of choice.
In March 2021, Yotpo, a leading eCommerce and content marketing platform that helps retail brands generate online revenue growth, announced the closure of a $230 million Series F funding round at a valuation of $1.4 billion.
Yotpo works with brands such as Patagonia, Steve Madden, and GoPro to collect customer-generated content including reviews, ratings, photos, and Q&A to build brand awareness, better customer experiences, and strong brand-customer relationships. The platform provides marketers with a unique set of customer behavior data and predictive analytics, and integrates with other tools such as Shopify, and Salesforce. In recent years, Yotpo added loyalty, referrals, and SMS marketing to its offerings through a series of acquisitions (Swell Rewards in 2018 and SMSbump in 2020).
Also in March, Israeli cybersecurity company Orca Security raised $210 million in a Series C round led by CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), the independent growth fund by Alphabet (Google’s parent company), and Redpoint Ventures. This drove Orca’s valuation to $1.2 billion.
Orca Security was founded in 2019 by former Check Point Software CTO Avi Shua and former Check Point executive Gil Geron. The startup says it created the first and only cloud security solution that can find vulnerabilities, malware, misconfigurations, leaked and weak passwords, lateral movement risk, and high-risk data without agents or per asset integrations, within minutes.
Aqua Security announced a $135 million Series E financing round in March 2021 at a valuation of over $1 billion. Founded in 2015, Aqua Security offers a cloud-native security solution that covers the full life cycle of products from development to production.
Axonius, a cybersecurity asset management platform company with offices in Tel Aviv and New York, raised $100 million in a Series D round in March that valued the company at $1.2 billion). The company’s backers include Lightspeed Venture Partners, OpenView, Bessemer Venture Partners, YL Ventures, and Vertex Ventures.
The company says it gives organizations a comprehensive asset inventory, uncovers security solution coverage gaps, and automatically validates and enforces security policies. Customers include the New York Times, AB InBev, Landmark Health, and AppsFlyer, among others.
In February, Axonius reported that soaring worldwide customer demand drove a 215 percent increase in year-over-year annual recurring revenue.
Axonius was founded in 2017 by Dean Sysman, Avidor Bartov, and Ofri Shur.
Wiz was founded in January 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, the former general manager of R&D at Microsoft Israel, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik, the same team that founded cloud security firm Adallom (sold to Microsoft in 2015) and Microsoft’s Cloud Security Group.
The startup was set up to help companies secure their cloud infrastructure at scale through a contextual risk assessment and clear action plan. Wiz says its unique architecture allows for seamless scanning of a given organization’s entire cloud environment across all compute types and cloud services for vulnerabilities, configuration, network, and identity issues without agents or sidecars.
Papaya Global, a Tel Aviv cloud-based payroll and payment management platform, raised $100 million in a Series C funding round, the company announced in March, bringing its valuation to over $1 billion.
Papaya Global was founded by Eynat Guez, Ruben Drong, and Ofer Herman in 2016 with a vision to reinvent the global payroll, payment, and HR industries. The company offers an automated, cloud-based SaaS platform that provides a comprehensive solution – from onboarding to ongoing management and cross-border payments – and that meets privacy standards and security regulations (GDPR, ISO, SOC).
Papaya says its services are used in over 140 countries.
The SPAC boom – 13 Israeli companies seek public listing so far in 2021
More Israeli companies are looking to list publicly via SPAC mergers than ever before – and, by our count, at least 13 have announced definitive agreements to do so in the first few months of 2021. (For a good explainer on SPACs, see here; for a journey into how SPACs make sense in the Israeli context, see here).
In January, Israeli content recommendation company Taboola announced that it would go public on the NYSE at a $2.6 billion valuation under the new symbol TBLA, following a merger with ION Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company. Taboola had previously planned to merge with Outbrain, also an Israeli content platform, but the deal fell through reportedly due to market changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Taboola was founded in 2007 with headquarters in New York and is headed by CEO Adam Singolda. As a content discovery and advertising platform, Taboola partners with publishers such as CNBC, The Daily Mail and USA Today among over 9,000 digital properties to drive audience monetization and engagement through the respective sites’ own editorial content as well as recommendations paid by advertisers.
Taboola says its platform provides over 1 trillion recommendations a month to approximately 500 million daily users.
Israeli-founded online payments startup Payoneer signed a deal in February to become a publicly-traded company by merging with FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp., a SPAC backed by banking entrepreneur Betsy Cohen.
The deal assigns Payoneer implied estimated value of about $3.3 billion.
In January, the New York-based, Israeli-founded Talkspace, a company that connects patients with licensed therapists and counseling services through an online platform, announced a SPAC merger with Hudson Executive Capital LP at a valuation of $1.4 billion.
The combined company will operate as Talkspace and intends to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol TALK. The transaction is expected to close later this year.
Talkspace was founded in 2012 by Israeli husband-and-wife team Oren and Roni Frank.
Also in February, Otonomo, the cloud-based software startup that helps companies capture and monetize connected car data, indicated that it was headed to the public market (Nasdaq).
The Israeli-based startup agreed to merge with special purpose acquisition company Software AcquisitionGroup Inc. II with a valuation of $1.4 billion.
Israeli e-mobility company REE Automotive signed a merger agreement in February with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp. to list on the Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol REE upon closing. The deal assigned REE an approximate valuation of $3.1 billion.
REE emerged from stealth mode in July 2019 after six years in development to introduce its unprecedented approach to vehicles specifically for the electric vehicle (EV) market. The company developed an entirely flat and modular platform in which the motor, steering, suspension, drivetrain, sensing, brakes, thermal systems, and electronics are all integrated into the vehicle’s wheels.
The flat design offers customers the freedom to place any shape or size of body design on top, the company has said.
Social trading company eToro announced its intention in March to go public through a merger with FinTech Acquisition Corp V that values the Israeli company at a whopping $10.4 billion. The deal is backed by Betsy Cohen with investment from SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2
Founded in 2006, eToro competes with Robinhood and offers one of the world’s most popular stock-buying apps with more than 13 million users in over 100 countries.
Israeli app-monetization company ironSource said last month that it would merge with Thoma Bravo Advantage at a valuation of approximately $11.1 billion. The planned deal, which will yield $2.3 billion for the company and its investors, would be “the biggest [such] transaction ever in Israel.”
Founded in 2012, ironSource helps developers build their apps into successful, scalable businesses that engage users and monetize content.
The company is headquartered in Tel Aviv.
WeWork announced late last month that it would go public via a SPAC merger with California-based BowX Acquisition Corp in a deal that values the shared working space company at approximately $9 billion.
The deal marks a sharp drop from the $47 billion the company was valued at in 2019 just before an ill-fated IPO that sent it into a tailspin amid allegations of misbehavior and self-dealings on the part of WeWork co-founder, Israeli entrepreneur Adam Neumann.
Founded in 2010, WeWork designs and builds physical and virtual shared spaces and office services for entrepreneurs and companies.
WeWork currently has 851 locations in 152 cities, totaling more than one million workstations where enterprise companies make up more than 50 percent of memberships. Going forward, WeWork said it intends to expand beyond its core business through its On Demand, All Access, and Platform offerings, enabling users to choose when, where, and how they work through the WeWork mobile app.
Hippo Insurance announced a definitive agreement in early March to merge with Reinvent Technology Partners Z, a SPAC on the NYSE, at a company valuation of $5 billion.
Hippo was founded in January 2015 by Israeli-born CEO Assaf Wand, and CTO Eyal Navon, and is based in Palo Alto, California. It made its debut in the insurance marketplace in April 2017 and now offers homeowners’ insurance in 36 states.
The company’s policies are built on public data sets from municipal building records, and satellite imagery of physical property characteristics, promising clients a user experience that lasts just a few minutes. It also allows customers to save up to 25 percent on premiums, and obtain smarter coverage for household goods like appliances and consumer electronics. In addition to insurance, Hippo also provides complimentary smart home devices to clients to protect homeowners against water leaks, fire damage and break-ins.
Hippo last raised $150 million in a Series E round in July at a valuation of $1.5 billion at the time.
Arbe Robotics, the real-time 4D imaging radar chipset provider for ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems), entered into an agreement last month to merge with Industrial Tech Acquisitions and to list on the Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol ARBE. The deal assigns Arbe an approximate value of $722 million.
Founded in 2015 by Kobi Marenko, Noam Arkind and Oz Fixman, Arbe Robotics’ 4D imaging technology provides Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), level 4, and 5 fully autonomous cars with high-resolution imaging radar that enables them to “see” the environment in any weather and lighting condition; in essence the future car’s “eyes and brain.”
Innoviz Technologies, the Israeli provider of solid-state LiDAR sensors and perception software, announced this month that it completed its merger with Texas-based special purpose acquisition company Collective Growth Corporation and will begin trading under the ticker symbols INVZ and INVZW at a valuation of $1.4 billion.
Founded in 2016 by Omer Keilaf, Oren Rosenzweig, Oren Buskila, and Amit Steinberg, Innoviz has become a leading provider of LiDAR sensing solutions for mass commercialization of autonomous vehicles, developing technology that generates a precise and constantly updating 3D map of a car’s surroundings. Innoviz’s partners and clients include BMW Group, Magna International, HARMAN, Aptiv and HiRain.
Israeli digital intelligence firm Cellebrite announced last week that it entered into a definitive agreement with San Francisco-based SPAC TWC Tech Holdings II Corp to go public on the Nasdaq at a valuation of approximately $2.4 billion post-merger. The company will trade under the new ticker symbol CLBT.
Founded in 1999, Cellebrite offers digital intelligence and forensics solutions for law enforcement agencies, government authorities, and enterprises, to help accelerate investigations. Cellebrite says its solutions have been purchased by 6,700 public safety agencies and private sector enterprises in over 140 countries, playing a part in millions of investigations globally.
Israeli chipmaker Valens is reportedly in talks to go public via SPAC merger with PTK Acquisition Corp in a deal that is set to value the combined company at between $1 billion and $1.2 billion, Bloomberg reported this weekend.
The company develops chips that address the challenges of the connected car, including the increasing amount of bandwidth and wiring necessary to cater to infotainment and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems needs.
Valens was founded in 2006 by Dror Jerushalmi, Massad Eyal, Eyran Lida, Gaby Gur Cohen, Nadav Banet, and Alon Benzaray. It’s based in Hod Hasharon.
NOTE: On April 20, 2021, we updated this article to include Axonius among companies that reached unicorn status in 2021. We also updated the list of companies pursuing SPACs in 2021 to include TalkSpace.


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An important innovation that the latest iPhone has to offer is well hidden. It does not show itself when you pick up the device, you can not feel it, you can not hear it. Nothing is visible on the screen, the software equipment reveals nothing. The enclosed documentation does not contain any information on this, and also on the cardboard box in which the iPhone is delivered and on which the hardware equipment is described in detail, this innovation is not mentioned.
When Apple introduced the new iPhone Pro models at its headquarters in California on September 10th, the innovation was not mentioned during the nearly 50-minute show. Only once, for a few seconds, was there a hint in the background: “U1-Chip” could be read on the back of the stage, while the head of marketing once again listed the most important new features of the device: 3-fold camera, stronger battery and so on.
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What’s up with this U1 chip? There’s just so much to find on the Apple website: “The new Apple-developed U1 chip uses – for the first time in a smartphone – ultra-wide-band technology for spatial awareness.”
That sounds mysterious. Apple apparently does not think it necessary to explain the U1 chip. But this is a major innovation that could open up many interesting new applications for the smartphone – not just the iPhones, but all smartphones. And even if the Apple iPhone Pro 11 is not the first smartphone to be prepared for ultra-broadband wireless technology, the future of this technology depends heavily on Apple.
The Californian company has been heavily involved in the research, standardization and commercialization of this technology for the past four or five years. Apple was awarded several important patents here. And above all: Apple has the market power to establish new techniques. This company has pioneered when it came to, for example, to find majorities for the USB connector or wireless technology.
Ultra Wideband Radio (UWB) allows transmission of a few hundred Mbps over a distance of a few tens of centimeters. For transmission, unlicensed frequencies between 3.1 and 10.6 GHz are used. Weak signals are distributed over a large frequency range (> 500 MHz) as a result of short pulses.
Once before, about fifteen years ago, UWB was about to make commercial breakthroughs. The technology, which was pushed by Intel for example, should then replace as a kind of wireless universal serial bus (USB) cable connections. But she did not prevail. The hardware manufacturers could not agree on a single standard, and with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth soon cheaper and better alternatives were available.
Today, UWB is in a new light. The interesting thing about the technology is that a receiver can determine the location and orientation of the transmitter very precisely – to within a few centimeters. This allows new applications: Apple wants to secure in this way, the data transfer using the in-house Airdrop method. Only those iPhone 11 devices can communicate with each other, which are spatially aligned.
The automobile manufacturers have discovered UWB for themselves. As part of a car door, a UWB receiver can not only detect whether the right signal has been sent to open the door, but also where it came from. The door opens when the driver approaches the car with the correct key in the pants pocket and closes when seated in the driver’s seat. Conventional radio-based locking methods can be cracked, because the signal of the correct key can be intercepted and then reproduced without these keys near the car door. This attack scenario can be thwarted with UWB. Next year, two major automakers will introduce UWB-based locking systems. They rely on the expertise of the young Zurich-based company 3db Access AG.
UWB could also facilitate indoor navigation where the signals from GPS satellites can not be received. Or in a museum it would be enough to point at an exhibit with the smartphone to get explanations on the screen. UWB is already being used in factories to inform workers about the exact location of tools or components.
In the queue
Why is Apple mystifying the U1 chip? Also, Samsung has recently been interested in UWB, but also this company holds back. Why? For UWB to succeed, it requires the cooperation of many market participants. But there is still disagreement in the standardization committees. Some details are still unclear, different factions face each other.


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Car sharing in Colombia is becoming easier with an app created by the Fuimonos company that can be used on computers and smart phones, helping offer and hire rides around Bogota.
Colombian officials say a plane crashed in the country's southwestern jungle, killing 10 people on board.
"Modern Family" fame Colombian actress Sofia Vergara flaunted the 1990s bikini fashion in an online post.
Early numbers show Hero has held on in tough auto market. Its share in 2-wheelers is down 3.4 percentage points, but it's still the leader by some distance.