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Just over the span of two days, crypto market has plunged to $21 billion as Bitcoin lost over 10 percent, moving closer to its yearly low. On September 6th, the price of Bitcoin dropped by more than 10 percent within just one hour. The crypto currency has been on continuous fall ever since then. Other tokens decline even farther then they did in April and June, losing over 10 percent against Bitcoin.
On September 6th, crypto market demonstrate one of the steepest declines in the past three years, losing around $40 billion investment in less than 48 hours. Crypto market is fragile and often show volatile nature but this drop was spanned over a very short period of time. In Aug, crypto currency faced a steep but it took it almost a week to exhibit a significant drop. Prior to Wednesday, the Bitcoin and other coins exhibit a stable trend which was rare but good news for the crypto investors.
Factors behind the market crash
ThinkMarkets chief market analyst Naeem Aslam said:
“Speculators have gone crazy and they are trying to squeeze as much blood out of this trade as they can. Bitcoin hasn’t changed what it was since last December, so what is the panic?”
He insist that Bitcoin trend has not changed since December 2017, when crypto market achieved a $900 billion valuation and initiated rapid decline. Experts suggest that it is difficult to exactly pinpoint the reason behind the fall of the market.
On September 6, Goldman Sachs delayed its idea to open Bitcoin trading desk to facilitate rising demand from retail traders and investors. Although the idea wasn’t dropped completely, it did effect the market. Hours after the statement was released, Goldman Sachs, personally reports that the institution is pivoting away from the Bitcoin trading desk operation, as “fake news”.
Cryptocurrency technical analyst Uzi don’t consider Sachs as the sole cause for the drop. He thinks that Bitcoin was already facing resistance over $7,000. Uzi also noted that the Bitcoin market is still generally illiquid, and is still not ready to support the big demand from the big investors. Most short or long contracts around Bitcoin and other crypto currency market are done by individual investors.


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This just in, GreenVolts is not dead.
The company, reemerging from stealth mode after almost three years, said it has raised $35 million from Oak Investment Partners and Swiss energy technology company ABB, which will now market and sell GreenVolts concentrating solar systems around the world.
If you haven’t heard of GreenVolts, let me refresh your memory.
The company was founded in 2005, won the Cleantech Open business plan competition and $50,000 in startup money in 2006, and raised its first round of capital in 2007, and then $30 million from Oak Investment Partners in 2008.
Sometime around 2009, GreenVolts realized its curved mirror solar concentrating systems, while spectacular and space-agey to look at, were never going to be inexpensive enough for anyone to buy.
There was no ‘Aha! moment,’ said Eric Romo, a founding executive and now vice president of strategic development at the refreshed Fremont-based GreenVolts. He said the company knew what price it needed its technology to sell for to be able to generate cheap enough electricity to compete in the energy marketplace.
“We took a look at where we were with that and we didn’t think we could get to where we needed to be,” Romo said. “Rather than put it into the market and hope that manufacturing at scale could get the cost down, we looked at what structure could get us to where we are today.”
So the company scrapped its pretty, expensive technology. Every piece of it. And started over. Some in the media speculated that the company wouldn’t recover. And it looked dicey there for a while.
>>>>>> See GreenVolts' old technology and it's new technology by clicking the image to the right. >>>>>>
Meanwhile, GreenVolts hired a whole new management team (Romo is one of only a few original employees left, which includes CEO David Gudmundson.
And today they had their re-coming out party, introducing a fully integrated commercial and utility-scale solar system that includes: concentrating solar modules, racking systems, sun trackers (that move panels so they face the sun); and intelligent software that controls, manages, troubleshoots and reports on the energy the systems produce. And while GreenVolts still uses concentrating glass to focus 1,300 suns onto highly efficient solar cells, there are few other similarities between what you see today and what GreenVolts originally developed.
“It’s just totally different,” said Gudmundson. “Really every element is different.”
GreenVolts said its business model is to sell its technology to developers globally who will own and operate power plants made of GreenVolts systems. It uses contract manufacturers in China to make its systems, keeping its overhead costs extremely low. (Do I even need to say this is a lesson Solyndra could have learned?)
GreenVolts now has 90 employees and about 3 megawatts' worth of projects constructed. In its history it has raised about $120 million in venture capital.
What I can’t get over is that the company, that many had written off, is in fact alive and well. And a Fremont-based solar company, to boot.
It’s a cleantech Christmas miracle.

domain: news


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Blog: NOT having your cake and eating it
Catherine Sleep | 9 June 2004
A primary school in Wiltshire has told parents not to donate homemade cakes for school fetes for fear that they could trigger a food poisoning incident and prompt a lawsuit. Equally, children have been told not to bring in homemade birthday cake to share with their classmates.
They are encouraged to bring in shop-bought ones instead – complete with the preservatives and E-numbers they so often contain, doubtless.
I take offence! If parents take the trouble to bake cakes for their offspring to help raise funds for schools, good on them. If I ever have kids and make the effort to donate one of my truly fantabulous chocolate cakes to a school fundraiser, I should expect the school to be jolly pleased, and no mistake.
Let’s use a bit of commonsense. The school headmistress even admitted on a Radio 4 interview I listened to that she’s never heard of any pupil being poisoned by homemade goods, never mind it resulting in a lawsuit.
Since Theresa May took over as UK Prime Minister in the wake of the country's referendum vote to quit the European Union, she and her ministers have been at pains not to divulge their negotiating posi...
Greenpeace's long-running campaign against UK tuna brand John West, owned by seafood giant Thai Union, is now directing its fire against Sainsbury's....
The Obama administration appears to have conceded the landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal will not be pushed through in the lame-duck session of Congress before Donald Trump is inaugur...
- Unilever 2016 investor day - the top takeaways
- Have food promotions reached tipping point?
- Mondelez goes beyond certified cocoa - analysis
- What Premier CEO Gavin Darby thinks about Brexit
- How Tyson's new CEO plans to grow the meat group
- Nestle unveils process to cut sugar by 40%
- Putin 'wants embargo to run as long as possible'
- Unilever sets new margin target with help from ZBB
- Unilever focuses on "value" of spreads arm
- McCormick to buy flavours business Enrico Giotti


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Penske Corp. of Detroit likely will be chosen by Ford Motor Co. to manage shipping and delivery of car parts from suppliers and Ford's own parts operations to other Ford plants.
The deal, once completed, would streamline complicated logistics concerns for Ford and give Penske a big chunk of one of the largest logistics contracts in the country.
Penske would be named the lead logistics provider for Ford's supply-chain network. Neither company would give a dollar value on the contract, but several automotive sources said it is quite lucrative and estimated Ford's logistics spending at more than $4 billion.
Penske's part of that would not be nearly as big because it would handle solely supply-chain and parts delivery for Ford. The automaker's total logistics bill includes the shipping of raw materials and finished cars to dealerships.
Penske would handle inbound shipping of parts for Ford's parts-making group, Visteon Automotive Systems, along with vehicle operations and power-train operations. Penske also would oversee and critique carrier-supplier performance and freight-bill payments.
The deal is not signed yet, but it is very close, said two industry sources. It likely would be announced during the summer.
The deal is a coup for Penske because the company beat out other large, billion-dollar trucking-and-logistics rivals such as Ryder Systems Inc. of Miami and TNT Logistics North America of Ontario, a wholly owned unit of Netherlands-based, TNT Post Group, said one of the industry sources.
The contract would go to Penske Logistics, a subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based Penske Truck Leasing Co., a $2 billion division of Penske Corp. In recent months, Penske Logistics has signed similar deals with Whirlpool Corp. and Rite Aid Corp.
Penske Logistics already has a global-automotive operation in Warren, said Debra Phillips, corporate communications manager for Penske Truck Leasing. Phillips said the company ``was not ready to comment'' on the Penske-Ford agreement. She also would not disclose Penske Logistics' annual sales.
Privately held Penske Corp. is the $6 billion company formed by former race-car driver Roger Penske. Penske owns 57 percent of the company, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Penske Corp. is based in Detroit on Outer Drive at the headquarters of Detroit Diesel Corp. (NYSE: DDC), one of several companies Penske Corp. owns or controls. Penske Corp. also has Penske Auto Centers Inc. of Troy, a chain of 650 car-repair shops across the country. There is also a Penske Automotive Group, a chain of car dealerships that sells about 400,000 vehicles annually.
Penske Corp. also owns Leaseway Auto Carriers, which handles the shipping of finished cars to the dealerships. Leaseway has an operation in Auburn Hills.
Penske Logistics may work with one rival, Caliber Systems Inc. of Hudson, Ohio, to deliver to Ford's powertrain operations, said the industry source. Caliber is a division of Memphis, Tenn.-based FDX Corp. (NYSE: FDX), a $16 billion holding company that also owns Federal Express.
A local automotive analyst said the deal should save Ford money in shipping costs and eliminate the number of people the automaker has to use to oversee logistics.
``I'm sure Ford's logistics bill is pretty huge, but with something like this, they can eliminate paying several different companies; now they can just pay Penske,'' said Richard Hilgert, vice president of automotive research for First of Michigan Corp.
``Now you've got one company responsible for just-in-time. If there's a bottleneck or problem, there's only one company to talk to. Plus, there better be some price discounts for Ford, since they are handing over this huge project to Penske.''
Logistics companies such as Penske are becoming more important to the automakers, said Peter Bradley, chief editor of Logistics Management and Distribution Report, a monthly trade publication tracking industrial logistics.
``It used to be that an automaker like Ford just used a trucking company,'' he said. ``Now these carriers make runs to the suppliers and then make just-in-time trips to a Ford plant.
``These lead logistics providers will hire the carriers, manage them, handle freight payments and audits. They manage and oversee everything, including the trucking and warehousing.''
Ryder has a similar type of deal with Spring Hill, Tenn-based Saturn Corp., Bradley said.
Logistics commonly is defined as the movement of a product or materials from one place to another. It has become a bigger issue for automakers the past few years as the concept of just-in-time delivery expanded.
Just-in-time is the practice of having only as much inventory at a plant as is needed right then. The thought is this saves the plant from using space for warehousing or extra inventory.
``The tricky part is you can't run out of your parts,'' said Penske's Phillips. ``As the logistics provider, you need to know production schedules. We determine the best way to make supplier pickups and coordinate them. We own the trucks, hire the drivers, plan the routes and then also handle issues like warehousing.''
Reporter Terry Kosdrosky contributed to this report.


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Google is cracking down on developers seeking to unfairly bolster their app’s ranking in its Google Play Store.
The tech titan announced today it has launched a newly improved detection and filtering system to put a stop to developers using fraudulent installs, fake reviews and incentivized ratings to give their apps a boost.
“These attempts not only violate the Google Play Developer Policy, but also harm our community of developers by hindering their chances of being discovered or recommended through our systems,” Google said. “Ultimately, they put the end users at risk of making wrong decisions based on inaccurate, unauthentic information.”
Now, if an install is conducted with the intention to influencing an app’s placement on Google Play, the new system will discover and filter it. Developers who don’t take the hint and continue to use such methods could have their apps removed from Google Play.
“In the vast majority of cases, no action will be needed. If you are asking someone else to promote your app (e.g., third-party marketing agency), we advise you to make sure that the promotion is based on legitimate practices. In case of questions, please check out the Developer Support Resources,” Google said. “These important changes will help protect the integrity of Google Play, our developer community, and ultimately our end user. Thank you for your support in building the world’s most trusted store for apps and games.”


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MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE
Wall Street’s “smart money” is heading for the exit when retail buyers flock to the door, writes Mark Hulbert. See the full story.
CDC Director Warns America is in “Worst Fall … We’ve Ever Had”
The coronavirus is not the only public health crisis looming this fall. See the full story.
Trump used the coronavirus briefing to criticize Biden’s call for a mask mandate, denounce the postal vote, question Kamala Harris’s eligibility for vice-president
President Donald Trump criticized Joe Biden’s call for a national mask term on Thursday evening, questioned the security of the postal vote and questioned Kamala Harris’s eligibility as a running mate, during a high-profile press briefing intended to provide updates and information on America’s battle against the worst pandemic in a generation. See the full story.
Fortnite maker accuses Apple, Google of illegal monopoly practices in Battle Royale technology
The maker of “Fortnite” has launched a battle royale against Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc., suing the two tech giants who claim to illegally operate a monopoly on app and app purchases. See the full story.
Companies assess stock splits after Tesla and Apple announcements, expert says
After Tesla and Apple Inc. – the Wall Street behemoths, by virtue of their popularity with investors and their outsized valuations, announced their intention to divide their shares in the weeks between – there was a growing buzz that more and more companies with triple and quadruple digit stock prices will follow in their footsteps. See the full story.
MARKETWATCH PERSONNEL FINANCE
The Justice Department says Yale University discriminates against white and Asian students. See the full story.


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The United States will not be an easy option for the potential US$15 billion listing of Alibaba, which has been stuck in a war of words with the Hong Kong stock exchange and regulator over its listing plan.Tuesday, 8 October, 2013, 8:18am 2 comments
Alibaba Group may postpone its potential HK$100 billion listing plan to 2015 if the mainland's top e-commerce firm cannot get a deal done in Hong Kong this year.13 Sep 2013 - 7:51am 1 comment
A prolific gang of hackers stole and sold 160 million credit card numbers from more than a dozen firms, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, US federal prosecutors charged. But one company they hacked had nothing to do with credit cards or bank accounts: Nasdaq.13 Aug 2013 - 3:53pm
Cyber-criminals targeted Nasdaq OMX Group’s community forum website and gained access to the email usernames and passwords of the members of the site, which took two days to come back online on Thursday evening.13 Aug 2013 - 3:52pm
An investment adviser pleaded guilty Tuesday in a US$13 million (HK$100.8 million) securities fraud scheme that prosecutors say capitalised on enthusiasm for shares of Facebook and other Internet companies about to go public.26 Jun 2013 - 10:59am
An article today about the IPO plans of specialty e-commerce site Cogobuy caught my attention today, but not for the reasons you might think.21 Mar 2013 - 6:20pm
Senior finance executives of Alibaba Group, which is widely expected to be planning its initial public offering this year, held a closed-door discussion with a representative of the American exchange yesterday at an undisclosed venue in Hong Kong, two people familiar with the situation said.7 Mar 2013 - 6:12am
Chinese internet giant is talking to investors for funds to take company private, joining a list of Chinese firms to exit from what they see as an unfriendly US market. Four financial industry sources told the South China Morning Post yesterday that Sohu had recently talked to several banks, including Credit Suisse, to advise the Beijing-based company on a possible privatisation plan.6 Mar 2013 - 10:44am
NCL Corporation, which is half-owned by Genting Hong Kong, would list on the Nasdaq and launched an IPO on Tuesday, Genting announced yesterday.
NCL, a Norwegian cruise operator, would offer up to 27.06 million shares at US$16 to US$18 apiece, announced Genting, a Hong Kong-listed cruise operator and casino investor.9 Jan 2013 - 4:08am
Mainland-based budget hotel operator 7 Days Group Holdings has received an offer to be taken private by a consortium of investors, including its co-chairmen, making it the latest Chinese company to try to delist from the US stock market.
The offer values the Guangdong-based hotel chain, which operates 1,132 hotels on the mainland, at about US$635 million.28 Sep 2012 - 2:54am


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Vorsteiner E46 M3 V-CSL Carbon Aero Rear Diffuser
*AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: ETA 1Q2024*
Vorsteiner is thrilled to announce the exciting return of their famous V-CSL Carbon Fiber Program for the BMW E46 M3! It's not just a relaunch; it's a celebration of their company history and a tribute to the iconic BMW E46 CSL. In honor of their 20th anniversary, they're bringing back the legendary V-CSL program in a limited production run of just 103 units, paying homage to the impressive horsepower per liter from the iconic E46 M3's S54.
Each E46 M3 V-CSL piece is crafted using their 1x1 weaved pre-preg autoclaved carbon fiber and produced in the U.S. at their California facility!


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California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed into law a bill that significantly narrows the definition of an independent contractor. Now, Uber and Postmates have filed a lawsuit to block it. The outcome of this independent contractor law will have ongoing repercussions, not only to people who work for or use these services or similar services, but to the U.S. economy and public safety as a whole.
What’s the big deal?
Independent Contractors Are Not Employees
Companies like Uber, Lyft, Postmates, and Amazon rely on independent contractors to deliver their services and products conveniently and inexpensively. In other words, Uber drivers are not classified as Uber employees, but as independent businesspeople.
But what drivers gain in flexibility, they lose in benefits, career development (i.e., pay increases) or other safety nets offered by having an employer. And by classifying drivers as independent contractors, these companies avoid all responsibility for their actions.
And when people are harmed by Uber, Lyft, Postmates or Amazon delivery drivers, who is left paying the bill? Not them.
In Uber’s latest US Safety Report, they admit that 5,981 sexual assaults took place during their rides in the U.S. between 2017 and 2018. They also admitted that 107 people had been killed in vehicular accidents in Uber vehicles during that time, although that number is in dispute.
What Uber is not talking about, however, is how many people were hurt in accidents related to Uber rides. And their lobbyists are making sure that information is kept quiet.
A recent investigation found that 10 people have been killed in accidents with Amazon delivery drivers, also classified as independent contractors.
In terms of the law, however, it’s not up to the business or the worker to define who is or is not an independent contractor. There is, and always has been a legal test for classifying workers.
From 1989 through April of 2018, the test of whether a person was an employee or an independent contractor precedent in the state of California was based on the California Supreme Court decision in S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations. Borello laid out 11 factors to make that determination.
The California Supreme Court changed all of that when they ruled on the Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court.
This ruling applied the ABC test, which has also been used Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, says that hiring entity cannot classify a worker as an independent contractor unless:
(A) The hiring company doesn’t control or direct the worker in performing the job, either contractually or factually.
(B) The worker is doing work that is outside the “usual course” of the company’s business.
(C) The worker is an independent tradesperson who normally does the type of work the company hires that person to do.
As you can imagine, it would be pretty difficult for Uber to claim that their drivers are doing work outside the usual course of their company’s business.
California Assembly Bill 5
On September 18, 2019, Governor Newsom signed California Assembly Bill 5 (AB-5) into law. This action both codified the ABC test as law in the state of California, and expanded it.
AB-5 went into effect in California on January 1, 2020.
This means that workers who claim that a company misclassified them as independent contractors can file claims against such companies for things like failing to reimburse necessary business expenses, not giving them accurate and complete wage statements, failing to pay unemployment insurance tax, and not providing workers compensation insurance.
There are some jobs that are exempt from the ABC test, including doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, designers, writers, insurance brokers, real estate agents, direct sales, contractors, hair stylists, tutors, commercial fishermen and certain tow-truck drivers.
However, this new independent contractor law means that companies like Uber, Lyft and Amazon must take greater responsibilities for the actions of the people who deliver their core business.
On December 30, 2019, Postmates and Uber, joined by two of their
employees independent contractors, filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking a temporary injunction against the new California Law. Uber, Lyft and Doordash have all pledged $110 million dollars to fund an initiative to overturn AB-5 on the November 2020 California ballot.
They claim that AB-5 is unconstitutional. They also say that AB-5 will force employers to stop doing business in California, which is a threat that is commonly made but seldom followed through. And, they threaten that the law will force some companies to fundamentally restructure their business models, which may not be a bad thing.
On January 16, 2020, a federal judge in San Diego issued a preliminary injunction against the trucking industry component of AB-5. The judge will schedule a hearing on the next steps for the case, but until then, the state of California cannot implement the law within the trucking industry.
Freelance journalists are also challenging the independent contractor law on First Amendment grounds.
With multiple challenges from different industries, the battle will continue to define the roles and rights of employees and independent contractors, and the rights and responsibilities of the companies that hire them.
However, as long as billion-dollar entities like Uber and Amazon continue trying to avoid responsibility for the impact of their services on public safety, we will continue to fight that battle.
Have you been injured by a worker for one of these companies? You have rights, and the personal injury attorneys at TorkLaw can help you receive the justice you rightfully deserve.
Did you enjoy this post? You may enjoy the below content:


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Hudson-based Ramco Specialties is on an automotive roll.
After building and moving into a 185,000-square-foot headquarters and main plant a little over two years ago, the company has increased its size with the acquisition of Michigan-based Copa Tool earlier this month.
Growth in Ramco's automotive business, by far its largest end market, is fueling it all, Jeff Melick, Ramco's director of sales and marketing, said.
"This year, we're up about 15%," Melick said, adding that the company has been experiencing a similar growth rate since about 2008, when it began focusing on more engineered products than a simple nut.
Copa Tool is a significant pickup for Ramco. Its $14 million in annual sales will be added to Ramco's annual revenues of about $100 million. Copa's 40 employees bring Ramco's headcount to about 175 people, Melick said.
The acquisition brings things that might be more important than just sales, too, such as increased manufacturing capacity. While Ramco traditionally has focused on the female end of fasteners — nuts and related threaded assemblies — Copa has high-volume screw machines that can produce bolts and other small precision parts Ramco does not currently make, Melick said.
And it never hurts to have a presence in the metropolitan Detroit area, where Copa is based, alongside domestic automakers and many of their suppliers that are all potential Ramco customers, he noted.
Ramco hopes to bring to bear its chief strength to Copa's existing customer base, Melick said. That strength is engineering, he said. After the Great Recession, Ramco began to focus more on engineering and less on producing common, low-priced parts like simple nuts.
"That's a race to the bottom," Melick said of the highly commoditized realm of simple nuts and bolts, where foreign and domestic suppliers most often compete primarily on price and the cheapest part wins.
The company has found its OEM automaker customers, and their big suppliers, willing to work with Ramco's engineers earlier in their own design processes. That allows the company to offer fastening systems that can be integrated into other parts, which can make the entire automotive manufacturing process faster and more efficient. Plus, they do not depend wholly on price to gain sales, Melick said.
It must be working, because while some other companies are also finding growth in automotive, the industry as a whole has been on a downward trend, said Edward "Ned" Hill, a well-known Ohio economist and professor of public administration and city and regional planning at the Ohio State University's John Glenn College of Public Affairs.
Asked whether Ramco or any single company's recent growth in automotive is due to a rising tide, or just a well-run boat, Hill had a ready answer: "It's the boat."
Overall, domestic auto production has been in a slump, Hill said. He noted that data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that U.S. automakers went from making about 350,000 automobiles per month between 2013 and 2016 to now making about 250,000 units per month.
In other words, if a company is growing, they must be doing something right.
"How a supplier performs is a function of which vehicles it is supplying and how those vehicles sell," Hill said in an email correspondence. "An auto supplier that is growing faster than overall domestic production growth rates can only do so in two ways: They are either on a small number of hot products or a larger number of products where a few are picking up market share. Seeing that the overall tide is bouncing around dead low … they either have a good boat or have attached a decent boat to a good motor."
Ramco is not unique, at least among Northeast Ohio auto suppliers. Some others report they are also doing well.
Bill Adler, president of Cuyahoga Heights-based Stripmatic Products, also sells heavily into the automotive industry, supplying a range of small, tubular parts. He, too, said business is good as of late.
"Stripmatic is at least 15% over our first-quarter forecast and last year's sales," Adler said. "The short-term backlog through June looks pretty solid as well."
Adler, who said his products most typically find their way into pickups, SUVs and heavy commercial trucks, thinks new tax laws and a reduction of regulations are having a big positive impact on sales.
If the state's automotive companies as a whole can fare that well, it would be a good thing for Ohio, which still has a huge automotive industry, according to the Ohio Manufacturers' Association.
"Auto supply remains a huge part of Ohio's enormous manufacturing sector. State data has shown increasing investment among all transportation equipment manufacturers, and job growth has been steady among transportation equipment manufacturers, presently employing over 125,000 Ohioans," OMA spokesman Ryan Augsburger said.
For its part, Ramco expects its recent growth to continue and is working hard to earn its place supplying parts for up-and-coming vehicles, Melick said. Copa's presence and added connections in and around Detroit should only help, since it puts Ramco physically closer to many of its big customers, he added.
"Our product development engineers are very excited to be able to offer domestically manufactured engineered assemblies and components quickly to our Tier 1 automotive customers," Melick said.


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If you live in the digital marketing world, you probably know about Mary Meeker’s annual thought bomb, “Internet Trends Report,” even if you don’t have time to read through it. The 2015 edition, published just weeks ago, consists of approximately 200 data-packed slides covering marketing and consumer behavior trends ranging from the growing clout of millennials to emerging advertising formats in China. I strongly advise anyone in local search to read it.
On the surface, 2015 Internet Trends is not about local search. But if you take a close look and read between the lines, Meeker’s report makes some important observations about local search:
Optimizing for Mobile is Table Stakes
The numbers are staggering: according to Mary Meeker, in 1995 there were 80m mobile phone users around the world, representing 1 percent of the world’s population. Today there are 5.2bn mobile phone users, or 73 percent of the population. Meanwhile, according to Google, mobile searches have officially overtaken desktop search.
Now, connect the dots: if your local search strategy fails to address the mobile consumer, you might as well not have a local search strategy. The time is long past for marketers to consider mobile as the future of search. Mobile is the here and now of search. As Meeker reports (with considerable understatement), “mobile remains compelling” as a digital ad format “because people remain connected 24/7 with their mobile devices.”
Google’s recently published “I-Want-Go Moments” report indicates that “near me” searches have increased 34 times in 2011. In the fourth quarter of 2014, 80 percent of those searches were conducted with mobile devices. Solving for the mobile consumer means a number of things, such as optimizing location data for mobile devices and making your brand present on the popular mobile apps (e.g., Google and Apple Maps) that your customers are using to find you. Solving for mobile means creating compelling content, including offers, for consumers as they experience mobile moments, which Forrester Research defines as “a point in time and space when someone pulls out a mobile device to get what he or she wants immediately, in context.”
Smart brands also realize that mobile moments occur in-store. Target understands that consumers are using their mobile devices while in a store, not just while searching for a location. Target provides consumers an app to create their shopping lists and use their smartphones and Apple Watches to find merchandise in the store. In the meantime, Facebook recently announced it is handing out free beacons to retailers to make it possible for businesses to offer deals and useful content while consumers are in-store. Why? Because Facebook is a powerful geolocation tool, with consumers using Facebook to find recommendations for places to visit as well as browsing through Facebook on their mobile devices while they’re at a location.
When Facebook talks, brands and people listen. More importantly, when consumers act, as they have done by adopting mobile, the whole world reacts.
Get Ready for Mobile Wallets
Near the end of Meeker’s report – 173 slides in, to be exact – I came across one of those standard lists of the world’s Internet business heavyweights that you often find in reports such as this one. The top two names on the list are – no surprise – Apple, with a 2015 market value of $764 billion, and Google, with $373 billion. And number three? Not Facebook. Not Amazon. The third most valuable global Internet public market leader is Alibaba.
Apple, Google and Alibaba have something in common besides being the three largest names on this list: they’re among the names leading the mobile payments revolution. And mobile payments are the fuel of mobile wallets, which are going to be an increasingly important part of mobile search.
Apple alone is a huge catalyst. Every major credit card company supports Apple Pay, as do industry leaders such as Disney and Whole Foods, which has seen its mobile payments surge by 400 percent since adopting Apple Pay. Apple Pay now lets you add store cards as well as loyalty and rewards cards, too.
Consumers, too, are eager to use mobile wallets. In fact, more than half of consumers would like to receive mobile wallet content on a weekly basis, and 70 percent of consumers will save an offer to mobile wallet when presented with the option.
Integrating mobile wallet offers into local search results is a logical, and inevitable, next step for brands to provide instant commerce. For instance, Pep Boys relied on a mobile wallet campaign that resulted in the enterprise realizing seven-figure sales results.
Brands that convert “near me” searches into revenue through appealing mobile wallet offers are solving for the “last mile” of local search. Mary Meeker is not a local marketing specialist. But as it turns out, the convergence of several trends, such as the growth of mobile and the uptake of mobile wallets has made local marketing an increasingly important part of her world, as well as ours.


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Next week, the long-awaited 'Halo 5: Guardians' will finally be released - but there will also be a day one update for the game weighing in at 9GB, bringing a range of multiplayer maps and content.
Day one RSS
A white Xbox One Day One console, which was only supposed to be given to members of the Xbox development team at Microsoft, has found its way on eBay where it is currently on sale.
eBay trolls strike again, this time a seller managed to sell a photograph of the Xbox One Day One edition for £450 to an unsuspecting teen who probably should have paid a little more attention.
Microsoft has now offered a way to download the "Day One" update for the Xbox One ahead of its official launch via a PC. The update can be placed on a USB flash drive and then connected to the console


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Target wants shoppers to be able to buy stuff without going to the store, and without even touching a phone or computer.
And the retailer is teaming up with Google to make it happen.
You can now place orders at Target simply by telling Google Assistant what you want to buy, bothcompanies announced Thursday morning. So you just need to say, "OK Google – buy _______ from Target," and it will place your order, charge your saved card and get delivery going.
That's never been possible with Target before.
Right now it's available through a Google Home device or Android TV – but the voice technology will be offered on phones (Android and iPhone) sometime "soon," Google said.
What can you buy?
On offer: Clothing, toys, care products, electronics, health and beauty items, and more. In terms of food, you can't order fresh fruits and veggies or raw meat – but lots of packaged items are there.
There's no shipping cost if your order is above $35. If you're below that threshold, there appears to be a $4.99 charge. Target is offering two-day shipping.
And there are taxes, of course.
The service operates through Google Express, which is Google's shopping hub for over 50 retailers. The Target voice shopping option is available in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. You can also shop Target items on Google Express without using your voice, just for the record.
Fun fact, the most-ordered Target item via Google Express in San Francisco has been eight-packs of La Croix.
This new voice-ordering option comes as Target is aggressively expanding its own, in-house ordering options.
After buying a San Francisco-based software company, the Bullseye is primed to roll out same-day delivery in major markets next year. And its next-day delivery option, Restock, is already available in a number of cities, including Minneapolis-St. Paul.
The retailer also offers curbside pickup in the Twin Cities now.
There's more to come, apparently
REDcard holders – right now you can't take advantage of the 5 percent off bonus. But Target and Google say that will be added in 2018.
Also coming next year: The option to have your Google Express order ready for pickup at your local Target within two hours, the retailer says.
Target also promises even more advancements, writing in the announcement that Google will help "explore and develop future digital experiences focused on Target’s signature style categories."
“In the markets where we’ve offered Google Express, guests tell us they love the ease and convenience of shopping Target through Google," said Mike McNamara, Target’s chief information and digital officer, in the release. "So we’re excited to offer this service nationwide in time for the busy holiday season."


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- Articles tagged "hd 3mos camcorders"
Panasonic invited us to Hokkaido, Japan to witness the announcement of its new ranges of digital cameras and camcorders, including the LUMIX DMC-LX5, the SDT750 (world's first AVCHD-based 3D-capable consumer camcorder) and TA1, a pocket-sized Full HD recording device. Here are some highlights in the first of two parts.
Riding on the new wave of heat (and of course, technology), Panasonic officially announced a whole slew of new Lumix compact cameras, HD camcorders and SD camcorders at Wave House, Sentosa. Read on for our in-depth event coverage.
- Samsung announces Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Singapore pricing and availability
- The European Union debates removal of regional limits on digital goods
- AMD quantifies DirectX 12 performance boost with new 3DMark API Overhead feature test
- Intel and Micron 3D NAND to enable up to 10TB 2.5-inch SSDs
- YouTube's new 4K, 60 frames per second videos will probably break your system
- HTC One E9+ with 5.5-inch Quad-HD display appears on its China website
- Rumor: NVIDIA to launch the GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card by mid-year
- Alleged photos of an actual LG G4 leak online


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Pixel Watch sales power Google to No. 2 in worldwide wearables marketshare
Believe it or not, the Pixel Watch appears to be a hit! At least, that's according to new numbers from Canalys, which has Google capturing the No. 2 spot for worldwide wearable band marketshare in Q4 2022. Canalys' "wearable band" market category includes smartwatches, "basic watches," and "basic bands" from all the big tech companies.
The report has Google at 8 percent marketshare for Q4 2022, which is good enough to slot in right behind Apple's dominant 27.5 percent of shipments. Google was in fourth place this time last year, and Canalys credits the "16% smartwatch growth with the release of its Pixel Watch" as the reason for Google's rise to No. 2.
Fitbit sales under Google are a disaster, by the way. Even with that 16 percent smartwatch growth from the Pixel Watch, Google's overall wearables shipments are actually down 25 percent year over year, thanks to what the report calls "waning Fitbit shipments." So far, Google's only plans for Fitbit are to gut the company. Google is assimilating Fitbit accounts sometime this year and has already announcing a shutdown of beloved fitness gamification features--"Challenges" and "Adventures"--later this month. It also stripped Fitbit smartwatches of Google Assistant support when it updated the lineup last August. With existing customers outraged over the loss of features, it's not clear why anyone would gamble on Fitbit's future.
Luckily for Google, the entire rest of the wearables market is down by much more than Google's Fitbit losses. Last year's No. 2 player, Xiaomi, had sales plummet 46 percent. Huawei is down 42 percent. Samsung, in 5th place, is down 35 percent. Even Apple sales are down 17 percent, slightly beating the overall 18 percent market decline. A lot of the sales decline is explained by the death of basic fitness trackers, which are seeing their ninth consecutive quarterly decline, down 43 percent year over year.
Seeing Google place anywhere on a worldwide marketshare chart is a surprise, since the company has such a small hardware operation when it comes to worldwide distribution. The Pixel Watch is only sold in nine countries, while the Apple Watch is available in over 60 countries and Galaxy Watches in at least 31 countries (I couldn't find an exact number). Google's tiny distribution network makes it hard to put a dent in any of the marketshare charts.
Besides distribution problems, Google has lots of room for improvement on a presumed second-generation Pixel Watch. The Pixel Watch is too expensive compared to the competition. A comprehensive first-party watch band selection still doesn't exist, although sometime this year metal bands will be an option. Google also made buying a Pixel Watch an expensive hassle, since it's the only major watch vendor that doesn't let you pick a watch band at checkout, forcing everyone to pay extra for the default rubber watch band. These are all fixable first-generation problems that give us something to look forward to.


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New Bitcoin Move Might Earn Earn Investors Billions, Analysts Say
Stablecoins had attained a new level when its market stood at a record high over a month. Crypt experts are saying it’s a positive sign and have predicted that traders are taking advantage of the next bullish increase and are waiting for the perfect opportunity to invest in the digital assets.
Many traders reportedly sought refuge in popular stablecoin Tether(USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) after the market witnessed its most significant sell-off ever on the 12th and 13th of March. With the recent volatility in the market, the market capitalization of most assets has remained unmoved, and with the market moving to normalization, the coins are going into a stable high price level. With this development, analysts have been quick to note that it is only a matter of time before investors flock around leading crypto bitcoin and other altcoins.
Founder and CEO of Messari Crypto, Ryan Selkis, pointed out that investors who were scared by the March 12 sell-off would have sold off all their assets and kept their money instead of putting it in other altcoins. Reportedly, there are over $3 billion assets in stablecoins, a fact that shows that the opposite has some degree of truth in it. “We’ve got more dry powder held in the crypto economy than ever before,” Ryan Selkis said.
Blockchain analytics company Glassnode pointed further stressed on what Selkis said when they analyzed the number of tether balance had made a massive surge on Friday, a new high from the one that happened the previous day. They further stated that people were not contented with stablecoins and its continued growth in the market with reports showing massive growth in the market capitalization of stablecoins despite no visible increase in the trading volume. CoinGecko was quoted as saying that the recent development shows that investors have preferred to invest in stablecoins in other for this Coronavirus pandemic to pass.
As said earlier, some of the biggest crypto firms are taking advantage of this market and are adding new assets to their platforms. Real Vision CEO Raoul pal stated that “I can not express how bullish I am on bitcoin.” With the chairman of Virgin Galactic, Ramath Palihapitiya saying he believes that bitcoin is a binary investment, a trade might fetch you “zeros,” and another trade might fetch you “millions.” Analysts have noted that bitcoin might be on a bullish rise in the coming days, with the market stabilizing from its initial volatility.


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Amazon is trying to fight off two separate union elections
by Associated Press
Warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, and Bessemer, Alabama, will determine whether or not they want to form a union.
Amazon is gearing up for its toughest labor fight yet, with two separate union elections coming to a head as soon as next week that could provide further momentum to the recent wave of organizing efforts across the country.
Warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, and Bessemer, Alabama, will determine whether or not they want to form a union. If a majority votes yes at either location, it would mark the first successful U.S. organizing effort in Amazon history. Rejection would notch another victory for the country’s second-largest employer in keeping unions at bay.
Last April, workers in Bessemer overwhelmingly voted against a union bid, providing a bitter defeat for a labor movement that had already been declining in influence but making some gains during the pandemic. Federal labor officials later scrapped the results and ordered a re-do, ruling Amazon tainted the election process.
Ballots for the second election were mailed to 6,100 employees in early February. The counting process is expected to start on Mar. 28 and could last for several days.
Meanwhile, Amazon workers in the Staten Island warehouse began in-person voting on Mar. 25 in their first union election. The facility is one of Amazon’s largest in New York City with more than 8,300 employees. Voting will wrap up on Mar. 30, with the counting expected to begin shortly thereafter.
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union is once again spearheading the drive at the Alabama facility. More than 150 organizers from the union, as well as from roughly 20 other labor groups were on the ground since last summer — a bigger push than in the first election — to galvanize support. Vaccines made it easier during the ongoing pandemic to knock on workers’ doors and also visit barbershops, stores and other places to distribute flyers and chat with residents.
Pulling off a win could still be tough. There’s high turnover at the facility, making it difficult to build momentum. At the same time, organizers estimate about half of current workers were eligible to vote in the last election, offering the RWDSU a chance to tap new workers who may be more amenable to a union.
In Staten Island, Amazon workers are currently organizing under the independent Amazon Labor Union led by Chris Smalls, a former employee who says he was fired after leading a protest over the warehouse’s working conditions in the early days of the pandemic. (Amazon said he violated COVID-19 safety protocols.)
The union landscape in Alabama is starkly different from New York.
Alabama is also a right-to-work state, which prohibit a company and a union from signing a contract that requires workers to pay dues to the union that represents them. Pro-labor experts say many may feel intimidated by companies that could undermine the unionized shop.
New York is not a right-to-work state, and Amazon is attempting to use that to its advantage. The company is telling workers it could fire them should they unionize but fail to pay union dues. But that requirement is not an across-the board mandate for non-right-to-work states and is something that is negotiated during union contracts, said Jennifer Sherer, senior state policy coordinator at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
The mostly Black workforce at the Alabama facility, which opened in 2020, mirrors the Bessemer population of more than 70% Black residents, according to the latest U.S. Census data. There’s little public transportation, so many of the Amazon workers drive to the facility from as far away as metro Montgomery, nearly 100 miles to the south.
Pro-union workers say they want better working conditions, longer breaks and higher wages. Regular full-time employees at the Bessemer facility earn at least $15.80 an hour, higher than the estimated $14.55 per hour on average in the city. That figure is based on an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual median household income for Bessemer of $30,284, which could include more than one worker.
Amazon sees unions as a threat to its business model built on speedy deliveries to customers.
“As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a emailed statement. “Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”


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We've all seen the Xbox One reveal or heard or read about it from our trusted news sources. How it went depends on your view of converging entertainment media. It's the aftermath that I'm concerned with here.
In interviews, tweets and statements after the reveal, Microsoft has shown it can't get a clear message out on two of the biggest concerns for gamers: always-on, Internet-based DRM and use of pre-owned games.
In addition, Microsoft has been very clear on two further points: independent developers won't be able to self-publish on Xbox Live and there will never be any attempts at backwards compatibility on Xbox One.
If Sony is wise and quick, it can take advantage of the confusion on the first two points and the firmness on the second two to gain the upper hand over Microsoft in the upcoming battle for gamers' wallets.
On the matter of Internet-based DRM, Sony has quite firmly stated that the PS4 will not require an Internet connection to function. Microsoft has wavered, talking variously about being better when connected, cloud-based processing, daily check-ins and online verification of purchases.
Microsoft's Din Mattrick taken entirely out of context in this image.
Neither Microsoft nor Sony has adequately outlined their stance on pre-owned games. This is probably because it is a very contentious issue and they're trying to balance the concerns of their publishing partners and of gamers.
However, Sony hand-waved the issue by implying that it wouldn't impose a regime, but would allow, if not enable, publishers to implement their own policies. Microsoft was much more vague and even contradictory; you may have to pay to re-validate a pre-owned game, you may not. You may have to pay to validate a borrowed game. There are various scenarios and we don't know.
Sony's stance on indies and backwards compatibility is firm. It will do everything it can to encourage indies and backwards compatibility isn't in the hardware, but can be implemented using Gaikai streaming.
Now how can the PlayStation team at Sony take advantage of the current situation?
They need to clarify where Microsoft has confused and they need to step into the spaces Microsoft has vacated. It's all possible with the will from management and some hard work from the engineering and marketing departments.
First, they need to very firmly state their positions on Internet-based DRM, indie publishing and, most importantly, pre-owned games. They need to do this now, before E3, while Microsoft is still reeling from the Internet backlash, and they need to leave no confusion.
In my opinion, the statement should leave the pre-owned question to the publishers, but state outright that Sony's first party games will not be limited or charged for in any way. That sets a tone for the platform, but leaves the door open for publishers and developers to try and get a cut of what they rightly see as their pie.
Secondly, they need to have Gaikai working day and night to get as many PS3 games as possible playable via streaming for the launch of the PS4. This needs to be implemented so that putting a PS3 game disk into the PS4 or having a purchase from the PS Store against your account will act as a key to play the game for free.
Thirdly, they need to announce their firm intention to do the same for PS2 and PS1 games and state that PS+ members will get unlimited access to the whole system. This is a perfect announcement to make at E3 and would generate plenty of good will from the Internet press and their followers.
Lastly, and most importantly, they need to make sure they don't mess up the launch. Have enough hardware to launch in at least Europe and the US, have a good price, have useful accessories in the box and give everybody three months of PS+ to get them started.
The ball is now in Sony's court and it's possible to take advantage of the situation.
Microsoft has greatly missed the message with its reveal, it has failed to take account of the worries that gamers had before the announcement and to ease them. It has not had a coherent message at all on two of the biggest worries and has jumped the wrong way on two others.
There has already been an overwhelming change of mood on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and news site forums with regards to the next Xbox. From overwhelming excitement and anticipation before the reveal, to despair and even hatred afterwards.
I've seen loads of die-hard Xbox fans claim they will switch to PlayStation over the pre-owned debacle alone. No matter if those claims are believable, Sony needs to jump on this and welcome them before Microsoft can clarify its position and win them back.
The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and does not reflect those of SPOnG.com except when it does.
Want to vent your gaming spleen? Send 900 words max of well thought-out, deeply analysed opinion and we may even run it. Send in 900 words of incisive but mostly brutally angry invective, and we almost certainly will.


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Apple is making music-related apps for iPhones and iPads that use augmented reality technology, CBS News’ John Miller reports.
The company is making the software free and open source.
AppleInsider reported earlier this year that Apple was working on its own music apps.
Miller reported that Apple has made some changes to its Music app to address concerns from developers that it doesn’t have enough control over how it collects data.
Apple’s Music app, currently in beta, allows users to add playlists to their music library.
However, it does not offer access to artist information.


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Tractor Supply and Pier 1 tumble, while Noble Energy rises
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily on Thursday:
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., down 71 cents to $21.38
The company will spin off part of its business software unit and combine it with Micro Focus in an $8.8 billion deal.
Intel Corp., down 2 cents to $36.44
The company said it will spin its cybersecurity unit into a new company called McAfee and will get $3.1 billion in cash.
Tractor Supply Co., down $14.15 to $69.38
The retailer for farmers and ranchers said it's being hurt by cuts in energy production and spending by farming communities.
Pier 1 Imports Inc., down 72 cents to $4.08
The home decor company announced weak results for the second quarter and said its CEO will leave at the end of the year.
Noble Energy Inc., up $1.72 to $37.25
Energy companies rose as oil prices jumped following a report that said U.S. crude stockpile shrank last week.
Apple Inc., down $2.84 to $105.52
Apple led tech companies lower a day after it made modest gains while introducing its newest iPhone and other products.
Tailored Brands Inc., up $2.34 to $16.57
The menswear retailer climbed after it reported solid quarterly results and maintained its forecasts for the year.
Rite Aid Corp., up 46 cents to $8.21
Walgreens, which agreed to buy Rite Aid earlier this year, said it's making progress toward getting antitrust approval for the deal.
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The producer of branded specialty food products – including Bakehouse, Conte Foods and Larosa Foods, among others – posted revenue of $577.4m for Q2 2017 versus $462.9m a year prior.
“In our Specialty Food segment, meat snacks, sandwiches and premium processed meats were all the key drivers of our growth,” said George Paleologou, president and CEO.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased by 37.2% to $55m.
Earnings were $29.7 million or $0.94 per share, a 45.1% and 40.6% increase over Q2 2016.
Sandwich plant expansion
Capital expenditures for the quarter were $37.1m, including $23.9m for a 212,000 square foot sandwich plant in Phoenix, Arizona, and $2.9m for a 105,000 square foot seafood and protein custom facility in the Greater Toronto area.
“Since its start-up, the Phoenix plant has expanded from two production lines to five and, based on the opportunities presenting themselves, we expect it to be operating 10 production lines by the end of this year,” said Paleologou.
Company highlights for Q2 2017
- Revenue of $577.4m, representing a growth of $114.5m or 24.7% versus YA
- Adjusted EBITDA increased by $14.9 million or 37.2%, to $55 million
- Adjusted EBITDA margin was 9.5% as compared to 8.7% YA.
- Earnings per share $0.90
- The company is maintaining its guidance for its 2017 adjusted EBITDA margin to be 8.5%-9.0%
Subsequent to the quarter, Premium Brands acquired a 25% interest in Partners, a family-run artisanal cracker producer based in Seattle, for $2m
“This platform, which has been generating tremendous growth, features a variety of high quality snack foods that cater to both busy and active on-the-go consumers as well as the festive occasions,” said Paleologou.
“[Our] investment once again demonstrates our ability to develop customized ownership solutions [to help] talented entrepreneurs to elevate their business to the next level.”
Strength against adversity
“Our first half performance has once again demonstrated the strength and resilience of our diversified business portfolio. This component enabled us to expand our overall margins during the first half of 2017, despite the [negative impact of] rising raw material commodity costs … and unusually poor weather conditions and economic challenges in certain markets,” said Paleologou.
Will Kalutycz, Premium Brands CFO added the company is on track to achieve its objective for 2017 of exceeding its long-term targeted range for organic volume growth of 4% to 6%.


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This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Amanda Lewellyn: This is your tech news briefing for Monday, August 30th. I'm Amanda Lewellyn for the Wall Street Journal filling in for Zoe Thomas.
For many of us, another Monday morning means another day of heading into the office or these days calling into a meeting. But if tech companies have their way, one day, Monday morning might mean putting on your virtual reality headset and entering the metaverse. On today's show, our Heard on the Street columnist, Dan Gallagher will join us to explain the latest big tech craze and the hurdles it will face before it becomes the next big thing. That's after these headlines.
Newly unsealed court documents shed light on Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes' defense in her upcoming criminal fraud trial which is set to begin this week with jury selection. The records show that Holmes could argue that she was in a decade-long abusive relationship with former Theranos president, Sunny Balwani that left her under his control during the period in which the government alleges they committed a massive fraud related to Theranos's blood testing technology. In the filings, Holmes accused Balwani of controlling what she ate, when she slept and how she dressed, and of throwing sharp objects at her and monitoring her text messages and emails. Balwani quote, "unequivocally denies" that he engaged in any abuse at any time, according to one of the filings. Holmes isn't bound to pursue that defense and could change her strategy at any point during the trial. Attorneys for Holmes didn't respond to request for comment on the documents.
Apple said last week that it would let software developers tell customers how they can pay for services outside of Apple's ecosystem. The shift will make it easier for apps to steer clear of the up to 30% commission that Apple charges on purchases made through its app store. The change is part of a proposed settlement of a 2019 class action lawsuit in which app makers accused Apple of breaching antitrust laws in how it runs the app store. The agreement still has to be approved by a judge.
And China plans to propose new rules that would ban companies with large amounts of sensitive consumer data from going public in the US. People familiar with the matter said officials from China's stock regulator have told companies and investors that the rules target firms that are seeking IPOs through units incorporated outside of China. Major tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent have used this kind of structure for their offshore listings. The move comes amid a broader crackdown on tech companies in China as the government there works to reign them in. Chinese regulators didn't respond to request for comment.
All right, coming up after the break, tech companies are racing to build the metaverse, but what is the metaverse? And what could it mean for you? That's next.
There's a new buzzword in Silicon Valley, the metaverse. On Facebook's latest earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned the word no less than 16 times.
Mark Zuckerberg: What is the metaverse? The metaverse, the metaverse, the metaverse. In many ways, the metaverse is the ultimate expression of social technology. The defining quality of the metaverse is presence. Within the metaverse you're going to be able to hang out, play games with friends, work, create, and more.
Amanda Lewellyn: And Zuckerberg isn't the only one talking about the metaverse. Execs at companies ranging from Microsoft to Match Group have been spending time and money either building out or getting involved in the metaverse. But what is it and what could it mean for you and me? Here to talk more about it is our Heard on the Street columnist, Dan Gallagher. Hey Dan, thanks for being here.
Dan Gallagher: Pleasure to be here.
Amanda Lewellyn: Okay Dan, help us out here. At the simplest level, what is the metaverse?
Dan Gallagher: It almost depends on who you ask. But I think the most common definitions run that the metaverse is like this virtual world that has things that are similar to what we have in a real world, like a functioning economy, places where you can have a sense of physical presence, even if it's not like what we think of as physical. Early versions of this we see in things like big video games like Fortnite that are like their own worlds or could be defined as that. But what I think when you hear it from these tech companies are really talking about something that's a lot more immersive and usually has to be accessed with technology like virtual reality and augmented reality. And that kind of equipment.
Amanda Lewellyn: And to be clear here, we've heard about this concept from a huge range of companies. We mentioned Facebook and Microsoft, but there's also the video game maker, Roblox, the chip maker, Nvidia, even Match Group. Is this all the same metaverse?
Dan Gallagher: No, I think they all kind of look at it a different way and they look at it through the vein of, what is in their business interest? Where is their business going? A company like Microsoft, most of Microsoft's money is made under the hoods tech software that we use all the time for work and things. So they're trying to build something that's more essentially business and corporate. You might put on AR glasses to fix something a thousand miles away, that sort of a thing. For Facebook, when they did this demo of their shared workspaces, you got a sense of what they're thinking of. And Facebook as a social network is a place where they want us to spend a lot of time in already. So going to this next level type of social network where you're putting on equipment and existing in a place with people that you work with or friends with, that's their vision of it.
Amanda Lewellyn: Right. A more social experience. So Dan, is there a reason we seem to be drowning in this word metaverse lately? I feel like you can't get on the internet or listen to a tech podcast without hearing it. Was there a catalyst here?
Dan Gallagher: I've covered tech long enough to where something kind of raises the level of consciousness on something, then it's all everybody talks about for a while. We're seeing that I think with this term, and when Facebook did their earnings call a month ago, like you said, Mark Zuckerberg talked about it and mentioned it several times. He's really enthusiastic. That kind of elevated it, but companies were talking about this before that too. So I think Facebook, maybe helped popularize the idea as opposed to inventing it.
Amanda Lewellyn: Sure. So why is this so popular though? What is the opportunity that these tech companies see in this idea?
Dan Gallagher: Well, I think they see this as this is going to be the future of how we interact with technology. You and I right now sit in front of a computer or we hold our phone in our hands. So at the next level of interacting with the technology we use would be actually entering it is the reasoning, as opposed to me Zoom calling you to socialize, we both put on virtual reality goggles and talk. That's the simplest version. That's their vision of where we're heading to, frankly as a society I think.
Amanda Lewellyn: And there's also business incentives too. These companies are also selling hardware and trying to diversify sources of income.
Dan Gallagher: That's true. And if you think about Facebook, Facebook's entire business is making sure you spend enough time in their networks that they can show you ads. That's still predominantly their business. So they want your time. If another virtual world pops up and all of a sudden you're spending time on that virtual world and not on Facebook, that's not in their business interest. I think selling the equipment is only the entry point. You think of it as razor blades. You sell the thing upfront and it there's some money there, but the real money I think is in how do they make money off your time there? What you're doing, seeing advertisements, buying things that are maybe digital, all those things is kind of where the real money is on this.
Amanda Lewellyn: Got it. So at this point right now, these companies are absolutely throwing resources at figuring that out, right? What kinds of investment are we seeing them put toward this goal?
Dan Gallagher: We saw this with Facebook a few years ago when they actually bought Oculus which made virtual reality goggles. That was a $2 billion buy, actually not even their biggest acquisition, but certainly at the time people thought, "Okay, this is Facebook going to get into video games because that's what virtual reality has been used for mostly so far." And it's kind of been slow to pick up there. What I think you're seeing, especially with a case like Microsoft, they've been working on this product called HoloLens for years now and that's still something that you spend several thousand dollars for as a company. It's a business expenditure because they're trying to push it towards the enterprise. I think what you're seeing right now is the companies that are hot on this term are trying to lay some early stakes in the ground so that if the population starts to lurch more towards wanting to use this kind of technology, that they're in the right spot at the right time, as opposed to, I don't think there's a huge demand right now for it.
Amanda Lewellyn: Fair enough. All that said and CEO's grand visions aside, where is this technology actually now? Is it ready for prime time?
Dan Gallagher: It depends on what you want to use it for. For a few years now, virtual reality and gaming has been sold Oculus, Sony. It's really a matter of opinion on if you've tried some of these games. I've tried a bunch of them, some are fun. Some are still a work in progress. The thing I think with virtual reality is that it's something that is kind of physically taxing. If you put on these goggles and you play a game for a while, it's not like a traditional game where some real gamers can spend hours and hours playing. You really get tired quickly when you're in a virtual world like that. And I think that the technology still has improvements to make. And also to have the goggles be things that you don't have to tether with a cable to the computer or something. So I think it's still a work in progress in that front, but there has been a lot of advances made, I'd say in the last five, six years.
Amanda Lewellyn: I imagine the experience is like Zoom fatigue times a thousand. So on top of that, there are already some people bringing up concerns around things like privacy too. What should listeners keep in mind on that front?
Dan Gallagher: Well, I think it's something people should think about. To the Facebook example, if you're interacting in a Facebook metaverse, you're interacting in a world run by a company who's so far, the sole thing they do is figure out what you're interested in and show you advertisements. That's how they make their money. So how is that going to apply in a virtual world? We've already seen evolution of different technologies where originally we thought, "Oh, this is cool. We didn't really think of the dark side of it." In the early days of social networking you met friends, got in touch with old family members and such, and then all of a sudden, it's also now this place where elections can be manipulated and misinformation can spread. So I think before we rush into, embrace this idea of a metaverse, I hope people think carefully and tread carefully into what they do and think about who's providing it and what the business interests are. And I hope as a population, we're a little more careful this time around.
Amanda Lewellyn: All right. That's our Heard on the Street columnist, Dan Gallagher. Thanks Dan.
Dan Gallagher: Thank you for having me.
Amanda Lewellyn: That's it for today's tech news briefing. You can find more tech stories on our website, wsj.com. And if you like our show, please do rate and review us. It really does help. I'm Amanda Lewellyn for the Wall Street Journal filling in for Zoe Thomas. Thanks for listening.


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Guardian Warehouse Extension Opening
On Thursday 8th September Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street opened a 70,000 sq ft high bay extension at Guardian Warehousing, Willenhall creating an additional 42 jobs and new business opportunities.
The £6 million investment by Bushell Investment Group, owners of Guardian Warehousing will increase the warehouse to 300,000 sq ft.
The impressive 70,000 sq ft high bay warehouse extension, which was designed by Gould Singleton Architects and built by local building contractor A&H Construction and Developments, used over 250 tonnes of steel to erect 12,500 additional pallet spaces, increasing the overall warehouse capacity to 34,000 racked pallet spaces.
Lee Bushell, Chief Executive Officer of Bushell Investment Group commented, “Congratulations to the Guardian Warehousing project team on delivering the impressive extension. We have invested over £10m into the site and created over 150 new jobs since acquisition, this investment has facilitated the creation of new jobs and importantly will act as a steppingstone for vocational training and apprenticeship routes into the warehousing, logistics and fulfilment industries.”
Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “With this fantastic – and newly extended – facility, Bushell Investment Group’s Guardian Warehousing have bolstered their place at the vanguard of our rapidly growing logistics and fulfilment sector. I’m pleased to hear that Bushell Investment Group are making a substantial £6m investment here demonstrating their tremendous belief in – and commitment to – the West Midlands for which I’m grateful. I look forward to seeing local people benefitting from the forthcoming job and educational opportunities that this new announcement will unlock.”
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Dans Le Noir ?, the renowned dine in the dark restaurant experience at Swinfen Hall
Indulge in a feast for the senses with a NEW pop up from Dans Le Noir ? at Swinfen Hall, Staffordshire.
This March only, Dans Le Noir ?, the renowned dine in the dark restaurant experience, which first opened in 2004 in Paris, followed by London in 2006 is set to open its first pop-up restaurant at Swinfen Hall Hotel, a stately manor house in the heart of Staffordshire, offering visitors, staycationers and locals alike, a new and wholly unique dining experience.
Since it’s opening in 2006, the Dans Le Noir ? collection has expanded across the UK, Europe and now the world. It offers the opportunity to taste gourmet, creative and seasonal cuisine in complete darkness, accompanied and served by unexpected guides. The concept of dinner or lunch in pitch darkness is an original experience that allows us to re-evaluate our perception of taste and touch, while reclaiming and reinvigorating our senses.
Perfect for those visiting the area on a staycation and in search of a unique dining experience, or simply a day trip from the city, be it London, Birmingham or Manchester, Dans le Noir ? breaks down the boundaries of traditional dining and presents diners with a sensory experience that ensures to indulge all your senses. The experience of dining in the dark has many surprises in store! First of all the delicious surprise menus created by the chefs will surprise and delight, using the finest, seasonal organic fruit and vegetables, free range and outdoor reared meats, accompanied by a refined and specially curated wine menu. Diners will be exposed to flavours, aromas, textures and temperatures, which is guaranteed to fully awaken and excite the senses.
On arrival, guests will be asked to place any shiny objects they are wearing into a safe for the duration of the experience. Diners are then met by the blind guide and escorted to a table where an introduction to the experience will be made and the service begins. The most exciting part is you won’t know what’s on the menu until the end, which allows you to truly taste every flavour and absorb your surroundings. It really is a feast for the senses!
- To Book: https://swinfenhallhotel.co.uk/dining-in-the-dark/
- Period: 1st March to 31st March 2022
- Price – £95pp – inc 3 course meal and wine
- Wednesday to Saturday – first seating 6pm, last seating 9.45pm
- Sunday – 12 noon to 15.45pm
- Dietary requirements to be provided ahead of booking
- No photography allowed
About Swinfen Hall
Swinfen Hall is a beautiful, 250 year old country mansion set in a 100-acre Estate with landscaped gardens and a private deer park located in the Staffordshire countryside, with 18 beautifully appointed bedrooms. Renowned for its exquisite food, locals and visitors alike can indulge in a fantastic food events calendar in 2022.
The kitchen has held the AA three-rosette accolade for more than five years and is headed by Chef Ed Dutton who brings a wealth of experience having worked in Michelin star restaurants around Europe and London. In 2022 there will be an exciting food events calendar including Valentine’s supper, afternoon tea days, tasting menu special events, a monthly superb Sunday lunch and pop-up dining events throughout the year.
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Supercuts, Regis and Aldo Chief Executive Officer Jackie Lang will step up and become Chair of this group companies from 2022.
Supercuts, Regis and Aldo Chief Executive Officer Jackie Lang will step up and become Chair of this group companies from 2022.
Jackie has served 34 years with the UK Hair group, and in 2020 also took over the leadership of Aldo UK.
She has led a team of over 1,000 colleagues in 120 salons and 13 Aldo stores, has mentored countless colleagues and is a highly respected member of our executive leadership team within Bushell Investment Group.
Rob Kerry will join as Chief Executive Officer from 1st December. After a short period of handover Jackie will transition to the new role of Chair in 2022.
Lee Bushell, CEO of Bushell Investment Group commented, “I would like to thank Jackie for her commitment, passion and drive within Regis and Supercuts and for all her hard work integrating and growing the Aldo acquisition. I am delighted that Jackie will remain a key leader within the business transitioning to a new role of Chair. Rob has been with Bushell Investment Group since inception and understands the UK Hair and UK Retail businesses. Rob was previously CEO of Guardian Jewellery which was Europe’s largest buyer of gold which grew to over 400 locations in the UK and Europe. Rob will be an asset to the company leading our talented team to deliver our ambitious growth plans.”
Jackie Lang shared the following, “I have been fortunate to be part of the UK Hair industry for 34 years and have built many relationships with talented hair stylists, business leaders and suppliers. I am delighted to be stepping up as Chair of the UK Hair and UK Retail businesses and am thrilled to be passing the baton to Rob who is already part of our business. I am looking forward to the future.”
Rob Kerry said, “I am looking forward to working with Jackie and the leadership team to continue to grow the Regis and Supercuts hair businesses and the Aldo shoe business continuing Jackie’s legacy. After a period of uncertainty on the high street we are looking forward to being able to execute some exciting retail plans.”
Bushell Investment Group invests £4 million in Guardian Warehouse
Bushell Investment Group invests £4 million in a 65,000 square foot high bay extension at Guardian Warehouse creating 40 news jobs in Willenhall.
Phase two of a new £4 million investment in a 65,000 square foot high bay warehouse extension at the Guardian Warehouse logistics and storage facility in Willenhall has started which will initially create 40 new jobs.
Development works for the new warehouse building started on the 1st November 2021 and will complete in May 2022. The facility will increase in size to 280,000 square feet and 34,000 pallet capacities including 50,000 square ft block stack as part of a longer-term development plan at the site.
Services include warehouse storage, goods reception via containers, trailers and pallets, order processing, packaging, reverse logistics, distribution, ecommerce fulfilment, and container self-storage facilities. This ambitious development project which increases Guardian’s Warehouse pallet storage capacity by over 40%, is an essential development within the West Midlands, as the central region of the UK gears up to satisfy the unprecedented increase in warehouse demand caused by supply chain challenges, Brexit, and the continued growth of ecommerce. Clients include Pets at Home, Vimto, TK Maxx and Aldo shoes.
Guardian Warehouse is part of the Bushell Investment Group of companies, led by West Midlands businessman Lee Bushell. Chief Executive Officer Lee Bushell commented, “Storage and logistics is a core part of our group, and we are pleased to continue to invest in the development of our Willenhall logistics centre bringing jobs and business”.
Guardian Warehouse Managing Director Glyn Byrne commented, “There is strong demand for E-commerce services, warehouse storage and related logistics at this time. I am delighted to start phase two of our development plan to grow the site which will increase our storage and E-commerce capability significantly”.
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About Guardian Warehousing
Aldo Shoes reopens flagship Oxford Street store
Aldo Shoes reopens flagship Oxford Street store.
ALDO UK will open its Oxford Street store to shoppers on Friday 5th November, just over one year since the UK footwear retailer franchise was acquired by Bushell Investment Group.
Since the acquisition last year, saving 150 jobs and creating 50 new roles, ALDO UK has successfully reopened 12 stores in the UK and Ireland and launched a brand new store in Brent Cross Shopping Centre.
Managing Director Jackie Lang comments on the new store launch: “We are extremely excited to be reopening our ALDO UK flagship store. It’s fantastic to be welcoming back the shoppers of Oxford Street to our in-store experience once again. The whole team have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure a smooth and safe opening.”
“The store will feature our new AW21 collection: Step into Love. The collection is all about inspiring people to love yourself, lift yourself and believe in yourself. We want to show people positively and authentically expressing themselves through style – whether it’s a pair of chunky trainers or show stopping heels; we want all our customers feeling amazing as they step into Autumn and Winter.”
Bushell Investment Group acquires footwear retailer ALDO UK
Bushell Investment Group acquires footwear retailer ALDO UK, saving 150 jobs and creating an additional 50 roles across the business over the next 12 months.
The UK arm of ALDO, which fell into administration in May 2020, will join the growing BIG portfolio which already includes high street hair salon brands Regis and Supercuts. It is the fifth acquisition BIG have made in the last 18 months.
“We are incredibly excited to be part of ALDO UK’s future. The ALDO brand holds significant strength, offering high quality merchandise through its high street and ecommerce channels, and this is further supported by the passion and commitment of its workforce. For BIG, this exciting acquisition builds on our experience in the retail sector and adds further diversity to our growing portfolio.”
Lee Bushell, CEO at Bushell Investment Group
“The ALDO Group is thrilled that ALDO will preserve its store network and ecommerce business in the UK market under BIG’s umbrella. As a fashion capital, the UK has always been a strategic market, and having such a solid partner to join our brand is positive news.“
Michel Fahmy, Vice President at ALDO Group International
The sale of Regis UK Ltd to Birmingham based Bushell Investment Group
The sale of Regis UK Ltd to Birmingham based Bushell Investment Group was confirmed today, adding the salon brands Regis and Supercuts to the group’s already impressive portfolio.
The sale stabilises the business, with the focus being on the key brands Regis and Supercuts. Regis will continue to operate as the ‘hair experts’, offering premium cut and colour services in a friendly, modern salon environment. Whilst Supercuts will continue to offer its popular walk-in service and great value cut and colour packages.
“It goes without saying we warmly welcome the investment by BIG. They have worked with us with utmost professionalism to rescue an incredible business that has been on the UK high streets since 1990. We were looking for investors who would be the best fit to not only conserve as much of our business as possible, but also to revive and position ourselves as the high street hair experts once again.”
Jackie Lang, Managing Director Regis UK Ltd
The sale ensures 961 jobs out of 1204 are preserved. The respective teams have worked hard over the past three weeks to maintain the existing business with the process proving challenging.


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The Managing Director of Toyota Nigeria, Mr. Kunle Ade-Ojo, who gave the statistics at a press briefing in Lagos, attributed the development to high duty on imported cars, shortage of foreign exchange and economic recession.
Similarly, he said the total retail sale of new vehicles for the first quarter of 2017 stood at 2,000 units compared to 5,500 units sold last year.
Although he said the fall in vehicle imports was also witnessed last year, it was not as pronounced as this year’s.
For instance, he recalled that the total vehicles imported into the country in 2016 dropped to 7,000 from 18,000 in 2015.
“The scarcity of forex affected business last year and that affected importation. Also, there was the devaluation of the naira. Whereas in the first quarter of the year, the United States dollar was just about N200, by the end of the year, it had doubled. So, prices of vehicles also doubled in the space of one year and a lot of businesses could not afford to pay for the increase given that they were also struggling to survive,” he said.
Federal Government had jacked up the import duty on cars from 22% to 70% to discourage vehicle importation and crashed duty on imported vehicle components by auto assemblers.


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Cider Australia launches new website
9 Mar 2016
Cider Australia – the national body that represents the cider and perry industry in Australia – has launched a new website to better serve the industry and its members by promoting events, sharing information and making it easier to find out about each member.
The practical, new website features an interactive cider map of Australia showing the major cider producing regions, details on each member producer and a national events calendar listing cider-related festivals, conferences, competitions and educational opportunities.
President of Cider Australia Sam Reid said the new website will play an important role in helping to achieve Cider Australia’s vision which is to build a sustainable cider category in Australia.
“Cider Australia was established to undertake activities that improve the quality of ciders produced and marketed in this country, and our website is designed to provide easy access to information about these activities and cider generally”, Mr Reid said.
“We are a voluntary, non‐profit, member-based organisation and bring together people with an interest in cider to exchange knowledge on trends, production techniques and innovations.
“The new website features resources for the industry, policy makers and cider consumers, with historical information on the annual Australian Cider Awards – now entering its sixth year, along with Cider Australia news and policy submissions.
“Cider makers and enthusiasts from Australia and overseas can also use the site to learn more about Australian cider styles, our local producers and the products they make”, Mr Reid added.
To see the new Cider Australia website go to www.cideraustralia.org.au
Media contact: Cider Australia executive officer Jane Anderson – 0434 559 759.


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Google Under Lawsuit Forced To Disclose Its Algorithms For SEO
Under the pressure of the lawsuit, Google is to reveal the details of the search engine algorithm, and either withdraw its SEO defensive algorithms. The ultimatum was given by the courts of the United Kingdom that stimulate the SEO industry.
Google not only has to reveal its algorithm, but it also has to lend their hands as an SEO consultant for businesses.
What Is The Reason Behind That Google Has To Reveal Its Algorithm?
Google got into this situation back in 2012 when a company named Foundem filed a lawsuit in opposition to Google. The company alleges that they are the victim of Google anti-competitive practice. They were facing loss since 2006, as the products they were selling were also sold by Google. But Google products deliberately ranked high. As a result, Foundem faced major damages to their business.
Foundem was initially a vertical search engine platform that helped in searching for the lowest prices in the online world.
At that time, Foundem only provided services to a limited It was initially only available to a limited group of users before being opened up to everyone.
Even after that, the services of Foundem are not available for all, but still, they rank or appear on the search results.
Initially, Foundem appeared prominently high on the search results; moreover, it was showing on the first page if there were any search related queries.
Just after two of launching their platform for everyone, they were buried by the search results of Google.
The company faced a sudden drop in their listing from the first page to hundreds of down pages on search engines.
What the most surprising thing about the Founder’s sudden dropping in search results is that the company was still ranking high on other search engines, but only on Google search engines, it was far behind to reach the potential customers.
This makes the Foundem claim against the Google search engines, which makes them rank low to rank their own Google Shopping products.
Google Now Have To Pay For Such Algorithm Changes In The Courts of UK
In 2012, Foundem claimed the Google sudden changes and filed legal action against Google, which is till now running in the courts for such a long time.
Google provided his evidence in the courts that they were not involved in any anti-competitive against Foundem to the High Court of UK.
Michael Pohl and Cody Kwok, Google engineers, showed the documents to the court in order to defend against the lawsuit.
The High Court says that the document shows how “to explain the operation and aims of Google’s ranking algorithms, and how they have been applied to shopping comparison sites generally and Foundem in particular.”
In order to settle, the court gives google a choice to show up the details of the algorithm, either assist the business as an SEO consultant.


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Councillors have voted to move forward with £9 million regeneration plans for Ivybridge which will include a new Aldi for the town.
South Hams District Council, when they met last Thursday, voted in favour of taking forward the proposals which they hope will result in an economic boost to reinvigorate the town.
The regeneration plans include developing the Leonards Road car park to include the discount food store, a proposal widely supported by local people.
It is estimated the proposed store could create about 30 to 40 jobs for local people, with up to 100 shoppers able to use the store at any one time who are anticipated to make shared trips and use other town facilities, which will be supported by 90 minutes free parking offered at the store, although average store visit are 30 minutes.
Councillors voted by 21 votes to six to proceed with the plan to the detailed design stage required ahead of any planning application being made.
Cllr Hilary Bastone, South Hams District Council’s deputy leader and executive member for enterprise said: “We must build back better and the Ivybridge regeneration project achieves this. It will increase choice and accessibility for people locally, enhance pedestrian and cycle access and youth sports facilities.
"There will be 13,000 shippers a week that will act as a catalyst for improved trade throughout the Ivybridge town centre and there will be a 16 per cent more spend within the town centre if the scheme is completed.
“The increase in footfall will drive more cross-shopping with the existing independent traders in the town and this unlocks the regeneration project. There is widespread support for the project, the business community in support of the scheme and it will rejuvenate Ivybridge town for the benefit of the local community and the economy.”
Cllr Lance Austen added: “The Chamber of Commerce support the scheme, the owners of Glanville’s Mill also support the scheme, and the town council support the scheme, but most importantly, the vast majority of people in the town want it to go ahead.
“The main reason people in the town want it is to save money on the weekly shop, so not surprising people looking for us to approve it. This is an excellent scheme and no doubt it will increase the footfall in the town. It is a regeneration scheme for the town centre.”
Cllr Jonathan Hawkins added that it will improve the public realm of Ivybridge town centre, and this kind of supermarket will get footfall back into the town centre, while Cllr Tom Holway said that it is a project that has been costed, will draw people into Ivybridge, as ‘at the moment people leave Ivybridge so this would give them a reason to stay’.
And leader of the council, Cllr Judy Pearce, said: “We know an Aldi draws people in to shop in Ivybridge and if we delay this any further and the shops will decay even further. We have early indications that Aldi will regenerate the town centre and a lot of the spend will be kept local as a result. If we mess around for years, then the high street will be dead and there won’t be anything left to regenerate.”
But Cllr Julian Brazil questioned the logic and the sense in going ahead with the project, and proposed that it be delayed, funds ringfenced for a project in the town, but to invite the community to come forward with their regeneration plans.
He said: “It is financially and economically illiterate as we have a multi-million pound business and yet we are taking the financial risk. The public were just asked do you think it is a good idea to have a supermarket and that is why they supported it. Build back better is about localism and supporting the local economy and keeping the profits local, and this is the opposite to build back better.”
Councillors voted against Cllr Brazil’s amendment by 20 votes to eight, before voting by 21 votes to six to go ahead with the project.
Cllr Keith Baldry, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said that while he was voting in favour of the plans, if his group took control of the council, then they would revisit the scheme and produce a masterplan for a proper regeneration scheme for Ivybridge.
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The council will now move forward the project to the regulatory statutory planning process, although no timescale for when any application would be submitted was mentioned during the meeting.
After the meeting, Cllr Bastone added: "The decision to make this significant investment in this project is good news for everyone who has been involved in developing these proposals, including Ivybridge Town Council and Ivybridge Chamber of Commerce. The ongoing close consultation with local stakeholders means we can be confident we have a proposal, which truly represents what local people want and need.
"However, we know there are still many hurdles to overcome, including the formal planning stage. That’s why it’s really important to us that we continue talking with the people who live and work in the town and keep on discussing this project. By signing up for emails and getting involved, local people can make sure their voices are heard and give Ivybridge the boost it deserves.”


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Search engines are "not responsible" if personal data shows up in their results, a top European Union court adviser has said.
Google faces allegations that it allows personal data to show in its results, which would contravene EU privacy law.
The test case is currently underway at the EU - but one adviser has spoken out to say it's not up to search engines to erase content from the Internet, regardless of what the content may be. The same adviser, however, underlined that US companies operating in Europe still have to respect EU law.
According to Reuters, Advocate General Niilo Jaaskinen submitted a statement which was read out in the Luxemburg court.
He said: "Requesting search engine service providers to suppress legitimate and legal information that has entered the public domain would entail an interference with the freedom of expression."
The statement said that Internet firms operating in the EU were not obliged to remove personal content produced by third parties, adding: "Search engine service providers are not responsible, on the basis of the (EU's) Data Protection Directive, for personal data appearing on web pages they possess."
One lawyer, Eduardo Ustaran, from London-based Field Fisher Waterhouse, indicated Google's search spiders wouldn't know the difference between personal and non-personal content.
"A search engine is just a tool," Reuters reports Ustaran as saying. "The nature of that information is irrelevant. It is just ones and zeros."
The case, which has rumbled on through the European Court of Justice, is expected to culminate in a verdict before the end of 2013.
It started with a Spanish man, who complained that a public notice, about his repossessed home going up for auction, was an infringement of his privacy, and shouldn't be shown in Google's results.
The announcement was published in a Spanish paper, which has said it was under "legal obligation" to publish.
The complaint is just one of 180 in Spain where people have tried to remove content from Google's results, according to Reuters. These cases are on hold whilst the court deliberates the test case.
Google says deleting content from the results (especially public content) was tantamount to censorship. Google does try to crack down on any illegal content, and can also downrank (although often doesn't remove) sites that have overdone their search engine optimisation.
The company welcomed Jaaskinen's opinion.
Google's head of free expression in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Bill Echikson, said in an email: "This is a good opinion for free expression."
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