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FAIRFAX, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Daon, a Digital Identity Trust company, today announced that GoTyme Bank, a new digital bank designed to provide consumer financial inclusion and empowerment, will use Daon IdentityX for digital identity capture and verification within the GoTyme banking app. As GoTyme Bank launched in the Philippines, it needed to create an account setup infrastructure that delivered a fast and frictionless registration process to reach a wide customer audience, while complying with the country’s regulations on customer and data protection and fraud prevention.
Daon’s IdentityX platform, using the company’s leading document-centric identity proofing technology, will help reduce the barriers to account setup for users, while ensuring GoTyme Bank has accurate identity verification and proofing for all new customers.
To drive more financial inclusion and reach as many customers as possible in the Philippines, GoTyme Bank offers consumers the ability to open accounts in less than five minutes with a paperless process through digital kiosks located in malls and supermarkets nationwide. In addition to its identity-proofing technology, Daon’s fraud prevention features, such as biometric watchlists, third-party identity checks and manual verification services, can be leveraged to ensure that GoTyme Bank can match fast account setup with inclusive and secure identity-proofing. and verification process.
“The threat of fraud can lead to devastating losses in the banking sector, and Daon is committed to providing world-class services to prevent it. This is equally important for new banks setting up operations,” said Clive Bourke, President EMEA and APAC at Daon. “Implementing IdentityX in GoTyme Bank’s application will provide their customers with a more efficient and reliable user experience, while improving application security and expanding the platform as a trusted solution for leading Fintech customers worldwide.”
The GoTyme digital bank was launched in July 2022 as a partnership between the Gokongwei Group and Singapore-based digital banking group Tyme. GoTyme Bank gives users the power of self-service financial solutions accessible through an intuitive all-in-one banking application. Customers can access all types of transactions, transfers and reward services provided by their digital wallet, but with the benefits of full banking services such as interest-earning deposit and investment accounts.
“Integrating our digital banking app with the Daon IdentityX platform will help sustain our mission to provide our customers with seamless access to a broader portfolio of financial services than ever before,” said Chris Bennett, CTO at GoTyme Bank. “Our customers should feel safe and comfortable with a secure account setup, opening the door to better savings, transfers and rewards offered by our digital bank.”
To learn more about Daon’s IdentityX solution offering, visit here.
Daon, a Digital Identity Trust company, enables market-leading organizations worldwide to easily and accurately prove, verify, verify and protect customer identities at every point of trust across the entire customer lifecycle. With industry-leading biometric authentication and identity proofing technology at its core, Daon’s technology ensures that customers’ identities are accurately verified, securely secured and easily recoverable. By reducing fraud, reducing friction and ensuring regulatory compliance, Daon helps businesses deliver a seamless customer experience, improve customer satisfaction and reduce costs. Daon delivers these solutions through its AI and ML-powered IdentityX® platform, which is chosen by leading companies in financial services, telecommunications, travel & hospitality and other industries to acquire and process hundreds of millions of digital identity transactions every day. Learn more at www.daon.com.
About GoTyme Bank
GoTyme Bank, regulated by the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas and a joint venture of Tyme, a multinational digital banking group, with Gokongwei Group member companies, namely Robinsons Bank, Robinsons Land Corporation and Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. GoTyme Bank aims to unlock financial potential its customers with the convenience and security of digital banking. With a high-tech high-touch approach, GoTyme Bank combines the convenience of instant account opening with personalized debit cards issued through kiosks located in jn malls across the Philippines, coupled with the power of self-service financial solutions accessible through an intuitive “all-in-one ” banking application. This, along with other industry-leading offerings, sets GoTyme Bank on track to revolutionize banking in the Philippines.


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The 22,000 sq metre building at Silkwood Park will create 40 full time jobs and should be up and running this autumn.
Kerry-Anne Lawlor, country director for Amazon Logistics, said: “We are excited to invest in the Wakefield area with a new delivery station that will provide efficient delivery for customers, and create new jobs for the talented workforce.”
The company said its delivery stations “power the last mile” of orders and help speed up deliveries for customers.
Packages are shipped to a delivery station from neighbouring Amazon fulfilment and sortation centres, loaded into delivery vehicles and delivered to customers.
The company is hosting a career day on September 16 and job seekers are able to register at amazoncareerday.com
The firm said pay starts at £10 per hour and employees are offered a benefits package.

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It is true that Chinese consumers are spoilt for choice as competition for their attention continues to intensify.
The figures certainly support this assertion. Shampoo sales were more than 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) last year, up from less than 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million) at the end of the 1980s. For the numerically-minded, that's 2,000 times in a matter of about two decades.
Companies selling the stuff should be jumping for joy, but the sobering truth bringing them down to earth is that there were only five or six brands in the 1980s, whereas now there are nearly 3,000.
Some more numbers: Over the same period, the number of toothpaste brands rose from 100 to almost 800. Fruit juice makers were unknown two decades ago, now there are more than 160. More than 100 car models were launched in 2004, double from only two years before.
"China's market is not just big, it is also increasingly crowded. For foreign companies, making money here demands more effort," says Alan Horton, an analyst at US-based Summit Consulting Co.
He won't say it but it is clear that sheer brand power will not carry the day, or the cash register, any more. It is not just a gentleman's contest among themselves, but also against aggressive domestic competitors.
"This is a new strategic challenge for multinationals. The emergence of strong local companies is creating a formidable challenge," he says.
Competition, which in many markets was almost non-existent in the 1980s and 1990s, is becoming intense, agrees Wang Zhile of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. Wang is an expert on multinationals in China.
It's tough out there. Big multinationals, smaller firms from Europe and the United States, ambitious companies from the rest of the Asia and domestic players all want a slice of the market.
The challenge from domestic companies is particularly intense, Wang observes.
Domestic companies have grown in confidence and have improved the quality of their products, helping them move into the middle and even upper segments, he says. "This has been a painful development for multinationals."
Foreign firms have been forced to move in the other direction, cutting prices in an attempt to hang onto market share, but losing profitability in the process.
For instance, domestic companies' forays into flat panel TV production has meant profit margins have plunged for the likes of Sony and Matsushita, which have been forced into price cutting.
Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever are well entrenched in China, but their early dominance of some markets has been whittled down by domestic competition. According to Euromonitor, a global market research company, the domestic Diao brand now dominates China's detergent market, with a share of almost 25 percent. Unilever's Omo is in third place, with a share of just 10 percent.
"Margins were very high till 2003 but there have been several price reductions since then, and there will continue to be additional reductions as consumers have more choices and as more competitors come to the market," says Troy Clarke, head of GM's Asia-Pacific division.
"With competition coming in with even cheaper, better products, those that can't come up with new strategies could be in trouble," Wang says.
So how do multinationals cope? Going Chinese seems to be the direction chosen by most, either by cutting costs or by developing more locally popular products.
"You can't survive in China without becoming a Chinese company. That includes local technology development, product design, procurement, manufacturing and sales," says Yun Jong-Yong, chief executive of Samsung Electronics, the most profitable technology company in the world.
If Samsung tries to sell products developed in South Korea, it could fail because the same products can be developed in China much more cheaply, Yun says.
Until 2004, the company did almost all product development and design at home and used China only for manufacturing.
"Gradually we are transferring development and design functions to China up to a certain level. We now also use Chinese parts," he says.
Gary Coleman, global managing director of Manufacturing Industry Practice with Deloitte, says multinationals should not use traditional ways to grow profitably in emerging markets like China, despite their strong international management experience.
"Emerging markets around the world offer significant growth potential, but the most successful and profitable companies will be those that really understand their customers and take a different approach," he says.
"Companies will need to acquire a new set of competencies and organizational structures to generate a continuing stream of innovative products tailored to the needs of consumers and industrial buyers in emerging markets."
He says multinationals now need to look at developing tailored product offerings for the local market, building local research and development (R&D) capabilities, integrating local supply chains onto the global level, and maintaining margins.
It is also important to acquire deeper customer knowledge and find the best talent, he adds.
Some multinationals have rised to the challenge of slimmer profits in China, but that is only the beginning, because they will need more strategic planning and deeper reforms, says Xu Deyin, a professor with Guanghua School of Management, Peking University.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and different companies need a different mix of strategies, he says.
Companies such as Siemens, P&G and UPS have stopped working with their Chinese partners and have become wholly foreign funded companies, as wholly owned ventures are, on average, more profitable than alliances, Xu says.
Many international giants are restructuring their operations and promoting internal reforms.
They aim to apply a common strategy by setting a single goal, a single plan and a single brand. The most apparent benefit is in financial flow, Xu says, adding a unified financial system could help shave a third off overall costs for multinationals in China.
But cutting costs is only part of the equation. Since many foreign corporations may never be able to reach cost parity with their Chinese rivals, they will have to think of other ways to create value, Xu says, adding that the most common approach is to rethink their distribution systems and have more R&D facilities locally.
But generally speaking, the profit margins of foreign companies are better than domestic companies, says the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation's Wang.
According to the Beijing Statistics Bureau, profits of foreign companies were eight times that of local companies in 2004.
Exactly how much profit multinationals make in China is not an easy question to answer, however. Hard data on profitability is usually difficult to come by, partly, observers say, because enterprises tend to understate the amount of money they make in order to avoid taxation.
Some multinationals also lower their stated profits to have an impact on Chinese companies and erode the time cushion that domestic firms would need on a more gradual, organic path to expansion.
It is true that foreign companies face a future of slimmer profit margins as their numbers multiply and competition becomes tougher, says American Chamber of Commerce President Charles Martin.
A survey of AmCham member companies last year suggested that about 30 percent were seeing better profits in China than in the world as a whole, down from 40 percent in previous years.
"China is acting more like a normal competitive market and we would expect that to continue to happen over the coming years," he says.
However, the biggest profit source for foreign companies in China is often overlooked because it is difficult to record, says Wang. The financial gains generated by cheap sourcing in China are impossible to document because they show up in the profits of multinationals in their traditional markets in the United States and Europe.
The export businesses of foreign firms similarly often show little or no profit. This is less a reflection of reality than of transfer pricing as foreign firms attempt to avoid capital controls and taxes in China. For instance, Wal-Mart buys more than US$12 billion worth of goods in China every year - and more than 50 percent of China's total exports are produced in foreign-invested factories.
(China Business Weekly February 20, 2006)


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The price of cobalt metal in China continued to drift lower in the midweek session on Wednesday October 31, prompting some producers to consider cutting output to mitigate losses. Fastmarkets MB’s Chinese domestic cobalt metal price dropped by 3.3% to 430,000-450,000 yuan per tonne ($24.15-25.28 per lb China VAT-free) on Wednesday, from 445,000-465,000 yuan per tonne on Friday. Local cobalt futures prices plunged on Monday, triggering panic sell-offs in the spot market since the start of this week. The November cobalt contract price on the Wuxi Stainless Steel Exchange, a local platform which offers hedging tools for cobalt, fell to 344,000 yuan per tonne on October 29, down almost 9% from last Friday’s close. The November contract price had inched back up to 358,000 yuan per tonne in the morning of November 1.
Buying appetite for imported metal has declined quickly in the past year with many consumers changing their feedstock to Chinese-produced cobalt metal due to the higher prices for imported material.
“Half of the consumers who used to purchase Chambishi have completely changed their feedstock,” a cobalt trader said.
“There is almost no spot liquidity for Chambishi cobalt metal,” a second trader said.
Yet trading activity for Jinchuan cobalt metal is also thin because suppliers are holding back from offering to avoid losing money during the price dip.
“The official quotations for Jinchuan cobalt metal from its producer, Jinchuan Group, is still steady at 450,000 yuan per tonne. Therefore, it is very hard for suppliers to agree to any bids aggressively lower than that level,” the first trader said.
“Availability of cobalt metal in the spot market is not that large as the majority of producers don’t want to sell,” the second trader said.
Chinese cobalt metal, besides Jinchuan cobalt, was traded below 400,000 yuan per tonne, with some panic selling bringing deals down to as low as 350,000 yuan per tonne this week, Fastmarkets learned. Meanwhile, some producers are considering cutting their production to minimize losses, following weak demand and low spot prices, they told Fastmarkets.
“We are planning to cut metal production in the near future, but we haven’t decided when and how much production will be cut,” a producer source told Fastmarkets, adding that current spot prices were too low for them to maintain any margins.
A production cut in China could give the domestic cobalt metal some temporary relief, market sources told Fastmarkets.
“The cobalt stocks on the Wuxi Stainless Steel Exchange are falling, and certain producers intend to cut production. So the Chinese cobalt price downsides might be capped,” a third trader said.


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HP Omen laptops had been launched.
the two new Omen laptops will cross on sale from July 10.
the new Omen computing device will hit the marketplace in August.
HP just expanded its gaming portfolio and lifted the curtain on two laptops, one Quad HD screen, and acomputing device. All of these products were released below the emblem Omen, HP’s umbrella for all of its hardcore game-centric devices.
The organisation has introduced Omen laptops of 15.6-inch and 17.three-inch display sizes. The smallermodel is priced at $899.99, while the bigger one lightens the pocket through $979.99. They provide as much as sixth–technology Intel center i7 processors, Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M pix,16GB of RAM, and up to 4TB of HDD or 128GB of SSHD garage. both the laptops will hit the market on July 10.
The Omen desktop, and the 32-inch Quad HD display could be launched someday in August. Thepinnacle–give up configuration on the desktop will include the Intel middle i7-6700K processor, 32GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 3TB widespread difficult drive. there is also an alternative among Nvidia’s new GeForce GTX 1080 Founder version card, and AMD’s Radeon R9 390X.
in the end, the new HP Omen Quad HD reveal promises a 5-millisecond reaction time and a 75Hz refreshcharge. The organization claims that all the brand new Omen products are VR equipped. there’s nophrase on pricing of both these products.
(also see: HP Omen evaluation: A slim, sophisticated Gaming device)
All of the goods have the HP-owned VooDooPC branding, and the laptops include a ‘Dragon purple‘ backlit keyboards. HP first brought the Omen collection in 2014 whilst it launched the 15.6-inch Omen computercentered for the gamers. The computer arrived in India in may also 2015 with a price tag of Rs.1,59,990.
down load the devices 360 app for Android and iOS to stay up to date with the trendy tech news, productcritiques, and exceptional deals on the famous mobiles.
Tags: ADM, computers, HP, Intel middle i7 Processors, Laptops, Nvidia, Omen desktop, Omen laptops, Omen monitor


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National tourism body VisitEngland is to spend more than £2 million on an advertising campaign next year, as it looks to encourage more Brits to holiday at home.
The owners of country cottages to rent have been helped by a rise in what is known as the ‘staycation’, as cash-strapped Brits scale-back their holiday plans in the difficult economic climate. However, 2012 also saw British holiday destinations benefit from a feel-good factor caused by the Jubilee and the London Olympics, and VisitEngland is keen to build on this into the next holiday season.
According to the Daily Mail, the head of VisitEngland, Lady Cobham, has pledged to grow the British holiday industry – already worth around £97 billion to the UK economy – by five per cent year on year. Announcing the new media campaign, the paper reports her as saying: “The trend to holiday at home has been growing from strength to strength.
“Now is the time to build on the feel-good factor from the Games and harness that national pride by inspiring Brits to look at their home country in a different way – as their next holiday destination.”
Last year saw VisitEngland undertake a media marketing campaign featuring top entertainment stars, such as Stephen Fry, Julie Walters and Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint. Data from the group shows that in 2011, British residents took 104 million overnight trips in England, totalling 307 million nights away from home which resulted in expenditure of £17.9 billion. The number of domestic trips represented a year-on-year increase of nine per cent.


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More and more, food and drink brands are utilizing the social media platform for understanding consumer attitudes towards their products. “Likes” on Facebook and tweets addressed to companies using are just a few methods businesses can use to dialogue with their customers while gaining valuable and candid feedback. During the holiday season, oftentimes companies see a spike in positivity through their social media outlets.
Halloween is the number one holiday for candy consumption in the U.S. While it may be true that candy companies used to take it easy and let the costume-clad tradition boost their sales single-handedly, confection producers are now using Halloween-specific marketing techniques to garner more sales.
Last year, over 400,000 Americans were polled about their favorite candy by an Arizona news site. The winners – Hershey’s, Nestle Crunch, Butterfinger, and Kit Kat – are all active on social media, engaging with their fans on a daily basis. It’s no surprise that around this time of year, they target their online audience with Halloween planning tips – from fun crafts, to polls about levels of preparation for the holiday, and more. The idea behind this technique is to optimize seasonal sales by leveraging their influence on popular social media sites.
Can’t get enough of costumes and confections? See these sweet statistics on projected candy sales and consumption this Halloween, gathered by POPAI, the Global Association for Marketing at Retail:
- A record number of adults – 71.5% – plan to celebrate Halloween this year.
- 96% of adults intending to celebrate Halloween say they’ll spend about $23 on candy – which adds up to $2.3 billion spent on candy sales nationwide!
- Trick-or-treaters have weighed in on Halloween favorites with their taste buds: 68% prefer receiving chocolate, followed by lollipops at 9%, gummy candy and gum tied at 7%, with 9% leftover for other varieties.
- 26% of households plan to go big or send trick-or-treaters home with full-sized candy in their baskets of treats.
- Many parents admit to getting sneaky on this spooky holiday, with 90% of them admitting to secretly taking treats from their kids’ collection of Halloween loot.
Here’s to a sweet and spooky Halloween filled with your favorite candied treats!
To learn more, please contact Barbara Gassaway and the market research specialists at Observation Baltimore today by calling 410-332-0400 or click here! And if you are interested in participating in a future focus group, sign up at https://observationbaltimore.com/get-paid-baltimore-maryland-get-paid-cash-opinion-baltimore-md/.
Trick or Treat! Halloween Candy Boosts Retail Cash Flow


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Tee-2-Green, a grower-owned bentgrass seed supplier with warehouses in Oregon and on the East Coast, has announced an ample seed inventory amid the national shortage. Over the past two years, the industry has faced challenges due to weather conditions, including droughts and wildfires, resulting in low supply.
“As a grower-owned company, we are made up of two- to three-generation growers,” agronomist and golf course consultant Lew Sharp said. “Over the years, we’ve seen it all and are always prepared for anything Mother Nature may bring our way.”
Golf courses across the country have seen a surge in play and traffic since last spring, creating a higher demand for seed to maintain playability. Tee-2-Green’s available inventory allows them to be ready and equipped to supply customers when they need bentgrass seed.
“We do not expect a shortage of our varieties, we are not raising prices, and we welcome inquiries and orders,” Tee-2-Green president Terry Plagmann said. “Whether you need shipment from Oregon or our East Coast warehouse, we are here to get you the seed you need.”
Tee-2-Green’s bentgrass varieties include Penncross, Penn A-1 & A-4, Crystal BlueLinks, Pure Distinction and Pure Select.


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Nairobi January — Contribution of bed nights by the domestic tourists is expected to grow from the current 47% to 50% by next year, Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) has said.
Speaking after presenting prizes to the first five winners of the ongoing tourism promotion campaigns, KTB Director of Marketing Jacinta Nzioka said dometic tourism has the potential that needed to be harnessed.
“This is a rich market that has all the potential for growth, and with our various marketing tactics we have put in place, we shall grow the sector to the next level,” says Nzioka.
Last week, Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala launched a Kshs 30 million SMS campaign to woo in domestic travelers as part of its recovery strategy.
The five winners won prizes for a three-day excursion in Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Samburu National Reserve and Nakuru National Park.
The winners; Geoffrey Ngeno, Purity Kaugi, Karimjee Fazal Hussein and Amos Kyalo Musyoka will also be spending two nights in different facilities within the Parks after a safari experience.
KTB Company Secretary Allan Njoroge said the SMS campaign will have a direct impact on domestic tourist numbers as it supports the ongoing efforts to position the country’s tourist attractions to the local audience.
The eight-week long campaign will see couples and individuals win prizes during the campaign which will include two nights and three days to various attractions.
He said there will be a grand prize for two people for five nights with a flying package either to Maasai Mara or Samburu. To register for the competition, one will be required to send his or her name to21888.
KTB says the campaign will add impetus to the ongoing Tembea Kenya Campaign seeking to encourage more Kenyans to tour their country and sample its diverse tourism attractions.
Njoroge called on the hotels to offer affordable packages to the local market as a cushion during low season.


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ROK Mobile, an MVNO that operates utilizing three out of the four major USA mobile networks (Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile) has said that it is going to be offering its customers an unlimited video streaming service in the first quarter of 2016.
The new streaming service will feature thousands of Hollywood and international blockbuster movies and television series, as well niche content from a variety of genres. The service will be brought to consumers though a partnership with SeaChange International which will provide ROK Mobile with the mobile video content and an ability to offer its subscribers a personalized viewing experience.
Be informed of the latest deals, plans and promotions from Verizon and every one of its MVNO's when you subscribe to the Verizon weekly newsletter. No spam and you can unsubscribe at any time!
ROK Mobile has not announced what the pricing will be for it's new video streaming platform, but it has said that it will be an added value it its current plan which already includes unlimited talk, text, music, and data with the first 5 GB being at 4G LTE speeds before throttling to 128 Kbps. ROK Mobile currently only offers this one plan, and it is priced at $49.99/month.
The MVNO hopes to be a game changer in the industry by becoming the first wireless provider to offer it's own unlimited streaming music and video services. ROK Mobile will encourage its customers to stream video while they are on one its 20 million Wi-Fi hotspots which in turn helps the prepaid provider to reduce the data usage fees that it is charged by its parent network partners.


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If you haven’t being paying attention, private equity firms love them some technology companies. According to new Pitchbook data, one-fifth of all U.S. private equity deals in the first quarter of this year centered on companies in the IT sector. That’s up from the 10 to 15 percent range over the last 10 years, with the most popular targets being software companies; they’ve made up 54.2 percent of all PE investments in the space since 2006 and 63 percent of the transactions since early last year, says Pitchbook.
It’s easy to see tech’s appeal to PE firms, including those held by other PE firms, those backed by VCs, and those that have gone public already but seen their share prices plateau or worse. What they share in common: investors who are looking to get out so they can fund the next shiny thing.
One case cited by Pitchbook is the 2012 buyout and subsequent IPO of unglamorous consumer credit data company TransUnion. Owned at the time by Madison Dearborn Partners and the Pritzker family, Goldman Sachs acquired it, sunk a bunch of money into the business, and took it public three years later. In the process, reports the WSJ, TransUnion had “become a data-mining machine, gathering billions of seemingly insignificant tidbits about ordinary Americans that it analyzed and sold to lenders, insurers and others.” All told, says the WSJ, Goldman is expected to make five times its initial $550 million investment in the company.
Venture-backed tech companies that aren’t quite ready to withstand sustained public shareholder scrutiny are other great targets, as Brian Ruder, co-head of technology at the global PE firm Permira discussed with us recently. The idea: to buy a controlling stake and, in the process, gobble up the shares of early investors and sometimes early employees. Afterward — as with that TransUnion deal — a lot of money typically goes into the company that will make it more valuable to a subsequent acquirer or as an IPO candidate.
It doesn’t always play out that way, though oftentimes it does. In 2014, for example, Permira invested $200 million to acquire a controlling stake in LegalZoom, an online service that helps people create their own legal documents. LegalZoom had filed to go public in 2012 with much fanfare, but pulled its offering in the wake of Facebook’s seemingly troubled IPO. With antsy shareholders, Permira was able to swoop in, buy out early shareholders, and turn its transaction business into a subscription business that’s ostensibly far more valuable. (PE investors love steady revenue.)
LegalZoom hasn’t gone public yet or been re-acquired, but “if it does go public, it will be a much bigger, healthier company,” says Ruder.
Publicly traded tech companies are also turning increasingly to PE for help. We saw a spate of these buyouts early last year, including the visual analytics company Qlik Technologies, which sold to Thomas Bravo, and the marketing software company Marketo, acquired by Vista Equity Partners.
Just this morning, the New York Post reported that the streaming music service Pandora is also talking with private equity firms for cash to expand its business. Among those firms reportedly in the mix: Providence Equity Partners, Silver Lake and KKR, among others, sources said.
Indeed, just as private equity firms are searching for new ways to wring money out of tech companies, tech companies are increasingly open to taking money from well-heeled PE players. How well-heeled? Reportedly, there is $820 billion of PE capital sitting on the sidelines right now, waiting to be invested. (It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, but in 2015, a peak investing year for VCs, they put less than $60 billion to work.)
The Financial times sees the amount as troubling amount for a variety of reasons, in fact. Among them: because PE firms have record amounts of money at their disposal, they’ve been able to borrow nearly unheard-of sums from banks, giving them reason to look high and low for candidates and, in some cases, overpay. (Last year, when Vista Equity Partners acquired the event management company Cvent, it paid one of the highest multiples ever paid in a private equity takeover in tech.)
It raises the question of whether many of these deals will make sense in retrospect. Either way, the trend doesn’t look to be ending any time soon.


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Amazon's large and flashy investments stand out from those of its tech peers over the past year.Technologyread more
Consumer IPOs from Snap to Uber have been disappointing and serve as a reminder that private investors are making all the money.Technologyread more
China's currency has been an important barometer for progress in U.S.-Chinese trade talks, and right now it's signaling things aren't going well.Market Insiderread more
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son speaks in futuristic terms about his company, but the success of his late-stage VC fund is still unknown.Technologyread more
Reports of Tesla vehicles spontaneously catching fire could make customers wary of EVs just as the industry ramps up production plans.Autosread more
The 2019 PGA Championship wraps up on Sunday, May 19. Here's how much money the champion will earn.Earnread more
While the prolonged fight has been devastating to an already-struggling agriculture industry, there's little indication Trump is paying a political price.Traderead more
The outrage has even inspired a Change.org petition called "Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers," with over half-a-million signatories and climbing.Entertainmentread more
The company's comments Friday come after the White House said U.S.Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will "address the threatened impairment" of national security from...Autosread more
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American International Group on Monday said it would buy property and casualty reinsurer Validus for $5.56 billion in cash to strengthen its reinsurance business, the company's first deal under Chief Executive Brian Duperreault.
Duperreault, who replaced Peter Hancock last year, is seen as a turnaround expert and has promised to streamline AIG's operations and improve its financial performance.
AIG's $68 per share offer represents a 45.5 percent premium to Validus' Friday close.
Validus, through its subsidiaries, offers crop insurance, and property and catastrophe reinsurance. Its Lloyd's of London syndicate business focuses on specialty insurance.
Reinsurers play a little-known but important role in the financial industry by assuming risks that are either too large or too unpredictable for their insurance clients to take on their own.
The Validus deal is expected to close in mid-2018 and immediately add to AIG's earnings per share and return on equity.
Citigroup Global Markets, Perella Weinberg Partners, and Debevoise & Plimpton advised AIG. Validus was advised by J.P. Morgan Securities and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Shares of Bermuda-based Validus were trading close to the offer price before the bell. AIG shares were down 2.3 percent in premarket trading.


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EU regulators to probe Amazon's tax deals with Luxembourg
BRUSSELS, Oct 7 (Reuters) - EU state aid regulators opened an in-depth investigation on Tuesday into Amazon's tax deals with Luxembourg, saying the arrangements could have underestimated the U.S. online retailer's profits and given it an unfair advantage.
The European Commission said Luxembourg's 2003 tax ruling for Amazon's local subsidiary Amazon EU Sarl allowed the company to pay a royalty to its parent which reduced its taxable profit and might not be in line with market conditions.
It said this could give Amazon an economic advantage by allowing the group to pay less tax than other companies whose profits are allocated in line with market terms.
The Commission's probe is the latest against companies benefiting from certain tax practices and against EU government deals which help corporate tax avoidance. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)
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Ornelas to Share Pepsi Hispanic Creative With BBDO/N.Y.
DALLAS – Ornelas & Associates here, already national Hispanic promotions and media buying agency for Pepsi-Cola Co., has become joint Hispanic creative agency along with general-market shop BBDO/N.Y. as part [...]
Sonic Orders Up Finalists For Its $12-Mil. Account
OKLAHOMA CITY – Sonic Industries has culled four to five finalists from the list of 11 sent questionnaires in the review for its $12-million-plus corporate and franchise account.Pattye Moore, advertising [...]
GSD&M swaps Texas Coke biz for Royal Crown Cola account
GSD&M traded in its “Coca-Cola, Texas” assignment for the $8-10-million, Miami-based Royal Crown Cola account last week, raising curiosities about why an agency would voluntarily split with one of the [...]
Valentine Departs Southwest For Pace Warehouses
DALLAS – Southwest Airlines here said last week that it would not replace marketing vp Don Valentine, who left the company Dec. 31 to join Pace Membership Warehouses in Englewood, [...]


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Some experts believe that the next big crypto crash will wipe out $1 trillion in market value. This will happen in 2022. Futurism, a futuristic magazine, and Bloomberg, a financial news source, predict that this will happen. While we won’t know for sure until the event actually happens, the recovery time could be shorter than we think. The good news is that it’s never too late to start saving. Here are some things you can do to prepare for it.
One of the biggest lessons that cryptocurrency holders can take from this crash is to avoid gambling amounts that are too large to reach their goals. If you have a large amount of money to lose, you shouldn’t be able to win, either. If you’re trying to reach a certain goal, don’t gamble an amount that is too high. But if you’re willing to risk more than you can afford to lose, then this is a great time to invest in cryptocurrencies.
Despite the hype, cryptocurrency prices have sunk over the past several months. This has wiped out nearly $1.35 trillion in global value. The decline has been especially sharp over the last week. The recent “crypto crash” has prompted Washington regulators to tighten their rules and impose stricter controls on the industry. But it has also raised questions about the safety of cryptocurrency for the average investor. Let’s take a closer look at what’s going on in this new world of virtual currency.
While the current crash has not affected the price of a single cryptocurrency, it’s not the end of the world for cryptocurrencies. In fact, it has increased the volatility in a variety of digital currencies and created a huge market in the process. As a result, cryptocurrencies have dropped in value, causing billions of dollars of value. The price of these cryptocurrencies has reached six-month lows and the crash has wiped out a number of companies.
However, these prices are still very volatile and could crash in just a few minutes. Even though it’s impossible to predict when a crypto crash will happen, investors need to be prepared for the possibility that the value of their investments will plummet. The current surge in cryptocurrency prices is largely the result of the bitcoin price. After the crash, most of the cryptocurrencies on the market will have their price corrected. The only ones left standing will be those with a clear business model and utility.
The crypto crash has been a nightmare for crypto currency investors. The price has fallen six months low and has wiped out billions of dollars. It has also caused a panic in Washington, where officials are attempting to coordinate their approaches to cryptos. During the last week, the White House has been working with federal agencies to regulate the digital assets. It is important to note that there is no such regulation at the moment. The White House is also battling with the issues of inflation and cryptocurrencies.
The crash has affected millions of people. Fortunately, it didn’t lead to a global financial crisis. A recent crash of cryptocurrency prices has wiped out $1.35 trillion of value. And it has only recently begun to recover. Despite the price drop, there are still risks associated with investing in crypto. Although the crash has not yet affected the average investor, the market’s volatility should not be a cause for alarm. A recent study has even found that it’s advisable to keep your investments under 5% of your portfolio.
While the market is still unstable, experts recommend that you diversify your portfolio. As a rule, you don’t want to make your entire investment in cryptocurrencies, and the price of a single currency may be worth less than a dollar. In addition to investing in one coin, you can also diversify your investments through a portfolio of stocks and bonds based on cryptocurrency. This can reduce the volatility and help protect you from the unforeseen.
As a result of the recent crypto crash, the price of cryptocurrencies has declined by over a trillion dollars. The only exception to this is USD Coin, a dollar-pegged digital token. Other cryptocurrencies have experienced significant losses, including Solana and Cardano, while Terra lost nine percent. These losses are smaller than the housing bubble, which has caused millions of people to panic and suffer financially. This phenomenon is a “crash” of cryptocurrency.


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Ant Group can outperform Saudi Aramco and become the largest IPO in the history of the financial system.
Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Saudi Aramco caused a frenzy among investors when it made its initial public offering in 2019.
The world’s largest oil company obtained $ 25.6 billion, exceeding the IPO of the Chinese company Alibaba.
Jack Ma is obsessed with greatness and likes to be visible in the spotlight. The Chinese billionaire, owner of the Ant Group, plans to IPO the payments giant, concomitant, on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
The Ant Group’s main activity is to provide the payment system between consumers and companies, promoting electronic commerce.
Ant Group also extends its services to the corporate environment, making payments between companies possible.
The expectation is that the concomitant IPO, on the two main Chinese exchanges, will raise more than 35 billion dollars.
US.LUXURY expresses its hope that Jack Ma will be fully successful in yet another great event in the corporate finance sector.
By the way, business success is implicit in Jack Ma’s biography.
Chinese stock market regulators called Jack Ma and other executives of the Ant Group to a meeting, with the aim of further investigating the IPO of simultaneous listing on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
The Ant Group was separated from its controller and Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba. Since then, Grupo Ant, owner of Alipay, which is China’s most popular payment and loan application, has also become a giant financial company and has started to compete and annoy traditional banks.
But banking activity requires strict inspection, with the purpose of guaranteeing the solvency and credibility of the financial market. Each country in its own regulatory framework for the financial market.
Some laws that govern the banking market are international. The Basel Accord, which is also known as the International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards, establishes common parameters of liquidity and accountability for the banking system in most countries.
And Chinese financial market regulators understand that Alipay has to be subject to the same rules and requirements that are made with traditional banks.
Alipay effectively operates similarly to traditional banks, since it provides loans and sells coexisting financial products and services in banks, which are offered by the largest Chinese banking institutions.
The Ant Group’s initial public offering was expected to be the largest IPO in history, surpassing the launch of shares in the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, also known as Saudi Aramco, which took place in 2019 and raised $25.6 billion.
The Ant Group has also partnered with major Chinese banks, acting as an intermediary between borrowers, including companies and individuals. Thus, Grupo Ant does not need to operate with its own capital.
In a statement to the market, Grupo Ant stated: “We will keep in close communications with the Shanghai Stock Exchange and relevant regulators, and wait for their further notice with respect to further developments of our offering and listing process.”
The suspension of the double listing of the company’s initial public offering poses an obstacle to Jack Ma’s ambitions to transform Grupo Ant into the largest financial intermediation and banking company in the world.


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News headlines about GAP (NYSE:GPS) have been trending somewhat positive recently, according to Accern Sentiment. The research group rates the sentiment of news coverage by monitoring more than twenty million news and blog sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. GAP earned a news sentiment score of 0.18 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned news articles about the apparel retailer an impact score of 44.9918222789761 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the near term.
Here are some of the news articles that may have impacted Accern’s rankings:
- What Gap and J. Crew Can Learn From the Grocery Aisle (finance.yahoo.com)
- Who’s up and who’s down on our list of San Francisco’s largest private employers (finance.yahoo.com)
- Mechanics Bank’s Dan Aguilar Elected to Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance Board of Directors (markets.financialcontent.com)
- Stock Bounced Back — The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GPS) – The Stock Street (press release) (thestreetpoint.com)
- Putting the Heat on Comstock Holding Companies, Inc. (CHCI), The Gap, Inc. (GPS) – Market Movers (financialqz.com)
Shares of GAP (NYSE GPS) traded down $0.43 during trading on Thursday, hitting $32.74. The stock had a trading volume of 5,630,009 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,919,033. GAP has a 1-year low of $21.02 and a 1-year high of $35.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $12,730.00, a P/E ratio of 15.02, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.73.
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 2nd. GAP’s payout ratio is 42.20%.
GPS has been the subject of several research reports. Zacks Investment Research raised GAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $31.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 21st. Jefferies Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $39.00 target price (up from $35.00) on shares of GAP in a research report on Thursday, September 7th. ValuEngine raised GAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 7th. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $33.00 target price on shares of GAP in a research report on Tuesday, September 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $33.00 target price on GAP and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-three have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.37.
In related news, CEO Jeff Kirwan sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.11, for a total transaction of $26,110.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 24,268 shares in the company, valued at $633,637.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Julie Gruber sold 5,462 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $191,170.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $419,580. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,549,690 shares of company stock valued at $48,798,813. 27.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
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GAP Company Profile
The Gap, Inc (Gap Inc) is an apparel retail company. The Company offers apparel, accessories and personal care products for men, women and children under the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta and Intermix brands. Its products are available to customers online through Company-owned Websites and through the use of third-parties that provide logistics and fulfillment services.
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Despite slight improvements to the national economy since the mid-2000s, many residents are in need of assistance, in order to feed their families. In Baltimore City, approximately 23% of the population lives below the poverty line. In a city of around 600,000 people, — that’s a lot of folks living hand-to-mouth, many of them seniors and children. Food security and food deserts are two issues we hear about in the news often. However, since 2000, the number of grocery stores in Baltimore City (and other food options) has grown exponentially. There’s also a growing debate about the number of grocery stores vs the willingness of shoppers to purchase healthy foods.
Most grocery stores accept EBT/SNAP, as do many of our farmer’s markets and public markets. But where are they? And how do you get to them if you don’t have access to a car?
Click on the map points above, to get more information on each public market, grocery store, or farmer’s market, along with Maryland MTA transit routes*. For more information on EBT/SNAP in Maryland, go here.
To download a free cookbook that offers simple but delicious recipes on $4 a day, click here! For a story on how the cookbook came about, go here.
If you find any errors or have any questions about the information, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
*Routes have been updated to include CityLink and LocalLink routes, as of February, 2018.


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Articles with this tag:KingScar
- KingScar in defaultposted at 7:58 pm May 18,2010
Evony (originally Civony) has been around 2008, was developed and published by UMGE, and since its release has attracted more then 12 million users world wide. However, just last month a new game came crashing into corner of the market that was previously dominated by Evony, Lords Of Ultima developed and published by EA Phenomic Studios. Now, we ALL know that theirs been countless, "Build your own kingdom" games but, none have ever quite reached the level of perfection Evony did until Lords Of Ultima, which is still in beta testing. Evony revolutionized the way that genre of game was played and looked at after 2 years of changing the layout, the gameplay, and the overall feel of the game itself. Then along comes Lords Of Ultima and more or less did what the Skate franchise did to Tony Hawk, blew it out of the water. For those of you who haven't played either let me enlighten you. In Evony, you get a plot of land with a pre determined amount of spaces to build houses, watch t
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With recent news that EA is planning to go digital only one would ask "but what about consoles?". Sony have just bought Gaikai, a cloud based gaming company for $380 million!
"SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices."
It is likely that tablet's and phones are the target but will this also be used for Sony's next gen console? Only time will tell.


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'Tis the week for giving thanks, and AMD's board partners may give system builders something extra to be thankful for ahead of the Black Friday deals extravaganza. PowerColor and Sapphire have both aggressively cut prices on some of their graphics cards today, and those stickers are good through Saturday, according to Newegg.
We'll be keeping an eye on deals around the web as Black Friday approaches, so stay tuned for more of our picks.
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Tech giant Samsung will unveil Galaxy S4 in the Philippines come April 26, 2013, the Korean firm announced on its Facebook page.
The new smartphone offers higher specs and more software tricks than its predecessor, Galaxy S III.
Check out the specs comparison of S3 and S4 in the chart below (via Yahoo! Philippines).
Globe now has a microsite for the S4. The prepaid kit costs P30,990. The unit is free for as low as Plan 1799 with a lock-in period of 30 months.
Smart meanwhile has started to accept pre-orders in their site.


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It is being seen as an olive branch. Brussels will today make concessions to Britain and offer a new Brexit deal on Northern Ireland - but is set to reject demands to strip European judges of their role in the province.
The European Commission will launch its proposals to resolve the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol, once the plans are approved by the College of Commissioners.
Under the proposals from Brussels, up to 50pc of customs checks on goods would be lifted.
EU officials are expected to say they can cut the checks on British goods exported to NI, if in return they are given real-time access to UK trade databases to police products crossing into the Republic of Ireland.
Europe Editor James Crisp explains the offer is similar to the "maximum facilitation" plan originally proposed by Brexiteers - but rejected by Brussels.
Container logjam brings fresh fears for Christmas
Fears of a Christmas shortage of toys, clothes and electronics have been heightened by the diversion of cargo ships away from the UK. Danish giant Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, announced that larger vessels would dock elsewhere in Europe to avoid the congestion at Felixstowe caused by a shortage of lorry drivers. Business owners said that vital supplies and Christmas gifts were "buried" among thousands of containers stuck at the docks. Bill Gardner explains that shipping executives believe the disruption is likely to last into the New Year, while hauliers are "scared for the final rush" before the festive period.
It comes as four more energy suppliers are in line to collapse amid soaring wholesale gas and electricity prices, leaving thousands more British households facing higher bills. A string of companies are on the brink of failure as crisis grips the energy market, with talks under way with industry regulator Ofgem. As Rachel Millard reports, company failures could be announced as soon as this morning.
Shatner to nervously go where no 90 year old has gone
It is one small step for man, one giant leap for an ageing TV sci-fi star. William Shatner, the 90-year-old actor who starred as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, is today due to blast off to the final frontier. He is hoping to become the first nonagenarian to achieve the feat as he sits atop a rocket launched by Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin space tourism company. Shatner, famed for his catchphrase "Beam me up, Scotty," admitted: "I'm terrified." Follow a video stream of the flight, which is due to launch at 3pm.
Daily dose of Matt
Also in the news: Today's other headlines
Boycott 'impedes peace' | The Israeli foreign ministry has accused novelist Sally Rooney of impeding peace in the Middle East by refusing a request to have her book translated into Hebrew. The Irish author said she supported a cultural boycott and would not allow the translation rights for her latest novel to be sold to an Israeli-based publishing house. Jake Wallis Simons, deputy editor of the Jewish Chronicle, writes that it is nothing but a futile millennial gesture. And Allison Pearson argues that her juvenile view of the world is a worrying moment for our culture.
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Around the world: Odd man out in North Korea
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Comment and analysis
- Philip Johnston | Lockdown delay was excusable, unlike energy crisis
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- Owen Polley | Coveney has cheek accusing Britain of 'breakdown' risk
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- BMW i4 review | German establishment leads fightback against Tesla and other disrupters
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Sport briefing: Hungarian fans fight police
England's 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw with Hungary was overshadowed by fighting between visiting supporters and police that was sparked by a racism report. Just over a month after England players were subjected to racist chanting in Budapest, fights broke out when a spectator was arrested for allegedly racially abusing a Wembley steward. At Indian Wells, Andy Murray was beaten in straight sets by Alexander Zverev in a match Simon Briggs described as a hard-fought tussle.
Business briefing: Coal makes a comeback
Countries are turning to coal-fired power after renewables failed to keep pace with a post-pandemic jump in demand for energy. Carbon dioxide emissions are heading towards their second largest annual increase in history, the International Energy Agency warned today, as coal makes an unlikely comeback. It is a blow to politicians who have ramped up promises for their economies to reach net-zero carbon emissions.
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Apple iPhone 14 launch ad video updated after lyrics were confused for racial slur
Apple has updated the videos on social media, including YouTube, for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus launch advertisement after the lyrics were mistaken for racial slurs. The original advertisement used a snippet of Idris Elba’s Biggest song, with lyrics repeating the word “Biggest".
After the lyrics were misinterpreted as racial slurs, Apple altered the videos for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus launch commercial on social media, including YouTube. The original advertising, according to media report, used a portion of Idris Elba's Biggest song, whose lyrics repeated the phrase "Biggest," but did so in such a way that some listeners may have mistaken it for an ugly racial slur. However, the way the way the word was said in the song meant some people instead heard an offensive racial slur.
The advertisement ran in September, and it quickly started to go viral. Two months later, Apple took action by completely eliminating the voices from the ad's music. The report claims that if one views the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus launch advertisements on YouTube today, they will no longer hear any vocals; instead, only the instrumental backing track is played throughout the full film.
Even though the backdrop track is all that can be heard, the Elba song is still credited in the video description. Originally, the lyrics were something like “Biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest, this is the biggest bounce of the summer".
The phrase "Biggest" was used to describe the company's biggest iPhone introduction to ever, the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Plus. The pronounced syllables of "Biggest," along with the music, prompted participants to hear the n-word when they were not expecting it, according to the survey.
Apple iPhone 14 comes with a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display. The phone’s screen has a resolution of 2532x1170 pixels. The smartphone has ceramic shield protection and is splash- and spill-proof. The Apple A15 Bionic chipset and 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage choices power the gadget.
To perform camera duties, the smartphone boasts of a 12MP primary sensor at the back paired with another 12MP ultra wide sensor. For selfies, the handset has a 12MP TrueDepth camera on the front. The smartphone features a cinematic mode with 4K Dolby Vision support for up to 30 fps.


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Coalition of restaurants call on Lightfoot to postpone new COVID-19 mandate
Mary Kay Tuzi, owner of Twin Anchors at 1655 N. Sedgwick St., said restaurants have been unfairly targeted throughout the pandemic and have borne the brunt of COVID-19 mandates.
A coalition of restaurants on Monday urged Mayor Lori Lightfoot to delay a new rule requiring restaurants and some other businesses to check the vaccination status of their customers.
But the coalition also is demanding that some places now exempt from the mandate be forced to follow the same policy.
“We all want to solve the COVID crisis, but forcing restaurants to completely change their operations in 13 days with tremendous legal liabilities and operational cost, that’s just not practical,” said Roger Romanelli, executive director of the Fulton Market Association. “Let’s take our time here, take just a couple more days. We know Chicago is having a crisis, but don’t overly burden the restaurants and other business to solve the crisis.”
Romanelli was referring to the 13 days from Dec. 21, when Lightfoot announced the new mandate, to Jan. 3, when it takes effect. That policy would require restaurants, bars and gyms to verify customers’ vaccination cards and a photo ID. There are some exemptions, such as restaurant customers picking up a carry-out order.
On Monday, the Chicago Restaurants Coalition called on the city to postpone implementation until Jan. 15, saying they need time to hire or train staff to enforce the mandate, to install security cameras to capture customer interactions and for the Chicago Police Department to clarify what officers will do if a guest won’t provide a vaccination card.
“We are asking the mayor and we are asking directly to Chicago Police Supt. David Brown to provide written instructions for restaurants in case they have angry and unruly customers,” said Romanelli, coalition coordinator. “We want restaurants to be prepared, in case something happens, to work closely with the police department.”
Romanelli added if restaurants, bars, gyms and other entertainment venues must check vaccination cards, then all government buildings in Chicago should be required to do the same. Restaurants shouldn’t be singled out, since the city “has not provided our coalition evidence that restaurants in fact are hot spots for the COVID spread.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the risk of COVID-19 spreading increases with in-door dining at restaurants or congregate bar settings.
A spokesman with the mayor’s office said the city has already hosted education webinars that advised businesses on the new vaccination requirements.
“In response to the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases both locally and nationally, the city announced that proof of vaccination will be required to dine indoors, visit gyms or enjoy entertainment venues where food or drink are being served,” spokesman Cesar Rodriguez said. “Throughout this pandemic, businesses have shown their commitment to the health and safety of their employees and patrons by strictly following public health guidelines, including the Mask Mandate, which is still in effect.”
The new mandate does have some exemptions. Employees of the affected businesses, for example, can opt for weekly testing if they aren’t vaccinated.
Places exempt from the new mandate include houses of worship and grocery stores without indoor dining sections. So are restaurants at O’Hare and Midway airports, soup kitchens and day care centers.
Mary Kay Tuzi, owner of Twin Anchors, 1655 N. Sedgwick St., said if the incentive for these new mandates is to force people to get vaccinated, the city shouldn’t just stop with bars, restaurants and gyms. It should also be implemented at grocery and hardware stores because those are the places where “people have to go to that are much more imperative for them” to shop at.
Tuzi said restaurants like hers have been unfairly targeted throughout the pandemic and have borne the brunt of COVID-19 mandates.
“We are not a bar where we check IDs, so I have no idea of how I am going to, physically in my restaurant, figure out the logistics of how this is going to be done, short of having someone stand outside and check IDs,” Tuzi said. “Which means I am going to have to hire somebody new because I don’t have any people on staff to do (that). That’s not something I had in my budget.”


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Thursday, November 16th, 2017 | 17 min read
This article originally appeared in The Social Influencer.
The first time I met Paul Rogers, we were tracking a global conversation on social media around the retirement of Italian soccer legend, Francesco Totti. In seven days there were over two million interactions across fifty-eight countries worldwide. While 44% of the conversation was happening in Italy, 56% of the conversation was circling the globe. Talk about a “connected world”, but that is the phenomenon of AS Roma and the award-winning social strategy they are driving is creating a global brand.
Paul Rogers is Head of Digital Media at AS Roma, one of the world’s most famous football clubs. Paul is based in Boston, where the Italian club’s ownership is headquartered, and is responsible for the club’s content activities across all digital and social platforms. Prior to joining Roma in January 2015, Paul spent 14 years working for Liverpool Football Club and one of the most iconic sporting brands in the world. He was responsible for developing and leading the club’s international media strategy – helping the club to communicate with over 25 million followers in 18 different languages every day.
I caught up recently with Paul Rogers, after AS Roma was nominated for the “Best Use of Content on a Social Platform” and “Best Sports Content Marketing Campaign” in the 2017 Drum Content Awards.
Here is a snapshot of what he had to say:
You have built one of the most dynamic and passionate followings in all of sports on social media. What was the tipping point for you when you realized that the changing world of social was where you needed to put your focus?
I’m not sure there has ever been one moment that acted as a tipping point. Instead, I think it’s just been a gradual evolution of how people – and fans – have changed their online habits and the way they choose to consume content. When that happens, you either adapt your strategy or you no longer reach your own audience. It’s a bit like the record companies; when people started to stream music and share digital files, they tried to fight the consumers and, in some cases, even sue them because they didn’t want their very lucrative business model that had always served them so well disrupted. That approach was basically a disaster for the record industry and provided a massive opportunity for the likes of Apple, and later Spotify, two companies who put the consumer first, to exploit.
I remember when social media, as we know it now, first started. I was Head of Content at Liverpool FC and we, like Roma, were one of the first clubs to really embrace the new trends and social platforms. When I was at Liverpool, Roma were actually the first club to launch on Pinterest, for example, and then Liverpool became the second. For Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr and Twitter, we were certainly one of the first – if not the first – on some of those platforms.
However, I think I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was also slightly conscious that we shouldn’t just go ‘all in’ on social media and just disregard everything else we were doing with our own platforms.
In the back of my mind, I always thought that we needed to be careful because it’s like building a big new house on someone else’s land. What happens if a particular social platform disappears or, worse, completely changes the rules further down the line? My thinking, eight or nine years ago, was that it’s their platform and they could do whatever they like with it in the future to maximize their profits and their value – regardless of how that affected the brands who were basically enjoying free rent on their platforms.
Looking back, I actually think it’s played out much as I thought it would. The likes of Facebook convinced sports teams to migrate their fan bases onto their platforms. We, sports teams, basically provided free advertising for Facebook and incentives for our fans to join the social platforms. Then once we’d driven millions of fans to those platforms, the social networks told us that our rivals now had even fans on their platforms so we needed to work even harder to get more fans to sign up to Facebook.
Then, once our millions of fans were on the social networks, we were told we needed to provide more content to engage these very fans. Then we were told that rather than post links for our fans to visit our owned platforms or consume content elsewhere, we needed to post all our content on their platforms natively so fans wouldn’t need to leave the social network.
Then we were informed that we needed to make the content visual and video-centric and exclusive and live or short-form or long-form or 360. Then finally, we were all told that the algorithm had now changed, so now we’re going to need to pay if we want to actually reach more than 5% of your own fans.
I’ve got to hold my hands up and say it’s been an absolutely genius strategy by the social networks. It’s their platform, we’re just the tenants. If I had been working for a social network, I would have done exactly the same.
Now, having said all that, we are where we are and now it’s a case of adapt or die. We all use social networks because, more often than not, they offer a more rewarding experience than most websites. The consumers have made their choice and they’ve chosen social networks and you can either try and fight that and force fans to do something else because it suits your old business model – like the record companies tried and failed – or you can embrace it, work with the social networks and take on the challenge.
I think we’ve embraced social media and ultimately, we’ve found that the same rules apply regardless of the platform – content is either great or it’s not. If it’s great, it will do well. If it’s just average, it won’t resonate with fans and it won’t be seen.
That’s fair and it makes sense because now attention and time is the only currency that really matters. There’s so much content out there competing for our attention that people simply don’t have time to devote to things that are average. Even being good is not enough anymore – you have to be great.
It’s hard to be great all the time – and we’re certainly not great all the time – but that’s the challenge we face and ultimately, it’s great news for the consumer because brands have to up their game and work harder to deliver a better experience for the consumer.
So many brands and organizations want to drive traffic back to a website. How do you distinguish your efforts in social vs your efforts to drive web traffic?
I think that’s the old way of doing things and something we have been working hard to address over the last couple of years. We worked with Omnigon, our digital partner, to launch a new official website in December 2015 because our old website was no longer fit for purpose in the age of social media. We believed then – and we believe now – that there is still a place for a club website in the digital space. It allows us to create a richer and deeper content offering for fans and allows us to control the experience so that fans can find all the content in one place.
The website has been a real success. We’ve more than doubled page impressions, unique visitors and time spent on site since launching and earlier this year the site was actually awarded ‘Best in Class’ status at the Interactive Media Awards.
However, we’ve achieved this success by adopting a social-first strategy.
What that means is that we have stopped this outdated practice of simply driving fans to the website for no reason other than to increase website page impressions. We had to sit down and ask ourselves some tough questions: Why do we have a website? What is the actual purpose of the website? Why do we feel the need to constantly try and drive fans off social media, where they are happy, to go to our website? If it was just to increase page impressions then that’s not putting the fan first or delivering a great fan experience.
We changed how we operated on social media and tried to really put the fans first at all times – what that means in this context is delivering content natively on social media if it can be consumed on social rather than trying to force people to visit a website for no reason.
We have enough great content on our website – content that’s really suited to being on a website – and we will use social media to direct fans to come and consume it. But what we won’t do is just put something on our website that would be more suited to being on social media just to increase page impressions because in the end, fans know when they are being tricked or when someone is wasting their time for ulterior motives. As consumers ourselves, we don’t like click-bait social posts, so if we don’t like them, we shouldn’t be trying to force them on our own followers.
Great article proclaiming that AS Roma revels in being the weirdest football club on social media. How do you create that personality on social media? What is the goal?
It was The Drum that first used that term ‘weird’ when writing about what we were doing on social media in the summer with transfer announcements and it was probably the perfect description of that campaign. We set out to do something very unconventional with the transfer announcement campaign.
Every summer, football clubs announce new signings, so across Europe and the wider world, there’s probably thousands of player announcements being released and we wanted to be different and make people sit up and take notice.
We also wanted to inject some fun back into football because everything is so serious these days. Most of the conversation on social media around football transfers involve net spend, financial fair play, illegal approaches, greedy agents, a lack of loyalty, release clauses and a whole host of other legal and financial terms. It’s like you almost need to be an accountant or a lawyer to understand what clubs are doing in this modern age of football.
We wanted to make people laugh and demonstrate that we don’t take ourselves too seriously as a lot of clubs can become very pretentious when it comes to player announcements. So we decided to include goats in trees, kidnappings, typing monkeys, icebergs, fidget spinners, slime and singing lions in our videos. As the summer went on, we made our videos stranger and stranger and the feedback was great – not just from our own fans, but also from fans of other clubs.
We set out to entertain people and by the end, people just wanted Roma to sign new players so they could see a new announcement video. Club’s unveiling of their video announcements became an event in themselves and all across football, these videos were becoming a new genre.
The Daily Mirror, one of the biggest newspapers in England, ran a countdown of the Top 20 player announcement videos of the summer and Roma occupied four out of the Top 5 places and 25% of the list in total. We’re an Italian club and that’s an English newspaper, so we definitely created a buzz.
At the end of the day, to use a football cliché, it was just us having some fun with fans during the off-season and I think there were a lot of supporters from other clubs around the world who came away having enjoyed our approach to social media. We’re not going to persuade an Arsenal or Bayern Munich fan to switch clubs but if some of them decide that Roma are their favourite Italian club, that’s no bad thing.
You are an Italian Football Club with an international fan base. How do you engage with fans worldwide AND localize the content?
We’re an Italian football club with a global fan base and a global outlook. We’re proudly Italian and even more proud to represent the city of Rome. People travel from all over the world to visit Rome – it’s one of the most magical cities in the world and people fall in love with it as soon as they come. We want them to fall in love with Roma too and experience the intense passion that the fans in Rome feel for their local club.
Every day we use content to engage with our fans – both the local fans who live and breathe the club and also fans from much further afield who have taken Roma to their heart. We do that by localizing content rather than simply translating it. What works in Rome, doesn’t necessarily work in New York or London and we also find that just because something is very popular in Jakarta, it may not work as well in Cairo. We have set up very localized social media accounts and teams in different territories and by using local people, we can better tailor our content for the intended audience. As with everything though, it all comes down to entertaining content. No amount of localization can transform bad content into good content.
What are the biggest trends you are seeing in social media?
Video is everything – but audio is making a comeback! It could be VR, AR, 360, live, whatever, but this new generation doesn’t really want to read – I know, because my daughters treat books like kryptonite and I’m not sure they even know what a newspaper is. They want to consume visual content and they want it live and on-demand, snackable and in depth, unfiltered and epic.
They want great stories that move them, stories that resonate with them personally and stories that entertain them and empower them. It’s about the user – it’s not about the brand. What does sharing this piece of content say about me? What does interacting with this brand on social media tell my peers? It used to be about the brand but now it’s about the individual. The best brands –Coca-Cola, Emirates, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify – they understood it was all about the consumer a long time ago. We have a lot to learn from them.
Celebratory Cocktail when AS Roma’s wins? Sierra Nevada
Biggest moment for you in social? “Whenever any of my hip-hop heroes from the late 80s engage with my tweets. I’m a big music fan, so I still find it incredible you can directly engage with people you grew up listening to like Chuck D, Eric B and Masta Ace.”
Go to social channel for the club? Instagram
Go to social channel for you? Twitter
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When Micron CEO Mark Durcan sat down Oct. 12 with a group of financial analysts, the chief topic was the slack global demand for memory chips.
"If we see any reasonable macro environment, this thing sorts itself out pretty quickly," said Durcan.
Bloomberg News reports that Micron and other dynamic random access memory suppliers "are experiencing a demand slump as a sluggish economy curbs purchases at a time of the year when the holiday shopping season usually boosts orders."
At the Oct. 12 closing bell on the NASDAQ exchange, Micron shares had declined 1.4 percent for the day to $5.67. The stock has lost 9.9 percent of its value thus far this year.
But in August, Durcan cautioned attendees of the Bose City Club, saying, "We've come a long way, but the business landscape isn't any safer."
"I think we've done a lot of things right over the years," said Durcan. "We've been clever about how we access capital and how we grow."


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This is a problem we face every year. A new phone is released, and a lot people start having problems with their older devices. For instance, between the last few months, right about when the iPhone 8 and iPhone X became available, Google searches for the term “iPhone slow” went up by 50%.
This phenomenon is so common that people now believe that tech companies intentionally slow their devices down in order to coax them into buying new ones. There’s even a term for it, “planned obsolence”. But is there any actual conspiracy at work here? Not really. Phones do become slow with passing years, and the reason behind it isn’t exactly evil. It’s mainly because of the software upgrades.
According to Greg Raiz, a former Microsoft program manager who worked on Windows XP, “There’s no incentive for operating system companies to create planned obsolescence. It’s software, and software has various degrees of production bugs and unintended things that happen.”
When a company like Apple or Google announced a new phone, they are often accompanied by OS upgrades. Like Apple released iOS 11 shortly before the iPhone 8 started shipping in September. That update was available for the 5s as well, which is four years old. When you install a new OS on such an old device, especially one that already has a bunch of apps loaded, some issues may occur that may make the user experience a little sluggish, as the upgrade process also has to migrate your files and apps and settings. It’s likely that a quality assurance tester who installed iOS 11 on an iPhone 5s may have done it on a clean device, and not faced any problems.
“It’s like changing the plumbing of the house without changing anything else,” says Scott Berkun, an author and a former manager for Microsoft who oversaw engineers that worked on Windows operating systems and web browsers.
The good news is, as there isn’t a vast conspiracy trying to make your phone obsolete, you can try a bunch of fixes yourselves. Maybe try backing up your data and doing a fresh install instead of simply updating. There could be a bunch of other reasons why your phone is acting up as well, so don’t be too quick to jump to conclusions.


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Apple launched its iPhone 12 Series smartphones in India last month. The company is taking pre-orders for the iPhone 12 Pro Max and Ihon 12 Mini. Both phones can be pre-booked from 6:30 pm today through Flipkart, Amazon, Apple India online store and Authorize Apple retailer.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 Mini will be made available in 3500 retail locations from 13 November. Let’s know about the price and launch offers of these new iPhone models …
Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 Mini Indian Price
The 64GB storage variant of the iPhone 12 Mini is priced at Rs 69,900. The 128GB storage variant of the phone can be purchased for Rs 74,900 while the 256GB variant is priced at Rs 84,900. The 128GB variant of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is priced at Rs 1,29,900, while the 256GB and 512GB variants can be purchased for Rs 1,39,900 and Rs 1,59,900 respectively.
The iPhone 12 Mini comes in Blue, White, Green, Black and Product Red colors. The iPhone 12 Pro Max is available in Graphite Silver, Gold and Pacific Blue color.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max offers on iPhone 12 Mini
Cashback of Rs 6,000 and 6 months No Coast EMI are getting offers like buying iPhone 12 Mini with HDFC Credit Card. iPhone 12 Pro Max users can avail Rs 5,000 cashback and No Coast EMI for 6 months.
HDFC debit card users will get an instant discount of Rs 1,500 on purchasing the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max.


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Tempe, Arizona police released video of the Uber Self-Driving SUV crash that killed a woman on Sunday. It shows a woman push her bicycle on a dark road and the human back-up driver's reaction.This video includes images some may find disturbing. Toyota unveiled the latest generation of its Lexus self-driving car at CES earlier this year. SAN FRANCISCO -- The ripple effect of a deadly incident involving an Uber self-driving car in Arizona widened Thursday as Toyota disclosed that it was pausing its autonomous car testing program. "For us it's about the well being of our (safety) drivers, because an incident like this can be jarring and they're out there every single day," Rick Bourgoise, communications manager with Toyota Research Institute, told USA TODAY.
Toyota is investing $500 million in ride-sharing giant Uber for the development of self-driving vehicle technologies as part of a wider partnership between the pair, the companies announced on Monday. Toyota said Uber will be integrating its self-driving technology with its own automated safety support system, Toyota Guardian, for purpose-built vehicles for deployment on Uber's network, beginning with pilots in 2021. Toyota said the partnership -- for which talks reportedly began as far back as March -- aims to bring autonomous ride sharing as a mobility service to market, and marks a milestone in Toyota's "transformation to a mobility company". "The deal is the first of its kind for Uber, and signals our commitment to bringing world-class technologies to the Uber network," said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. "Our goal is to deploy the world's safest self-driving cars on the Uber network, and this agreement is another step towards making that a reality.
Toyota Motor Corp. is expanding an alliance with Uber Technologies Inc. through a new investment and a plan to get self-driving cars on the road. The Japanese automaker is investing $500 million in Uber, the companies said on Monday. The deal values the ride-hailing giant at $72 billion, said a person familiar with the matter. As part of the pact, Toyota will manufacture Sienna minivans equipped with Uber's self-driving technology, and another company will operate the fleet. They have yet to identify the third partner, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
Japanese carmaker Toyota is to invest $500m (£387m) in Uber and expand a partnership to jointly develop self-driving cars. The firm said this would involve the "mass-production" of autonomous vehicles that would be deployed on Uber's ride sharing network. It is being viewed as a way for both firms to catch up with rivals in the competitive driverless car market. The deal also values Uber at some $72bn, despite its mounting losses. That is up 15% since its last investment in May but matches a previous valuation in February.
As Uber finally closes in on its IPO, its self-driving car unit is getting a big cash infusion and some independence. The company announced tonight that Toyota, Denso and Softbank are investing a total of $1 billion in its Advanced Technologies Group (Uber ATG), in a deal that values that part of the company at $7.25 billion. This adds onto Toyota's $500 million investment last year, which the two said would lead to the creation of an autonomous fleet based on Toyota's Sienna minivan. So far, many of the big car companies are teaming up to develop autonomous tech combined with ridesharing angles as it's expected to be a huge market in the next few years. According to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, "The development of automated driving technology will transform transportation as we know it, making our streets safer and our cities more livable. Today's announcement, along with our ongoing OEM and supplier relationships, will help maintain Uber's position at the forefront of that transformation."


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Intel has reportedly shut down its offices in Pakistan as part of company’s global business plan to focus on lucrative market while cutting costs from different countries. The company’s move to shut down its offices across the country comes at a time when the economy of Pakistan is improving and moving towards stability.
Reports cite that the chipmaker giant is now focusing more on Cloud Computing as compared to hardware. It is also reported that Intel is winding up its business in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well. Fortunately, the company plans to retain its operations in the country through channel business partners and vendor.
Intel recently closed its head office in Karachi along with other representative offices in different cities. Further, Intel has laid off many employees in Pakistan where a few selected has been moved to other regional offices in countries like Singapore and Malaysia.
It is also reported that Intel’s country manager, Naveed Siraj, quits to join Dell EMC as it country manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Also, Intel’s marketing manager, Asma Aziz, has been shifted to Singapore office recently.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Intel as a company is moving towards new horizons as the company can be seen moving past the smartphone’s chip phase. The company is reportedly focusing on the fifth generation wireless communication service.
Even though Intel is exiting Pakistan industry, but the good news is that it will still work on several projects related to Intel International Science and Emerging Fair. In any case, Intel’s move to exit Pakistan is quite surprising since many other foreign companies are rushing to start their operation in Pakistan.


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Tesla’s chief Elon Musk has no official job in the not long ago unveiled Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) even with having a hand in its formation. The DOGE fan-cum-influencer has designed headlines in the previous few weeks as some crypto neighborhood customers have accused him of manipulating Bitcoin rates.
“Elon Musk has no job at the BMC. The extent of his involvement was signing up for an educational call with a group of North American companies to explore Bitcoin mining.”
Musk has been very active on Twitter, publishing tweets that a faction of crypto users say have had a demeaning influence on cryptocurrency. His social media exercise has angered some crypto traders who will probable be glad about his exclusion from the BMC. Meanwhile, billionaire entrepreneur Michael Saylor has been confirmed as a vital member and will as a result be associated in the Council’s operation.
Saylor, chief government of MicroStrategy, has likewise been a common figure in the crypto sector. His corporation has invested millions of dollars in the flagship cryptocurrency considering the fact that last year. Latest studies show that the business has a stash of 92,079 Bitcoins translating to about $3 billion at present costs.
Before this 7 days, Reuters noted that the company software program firm was seeking to present $500 million in bonds. MicroStrategy is mentioned to be intent on investing in Bitcoin making use of the proceeds.
With regards to the Council, the business government wrote, “The Bitcoin Mining Council is a voluntary and open up forum of Bitcoin miners fully commited to the community and its main concepts.” It is tasked with advocating for energy usage transparency and, to some extent, boosting awareness on Bitcoin and its mining. Saylor also invited interested parties to be part of in the message that appears on the Council’s formal website.
The unveiling of the Council arrives as issues about the effects of Bitcoin mining on the atmosphere grew. Last thirty day period, electric powered auto automaker Tesla declared it was reversing its selection to settle for Bitcoin as payment for its EVs, citing environmental issues. The announcement then introduced about chaos in the crypto market place. A lot of regions, including China, have since taken equivalent stances.
Many authorities and substantial profile figures have a short while ago touched on the matter that has put the long term of crypto up in the air. US Senator Elizabeth Warren appeared just before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday and vilified cryptocurrencies expressing they experienced a negative affect on the natural environment.