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CARY – As the company that was R.H. Donnelley emerged from bankruptcy shedding its Yellow Pages legacy for a focus on online business, one of the largest mutual fund institutions in the world surfaced as the publisher’s largest shareholder.
Now, less than three months after R.H. Donnelley emerged from bankruptcy as Dex One, Franklin Templeton Investments is laying the groundwork to sell its shares in the Cary-based company. Dex One submitted an April 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to register the securities. No date is listed for the sale of the securities.
Dex One spokesman Peter Larmey says the filing means the company is registering the securities for Franklin Templeton, its largest shareholder. Stacey Johnston, a spokeswoman for San Mateo, Calif.-based Franklin Templeton, says the company does not comment on individual securities.
Franklin Templeton, referred to in the filing as “Franklin Entities,” acquired new securities that Dex One issued upon emerging from bankruptcy. Franklin Entities took a 30 percent stake in the company. At Dex One’s current share price of $29.54 per share, the Franklin Entities stake is worth about $450.8 million.
Jamie Andelman, Dex One’s head of investor relations, says Franklin Equities received new equity in the company because Franklin was one of the company’s bondholders. He says the registration statement was filed because the bankruptcy code requires a separate filing for Franklin Entities, in part because of the size of its stake.
“Franklin shares had to go through one more step than everyone else, but now their shares are the same as everyone else’s,” Andelman says.
Andelman adds Franklin is not known as an activist company. “They invest in companies they like,” he says.
According to FactSet, no other institutional investors own more than 12,000 shares in the company. The Ohio pension fund owns a little less that 12,000 shares in Dex, and the California pension plan owns about 5,000 shares. But two of Fidelity’s mutual funds own about 110,000 shares of the new company.
The government filing says Dex One’s restructuring support agreement last year gave Franklin Entities the one-time right to choose three of the company’s directors. Franklin Entities chose Richard Kuersteiner, who has served as an officer to virtually all of the Franklin Templeton funds. Franklin also supported two other directors, Mark McEachen and Alan Schultz, who are not affiliated with Franklin Resources, parent company to Franklin Templeton.
Larry Robbins, a securities attorney and partner with Wyrick Robbins in Raleigh who is not involved with Dex One, says that without registered securities, shareholders looking to sell their stakes in a company face limits. A shareholder can sell only 1 percent of outstanding unregistered shares in the company every 90 days. Owners of notes in the company can sell them, but whoever buys the notes cannot sell them for at least a year.
Registering the securities is a step that the company takes so that the investors can sell the stock sometime in the future, Robbins says. The money will go to investors, not the company. When the investors want to sell, the registration statement will be updated.
“They may be looking for liquidity in the short term, they may be looking for liquidity six, nine, 12 months from now,” Robbins says.
R.H. Donnelley’s path to bankruptcy was shaped by the flight of traditional Yellow Pages advertisers to the Internet and staggering debt accumulated by the company from acquisitions. The company acquired larger rival Dex Media for $9 billion in 2006. R.H. Donnelley entered bankruptcy last May, in a move that wiped out shareholders. At the time, CEO David Swanson said the steep drop in revenue as advertising plummeted was not anticipated. In January, a bankruptcy court judge approved the company’s reorganization and the company returned to the public markets. As Dex One, the company is looking to use a variety of products, such as online and mobile search, to help connect companies with customers.


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Monday, January 5, 2015
Viper Connects Your Car With Apple Watch, Android Wear
Have you ever wished you could make your car--yes, your car--a smartphone-connected, smart device? A local company has just rolled out a new product which lets you start, lock, unlock, and track your car from your Android Wear or Apple Watch. Automotive accessory firm Viper, which is based in Vista, said today that it is rolling out a new set of apps for Android Wear and Apple Watch, which will do exactly that. The company says it actually has been shipping smartphone apps and associated hardware for the last few years to let users remotely start and track their vehicles. The company's hardware uses GSM cell phone networks to communicate directly with a user's car.
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NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - Consumer attorneys are trying to help customers get their gift card purchases from stores that have filed for bankruptcy.
Gift cards are a great present for many, and a wonderful resource if you’re low on cash. But with many retailers filing for bankruptcy because of the pandemic, customers are oftentimes left wondering if their cards are any good.
“We’ve got four big cases where it’s clear that gift card holders are under threat. And two cases where gift card holders got wiped out,” Myles MacDonald with Sto Helit PLLC said.
Myles MacDonald and Attorney Thomas Burt, from Wolf Haldenstein in New York, have filed Class Proofs of Claim in Bankruptcy Court. They say retailers are only allowing very short periods of time for people to use gift cards.
“That’s a problem. The Bankruptcy code has a provision that allows for a priority, and we think a 2016 decision just got that flat wrong, cast that into doubt and so now we’ve got retailers going bankrupt that are treating gift cards like they don’t have to get priority.”
“Each of these bankruptcy cases is you know, $ 20 million here. $30 million there, $40 million here. But that adds up to a lot over time. Alot of consumer savings, and the average family in America is in debt! Finding a gift card lying around, when you’ve got $10,000 in credit card debt, you know, that can make a big impact for you and your family,” MacDonald said.
One retailer they are closely watching is Stein Mart. Last month, Stein Mart announced that they filed for Bankruptcy. On their claims website, the company announced the last day to use the card is September 21st.
News 4 did reach out to Stein Mart. We are waiting to hear back.
On the company's did Facebook page, a post on August 22nd did let their customers know that gift cards expire September 21st and that all gift card balances expire September 22.
Still, Burt and MacDonald feel as though retailers can improve. They feel many consumers in general, are left in the dark when it comes to bankruptcy cases and gift card expiration dates. Something they want to see changed.
“I think to consumers, these feel like deposits. I gave you my cash and you promised, 100 percent that you’d give me value in goods. And just because you filed for bankruptcy, I think that value should still be honored,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald feels Stein Mart's expiration dates are "patently false and misleading." He said nothing in the Court's interim order sets the expiration date for cards or certificates, which, MacDonald says, would wipe out a customer's claim entirely.
Burt and MacDonald want to hear from you. To find out more, click here.


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After a run that saw its stock gain 234% so far in 2019, investors had expectations going into Roku's (ROKU -1.04%) second-quarter financial report. Shareholders got all they hoped for and more when the streaming pioneer reported better-than-expected results that pushed the stock up more than 20% on the day following the earnings release.
Roku generated revenue of $250.1 million, up 59% year over year, resulting in a net loss per share of $0.08. Both numbers were far better than analysts' consensus estimates, which were calling for revenue of $224.2 million and a loss per share of $0.22.
As tantalizing as the results were, there was a short entry tucked away in Roku's shareholder letter that wasn't widely reported, and it could have big implications for the company's future success.
Just two lines
While most investors were rightly focused on Roku's top- and bottom-line results, the company slipped a short missive into its shareholder letter than many may have missed:
We recently agreed with Walmart (WMT 0.44%) to offer several new Roku devices including audio products to their customers under their Onn brand. This is in addition to Roku TVs and Roku players already sold through Walmart.
This seemingly innocuous announcement would have a big impact on Roku's future success, but not for the reason you might think.
A little background
While many manufacturers took the easy path, using a modified mobile operating system (OS) to power their connected TVs, the Roku OS was built from the ground up, specifically designed for the task. As a result, the company has a growing list of manufacturers that license the system to include it in their connected TVs, rather than spending precious resources to develop their own. This partner list includes TCL, Sharp, Philips, RCA, JVC, Hitachi, and more. As a result of these deals, Roku's OS can now be found in more than one in three connected TVs sold in the United States.
While investors might associate Roku with its streaming players, dongles, and connected TVs, they shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that's how the company makes money. Since early 2018, Roku has made the lion's share of its revenue from its platform segment, which mostly consists of advertising. While the company makes very little from its player segment, it's still an important part of Roku's overall strategy.
A path into the living room
Roku made the decision several years ago to forgo much of the profit from the player segment to focus on account growth and advertising revenue. By getting its players and connected TVs in front of as many consumers as possible, it increases the number of active accounts and ultimately the number of people that see the advertising it serves up. This also increases the amount of data Roku derives from its viewing audience, which helps make its ads more effective.
This move has proven hugely successful. Roku's platform revenue now comprises 67% of the company's total revenue and grew 86% year over year in its most recent quarter. At the same time, active accounts grew to 30.5 million, up 39% from the prior-year quarter, while streaming hours of 9.4 billion grew by 72%.
Here's why it matters
With Walmart's scale and incredible reach within the low-cost segment of the market, this is truly a match made in heaven. Lower income consumers will be more likely to purchase an inexpensive connected TV -- like Walmart's Onn brand -- and they're also more likely to watch ad-supported services like The Roku Channel.
This partnership will help Roku's growing penetration. With 30.5 million active accounts and a population of about 128 million households in the U.S., the company can now reach about one of every four U.S. consumers, and that number will only continue to grow with each passing quarter.


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South Korean multinational electronics company
Samsung Electronics ▸ Facts ▸ Comments ▸ News ▸ Videos
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in the Yeongtong District of Suwon. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, accounting for 70% of the group's revenue in 2012. Samsung Electronics has played a key role in the group's corporate governance due to circular ownership. Samsung Electronics has assembly plants and sales networks in 74 countries and employs around 290,000 people. It is majority-owned by foreign investors. It is the world's largest manufacturer of consumer electronics by revenue. As of 2019, Samsung Electronics is the world's second largest technology company by revenue, and its market capitalization stood at US$301.65 billion, the 18th largest in the world.
Samsung profits likely at two-year high
Credit: Reuters Studio Duration: 01:15Published
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The feature, which is expected to be available in the coming days, will allow the app's more than 1 billion users to speak face to face with friends and family, regardless of whether they are using Android, i Phone and Windows devices."We're introducing this feature because we know that sometimes voice and text just aren't enough," Whats App said in a blog post late Monday."And we want to make these features available to everyone, not just those who can afford the most expensive new phones or live in countries with the best cellular networks."To place a video call, users merely open a chat, click the phone icon, choose the video call option in the menu and start talking.The app is also popular among users concerned with privacy and security, thanks to its ability to provide end-to-end encryption.
You can make paid calls to landline and mobile users, but video calls have to take place between Skype users.The app also offers HD quality for both voice and video.It is seamless and very easy to operate once you have installed the plugin needed on your machine. Facetime offers excellent video quality with a very simple and easy-to-use interface.The main problem with it is that it works exclusively on Apple’s operating systems and devices – Mac OS, i Phone, i Pad and i Pod.There are apps and services that allow you to make completely free video calls and video chat sessions on your desktop or laptop computer.
You first need to have a DSL line with sufficient bandwidth for video communication, a webcam, audio input and output devices (or a headset), and more importantly a video calling app behind which there is a service that allows free video calls. Skype is the most popular app for voice and video calling.In the mobile market Skype has since long been dethroned by Whats App and Viber, but it still remains the most prominent tool for free communication on computers.Besides, users who don't know much about Vo IP tend to subconsciously interchange between Vo IP and Skype.Our goal at Whats App has always been to help as many people as possible stay in touch with friends, family, and others they care about. And we did it in a way that works across thousands of device and platform combinations all over the world.That means making a product that’s simple, easy to use, and accessible no matter where you are. Today we’re excited to announce the next step in our efforts to connect people – Whats App video calling.It offers great quality video calling with other Google users within your browser.


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When we think of social media and fashion, we think of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs and many more. Try googling social media and this comes up: websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.
Social media has been a boon in many ways to the industry which we mostly going towards nowadays that is of fashion, which helps it grow and bring to the frontline many new and interesting designers and trends from around the world.
Almost everybody in the region has a mobile phone, more than half have internet access on their phones and almost all of them have a social media account. Word of mouth is still one of the most effective methods of advertising, the one that is most trusted among normal folk. Since people are talking on social media, it is no surprise that brands want to hack into this platform to push their goods and services.
From prompt feedback to customer queries and shameless plugs on Twitter to marketing messages sent via SMS, brands are taking many different approaches where “mobile” is concerned. Customer engagement is high on the agenda and many companies understand that a “like” on Facebook is not enough. An increasingly popular option is to appoint brand ambassadors, either famous people to push a product or service via their social media accounts or avid fans who help spread the message among their peers.
Brndstr, a Dubai-based company is taking this approach. Its software helps connect brands with their fans who are rewarded for their retweets and brand hashtags. In a recent funding round, Brndstr raised $1.6m.
“Finding the true ambassadors among a brand’s existing fan base and incentivising them to market the brand on its behalf has a greater impact than traditional marketing,” said Simon Hudson, chief executive of Brndstr. “A person hearing of a new offer through traditional magazine and online ads as opposed to via a friend has a larger impact. In addition social networks are allowing people to now ‘mute’ brands and ads so this route definitely has its advantages. Crowd Marketing is what I believe brands and companies will move towards over the next few years.”
The question is, how important is social media in this new technology driven world today?
Some may say it is very important as they would like to be the first to know or share information or incidents, but for some, it is just another channel for them to attain first-hand information or keep themselves updated on the situations around them.
Sharing information or incidents that are deemed beneficial may be welcomed but it also may be viewed differently by others. However, sharing too much is definitely detrimental, especially personal information. There should always be a limit to what is shared on social media as a form of protection of the sharer, friends and family as there have been many cases of people taking advantage of this and abusing it.
For businesses, social media is considered the new media and is the fastest way of conveying their messages to everyone at large. But in situations where these messages are not handled in a proper manner, it may be unfavourable to the company and its brand.
The promise of a reward is likely to entice fans to help peddle a product or brand. But relying too much on social media and consumer feedback can have a negative impact on brands. Facebook and Twitter have become the go-to destinations for public negative feedback, something that brands can only react to. Recently, it emerged that some customers have been threatening hotels and restaurants with bad reviews on TripAdvisor to secure freebies. Social media can be a troubling platform.
There are advantages and disadvantages with social media and it is at the mercy of how the person using this channel conveys his messages and how the receiver accepts it at the other end. It is a very subjective topic and everyone has their own take on this. Let’s respect everyone’s opinions and maybe the
Nowadays, more people are now opting for cheaper clothes than that of which they look stylish and look well in photographs, but are not necessarily durable and can be discarded after a couple of wears. This in turn creates pressure to manufacture to make the clothes at lesser and affordable prices, using materials that are cheaper and not necessarily environment-friendly, dramatically increasing the carbon footprint of the industry. The industry is totally witnessing the impact of this tremendous growth of fast fashion growth in the increasing form of pollution which is mainly caused by the manufacturers. As per the current ecosystem which cannot be even sustain the recycling of clothing at these volumes and steps need to be taken to improve peoples’ attitude towards the use and recycling of clothing and to also not to throw the clothes and waste it. As nowadays many of the brands are taking steps to reduce the impact of synthetics on the ecosystem environment.


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Majestic Wine has revealed it is stockpiling ahead of Brexit amid worries over possible supply disruption next March.
The wine retailer is planning to bring £5 million to £8 million of extra inventory into the UK before the end of its financial year in April.
The announcement comes as Majestic swung to a pre-tax loss of £200,000 for the six months to October 1 from profits of £3.1 million a year earlier.
Majestic Wine warned it expects underlying earnings across its retail and commercial divisions to be flat "at best" in 2018-19 amid a "tough" market.
Its push to expand Naked Wines will also hit profits, with investment set to be more than expected at £20 million or higher over the full-year.
However group chief executive Rowan Gormley said: "We're doing well in a tough market.
"We set out a plan at our capital markets day in April 2018 and we are delivering against it.
"That plan was to accelerate growth by investing in new customers and, so far, the plan is on track."


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|By Business Wire||
|February 6, 2013 10:14 AM EST||
Payments is a two-sided business. It requires the engagement of both merchants and consumers. So anything that is intended to “innovate” payments better deliver enough value to both sides so that both merchants and consumers have the incentives to move away from what they know works today to the promise of something that might work better in the future.
Turns out, that’s a big deal. And getting consumers and merchants to change the ingrained habits that dictate their behaviors isn’t easy. Finding the hidden clues that can unlock those behaviors is tasked to one of seven CEO panels that are a part of The Innovation Project 2013, a program hosted by PYMNTS.com on March 20-21 at Harvard University and designed to change the way that the payments and its broader commerce ecosystem thinks, talks, delivers and ignites innovation. Steve Levitt, economist, University of Chicago professor and author of Freakonomics, and Don Kingsborough, VP of POS Innovation at PayPal and former CEO of Blackhawk, will lead one such discussion entitled Shoponomics: Uncovering The Hidden Clues For How Consumers Buy And How They Pay.
Kingsborough, whose job it is to lead PayPal into the offline world, knows first-hand the complexities of igniting a new network of any kind. He did it with Blackhawk, the gift card network now readying for an IPO, and says, “getting consumers to adopt any new thing and having retailers adopt at the same time is difficult.”
And this is where the words of Levitt may be extremely insightful: “The conventional wisdom is often wrong.”
He has a point.
- Square was never about the dongle; it was about a new business model that made it possible for micro merchants to get a merchant account – and use the dongle as a way to convert their phones into acceptance devices. Today it is about creating a new merchant-consumer network.
- Starbucks’ mobile app was never about payment via mobile; it was about using the phone to give people better information about their prepaid card balances – which was then bundled with payment.
- LevelUp wasn’t about offering zero interchange to merchants; it was about giving consumers a credit pegged to the frequency of visits to their favorite merchants – which created the basis for a new business model that, in turn, pegged merchant payments to a percentage of that credit.
- M-Pesa wasn’t about replacing cash with the mobile phone; it was about giving Kenyans a safer way to send money to their relatives in the villages – which in turn, increased the amount of cash circulating in that economy as money was transferred from person to person in a safer, easier and more reliable way.
In every single one of these cases, trusting “conventional wisdom” would have gotten these innovators very little and probably into a heap of trouble (and debt).
As part of the panel facilitated by Levitt and Kingsborough, four of the most dynamic innovators in payments will give The Innovation Project 2013 delegates a first-hand account of what happened when they turned conventional wisdom on its ear and gave consumers something new to use when shopping or paying.
- Dan Henry, CEO of NetSpend, says that it “provides something that better meets the financial services needs of its customers than a traditional bank account” yet prepaid remains one of the least sticky financial services products on the market. Dan will share the good, the bad, the ugly and the behavioral economics of the alternative banking product that few have managed to make pay (for themselves) and that NetSpend seems to have been able to deliver.
- Alex Rampell, CEO of TrialPay, kicked conventional wisdom to the curb years ago when he realized that many people like to buy many things but few people like to buy all things especially the stuff that may be good for you but not all that exciting. TrialPay at its inception was all about getting people to acquire the stuff they may have wanted but didn’t want to pay for (or pay full price for), like software, by throwing it in with stuff that people were willing to pay for, like red roses on Valentine’s Day and creating a clever business model that gave everyone the right incentives to take action.
- Ed McLaughlin, CPO of MasterCard, is all about moving MasterCard and its customers toward a world “where the physical and digital worlds are converging” and where “mobile will shape the way consumers shop for goods and services.” Ed will share how he and MasterCard’s various pursuits in payments innovation have shaped, reshaped and recast MasterCard's payments consumer innovation agenda.
- Troy Carrothers, Head of Financial Services at Kohl's, will tell the story from the retailer’s point of view and from one that, like many, are working hard to keep up with the changing social and financial circumstances of its customers. Sales and coupons and promotions have been a core part of how Kohl's creates the demand for its “highly discretionary” items – and they have extended that to the mobile platform. Carrothers will describe how Kohl's is using mobile and digital to drive preference and conversion in a new retail world.
Levitt and Kingsborough’s job will be to draw new insights from the innovators who are on the front lines of payments innovation and at the same time provide fresh and practical insights to Innovation Project delegates who want to leverage the assets they have (or could acquire) and overcome the obstacles to getting consumers to embrace new ways to shop and pay.
About The Innovation Project
Over 2 days, 100 speakers and 500 senior members of the payments industry will change the way that the payments and its broader commerce ecosystem thinks, talks, delivers and ignites innovation. On March 20th and 21st the greatest minds in commerce and payments will assemble at Harvard University near Boston to kick the conversation about innovation up to an entirely different level at a program called The Innovation Project. Speakers and delegates are among the most senior executives from literally every established payments company worldwide, along with the CEOs of the most innovative start-ups from Adyen to iZettle. One of its five modules includes pairing industry CEOs with external thought leaders such as Al Gore (former US VP), Steve Levitt (Freakonomics), Eric Reis (The Lean Start Up), Rosie Rios (US Treasurer), Russell Simmons (Rush Card), Raj Date (CFPB), and Josh Lerner (Architecture of Innovation) to challenge the conventional wisdom around what it will take to get merchants and consumers to adopt new ways to shop and pay. Warren Buffett is the program’s keynote. The Innovation Project also hosts the industry’s 2013 PYMNTS.com Innovation Awards, given to 15 of the industry’s top innovators over dinner, which this year will be emceed by B.J. Novak of The Office and will introduce delegates to 40 of the hottest “next generation” payments innovators.
PYMNTS.com is reinventing the way in which companies in payments share relevant information about the initiatives that shape the future of commerce and make news. This powerful B2B platform is the #1 site for the payments industry by traffic and the premier source of information about “what’s next” in payments. C-suite and VP level executives read it daily for these insights, making the PYMNTS.com audience the most valuable in the industry. It provides an interactive platform for companies to demonstrate thought leadership, popularize products and, most importantly, capture the mindshare of global decision-makers. It’s where the best minds and best content meet on the web.
In addition to all the benefits, IoT is also bringing new kind of customer experience challenges - cars that unlock themselves, thermostats turning houses into saunas and baby video monitors broadcasting over the internet. This list can only increase because while IoT services should be intuitive and simple to use, the delivery ecosystem is a myriad of potential problems as IoT explodes complexity. So finding a performance issue is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Jun. 29, 2016 01:15 PM EDT Reads: 244
"We work in the area of Big Data analytics and Big Data analytics is a very crowded space - you have Hadoop, ETL, warehousing, visualization and there's a lot of effort trying to get these tools to talk to each other," explained Mukund Deshpande, head of the Analytics practice at Accelerite, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jun. 29, 2016 12:37 PM EDT Reads: 205
When people aren’t talking about VMs and containers, they’re talking about serverless architecture. Serverless is about no maintenance. It means you are not worried about low-level infrastructural and operational details. An event-driven serverless platform is a great use case for IoT. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Animesh Singh, an STSM and Lead for IBM Cloud Platform and Infrastructure, will detail how to build a distributed serverless, polyglot, microservices framework using open source tec...
Jun. 29, 2016 12:30 PM EDT Reads: 524
SYS-CON Events has announced today that Roger Strukhoff has been named conference chair of Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo 2016 Silicon Valley. The 19th Cloud Expo and 6th @ThingsExpo will take place on November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. "The Internet of Things brings trillions of dollars of opportunity to developers and enterprise IT, no matter how you measure it," stated Roger Strukhoff. "More importantly, it leverages the power of devices and the Interne...
Jun. 29, 2016 11:58 AM EDT Reads: 242
Internet of @ThingsExpo has announced today that Chris Matthieu has been named tech chair of Internet of @ThingsExpo 2016 Silicon Valley. The 6thInternet of @ThingsExpo will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Jun. 29, 2016 11:22 AM EDT Reads: 212
Presidio has received the 2015 EMC Partner Services Quality Award from EMC Corporation for achieving outstanding service excellence and customer satisfaction as measured by the EMC Partner Services Quality (PSQ) program. Presidio was also honored as the 2015 EMC Americas Marketing Excellence Partner of the Year and 2015 Mid-Market East Partner of the Year. The EMC PSQ program is a project-specific survey program designed for partners with Service Partner designations to solicit customer feedbac...
Jun. 29, 2016 11:00 AM EDT Reads: 544
Apixio Inc. has raised $19.3 million in Series D venture capital funding led by SSM Partners with participation from First Analysis, Bain Capital Ventures and Apixio’s largest angel investor. Apixio will dedicate the proceeds toward advancing and scaling products powered by its cognitive computing platform, further enabling insights for optimal patient care. The Series D funding comes as Apixio experiences strong momentum and increasing demand for its HCC Profiler solution, which mines unstruc...
Jun. 29, 2016 11:00 AM EDT Reads: 474
The IoT is changing the way enterprises conduct business. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Eric Hoffman, Vice President at EastBanc Technologies, discussed how businesses can gain an edge over competitors by empowering consumers to take control through IoT. He cited examples such as a Washington, D.C.-based sports club that leveraged IoT and the cloud to develop a comprehensive booking system. He also highlighted how IoT can revitalize and restore outdated business models, making them profitable ...
Jun. 29, 2016 11:00 AM EDT Reads: 420
IoT offers a value of almost $4 trillion to the manufacturing industry through platforms that can improve margins, optimize operations & drive high performance work teams. By using IoT technologies as a foundation, manufacturing customers are integrating worker safety with manufacturing systems, driving deep collaboration and utilizing analytics to exponentially increased per-unit margins. However, as Benoit Lheureux, the VP for Research at Gartner points out, “IoT project implementers often ...
Jun. 29, 2016 10:45 AM EDT Reads: 531
"delaPlex is a software development company. We do team-based outsourcing development," explained Mark Rivers, COO and Co-founder of delaPlex Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jun. 29, 2016 10:30 AM EDT Reads: 462
In his general session at 18th Cloud Expo, Lee Atchison, Principal Cloud Architect and Advocate at New Relic, discussed cloud as a ‘better data center’ and how it adds new capacity (faster) and improves application availability (redundancy). The cloud is a ‘Dynamic Tool for Dynamic Apps’ and resource allocation is an integral part of your application architecture, so use only the resources you need and allocate /de-allocate resources on the fly.
Jun. 29, 2016 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,270
CenturyLink has announced that application server solutions from GENBAND are now available as part of CenturyLink’s Networx contracts. The General Services Administration (GSA)’s Networx program includes the largest telecommunications contract vehicles ever awarded by the federal government. CenturyLink recently secured an extension through spring 2020 of its offerings available to federal government agencies via GSA’s Networx Universal and Enterprise contracts. GENBAND’s EXPERiUS™ Application...
Jun. 29, 2016 09:56 AM EDT Reads: 254
Connected devices and the industrial internet are growing exponentially every year with Cisco expecting 50 billion devices to be in operation by 2020. In this period of growth, location-based insights are becoming invaluable to many businesses as they adopt new connected technologies. Knowing when and where these devices connect from is critical for a number of scenarios in supply chain management, disaster management, emergency response, M2M, location marketing and more. In his session at @Th...
Jun. 29, 2016 09:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,235
Machine Learning helps make complex systems more efficient. By applying advanced Machine Learning techniques such as Cognitive Fingerprinting, wind project operators can utilize these tools to learn from collected data, detect regular patterns, and optimize their own operations. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Stuart Gillen, Director of Business Development at SparkCognition, discussed how research has demonstrated the value of Machine Learning in delivering next generation analytics to imp...
Jun. 29, 2016 09:45 AM EDT Reads: 902
The idea of comparing data in motion (at the sensor level) to data at rest (in a Big Data server warehouse) with predictive analytics in the cloud is very appealing to the industrial IoT sector. The problem Big Data vendors have, however, is access to that data in motion at the sensor location. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Scott Allen, CMO of FreeWave, discussed how as IoT is increasingly adopted by industrial markets, there is going to be an increased demand for sensor data from the outermos...
Jun. 29, 2016 09:25 AM EDT Reads: 215
In his keynote at 18th Cloud Expo, Andrew Keys, Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise, provided an overview of the evolution of the Internet and the Database and the future of their combination – the Blockchain. Andrew Keys is Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise. He comes to ConsenSys Enterprise with capital markets, technology and entrepreneurial experience. Previously, he worked for UBS investment bank in equities analysis. Later, he was responsible for the creation and distribution of life sett...
Jun. 29, 2016 09:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,423
IoT is rapidly changing the way enterprises are using data to improve business decision-making. In order to derive business value, organizations must unlock insights from the data gathered and then act on these. In their session at @ThingsExpo, Eric Hoffman, Vice President at EastBanc Technologies, and Peter Shashkin, Head of Development Department at EastBanc Technologies, discussed how one organization leveraged IoT, cloud technology and data analysis to improve customer experiences and effi...
Jun. 29, 2016 09:15 AM EDT Reads: 473
There are several IoTs: the Industrial Internet, Consumer Wearables, Wearables and Healthcare, Supply Chains, and the movement toward Smart Grids, Cities, Regions, and Nations. There are competing communications standards every step of the way, a bewildering array of sensors and devices, and an entire world of competing data analytics platforms. To some this appears to be chaos. In this power panel at @ThingsExpo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, Bradley Holt, Developer Advocate a...
Jun. 29, 2016 08:45 AM EDT Reads: 938
A strange thing is happening along the way to the Internet of Things, namely far too many devices to work with and manage. It has become clear that we'll need much higher efficiency user experiences that can allow us to more easily and scalably work with the thousands of devices that will soon be in each of our lives. Enter the conversational interface revolution, combining bots we can literally talk with, gesture to, and even direct with our thoughts, with embedded artificial intelligence, wh...
Jun. 29, 2016 08:30 AM EDT Reads: 1,194
The cloud market growth today is largely in public clouds. While there is a lot of spend in IT departments in virtualization, these aren’t yet translating into a true “cloud” experience within the enterprise. What is stopping the growth of the “private cloud” market? In his general session at 18th Cloud Expo, Nara Rajagopalan, CEO of Accelerite, explored the challenges in deploying, managing, and getting adoption for a private cloud within an enterprise. What are the key differences between wh...
Jun. 28, 2016 12:45 PM EDT Reads: 996


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Its nearly time for E3, the annual convention where companies from round the world unite to point out trailers for video games that don’t currently exist at that time. So, are you ready? then buckle up because, I’m ready.
The show runs from June 11th through June 13th, but the fun starts well before then. Starting on Sunday, June 9, a number of the biggest game publishers will gather and hold press conferences to announce news, show videos, and demonstrate however hip they’re by dabbing on stage. Two of the massive companies are skipping their traditional press conferences this year: EA Games and Sony. everybody else is back for one more year of computer game Christmas.
Here’s the schedule (which we’ll update within the days leading up to E3 if something changes or we learn more).
Microsoft – Sunday, June 9, 1pm Pacific Time
The folks behind Xbox have been making fascinating moves with Game Pass and xCloud, but they still have a lot to prove when it comes to first-party games. It’s safe to expect Gears 5 and Halo Infinite, but what else does Phil Spencer have hiding under his video game t-shirts? With Sony out of the picture, this will be the one remaining place for big third-party gameplay trailers. Some safe guesses include Borderlands 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. And is it too much to hope for a Rocksteady reveal?
Bethesda – Sunday, June 9, 5:30pm Pacific Time
After the disastrous launch of Fallout 76, it’ll be interesting to see how Bethesda handles this one. Will they address their online game’s issues? Ignore it in favor of Doom Eternal and whatever new announcements they’ve got coming? Or just spend the whole time talking about Quake Champions?
Ubisoft – Monday, June 10, 1pm Pacific Time
Ubisoft’s always good for a surprise or two, and this year should be no exception. Assassin’s Creed is skipping this year, so don’t expect to see Vikings just yet, but perhaps it’s time for Watch Dogs 3? We should get a new look at Beyond Good & Evil 2. Maybe we’ll see Pioneer, the game that was teased a few years ago and now looks very different than it once did.
Square Enix – Monday, June 10, 6pm Pacific Time
Last year’s Square Enix show was one of the most disappointing E3 presentations in recent memory, in large part because the publisher failed to even mention two of its biggest announced games, The Avengers and Final Fantasy VII: Remake. This year, that should change. We hope.
Nintendo – Tuesday, June 11, 9am Pacific Time
As usual, Nintendo will be holding a digital presentation to talk about all things Switch, likely highlighted by Animal Crossing and this year’s Pokémon games. We probably won’t see Metroid Prime 4, but we’ll definitely see the new Fire Emblem and Super Mario Maker 2. One game we won’t see: Reggie Fils-Aime. 🙁
This year there are also a handful of smaller events, including Devolver Digital (June 9, 7pm PT), the PC Gaming Show (June 10, 10am PT), and the Kinda Funny Showcase (June 10, 4:30pm PT), all of which should be good for at least a few interesting indie announcements.


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France has become the first eurozone country in which consumers with iOS devices can use Wirecard’s Boon service to make purchases with Apple Pay, by adding a virtual Boon card to the mobile payment service. Boon launched in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium in December 2015. It expanded to Spain and Ireland in the same month, and launched in the UK with Apple Pay support in March 2016. Apple Pay launched in France in July 2016.
- Google Pay goes live in Italy
- Pulse reports on US uptake of mobile debit card payments
- Bank of America brings mobile payments to business card customers
- OP Financial tests face recognition for payments in stores
- Singapore begins rollout of QR code that works with multiple mobile payment schemes


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Documents: Market inquiry into private healthcare
On 6 January 2014, South Africa’s Competition Commission began a market inquiry, or investigation, into the private health sector following concerns about the high price of health care in the sector.
The market inquiry will examine why the private sector may not be working effectively. The commission will ultimately make recommendations to improve the private sector to protect consumer interests while markets remain fair and competitive.
The commission will specifically look into the increases in prices in private health care and determine cost drivers. According to its terms of reference, the commission will investigate issues including:
- The fees charged to individuals on medical aid versus those who pay out of pocket;
- The role of hospitals in influencing the demand for health goods and services; and
- The relationship between hospitals and services such as ambulances, pathology, medicines and medical devices, and whether these relationships push up costs.
Documents outlining key dates, as well as the text of remarks made by Inquiry Chairperson Retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo and the resulting press release distributed at a 16 April stakeholder meeting can be downloaded below:
For more background, download a fact sheet on the inquiry.


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READING, Pa. — Chances are that you don’t think about industrial agriculture and its effect on the environment and local farming when you’re going through the drive-through of your favorite fast-food restaurant. You are hurriedly trying to grab a bite during your lunch hour or before getting the kids off to soccer practice, so it probably doesn’t occur to you that your choices may be hurting local farmers, not to mention your own health and well being, according to Michelle Mart, associate professor of history at Penn State Berks.
Mart’s research focuses on studying the effect of cultural attitudes about the environment and the food industry in the United States, from the mid-twentieth century to present day. Her book, "Pesticides, A Love Story: America’s Enduring Embrace of Dangerous Chemicals" (University Press of Kansas, 2015), examined why Americans cling to their love of pesticides despite warnings, rising costs, and declining effectiveness.
She is now embarking on a new book, which will take off from where "Pesticides" left off by looking at food itself, and how cultural expectations and government policies affect U.S. food systems and what people choose to eat.
According to Mart, government food policies, nutrition guidelines, and school lunch programs all shape what its citizens eat. She explains that historically, school lunches were often based on surpluses produced by large monocrop agriculture. Using these surpluses was a conscience decision against using food produced by local agriculture.
Mart said another example of the impact of government food policies is seen in the nutritional guidelines on how much and which types of food the average person should eat. These guidelines reduce food to a set of nutrients, instead of understanding that it is a reflection of our culture and identity.
In addition, she said, certain food industries — such as dairy farmers and cattle producers — have powerful lobbyists who are able to affect nutritional guidelines and the language used in those guidelines. One example is the recommendation to “choose leaner meats” rather than to avoid eating red meat entirely.
Government agencies such as the FDA rely on the data provided to them by the food industry and pesticide manufacturers, rather than conducting their own independent research, and make rulings based on that data.
Mart practices what she preaches, shopping at local farmers’ markets and eating an organic and sustainably grown plant- and grain-based diet as often as possible.
“The idea of cheap food has become a cultural expectation,” she comments. “But
food should be expensive. You can spend less on other things, such as your Netflix subscription, your cellphone bill, or clothing.” She clarifies that food only appears to be cheap, when many of its costs are externalized, such as its environmental impact, the exploitation of agricultural labor, and its effect on consumers’ overall health.
Mart goes on to state that unfortunately, not everyone has the same access to high quality food. The system is skewed because the government and food industry subsidize processed foods.
“McDonald’s food is so cheap in part because of government subsidies,” she explains. “The government supports water rights for the cattle, they look the other way when the feed lots don’t regulate methane gas, and so on. All these factors combine to make McDonald’s a cheaper option than organic, sustainably raised food. Over time, our bodies have adapted to eating this type of processed foods. It’s become interwoven into our way of life and incredibly hard to change.”
One of the themes of "Pesticides" and her current research is the idea that we have continued to embrace the use of pesticides, even with all the examples of their adverse effects.
The book evolved during a research fellowship Mart was awarded by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany, in 2012 to explore the cultural history of pesticide use in the United States from 1945 to the present.
“When Rachel Carson wrote 'Silent Spring,' the media and the public focused on the evils of DDT," she said. "Within 10 years, DDT was banned, as well as other chemicals in the same class. The government substituted different pesticides for DDT rather than questioning industrial agriculture based on pesticide use.”
Mart was fascinated with the paradox that "Silent Spring" changed so much about how the public viewed DDT and the environment, yet after its publication, pesticide use increased in the United States.
The effects of the embrace of chemical technology to manipulate the environment are hidden, said Mart. People don’t think about the true causes of obesity and disease, and the number of people suffering from obesity-related illnesses continues to rise.
Mart advocates for the "Precautionary Principle," which states that the introduction of a new product or process whose ultimate effects are disputed or unknown should be resisted. She cites the hidden costs of our current system, such as ground water contamination, greenhouse gases generated by fossil fuels used to make pesticides, and ultimately disease and death.
Furthermore, she said that the U.S. is on a “pesticide treadmill” — Pesticides have been proven to lose their effectiveness with heavy use, so chemical manufacturers produce new pesticides. We stay on the treadmill because consumers want cheap food and pesticide manufacturers and the food industry want huge profits.
When asked if industrial agriculture is necessary to meet world food demands, Mart said that there is an assumption that we can produce more food in an industrial agriculture system when, in fact, studies have shown that the per acre output in organic, sustainable agriculture, where a diversity of crops are grown and rotated, is sometimes higher than that produced by industrial agriculture.
“It’s important and fundamental to make sure people get adequate nutrition,” Mart said. But she suggests there are other ways to do that instead of our current food system. She also said that, currently, 40 percent of the food we grow is wasted, whether from harvesting practices which routinely discard blemished foods or parts of plants, food not consumed at restaurants and discarded in grocery stores on “sell by” dates, the contents of our refrigerators, and the list goes on.
And what about all the organic options that are in our grocery stores? Mart said that there is an illusion that we are improving our system with the rise of organic food. But are things really improving? “Yes and no,” she answers. “Yes, because any time we lessen the use of chemicals on the land, it is good. No, because some organic food is industrially farmed and some companies use ‘exempted ingredients’ to process food.”
As a cultural historian, Mart is concerned with how our general views — on various topics — affect our attitudes and actions in specific areas. Her research has evolved from a focus on foreign policy and culture to a focus on the environment and culture.
“Since before graduate school, I have been interested in how we construct our world in the stories we tell ourselves. People’s understanding and actions are based on these stories.”
Her first book, "Eye on Israel: How America Came to View Israel as an Ally" (SUNY Press, 2006), examined American culture and U.S.-Israeli relations since the Jewish state’s founding in 1948.
In addition to her research and publishing, Mart also works with students on projects that relate to cultural narratives. “I use my research and experience to inform my teaching,” she explains. By doing so, she gives her students food for thought.


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EU ban: death to the incandescent light bulb
Translation by:Sarah Truesdale
The EU approved the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs by 2012, which use five times more energy
The news measures come into effect between 2009 and 2012. That said, we are not pioneers: Cuba got rid of incandescent light bulbs in 2007. This measure will save the European economy up to 10 billion euros since, while the fluorescent and halogen light bulbs that remain are more expensive than incandescent ones, they last much longer. The energy savings equate to the daily energy consumption of Romania.
Translated from Muerte a las bombillas incandescentes


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Trust in automation technology including driverless cars is very much age dependent, as younger consumers have a notably higher level of confidence in the technology than their older counterparts, according to the J.D. Power 2016 U.S. Tech Choice Study.
While less than one-quarter of Baby Boomers say they trust self-driving cars, while more than half of younger consumers do. Many younger drivers would pay as much as $3,000 or more for autonomous technology.
The study finds that customers in general are very interested in a number of automotive technology features linked to fully automated vehicles such as radar, sensors, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and cameras. Features with high consumer interest include smart headlights, night vision, lane change assist, traffic jam assist, medical emergency stop, smart intersection and predictive vehicle control.
However, when it comes to making the leap to fully automated cars, trust in the technology is directly linked to the age of the consumer. J.D. Power defines the generations as Pre-Boomers (born before 1946); Baby Boomers (1946-1964); Gen X (1965-1976); Gen Y (1977-1994); and Gen Z (1995-2000 for this study.
More than half of Gen Y (56 percent) and Gen Z (55 percent) vehicle owners say they trust self-driving technology, compared with 41 percent of Gen X, 23 percent percent of Baby Boomers and 18 percent of Pre-Boomers. Further, only 27 percent of Gen X, 18 percent of Gen Y and 11 percent of Gen Z consumers say they “definitely would not” trust the technology, while 39 percent of Baby Boomers and 40 percent of Pre-Boomers say the same.
The one view all generations share is a concern for technology security, specifically surrounding privacy and the potential for systems to be hacked, hijacked or to crash (either the vehicle or the system itself).
“The level of trust is directly linked to the level of interest in a new technology among automobile buyers,” said Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction & HMI research at J.D. Power. “Acceptance can be increased with exposure over time and experience with automated technologies. But trust is fragile and can be broken if there is an excessive number of incidents with automated vehicles.”
Gen Y and Gen Z vehicle owners are twice as likely as Gen X and five times as likely as Boomers and Pre-Boomers to show interest in certain alternative mobility types, such as ridesharing on-demand or co-ownership of a vehicle.
Furthermore, the study finds that 59 percent of Gen Y vehicle owners say they are “definitely” or “probably” interested in fully automated vehicles and 32 percent of them would pay $3,000 or more for the technology. Among the four alternative mobility types, interest levels are highest among all generations for unmanned mobility.
When those surveyed were shown the fair market value for the technologies, two of the four safety-related technologies on the top 10 list—night vision ($2,000) and lane change assist ($1,500)—fall out of the top 10, while camera rear-view mirror ($300) and camera side-view mirrors ($400) remain. The most desired features after the price is shown are economy navigation system ($60); simple wireless device connection ($60); camera rear-view mirror ($300); smart parking ($100); and predictive traffic ($150). Among the top 10 most desired technologies, self-healing paint has the highest price point at $500.
Night vision has the third-highest pre-price interest, with 70% of vehicle owners saying they “definitely would” or “probably would” want the technology in their next vehicle, yet drops to 23rd overall after owners are shown its $2,000 price tag. However, interest in night vision jumps to 36% from 16% when the price for this technology is reduced to $1,400.
The 2016 U.S. Tech Choice Study was fielded in February through March 2016 and is based on an online survey of more than 7,900 consumers who purchased/leased a new vehicle in the past five years.
Source: J.D. Power
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Updated: Vonage has been granted a temporary stay from U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, the company said. The company is now able to continue signing up new customers. Earlier today a lower court passed an order that effectively prevented Vonage from signing up new customers.
The stay enables Vonage to continue to sign up new customers until the Appellate court can hear Vonage’s request for a permanent stay. The Court’s ruling allows Vonage to continue to provide phone service to existing customers.
Earlier today the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. indicated it would enter an injunction against Vonage effective April 12, 2007 in connection with certain Verizon technology on which it was found to be infringing.
The Court indicated that Vonage would be barred from acquiring new customers during its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. In response, Vonage filed for and received an emergency stay of the injunction from the Federal Circuit. [Press Release]
Judge Claude Hilton has issued an injunction that bars Vonage from signing up new customers. Vonage, as you know had lost its patent infringement case with Verizon and has been left twisting in the wind. While not exactly as dire as say, the shut down of the service, Judge’s decision is still a pretty hefty blow to the company.
“It’s the difference of cutting off oxygen as opposed to the bullet in the head,” Vonage lawyer Roger Warin told the Associated Press. Still the 2.2 million Vonage customers can breathe a sigh of relief – their phone service is not going to be turned off this weekend. It is more along the lines of targeted stay envisioned by Verizon. Daniel Berninger, senior analyst with Tier1 Research counters the sky-is-falling conventional wisdom and says that the “due process allows Vonage to make its case before other judges and courts. Vonage has sufficient cash reserves ($500 million) to survive years of legal dispute with Verizon.
Berninger points out that “There exist no patents on the core innovation of “VoIP”. All patents
address features and approaches to implementation. Vonage remains viable unless Verizon has a patent on the Internet and Verizon’s patent claims remain vulnerable in the appeal process.” Vonage is trading down 6.7% at about $3.37 a share.
Click here for Our previous Vonage-Verizon patent dispute coverage.
18 thoughts on “Vonage gets temporary injunction, stays open”
Ok Om, now that the judge has barred Vonage from signing new customers, it’s high time to figure out exactly what is in the claims of the patents that Vonage is allegedly infringing.
Are the claims related to the fact that Vonage is a “bring your own broadband” type VoIP service provider?
In that case, would it be possible to circumvent the claims if Vonage changed its business model to be a combined broadband/VoIP supplier that routes all calls over its own network up to and including the PSTN interface? I could see that being possible by seeking a merger with someone like Covad, but we need real reporters to go out and get the real
Posted Verizon’s (so far)successful claims
I can’t detect any original non-obvious innovation.
Maybe someone else can.
Like it was said once before in the comments section of Gigaom in 2005, Carlos Bhola was right; Vonage couldn’t make it without significant wireless or MSO partners.
The only profit left in Vonage at this point are the rights to the book and movie. What a fun book it will be to read when it comes out.
what kind of “work around” could they be working on. the only thinkg i can think of is instead of running over a data connection – they run thru a local number. just way that the calling cards or Globe Dialer do it for mobile phones (www.globedialer.com)
Vonage is toast. A more interesting book would be “The Fleecing of Investors” which could be a biography of Citron. Wonder what the SEC will hit him with this time?
Berninger’s comment may be true, but it comes back to churn and whether Vonage will have any customer left even IF it were to ultimately prevail. You have to assume that Vonage’s already-high churn rates will jump by a factor of 2 or even 4. Assuming straight-line line losses from current levels, it is conceivable that the company could run out of subscribers before the end of this year.
…new penny stock, anyone?
Last May just after the IPO, we rated Vonage a ‘C’ using our Disruption Scorecard, still the lowest of any company we have ranked.
Why? Vonage seemed to have a dot-com business model and its service had no unique attributes of value.
So who is the proverbial “Lou Pai” of Vonage? There had to be someone that got rich off all the fleece and escaped scot-free…
Of course they got an injunction… lol if this goes through can you imagine the implications its basically shutting down a pretty large telephone service… I mean their are people that vonage is their only phone line. We’re talking millions of people here
I’m not using the vonage application.I have been using skype s/w for a while and its fantastic.It’s a s/w u need to install in ur PC & can make calls from skype-skype users for a lower rate,send instant messages,video calls r for free,&the package includes 12 months of unlimited calls to US and Canada for $29.95.So grab this opportunity and try out skype.If u want to know about skype visit http://www.skype.com.


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Oh yes, oh yes!! DJ Snake has just revealed that he is getting ready to release a brand new single! The music producer took to Twitter yesterday to reveal that this week, he will be dropping a new track, which will be called “Magenta Riddim”.
No other details have been revealed about this, but we must say that we’re extremely excited to hear what DJ Snake has in store for us this time around! If you are just as curious as us, stay tuned!
New Music Next Week 🔥 #MagentaRiddim
— DJ SNAKE (@djsnake) February 18, 2018


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When PC Forum, an exclusive shindig for technology bosses, venture capitalists and other digerati, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, the motto was “back to the frontier”. But the panels and speeches suggested a different destination. Most debates were about what government should or should not do. The high-tech sector is more afraid than ever of government intervention — which is why it is becoming as involved as any other industry in Washington lobbying. The process has been accelerated by the new emphasis on homeland security.
To some extent, the industry has come full circle. It was tax dollars that first primed the technology pump. Without money from the Pentagon, Silicon Valley might still be covered with fruit orchards. The Internet was for years a government-funded research project, and some big technology companies would not exist without government contracts. For example, Oracle, the leading database vendor, grew out of a consulting job for the CIA.
The prevailing free-wheeling, libertarian stance of the industry, always somewhat hypocritical, has been changing since the mid-1990s. Some date Silicon Valley’s political coming-of-age to its 1996 campaign against a California initiative that would have made shareholder lawsuits much easier. This led to the creation of such groups as TechNet, a sort of high-tech lobbying group. There was also the catharsis of the Microsoft antitrust trial, which brought forth mass lobbying by both sides — as well as a noticeable rise in campaign-finance contributions.
Over the past few years, the industry has been beefing up its lobbying further. One pet issue is high-speed Internet access, known as broadband. Intel, Microsoft and others have long argued that the government should do something to get broadband more widely deployed (only about 9% of American households have a high-speed Internet connection). They argue that this would be a powerful driver of demand for computers, software and online services.
It was only after the Internet bubble popped and the technology industry went into recession, however, that companies really started pushing the issue. TechNet and others have called for a “national broadband policy”, which would give tax breaks to encourage innovation and prod the Pentagon and other government agencies into buying more broadband gear.
A controversial recent bill shows, however, that high tech’s lobbying efforts are still not on a par with those of other big industries. Technology companies were taken by surprise when Disney and other media giants persuaded Senator Fritz Hollings to introduce legislation that would require a piracy-detection system to be built into all digital entertainment devices, including PCs. At a Senate hearing in February, only Les Vadasz, a senior executive at Intel, was there to testify against the bill. It would, he claimed, turn PCs into “nothing more than a more expensive version of a ‘dumb’ DVD player.”
Nobody expects the Hollings bill actually to make it through Congress. But it may have achieved its main objective: to prepare the ground for more indirect regulation. Hollywood hopes that such legislative threats will pressure hardware makers to agree to copy-protection standards that could then be ratified by Congress.
The New Climate
Arguably, all this could be called business as usual in Washington: industries defend their competing interests and, more often than not, end in stalemate. Yet recent events have changed the climate. For a start, there is the fallout from Enron’s collapse. The firm’s bad practices have led Congress to take a close look at the accounting treatment of stock options, the lifeblood of Silicon Valley.
Then there is the new emphasis on homeland security. This has not only brought about a sweeping anti-terrorism bill, called the Patriot Act, which gives law enforcers new surveillance powers, such as monitoring Internet traffic without a court order. Government is also becoming a key customer once again. It accounted for 23% of Oracle’s revenues in the past fiscal year, for instance, although this impressive share may now shrink. It emerged recently that the firm sold the state of California (and, perhaps, other states) far more software than it needed.
One reason for government’s return as a customer is that it has the means. The administration has proposed increasing the federal high technology budget from $46 billion in the current fiscal year to $52 billion in 2003. Big software firms are angling for a piece of the bigger pie. Oracle, Siebel and Tibco have all launched “homeland security initiatives” aimed at offering the government technology to integrate its disparate databases — and so helping it to identify possible terrorists. Moreover, since Washington expects technology to do much to improve security, vendors have made their top researchers available as government advisers.
Even start-ups are learning to love the government — after having been traditionally discouraged by venture capitalists from getting involved with the bureaucracy of public procurement. One sign is the sudden interest in In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture-capital fund (yes, the spooks have one too). Since September 11th, the fund’s chief executive, Gilman Louie, has been asked to review 1,200 business plans, compared with only 1,000 from the fund’s creation in October 1999 to the terrorist attacks.
Since its inception, In-Q-Tel has invested in more than two dozen firms, such as graviton, a maker of tiny wireless sensors, and SafeWeb, which is developing software that allows users (and thus secret agents as well) to surf the web anonymously. The fund was first seen mainly as a pet project of the CIA director, George Tenet, who wanted to give the agency early access to technology developed in the commercial world. But several other federal agencies are now considering using In-Q-Tel’s services or starting their own venture-capital funds.
It is not clear what the long-term effects of all this will be. Security is likely to play a bigger role in the design of technology — to the detriment of such things as additional product features, ease of use and performance. A more problematic outcome could be that the closer relationship due to the emphasis on homeland security will lead to a heavier regulatory environment for technology.
The rapprochement will, in any case, settle the question of whether the high-tech industry and government can remain at arm’s length. As Intel’s Mr Vadasz was heard saying at PC Forum: “We cannot say the net will have a huge influence on everyday life, and also say ‘Hey Washington, keep out of it’.”


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Oriola-KD and Kesko to establish a chain of health, beauty and wellbeing stores across Finland
Oriola-KD Corporation Stock Exchange Release 13.3.2017 at 09.00
Oriola-KD and Kesko to establish a chain of health, beauty and wellbeing stores
Oriola-KD Corporation and Kesko Corporation start building a completely new kind
of store chain in Finland, specialising in comprehensive wellbeing. Companies
have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture company. The first phase
objective is to build a chain of 100 stores and an online store. In estimation
1000 new jobs will be created. First stores and the online store will be opened
during the fall 2017. The plan is to expand the business to include
pharmaceuticals if the legislation is amended.
Both parties to the agreement will have a 50 per cent ownership interest in the
new company to be established. In the first phase, Oriola-KD and Kesko will make
a total investment of approximately EUR 25 million in the new company to be
established. The first comprehensive wellbeing stores and the online store will
be opened in autumn 2017, and the target is to open a total of 15 stores by the
end of the year. In the first phase, the aim is to build a chain of 100 stores.
The establishment of the joint venture company is subject to the approval of the
competition authorities. The handling of the matter is expected to be completed
no later than the third quarter of 2017.
"In the joint venture, two strong and responsible Finnish operators combine
their forces. Kesko has extensive experience in the grocery trade and a strong K
consumer brand. Oriola-KD, for its part, is a highly valued distributor of
health and wellbeing products and an expert in the pharmaceutical sector.
Together with another Finnish, responsible company we will start building a
leading health, beauty and wellbeing chain in which Finnish people trust. Our
plan is, as legislation permits, to expand the business into selling
pharmaceuticals, without compromising on pharmaceutical safety, but emphasizing
service and expertise. The new store chain is estimated to create 1,000 new jobs
across Finland," says Eero Hautaniemi, President and CEO of Oriola-KD.
A briefing in Finnish today at 13.00
Kesko and Oriola-KD will hold a briefing today, Monday, 13 March 2017 at 13.00
at the Hotel Haven, Unioninkatu 17, Helsinki.
Eero Hautaniemi, President and CEO, tel. +358 (0)10 429 2109
Terhi Kivinen, Group Communications Director, tel. + 358 40 8484001, e-mail:
Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd


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The boss of Pret a Manger has said he sees a long-term shift to home working as the coffee and sandwich chain prepares for life with fewer people in city centres.
Pano Christou, Pret's chief executive, said the company needed to adapt itself to changing consumer patterns as workers shun the office for the comfort of their own homes.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "I think there's no doubt that workers will come into the office less often than they had done beforehand, and I think from Pret's perspective very early on we said: 'This is not for us to decide.'
"Pret needs to adapt itself to the changes of customer patterns and that's where we've been very focused."
It comes a week after the chain axed 2,800 jobs, with 10 years of growth being wiped out by the pandemic.
Mr Christou added that two-fifths of Pret's business is outside central London, where a recovery in sales has been quicker than inside the capital.
"What we have seen over the last six months in particular is just an acceleration of customer behaviour changes, and lots of these ideas were plans kind of in flight a year or so ago," he said.
"Clearly with Covid we've had to focus on putting things into action much quicker than we initially planned to."
Pret has also launched an in-store subscription service for customers to pay for the coffee they order each month as part of a major shift in strategy.
The "YourPret Barista" service will allow customers to buy up to five drinks each day for a month on a £20 monthly subscription.
However, Mr Christou raised some eyebrows when he said the service would allow customers to "engage with a fantastic cup of coffee".
Rivals are also struggling to adapt to lower footfall in city centres. On Thursday, Costa said it would cut up to 1,650 jobs, adding that it does not know when trading might return to pre-crisis levels.
In July, Pret announced plans to close 30 of its shops.


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Nobody likes managing passwords -- remembering, maintaining and regularly changing them is a chore. Now, a Canadian software developer is aiming to make that chore easier -- or at least cheaper.
The announcement that production will cease at the last Japanese factory building VCRs is a cause for reflection both about where we have been technologically and where we are going.
Did you hear the one about the cable company that's improving customer service? The punchline: Comcast and its rivals say it's no joke, pouring hundreds of millions into new tools and staff.
Lifting a cloud of regulatory uncertainty hanging over the future of Uber and its competitors in China, the government legalized ride-sharing services along with licensing requirements.
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India will help Sri Lanka establish a special economic zone to manufacture auto components in Trincomalee, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said here on Friday.
“I cannot talk about how much investment will happen in this,’’ he said, addressing a press conference.
The SEZ would promote exports to the production chains in India..
A Joint Task Force on the SEZ would be set up , he said, after inaugurating the India Show here. The task force would submit its report within 90 days, he added.
The Minister also announced the setting up of a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in Sri Lanka. He said that within 30 days a pharma industry team from India would visit Sri Lanka to work out the details.
The Minister said that India and Sri Lanka would aim to double bilateral trade by 2015, which crossed the $5-billion mark this year.
The signing of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) would bring more investment and services into Sri Lanka. The Minister said that the two Commerce Secretaries would resume dialogue on CEPA, and resolve all related issues. He asserted that Sri Lanka would be given preferential access to the “big Indian market.”
Earlier, Mr. Sharma, and his Sri Lankan counterpart, Rishad Bathiudeen, held a round of informal discussions on outstanding trade issues. Sri Lanka’s Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa also participated.
Sri Lanka has been asking India to be a “little large hearted” on outstanding issues in the Free Trade Regime, while India has been wanting to go to the next level, and progress on CEPA. Sri Lanka wants to first address issues in FTA ahead of taking up CEPA, which has been in the making for more than half-a-decade now. A formal meeting will be held during the course of Mr. Sharma’s four-day stay here.


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Dairy product prices rose at the Global Dairy Trade auction, increasing for the first time in five auctions, amid expectations that dry weather conditions in New Zealand might ease milk production.
The GDT price index rose 0.4% from the previous auction two weeks ago to US$3,091. Some 29,514 tonnes of product was sold, down from 35,042 tonnes two weeks ago.
Whole milk powder gained 1.7 % to US$2,830 a tonne.
"The lower volume on offer appears to have provided some support as nearly all of this product was sold," Amy Castleton, AgriHQ dairy analyst, said in a note.
"Buyers may also be concerned about the dry conditions in New Zealan. Contracts for shipping in March and April saw the greatest support."
"New Zealand milk production has coped okay with adverse weather conditions to date, but continued dry conditions are likely to affect milk production through the summer months," Castleton added.
At the latest GDT auction, skim milk powder climbed 4.7% to US$1,774 a tonne, while butter milk powder gained 4.3% to US$1,957 a tonne.
Rennet casein added 3.4% to US$4,879 a tonne, while whole milk powder advanced 1.7% to US$2,830 a tonne.
Meanwhile, butter sank 11.1% to US$4,575 a tonne
"Butter was last at this price level in the early months of this year," Castleton said. "Butter prices have now declined for five consecutive events, and have lost 25% of their value since September."
Nearest dated contracts fell the most-prices for butter to ship in January dropped 24.3%, according to Castleton.
Cheddar fell 3.9% to US$3,696 a tonne, while anhydrous milk fat slipped 0.6 % to US$6,836 a tonne.
No prices were available for lactose.
There were 123 winning bidders out of 160 participating at the 13-round auction. The number of qualified bidders rose to 563, up from 557 at the previous auction.


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Arkadium, one of the leading casual game makers in the industry today announced a multi-year, multi-game partnership with Microsoft. As per the partnership, Arkadium will bring casual and social games on multiple platforms to be launched by Microsoft Studios. This will include Windows Phone, Windows and Xbox platforms of Microsoft. Arkadium already has a good relationship with Microsoft by developing games for Microsoft properties such as MSN/Bing Games, etc,.
To support the new partnership, Arkadium will create a new division and plans to hire 15 to 20 employees in its offices in New York, Ukraine and Toronto. The Toronto office opened last summer and caters exclusively to mobile games. Some of Arkadium’s current 130 employees will also be shifted to the division that will deal with the partnership. Ms. Rovello expects the team will grow to about 30
Press Release after the break.
NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2012 — NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Arkadium, a top game development studio in New York City today announced it has signed a strategic partnership to develop casual and social games on multiple platforms to be launched by Microsoft Studios. The multi-year, multi-game partnership is an evolution of the relationship the two companies have been developing over the previous two years.
“Arkadium has a ten-year track record of developing entertaining and well-architected casual and social games,” said Matt Booty, GM of Connected Experiences for Microsoft Studios. “Our team is excited to be partnering with a developer that we believe will help us entertain millions of people as we expand our reach to a broader audience.”
“We are very excited to be working with Microsoft Studios to develop casual and social cross-platform experiences,” said Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO of Arkadium. “We have been looking to strategically partner with a company that can help catapult our business and accelerate Arkadium’s cross platform game development. Microsoft is the perfect partner to help us realize our growth strategy.”
About ArkadiumArkadium, creators of the largest library of casual games in the world, has been a top game developer for the past decade. The company’s hit games, including Mahjongg Dimensions, are distributed worldwide to over ten million gamers per month on the web, Facebook, iPhone and iPads. A top 20 Comscore game distributor, Arkadium has been the longstanding games partner of MSN, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, ESPN, ABC, Lifetime, Discovery and many more distinguished brands. Family owned and operated, Arkadium has grown organically since 2001 to more than 100 employees in offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and Ukraine. For more information visit http://www.arkadium.com.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/04/4161448/arkadium-signs-multi-year-multi.html#storylink=cpy


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Monsanto Co. has been sued by thousands of farmers and others who blame their cancers on its massively popular Roundup weedkiller. Now Germany’s Bayer AG, which bought the agriculture giant last year, faces a claim that it deceived home gardeners about Roundup’s impact on their gut bacteria and their health.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Kansas City, Missouri, claims that labels on products such as Roundup’s Weed & Grass Killer falsely assured consumers that they target an enzyme not found “in people or pets.”
According to the suit — which names three consumers as plaintiffs seeking unspecified monetary damages and class action status — Roundup’s active ingredient glyphosate attacks an enzyme also found in the beneficial intestinal bacteria of humans and some animals.
“Monsanto has misled consumers about glyphosate’s risks for decades,” plaintiffs’ attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an email. “Despite the company’s efforts to suppress and skew research on glyphosate, the science is in.”
The Roundup products at issue are distributed by Scotts Miracle-Gro, which is also named as a defendant. Two other suits, in Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., are based on similar arguments but aren’t class actions.


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We are living in an age of technology-enabled disruption, and it is happening in every industry, from food to engineering. So it is no surprise that we see increasing signs of disruption in the world of fashion, which will massively shift the way the industry operates.
To get a view from inside, we spoke to Denis Ravizza, the co-founder and CEO at ESMOD Fashion Institute Dubai.
How do you think 3D printing will affect the fashion industry?
3D printing is beneficial to textile, particularly in its weaving process. It reduces wastage and water consumption in areas such as fabric dying. It is also a great help to visualise a finished garment at the sampling stage. The downside, which hopefully will not take place, is the increase of robotisation in the industry, leading to the reduction of the human workforce, particularly in countries where the fashion industry offers access to employment for individuals with a basic education.
Do you think machinery and technology will affect certain skills required to be a fashion designer?
It certainly does with the robotisation of pattern-cutting, sewing, and assembling, but that is in the fast and mass fashion sectors. The more significant demand is for technicians versus designers. However, this does not affect other sectors, such as couture and haute-couture.
A garment is a specific product, which is linked to the personality and the image of a person. But scientists today are trying to connect the robotisation of the manufacturing process and fashion. In Zara, for example, we may see the same numbers of mathematicians as fashion designers. They are called data scientists and allow us, in 15 days, to analyse, replicate to some extent, produce, and distribute the most wanted fashion pieces and those which mathematically can be sold easily. They are using the full system: mixing data, artificial intelligence, and robotics, but creativity is non-existent!
Hopefully, there are still Fashion Houses who are looking into hand-made designs first, to get the feeling of the personality of potential in-house new designers.
“Scientists today are trying to connect the robotisation of the manufacturing process and fashion. In Zara, for example, we may see the same numbers of mathematicians as fashion designers.”
We already see machinery taking over in the manufacturing front of fashion; do you think AI and algorithms will slowly take over design too?
I don’t think so. AI and algorithms may be useful to facilitate the initial pre-design steps of the design process, such as research and consumer trends analysis. Still, it may be a long road ahead for AI to take over the seats of design thinkers, as, particularly in fashion, inspiration encompasses so many variables.
Is technology causing young designers to become more in tune with engineering and familiar with algorithms?
Today’s designers are highly connected; technology is part of their daily lives. A designer today must be pro-active, re-active, versatile, and adaptable to change. That is challenging, as the act of creation requires time: time to think, time to step back – creation is timeless. But as fashion is a business, time is limited and is measured. At ESMOD Dubai, we first nurture creativity, then technicity, followed by innovation. Our mission is to prepare our students for these new technologies.
Denis Ravizza is the co-founder and CEO at ESMOD Dubai International Fashion Institutes & University Group. In 1989, Denis was rated by the world-renowned American Head Hunter Rita-Sue Siegel as being among the top 1% designers in the USA.


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Rent a Maserati, a Lamborghini or a Bentley
Car rental firms are increasingly catering for a new consumer trend – providing corporate and other clients who want to raise their profiles with the option of hiring luxury cars. Ultra high-end status symbols like a Maserati or Lamborghini are now on the fleets of well-known car rental companies.
Elite vehicles that usually sell for princely sums, such as the Ferrari F430 Spider, Lamborghini Gallardo and Bentley Continental GT, can be seen among the usual Kias and Fords.
A “supercar” range was launched on Hertz’s web booking platform last year, unrolled in the US, UK, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Less than 200 of these cars are on offer in total, but consumers love the idea, Hertz says.
Enterprise Rent-a-Car and Avis are also expanding their ranges of luxury cars, demand for which appears to increase when times are tough. Customers want to give the impression they are doing well for themselves and be taken more seriously.
[pictured: Lamborghini Gallardo]


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The latest research in the often-visited TV vs. PC debate has found that streaming media users and younger Internet users consider the TV to be an expendable source of background noise, according to Arbitron and Statistical Research, Inc. (SRI).
The Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet Study found that one-third of Americans with Internet access at home would give up television if forced to choose between television and the Internet. Among “streamies” — those who have ever listened to or viewed streaming media online — the TV faces a bigger challenge. Forty-one percent of streamies are more likely to get rid of their television than their Net access. Streamies who listened to or viewed streaming media in the past week were equally willing to give up television (47 percent) and home Internet access (47 percent).
“When measured on a monthly and weekly basis, streamies are more evenly divided between the choice of giving up television or home Internet access,” said Larry Rosen, president of Edison Media Research. “Our survey shows evidence that streamies are more sophisticated users of Internet technology and rely on it more for entertainment, work, and news.”
The study also found a relationship between a respondent’s age and their choice of medium. Americans between the ages of 12 and 24 are more apt to give up television (47 percent) than the Internet. More than two-thirds of Americans 25 and older would rather send the Internet packing than give up TV.
According to “The TV/PC Connection 2001” study by SRI, when a TV and a PC interact during primetime, the PC is four times more likely to hold consumers’ attention than the TV. Eighty percent of those who use TVs and PCs simultaneously during primetime consider the computer to be their primary activity, while 18 percent cite the TV as commanding more of their awareness.
Outside of primetime, TV’s “share of mind” goes up, but the PC is still dominant in about two out of three cases. SRI also found that roughly one in 10 persons age 12 to 64, and two in 10 online users, linked their TV and PC activities at some point on the day before the survey.
|If you to choose between giving up
all of the televisions in your home
or giving up your Internet access at home,
which would you rather give up first?
|Asked to Americans age 12+ with Net access at home
Source: Arbitron/Edison Media Research
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