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Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:
Shares of Pandora Media (p) are down $1.48, or almost 16%, at $7.97 in pre-market trading, continue the dive they took last night after the company beat fiscal Q3 expectations but forecast this quarter’s results well below expectations, a consequence in part, the company said, of reluctance to spend by advertisers who are worried about the fiscal cliff.
This morning their are some price target declines but no outright downgrades. Bulls are out in force this morning calling the dip a buying opportunity. Canacord Genuity’s Michael Graham, for example, reiterating a Buy rating while lowering his target from $16 to $12, writes that “we view this setback as mostly temporary and believe the monetization of a rapidly growing user base will reward the (at times very) patient investor.”
Another disappointment last night was enterprise software vendor Tibco Software (TIBX), which warned fiscal Q4 results will miss estimates sharply owing to its own mis-steps as well as slowing in government spending. The stock is off $3.47, or 14%, at $21.25 this morning, and at least one downgrade, from Merrill Lynch’s Kash Rangan, who cut the stock to Neutral from Buy, and cut his price target from $35.50 to $26. There were numerous other estimate and price target cuts.
Shares of Nokia (NOK) are up by 12 cents, or 3.%, at $3.56 in early trading after the company announced a version of its “Lumia” phone running Microsoft‘s (MSFT) Windows Phone for China Mobile‘s (CHL) network, as had been rumored. The “920T” goes on sale “by the end of the year,” Nokia said.
Nomura Equity Research’s Stuart Jeffrey today reiterates a Neutral rating on Apple (AAPL) shares and his colleague Romit Shah reiterates a “Reduce” rating on Intel (INTC) in a dual-authored report on the prospects of Apple dumping Intel’s processors in its Mac computers and instead using Apple’s custom-designed processors based on ARM Holdings (ARMH) technology.
In short, the authors think Apple might very well do it, for three reasons: the vertical integration of Mac OS and chipset could aid user experience, the technology is now in place for ARM-based chips that can support a desktop experience, and it would mean saving more than $100 off the cost to Apple of Intel’s “Core” series of chips.
Speaking of Intel, Raymond James’s Hans Mosesmann this morning cuts his rating on the shares to Underperform from Market Perform, warnings that the company faces a “potential gross margin nightmare.” To Mosesmann, there is risk that Intel’s 62% to 65% gross margin range of the last three years was an exception as it took share from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) “and benefitted from the last real Windows upgrade cycle.” Going forward, with ARM increasingly competitive, Intel might see 50% gross margin, he argues.
Meantime, Intel this morning priced its senior notes offer following the shelf registration yesterday. The $6 billion proposed offering seems to be much higher than what some had been projecting. $3 billion of notes mature December 15th, 2017, at a 1.35% coupon, $1.5 billion come due December 15th of 2022 at 2.7%, $750 million mature on December 15th of 2032 at a rate of 4%, and another $750 million will come due December 15th of 2042 at 4.25%.
Apple shares this morning are down $4.21, or 0.7%, at $571.64, while Intel chips are down 8 cents, or 0.4%, at $19.89.
Shares of Internet radio purveyors Pandora Media (P) are down $2, or 21%, at $7.43 after the company this afternoon reported fiscal Q3 revenue and profit per share that topped analysts’ estimates but forecast a surprise loss per share this quarter and revenue well below expectations.
Revenue in the three months ended in October rose 60%, year over year, to $120 million, yielding EPS of 5 cents a share in adjusted profit.
Analysts had been modeling $117 million and a penny profit.
Pandora said told “listener hours” in the quarter rose 67%, year over year, to 3.56 billion.
CEO Joe Kennedy remarked that the results exceeded the company’s expectations, adding “we monetized mobile at record levels and grew total mobile revenue 112%.”
For the current quarter, the company sees revenue in a range of $120 million to $123 million, and a net loss of 6 cents to 9 cents a share, on a non-GAAP basis. That is below the average Street estimates for $130.3 million and a 1-cent profit.
Pandora will host a conference call with analysts at 5 pm, Eastern time, and you can catch the webcast of it here.
Update: The shares have regained a little bit of ground and are now down $1.66, or 18%, at $7.79. The stock had risen almost 6% during the regular session.
Update 2: During the conference call this evening, CFO Steve Cakebread remarked that Pandora’s Q4 results would reflect a “re-acceleration of hiring driven partially by the addition of incremental recruiting opportunities.”
When it came time for the Q&A session, the first question dug into what CEO Kennedy said was advertiser caution about the “fiscal cliff” in Washington’s budget negotiations.
Kennedy said advertisers were proving very concerned about the cliff and the company was having a hard time predicting month-of-January results:
What we’re really seeing from advertisers, I think has to be first understood in the context of again our Fiscal Year quarter is November December and January and so what we really experienced over the past couple months is increase in caution from advertisers about macroeconomic concerns, the fiscal cliff particularly in January, and that really is the difference between what we know now and what we knew three months ago when we last gave guidance. The visibility of January is never particularly good and the cautiousness surrounding January at this point further deteriorates the visibility and drives us to a more cautious position. As you suggest, November and December are seasonally strong months and we certainly expect a good November and December but are very cautious about January at this point.
Pandora shares are now down $1.80, or 19%, at $7.65.
Kennedy kicked off his formal presentation boasting of the company’s mobile revenue growth, noting that the pace of 112% was higher than the pace of mobile hourly listening growth, which was just 85%. Mobile monetization reached a record high, he observed. He said Pandora’s share of all U.S. radio usage was 6.55%, up from 4.3% a year earlier.
Kennedy also spoke at length about what he believes is the unfair rate of royalties demanded of Internet broadcasters, remarking,
The amount just Pandora will pay this year will be greater than that paid by any other radio Company in the US or around the world. In fact there’s no country internationally where the entire radio industry, all of the AM, FM, satellite cable and internet radio companies pays a total combined amount even close to what he as a single Company will pay this year.
Shares of internet radio purveyors Pandora Media (P) were halted at 3:34 pm, Eastern, and have now resumed trading down $1.53, or almost 17%, at $7.76 following a Bloomberg report that Apple (AAPL) plans to introduce its own radio service next year.
Bloomberg’s Andy Fixmer and Adam Satariano report that multiple unnamed sources tell them the company has been talking with music labels to start an ad-supported radio service “within the first three months of 2013.” Apple is seeking more flexible deals with the labels than the kinds Pandora have, which limit the degree an artist or title can be played by a user.
Shares of Internet radio purveyors Pandora Media (P) are down 19 cents, or 1.8%, at $10.69, after Nomura Equity Research’s Brian Nowak late yesterday initiated coverage of the stock with a “Reduce” rating on the stock and an $8.50 price target, writing that its “trenches aren’t deep enough, as new competitors (offering personalization and more content) continue to emerge” and that “the larger technology companies building their digital ecosystems (Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOG)) are lurking as new threats to displace Pandora.”
Nowak is more optimistic than the Street, he writes, about the company’s ability to gain share, writing that the company’s “user growth story is coming through loud and clear”:
When it comes to Internet radio, Pandora really is the market. As shown in Fig 5, Pandora accounts for ~78% of the total U.S. Internet radio listening time spent, up from ~64% only one year ago. We expect Pandora to continue taking share too, growing an average of ~260bp per year to reach 89% by 2016E.
Moreover, he respects the brand loyalty he sees among users versus the competition:
Furthermore, Pandora users are more engaged than its competitors, with the average listener spending 52 minutes per month on Pandora.com, 1.3x and 2.3x more than the next-closest players, the emerging Slacker Radio and Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio, respectively.
Nevertheless, he sees the competitive waters getting much deeper in future:
While Pandora was early in enabling personalization in its radio product, imitation and innovation keep bringing new and stronger competitors; we count 9 streaming radio players that have been created since Pandora launched in 2005. Given the growth of social networking online, it’s not surprising that many of these new offerings have become more personalized—seven of these nine competitors now offer adaptive song recommendation engines, and nearly all offer some type of social integration (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). And while Pandora has many more active users than its rivals (55mn, or 5x more than the group average of 11mn), this increased socialization in online radio (and across the web) has the potential to reduce Pandora’s competitive edge. Pandora’s competitors come in multiple flavors as well, from VC-funded startups like the emerging Slacker and Spotify to the more traditional radio players like Clear Channel Radio beefing up their iHeartRadio online offering.
Nowak is modeling $429.6 million in revenue this year and a net loss per share of 18 cents. The revenue number is in line the Street consensus, with analysts modeling a 23-cent loss per share on a non-GAAP basis, and a 6-cent loss when excluding the cost of stock options expense.
Shares of Internet radio purveyor Pandora Media (P) are down $1.86, or almost 15%, at $10.71, and sank as low as $9.95 at one point, after The Wall Street Journal’s Ethan Smith and Jessica Vascellaro last night reported that Apple (AAPL) will unveil a streaming radio service that could push Pandora aside, citing multiple unnamed sources. Apple, you’ll recall is hosting a media event this coming Wednesday, September 12th, when it is expected to unveil a new iPhone.
The stock, however, is not without its defenders today. Stifel Nicolaus‘s Jordan Rohan today reiterates a Buy rating on Pandora stock and a $17 price target.
He thinks it’s a defensive move on Apple’s part, because Apple’s failed to sell a lot of ads (since announcing its iAd initiative a couple years ago), and he wonders if Apple can really do better than Pandora:
We believe the habitual use of Pandora’s music service reduces
dramatically the volume of music downloaded from iTunes. A recent Neilsen study confirms that more adults use Pandora than iTunes to listen to music. We suspect that Apple is keenly aware of this relationship and may be looking to make up for lagging music sales through a streaming service [...] How Will Apple Differentiate its Offering?: Will Apple have a music selection algorithm similar to or better than Pandora’s Music Genome? Will listeners drop the Pandora app and to reset themselves on Apple? Will Apple offer the service beyond iOS? If it is to be only available via Apple devices/iOS, this leaves a large portion of audience that uses Windows platforms, Android OS and other non-Apple touch points.
Boutique broker Albert Fried & Co.‘s Rich Tullo reiterates an Overweight rating on the shares and a $13 price target, writing that the company still “has exceptional revenue opportunities as radio content migrates from traditional radio to OTT [over-the-top].”
Tullo muses that if Apple does radio, it represents something of an immediate conflict with its existing content deals for iTunes:
Raymond James’s Aaron Kessler this morning raised his rating on shares of Internet radio purveyor Pandora Media (P) to Outperform from Market Perform, with a $14 price target, arguing that his survey of 422 Internet users showed the company is “well positioned competitively, #2 only behind [Apple‘s (AAPL)] iTunes.”
Kessler writes that his survey shows the potential for Pandora’s usage to either hold stay or increase in the next year:
Our survey indicates that of total Pandora users (n=268 or 64% penetration), 38% expect to increase usage of Pandora over the next 12 months, 58% expect no change in use, and only 4% expect to decrease usage. In general, users expecting to increase usage over the next 12 months far outweighed those expecting to decrease usage across all age cohorts, including the 18-29 cohort (n=61) of which 38% expect to increase usage and 11% expect to decrease usage, the 30-44 cohort (n=103) of which 42% expect to increase and 1% expect to decrease, the 45-60 cohort (n=70) of which 31% expect to increase and 4% expect to decrease, and the over 60 cohort (n=24) of which 29% expect to increase and 4% expect to decrease.
Moreover, that 38% potential for increased usage is close behind the 46% of users of startup Spotify‘s service, writes Kessler, and the 39% for users of Google‘s (GOOG) “Google Music,” and ahead of a 32% figure for iTunes, and a 30% portion of people saying they’ll increase use of Amazon.com‘s (AMZN) “Amazon Music.”
Spotify had ~23 million users as of May 2012, according to Business Insider, well below Pandora’s ~152 million members. Our survey data indicates that Spotify penetration is relatively low (20% adoption) vs. Pandora (64% adoption). Additionally, according to our survey, 46% of Spotify users expect to increase usage over the next 12 months vs. 38% for Pandora, though 8% of Spotify users also expect to decrease usage vs. 4% for Pandora.
Barclays Capital’s Anthony DiClemente today reiterates an Underweight rating on shares of Internet radio purveyor Pandora Media (P), and a $9 price target, arguing that “The online music space has grown more competitive this week with AMZN’s announcement of its Cloud Player for iPhone and the fact that internet radio company Songza currently has the 1st and 2nd most downloaded app on the iPad and iPhone, respectively.”
“We believe this presents a compelling alternative to Pandora, as users can stream the exact song they want to hear rather than a playlist derived according to their assumed tastes,” he writes.
DiClemente concedes the active user count at startup Songza is less than a tenth of Pandora’s estimated 1.5 million users, but he thinks the popularity of the company’s application for Apple‘s (AAPL) “iOS” operating system for iPhone is an indication the service is “rapidly gaining traction” given it doesn’t force users to sit through ads, and it has “a wide variety of curated playlits.”
On the brighter side, Pandora today was raised to Overweight from Market Perform at boutique brokerage Albert Fried.
Pandora shares today are up 46 cents, almost 5%, at $10.36.
Update: A Pandora representative was in touch this afternoon to contest the portrait of its user base offered by Barclays. Barclays’s data is provided by application data trackers AppData, but those numbers only reflect Pandora’s user base through Facebook (FB), the company contends. Pandora has a total “registered user count of users” of 150 million. The company’s active users totaled 53.3 million at the end of May. Its share of total U.S. radio listening was 5.8% at the end of that month.
Online radio purveyor Pandora Media (P) was the subject of some opposing points of view this afternoon, with Barclays Capital‘s Anthony DiClemente starting the stock at Underweight, with an $8 price target, and J.P. Morgan’s Doug Anmuthreiterating an Overweight rating and a $17 price target.
Writes DiClemente, the company’s rate of revenue, measured as “revenue per thousand users,” or RPM, is deteriorating, with the company getting perhaps $20 per on mobile devices versus $60 or so for radio play on traditional computers.
That’s not good given that the company’s audience is “rapidly” shifting to mobile devices, with 70% of hours of play being mobile as of Q4, he observes. The real issue, he says, is that the company may not be able to grow revenue to keep up with rising content costs.
Content costs were 54% last year, up from 50% the year before, he notes, and will rise to 61.6% this year, he opines.
Pandora pays a royalty of a tenth of a penny for each play of a song to a company called SoundExchange. Despite the fact that the company commands 70% of all Internet radio hours, and despite its active users having risen at a fast clip of 62% last year, DiClemente sees structural problems in that royalty arrangement:
The royalty rates paid to SoundExchange on each individual song played, and thus on listener hours (at roughly 15 songs per listener hour, according to Pandora), will increase every year from 2011 through 2015 for sound recordings, and at the end of 2015 when Pandora renegotiates its royalty structure agreement with SoundExchange, there is no guarantee that these rates will not increase further. Pandora also pays 1.75% and 0.4% of gross revenues to BMI and SESAC, respectively, as royalties for musical compositions. As such, we believe it will be difficult for Pandora to realize leverage on its content acquisition costs, and thus we believe the best way for the business to sustainably grow profits is by growing advertising revenue per listening hour at a faster pace than the growth in royalty fees.
DiClemente models Pandora losing 16 cents per share in the fiscal year ending next January, and 10 cents in 2014. He doesn’t think Pandora can turn a profit until 2016. The Street consensus, however, is for Pandora to turn a profit of 4 cents in 2014.
Revenue in the three months ended in February rose 21%, year over year, to $297 million, yielding EPS of 29 cents.
Analysts on average had been modeling $291 million and 27 cents.
Red Hat said subscription revenue rose 22% to $255.2 million.
The company “experienced impressive breadth and depth of demand for our technologies this quarter whether by geography or by industry vertical,” said CFO Charlie Peters.
The company will host a conference call with analysts at 5 pm, Eastern time, and you can catch the webcast of it here.
Update: Subsequent to the earnings release, the company announced its board of directors approved a new $300 million share repurchase program, to be conducted “from time to time.” Red Hat’s existing repurchase authorization has $214 million remaining and was set to expire at the end of this month.
The company has bought back 5.8 million shares, or 3% of its stock, under the existing program. Red Hat has 192.7 million shares of stock outstanding, it said.
Red Hat shares are now up $3.96, or 7.6%, at $55.35.
Update: On the conference call, management projected for the full year ending in February of 2013, Red Hat last night said it expects revenue of $1.34 billion to $1.36 billion, ahead of the consensus $1.3 billion estimate. The company sees EPS of $1.16 to $1.20, ahead of the average $1.15 estimate.
For the current quarter, the company projected revenue of $307 million to $311 million, and EPS of 25 cents to 27 cents. That is ahead of the average revenue estimate of $306 million, but below the average 27-cent EPS estimate.
Update 2: In a phone call following the company’s conference call, CEO Jim Whitehurst told me there is still “massive” amounts of Unix installations at some of the world’s largest firms that can be, and is being replaced by Linux, providing many “innings” in the game for Red Hat, if you will.
“We have most of the investment banking business in the world” in terms of enterprise operating systems, said Whitehurst. “But we have just a tiny share of retail banking core systems,” which are still on Unix.
“In the world of telecom, we are very strong in a whole bunch of the peripheral systems, but we are just getting started with core systems such as OSS [operations support systems]. We have a good working relationship with these people, it’s a matter of when, not if.” Whitehurst gave as an example the fact that Amdocs (DOX) has standardized all of its billing and other back-office applications to run on the company’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
As far as “cloud computing,” where the company already enjoys an expanding marketplace, coming months will bring the roll-out of the company’s “storage appliance,” a software program that turns any server into a storage system. That technology is based on the open-source “Gluster File System,“ which has existing customers, such as Internet radio purveyors Pandora Media (P), who use the technology on Amazon.com‘s (AMZN) Web Services platform. Facebook, notes Whitehurst, recently became an advisor to the open source project. And so he expects lots of runway in signing up more Web-based, cloud-based customers who need to scale-up their storage use.
Red Hat shares are up $4.41, or almost 9%, at $55.80 in late trading.
Credit Suisse‘s John Blackledge today initiated coverage of online radio purveyors Pandora Media (P) with a Neutral rating, and a $12 price target, writing that the company’s revenue should see strong growth, thanks to increasing usage of its service and improving monetization, but that content costs will weigh on profits.
Blackledge is estimating $419 million in the fiscal year ending next January, and a loss of 6 cents a share, excluding some costs. The Street has been modeling $417 million and a 13-cent loss, according to Factset.
Blackledge sees a number of scenarios where growth could be higher, such as selling more mobile advertising at a premium. That might yield revenue in 2014 of $652 million, he estimates, versus his “base case” scenario of $620 million.
However, “significant operating income is still several years away,” Blackledge opines. That’s because content costs are also rising at about 37% per year, compounded:
Overall, we expect content costs, the sound recording and music compositions costs to grow from $149 million in FY12 to $722 million in FY17, up 37% annually. The two main drivers are increasing listening hours and higher licensing fees. We expect listening hours to increase about 28% annually from FY12-F17 and expect the sound recording license fees to grow 7-8% (which has already been agreed upon through almost all of FY16), yielding 37% annual cost growth.
Content costs were 54% of revenue last fiscal year, he notes. Most of that is payment of “performance rights license” fees and royalties to copyright owners under the DMCA, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
Pandora shares today fell rose 29 cents, or almost 3%, to $10.61.
Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: email@example.com.


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Corporate welfare wins again.
They should scrap other Certificate of Need laws too.
The Taiwan-based tech company promised to open "innovation centers" in several cities around the state. But now those are on hold, too.
The state's largest hospital chain didn't want the competition.
The black market still dominates. And more enforcement and fines aren’t going to fix it.
A lobbying effort aimed at unleashing more cronyism launches while a new report demonstrates why the bank should be permanently shuttered.
Milton Friedman famously observed that "nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program." The rare demise of a government program, it seems, is temporary too.
Curt Schilling Blew $75 Million in Public Funds Making Bad Video Games. Naturally, He Thinks He Should Be in Congress.
Schilling and Trump are alike in attacking immigrants for costing money, while seeking out business subsidies.
This Steelmaker Looked Like a Winner in the Trade War. Now It's Suing the Commerce Department Over Tariffs.
Protectionism fails, even for those who were supposed to benefit.
A weekend where a few items are free of sales taxes is a poor substitute for permanent reforms.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Can't Stay Awake During Meetings. Does That Mean It's Time to Put His Whole Crony Capitalist Department to Rest?
The Commerce Department is a major dispenser of corporate welfare.
New research shows that business leaders who benefit from government favoritism are more comfortable with government intervention into markets.
The FBI raided the house of D.C. City Councilman and Metro board member Jack Evans as part of a federal grand jury investigation.
A local development study didn't evaluate whether government incentives had anything to do with a business's decision to invest.
The ruling says it's acceptable for cities to use ordinances to protect some businesses from competitors.
A California bill to crack down on paper receipts relies on scare tactics and misinformation.
Restaurateurs get protection from small competitors. It’s the citizens who lose out on delicious food choices.
The evidence against the agency is overwhelming.
The federal law protecting the shipping industry from competition strikes again.
More than $60 million of government money could flow to a private water park next to the Mall of America.
The bank has been operating as a shell of its former cronyist self since 2015. Just put it out of its misery already.
Arlington County officials have released the terms of their multi-million dollar subsidy package.
So far, Trump's efforts to subsidize his coal cronies have failed.
But none of it is a substitute for developing a robust and vibrant economy. And neither is landing a single big employer like Amazon.
Sure, the public deserves to know what Amazon was getting offered. But it deserved to know all along, too.
In addition to tax credits, Virginia is giving Amazon the right to rename the area around its new headquarters.
Amazon lobbies for government favors and bad regulations.
A lawsuit challenging Iowa's Certificate of Need laws goes before a federal judge today.
A state law says you can't call it meat unless it's actually beef, pork, or poultry. Critics say the bill violates the First Amendment.
Once again, government would best serve the public by just getting out of the way.
U.S. Steel and other manufacturers are lobbying to block waivers, creating chaos along supply chains.
Stop subsidizing crony capitalism abroad with taxpayer dollars.
The dealmaker in chief abuses his power to cripple companies that anger him and reward those that please him-and his fellow Republicans enable it.
Many subsidies for the film industry cost taxpayers more and create even less.
Leagues are lobbying states to institute an "integrity fee" that would entitle them to 1 percent of all the money bet at sportsbooks.
Lawsuit exposes a shady deal in Edgewater, New Jersey.
Rental-car companies are facing the same challenges as other established businesses in the internet age. One state lawmaker wants to protect them from change.

domain: news


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Cigarette butts are an urban nuisance but one company has a solution it says is good for the environment -- and business. Recyclers Terracycle have figured out how to convert filters into saleable items -- including ashtrays -- and clean up the streets, to boot.
AP (July 21, 2014) New Orleans is the first U.S. city to participate in a large-scale recycling effort for cigarette butts. The city is rolling out dozens of containers for smokers to use when they discard their butts. ... watch video
AFP (Jan. 23, 2014) How does one of the world's biggest cities get rid of its trash? Using one of the world's biggest recycling facilities of course. AFPTV takes a look at how New York handles its ... watch video
Reuters - Innovations Video Online (Nov. 26, 2014) Innovative recycling project in La Paz separates city waste and converts plastic garbage into school furniture made from 'plastiwood'. Tara Cleary reports.
Video provided by ... watch video
MultiVu (Apr. 9, 2013) Littered cigarette butts are more than just an eye sore. According to environmental clean-up reports, cigarette butts are the No. 1 littered item on US roadways and the No. 1 item found on beaches ... watch video
TheStreet (July 11, 2014) Gas Natural, the Ohio-based company mired in scandal, was recently talking to prospective buyers about a sale, but talks came to a screeching halt when former CEO Richard Osborne filed a lawsuit ... watch video
Deutsche Welle (June 23, 2013) Leftovers from the fish industry might become a valuable raw material in the future. A German company has developed a system for recycling shrimp shells and other fish waste to create oils for the ... watch video
Deutsche Welle (Feb. 20, 2012) A new project in South Africa is taking organic waste that would otherwise be left to simply decay in garbage dumps and processing it in a special facility belonging to the South African company ... watch video
Xinhua News Agency (Oct. 1, 2012) Banquets in China may look glamorous, but they generate hundreds of thousands of tons of food waste every year. Taking on the losses, Chinese recycling companies have now come up with new ways of ... watch video
July 1, 2015 A newly discovered equation is expected to greatly improve the reliability and functionality for hundreds of important water models used by everyone from irrigators and city planners to climate ... read more
Aug. 5, 2014 A group of scientists have converted used-cigarette butts into a high-performing material that could be integrated into computers, handheld devices, electrical vehicles and wind turbines to store ... read more
May 6, 2014 Ban cigarette filters. Start a deposit-return scheme for used butts. Hold manufacturers responsible for clean-ups. Place warnings on packets about the impact of simply flicking one's used ... read more
Aug. 25, 2010 A test for one of the thousands of chemicals in cigarette smoke has the potential for more accurately estimating smokers' mouth level exposure and may have applications for developing ... read more


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Construction (and deconstruction) in the upcoming Culp Center remodel has students asking where they will eat. Rumors have circulated campus suggesting food trucks will be students’ options, but plans are still underway.
SGA Vice President Hunter Shipley presented Sodexo’s proposed plans for dining services during the remodeling period to the Student Government Association on Tuesday.
“This is what we’re going to be operating on once the renovations start, up until December 2019,” Shipley said to SGA.
During the renovation, the Culp Center will be closed, and offices and services are being moved to different locations across campus. The Marketplace, post office and elevator will be the only remaining areas open with only direct access to them.
Marketplace seating will be altered throughout the renovation, according to Sodexo’s proposal. Overflow seating will be directed to the Culp Ballroom.
Retail dining not currently located in the Culp will be unchanged. The Culp closing will mean Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell, Quiznos and Toss will not be on campus, at least during the renovation, according to Shipley.
According to the proposal, Subway will begin a double-service line and the Tree House will house Starbucks. Beside the Tree House, a Buccaneer food trailer will offer a rotating menu of barbeque, wings and tacos. On the Sherrod Library patio, there will be an Einstein Bros. Bagels mobile coffee cart to help compensate for additional customers and a Boar’s Head hotdog cart.
“They will move, possibly, if there’s a better place for it once we get going with it, but this is the idea we’re going with for now,” Shipley said.
A Steak and Shake food truck will serve between the library and Governors Hall, where the library drop off area is currently.
The Centennial Hall and parking garage convenience stores will remain the same.
The plans are not finalized, but do allow for relocation of most retail dining locations currently available in the Culp Center.


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(Yicai Global) Oct. 21 -- All new electric vehicles produced by US automaker Tesla Motor Inc.'s [NASDAQ:TSLA] will feature the level five autonomous driving hardware suite Autopilot 2.0 that allows fully automated driving, CEO Elon Musk has announced.
However, in China, it is still mandatory that drivers 'keep their hands on the steering wheel.'
The 'self-driving' systems installed on Tesla cars in China are regarded as driving assistance systems and autopilot functions performed by the systems are only of an auxiliary nature, said a source at Tesla China.
There have been some tragedies connected with the self-driving system. 23-year-old Mr. Gao Yaning died in a car accident while driving his Model S in January. His father later filed a case against Tesla accusing it of exaggerating the performance of the Autopilot hardware suite and demanding an independent investigation into the accident.
"We are still waiting for Mr. Gao's relatives to provide more information to help us determine the cause of the accident," Mr. Zhu Xiaotong, president of Tesla China, told Yicai Gobal.
The California-based firm still has advantages over competitors Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in terms of technology and volume of road data and will never stop developing its autopilot technology, the source said.


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The IT industry human resources report by TopDev.vn
Over the past 5 years, AI technology has been developing into a very stable and complete stage, it has the power to revolutionize how businesses operate and the way we live. In Vietnam Tech Market, many startups have already developed numerous AI Machine Learning projects creating an innovative boost for the whole industry. For that matter, the salary for this particular skill is increasing significantly for the years to come.
At recent national tech conferences like Vietnam Web Summit and Vietnam Mobile Day, many companies and corporations from all over the globe have mentioned a lot about applying AI and Business Intelligence in to their current business models. It shows us that AI is the key to our future and this is one of the focuses for Vietnamese Tech industry to look at for the next innovation movement.
Not just AI, many other technologies are also on the rise, understand the market is the key to your future success. While advances in technology may someday result in ground-breaking solutions, for now businesses should follow a clear path for their innovation process and this is the best information we’ve provided yet.
The information was acquired from Oct 3rd to Dec 14th, 2018. We have been collecting surveys from thousands of developers and recruiters in our data- base into to form one of the most comprehensive guideline for IT industry market report.
For Vietnamese version of this report, please go to this article.
For English version of this report, please download here.


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Kriti Sanon rings in her 31st birthday today and while she was all smiles at a grand celebration thrown by her team last night in the presence of a few select paparazzi, where she also happily spoke about Mimi releasing earlier than planned, it seems that the smiles are but a facade to hide the sadness that has come by on her special day of all days. Some very disturbing news about the birthday girl’s latest release has rolled in and it could be the worst gift anybody could be given on this day, especially if you belong to the film fraternity. Apparently, Kriti Sanon’s latest release Mimi, which has released four days earlier than planned, has nothing to do with the date coinciding with the actress’ birthday and everything to do with the movie getting leaked online.
According to a well-placed source in the industry, Mimi was going to be released as per plan as some of the promotional strategies, including interviews with Kriti Sanon, Pankaj Tripathi and Sai Tamhankar were still pending. However, the makers along with Netflix had to opt for this knee-jerk reaction after suddenly being hit with the shocking reality that their film got leaked online yesterday itself, after which they were left with no other option but to hastily release the movie on Netflix four days before its planned release on 30th July.
What’s more, said source also reveals that seeing that no less 4k pirated copies of Mimi were available on several torrent sites as also on the Telegram sharing app, the makers have even arranged a dual OTT release on both Netflix and Jio Cinemas to try and urge more viewers to see the original version of the Laxman Utekar directorial, considering that not many in the country subscribe to Netflix given its exorbitant fees. Expectedly, producer Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films has tried to gloss over the situation by stating that the film can come early just as babies are born prematurely, since it’s Kriti Sanon’s birthday.
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Bitcoin has hit a new all-time high of $47,000 in a recent Tesla-fuelled surge. The leading cryptocurrency jumped from $45,000 to $47,000 on the 8th of February after Tesla announced its Bitcoin investment.
CoinJournal noted in a report that the increase to $47,000 occurred in less than one hour, following news on the BTC investment.
Tesla revealed in a filing with the US SEC that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been particular about Bitcoin and Dogecoin recently. The CEO had “Bitcoin” on his Twitter bio for a while, and has repeatedly praised Dogecoin as well.
Apart from the investment, Tesla added that it would begin to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for its products.
At press time, CoinMarketCap data showed that Bitcoin had hit $48,003.72 in the last 24 hours of trading. The data also revealed that the king coin is up 7.03% to $46,771.03.
With a market cap of over $870 billion, Bitcoin has grown by 14.63% to nearly $99 billion in trading volume. The asset has also surged 67% since 2021 began.
Cryptojournal mentioned another factor behind the rise in BTC. The report mentioned the increasing demand for the king coin among institutional investors, who view Bitcoin as a store of value as a reason for the surge.
Image Credits: Pixabay


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Net neutrality keeps the Web from running like an airport security line. And it might go away.
Let’s talk about the end of net neutrality in terms of a hellscape everyone knows: airport security lines. Imagine Verizon and Comcast are running the security lines—and websites and services are the ones trying to get through. With net neutrality, all those sites pass through at the same speed. But of course, airport security these days is all about a pecking order. There’s regular security and there’s the faster “TSA Pre” line. Then at many airports, if you pay extra there’s a “Clear” line, a “priority” line for pilots and first-class passengers, and even a super-fast celebrity line that comes with organic seaweed snacks (really). Without the neutrality rules, Internet providers could set up their own fast lanes—meaning certain websites could buy first-class treatment, while others are stuck in cattle class. Providers could sell Internet service in packages, like cable-TV bundles. Service providers would also have the right to set up their own no-fly lists, blocking certain websites that they don’t like or compete with their own business. For you, certain websites could slow to a crawl. Or perhaps they wouldn’t show up at all. The problem isn’t what happens to Silicon Valley companies who can afford special treatment. The deepest impact will be invisible: small businesses stuck in the slow lane. We could lose what what makes the Internet so useful in the first place. Without net neutrality, many new ideas just won’t ever take flight.
Net neutrality keeps the Web from running like an airport security line. And it might go away. The FCC is about to make the Internet as much fun as being in line at the airport (video)


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Entrepreneurs discuss the future of Indian B2B industry at TechSparks 2021
The Indian business ecosystem has changed immensely in the last two years. From digitisation to meeting virtually and setting business targets online — a lot has happened in the business world amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we emerge from the deadly second pandemic wave and the country eases into adopting technology, many things are in the pipeline to shape up for the Indian B2B industry.
Speaking at TechSparks 2021 — YourStory’s flagship event — Roopa Jayaraman, SVP - Product and Technology Development, Odessa, and Ashish Jhina, Co-founder and COO,, discussed what’s next in the Indian B2B industry.
The rising B2B market
The COVID-19 pandemic has reset the way we look at our markets. This year, India registered 33 unicorns, presenting several opportunities.
Roopa said the clear focus of any player needs to be on problem-solving. She added, “Be very clear on the problem you are trying to solve for your customer, and there is ample opportunity in the market space.”
Supporting Roopa’s statement, Ashish added that an entrepreneur “must live the life of a customer”.
He said, “There’s a lot that’s still untapped. Speak with them and work with them to get the best of the ideas to innovate the product.”
Digitisation has opened many gates for the B2B sector, and the velocity and architects of businesses are fast changing.
Be it artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), supply chain management, cloud services, etc., integration between sectors holds a sweet spot.
In fact, this is also a space where without customer understanding and feedback, businesses couldn’t survive. Thus, predictive analysis of customers is important to strive in the competitive B2B space.
How to strive?
“Find something better you can do than anybody else in the life of a customer,” said Ashish, adding that Jumbotail identified the biggest problem of kiranas, who had to deal with hundreds of suppliers to keep 500-600 products in their stores.
Jumbotail solved this core problem and created a whole bunch of services to help kirana stores — from logistics, fintech to starting omnichannel stores, etc.
“When you have a problem-solving approach, competition becomes irrelevant,” he added.
Digital is the future
Digital transformation and improving SaaS and Cloud experience were already brewing in the B2B sector, and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this growth.
What was seen as a roadmap for five to six years, overnight, became crucial for running a business. At present, all sectors are adopting the power of Cloud and API.
“One of the most important things for a business today is to have a strong digital capability. From selling to interacting, after-sales support, everything has a digital-first experience,” Roopa said.
Ashish said if a business starts by aggregating demand, it can catalyse substantial change in the ecosystem.
He added, “Digital is the way ahead today. Even in places like the outskirts of Lucknow, Ranchi, and Trichy, where ATMs take time to reach, digital payments are widely adopted.”
Building technology focussing on the customer requirements needs to be in the mainstream, Asish said.
According to Roopa and Ashish, unlearning and relearning is the mantra as COVID-19 made everyone realise. Every entrepreneur must have the ability to adapt to a new normal.
“We need to break the myths of collaboration. What seemed to be impossible about two years ago has completely disrupted the way,” Roopa said.
She added the entrepreneurial journey is exciting but hard. And, keeping the focus on solving customer problems will take them a long way.
“Keep the cost low, keep the burn low,” Ashish concluded.
To log in to our virtual events platform and experience TechSparks 2021 with thousands of other startup-tech enthusiasts from around the world, join here. Don't forget to tag #TechSparks2021 when you share your experience, learnings and favourite moments from TechSparks 2021.
For a line-up of all the action-packed sessions at YourStory's flagship startup-tech conference, check out TechSparks 2021 website.
Edited by Suman Singh


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"This is not a COVID line."
The line that Brian Neuman was referring to in his Instagram caption was the one outside of DeLucia's Brick Oven Pizza last week in Raritan.
People flocked to the First Avenue restaurant for days on end after the restaurant scored a 9.4 from Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy on his "One Bite" pizza review.
“Is this the best pizza I’ve ever had? It’s 100% in the conversation,” Portnoy said in the Jan. 6 review. "You drive three to four hours for this pizza. Absolutely spectacular. It's worth every penny."
Due to increased demand, the restaurant has limited orders only to phone and walk-ins, as well as the number of pies cooked daily, in order to preserve the integrity of their original brick ovens.
Costanio DeLucia, an Italian immigrant, opened the business in 1917 as a bread bakery, and pizza was added to the menu in the 1930s. The menu was converted to an all-pizza menu in the 1950s. More than a century later, the restaurant is still carrying on the family legacy.
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Safemark Systems, the dominant provider of guest room safes to the worldwide hospitality industry, is pleased to announce its third major contract renewal with Avendra. As part of the five-year agreement, Safemark will continue to provide its extensive portfolio of safes to Avendra’s customers throughout North America.
Avendra is the leading procurement services provider serving the hospitality industry in North America. With over $4 billion of purchasing power, Avendra’s purchasing solutions help hotels save time and money, while keeping the guest experience top of mind.
“Avendra is committed to building long-term relationships with the best suppliers that can deliver the greatest value to our customers,” said Danita Hill, strategic sourcing manager, Avendra. “Based on the proven integrity of Safemark Systems and quality of its in-room safes, we are pleased to renew our agreement with this security leader.”
Safemark’s safes include the industry’s most comprehensive audit trail designed to protect guests’ valuables and shield hotels from alleged losses. As an added peace of mind, each safe includes a manufacturer’s warranty for up to five years and an exclusive $10,000 limited warranty against forced entry.
“We have had the pleasure of working with Avendra since 2005 and will continue to collaborate with their team to ensure hotels and their guests benefit from the convenience of electronic safes,” said John Foley, Safemark vice president of sales, serving Avendra customers in North America. Avendra has set rigorous standards for quality, pricing, consistency of service and on-time delivery. We are proud to be part of their comprehensive program.”
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Irish grocery chains will "feel the pinch" as European retailers continue to push for more of the Republic's market share, according to new research by retail analysts Verdict.
The past five years have seen the country's €24.4bn retail market boosted by 34%, as foreign multiples take advantage of changes to the Irish Grocery Order Act to move in, said report author Daniel Lucht.
"Buoyant economic growth and a relaxation of store size limits has attracted major international retailers," he said. "German discounters Lidl and Aldi have expanded aggressively, alongside M&S and Tesco.
"Lidl and Aldi have ambitious growth plans and Tesco is also expected to be very aggressive. We can expect to see fierce battles over retail space and Irish supermarkets Dunnes and SuperValu will feel the pinch."


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Stellantis NV and Samsung SDI announced on Monday that they have signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a second battery production facility in the US as part of the StarPlus Energy joint venture.
The factory, scheduled to begin production in 2027, will have an initial annual production capacity of 34 gigawatt-hours.
In May 2022, Stellantis and Samsung SDI had committed to building a first battery production facility in the US, in Kokomo, Indiana. The launch is planned for the first quarter of 2025, and the factory will have an annual output of 33 GWh, higher than the initial target of 23 GWh.
“This new facility will help us achieve our ambitious goal of offering at least 25 new battery-electric vehicles for the North American market by the end of this decade,” said Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis.
“We continue to expand our capacity in the US in collaboration with our valued partner Samsung SDI and take the next steps to achieve our goal of zero CO2 emissions by 2038.”
“Last year, with the establishment of the joint venture with Stellantis, we laid a solid foundation to consolidate our presence in North America,” pointed out Samsung SDI President and CEO Yoon-ho Choi.
“The second factory will accelerate our development in the American market and help Stellantis advance the electric transition in the US by delivering products with the highest levels of safety and quality.”
As part of its strategic plan Dare Forward 2030, Stellantis announced a target to achieve 100 percent of its sales mix with battery-electric vehicles in Europe and 50 percent with passenger cars and BEVs in the US by 2030. To meet these sales objectives, the company will secure approximately 400 GWh of battery capacity.
Stellantis aims to become a carbon-neutral company across all aspects by 2038, with a single-digit percentage offset of the remaining emissions.


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Bitstream has announced that one of Asia’s premier provider of online news, information, communication, entertainment and shopping services, is using the BOLT SDK as the core technology for mobilizing its next generation email service, making the service available to mobile phones of all types.
Based on the award-winning cloud computing architecture that has made BOLT the mobile browser of choice for more than 20 million people worldwide, the BOLT SDK enables carriers, handset manufacturers and other service providers to build feature rich Java ME applications that can work just as well as on entry-level feature phones as they do on high-end smartphones. The BOLT SDK lets any company with Web-based content, such as media companies, produce mobile Java apps that are ready to run on billions of mobile phones already in the market.
“Although mobile phones are becoming ‘smarter’ and more capable, the vast majority of mobile devices still do not have the processing power and storage needed for feature-rich applications,” said Sampo Kaasila, vice president of research and development at Bitstream.
“The magic behind the BOLT browser is its cloud computing architecture that places the processing power and the resulting ability to execute advanced features inside the cloud, allowing even the most basic of mobile phones to deliver superior Web browsing. This same cloud computing architecture can be used to enable a wide variety of other applications, and Bitstream is making it available to other service providers as a software development kit.”
The BOLT mobile browser, widely regarded as the industry’s most feature-rich mobile browser, delivers faster page load times along with a vast array of capabilities normally associated with desktop computer browsers to any type of mobile phone platform. To achieve both its speed and advanced features, Bitstream engineered a cloud-computing architecture that enables all of the BOLT browser’s capabilities.
Bitstream’s customers leveraged the BOLT SDK to produce a mobile email service designed to reach and be used by more than 500 million Java ME mobile phone users in Asia so people can send and receive email, look up contacts, manage their calendars and perform a host of other personal information management tasks on their phones just as they could from their PCs.
By using the BOLT SDK, this next generation email service works across virtually all mobile phone platforms and nearly all mobile phones in the market (close to 200 models from over two dozen manufacturers), including all entry level phones. By using the BOLT SDK as its core application technology, this new email service can support new phone platforms and models as they are introduced.


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Crocs, the maker of the love ’em or hate ’em rubber shoes whose fans once included Rihanna and P Diddy, has fallen out of fashion.
The company, whose comfortable clogs were dreamt up by three friends on a sailing trip, yesterday revealed tumbling profits and plans to shut 100 shops with the loss of up to 200 jobs.
At its peak, Crocs had a host of celebrity fans, with actors Alicia Silverstone, Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Nicholson and rock star Steven Tyler among the stars spotted in a pair, while Sex and the City fashion maven Sarah Jessica Parker dressed her son in them.
But only two years after the maker of the colourful resin-moulded clogs reported sales of more than $1bn, fickle fashionistas have moved on.
Ironically, part of the company’s problem is that the waterproof shoes – which have been mocked as the world’s ugliest footwear – are so robust that owners did not need to replace them.
Six months ago, the private equity giant Blackstone invested $200m to help revive the firm and took a 13 per cent stake. But it has now decided on drastic action, by closing shops and cutting jobs.
The Colorado-based group’s president Andrew Rees said the brand needed “dynamic change” in its strategy, organisation and market approach.
About 100 of its 620 stores around the world will close. Crocs did not reveal the locations of the closures. Across Europe, Crocs has more than 115 company-owned and 98 franchised stores.
It has three shops in the UK but had once planned to open up to 30.
Crocs will also ditch plans to win over new customers with fashion leather boots and dressier footwear and will instead focus on its core products of sandals, loafers and other casual shoes. It will also cut the number of styles available by up to 40 per cent and boost advertising spending by 50 per cent. It said the closures would initially reduce sales by up to $50m.
It reported second-quarter profits had tumbled by almost half to $19.5m but sales edged up 3.6 per cent to $377m.
Wall Street reacted positively to the restructuring plan and Crocs shares jumped 11 per cent on the news.
The footwear firm was founded in 2002 and Crocs initially became popular with people who worked on their feet all day such as chefs and nurses for their comfortable and hard-wearing designs.
The group listed in 2006 at $21 a share and yesterday its shares rose to about $16.Reuse content


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A New Innovative Study Space
The opening of the Technology Commons will help students find the newest technology in a state-of-the-art study environment.
Graduate students can find the latest in computer and learning technology, group and individual study quarters, a coffee shop, a computer store and updated modular desks and furniture all in this redesigned resource center.
The goal of completely renovating Computer Center I and II was to better serve the always evolving technological needs of UCF students, faculty and staff. Computer Center I now contains the Traditional Computer Lab and conference rooms, while Computer Center II features the Collaboration Lab, the Wireless Lab, and the Technology Product Center.
“Technology Commons will cater to nearly all types of students’ needs, especially when it comes to graduate students”, says Mr. Joe Raditch, a UCF graduate student and the Marketing Specialist for the new technology hub.
For the graduates working in groups, Technology Commons offers a remarkable Collaboration Lab. Here, students can hold discussions and prepare presentations in one of three rooms containing noise-cancelling glass walls and large flat-screen computer monitors. Group study tables, spacious computer stations, and dry erase white and glass boards also allow for groups to brainstorm and collaborate. The Collaboration Lab also includes a Video Recording Lab for any of your video production needs.
Though the Collaboration rooms are currently open to all students, they will soon be reservation-only. Please visit the following link to the online form to reserve a room.
A large conference room in Technology Commons I also features movable walls and adjustable tables and is available to all UCF students upon request.
Ms. Yasmin Brady, the Technology Commons Manager, says they are exploring the possibility of making available to students video conferencing and Skype. One day, students may be able to work with colleagues oversees or participate in job interviews via live video conference.
For the more private learner, individual study space is not scarce – in the unique and quiet wireless lounge, students can plug in their laptops in one of the countless wall outlets while choosing from a variety of comfortable seating options. There are secure “Recharge” lockers for students’ notebooks and other electronics. You can also recycle your used batteries (including laptop batteries, rechargeable batteries, etc.) and old ink cartridges here. And for snacks and caffeine pick-me-ups, Seattle’s Best Coffee café is around the corner.
For students without personal laptops, the Traditional Computer Lab in Technology Commons 1 offers over 100 new Apple and Dell computers and promises to virtually always have open available workstations. The PCs are preinstalled with the statistics program SPSS, while the Macs come loaded with the digital video editing software Production Suite. For graduate students that utilize other software, UCF professors can contact the Technology Commons staff members to request installation on the computers.
Students who concentrate best in fresh air, there is a patio area outside that houses plenty of shaded picnic tables and Wi-Fi access.
For those needing to restock on school supplies, the Technology Product Center will provide student discount pricing on hardware, software, supplies and accessories. University staff discounts are even offered to graduate assistants and graduate teaching assistants for more unbeatable prices.
The Product Center is also in the process of assembling digital vending machines, where students can purchase USB drives, scantrons, markers, tape, and much more.
Along many of the inside walls are the digital media signs displaying current events around campus and within Technology Commons. These signs are open for exhibition of student-created digital media and artwork, upon approval. There are also two large touch-screen signs at the main entrance of the technology center showing maps of Technology Commons I and II, as well as the availability of computers.
Additionally, wireless printing is available from nearly anywhere on campus. Simply upload your document to https://print.techcommons.ucf.edu, and Technology Commons, which now includes Classroom 1 Lab and BA 148 Lab as well; and you will be able to print in black and white for $0.10 and in color for $0.35 per page.
“We want everyone to come and enjoy our facilities to the fullest”, says Ms. Brady. “We want feedback, too. We want to know what else students want to see here.”
The bright and welcoming collaborative state-of-the-art technology space is sure to attract all UCF students.
For more information, to reserve a conference room or to request displays on the digital signs please visit here.
For wireless printing please visit here.
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Blog: Tesco's South Korean subway shopping scheme impresses
Petah Marian | 24 June 2011
Often when I take to this blog it's to poke fun or be critical of things, but this time around I've found something to get particularly excited about.
This impressive video of Tesco's Homeplus subway shopping scheme in South Korea has been making its way around the internet over the past 24 hours.
Tesco launched the scheme, which allows customers to shop using QR codes and billboards on a subway platform, as a means of competing with the country's number one retailer, E-Mart, without adding any more stores.
Customers scan QR codes under the images of the products they want, and when the online purchase is done, the goods are delivered to their door once they get home.
According to the agency that produced the campaign (or is it store concept?), Cheil Worldwide, the campaign increased Tesco's online sales by 130% and made Homeplut become the number one online grocer in the country, and a "very close" second offline.
As global focus centres on childhood obesity and food-related illnesses, Australian retailer Woolworths Ltd has devised one way to get children to reach for a healthier snack over junk: give it to the...
That politicians are selective with the truth is pretty much a given. But it did make this pundit chuckle to hear UK Chancellor George Osborne describe United Biscuits as a "great British company"... ...
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Wall Street analysts predict that Regal Beloit Corp (NYSE:RBC) will post $741.93 million in sales for the current quarter, Zacks reports. Four analysts have issued estimates for Regal Beloit’s earnings. The lowest sales estimate is $724.70 million and the highest is $763.22 million. Regal Beloit posted sales of $881.70 million during the same quarter last year, which suggests a negative year over year growth rate of 15.9%. The company is scheduled to announce its next quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd.
On average, analysts expect that Regal Beloit will report full year sales of $3.24 billion for the current year, with estimates ranging from $3.22 billion to $3.26 billion. For the next financial year, analysts expect that the business will post sales of $3.19 billion, with estimates ranging from $3.10 billion to $3.23 billion. Zacks’ sales averages are a mean average based on a survey of sell-side analysts that cover Regal Beloit.
Regal Beloit (NYSE:RBC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.02. Regal Beloit had a return on equity of 10.14% and a net margin of 7.62%. The firm had revenue of $772.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $808.49 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.67 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year.
Shares of Regal Beloit stock traded down $1.48 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $83.16. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 158,463 shares, compared to its average volume of 166,358. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Regal Beloit has a 12-month low of $66.04 and a 12-month high of $87.31. The company has a market capitalization of $3.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.61. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $80.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $76.88.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. Regal Beloit’s payout ratio is 20.00%.
In other Regal Beloit news, VP John Avampato sold 5,380 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.96, for a total transaction of $446,324.80. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,234 shares in the company, valued at $849,012.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Jonathan J. Schlemmer sold 4,480 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.74, for a total value of $370,675.20. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 78,963 shares in the company, valued at $6,533,398.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of RBC. Pearl River Capital LLC increased its stake in Regal Beloit by 311.6% in the second quarter. Pearl River Capital LLC now owns 354 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. acquired a new position in Regal Beloit in the third quarter valued at $35,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd increased its stake in Regal Beloit by 156.1% in the second quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 1,688 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 1,029 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in Regal Beloit by 10.7% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 2,697 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $196,000 after acquiring an additional 261 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP increased its stake in Regal Beloit by 44.5% during the second quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 3,755 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $307,000 after acquiring an additional 1,157 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.62% of the company’s stock.
About Regal Beloit
Regal Beloit Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells electric motors, electrical motion controls, and power generation and transmission products worldwide. It operates through three segments: Commercial and Industrial Systems, Climate Solutions, and Power Transmission Solutions.
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Google acquires MicroLED technology company Raxium
In fact, as early as last month, some consumers said that Google would acquire Raxium. The Information stated in the report that AR display devices produced with MicroLED technology can be more energy-efficient while maintaining bright colors. The company called Raxium has been established for 5 years and mainly focuses on the technology of MicroLED. According to its official website, its MicroLED technology can narrow the center point distance between pixels to only 3.5 microns, compared to 50 microns for AMOLED screens used on smartphones.
Raxium is currently researching the monolithic integration of MicroLED. After acquiring Raxium, Google’s AR development will benefit a lot. Google is also reportedly hiring engineers to develop an AR operating system. In January of this year, The Verge reported that Google is developing a new AR headset or device called Project Iris.
Google’s current main AR competitors are Microsoft, Apple, and Meta, all of which have invested a lot of resources in developing their own devices. Rick Osterloh believes that Raxium’s expertise in display technology will be an important part of Google’s future investment in building its own devices.


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Peter O’Mahony, CEO, Linked Finance
Peer-to-peer lending company Linked Finance has launched a revamped crowdfunded online lending platform as part of €2.5m investment.
Linked Finance opted to crowdsource the design elements of its website, commissioning an international competition to tap into the very best design talent available globally.
Launched in March 2013, Linked Finance has a lender base of over 11,000 people, bringing together Irish SMEs and members of the public who are looking to lend to businesses at competitive interest rates.
The company has facilitated loans for over 350 Irish businesses and recently reached a milestone with over €10m in new funds now available for loans through its online platform.
The online competition attracted 50 design submissions, providing the company with a wide range of solutions and design ideas to choose from.
The crowdsourced component of the website redesign took two weeks from tender to selection.
The redesign formed part of a larger 10-month project involving a complete rebranding and technical redevelopment of company’s online lending platform following a €2.5m investment secured last year for the expansion of its IT platform.
Peter O’Mahony, CEO of Linked Finance, said: “We’re delighted with the results of the competition and the new design of our website. The approach used is very much in line with Linked Finance’s own peer-to-peer model and has proved a very efficient and highly cost-effective way to tap into an enormous pool of design talent.”
He continued: “It’s also allowed us to avoid some of the constraints of traditional design routes, which can be time consuming. It’s very much an approach we’d recommend to any company looking to revamp their online presence.”


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- Users of some iPhones could soon receive compensation from Apple Inc. following a ruling from a district court
- The decision came after reports of Apple intentionally slowing down older models of iPhones to compel users to get new ones
- The court ruled that each user could be given $25 per device and this could total between $310 million and $500 million
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Apple Inc. is set to pay $500 million or R7.8 billion to customers for slowing down older versions of iPhones.
This follows a lawsuit after customers argued they were indirectly coerced into buying newer versions.
The beneficiaries are deemed to be the owners of certain models and they would receive $25 per device, which would range between $310 million and $500 million.
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Per a CNN report, the decision follows a directive from the US District Court in San Jose, California.
Briefly.co.za has learned that each user’s amount could change depending on the number of filed claims.
There could also be changes depending on the filing of additional legal fees and expenses as approved by the court.
The court’s decision ends a legal exchange that has gone on for over two years during which Apple defended itself against a global backlash.
iPhone users in the United States of America (USA) eligible to file claims are those who can prove they bought iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus or SE before December 21, 2017.
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Meeting Simon Rotich for the first you could mistake him to a son of some rich politician because of his millionaire lifestyle that he lives.What most people do know is that he has earn his success through Hard work and determination.We meet with him so that he could narrate to us his success journey.
“After completing college and being unable to secure employment i started doing odd jobs at least to put food on the table.I got a job as a barber where i got paid Kes 300 a day.One day a young man came to the Barber shop driving the latest Mercedes Benz model.I could wonder how a young person who looked like 25 years could get all the money just to buy such car.Afterwards he gave me his business card and we kept in touch.Later i asked him what business he was doing and how he could afford such a nice car and that when he introduced me to an online job called Zumo News.Immediately i decided to quit my job as a barber and focus on this online job and my life as never been the same again,”he narrates.
Zumo News is a news website that pays its members to read news,share on Facebook/Whatsapp,Posting News articles and affiliate commission when you invite people to join the program.They pay Kes 300 for every person you refer hence if you refer 10 people in a day that alone will earn you kes 3000 clean money a day.
“Registering on Zumo News took less than two minutes and i started working immediately.I received my first payment of Kes 55,000 after two weeks of joining and second payment of Kes 120,000 after four weeks.I was very excited since i could tell that Zumo News was a real and legit online job.Within six month of working on Zumo News i had already surpassed Kes 400,000 in monthly income with much of it coming from affiliate commission i earned after inviting people to join the program and it kept increasing ever since,”he says.
Zumo News is the most sure way of making money especially this time of Corona Virus where people are urged to work from home and quarantine.To get started with Zumo News all you need is a Smartphone,Internet Connection and an Mpesa line for receiving payments.
“The good thing about Zumo News is that it does not take much of your time hence with 2-3 hours a day you are guaranteed of making some good money say Kes 15,000 a day. Zumo News can be done by anyone since it does not require any experience to get started,as long as you are willing to learn then you are ready to go.I have been working on Zumo News for 2 years now and am not quitting anytime soon.This online job is real and legit and would urged anybody willing to make money online to give it a try and they won’t regret it,”he adds.
Zumo News generates revenue through advertising and in return share it with its members on 50-50 basis hence the more traffic they get is the more money they make.
“I have invested the money i made from Zumo News in starting restaurant business which is doing really well.I have bought two Apartments in Nairobi,2 cars and Planning to build my dream home all thanks to the money i made from Zumo News.In a good month i make more than Kes 3 million from all my businesses.This online job is real and legit and would urge anybody willing to make extra income online to take advantage of it and you won’t regret it,”he says.
If you wish to Make money online in Kenya,then Register on Zumo News and get Started.You will thank us later.


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Meltwater Acquires Business Information Company Owler for $24.5 Million in a Combination of Cash and Equity
Meltwater B.V., a leading global SaaS provider of media intelligence and social analytics, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire crowd-sourcing company Owler, a Silicon Valley innovator in the $30 billion market for business information.
Since its inception in 2011, Owler has grown its user base exponentially to become the second largest online business community in the world, next to LinkedIn. The Owler community consists of 5 million active business professionals who contribute up-to-date business information to Owler’s 14 million company profiles. Owler members include 96 per cent of the Fortune 500, and 73 per cent of high growth companies in the USA. Each month, members contribute hundreds of thousands of insights not known to the public with topics ranging from private company revenue estimates, strength of competitors, CEO approval ratings, employee headcount, growth trends, corporate hierarchy, rate of innovation, diversity, culture, employee trust, and more.
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“Over the last 10 years, Owler has built one of the world’s most valuable online business communities,” said John Box, CEO of Meltwater. “Owler crowdsources information that would otherwise be impossible to find. Combining this proprietary information from Owler with the insights that Meltwater is able to extract from online news and social media will differentiate Meltwater’s product in the market and bring great value to our 27,000 customers globally. It not only strengthens our offering in use cases we serve today, such as brand management and competitive intelligence, but opens up new and exciting opportunities in areas such as sales intelligence and risk management, where Owler is already present.”
Meltwater has agreed to purchase Owler for $18.9 million in cash and $5.6 million in Meltwater equity. Upon integration, the Owler business is not expected to have a material impact on Meltwater’s 2021 revenue forecast.
Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Kevin O’ Farrell, Associate Vice President at Analytic Partners
“We could not have found a better home than Meltwater. Owler helps companies and individuals access business critical information to prospect new sales leads, and to track the latest news about the companies that matter to them – all use cases that Meltwater understands deeply. Our combined data repository will be the most comprehensive in the industry, and by joining Meltwater’s artificial intelligence expertise with Owler’s community and crowdsourcing capabilities, Meltwater’s global customer base will unlock new markets and new opportunities to combine business information with news and social media content from around the world,” said Tim Harsch, Co-Founder and CEO of Owler.
Owler was founded by Harsch and Jim Fowler in 2011, who were pioneers in the data-as-a software space, selling Jigsaw, Fowler’s first company, to Salesforce in 2010. The Owler Executive team and all staff will join Meltwater once the acquisition is complete.
The Owler acquisition will be Meltwater’s third acquisition since the company was listed on Euronext Growth Oslo in December 2020. The acquisition is part of Meltwater’s growth strategy, which involves investments and acquisitions in the social media segment.
Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Kim Sneum Madsen, CEO of Umbraco


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The Middle East fintech market experience rapid growth with a total funding of $2 billion
Dubai, UAE -- Recent fintech research conducted by red_mad_robot reveals that the Middle East fintech industry is experiencing significant growth and investment opportunities. Over the past two three years (2021-2023), Middle East fintech startups have received a total funding of approximately $2 billion through 140-160 deals, with a 40-43% of a total share in the UAE.
This substantial growth can be attributed to the increasing tech-savviness of consumers who actively utilize digital banking services and non-cash payment methods. Furthermore, government authorities in the Middle East, including central banks and regulators, are committed to developing the fintech sector by establishing necessary infrastructure such as accelerators, incubators, and fintech hubs.
The comprehensive report not only provides market analysis but also highlights key players in the fintech market and trends within the Middle East fintech environment.
With over 100 promising fintech startups in the region, the Middle East market is dominated by companies specializing in digital payments, instant cross-border payments, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services, and digital banking. These companies have later-stage deals and exits, demonstrating their innovative services and growing sustainable business models.
KSA and Egypt account for 46% of the fintech companies in the region, with nine projects in Egypt and six in KSA. Notably, top fintech companies have attracted investments into the region, improving the business environment and showcasing great potential for future growth. Successful startups are already operating in multiple markets and have plans for further geographical expansion. For instance, digital bank Yalla, founded in Egypt, currently has an office in the UAE and is set to expand to KSA and Kuwait.
Trends in the Middle East:
- Digital payment solutions are growing rapidly.
- The Middle East is in the stages of approving virtual assets, DeFi and CBDC.
- Fintech startups see opportunities in cross-border payments and remittances space- to help cater to a large number of foreign workers.
- SMEs and merchants are using digital platforms to improve business processes and get access to capital.
- Rise of the tech ecosystem and superapps.
- Neobanking is an advanced trend - the market has different ways of developing: digital-only offering from leading incumbents and independent firms.
- BNPL services have potential of becoming more popular in this region.
The Middle East fintech industry is poised for continued growth and innovation, driven by consumer demand, government support, and the presence of promising startups. Investors and industry players are encouraged to explore the vast opportunities within this thriving market.
Send us your press releases to firstname.lastname@example.org


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Danone Manifesto and Mousse Partners are investing INR 20 Cr each
Founder of Palladian Advisory Services is investing INR 35.47 Lakh
The funding seems to be a part of the ongoing Series C funding round
Update: June 15, 2020 | 13:45 PM
After the story was published, Drums Food on June 12 received INR 40 Cr in the bank from Danone and Mousse as per regulatory filings.
Mumbai-based Drums Food International, the parent company of yoghurt-brand Epigamia, is raising fresh funding from existing investor New York City-based Danone Manifesto Ventures, the venture investment arm of Danone Manifesto and Mousse Partners.
According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) filings accessed by Inc42, Drums Food International is raising INR 40 Cr in its ongoing Series C round. In this deal, Drums Food is raising INR 20 Cr each from Danone Manifesto Ventures and Mousse Partners. The price per share for the deal stands at INR 2400 with a face value of INR 100.
As part of the deal, Drums Food is issuing 80K shares each to Danone Manifesto Ventures and Mousse Partners. At the same time, the company is also raising INR 35.47 Lakh from Julie McGinnis, founder of Palladian Advisory Services. For this deal, Drums Food will issue 1,419 equity shares priced at INR 2,400 per share with a face value of INR 100.
Prior to this, Drums Food raised $25.58 Mn (INR 182 Cr) in a Series C round of funding led by Belgium-based consumer-focused investment firm Verlinvest and New York City-based investor Danone Manifesto Ventures. Other investors who participated in the round include existing backer DSG Consumer Partners (DSGCP), Samina Vaziralli, an executive vice-chairperson of Cipla, and Innoven Capital, which chipped in its venture debt services.
Earlier, the company raised $12.63 Mn (INR 90 Cr) in Series B funding in July 2017, led by Verlinvest, InnoVen Capital and DSG Consumer Partners (DSGCP).
Launched in 2015 by Rohan Mirchandani, Uday Thakker, chef Ganesh Krishnamoorthy, and Rahul Jain, Epigamia started as a Greek Yogurt brand and expanded its portfolio to include artisanal curd, snack pack, mishti doi (an Indian sweet curd) and smoothies.
Epigamia markets its products through 21 stock-keeping units and more than 10K retailing touch points including Reliance Fresh, Big Bazaar, Big Basket and Amazon and other general traders across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.
In India, the FMCG sector has shown a lot of promise and is the fourth largest contributor to the Indian economy. According to a report by TechSci, the sector is projected to grow at a CAGR of 20.6% to reach $103.7 Bn by 2020.
According to DataLabs by Inc42 analysis, between 2014 and H1 2019, more than $433 Mn was added as an investment in Indian FMCG startups while the median ticket size stands close to $989K.
In this segment, the top five highest-funded FMCG startups include Bira 91, Drum Foods (Epigamia), Hector Beverages, Chai Point and RAW Pressery. Put together, these startups accounted for more than 50% of the total funding of $433 Mn.


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Apex Trader Funding (ATF) - News
The Body Shop shuts down all US operations, closes dozens of stores in Canada
The Body Shop has shut down all of its US-based operations and will be closing dozens of Canadian store locations as it files for bankruptcy.
In a news release earlier this month, the UK-based cosmetics company announced that its US subsidiary is no longer operational, effective March 1. It added that 33 of its 105 stores in Canada will begin liquidation sales immediately and “online sales via Canada’s ecommerce store will stop,” but that all Canadian locations will remain open for the time being.
The Body Shop, known for products it markets as natural, sustainable, ethical and cruelty-free, was founded in 1976 in the UK by human rights activist and environmental campaigner Anita Roddick. It was one of the first companies to prohibit testing on animals for many of its products. In 2019 it was certified as a “B Corp,” a designation given to companies that meet certain transparency and environmental conscientiousness standards.
By 2023, it had expanded to more than 2,500 retail locations in more than 80 countries and was available to purchase online in more than 60 markets.
Since its inception, The Body Shop has changed hands several times. It was purchased by cosmetics giant L’Oréal in 2006 for more than a billion dollars, before being sold to Brazilian company Natura in 2017 for another billion dollars.
The brand has been ailing in recent years. In an early 2023 report, Natura noted that The Body Shop was “(facing) headwinds” with a year-over-year decline of 13.5% in 2022, a year the company said “was far from easy” for the brand. Its direct-to-consumer channels, which had “benefitted during Covid,” returned to “more normalized pre-pandemic levels,” further impacting sales numbers, Natura said.
Late last year, The Body Shop was sold to asset management group Aurelius for about $266 million.
CNN has reached out to The Body Shop and Aurelius for comment.


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It’s time for our weekly “Everything You Eat Will Somehow Kill You” blog post. We all know the health consequences of eating fast food and oversized restaurant portions, and just last week we learned that many seemingly harmless grocery store products secretly contain trans fat. Personally, I’ve been avoiding all risk by subsisting on small berries and nuts I gather through urban foraging, and when I want to treat myself to an actual meal, I haven’t dared venture out of my chemical-free kitchen. But my extreme measures may be all for naught, as the FDA has revealed that cooking food at home—even the most organic of natural grains and vegetables—could kill us all.
Pardon my apocalyptic tone, but it’s true. Acrylamide—a chemical that naturally forms in foods prepared at high temperatures—is a carcinogen that can cause severe nerve damage in high doses. A scary fact when you consider the stuff “is found in 40 percent of the calories consumed in the average American diet,” according to the FDA in a release posted today.
Side note: acrylamide is also used as an industrial chemical in waste water treatment. Yum.
Read Full Post >


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Rapper Michael “Killer Mike” Render announced his Greenwood banking platform’s debut has been postponed for a second time due to high customer demand.
Greenwood’s Co-founder, Ryan Glover, told CNN Business the Black and Latinx-owned digital banking platform’s early 2021 launch date was pushed back to July due to a higher than anticipated demand after its website debuted the previous October.
The second delay, much like the first, is to ensure the platform can handle the increasing amount of customers and traffic on its site when it debuts. Greenwood has shifted its focus from obtaining customers to rolling out services to those who’ve signed up for the platform.
Last week, Greenwood’s Chief Marketing Officer David Tapscott said Greenwood’s leaders now anticipate those on the waiting list will be able to open accounts under Greenwood’s platform before the end of the year and will be open to the general public in early 2022.
“Adding [more] people onto a waitlist just delays how long it’ll take us to get through it,” Tapscott told CNN Business on Wednesday. “Our first commitment is to deliver the best product possible to the marketplace and we’re not going to rush that. We believe our customers have enough confidence in what we’re doing that they will stay with us on that journey.”
Last week, Greenwood announced fintech leader Dylani Herath has joined the banking platform as its vice president of engineering. Herath will be tasked with ensuring the company’s software can expedite Greenwood’s rollout.
Greenwood’s banking platform has received more than $40 million in Series A funding since its launch in October. The platform has also been backed by large banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Truist Bank. Other major investors in Greenwood include Wells Fargo, PNC Bank, Banco Popular, and SoftBank.
The bank takes its name from the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was once home to a thriving Black business community known as Black Wall Street until the Tulsa Race Massacre.


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BigPond Movies for Samsung
April 6, 2011
The launch of BigPond Movies on Samsung internet enabled devices means a range of New Release, High Definition and award winning Australian titles can be viewed through compatible Samsung televisions. The library available on Samsung devices is also set to grow to more than 2000 titles in the coming months.
BigPond Movies extends Telstra’s IPTV service on Samsung. The existing BigPond TV service on Samsung provides seven streamed channels including 24/7 news, sports and music videos, as well as the NRL Game Analyser. Telstra will also launch the new AFL Game Analyser service later this year. All content is unmetered for most BigPond broadband customers.
“BigPond Movies has fast become a welcome addition to Australian homes and this partnership with Samsung means we can bring the latest movies and TV shows to even more families,” Telstra’s Director of IPTV, Pay TV and T-Box, Ben Kinealy, said.
“With automatic rental periods and the ability to browse through a variety of titles ranging from the latest TV shows to Hollywood classics, BigPond Movies really is bringing the DVD store to living rooms across the country,” Mr Kinealy added.
Samsung Electronics Australia’s CE Group Product Manager, Brad Wright, said: “As we launch our 2011 range of SMART TVs, we’re also excited to expand the range of content available to our customers through this partnership with Telstra.”
“Samsung has been delivering BigPond TV on selected products since September 2010. Following the success of BigPond TV, we are thrilled to extend our partnership to include content from BigPond Movies,” Mr Wright said.
Busy lifestyles and technology advances mean Australians are looking for convenience now more than ever. With school holidays just around the corner, internet enabled Samsung TV owners with a broadband connection will be able to rent the latest blockbuster or a favourite childhood classic without leaving the living room.
From the comfort of your couch BigPond Movies enables you to rent, play, pause, stop, fast-forward or rewind your favourite movie on-demand, just like a regular DVD.
*Smart Hub: Certain advertised Smart Hub features, applications and services may not be available on all devices or in all territories. Some Smart Hub features may require additional peripheral devices sold separately, or additional fees, including internet connection fees. Smart Hub services and availability of content may change from time to time, without notice. Visit www.samsung.com.au/tv for more information.


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Sean Parker is much more worried by the state of the health care system than Elon Musk's hellish predictions about artificial intelligence.
Facebook's move came only after a number of other big companies requested a refund of their contributions to Mississippi Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, whose 'public hanging' remarks have been called tone-deaf or worse.
Pfizer joins Walmart, AT&T, Boston Scientific, Union Pacific, and Leidos in asking for campaign contributions to be returned.
Parker, who founded Napster as well, said "it feels somewhat unsatisfying to constantly make products for teenage girls" and was especially worried about the impact of his consumer internet products on society.
Apple has a moral responsibility to — and a business interest in — the well-being of its customers, Farhad Manjoo writes for the NYT.
AOL's Steve Case and author J.D. Vance recruited some of America's wealthiest to invest in a 'flyover' states fund. The NYT reports.
Sean Parker told Axios the premise of the social media site is "exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with."
A start-up called 3T Biosciences n the T-cell therapy space quietly raised more than $12 million from high-profile investors, a source says.
A new marijuana referendum before California voters next month may lead the way for the rest of the country.
Actor and filmmaker Ron Howard says he believes there is an inevitability to releasing a movie simultaneously in theaters and in homes.
Facebook has created more billionaires under 40 than any other company, according to a new ranking.
Sean Parker agrees to pay $2.5 million for conservation programs for building a movie-set-like wedding site in an ecologically sensitive area of Big Sur without proper permits.
Dell is saying proposals from both Blackstone and Carl Icahn are risky, and Napster creator & Facebook co-founder Sean Parker is preparing for a medieval-themed wedding. CNBC's Bob Pisani and John Carney, discuss.
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 29- One morning in April, Ron Conway, the billionaire technology investor, sat in a conference room on the second floor of San Francisco's City Hall with about 50 representatives from the city's business community.


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New Home Prices Fall in More Key Cities in February
New home prices fell from the previous month in 12 of 15 key cities in February, up from seven in January, official data showed Monday.
The broadening drop in home prices indicates that the government’s ongoing measures to keep home prices in check are having an effect.
In the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, new home prices in February continued to slip from the previous month, with Beijing’s falling 0.3% — after rising 0.2% in January — and Shanghai’s losing 0.2% — after dropping 0.4% in January, according the data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, new home prices fell 0.4% in February from January, while prices in Shenzhen shed 0.6%.
Among 70 major cities, growth in the average price of new homes slowed in 31 second-tier cities from January to February.
On a year-on-year basis, prices fell in nine of the 15 key cities in February, down from 11 cities in January.
New home prices in the four first-tier cities edged down 0.1% year-on-year in February, while growth in existing home prices slowed for the 17th straight month, the NBS said.
Contact reporter Pan Che (firstname.lastname@example.org)
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