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4th February 2013
As banking becomes more digitized, customers still crave a human connection. Jonathan Camhi explains how to ensure a rewarding customer experience:
Banks are looking to streamline services in the name of cutting costs to compensate for declining revenue. One added benefit of these simplified policies and procedures is that banks also are providing a simpler, easier customer experience.
Simplification, in particular, provides a more consistent customer experience, says Fergus Gordon, a partner in the financial services practice at A.T. Kearney, a Chicago management consulting firm. “There’s a nice tension and balance in the thrust of efficiency and a more consistent customer experience.”
But as new channels, such as mobile and sophisticated collaboration technologies, drive customer expectations higher, just making the experience simpler and more consistent won’t be enough to provide competitive advantage. Here are five tactics that can help banks produce a more compelling customer experience.
1. Branch Managers Are Key
Until self-serve kiosks become more widely adopted at bank branches, most of the human interaction between banks and their customers will continue to be at the branch. That means the branch will continue to be a key battleground for customer experience. And banks have a lot of room to improve there, Gordon says.
He points out that many banks don’t even take the basic step of thanking customers for their business. “In the hotel industry, if you’re a member, they always thank you for your membership when you check in,” Gordon remarks. “Banks don’t thank their customer every time they come in.”
Many of the basic things that banks could improve in the branch customer experience — such as recognizing customers when they walk in and thanking them — come down to interaction style and customer engagement, Gordon says. A.T. Kearney’s research has shown that the key to unlocking great customer engagement with the staff is the branch manager. “The branch manager is so important; 70% of high-performing branches are driven by branch managers,” he says.
The role of the branch manager in coaching the branch’s staff on interaction with customers is the determining factor in those high-performing branches, he explains. Banks should be careful to hire branch managers based on the skills and competencies that they can bring to the table in dealing with customers, Gordon says, and dealing with customers should be the branch manager’s No. 1 concern, rather than the performance of specific products or services at the branch. “They should worry about training the staff to focus on customer outcomes and lifting the performance of their team members. They shouldn’t be worried about product successes,” he says.
2. A Human Touch To The Digital Experience
It’s not just the branch where the human touch makes a difference — it’s critical to providing a quality customer experience on digital channels, as well. One example of this is Bank of America’s recent addition to its peer-to-peer payments system that lets customers send personal messages along with payments to the recipients. The bank’s customers have provided a great deal of positive feedback on the added messaging service, as it lends a personal feeling to the transaction, says Dave Godsman, senior VP of online and mobile solutions at Bank of America, which has $2.18 trillion in assets.
That messaging service is just one example of the way the Charlotte, N.C., bank is personalizing its digital experience to differentiate itself from its competition, Godsman says. “There are inherently personal interactions –like [peer-to-peer] payments — that are meaningful points when they’re doing transactions,” Godsman says. “We see those points as places where we can meet [customers’] expectations and exceed them.”
“This is an aspect of customer experience that’s often overlooked, but it’s becoming more central with the rise of new competitors,” he says.
Providing a personalized experience also means letting customers configure their preferences as much as possible, such as choosing if and when they want to receive mobile alerts, Godsman says. It also means letting them use the device and operating system of their choice, he says.
“Customers want choice. They want to do things on their preferred channel, on their time,” he says. “Our relationship starting point is we help you get the help you need through the channel of your choice.”
Banks have to realize that different customers are going to use different touch points to reach their banks, and banks have to be there to meet them at the touch points of their choice, Godsman says. That includes social media: “I can’t remember the last time I dialed a call center,” he says. “But I can remember the last time I complained on Twitter.” Meeting customers where they want to interact provides a human touch on two levels: It gives them the reassurance that their bank is there when needed and provides the flexibility that consumers are coming to expect in their digital lives.
3. Banking Can (And Should) Be Fun
“Banking is seen as a stuffy industry,” says Matthew Wilcox, an e-marketing specialist for Union Savings Bank, a community bank based in Danbury, Conn., with $2.5 billion in assets. That can change if banks strive to show a personality behind their brand, Wilcox says, and using interactive games to engage with customers in digital channels provides an opportunity to do just that.
Union Savings Bank ran a game-based marketing campaign from October through December of 2011 to attract new customers for its 1-2-3 Checking product line. The online game, called the 1-2-3 Checking Challenge, awarded prizes to customers based on their scores in the form of vouchers that they could deposit in their new checking accounts. More than 2,200 people played the game, with more than 1,200 of them opening new accounts, Wilcox says. The campaign was so successful that the bank may bring it back next year.
The game also had a side effect of generating greater interaction with the bank’s digital channels, Wilcox says. It was hosted on the bank’s website, and the time that the players spent on the site was more than 400% higher compared with regular site visits, he notes. Players explored new products and services through the bank’s website without the bank having to advertise them. “Customers looking for checking accounts started looking at wealth management services and mortgages,” Wilcox says.
Players liked to compete with each other and brag about their high scores, so the bank posted a leaderboard on its website and posted changes to the leaderboard on its Facebook page, Wilcox says. The game brought increased engagement from customers both with Union Savings Bank and with each other through social media, creating a true social community to which customers felt a connection, he says. The average age of the players was 36 to 37, according to Wilcox.
There are more than 135 million people gaming online for more than one hour a month, according to a February report by market research firm Parks Associates, so it’s clear that customers are spending a good chunk of their digital lives gaming. Union Savings Bank realized that if it wants to continue to meet customer expectations, it was going to have to experiment with gaming in its digital channels, Wilcox says.
But he warns that for a gaming initiative to be successful, it has to have a goal beyond self-promotion. That goal could be socialization and getting customers to interact more to build an online community, he says, or it could be an educational effort with the goal of raising customers’ financial IQs. And with more than 55% of digital gamers playing on their smartphones, according to a report released earlier this year by Geekaphone, a mobile industry researcher, Wilcox says the next step is to introduce gaming in the mobile channel.
4. Make It Real Time
Many banks understand the importance of gaining a 360-degree view of the relationships with their customers, says Luc Burgelman, CEO of NGDATA, a provider of data and consumer intelligence offerings in Ghent, Belgium. But the next step — or battleground — in customer experience will be using data to perform actions and services for customers in real time, he predicts.
Customers expect more convenience and faster service based on their experiences in a fast-paced mobile world. This means banks must be able to not only personalize their services and tailor them to the customer but also learn to deliver them instantly at the right moment, Burgelman says. This also means banks will have to be able to identify potentially fraudulent payments right away, he says, as customers won’t be satisfied if it takes two or three days for their banks to alert them to possible fraud in their accounts.
NGDATA works with financial institutions to help them use customer data to deliver personalized coupons to customers in their checking accounts and digital wallets. Banks and digital wallet providers seeking customer loyalty and retention will need to deliver relevant offers in real time to customers via their mobile devices as they enter a retail outlet, Burgelman says.
“When people buy something, the decision is always based on the right offer at the right time and location,” he says. “It will be about being interactive and being there in real time. … Banks have to take the data that they have right now and make it actionable in real time.”
5. Consider Nontraditional Banking Services
Technology advances from companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google are driving customer expectations in digital services, says Michael McEvoy, managing director of ath Power Consulting, a Boston-based financial services consulting firm that specializes in customer experience. As those companies continue to set the bar higher in terms of speed, convenience and simplicity of products and services, banks have to adapt and play catch-up. That trend bodes ill for banks as these hot technology companies start offering services that banks traditionally have dominated, McEvoy says. But he says that technology also is making it easier for banks to offer nontraditional banking services, as well.
Barclays is an example of a financial institution that’s starting to move into these new areas, McEvoy says. One of the technology firms that he previously worked with helped London-based Barclays in developing its MyBusinessWorks service for small-business customers. Through the service, small businesses can get Web hosting, accounting software, data backup and legal services on a fee basis. Ath Power Consulting’s research has found that many of these services are in high demand at small businesses, McEvoy says, and providing them lets banks serve difficult and expensive populations like microbusinesses — a group that often can be loss makers for banks.
There could be many ways to offer nontraditional banking services to consumers as well, he says. “Banks could provide an easy, inexpensive way for younger consumers to buy media through their mobile device. There’s nothing stopping them [banks] from doing something like this,” McEvoy says. “It will help pull financial institutions into the 21st century … and give customers a reason to connect with the bank.”
Keeping Up With Customers’ Changing Expectations
Going beyond traditional financial services isn’t always comfortable for banks, but it will be critical, along with these other steps, as banks respond to their customers’ changing expectations of just what great service entails.
• Make it competitive. Post a scoreboard online so that gamers can compete with each other and show off their high scores.
• Leverage social media. Gaming is already part of customers’ social media lives, as gaming applications proliferate on Facebook. Post updates to the scoreboard on Facebook and Twitter and encourage players to engage with each other on those channels. You can also explore offering gaming applications on Facebook.
• Go beyond self-promotion. Games must have a point beyond just promoting the bank. For instance, you could make a contribution to a charity chosen by the customer with the highest score. Alternatively, the game could be geared to provide financial education for customers.
• Incentivize. Provide a reason for customers to want to play games. You could offer prizes to those with the highest scores, or players could be entered into a raffle to win prizes.
• Go mobile. Gaming is becoming a bigger part of customers’ mobile experience, with 55% of gamers now playing on their mobile devices. If you’re looking to attract mobile customers, you’d be wise to incorporate gaming as part of their mobile banking experience.


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The report features the company’s focus on teammate initiatives and energy efficiency.
Joseph Tomarchio Jr., the company’s special advisor–acquisitions, retired on May 1.
The acquisitions increase Monro’s service locations to 1,303 company-owned stores across the United States.
Woodhouse will serve on the compensation committee and the audit committee.
Cindy Donovan will be responsible for developing and implementing Monro’s information technology strategy.
The Tires Now locations will operate exclusively under the ATD name and brand.
Monro reports Q4 sales are up 7.4% to $328.0 million, and comparable store sales increased 1.4%.
This marks a major milestone in the rollout of the company’s new customer-centric engagement initiatives and development of an omni-channel presence, as part of the company’s “Monro.Forward” strategy, which was launched earlier this year.
The company has announced the appointments of Jerry Alessia as senior vice president of tire merchandising and Avi Dasgupta as vice president of information technology infrastructure and data architecture.

domain: news


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Guide to breaking cell phone security revealed
(AP) -- A German security expert has raised the ire of the cell phone industry after he and a group of researchers posted online a how-to guide for cracking the encryption that keeps the calls of GSM-standard cell phone users ...
FCC Sets Digital TV Rules
The FCC adopts measures to ensure a smooth transition to DTV in 2009, which is necessary to free up the 700MHz band for wireless voice and data.
US cable TV bleeds subscribers as online grows
The economic downturn has US cable television companies shedding subscribers in record numbers and Americans increasingly "cutting the cord" in favor of cheaper online options, new research shows.
Broadcom will ship 802.11ac products in 2012
Weather, waves and wireless: Super strength signalling
A new study from the University of Leicester has discovered a particular window of time when mobile signals and radio waves are ‘super strength’ – allowing them to be clearer and travel greater distances, potentially ...
High court troubled by warrantless GPS tracking (Update)
The Supreme Court invoked visions of an all-seeing Big Brother and satellites watching us from above. Then things got personal Tuesday when the justices were told police could slap GPS devices on their cars ...
Innovations in International Calling: MAXroam SIM Cuts Costs
As world first, Finland makes broadband service basic right
Finland on Thursday became the first country in the world to make access to a broadband service a basic right, ensuring that a high-speed Internet connection is available to all Finns, a government official ...
No-power Wi-Fi connectivity could fuel internet of things reality
Imagine a world in which your wristwatch or other wearable device communicates directly with your online profiles, storing information about your daily activities where you can best access it – all without ...
'Fourth generation' Internet arrives in Hong Kong
The latest generation of wireless Internet that will allow people to watch a crystal clear movie or live sporting event on the street or atop a hill is being deployed throughout Hong Kong.
Researchers successfully spoof an $80 million yacht at sea (w/ Video)
This summer, a radio navigation research team from The University of Texas at Austin set out to discover whether they could subtly coerce a 213-foot yacht off its course, using a custom-made GPS device.
Canada vows no limits on Internet downloads
Canada's industry minister vowed Thursday to overturn a regulatory ruling that effectively put an end to small Internet service providers offering unlimited downloads.
New record set for data-transfer speeds
Researchers at IBM have set a new record for data transmission over a multimode optical fiber, a type of cable that is typically used to connect nearby computers within a single building or on a campus. The ...


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The much-awaited vertically foldable smartphone “Moto Razr” will soon be seen in the markets as the phone will be released on February 6 reports stated. The device is priced at $1,499, with preorders starting on January 26 in the US.
Verizon Wireless is the exclusive carrier of the new Motorola Razr in the US and one can order it from Verizon, Walmart, or Motorola.com when it goes on sale this weekend. People seeking to buy the phone from physical stores can grab it a couple of weeks later, media reports stated.
The phone was unveiled in November last year. Currently, the company is teasing Indian fans with several tweets on the Razr.
In terms of specifications, the device comes with two screens one inside and the other outside. The inside screen is 6.2-inch OLED display and other OLED display measures around 2.7-inch that offers an aspect ratio of 4:3.
The Quick View display on the outside of the device, includes a 16MP selfie camera that lets users. It turns into a rear camera when the phone is unfolded. The 16MP camera has EIS, Dual Pixel autofocus, Laser AF and Color Correlated Temperature (CCT) dual-LED flash.
When unfolded, the phone includes one more 5MP camera inside.
The smartphone is powered by Snapdragon 710 processor paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage.
(With input from agencies)


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Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has weighed in on Apple’s foldable iPhone plans, saying the company will introduce one in 2023.
Apple has tasked its top supplier, Foxconn, with producing two different prototype designs for a foldable iPhone.
Microsoft’s foldable device powered by Android was originally slated for release during the 2020 holidays, but a new report says it could be available as early as summer.
Samsung’s previous attempt, the Galaxy Fold, was plagued with issues leading Samsung to redesign a number of elements to improve the phone’s reliability. Now the company has announced the Fold’s successor, the Galaxy Z Flip.
CNET is reporting that Motorola is recommitting to the premium phone market, after years of making budget and midrange phones. Motorola made headlines in November with an updated version of its iconic Razr phone. The new model keeps the old-style,…


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Ewing Athletics is back in full force with a classic 90s revival—the Ewing ‘Guard’ basketball sneakers. Specifically engineered for point guard basketball athletes, the sneaker has also been known for its popularity amongst casual wearers.
The Guard Mid is the third in the Ewing Atheltics re-release that began last year. The sneakers originally ran a three-year span in the early 1990s, and with the recent demand for retro sneakers, they have been brought back to life—an ode to basketball legend Patrick Ewing. The kicks are offered in two colorways: ‘mustard’ and ‘prince blue’.
The retro release is nearly identical to its original model: suede and leather uppers, 3/4 ankle cuts and the trademark “33” logo on the back heel. The Ewing 33 Hi dropped last year and was a sell-out immediately. Expect these to fly off the shelves too. Grab your pair in October.


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Sears Canada Inc. is distributing to shareholders a special dividend of $5 per share in December — an amount equal to about 30 per cent of the company’s recent stock price.
The announcement comes as the Toronto-based retailer releases its third-quarter results, including an enlarged net loss of $48.8 million or 48 cents per share — mainly due to severance and restructuring costs.
The payout was anticipated by analysts given some $400 million the company received from landlords for the sale of five stores leases, including the Yorkdale and Eaton Centre locations.
“The proceeds of the return to the landlords is part of the cash that we have, in addition to some other cash that we’ve generated though the business; and then a portion of that is being returned to shareholders,” said spokesman Vincent Power.
“Other portions will be used for purposes either not yet determined, or for things within the business. The company, first of all, had to make sure it has enough money to put toward the capital that it needs, and whatever money it needs for the stores, and then we have an adequate capital plan to do what we want to do.
“This is not money that we’re taking away from the stores. It’s an amount that is felt can go to the shareholders as a return without affecting the things that we want to do with capital. ”
In a note released to investors after the announcement, retail analyst Keith Howlett of Desjardins Securities said: “The challenge for Sears Canada is to reduce its infrastructure to fit its rapidly shrinking retail business…. Sears Canada remains a speculative situation. The share price is sustained by the underlying value of owned real estate and below-market leases in the hands of other retailers.”
Sears Canada has been downsizing some of its operations and redirecting its merchandizing focus in response to intense competition from other retailers.
“We’ll continue to invest in the company,” said Power pointing to a revamped Home store slated to open in Burlington “as an extension of what we did in Ancaster and Whitby earlier this year.”
The company says the third-quarter net loss included $20.2 million for severance, accounting for about half the quarter’s non-recurring items totalling $42.8 million.
At the same time, same-store sales for locations open at least a year improved by 1.2 per cent, despite forecasts for a 2 per cent decline, but overall revenue declined by 6.4 per cent to $982.3 million from $1.05 billion a year earlier.
Power attributed the increase in same-store sales to merchandise initiatives, such as changes to the furniture assortment, the unveiling of Aldo-made footwear and the now Buffalo-made Nevada line. He also noted a “good back to school season” and the introduction of Canadian Black Friday in October.
“We just had sales in the kind of lines that customers expect — electronics, major appliances, some apparel,” he said of the latter. “That kind of activity really got people to say ‘I’m going to Sears’ and I think we’ve seen the fruit of that.
The extraordinary dividend will be paid to Sears Canada shareholders of record as of Dec. 2.
With files from Canadian Press


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Obviously, the ad focuses mostly on the Pixel phone, as passengers on a train are shown how it works by a fellow traveler. He also conveniently happens to have a Daydream View headset as well, and one of his friends gets to try it out for herself.
The appearance of the headset in the commercial is brief, but it does show that Verizon wants people to know that the new Pixel and Pixel XL phones can be used for more that just chatting or surfing the web. Why people are using a VR headset when they are on a train and can look at some great scenery out their window is an exercise we will leave to the reader.
In any case, both Google and Verizon are currently taking pre-orders for the Daydream VR headset. It costs $79 and at the moment only works with the Pixel and Pixel XL phones (more support is coming soon). It is scheduled to begin shipping sometime on November 10 from the Google Store, and November 16 from Verizon. Only the gray slate color is currently available from both sources; white and red colored versions should be available sometime in the future.


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Nikon confirms D6 - Japanese company's 'most advanced DSLR yet'
Just hours after Nikon Europe leaked news of its existence, Nikon have now officially confirmed the D6 is in development.
Nikon released the flagship D1 digital SLR camera in 1999, making 2019 the 20th anniversary of the single-digit D series.
No further information about the camera has been announced, but it should fill the place of Nikon's flagship sports/wildlife photography DSLR.
As well as the announcement of the new body, Nikon also announced a new lens, the AF-S NIKKOR 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR, is in production.
Watch this space for more information about the new additions to the Nikon lineup.


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The Legal Services Board’s (LSB) draft policy statement on empowering consumers aims to improve consumers’ understanding and engagement with the legal services market.
Find out what's happening with the LSB's work on quality indicators and how to get involved in the SRA's digital comparison tool pilots.
It's in the public interest for regulators to set standards, rather than leave it to consumers to work out the quality of a solicitor or law firm.
As many as 32% of law firms may not be fully complying with the Transparency Rules. Dave Seager explains why your website 'shop window' is more crucial than ever.
Your weekly update from our public affairs team on all the latest developments and debates in Parliament and across Whitehall.
We are pleased by the great strides made in transparency within the regulated legal services market but more needs to be done to protect consumers from harm.


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Mexican ambassador visits Central Illinois promoting trade and business
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — A Mexican diplomat made her first trip to Central Illinois on Wednesday to promote trade and collaboration with local busineses.
Ambassador Reyna Torres-Mendivil, Consul-General of Mexico in Chicago, met with local businesses and visited Bradley University to promote doing trade and business with Mexico.
The ambassador said the Mexican immigrant population in Peoria is growing, mostly driven by economic opportunities.
“A good indicator is how many Mexican restaurants are being opened, so that’s growing and that indicates a lot of our people are coming here because of the job opportunities,” she said. “They find good opportunities here, [and] this is a very vibrant community, so that’s why they come here.”
She said part of her job is to let people know “what Mexico is all about.”
“It’s important for local communities to learn about Mexico,” she said. “Mexico is like everywhere, you can read about in news, hear about it, many of them are doing business with Mexico, but at the end of the day we don’t know each other.”
Ambassador Torres-Mendivil said she is going back to Chicago “with a lot of homework.” The trip was made possible by the Peoria Area World Affairs Council.


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Acquisitions worth £32.7m offered a boost to specialist distributor Diploma over the course of its financial year.
The company, which sells a range of items such as industrial seals to the oil and gas industry and medical devices to hospitals, reported a £48.8m increase in annual sales to £382.6m, of which £16.3m came from a number of acquisitions in the period.
The largest investment was made in March, when Diploma bought UK-based cable product supplier Cablecraft for £21.3m.
It invested a further £8.4m to buy a company in Australia called WCIS that supplies gaskets and other products to the mining industry in the region.
Excluding acquisitions and currency movements, which added another £13.8m to sales growth, revenues were up 3pc.
Bruce Thompson, chief executive of Diploma, said this was a good outcome, given the challenges the company has had to contend with in many of its core markets.
Industrial markets in particular have faced a tough time over the past year, as oil and gas companies made cutbacks and demand for natural resources ebbed globally.
“Most economies we are operating in have been quite difficult, so generating 3pc underlying sales growth is not a bad performance,” he said.
Diploma garners 23pc of sales from the UK and 40pc from North America. In the US and Canada, the lion’s share of sales come from the heavy construction, industrial production and manufacturing sectors, all of which have been sluggish.
There could, however, be reason to believe things will start to improve with a new administration in the White House.
“Organic growth will still be quite hard won, but I suppose there is a feeling that if there is an increased level of infrastructure investment in North America that will be positive for us,” said Mr Thompson. “President-elect Trump has said it will happen so we will see how that works through.”
In the meantime, acquisitions will remain a central part of Diploma’s growth strategy, and the company has the firepower to make more purchases.
Free cash flow, which is money a company has left after spending to maintain and expand the business, totalled £59m last year and it ended the period with £10.6m of net cash in the bank.
Mr Thompson said acquisitions could generate greater returns to shareholders than cash returns.
“We get steady GDP plus organic revenue growth and attract stable operating margins from existing businesses,” said Mr Thompson.
“But as a group we target double digit growth and to achieve that we need an ongoing programme of very selective acquisitions.
“In past we have made cash returns when we’ve built up a cash pile, but in more recent times we felt it better to invest in good quality acquisitions.”
Diploma’s pre-tax profits rose 4p to £54m in the year to the end of September. Excluding acquisitions and other one-off charges, profits increased 9pc to £64.9m, beating analyst forecasts.
"This was a year in which the acquisition strategy came into its own," said analysts at Peel Hunt.
"It demonstrates the strength of the Diploma model to be able to grind out growth in tough markets and use the strong free cash flow to supplement that with acquisitions."
The company will pay a final dividend of 13.8p a share, up 11pc on last year.
Shares in Diploma rose 1.2pc to 911p in morning trading.


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The U.S. Postal Service fell deeper into a financial hole in its fiscal first quarter, losing $3.3 billion and forecasting “large losses” will continue until a broad restructuring plan is put in place.
The latest loss came despite what the USPS called strong holiday shipping that kept the year-over-year decline in overall operating revenue to just 1.1 percent. But the loss in the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2011 means the USPS has lost $20.7 billion since 2009.
With operations and mail volume fairly stable compared to previous reports, the latest results starkly illustrated the challenges the USPS faces meeting changes in the postal marketplace while coping with expensive mandates that only Congress can control.
Basic operating expenses increased 1 percent, partly from higher fuel costs that increased transportation expenses. Overall mail volume fell 6 percent, while package services revenue actually increased slightly. But the USPS also had to “pre-pay” nearly $3.7 billion in retiree health benefits in the first fiscal quarter, nearly double what the Postal Service had to pay a year ago.
The USPS has a plan to reduce annual costs by $20 billion by 2015, but Postmaster General and CEO Patrick Donahue said some of the changes need approval by Congress. USPS efforts to close some post offices and eliminate Saturday delivery have met resistance on Capitol Hill.
“Passage of legislation is urgently needed that provides the Postal Service with the speed and flexibility needed to cut costs that are not under our control, including employee health care costs,” Donahoe said. “The changes will give the Postal Service a bright future and provide the nation with affordable and reliable delivery for generations to come.”


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Innovative solutions from the Waterfall company will be presented at RosUpack 2018Complex BOPP films produced by the Waterfall company along with the main types of films in demand in the global packaging industry will be presented at the Waterfall stand within the 23rd international exhibition of the packaging industry RosUpack 2018.
One of the biggest events in the packaging industry in Russia and Eastern Europe will take place in Crocus Expo Exhibition Complex, Moscow, on June, 26-29. Among the participants – over 600 companies from more than 30 countries.
Waterfall invites you to attend its display stand B501 located in Hall 15, Pavilion 3.
You can get your ticket for free by applying a promo code rsk18eRXAR while registering for this event at http://www.rosupack.com/ru-RU/. The promo code is unlimited.


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Billionaire Jeff Bezos revealed Monday he will introduce a $10 billion fund to combat environment modification. The Amazon CEO stated in an Instagram post that the Bezos Earth Fund will offer cash to “any effort that offers a real possibility” to assist protect and safeguard the world.
“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,” Bezos composed in his post. “I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share.”
Bezos, the world’s wealthiest individual, has actually promoted his business’s numerous environment efforts for many years. Amazon has actually moneyed a network of wind and solar farms as part of a long-lasting objective of powering its international facilities with 100% renewable resource.
In September,, a strategy to make the vast e-commerce and tech business carbon-neutral by 2040 and reach an objective of the Paris environment contract 10 years early. He likewise asked other business to sign the promise too.
To reach the carbon-neutral objective, Bezos revealed a brand-new $100 million reforestation effort and a brand-new order for 100,000 electrical shipment vans to move far from diesel lorries. Amazon likewise promised to power its international facilities with 80% renewable resource by 2024 and 100% by 2030 — up from the 40% renewable resource it utilizes today.
“Amazon took a bold step when it announced the Climate Pledge, committing the company to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement 10 years early, and we’re incredibly excited about the Bezos Earth Fund,” an Amazon representative stated. “Jeff’s passion and this extraordinary personal contribution to the fight against climate change are going to have a huge impact.”
Not everybody has actually responded favorably. In a Tuesday release, Greenpeace stated it invites Bezos’ brand-new acknowledgment of the hazards of environment modification, however still had issues.
“It’s hypocritical to announce that climate change is the biggest threat to our planet while at the same time boosting the fossil fuel industry by providing advanced computing technologies to the oil and gas industry so that it can discover and drill more oil, more efficiently. Amazon also still has work to do to ensure its growing network of data centers fully shifts away from fossil fuels, and the company must transparently report its energy use as Google and Apple do,” Greenpeace stated in its declaration.
Originally released Feb. 17 at 12: 08 p.m. PT.
Update Feb. 18 at 10: 19 a.m. PT: Adds remark from Greenpeace.
This Amazon site handles your biggest, bulkiest purchases
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|While awaiting a legal framework for these products, the watchdog requested securities firms not participate in issuing, advising and trading virtual money and other financial technology products and comply with anti-money laundering laws. — Photo bitcoinvietnamnews.com|
HÀ NỘI – The State Securities Commission has recommended that public companies, securities companies and fund managers as well as securities investment funds not carry out issuance, trading and brokerage activities related to virtual currency.
This is the second announcement by the market watchdog regarding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since the first one on January 29 this year.
The announcement is in line with the Prime Minister’s direction in April on strengthening the management of Bitcoin and similar forms of cryptocurrency in the country.
In the prior notice, SSC warned investors and companies of potential risks related to cryptocurrency trading after an increasing number of companies are doing business in financial technology services (fintech) or raising capital through initial coin offerings (ICO), crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending or blockchain, which are new products and technologies that have not been legally regulated.
The SSC advised investors to be cautious when investing in new products to limit possible losses. For companies, while awaiting a legal framework for these products, the watchdog requested securities firms not participate in issuing, advising and trading virtual money and other financial technology products and comply with anti-money laundering laws.
Also regarding the management of cryptocurrency transactions, in mid-July, the State Bank of Việt Nam said that it agreed with the proposal of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to suspend the import of cryptocurrency mining machines. – VNS


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Renault aims to hire away a senior Volkswagen group executive to become its CEO, according to media reports.
Luca de Meo (right) currently heads VW’s Spain-based SEAT budget brand. Reports point out he’ll have to find a way to dance around a non-compete clause in its current contract to make the move to Renault.
It’s been a lousy year for top executives at the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. Renault has been shopping for a new chief since it fired Thierry Bollore, who held the job on an interim and then “permanent” basis for all of 11 months.
Bollore’s days as CEO were numbered from the start. He had the misfortune of being a close ally of Carlos Ghosn, who was removed as chairman of Renault and both of its alliance partners, after his arrest for financial misconduct at Nissan 13 months ago.
Besides, Bollore didn’t get along well with Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, another Ghosn legacy. Saikawa lost his job in September for allowing Nissan’s financial strength to evaporate, and for becoming entangled in some of Ghosn’s alleged transgressions.
Now Renault is eager for stability and tranquility. It’s very eager to revitalize its alliance with Nissan. But it also wants to avoid delivering what Nissan really wants: better balance in the partnership’s equity arrangement and a greater say in alliance decisions.
Renault owns a 43% voting stake in Nissan. For now, Nissan remains stuck with a 15% nonvoting position in Renault. The Japanese company also is tired of being pushed around by a very assertive French government.
Let’s Get to the Math Later
The state also owns 15% of Renault’s shares. But France also enjoys double voting rights, thanks to some shadowy stock moves in 2015 that involved then-economy minister and now President Emmanuel Macron. France hasn’t been shy about exercising its passion for protecting jobs.
Nissan and Renault have publicly agreed to stand down on rearranging the financial terms of their partnership. They declare their top priority is getting the alliance back on track.
That will be de Meo’s first objective. If he can do that, reports say, he will serve as Renault CEO for two years then take over as head of the alliance itself.
Effective management is a timeless skill—as demonstrated by this treasure of an article from the AutoBeat Group archive. Although the tools of the trade have changed and proliferated, the basics remain the same. Here are 8 old school (and just darn practical) rules for being an excellent manager.
For conducting business in the U.S. market, Toyota has historically had several separate business entities: a sales and distribution company headquartered in California (Toyota Motor Sales, USA); manufacturing operations (Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America); a racing subsidiary (Toyota Racing Development, USA); the Toyota Technical Center for R&D in Ann Arbor; and a design facility in California (Calty Design Research, Inc.). On April 1, 2006, Toyota merged its R&D operations and its manufacturing operations into a single company.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against General Motors Co. over claimed flaws in the company’s 8-speed automatic transmission used in 2015-2019 model rear-drive vehicles.


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Pakistan takes over Kenyan exports from East Africa’s Uganda
Islamic Republic of Pakistan is now the largest buyer of Kenyan goods. This is after goods exported to the country jumped 90.8 per cent to sh24.8 billion from 13 billion last year as at May. Uganda and Tanzania were top importers of Kenyan products for years over.
Exports to Pakistan have more than doubled over the past two years from Sh9.9 billion in the first five months of 2015 to the current Sh24.8 billion.
Even after Kenya ousted India and the west at large for China as highest importer, the United States is moving fast to bridge shipment gap that is now at 18.5 billion a 20 per cent growth in the past year according to Kenya National Bureau of Statics data.
The US intake has grown over 31 per cent in the two-year period from Sh14.1 billion to now over sh19 billion.
According to a reliable Kenyan daily, the flip side of this is that exports to Uganda remained unchanged at Sh21.9 billion in the year to May while Tanzania cut back its purchases from Kenya 34 per cent to Sh8.2 billion.
Uganda has in the past years been the driver of Kenya’s exports while Tanzania was once the second largest buyer of goods from Nairobi, before narrowing its orders. Reliable sources say total exports grew by 2.2billion to 221 billion in the year up to May 2017.
Pakistan’s rise in Kenyan exports has been attached to its appetite for Kenyan tea exports, as flowers and textile were exported to Europe and United states respectively. Data collated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics from the Kenya Tea Directorate shows that the value of exports to the world’s sixth most populous country more than doubled, rising 110.81 per cent to Sh15.6 billion as at June 2017 from Sh7.4 billion same Quarter 2016.
Other key tea export destinations were Egypt ( 5.87 million kilos), the UK ( 3.17 million kilos), Sudan ( 2.47 million kilos) and United Arab Emirates ( 2.31 million kilos).
Other than tea exports, the US preferential trade pact that allows Sub-Saharan countries to export goods to the states tax-free boosted the export monies.


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Nmedia - Fotolia
Accenture recently placed the Nordics among the countries with the most conducive environment for the IIoT, and the latest Connected things report by Swedish-Finnish carrier TeliaSonera puts the region in pole position to capture IoT opportunities.
“The internet of things is growing rapidly in the Nordics. It is the early stages of a revolution that is going to transform society, industries and the way we live,” said Hans Dahlberg, head of global M2M services at TeliaSonera. “[The Nordics] has good infrastructure, with high internet penetration through fixed and mobile networks such as 4G and fibre, a stable regulatory environment and vibrant user communities.”
The results of this good groundwork can already be seen. For example, the Nordic region has four times as many connected “things” per person (1.7) as the rest of the world. TeliaSonera estimates the number will grow from 45 million connected devices in 2014 to 102 million – almost four per person – by 2018.
“Connected things” is how the TeliaSonera report, published together with management consultancy Arthur D. Little, defines physical objects (from cars and people to buildings and machinery) that can communicate with the outside world, but excludes devices which are already commonly online, such as computers, ICT infrastructure and mobile phones.
Furthermore, 17% of these connected things are registered on mobile networks (such as 2G, 3G and 4G), which is almost twice as high as the equivalent 9% in the rest of the world. By 2018, the share of mobile-based connectivity for connected things is expected to reach 20% in the Nordics, compared with 13% globally.
Consequently, the TeliaSonera report forecasts the Nordic market for IoT devices will grow by 23% annually, from €4bn in 2014 to €9.1bn by 2018. Sweden, the largest Nordic IoT market valued at €1.3bn in 2014, is expected to take a €3.1bn slice of this. Norway and Denmark, placed second and third, will increase to €2bn and €2.1bn respectively. Finland is expected to increase spending from €800m in 2014 to €1.9bn by 2018.
Read more about the internet of things in the Nordics
- Nordic industry is beginning to use industrial internet of things technologies, such as machine learning, big data and the internet of things.
- In the race to reap the rewards of the industrial internet of things, Nordic countries are among the leading nations.
- Volvo has begun a pilot involving 1,000 vehicles for car-to-car communications to warn drivers of dangerous road conditions.
This growth is driven by several industry sectors. “The fastest growing segment of IoT in the Nordics is ‘connected people’ which includes not only people, but also animals, for example tracking of their geographical position, activity and measurement of biomarkers (in other words, wearables),” said Dahlberg. “The market for connected people is expected to grow by 59% annually until 2018.”
Closely behind is “connected vehicles” – anything that transports passengers or cargo – which is forecast to increase by 36% annually and reach 14 million by 2018.
The growth is third fastest in the “connected buildings” sector, which is expected to grow by 23% annually until 2018, when there will be, on average, three connected building devices, such as security, energy and HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning applications), per household in the Nordics.
Hans Dahlberg, TeliaSonera
The numbers may sound impressive, but connected devices are only the first stage of IoT. IDC senior analyst Anders Elbak said while Nordic countries are early adopters of new technology and have the necessary infrastructure, they are not significantly ahead in the overall maturity of IoT.
“Companies mainly look to IoT for productivity enhancements and business optimisation reasons, but very few acknowledge the business transformation opportunities,” said Elbak. “Overall, I would say the market is emerging.”
Similarly, Dahlberg believes there will be a gradual transition to more a mature IoT, with deeper integration into business models and processes.
“Enabling connected things to exchange and comprehend each other’s data, regardless of place, manufacturer or format, is key to realising the full potential of IoT. When different types of connected things start to interact, connected cars transform into intelligent transportation systems (ITS), connected medical devices into digital health and connected homes into smart cities,” he said.


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Southwest Airlines begins 40 percent off fare sale
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines announced Tuesday that it is offering 40 percent off on some round-trip flights as part of its Wanna Get Away winter sale promotion.
The discount fares are valid on tickets bought from today through 11:59 p.m. PST on Oct. 11 for travel between Nov. 28 through Dec. 12 and Jan. 7 through Feb. 14, 2013, the airline said.
There are some exclusions on the deal that you can find here.
Lance Murray edits and writes for the DBJ's website and can be reached at 214-706-7106. Subscribe to our email newsletters.
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Some hooligan stole a Honda Civic from Hewes Street sometime between March 16 and 17. The owner came back to the spot at South Fifth Street at noon and found that the car was gone.
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A Wisconsin company will invest $155 million and create 1,000 jobs in Spartanburg County in a plant to manufacture the next generation of vehicles for the United States Postal Service.
Oshkosh Defense, a subsidiary of Oshkosh Corp., will be located in the Flatwood Industrial Park to make zero-emission battery electric vehicles and fuel-efficient low-emission internal combustion engine vehicles.
The company will reconfigure an existing warehouse. Other suppliers for the Oshkosh plant are expected to locate in the area, the company said in an announcement Tuesday.
The vehicles will be the first large-scale purchase by the Postal Service in 30 years. The contract calls for 50,000 to 165,000 vehicles over a period of 10 years.
Oshkosh was selected in a competitive process that began in 2015 and ended with a multi-billion-dollar contract in February 2021, the company said.
Founded in 1917, Oshkosh makes a line of military vehicles for combat such as the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles and other tactical vehicles .
Production of the postal vehicles is expected to begin in summer 2023.
John Bryant, Oshkosh Defense president, said Spartanburg was chosen because its workforce has a track record in advanced automotive manufacturing. BMW is located in Spartanburg County, as are a number of manufacturers making auto systems and parts.
“We know the people of the Upstate take pride in their work and their community. What we build together here will reach every home in the country,” Bryant said in a news release..
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster called Oshkosh a world-class company.
“It speaks volumes of our business environment when a company of this caliber invests $155 million and creates more than 1,000 jobs in our state. Congratulations to this great company, and we look forward to all the things they will do,” McMaster said in the news release.


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Earlier, the Internet broke the news that Huawei will hold a new product communication meeting for its laptop brand MateBook on January 13. Some sources said that Huawei will release the 2021 MateBook X Pro at the meeting.
A tipster from Weibo announced the relevant configuration information of the 2021 MateBook X Pro. According to the information he provided, Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021 upgraded the processor from the tenth-generation Intel Core mobile processor to the eleventh-generation.
At the same time, the two Thunderbolt 3 ports have also been upgraded to Thunderbolt 4 ports, but whether it is full-speed Thunderbolt is currently unknown; in addition, MateBook X Pro 2021 supports WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1.
In terms of memory, the MateBook X Pro 2021 model is available in 16GB and 32GB versions. The memory frequency is 4266MHz, and the high-frequency memory can better play the performance of the processor. The touchpad is upgraded to a pressure touch panel, integrated NFC, and supports a one-touch transmission function.
As of press time, there is currently no news about the price of this product, and Huawei Mall has not put this product on the shelves, but according to the past rhythm, this product will soon be open to the public for purchase.
Source: In Chinese


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In an interview with VentureBeat, Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, explained the big reason behind delaying Rayman Legends.
Ubisoft CEO has confirmed there are three different Assassin’s Creed titles currently in development.
It seems the upcoming title 1666 is seeing an ill fate with its cancellation.
In a recent press release describing Ubisoft’s sales and earning figures for 2012-13 fiscal year, the publisher mentions “two titles that have not yet been announced, including one new creation.”
Ubisoft has released a report on its sales and earning figures for 2012-13 fiscal year, and it seems like a lot of people enjoyed three of the publisher’s major franchises – Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Just Dance, as the company’s [...]
Read More »
Assassin’s Creed III is the highest selling game in the history of Ubisoft. So what’s next?
During a post-earnings financial call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stated that a new Assassin’s Creed game is set to be released in the company’s fiscal 2014 (April 1, 2013-March 31, 2014).


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Starting Monday, David and I will be posting from Esther Dyson's PC Forum conference in hopefully sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. Stay tuned for our coverage, including some podcasts and live action photos. The "PC" in PC Forum was about the personal computer when the conference started 28 years ago. Now "PC" has come to mean pervasive computing--information technology pervades every aspect of modern life and business.
JUST IN: The mix of poverty and piracy that turned Romania into Europe's software development powerhouse


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10 hrs ago
Northwest Florida Daily News
Caf Tango offers wonderful food, setting
CafA© Tango is in a lovely little house at the intersection of Vicki Street and County Road 30A in Blue Mountain Beach.
14 hrs ago
Le First Look at Le Bilboquet: A Spot of France in Uptown
Opening quietly just over two weeks ago, Le Bilboquet has confidence that can only come from experience, which makes sense, since the restaurant is actually a transplant from the Upper East Side in New York City.
15 hrs ago
Could Israel Pate Ban Boost Kosher Enemies?
A senior rabbi from Paris has warned Israel's agriculture minister that legislation in Israel to ban the import of goose liver could jeopardize kosher slaughter in Europe.
Sun Jun 16, 2013
Lime sugar shingles roofed a herby hut of prawn, hamachi and squid ceviche with a smoky pool of nuoc cham swirled with sips of 2012 Anne Amie Muller-Thurgau.
Is foie gras always a faux pas? One family aims to humanely produce it
Foie gras is a controversial topic . It's one of the most delicious foods on the planet, but conventional foie gras comes at the price of force-feeding ducks and geese.
Sat Jun 15, 2013
Blockage of foie gras import ban sparks outrage
Dozens of activists and lawmakers took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Friday to protest minister's appeal of bill banning liver delicacy.
Santa Barbara Independent
Vegas Golf Done Right
Vegas is good for at least two trips a year. If you are looking for a little golf with convenience, look no further than Bali Hai Golf Club and the Mandalay Bay Resort just around the corner.
Fri Jun 14, 2013
VIDEO: Musical Mini-Series CONNIE & JIMMY Tributes Edith Piaf - Episode 3
In the third installment of "connie & jimmy", an episodic 1940's black & white mini-series, Jimmy breaks shocking news to Connie over a "fancy" meal but the reality of the meal turns out to be just as shocking! Jimmy has all the best intentions but he can't seem to avoid slipping up.
An insult to common sense
Well this week will see the great and not-so good descend on a luxury hotel in Fermanagh for their annual talking shop and mutual display of back slapping.
Thu Jun 13, 2013
The Paramus Post
Senate Bill Seeks To Ban Cruel Force-Feeding Of Ducks Exposed In...
Hidden-Camera Footage Reveals Ducks Enduring Metal Pipes Shoved Down Their Throats to Produce Diseased Livers for Sale on Amazon.com Shocking hidden-camera video of intentional animal torture secretly recorded at Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale, New York, will be released by the animal protection organization Mercy For Animals at a news ... (more)
Tamara Ecclestone gets a goose named after her
The Formula 1 heiress tied the knot with broker Jay Rutland on Tuesday and is being lavished with expensive presents during her three-day, A 3.5 million celebration on the French Riviera, but nothing quite as unusual as having a bird named after her.
Animal rights group targets Amazon for selling foie gras: Duck cruelty exposed
Mercy for Animals. , an animal rights group called on the state of New York Wednesday to ban the practice of force-feeding ducks and geese to make foie gras reported the International Business Times on June 12. Foie gras, French for "fatty liver", is the diseased and enlarged liver of a duck or goose, produced through force feeding.
Cape Cod Times
Amazon under fire over foie gras
Mercy for Animals, an activist group known for its undercover videos of alleged animal abuse by suppliers to some of the world's largest retailers, now is going after Amazon.com Inc. The nonprofit wants Seattle-based Amazon to stop selling foie gras and has created a website, AmazonCruelty.com, to generate public outrage via social media.
Wed Jun 12, 2013
Death threats aimed at Psycho Donuts after foie gras giveaway
Bay area pastry purveyor Psycho Donuts became the latest target of animal rights groups after it doled out free foie gras donuts on National Donut Day.
Animal rights group calls for NY foie...
An animal rights group called on the state of New York Wednesday to ban the practice of force-feeding ducks and geese to make foie gras.
Eye-Openers: - Being out here is so different because you're so...
In the cool little video above, Chris Cosentino and Alex Stupak brainstorm dishes for their collaborative dinner together later this month, throwing out ideas like foie gras cochinita pibil, achiote foie gras, lobster and raw tripe, and posole with duck tongue chicharrones.
Tue Jun 11, 2013
Globe and Mail
These are the places where in-the-know Montrealers go to dine
If you were to make a game of identifying cities based on their most popular ingredients, which one would get morel and porcini mushrooms, stacks of fresh, feathery mint and underused but delicious herbs like sorrel and lovage? What city would serve them with affordable, natural wines, with crisp, supernally flavourful vegetables, with cold-water ... (more)
The San Diego Union-Tribune
The anniversary for California's ban on foie gras is near: it's been illegal to sell the fatty liver from force-fed ducks statewide since July 1, 2012.
Want to know if babies eat foie gras? Brilliant spoof parenting guide ...
From choosing the perfect party beverage for babies to picking the ideal double-barrelled baby name, new book When One Is Expecting: A Posh Person's Guide To Pregnancy And Parenting has the answers.
Mon Jun 10, 2013
The Spanish Farm on a Mission to Make Humane Foie Gras
On a whirlwind tour across the globe to document sustainable food, the team from Perennial Plate stops in Spain to meet one family dedicated to reversing the stigma surrounding a certain European delicacy.


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Electronic Arts has been forced to amend its Super Bowl advert for action game Dante's Inferno following concerns raised by broadcaster CBS.
Yesterday, EA announced that the 30-second ad will air during the fourth quarter of the NFL's showpiece final on February 7. Dante's Inferno will be released two days later on PS3, PSP and Xbox 360.
Although the advert features footage of the game's lead character Dante battling ghoulish demons and monsters in the underworld, CBS took umbrage with its tagline 'Go To Hell', according to The Hollywood Reporter.
After CBS raised concerns with EA about the tagline potentially offending viewers, the advert will now run with the alternative slogan, 'Hell Awaits'.
CBS has recently attracted controversy for allowing an advert from pro-life campaign group Focus On The Family to run during its Super Bowl coverage, while also rejecting a commercial for a gay dating site featuring two men kissing.
Adverts during the Super Bowl command fees in excess of $1m (£628,000), largely because the coverage attracts an audience of over 100 million.


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Call me biased, but there’s almost nothing better than sitting on the beach, eating rawa fried fish and sipping a cold beer. Bengaluru is a land-locked city, so let’s be honest, it can be tough to find fish dishes that match up their coastal counterparts. However, that’s all about to change as the State Fisheries Development Corporation (SFDC) is partnering up with Bengali associations in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune to set up all fish restaurants.
Lucky for us, SFDC officials are planning on starting with a food festival in Bengaluru that’s headed our way in August! If all goes according to plan, all fish restaurants will serve both ready-to-eat fish preparations and frozen and dressed fish items for home takeaways.
The officials plan on conducting surveys to determine Bengali populations in Delhi and Mumbai, before setting up outlets in these two cities. If everything goes according to schedule, stalls in all four cities may well start their operations by the beginning of 2019.
Once these stalls are implemented, thirty-two different fish items, based on popular varieties like rohu and Katla, also a number of items like Chanos or milkfish, can be found in ‘All fish’ outlets. So, come August, you’ll know where to find me!


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"To facilitate transactions even further, Visa has launched PayWave, while MasterCard has launched MasterPass. The common thread between the two is that both are mobile payment systems that use Near Field Communication (NFC) equipped in the latest smartphones. The management of Visa stated that by 2020, half of its transactions would be carried out by mobile payment solutions. Considering the fact that smartphones equipped with NFC technology have already begun rolling out, it appears to be a realistic goal.
Besides that, PayWave and MasterPass would also challenge eBay’s PayPal (NASDAQ: EBAY). Consumers would no longer have to re-fill their PayPal wallets to make online transactions, as a PayWave and MasterPass would be directly linked to millions of bank accounts. Furthermore, PayPal’s dominance in domestic and international funds transfer could also be challenged as both PayWave and MasterPass can transfer funds throughout the world."
Smart phones are a fad
I myself don't use one and I have very many reasons fpr not doing so
Mobile payments make it so a record can be kept of what and where you bought something
First off they put a GPS location on every picture or video you make
They also keep every text and phone call ever made or received
Your location is know at all times and a record is kept of your movements
I have a regular cell phone and I try to keep it off as much as possible.
I can see people moving away from these devices but it might be too late
RFID chips will imbedded into drivers license and readers will be located at every major intersection in America
You can run but you won't be able to drive. . .
Just in the same, using a credit or debit card records location. time and date of purchase. Only way to avoid that is to use cash, but even then, there are video cameras everywhere these days..
Personally, I love my smartphone. I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy phone and keep the GPS disabled but even a regular cellphone bounces off towers and location data is collected. That cellular data can only be acquired with a court order and you have to be involved in some serious illegal business like RICO or Patriot Act stuff.


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A fashion brand is the latest victim of turmoil in the high street.
Republic has called in administrators Ernest & Young.
The chain has stores in Churchill Square, Brighton, and The Martlets in Crawley. Most of its stores are in the north of England, which has been hit hard by the recession KPMG was initially brought in to advise the company on shedding some of its stores. Andy Bond, the former chief executive of Asda, has stepped down as chairman.
The news comes in the wake of the failure of Jessops, HMV and Blockbuster.
See the latest news headlines from The Argus:
- Man suffers burn injuries after blaze at Brighton garage
- First step in £35million scheme for Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre
- Guns and machete found in pond by dog
- Pain cured on a limb and a prayer
- Trying to tackle loneliness


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1. Economic Ministers from the ten ASEAN Member States, Australia and New Zealand (Closer Economic Relations – CER) virtually met on 29 August 2020 for the Twenty-Fifth AEM-CER Consultations. The Consultations were co-chaired by H.E. Tran Tuan Anh, Minister of Industry and Trade, Viet Nam; the Hon Senator Simon Birmingham, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Australia; and Mr. Vangelis Vitalis, Deputy Secretary Trade and Economic Group, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand (representing Hon. David Parker, Minister for Trade and Export Growth, New Zealand).
2. The Ministers noted the 1.2 per cent increase in ASEAN’s total trade with Australia from AUD 120.7 billion in 2018 to AUD 122.2 billion in 2019, based on Australia’s data. The Ministers also noted the 6.6 per cent increase in ASEAN’s total trade with New Zealand from AUD 15.95 billion to AUD 16.99 billion in 2019. According to Australia’s and New Zealand’s data, Australia’s direct investment in ASEAN in 2019 accounted for 5.5 per cent of Australia’s total direct investment abroad – valued at AUD 45.4 billion, while New Zealand’s direct investment in ASEAN for the same year was valued at AUD 855 million accounting for 3.2 per cent of New Zealand’s total investment abroad.
Download the full statement here.


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Electronics giant Samsung is now a member of the IBM-led OpenPower Consortium. The industry group’s mission is promoting chip designs based on the IBM Power chip, for use in data center hardware and other products.
Last summer, IBM announced the formation of the consortium, following its decision to license the Power architecture. The OpenPower Foundation, the actual entity behind the consortium, opened up the Power architecture technology, including specs, firmware and software under a license. Firmware is offered as open source. Originally, OpenPower was the brand of a range of System p servers from IBM that utilized the Power5 CPU. Samsung’s products currently utilize both x86 and ARM-based processors.
The intention of the consortium is to develop advanced servers, networking, storage and
GPU-acceleration technology for new products. The four priority technical areas for development are system software, application software, open server development platform and hardware architecture.
‘Open Set of Server Technologies’
When the consortium was announced in August, IBM senior vice president Steve Mills said in a statement that “developers now have access to an expanded and open set of server technologies for the first time,” adding that such a “ ‘collaborative development’ model will change the way data center hardware is designed and deployed.”
Other members of the group include Google, Mellanox, Nvidia, Tyan and the China-based Suzhou PowerCore Technology Company and the Research Institute of Jiangsu Industrial Technology.
Along with its announcement of Samsung’s membership, the organization said that Gordon MacKean, Google’s engineering director of the platforms group, will now become chairman of the group.
Nvidia has said it will use its graphics processors on Power-based hardware, and Tyan will be releasing a Power-based server, the first one outside IBM.
Apple, Xbox, Playstation 3
Last month, IBM said it would be selling its x86 server business to Lenovo, which had previously purchased the technology giant’s PC business. IBM has been focusing on its professional services and cloud-based businesses, and there have been reports that it was also interested in unloading its semiconductor business.
In the first week of February, The Financial Times reported that IBM has appointed investment bank Goldman Sachs to find companies that are interested in buying, or jointly owning, its semiconductor unit. Other reports have indicated that IBM is hoping to sell its chip manufacturing business but retain its chip designing operation.
IBM Microelectronics, which showed a one-third drop in revenue for the fourth quarter compared to the same quarter last year, provides design and foundry services based around Power chips. It has also licensed ARM Cortex processor designs for networking custom chips.
Power chips have seen some successes, but some notable losses as well. Apple made a visible switch to Power chips for Macs, which it subsequently dropped for x86 designs in 2006, and both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3 have utilized Power. But the next generations of both popular game consoles are now joining the ranks of x86-based hardware.


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Storytelling Gets Social, in Tweet-Driven Doses, with AuthorBee
Plenty of ways exist to collaborate on stories but AuthorBee has taken the task to tweets.
The platform from the New York-based startup lets individuals and businesses interact with and crowdsource ideas from the public. Last week, AuthorBee introduced its @AuthorBee product, which brings the action to the Twitter audience.
The basic idea is to collect followers’ input on projects, says CEO Stephen Bradley, whether it’s to include in a story or to build a bit of viral marketing. He uses a broad definition of “story” to include poetry, music, and other means of telling a tale. Bradley believes his platform can make creativity a more social experience.
Book authors, for example, can use their @AuthorBee channel to interact with their fans in advance of a new release. This can be in the form of prompts that encourage readers to decide what happens next in a story. “It’s a very interesting way to extend Twitter into a more lasting story creation format,” Bradely says.
The AuthorBee platform is about telling stories in small, collaborative chunks, he says, without taking up lots of time. Individuals can use the app for free. Bradley says users of AuthorBee include creators of fan fiction and educational institutions.
Brands can license a white label version of @AuthorBee to get customers involved via Twitter in marketing campaigns. That can include emerging musicians looking to reach new followers, who might contribute lyrics to create a new song through the platform. Publishers can also leverage @AuthorBee to generate content from citizen journalists, Bradley says.
Large manufacturers can use the platform to run contests with input from their Twitter followers. A beer maker, for example, might ask people to list their favorite pubs to create the ultimate pub crawl. Mentioning AuthorBee in tweets will also capture messages for the archives, Bradley says.
The strategy behind AuthorBee, which is backed by angel investors, stems from Bradley’s experiences with content publishers. Prior to founding the startup in early 2012, he was president of entertainment with market research firm NPD Group. He worked with publishers of content from movies to music, and saw a migration to social and digital business models.
That transition focused on new modes of distribution, Bradley says. However, he wanted to see a democratization of creativity. “I was much more interested in the very, very front end of the value chain,” he says.
Media, he says, really starts with the creation of a story. He believes that process has changed through technology. Social media offered a broad audience and the means to make storytelling more accessible—and that is where AuthorBee comes in. “We thought it was a very natural combination to overlay a Twitter front end onto our platform,” he says.


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Western Digital CorpWDC recently announced the launch of the world's first client solid state drives (SSDs) built with its 64-layer 3D NAND technology. The drives have been named WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD and SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD.
Both the products will be available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities, at an approximate retail price of $99 as suggested by manufacturers.
While WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD is meant for Do-It-Yourself (DIY) enthusiasts and system builders, SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD targets computer gamers. According to Forbes, the products will be available by late summer 2017.
Following the announcement, shares increased 1.42% to close at $91.29 on May 30. We note that the stock has outperformed the S&P 500 over the past one year. While the stock returned a whopping 96.1%, the index gained 15.2% over the same time frame.
New SSDs Strengthen Product Portfolio
SSD drives are much in demand due to their low power consumption feature and non-volatile capacious flash memory. The company's growing clout in the flash memory market and launch of a string of storage devices under the mobile and cloud segment are driving top-line growth. In the last quarter, revenues surged 64.7% year over year to $4.65 billion.
Further, Western Digital's entry into the wireless devices market comes at a time when storage services related to smartphones and tablets are witnessing large-scale adoption, which is anticipated to be a tailwind.
The company has witnessed strong demand for both hard drive and NAND-based products from all categories of customers, which has been a key catalyst.
Moreover, Western Digital's acquisition of SanDisk last year boosted its revenues. We believe that it placed the company ahead of Seagate Technology STX as far as innovation is concerned.
Western Digital Corporation Revenue (TTM)
Western Digital sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here .
More Stock News: 8 Companies Verge on Apple-Like Run
Did you miss Apple's 9X stock explosion after they launched their iPhone in 2007? Now 2017 looks to be a pivotal year to get in on another emerging technology expected to rock the market. Demand could soar from almost nothing to $42 billion by 2025. Reports suggest it could save 10 million lives per decade which could in turn save $200 billion in U.S. healthcare costs.
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Giant pandas in China are endangered. But by using this whimsical font created by the World Wildlife Fund, you can help raise awareness of their plight.
The typographer who created Sigmund Freud's handwritten font is at it again, this time producing a typeset that mimics the attractive penmanship of Albert Einstein.
An Argentinian graphic designer has created a series of posters he calls "Swiss Star Wars." What does that mean? Click through this gallery to find out.
Make the new Edge browser work for you.
Inspired by his own experiences with dyslexia, Dutch designer Christian Boer developed a font to make reading easier.
Edge's reading view is very basic -- perhaps too basic.
One of the best uses of a new Ultra HD 4K TV is as an ultra-high-resolution monitor. There are a few things to consider before you do, and a few settings to adjust after you dive in. Here's what you need to know.
A project that turns handwritten letters seen on homeless signs into fonts gets a big boost from global typeface provider Monotype.
See some of the fonts created as part of the Homeless Fonts project, which turns handwriting seen on homeless people's signs into fonts that can be used in branding and advertising.
The big news for iOS 8.4 is Apple Music, but there's a long list of tweaks and fixes to iBooks and more in the latest iOS update.


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entrepreneurship is a very hard thing, need to pay more endurance and persistence, many entrepreneurs have to love some business tycoon as his spiritual idol worship, through learning to continuously strengthen our confidence in entrepreneurship. And now there are a lot of entrepreneurs will Wang Sicong as an entrepreneurial spirit worship object, it is not.
superposition of many events, making Wang Sicong frequently appear in public view, we see that the day before Wang Sicong investment live video App17 for possible jurisprudence problem a few days ago by Apple App Store directly removed, triggered a public hot. Not long ago, Tencent heroes Union four anniversary exhibition, by Jay Chou and Wang Sicong respectively as captain by the public. In the gaming industry, Wang Sicong frequently generous makes it become the object of attention of entrepreneurs and worship. For example, Wang Sicong’s hero has shares of MIPs capital mutual entertainment, the investment amount of 80 million yuan.
the day before Wang Sicong founded the panda TV leaving the label on the back of entrepreneurship. Until now, Wang Sicong created from MIPS capital, to the creation of the IG electronic sports club, and then invest the music funny game, wandering holdings, investment Columba, music as sports, in September of this year, Wang Sicong created a game broadcast platform, panda TV and banana program, the industry believes that Wang Sicong in a step by step to build up their own gaming empire.


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Will Chris Brown Be Sued?Published by Runteldat on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 12:00 am.
Although Chris Brown may have apologized to Rihanna, his fans, and started his community service there’s some people out there who could care less about his apologies as they are more vexed about their dollars.
Call these people the board members of Wrigley who are reportedly mulling a potential lawsuit against Breezy Fist.
The gum makers had just signed a five year deal with Breezy Fist when his fight with Rihanna occurred. As a result they had to pull ads and shelf the multiple commercials and prints ads that the company planned to use over an extended period of time.
Wrigley had to dissolve their relationship with Brown and has said to have lost millions.
Singersroom quotes sources saying:
“..They are said to be preparing to sue Chris for all the money they lost due to his bad behavior. They spent big bucks on ads featuring Chris along with other celebrities like Jay-Z and Mariah Carey. Since Chris was in them also – everything had to be ditched. Wrigley is mad and we hear they hope to recoup the money Chris caused them to lose with a big fat lawsuit.”
Good luck with that, Chris.


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Want to Beta Test Battlefield 2142?
Better be fast. DICE says 'first-come, first-served.'
DICE has just announced that it's opening another 10,000 positions up for the public beta test of upcoming sci-fi shooter Battlefield 2142. Be fast and you too can be one of the few, the proud.
65,000 gamers have been putting BF 2142 through its paces for about two weeks now. Thanks to the feedback, DICE has already implemented more than 1000 tweaks to the code, with the aim of buttery-smooth optimization come the October 17th launch date.
To participate in the public beta, you need 2 things:
a) A GameSpy/FlilePlanet ID. b) The BF 2142 downloadable client.
Both are available at the official beta download site -- so suit up, soldier. Those positions are gonna go fast.


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‘It’s different’: Tech companies brace for impact amid market downturn
moves It comes as the decade-long funding boom that has fueled the growth of hundreds of tech startups slows. With inflation raging, interest rates rising, and supply shortages still unresolved, it’s a tough time for even the most successful companies.
Businesses that rely on e-commerce have seen the brunt of the damage from the vagaries of the economy, as people have been spending less on online goods and more on things like travel and dining. That weighed on Walpole’s Thrasio, the aggregator of Amazon’s brands, which this month cut jobs by 20 percent, or more than 200 people, despite raising $2.5 billion in debt and equity financing last year.
Other big startups like DataRobot are trying to make the money they’ve raised for longer. The Boston AI company is cutting 7 percent of its workforce, or about 100 people, Less than a year after raising $300 million. A spokesman said the reduction was a “difficult but necessary step”.
The industry’s downsizing comes after a period of massive job growth. Wayfair has added nearly 2,000 jobs since the beginning of 2021 to raise its workforce to about 18,000. “We are confident that the short-term hiring halt will not affect our long-term plans,” the company said in a statement.
CEO Will Ahmed said the fitness startup Whoop has nearly quadrupled in size over the past two years, but is backsliding on its goal of reaching 1,000 employees by the end of 2022.
“The company has grown a lot,” he said. “At the same time, you want to be aware of the overall environment and how things have changed.”
In fact, less established companies may have a tough road ahead.
“So the lights just turned on at the party, and the like [the dot-com bust]There are many companies. . . “This should not have been funded and will not prove viable in the new world,” said Kent Bennett, partner in the Cambridge office Bessemer Venture Partners who has supported Toast and other local businesses.
“There will be a lot of pain in the coming quarters, but there will also be a lot of startups growing during these trying times,” he added.
Just eight months ago, Toast’s initial public offering, along with Ginkgo Bioworks’ public market debut, marked new heights for the Boston tech industry. But the restaurant payments company and the synthetic biology pioneer have lost 57 percent and 65 percent, respectively, of market value this year. The pair exemplify the different ways economic challenges are affecting companies selling technologies already in use or still in development.
Tost, which generated more than $1.7 billion in revenue last year Thousands of restaurants Customers who use their payment tools and services can see it Customers fall back quickly if the economy continues to deteriorate. At Ginkgo, which had $314 million in revenue in 2021 and $1.5 billion in cash on hand, the company remains focused on researching future products, making it more insulated from short-term economic factors. Neither company has announced job cuts.
But Tost applies “extreme discipline” to all spending, CEO Chris Comparato said this month. A company spokesperson added that the company was still hiring.
Meanwhile, Ginkgo remains in an expansion mode with a focus on research and development. “Our balance sheet will allow us to accelerate our leadership, while others in the sector may need to pull back,” CEO Jason Kelly said in a call with analysts.
The question on many people’s minds is how the landscape will compare to past tech market crashes. The 2000-2002 internet crash brought hundreds of internet companies out of business. The Great Recession of 2008-2009 pushed the national unemployment rate, now below 4 percent, to 10 percent.
“I remember [dot-com] said Rick McConnell, CEO of Dynatrace software monitoring and devouring. At the time, he was running a video conferencing company that went public, only to sell it for a fraction of the IPO price a few years later. But from its current position, the tech market looks very different, with many promising companies, albeit some of them are overvalued.
“I wouldn’t say it has the same characteristics as a tech bubble, where you just had hordes of companies that had no right to be public, and zero chance of profitability,” he said.
The collapse of the Internet and the resulting recession took several years to resolve the problem, as the 9/11 terrorist attacks compounded the damage, noted Harvard Business School professor Thomas Eisenman, author of Why Startups Fail.
“We now remember it as one big hit, but it really was a confusing series of things,” Eisenman said. “It is too early to say what will happen now. All [downturn] Different. this is different. “
This time, for example, public tech stock prices are driving the crash amid bigger economic problems, while the dotcom crash started with a panic that smaller startups are running out of money.
Another aspect that seems different to Eisenman is the reallocation of funding during the Internet boom. Companies that have raised venture capital or gone public have bought tons of tech equipment and online advertising, making the tech ecosystem look healthier than it actually is. “There might be a little bit of that, but nothing like a 1999 or 2000 scale,” he said.
One of the new challenges may be that the pandemic has made some aggressively growing companies look like explosively successful companies, said Linda Edelman, professor of management at Bentley. Think Zoom and Peloton.
Some online companies, she said, “have this mindset to grow fast, ‘We’re on fire, we go from zero to 100 miles per hour.'” But “Maybe we go from zero to just 50 . . . and we need to be more conservative and thoughtful.”
Right now, venture capital firms are urging startups to dump the huge pot.
“No one can predict how bad the economy will be, but things are not looking good,” the Cambridge, California-based supporter of startup Y Combinator wrote to her companies. “The safe step is to plan for the worst.”
However, Bennett sees plenty of money on the sidelines at Bessemer and other companies that can help startups survive tough times. “There’s also a lot of private capital targeting the technology markets that knows these companies are still very real,” he said.
Not all young startups have canceled their expansion plans. Amar Kumar, founder and CEO of KaiPod Learning in Newton, received support from Y Combinator last year. He did not comment on the memo, but said his company would not go into turtle mode.
“Being a startup founder at an early stage forces you to always be wise about finances,” he said. “The external macro environment doesn’t really change our strategy or how we make decisions about where to spend.”
Globe staff member Anissa Gardisi contributed to this report.
Aaron Pressman can be reached at email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter Tweet embed.


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Branded entertainment merchandise has become an expanding business for those sector players who are showcasing their latest dolls, video games and other consumer product wares this week in the Big Apple.
Driven by such franchises as “Hannah Montana,” “High School Musical,” “Cars” and Disney Princess, retail sales of merchandise licensed by Disney are on track to rise 12% to a record $30 billion-plus globally this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Disney Consumer Products chairman Andy Mooney made the projection Tuesday at the International Licensing Expo.
Disney and other licensors usually receive a licensing fee of 5%-15% of total retail sales of product associated with their brands, according to experts. So, while the $30 billion translates into much less direct revenue for Disney, it is nonetheless fast becoming a key contributor for the company.
Disney is widely acknowledged as the entertainment company with the highest consumer products revenue. “Disney is unlike any other media major in its efforts, and ability, to build character franchises that can be evergreen in nature,” said Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce.
Others also have used the power of their brands to boost business.
Time Warner’s Warner Bros. Consumer Products unit expects to see about $6 billion in retail sales this year, a spokesman said. At the Licensing Expo, Warners is showcasing such franchises as Batman, Harry Potter, Looney Tunes, Wonder Woman and Scooby-Doo.
Viacom’s Nickelodeon, generally seen as the No. 3 entertainment and the top TV-driven licensor, had retail sales of about $5 billion last year, according to a spokeswoman. Its key franchises include SpongeBob SquarePants. The figures don’t include Viacom’s other MTV Networks brands, BET or Paramount, which all have their own consumer products businesses.
Companies have struck deals with toy firms, apparel makers and the like who want to tap into the power of film and TV characters, the only growth segment across all categories last year, according to the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Assn.
For 2007, entertainment character-based licensing revenue reached $2.71 billion, up 1.1% from the previous year, LIMA estimates. That was 45% of the licensing total of $5.99 billion.
While consumer product licensing has grown for many entertainment giants, most companies don’t disclose detailed financials. Disney’s recent re-entry into the Disney Stores with a different business model “is part of the reason, I imagine, (why) they are starting to emphasize publicly their merchandising efforts and metrics,” Joyce said.
For Disney, the $30 billion target for this year — with about 40% coming from North America — compares to $13 billion just five years ago. Mooney said if trends continue, sales of Disney merchandise by the firm itself and its licensees would surpass $40 billion in about three years. He’s already aiming for $50 billion over the next five to seven years.
Disney’s tween franchises are key growth drivers, with the company predicting that “High School Musical” and “Hannah Montana” combined will reach $2.7 billion in sales for fiscal 2008. That’s nearly seven times the $400 million recorded in the year-ago period.
Mooney suggested Tuesday that the Jonas Brothers, who star in the “Camp Rock” movie that premieres June 20 on the Disney Channel, could well become a third major tween franchise worth about the same as the first two.
And Mooney notes that popular entertainment consumer products are recession-proof. “People on the fringes really suffer through a recession” while consumers continue to pay for strong established brands, he said. (partialdiff)
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Tagged used car prices
May 7, 2013
Prices for rental risk units sold at auction were 4.1% lower than their year-ago levels.
April 12, 2013 in Remarketing
The newest Kontos Kommentary from ADESA indicates a softening overall pricing environment compared to the past three spring/tax seasons.
March 15, 2013 in Remarketing
The latest Kontos Kommentary looks at February wholesale pricing, which dropped by 2.8% compared to January.
By Chris Brown , March 2013
At the Conference of Automotive Remarketing last week, technology, transparency and multi-platform selling took center stage.
March 1, 2013 in Remarketing
According to ADESA Analytical Services’ monthly analysis of wholesale used vehicle prices, January pricing rose year-over-year as well as compared to December 2012. This rise is partly due to an influx of off-rental units that pushed average prices upward, says ADESA's Chief Economist Tom Kontos.
January 16, 2013 in Remarketing
ADESA’s Chief Economist Tom Kontos reported in the latest Kontos Kommentary that average wholesale used vehicle prices demonstrated strong gains in December.
December 18, 2012 in Remarketing
Kontos said that prices may have shown even more Thanksgiving holiday softening if it weren’t for the strong retail demand and somewhat diminished supply in the Northeast following Superstorm Sandy.
November 12, 2012 in Remarketing
According to ADESA Analytical Services’ monthly analysis of wholesale used vehicle prices, in October wholesale prices averaged $9,742 — up 2% compared to September and down 1.4% relative to October 2011.
By Chris Brown , October 2012
Fleet operators are staring at a price squeeze right now that’s going to hurt. But there are ways to mitigate the pain.
October 17, 2012 in Remarketing
According to the latest Kontos Kommentary from ADESA's Chief Economist Tom Kontos, September was a good month for the retail new and used markets, as sales and prices were strong, driving demand in the auction lanes and online, according to the September
Auto Focus Blog: A blog covering fleets, auto rental and the business of cars
Amid new products such as the light-duty pickups, the 2014 Impala, the Cruze diesel and the announcement of a new small cargo van, it’s the one-on-one attention that sticks with you.
At its annual fleet preview, Volkswagen talked fleet sales, residual strategies, product lineup, three new turbo engines and how diesel can help your costs (but not your heart rate).
Coda Automotive’s bankruptcy is not surprising, though it was surprising that the company was able to play off the good intentions of the green industry for as long as it did.
Job Finder: Access Top Talent. Fill Key Positions.


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We are delighted to extend our collaboration with London Councils, BIDs and local authorities like TFL across the capital. Following the recent launch of our Parcelly Agent service and further strategic partnership announcements with Palmer and Harvey and the Costcutter Supermarkets Group, Parcelly's latest coup is another step towards making our revolutionary click&collect model a household name and have London benefit from our delivery innovation.
The key advantage for London organisations partnering with Parcelly is twofold:
1. The number of personal parcel deliveries sent to local offices will be decreased, as all employees will have the opportunity to choose Parcelly's click&collect solution at a discounted price as part of their employer benefits.
2. The number of delivery vans on London's roads will be reduced, as employees will have the choice to send their parcels to a convenient Parcelly location close to home, hence avoiding the need to transport personal deliveries throughout the centre of town.
Many institutions, following new action plans of London's Mayor Sadiq Khan, are now active supporters of improving London’s Air Quality and this is a sensitive subject Parcelly also cares very much about. Not only do we help to reduce the number of driver destinations as well as parcels that require multiple delivery attempts, but we also donate up to 5% of the price of each Parcelly Booking to our partner Atmosfair.
“With our Parcelly HQ based in central London, we care greatly about the future of our city. We plan to roll out dedicated partnerships with more London Councils, BID’s and authorities in the pursuit to become the city’s go-to click&collect service. Parcelly helps make our city cleaner, parcel deliveries as efficient as possible whilst providing full control and convenience for online shoppers."
— Sebastian Steinhauser, CEO & Founder of Parcelly


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German e-commerce company Zalando SE partnered with Belgian courier company bpost SA/NV to test a new technology that allows Belgian customers to remotely give couriers access to their home to drop off and pick up packages.
When a bpost courier rings the "smart doorbell" connected to the customer's phone, the customer identifies the courier and remotely unlocks the door. The courier drops off the package and closes the door. Customers can also stream the delivery process remotely, interact with the courier or deny access to their home at any time.
The test found that 50% of the 750 participants said they would feel comfortable trying the in-home delivery service, and 90% of participants whose homes were equipped with a "smart doorlock" and "smart doorbell" said they would continue using the technology after the test. The experiment also found that once the technology was installed and customers experienced the service, they favored the convenience of the technology over their concerns.
"Technology opens an array of possibilities but we also see that customers demand transparency and detailed information on the service. Together with bpost, we look forward (to) engaging in close dialogue with our customers," Vice President of Customer Fulfilment and Logistics Jan Bartels said.


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At one time seatbelts were new, airbags were new, now there’s a safety feature available that will stop a car when it senses you’re about to get into a fender bender.
Get inside the car, drive straight toward the white striped cones and the car automatically comes to a quick stop.
City Safety was developed because a majority of accidents happen under 25 miles per hour, according to Celesta Davis, one of the Volvo staff managing the tour. If the car senses an accident is imminent, while the car is moving under 9 mph, the car will operate 100% of the car’s brakes.
“It won’t brake until the last minute because it doesn’t want to get in the way of the driver,” said Davis. “It’s going to come in at the very last second.”
Customers are getting access to the new feature through an Experiential Tour at Volvo retailers across the country.
Where you can see the Volvo this week from 5:30 to 8 p.m. each day:
Tuesday, Feb. 3:
Carlsbad Volvo, 6830 Avenida Encinitas, Carlsbad, Calif.
Wednesday, Feb. 4:
Power Volvo Irvine, 44 Auto Center Drive, Irvine, Calif.
Thursday, Feb. 5:
Volvo of Orange County, 1400 Dan Gurney Drive, Santa Ana, Calif.
Volvo is involved in a dialogue with insurance companies regarding lower insurance premiums for vehicles equipped with City Safety.