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Overseas media are gushing about a new phone from BlackBerry. That’s something that hasn’t happened for a decade.
The excitement is about the Priv. It’s an Android phone, but not another me-too device aiming to knock Samsung off its perch.
Priv is different. It has a touch-sensitive QWERTY keyboard that slides down from the case. It also uses BlackBerry’s enterprise-grade software, security and the clever unified messaging hub.
These are features that once made BlackBerry the darling of business phone buyers everywhere.
Top-end smartphone specs
Otherwise the Priv boasts the usual top-end smart phone specs along with a 5.4 inch display that curves on both sides. Screen resolution is 1440 by 2560 pixels which means more than 500 pixels per inch resolution. The rear camera has an 18 megapixel sensor.
Priv also has a top-end price. The Carphone Warehouse in the UK is advertising the Priv for £580. That would make it around NZ$1275 at today’s exchange rate.
BlackBerry hopes overlaying BlackBerryness on top of an official Google supported version of Android is the secret sauce corporate phone buyers have waited for.
You say you want a revolution
Stand by for more disappointment. Although there is a loyal BlackBerry underground, it isn’t about to start a revolution. The BlackBerry train left the station a long time ago.
It is possible — that’s the strongest available adjective — BlackBerry would have sold phones by the million if it had gone with Android two years ago.
That was when the phone maker rebooted after being humiliated by Apple. A decade earlier it dominated smartphone sales. The iPhone swept it aside like a mosquito before a storm front.
Instead of picking Android, the phone maker pinned its hopes on the BlackBerry 10 operating system. It was an idiosyncratic approach, having little in common with the user interface on iOS, Android or Windows Phone.
Idiosyncratic but practical
BlackBerry 10 was more secure than other smartphone operating systems and revolved around a message hub. It was streamlined for dealing with incoming calls, messages, mail and social media.
It also came with a full suite of enterprise software including tools for company techs to remote manage users phones. BlackBerry also had VPN authentication, a virtual Sim service and great tools for creating and securely managing documents.
Many CIOs and managers loved the business-oriented thinking behind the OS. Yet users never warmed to BB10. Part of the reason was that idiosyncratic user interface, switching from another phone OS was more jarring than usual.
Post-iPhone, the phone market is all about consumer satisfaction. If any user cares about productivity it comes a distant second behind photos, social media updates, music and entertainment.
The bring-your-own-device trend accelerated the drift away. Organisations might fleet-purchase BlackBerry phones, but left to their own devices, workers would choose Apple or Samsung.
Nobody spending their own money seems to give a toss about the powerful business features packaged in a BlackBerry phone.
Conventional wisdom says the phone was unpopular with everyday users because of the lack of native apps. Many of the most popular apps never made it to Blackberry, nor did most of the less popular but essential niche apps. Your NZ bank doesn’t have a BlackBerry app, nor will your favourite retailer or taxi company.
Blackberry came up with a clever workaround: Users can download and run Android apps on BB10. Many apps run thanks to clever patching, but compatibility is hit and miss. Moreover, some apps that once ran fine stopped running after later OS updates.
All the way
Now BlackBerry has gone all the way. Instead of a BlackBerry phone with BlackBerry software and the ability to run Google software, the Priv is a BlackBerry phone with Google software and BlackBerry extensions.
If you think BlackBerry’s failure to capture user imagination is down to apps, then there’s a logic to making a phone able to run Android apps.
If only it were that simple.
The Android phone market is crowded and competitive. There are NZ$800 Android phones that look great and do 95 percent of what $1400 Android phones can do.
As a result almost no-one makes money from making Android phones. Android accounts for around 80 percent of all smartphone sales but less than 20 percent of smartphone profits.
The biggest and most successful Android phone maker is Samsung. It’s the brand BlackBerry will come up against most often as it tries to sell Android hardware to company accounts.
Yet Samsung licences some the technology BlackBerry says sets it apart from rivals in this market sector.
Deep pockets needed
Samsung, LG, HTC, Huawei and other Android phone makers spend a fortune on marketing. You need deep pockets to play that game. There is not much money left to spend on advertising.
There are two possibilities here. One is dipping a toe in the Android pool to test wider acceptance of its technology for a different project.
The other possibility is that the company now has such low expectations that even selling a modest number of phones will feel like success.
BlackBerry has already dipped its software toe in the Android pool. Some of its software, messaging and enterprise tools are available as apps.
Showcasing its technology with the Priv may help with its already announced option of morphing into a phone software business. It may also package things nicely for a sale. No doubt owners would be delighted if it became an acquisition target.
There were reports in the US press the phone maker sold just 800,000 in the first quarter of this year. That’s a tiny number by 2015 standards. If the Priv manages to double or triple sales volumes, the brand may stumble on for a while longer.
According to a report in The Verge the company aims to sell five million handsets a year. While that would be a start, it isn’t going to revive BlackBerry, at best it buys a little more time.


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Stock futures pointed to a higher start on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.7 percent, for Dow Jones up 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq 100 futures gaining 0.6 percent.
In Europe, stocks were higher, led by oils and banks, with the FTSEurofirst 300 index up 1.1 percent at 859.84 points at 0900 GMT.
Constellation Brands is reporting first quarter numbers, with analysts expecting the company to report earnings per share of 0.32 cents compared to 0.34 cents a year ago.
General Mills is reporting fourth quarter results with analysts expecting earnings per share of 0.80 cents compared to 0.73 cents a year ago.
Automatic Data Processing (ADP) releases its June employment report at 8:15 a.m. EDT. Economists in a Reuters survey expect 393,000 jobs were lost in June, down from a May job loss figure of 532,000.
At 10 a.m. EDT, the Institute for Supply Management releases its June manufacturing index. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a reading of 44.5 compared with 42.8 in May.
National Association of Realtors issues Pending Home Sales for May at 10 a.m. EDT. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a reading of 6.7 percent, unchanged from the prior month.
Commerce Department releases May construction spending at 10 a.m. EDT. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a decline of 0.5 percent compared with a 0.8 percent rise the prior month.
U.S. automakers release June auto sales. Economists in a Reuters survey expect annualized sales of 3.33 million cars and 4.00 million trucks. In May, car sales stood at 3.35 million, and truck sales were 4.03 million.
Shares of Pfizer Inc
Shares of AMAG Pharmaceuticals
U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as an unexpected drop in consumer confidence cooled recent optimism about an economic recovery, but Wall Street still closed out its best quarter in a decade.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> slipped 0.97 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> dropped 0.85 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shed 0.49 percent.
(Reporting by Joanne FrearsonEditing by Hans Peters)

domain: news


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Changes in India-Singapore CECA; impact on 30 items
The Government approved changes to the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement deleting 16 items from the approved list that qualifies for duty elimination.
Under the changes in the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), given ex-post-facto approval by the Union Cabinet, 14 items have been shifted to the category of sensitive track which protects the domestic producers against tariff-free imports.
The items, which may now be subjected to import duty include discs for laser reading system, still image video camera and magnetic tapes, an official spokesperson said here.
The items moved to the sensitive list mostly relate to the chemical and petro-chemical sector and include linear low density polyethylene, linear medium density polyethylene and nylon moulding powder.
The India-Singapore CECA has already come into operation with a large number of items being trade without duty on either side. The agreement also lays a tariff reduction/elimination road-map for several other goods.


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China is slapping a major online provider of pirated videos in the country with a 260 million yuan (US$42 million) fine.
A regulatory authority in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, the Shenzhen Market Supervision Administration, issued the fine on Tuesday and said that the company, Shenzhen QVOD Technology, had distributed a local movie and TV series online without the publisher's permission. The piracy amounted to 86 million yuan in illegal revenue, the regulator said.
QVOD had not only repeatedly pirated the content, but refused to stop its distribution, the regulator said in a post on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging site. As a result, Chinese authorities levied a fine triple the amount in revenue QVOD had made from the piracy.
The company could not be immediately reached for the comment. QVOD, however, has been facing growing scrutiny from Chinese authorities. In May, the company was found guilty of distributing pornography online, and is facing a related police investigation, according to China's state-controlled press.
QVOD rose to notoriety after the company developed peer-to-peer video sharing software called "Kuaibo." The software became a popular way for bootleggers to distribute pirated movies and TV shows without paying expensive video bandwidth costs.
But not everyone was a fan of the software. China's leading video sites, which spend millions of dollars to buy licensed TV shows and movies, saw the video-sharing technology as a business threat. One of the sites, Youku Tudou, demanded QVOD help stop the piracy. In November, Chinese video sites sued QVOD over the alleged video piracy.
QVOD has previously denied responsibility for piracy. But starting in March, QVOD began changing its business model to support only licensed video content.
QVOD last month shut down its site at kuaibo.com and replaced it with a statement announcing that it will work to create a healthy online video market. "We will voluntarily cooperate with the relevant authorities in facing administrative penalties," the statement adds.


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Veritas Finance, a Chennai-based non-banking financial services company that lends to micro and small enterprises, has raised Series B equity funding of Rs 120 crore.
Veritas Finance, a Chennai-based non-banking financial services company that lends to micro and small enterprises, has raised Series B equity funding of Rs 120 crore. This includes investment of Rs 65 crore from CDC Group, a development finance institution from the UK, and Rs 45 crore from Lok Capital. Existing investors P Surendra Pai and his wife also participated in the latest round. Veritas raised its first institutional funding in April 2016 from Lok Fund II (Sarva Capital) and Caspian Impact Investment Adviser. The fresh round of funding will bolster product innovation, expansion to newer states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and deepen the company’s presence in existing states and Union Territories. “We will be starting our operations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by April 2018. We hope to target about 5,000 customers and have an loan order size of Rs 100 crore,” Arulmany, founder, told FE. “The CDC Group has committed to further invest `35 crore separately in debt, taking the total fund raised by Veritas Finance to Rs 155 crore in this round,” he said. A large part of the investment by Lok Capital has been made through its third fund, Lok Capital Growth Fund.
Veritas that started in late 2015 now has over 12,000 customers on board and the company aims to grow its loan book to Rs 1,000 crore by FY19. For March 2018, it expects to have a loan book of Rs 330 crore. While MSME lending offers large market potential, there are very few lending models that are exclusively focused on small businesses. “As a specialised lender in the MSME segment, we are constantly looking at product innovation and building superior credit assessment methods. Through this round of funding, besides expansion, we will also strengthen our technology play which will help us achieve higher productivity and bring down costs of servicing micro-businesses,” Arulmany said.
On Series B investment in Veritas, Nikhil Balaraman, south Asia director at CDC India Advisors, said: “Our investment in Veritas underlines our commitment to back companies with a strong development impact philosophy and business models that support financial inclusion for India’s disadvantaged. Financial services for the MSME space in India is a huge area, but is also hugely under-served. The team from Veritas stands out for its dedication and experience and we’re committed to help them reach more challenging geographies, giving their customers financial tools and advice to prosper. CDC will also support Veritas’ use of technology to reach even more customers.”
Since its inception in 2004, Lok Capital has built an enviable and a diverse financial inclusion portfolio.


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If beer is your drink then you, sir, have more cause to celebrate than most people right now. According to a new study published by the fertility branch of Policlinico Hospital in Milan, Italy, men who drink at least one beer every day tend to produce more sperm. The study took into account data from over 320 male patients, who had different daily alcohol intakes. While around 30 per cent of them reported having 1-3 drinks per week, another 30 per cent were said that they have 4-7 drinks in the same time span and a third 30 per cent reportedly had more than seven drinks per week. The remaining (39 men, to be exact) reported drinking over 14 beers in a seven-day span.
Men in the two groups with higher alcohol intakes were found to have 'significantly higher sperm concentration' than those who had between 1 and 3 beers a week, as per the study. It also found out that men who had 4-7 drinks per week had a much 'higher median semen volume' than those who had lesser drinks in the week. The men who said that they drink over 14 beer in a week were observed as well but the study could not come to any significant statistical conclusions.
The results of the study are also testimony to the fact that a compound in beer called Xanthohumol protects sperm cells from damage.
With a lot of bars currently putting out lucrative offers celebrating Beer Month and this particular study which clearly states that moderate beer intake appears to have a positive effect on male fertility, it appears that all your stars have aligned. So if you ever needed a reason to drink (and for less), here's your opportunity.
> More on Sex


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According to a Commerce Department gauge used by the Federal Reserve, the rate of inflation during May was consistent and while it did rise, it was slightly less than expected.
Core personal consumption expenditures prices are up 4.7% year-over-year with no telling when the prices will decrease or remain steady.
The Feds are working hard to come up with a plan to steadily decrease the inflation rate to bring comfort to struggling Americans.
However, there are a lot of factors that the Federal Reserve is considering, like headline inflation, personal income, savings, and goods inflation. As of now, not all policymakers are paying attention to headline inflation, which is up at a 6.3% average for the year already.
Personal income inflation rates surprised analysts by increasing 0.5%, which is 0.1% more than predicted. While the average levels of income have increased, the surge in prices and the high cost of living have decreased many Americans’ spending, leading to less disposable income by about 3.3% less than in 2021.
Did you enjoy this article? Read other articles on CBT News here. Please share your thoughts, comments, or questions regarding this topic by submitting a letter to the editor here, or connect with us at email@example.com.


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QUINCY -- Amazon's plan to purchase Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion is sending shock waves through the grocery industry, but nobody knows what will happen next.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos already has radically altered the way Americans shop.
And Whole Foods chief John Mackey had been making some headway in transforming the grocery industry through creation of a natural foods chain. However, his company was criticized for high prices, old technology and unattractive store design.
Mackey held a town hall meeting with Whole Foods employees last week, but said he couldn't discuss details of what Amazon might bring to the table.
"I think you're gonna see Whole Foods Market evolve in leaps and bounds," Mackey said.
Grocers in Quincy are watching, but don't know what impact there might be in the industry.
"Back 20 years ago, anything that happened in this industry on the East Coast or West Coast took seven years to get to the Midwest. In the digital age, it might only take seven months," said Gerry Kettler, director of consumer affairs at Niemann Foods Inc.
But Kettler believes Niemann Foods, which is celebrating 100 years in business, will be important to its customers for years to come.
"It's very hard to replace the personal touch you can get at the corner grocery store. At the core, people want to pick out the foods they'll feed their families," Kettler said.
Tad Gallagher, store director for the Harrison Hy-Vee, said it seems as if every major company is looking for another company with which to partner.
"Moves like that don't surprise me. I'm just waiting to see what changes they make," Gallagher said.
Technology will be at the heart of changes that could make Amazon a big player in the grocery sector. Amazon has made a habit of collecting information on customers. Industry experts believe there's some crossover in higher-income customers who patronize Whole Foods as well as Amazon Prime.
That doesn't mean other grocers are starting from scratch. Hy-Vee and Niemann Foods both have loyalty programs. They have mobile apps that can lead shoppers to in-store specials and they offer options for people who seek to have items delivered.
"We try to stay at the forefront with technology. We think our Aisles Online is second to none," Gallagher said of Hy-Vee's program that lets customers place online orders to be picked up at a store location or to be delivered to the home.
Hy-Vee operates stores in eight Midwestern states, so it has kept up with trends. Its loyalty card program in Quincy can earn customers discounts on gasoline at stores in this region.
Niemann Foods also has been using loyalty cards for decades and offers coupons that are tailored for each customer.
Whole Foods has 440 U.S. stores and many of its own brands. So if the Amazon deal goes through it will instantly acquire a stable of its own grocery staples such as pizza sauce and peanut butter. And Amazon would probably give those items favored placement in its search results. So anybody using an online device to search for groceries using an Amazon system would see Whole Foods brands first. It would take extra effort to dig down to other companies' branded products.
Amazon already has shown an interest in boosting its own brands. After introducing its "AmazonBasics" batteries, for instance, the site made them the top result for "batteries" searches over Duracell and Energizer, notes James Thomson, a former Amazon employee who was in charge of bringing new sellers to the site.
Doing so with Whole Foods brands as well would help lower costs -- and possibly diminish Amazon's reliance on packaged food makers such as Kraft Heinz and PepsiCo.
"You start by controlling the distribution, now you're in a position that you can control who's invited to the party and who's not," said Thomson, now a partner at consulting firm Buy Box Experts.
Questions remain about whether Whole Foods is ripe for the type of growth that Amazon might bring. Whole Foods has seen its sales decline, in part because organic foods are more widely available at mainstream grocers. Two of the top five retailers in the United States, Walmart and Kroger, have gradually introduced more items for health-conscious customers. And their prices are lower than comparable items at Whole Foods.
Even with all the uncertainty, the financial markets already have cast their bets on a profitable marriage of Amazon and Whole Foods. On the day Amazon made its bid, its stock price rose jumped, raising the company's value by $6.5 billion. Other food sellers such as Costco, Kroger and Supervalu saw their stock prices dip.
The Associated Press provided information for this story.


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The Chromebook market posted a 75 percent annual growth rate in the second quarter of 2021 (Q2 2021), according to the latest Canalis Global Market Report. HP is said to be at the top of the charts, but Chromebooks are doing more than the PC market. This is despite the slowdown in shipping.
As Chromebook shipments grow year by year, it should be noted that they declined sequentially in the second quarter of 2021. The growth of the Chromebook installation is due to the fact that it was taken over by a Canali research analyst like Brian Lynch. This is due to the reopening of schools in key markets such as North America and Western Europe.
“With ChromeWith a relatively safe learning environment, Google is set to make a big bet on its business this year. We look forward to seeing you focus on attracting existing businesses with modern services, such as the “new” individual subscription status for Google workplaces and promotions on CloudReady licenses. Chromebook Ships. However, with Apple looking to expand its M1 success into Microsoft and Windows 11 by the end of this year, PC OS competition has long been a hot topic, ”Lynch said.
HP led the overall PC market with a market share of 36.4 percent (4.3 million units), up 115.7 percent. Lenovo came in second with 21 percent market share (2.6 million units). Asher finished third with 15.7 percent (1.8 million units) by the end of June. Dell and Samsung are fourth and fifth, respectively, with the latter growing at 324.4 percent annually.
Tablet – Shipping in Q2 2021
During the quarter, there was a 4.3 percent increase in tablet shipments each year. Apple’s annual growth rate is said to be 0.5 percent, but it remains the largest seller with 36.3 percent (14.2 million units). Samsung came in second with 20.5 percent (8 million units) and Lennovo came in third with 12 percent. Amazon and Huawei complete the top five.


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Things are definitely looking up at PerpsiCo.
A year ago, new CEO Ramon Languarta took over and laid out an ambitious plan to ramp up the company’s investments in advertising, technology and supply chains (ref WSJ). Pepsi reported this week that organic revenue (that is, revenue minus acquisitions and currency impacts) rose 4.3% from a year earlier, for the third quarter of the year. And Pepsi says that they expect to exceed their earlier target of 4% growth for their first full year after the changes. Part of the growth is due to doing business differently. For example, by including a zero-sugar Gatorade in their offerings – which has surpassed half a billion dollars of retail sales since it was introduced in May. In addition, the company has made a good effort to remove artificial flavors from its Quaker Foods, such as oatmeals and snacks, which also seems to be paying off, with improved sales of 1% thus far in the year, compared to a 2% define in 2018. In admitting that the company wouldn’t be doing away with Doritos and Mountain Dew, Laguarta has said, “We’re seeing the consumer going after functionality, health and wellness, but also going after indulgence – the decision we’ve made is to give the customer maximum choice.” In meeting that objective, the company has increased its spending on marketing and advertising by 12% so far this year. We agree with the WSJ’s assessment that “investing to keep up with the customers’ tastes in today’s highly fluid market is the right call.” We are reminded that those companies that have failed to do so, like Kraft Heinz, have paid a steep price. Our good wishes to Pepsi for their continued success in “getting it right” with the proper positioning of “all those moving parts.”


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The French based manufacturer Alpine has successfully unveiled the all-new A110 at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, the model getting lots of attention from the media worldwide, especially since we are looking here at a powerful car set to compete against the Alfa Romeo 4C.
Now, after the unveiling and a big round of applauses from journalists, the Alpine A110 has been confirmed for the production line, the model being first released on the UK market.
The big event will be held at Battersea Park in London starting the 4th of May, during the London Motor Show, with Chairman of the event Alec Mumford, also commenting on the car`s arrival.
“It’s a real accolade to have the Alpine A110 showcased on these shores for the very first time at the London Motor Show. Due to popular demand, we’ve already had to release more tickets for May’s event, and having the Alpine A110 make its UK debut goes to show just how much weight it carries in the automotive world.”
As a reminder, the direct rival of the Porsche Cayman and Alfa Romeo 4C comes with a light body style, thanks to the all-aluminum platform with aluminum composites, increasing its performance. It also comes with advanced aerodynamics and the latest mechanics – Brembo aluminum brake calipers, rear brakes with integrated brake actuator, 18-inch aluminum wheels by Otto Fuchs, Sabelt one-piece bucket seats, and so on, all saving significant weight.
Performance wise, the Alpine A110 features a 1.8-liter turbocharged engine with 247 horsepower and 320 Nm of torque, allowing a sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.5 seconds, at a top speed electronically limited at 250 km/h. Prices will be revealed in the UK prior to its official debut.


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Compressor manufacturer Elgi Equipment consolidated profit after tax for the second quarter rose almost 40% to ₹72 crore
Consolidated sales at ₹739 crore compared with ₹652 crore in the year-earlier period. MD Jairam Varadaraj said the company had also registered almost 8% growth in the volume of sales. “Going forward…when the world is threatening to go into some sort of recession…we need to look at how to sustain growth,” he said. Most geographies, including the U.S. and the EU, and almost all verticals did well compared with last year. India business contributed to 40% revenue while rest of the world contributed 60%, he added.


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- The Venmo Teen Account is wired into the existing Venmo account of parents to keep parents in charge.
- The custodial account also offers personalized Mastercard debit cards for its younger customers to encourage smart spending decisions from an early age.
Sara Khairi | June 07, 2023
- With RTP moving in, the choice of which payment rails to use and their cost/revenue profile matter even more.
- TabaPay's Tim Astanov joins us on the podcast to discuss payment trends, more and better choices, and how he sees monetization efforts around RTP shaping up.
Zachary Miller | June 07, 2023
- To enable more inclusive payments for the sight impaired, Citizens has rolled out America's first touch card for its high net-worth clients.
- Touch cards are an emerging card standard designed to provide a greater sense of security, inclusivity, confidence, and independence to visually challenged consumers.
Sara Khairi | June 06, 2023
- EWS launched its digital wallet service Paze, earlier this year. But Paze is coming into a space where incumbents have become deeply embedded.
- What challenges await the new digital wallet service?
Rabab Ahsan | June 06, 2023
, Member Exclusive
- The passing of the bill may have saved the immediate trouble of defaulting but it could be months before investors and the stock market regain their stability.
- SoFi stock rose nearly 31% in the past week because of the new debt ceiling deal.
Sara Khairi | June 05, 2023


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WA keeps the party going as ‘to-go cocktails’ become law
Apr 21, 2023, 11:02 AM
What started out as a way to help businesses get through the pandemic will now become a lifestyle in the state. ‘To-go cocktails” are here to stay. (Or at least through this summer!)
A new law will allow bars and restaurants to continue to sell beer, wine, and mixed drinks as takeout. It will continue to allow the practice until July 2023, while the Liquor Control Board (LCB) gets an independent study of the impact.
The Washington State Senate gave final approval Tuesday to Senate Bill 5448, legislation making it legal for restaurants and breweries to serve cocktails to-go permanently. Gov. Jay Inslee has signed it into law.
It does not authorize the sale of full bottles of spirits for off-premises consumption, although mini-bottles may be sold as part of cocktail kits. A complete meal must be sold with the “to-go” drink.
28 mayors don’t want shorter drug sentences proposed in House bill
The “to-go” drinks must be packaged in containers that are sealed in a manner designed to prevent consumption without the removal of a tamper-evident lid, cap, or seal.
“We are grateful the Washington legislature recognized the benefits of cocktails to-go for consumers and hospitality businesses and passed this legislation,” said Adam Smith, vice president of state government relations at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
“Consumers across the state have enjoyed cocktails to-go for the last few years, and making this option permanent increases convenience while supporting local business.”
No more cannabis testing as a condition of employment
Also signed into law is a bill that prohibits companies from testing for cannabis use before hiring.
The state law only covers drug tests before hiring. An employer could still test you for cannabis once you have a job and could still make a hiring decision based on a drug test that doesn’t include cannabis.


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Moove, the global mobility fintech that democratises access to vehicle ownership for mobility entrepreneurs, today announces that it has raised $100 million in a Series B funding round. Mubadala Investment Company PJSC (Mubadala), an Abu Dhabi sovereign investor, which led Moove’s previous funding round in 2023, participated in this round alongside new investment from Uber.
The round will enable Moove to expand its global mobility business and increase vehicle supply, enabling accelerated growth in multiple geographies around the world and increased EV adoption across multiple markets.
Moove will use the funds to extend its operations to 16 markets by the end of 2025. By doing so, Moove is not only expanding its vehicle fleet but is also laying the groundwork for a more sustainable and accessible mobility ecosystem for its customers worldwide.
Ladi Delano, Founder of Moove, said: "Today's announcement marks a significant milestone for us. When we founded Moove in 2020, we were motivated by the acute shortage of vehicle financing that over two million African mobility entrepreneurs faced."
“This validation from Uber and others stands as a testament to the fact that what was once a dream is now a palpable reality. This infusion of capital is set to amplify the immensely positive impact our products have in the lives of our customers on a much broader spectrum. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated team of Moovers for their relentless effort and commitment, which has been pivotal in reaching this significant milestone on our company’s journey.”
Moove was founded in 2020 to connect mobility entrepreneurs with fair, accessible, and affordable revenue based vehicle financing options. From its new headquarters in the UAE, a growing hub for entrepreneurship and innovative startups, Moove has achieved rapid growth through not only support of the UAE ecosystem, but a growth in customer demand.
The partnership between Moove and Mubadala further solidifies this commitment, as Mubadala's continued support and investment in Moove exemplify the collaboration between local investors and innovative startups to drive growth and innovation in the UAE.
The UAE stands as a pivotal market for Moove, as it was the first market where Moove launched its fully integrated charging solution, investing in a network of charging stations exclusively for Moove customers. Additionally, the UAE was Moove's pioneer market for transitioning to a 100% EV fleet, leading to the Company providing the largest number of EV trips on the Uber platform in 2023. This strategic focus on sustainability and innovation underscores Moove's commitment to shaping the future of mobility in the region and supporting the UAE's vision for economic diversification and technological advancement.
To date, Moove has helped more than 20,000 mobility entrepreneurs across three continents, enabling more than 30 million Moove financed trips to date – resulting in an annual recurring revenue of over $115 million, a significant milestone on Moove’s path to profitability. Its successes have allowed the company to achieve a $750m valuation.
Ali Eid Al Mheiri, Executive Director of UAE Diversified Assets at Mubadala’s UAE Investments Platform, commented: “We are proud to continue supporting Moove through our second round of funding, not only as a testament to our commitment to nurturing the startup ecosystem in the UAE but also as a reflection of our renewed trust in Moove's vision and capabilities. This follow-on investment exemplifies Mubadala’s strategy of deploying capital to drive positive change in communities, in addition to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship across the UAE.”
Ladi Delano concluded:"This recent investment is a game-changer for Moove, enabling us to substantially broaden our offerings by introducing 45,000 new vehicles to our platform. This move not only expands our operational capacity but also highlights our commitment to sustainability, with a significant focus on electric vehicles in partnership with Uber. Moove’s aim is to be at the forefront of the electrification of mobility, which we believe will help steer the world towards a zero-emission future. Our global expansion is customer-centric, aimed at bringing Moove's innovative mobility solutions to those in need across various regions. By pushing into 16 markets by the end of 2025 and enhancing our EV charging infrastructure, we're not just growing our fleet; we're building a more sustainable, accessible mobility ecosystem for our customers around the world."


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An image posted on social media of an energy drink sold at an Army and Air Force Exchange Service store had its plastic outer label removed, revealing printing from one of energy drink maker Kill Cliff’s CBD products. On Oct. 7, 2023, AAFES said the drink didn’t contain CBD, which is illegal for service members to use, and had been relabeled by the vendor. (Facebook/U.S. Army WTF! Moments)
A relabeled energy drink sold at Army and Air Force Exchange stores did not contain the marijuana compound CBD, the exchange said in a social media statement.
A post on the popular social media site U.S. Army WTF! Moments on Saturday contained images of a Kill Cliff energy drink with the plastic outer label removed to reveal printing on the can from one of its products containing CBD, which is illegal for service members to use under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and federal law.
The drink vendor has “advised the Exchange that it relabeled aluminum cans previously printed for a discontinued item,” AAFES said in a reply to U.S. Army WTF! Moments on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The relabeled cans are being removed from store shelves, AAFES added. It wasn’t immediately known which stores were selling the relabeled drinks.
Kill Cliff was founded by a former Navy SEAL and has gained attention through partnerships with celebrities like Joe Rogan.
CBD, or cannabidiol, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration only as a treatment for two forms of epilepsy. However, the compound has been touted as a remedy for many maladies.
While CBD is being studied as a treatment for many conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and anxiety, research supporting the drug’s benefits is limited, according to the Mayo Clinic website.
The FDA announced in January that it would not regulate the chemical, leaving any further legal action up to Congress.
While CBD lacks the psychoactive marijuana compound THC, it is difficult to know what is in many products.
bought online found THC in 18 of them, and 31 of them contained less CBD than labeled, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In 2011, the military banned the sale of energy drinks and products containing the amphetamine-like chemical compound DMAA, and A DOD safety report concluded that DMAA elevated risk of death, heat injury, irregular heartbeat, seizures, muscle breakdown, brain hemorrhage and kidney failure.


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When I get the Tube, I always pay using my Apple Watch,” says Rajesh Agrawal. The Indian-born entrepreneur and philanthropist doesn’t exactly need to take the Jubilee Line to work – in The Sunday Times Rich List 2012, he was estimated to be worth around £90m. But making money has never been the aim: “look at Beckham – he started playing football because he loved the game, not money. Money can never be your goal; it is a by-product.”
Ten years ago, Agrawal was sleeping on someone else’s sofa because he “had nowhere else to stay”. Now, from his office, high up in One Canada Water, you can see across the big investment banks and to the City. “Look at the view,” he says, before engaging me in a game of spot the landmark. “London is the greatest city in the world. I love it; it has given me a lot. I came here and started these businesses with nothing. But if you’ve got access to the internet and a computer, you’re a businessman here. When you’re entrepreneurial, anything is available to you to make money from.”
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
Within a year of touching down in the UK, Agrawal realised he could change the way money was sent abroad. He recounts when he first went to a bank to try and get a loan to start a business. He was refused. “Days later I went back and said I’d stay in my job [in FX] and just take out a loan to buy a car. I walked out with £20,000.” He used the money to live off while starting up RationalFX, a foreign exchange and money transfer firm. By 2012, he had founded Xendpay.
Unlike any competitor, Xendpay offers remittance transfers for free with the option of donating towards the cost of the service. “I believe people will pay for good service, even if they don’t have much to give.” So far, Agrawal has been proved right: 70 per cent of people pay the suggested amount; 6 per cent pay more. Free riders don’t matter because “the transaction charge is so low. It’s the greediness of banks which pushes charges so high.” So far, the company has done no marketing – its growth has been entirely down to word of mouth.
Last year, Facebook made Xendpay an offer and Agrawal refused it. “I didn’t set up Xendpay to make a lot of money. I set it up to make it cheaper for people to send money home. I still send remittances home. There are people all around us working two or three jobs in order to support their families’ healthcare, school fees, new ventures… this money is extremely important. It infuriated me that it was so expensive. I know a lot of my competitors are baffled – ‘who is this mad guy?’. But because of us, they’ve had to drop their prices.”
Indeed, people still think there’s a catch with Xendpay. New users will often send an experimental £1 or £2 to see what happens, expecting to see 25 per cent lopped off (fees can get that high in the industry).
A NEW BREED
Aside from virtual currencies (which he thinks are over-hyped and couldn’t take off without blanket adoption), Agrawal is very positive about all things fintech – and how the industry will shake up banking. “New companies are selecting the most profitable sectors and doing them that bit better. It’s very hard for a big institution to innovate, but the old models aren’t working.” Agrawal is also “strongly in favour” of the separation of investment and retail banking: “they’ve been able to sustain loss leaders because other operations are so profitable.”
But he is a realist: “the banks will be around in the same way that we see them today, but you will see changes – fewer branches, for example. Why should a 22-year old in their first job bear the brunt of your 10,000 branches?”
I ask him whether he thinks that, rather than see a bank gobble up fintech firms, we’ll see a fintech firm buy a bit of a bank. “Yes, I think that’s likely to happen… and the other danger banks face isn’t from challenger banks etc, it’s from other institutions who are looking at payments – like Apple and Starbucks.”
Agrawal describes his generation as “migrants to tech. I didn’t grow up with mobiles, Facebook. We’ve learnt to tweet, but it’s not our first language. He tells me about his little daughter, who will try to click and flick a hardcopy book. “She was born with the technology. Her generation will be extremely comfortable banking. But these things always bring their own challenges and surprises. If I’d told you 10 years ago that you could put up all your family holiday photos up, announce what you were doing, where you were, who you were with, you’d say, ‘why would I want to do that?’”
MOVING ON UP
Xendpay is currently having a big push on the mobile front. “Word of mouth works better that way anyway – we can enable people to send recommendations to their contact lists and via social. We want transferring money to be and to feel instant – that’s particularly helpful if you’re exchange rate sensitive. With our new app, for instance, you’ll be able to send direct using Apple Pay.”
And bar the prospect of an isolated Britain outside the EU (he is staunchly pro-EU and concerned that the case for staying in isn’t being made strongly enough), Agrawal is very optimistic about the future more widely. “There is so much knowledge out there. I’m reading Abundance by Peter Diamandis at the moment, and I love a fact he gives: that a Masai warrior on a mobile phone today has more information available to him than Bill Clinton did when he was President.”
The problem, he says, is that, “while knowledge is abundant, wisdom is scarce. That’s why a moral compass is very important. The good news is that wisdom is contagious. In America, for example, philanthropy is a big thing. India has more billionaires, but philanthropy hasn’t caught on just yet. It will, though. It’s only a matter of time.”
CV RAJESH AGRAWAL
Company name: RationalFX; Xendpay
Founded: 2005; 2012
Turnover: £1.3bn this year (RationalFX)
Number of staff: 75
Job title: Founder, chairman, chief executive
Born: Indore, India
Lives: North West London
Studied: BA and MBA at Devi Ahilya University
Drinking: Masala Chai (Indian tea); single malt whisky
Eating: French cuisine and street food from almost anywhere!
Reading: Abundance, by Peter Diamandis
Favourite Business Book: What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School, by Mark McCormack
Talents: Shooting for the stars!
Heroes: My parents. My father for his unfazed calmness and my mother for her hard work and humility
First ambition: To be a doctor, so I could help others
Motto: “Nothing is impossible unless you think it is.”
Most likely to say: No problem!
Least likely to say: It’s impossible!
Awards: Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011


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Successful TV presenter Caroline Flack has revealed new X factors judges Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland call each other to swap fashion tips!
The newly selected Xtra Factor presenter explains they are equally into their fashion warbrobeÂ as each other.
‘I wouldn’t rate one over the other,’ said Caroline,
‘They actually phone each other to find out what the other’s wearing, to make sure they don’t turn up in the same colour.’
When it comes to Caroline’s own personal style the star feels she has biggest fish to fry than be consumed with image.
‘I feel more pressure to do the job well than about what I look like,’ she added.
‘But I guess people are going to pick things out a lot more than they have done before, because that comes with the job.’
Caroline was a success last night presenting the Xtra Factor show alongside last years x factor finalist Olly Murs.
Meanwhile the X Factor opening show was a massive success. It was watched by a mere 10 million viewers! Who would of thought!


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LOS ANGELES, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Utah Agriculture and Food Commissioner, LuAnn Adams, who is in charge of the U.S. state's agriculture industry, issued a statement on Monday, calling for resolving trade dispute between the United States and China quickly.
"I am concerned with the impact these tariffs will have on Utah's agriculture and food industry. I am especially troubled by 15 percent tariff increase on fresh fruits and dried fruits and the 25 percent tariff increase on pork products," Adams said in the statement.
China Monday suspended tariff concessions on 128 items of U.S. products, which will see a tariff of 15 to 25 percent since then, in retaliation for the Trump administration's decision to impose similar tariffs on aluminum and steel from China.
She stressed that China market is important to Utah's pork and fruit, citing the Beehive State exported close to 20 million U.S. dollars' worth of pork to China in 2017 and an average of 300,000 U.S dollars' worth of fruit every year.
"U.S. farm income across all commodities has fallen by about 50 percent over the past four years. These tariffs will decrease our exports to China and will increase the supply of fruit and pork domestically, further driving down prices and potentially putting our farmers and ranchers out of business. For the benefit of Utah agriculture, I hope this trade dispute is resolved quickly." the statement read.
A report of the National Public Radio Tuesday said China buys a lot of American pork. While Iowa may be this country's pig-producing colossus, the trade dispute would hit producers everywhere, including states in the Mountain West like Utah and Colorado.
Agriculture experts predicted that tariffs could not only drive down the price of pork, but also could drive down the price of the corn and wheat that feeds those pigs, which could in turn hurt farmers.
According to www.porkbusiness.com, China is the second-largest international market by volume and the third largest by value for U.S. pork. Total 495,637 metric tons (mt) of pork and pork variety meat valued at 1.08 billion U.S. dollars were shipped to China last year.
"The United States is a reliable supplier of pork products to China, and this decision will have an immediate impact on U.S. producers and exporters, as well as our customers in China," Dan Halstrom, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO, said in a news release on Monday.
"We are hopeful that the additional duties can be rescinded quickly, so that U.S. pork can again compete on a level playing field with pork from other exporting countries." the statement said.


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Why M-PESA should be scared of Apple Pay
There is a new product in the global town, Apple Pay; and this product is a big threat to a local big fish that we all care so much about, M-PESA. At the launch of the three Apple gadgets on 9th Sept 2014, gadgets that came with an old technology known as NFC, Apple also announced a virtual wallet product they called Apple Pay that will be relying on the NFC technology for payment of goods and services in selected stores starting with US. Apple Pay will be the wallet in which iPhone users will store their credit card information and then swipe their iPhones to execute payment. This particular technology has been in use for long by Android devices even in Kenya where people have paid for bus fares under Google-Equity Bebabay product.
As Kenyans we could not help but liken Apple Pay to M-PESA as both are strategic platforms for making virtual payments thanks to M-PESA’s payment product Lipa na M-PESA. The likening has then led to the debate of whether Apple Pay poses any threat to M-PESA or M-PESA can safely ignore Apple and continue to thrive. On one side of the debate there are those who hold to the opinion that Apple Pay is not in any way a threat to M-PESA. This side is led by Dickson A Otieno who wrote a piece in TECHISH titled Apple Pay No Threat to M-Pesa.
Dickson outlines several strengths M-PESA has against Apple Pay and these include the fact that M-PESA is not tied to a phone but a subscriber’s number. Dickson also points out that Apple Pay requires merchants to invest in NFC readers, a requirement that M-PESA doesn’t need. Thirdly, Dickson argues that there are very few iPhone owners in Kenya or in countries that M-PESA has significant market presence hence an iPhone based technology cannot threaten M-PESA.
Before I state what the other side of the debate say about Apple Pay’s threat to M-PESA, let me quickly address the points raised by Dickson by saying that NFC does not also rely to data inherent in the phone as the financial information is stored in virtual wallets like Google Wallet or Apple Pay so losing a phone won’t deter a customer from accessing his/her account upon replacement, Merchants don’t have to invest in expensive NFC readers as any smartphone with NFC capability can be configured to accept NFC based payments as is being used by the Bebapay buses in Kenya, and finally NFC is not an iPhone closed technology but has been available in Android devices since 2011. iPhone has just entered the bandwagon and is set to transform NFC based payments as shall be shown later in this article.
On the other side of the argument there are those who say Apple Pay is a threat to M-PESA and they are led by Kachwanya who tweeted:
Apple talking e-payments….where Mpesa will one day lose out completely…it will be a sad day for the over hyped African tech
— Kachwanya (@kachwanya) September 9, 2014
If you follow that tweet you’ll realize that almost no one believes Kachwanya’s assertion that Apple Pay is threat to M-PESA. Arguments such as M-PESA is diversifying with products like M-Shwari etc convinced many that M-PESA has a strong footing to survive the threat of Apple Pay, if at all there is any threat. So let me take a stand in this debate and side with those saying that Apple Pay is a threat to M-PESA. After digging a little bit I have found facts to support the possibility that Apple Pay is not only a threat to M-PESA but a very big one for that matter. Allow me to explain the threats under the following sub-headings:
- M-PESA works best in developing economies
- Google’s short comings
- The Strengths of Apple and USA
- Advantages of an NFC based payment over M-PESA.
M-PESA works best in developing economies
After successful introduction of M-PESA in Kenya, Vodafone tried to introduce this service to other markets including Tanzania, Afghanistan, South Africa, India and others. M-PESA hasn’t been as successful in these other countries as it has been in Kenya but Tanzania, Afghanistan, India and a few others are catching up. South Africa is also trying to catch up after failing to have a significant impact since 2010. For the third time, M-PESA is being re-launched in South Africa taking into account the challenges it faced and lessons learnt.
The reason M-PESA did not succeed in South Africa is the failure to avail agents at residential places and minor towns – a key factor to the success of M-PESA in Kenya. This finding clearly tells us that M-PESA success in Kenya and Tanzania was the ability with which it can be made available in remote areas inaccessible to banks given the infrastructure a bank needs to put in place.
However, this model is not likely to work in the developed world where every citizen can easily access a banking service. In the developed markets, already every citizen can easily access the banks if not physically then via the almost free Internet provision or through the standard mobile banking offerings that are slowly creeping into the developing economies.
For the developed markets therefore, it is easier to sell a product like Apple Pay than M-PESA as Apple Pay doesn’t come as a competition to the banks but as a platform the banks can use to allow the banked to pay for merchandise by swiping their phones instead to credit cards. The advantages of being able to swipe a phone over M-PESA’s notorious keying of data will be shown under the section “Advantages of NFC based technology over M-PESA” below.
An argument those in Dickson’s camp would frontier is that NFC hasn’t succeeded in making contactless payments popular yet phones like Nokia 6131 have had NFC since 2006 – then followed by Android devices courtesy of Samsung Nexus S that reintroduced the technology as from 2010. They would say that it is apparent the population doesn’t prefer to use NFC technology as a mode of payment hence it is unforeseeable how Apple Pay will succeed where others on the same NFC platform have failed. A seemingly valid argument I must say.
I won’t be able to comment much as to why NFC based payments failed to take place under Nokia (at inception NFC was spearheaded by Nokia) but just put a case that probably the focus from feature phones to iPhones in 2007 and later to other smartphones a year or so later (iPhones and smartphones that totally ignored NFC) that led to the demise of Nokia and BlackBerry made NFC unpopular.
The uptake of the technology by early Android adopters like the Samsung Nexus S in 2010 hasn’t helped much for two reasons: 1. The payment ecosystem hadn’t been established and 2. Google doesn’t control the hardware market. It took long before virtual wallets that incorporate NFC technology was considered by the mobile manufacturers or even by Google itself. It is only at the release of Samsung Galaxy S3 that the big wigs in this industry started thinking deeply on how to make use of NFC as a serious platform for effecting contactless payment systems, and from then Google started to do a bit of marketing for its Google Wallet.
Even though Google has done some work to make Google Wallet be where it is today, the fact that it doesn’t have total control over gadgets on Android has been a setback. Android, being an open source Mobile Operating System, means that gadget manufacturers can also create their own competing products like the Samsung Wallet. This has worked to delay the implementation of the system across multiple stores and sectors since a merchant would need to enter into an agreement with each wallet provider in order to capture a significant client base.
Lack of a father like figure for NFC (looking at it from the virtual wallet angle) caused a laidback approach where no one has the drive to push NFC contactless payments technology to the mainstream; thus all players like Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Google, and the rest have only played a lackluster role managing to make NFC a sleeping dog.
The strength of Apple and USA
It is clear that what NFC needed is a driving force to make it popular. Now, a force to reckon with, has joined the NFC bandwagon and even before it can sell the first iPhone, it has got everyone talking about NFC. According to an article by Jozef Rynik of WBP Online, “marketing teams at big US lenders rushed to persuade potential customers to choose their cards as the default option under Apple Pay” immediately Apple Pay was announced. Mashable also analyzed Apple Pay in an article dubbed, “5 Reasons Why Apple Pay Is the Sleeper Hit of the Apple Event” and stated, NFC “could be another instance of competitors stumbling with a technology, and Apple stepping in and showing everyone the way.”
There is a magic that Apple has, the ability to show everyone how to make an existing technology meaningful. If it wasn’t for Apple, smartphones wouldn’t be what they are today. Not only does Apple know how to design products useful for consumers (see what it did with the so called smart watch), it also has been able to acquire hundreds of millions of loyal fans that are willing to follow them wherever they lead, most of them being Americans.
The fact that most Americans are pro Apple is also an important value to the success of Apple Pay. If the millions of US Apple loyal fans fall in love with Apple Pay and incorporate Apple Pay as part of their lifestyle, then everyone else elsewhere in the globe would want to be as cool. Just as the iPhone managed to define who is who in the society, coolness will next be defined by the ability to make contactless payments through NFC – and as for Kenyans, NFC based payments will play a big role in defining whether one is a Luo or not.
The ball is now in Apple’s hands. I know they must have given NFC a serious thought before deciding to incorporate the technology in their ecosystem and since they see money in it, they will do all within their power to make it work, and people will use them. Then Google and Samsung will do what they have always done – make what Apple has transformed to be even better and cheaper and mainstream – and before long, everyone with a smartphone will be making contactless payments. And that’s when M-PESA will start seeing the first signs of threats posed by Apple Pay.
Advantages of NFC based payment over M-PESA
We have already mentioned that M-PESA has one important advantage in the developing economies, it is able to be deployed to remote areas where banks cannot dare set foot, but the world is generally moving towards an all developed economies at least technology wise. The world might not develop so fast that banks can find it easy to set foot in every remote village in Africa or Asia, but the populations in these countries will still take up cheap technologies like affordable smartphones which are available for prices as cheap as $50 and below – and those citizens of developing nations with affordable smartphones will want to use their smartphones in smart ways like swiping them to pay for grocery.
It has been mentioned by Dickson in his article linked to above that a disadvantage of NFC is the requirement that merchants need to install NFC readers to accept payments – but no, what a merchant would primarily need is to have an NFC enabled smartphone. This way, a customer who wants to make payment to the merchant e.g. mama mboga will only need to transfer the funds by touching his phone with that of mama mboga’s and done; funds shall have been moved from the customer’s NFC enabled wallet to the merchant’s NFC enabled wallet.
If compared to someone who intends to effect payment using M-PESA, the customer who uses NFC is able to save close to a minute if all factors are held constant. This is because the customer using a platform like Lipa na M-PESA has a lot of physical manual input to do before the payment can be executed. The Lipa a M-PESA customer will first need to open up his M-PESA menu, scroll to Lipa a M-PESA, select Buy Goods, enter the merchant’s till number after he has looked up for the till number, confirm twice or thrice that the till number has been entered correctly, press OK, enter the amount, confirm that the correct amount has been entered, carefully enter M-PESA PIN, confirm all of the above details once more, then send.
On the other hand, the NFC customer will go the merchant, touch the two phones, enter amount and probably PIN if the phone is not TouchID enabled, and done.
Finally, M-PESA is more old school as it based on SMS system to work. However, NFC has a future outlook as it is a communication technology that uses proximity of two smart devices. As people move forward, adoption of modern day smart technologies become the norm.
M-PESA can go smart too
M-PESA should be scared of Apple Pay but it shouldn’t panic. Here are my three point advices for Vodafone and Safaricom on how to adapt to the Apple Pay Challenge:
- M-PESA should stop being dumb and go smart. I have written a whole article on this before and it can be found here. The other article titled M-PESA Bank can also help in expounding this point.
- Safaricom’s desire to go NFC should speed up and probably think of letting M-PESA information be available to Google Wallet, Apple Pay and other NFC enabled wallets.
- Vodafone should open up M-PESA so that developers can create supporting Apps to make M-PESA a competing global payment system.
You may join this debate on Twitter under the hashtag #ApplePayvsMPESA. Our twitter handle is @Kachwanya.


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The new board members were selected during the FiBAN Angel Day at KPMG on the 19th of November 2019. These seven business angels will bring their extensive know-how to the FiBAN Board 2020:
FiBAN's new board is more diverse than ever before. With 43% there are a record-number of female board members, as well as a record spread of different ages. The new board consists of both members who have done successful angel investments for decades as well as young, successful entrepreneurs who have quite recently become business angels. In addition, the board members have exceptionally wide backgrounds and experiences from varying industries.
Amel Gaily, FiBAN’s Managing Director, is delighted: "We are incredibly excited and honored to have such a knowledgeable and active board developing FiBAN. With our board members different backgrounds they bring complementary know-how and strengths to the table. Next year our focus will be on increasing the level of professionalism and quality in our services. It will also be a year of celebration, and the year will culminate in a FiBAN 10 year Gala in December 2020."
Get to know to the FiBAN Board 2020
Congratulations to the new FiBAN Board 2020!
FiBAN's news about startup investing.


text:
Computerworld speaks with Sridhar Guduguntla from consulting firm, Synergy Computer Solutions.
High-impact philanthropic efforts, from organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Cisco Systems, that have the most success at solving societal problems, share a common set of characteristics: They keep their focus on a small ...
Name: John Sullivan
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Name: Tom Saftig
An improving economy should be spurring CFOs to hire workers to handle the increased business that their companies are experiencing lately. But a ...
East Japan entered its fifth day of power rationing on Friday, with no end to the planned blackouts in sight. The power shortages began last week when a massive earthquake and tsunami knocked nuclear power stations offline. The local electrical util...
Prices of widely used chips, including NAND flash memory and DRAM, have both risen sharply since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck and hurled tsunami waves at the northeastern part of Japan.
Name: Paul Hallee
Three top executives of mobile WiMax operator Clearwire are leaving the company, including CEO Bill Morrow, who will be replaced for the time being by Chairman John Stanton.
Technology companies anticipate that growth will return to that sector in 2011 and have plans to hire the workers necessary to capitalize on that, according to a recent poll of tech CFOs.
Among analysts and investors, debate has been growing about a retailer-reporting trend to stop publicizing monthly sales, and instead to offer results only quarterly. It's a trend some retailing experts see as robbing them of an important barometer i...
As more companies shift more work to the cloud, they are struggling with a new financial problem, namely how to accurately charge business units for use of the cloud services.
Name: Ken Goldman
Rising world oil prices threaten to raise the cost of consumer electronics and slow development by forcing Asian manufacturers to spend more on transportation and raw materials, regional economists say.
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Must a title on the Nintendo 3DS use the system's 3D effects? Not necessarily. That's the latest word from Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata, who suggests not all software must take advantage of a system's unique attributes. In fact the Nintendo executive went on to suggest Nintendo's own 3DS titles might not always be in 3D.
"I think there could be a Nintendo 3DS software title which does not use the 3D feature at all, and I believe Nintendo will develop such software," Iwata said. "Instead, other features of the Nintendo 3DS should be focused on. It might be a communication feature, or other functions (such as the gyro sensor or the motion sensor). The important thing is that each respective software title has its own characteristics, and appeals to the consumers in a way that fits the software."
Iwata's statement about 3D came in the context of a larger discussion about systems and their unique features. Iwata had pointed out that Wii was often seen as a waggle system until developers began focusing on other features. In that same way, Iwata believes that his customers will not be satisfied if all 3DS games focus all of their innovation and gameplay on the 3D experience.
"I believe we have to implement new proposals focused on another appealing feature of the Nintendo 3DS, which is the communication feature," Iwata said. The Nintendo executive did note that the company's two major portable titles for the fall, Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3DLand, do focus on 3D.


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REGARDLESS of where they get their information, travellers today are more switched-on and clued-in to the machinations of the world, whatever their belief or persuasion may be.
One such aspect of society people are paying more attention to is their personal carbon footprint, which can now be calculated down to minute degrees of specificity, should a consumer wish to know.
This extends to travel, with many booking platforms letting travellers know about how much carbon their flight will emit. For the hyper eco-conscious, it can be a sobering start to the otherwise pleasant experience of planning and booking a holiday.
But one thing is for sure. People are aware of their impact on the environment, and they want to know about how they can minimise it, if not eliminate it entirely through offsets, now plentifully offered with almost any transaction these days.
Australia has long been an aspirational star on the travel radars of the United Kingdom, the United States and many other countries, but the undeniable reality of its long-haul nature is creating a barrier for environmentally conscious consumers.
Speaking at Tourism Australia’s annual ‘Destination Australia’ conference in Sydney last week, Managing Director Phillipa Harrison said there were several social themes of which the organisation needs to remain acutely aware.
“Consumer preferences are changing, led by the younger cohort who want to travel more sustainably – 71% of people are saying they will travel more sustainably next year, that’s up 10% from 2021,” Harrison said.
Another concept that could potentially rear an ugly head is the concept of “flight shaming” – a social media adaptation whereby people are worried about being criticised among family, friends or potentially even their community for taking a long-haul, high-polluting flight.
“Tourism Australia constantly monitors trends around the world to help inform our work, and to support the continued growth of Australian tourism,” Harrison told travelBulletin.
“At this stage we are not seeing sustainability concerns in relation to aviation impact consumer demand for an Australian holiday.
“That said, as a long-haul destination, collectively as an industry we have a responsibility to consider factor likes these as we look towards the future.”
And while planes may be the problem, they may also be the solution.
Airbus, Boeing, other secondary aircraft manufacturers and a litany of global parts suppliers are well underway with all development of all kinds of fuel-efficient technologies that will reduce a plane’s carbon emissions. Many technologies already exist and are in service today, but they can always be better – and that’s what Tourism Australia is counting on.
Qantas has taken delivery of its first two Airbus A220 aircraft, which reduces the noise footprint by 50% compared to its predecessor – the Boeing 717 – along with a 25% drop in overall carbon emissions.
The airline is also investing heavily in the development of Sustainable Aviation Fuel and like much of the aviation industry, is making progress by working to improve fuel blends to the point where it can safely and reliably be produced to commercial quantities.
Australia need not be worried, thinking generations of travellers are going to abandon their dreams of exploring our amazing landscapes, enjoying our world-class produce and taking home a treasure trove of souvenirs and memories.
But Tourism Australia may benefit from incorporating some of these messages into its marketing. Tell the people their impact isn’t as bad as some may lead them to believe. Maybe speak their language and throw a bit of YOLO into the conversation too. That should be enough to get them into their seats for take-off.


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Masayoshi Boy, Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank, has actually been considering up different alternatives for chipmaker Arm after Nvidia left acquiring the business.
Alessandro Di Ciommo|Nurphoto|Getty Pictures
SoftBank supplied a sharp rebuke on Wednesday to S&P Global Scores, after the company reduced the Japanese titan’s credit score ranking.
” Over the previous year, our stringent protective economic administration has actually reinforced our economic setting as never ever previously,” SoftBank stated. “It is incredibly regrettable that our economic stability was not appropriately evaluated, as well as we will certainly proceed our discussion with S&P.”
S&P Global Scores on Tuesday reduced SoftBank’s ranking to “BB” from “BB+”– where it regards a firm’s credit score ranking as “speculative quality” or “scrap.”
SoftBank shares shut down 2.3% in Tokyo on Wednesday.
SoftBank has actually transformed itself right into among the globe’s largest technology capitalists over the last couple of years, placing billions of bucks right into a few of the largest modern technology companies, consisting of Uber, using its 2 Vision Finances. SoftBank mostly buys firms that are not openly noted.
Provided the downturn in modern technology shares amidst around the world increasing rates of interest, the Vision Fund sector posted a record 4.3 trillion Japanese yen ($3.1 billion) loss for the finished Mar. 31, as company assessments dove.
SoftBank has actually been reducing its risk in Chinese shopping Alibaba, which it has actually held for greater than 20 years as well as made the Japanese company’s owner Masayoshi Boy his lot of money. The objective is to fortify SoftBank’s annual report, as the business’s administration has actually vowed to play “protection” as well as be even more prudent with its investment strategy.
S&P Global Scores however suggests that SoftBank’s Vision Finances have a high direct exposure to non listed business shares, which are a lot more unstable, as an outcome of offering Alibaba supply that are noted in both the United State as well as Hong Kong.
” Recurring sales of shares in China-based Alibaba Team Holding Ltd … formerly a significant property for the business, have actually worn down the percentage of noted properties in its profile,” S&P stated. “Additionally, the modern technology supplies in which the business has actually mostly spent have actually been dispirited for an extended duration.”
SoftBank suggests that S&P is not thinking about its money setting, which climbed to 5.1 trillion yen in the finished Mar. 31, versus 2.3 trillion in the very same duration of 2022.
” It must be kept in mind that S&P’s analysis of the percentage of noted properties leaves out money as well as down payments, and so on (JPY 5.1 trillion), which are one of the most fluid properties,” SoftBank stated.
Arm listing in emphasis
SoftBank in 2016 gotten British chip developer Arm– which last monthconfidentially filed for a listing in the U.S
Going public with Arm would certainly be a “favorable aspect” for SoftBank, S&P kept in mind, however it hasn’t included this growth in its analysis due to the fact that the timing as well as evaluation of the business stay “unsure.”
SoftBank stated it has “highly prompted S&P to take into consideration an upgrade as soon as the suggested going public of Arm is finished.”
S&P additionally kept in mind that SoftBank is going for “self-displined economic administration also in a hard operating setting,” which remains to “underpin the business’s credit reliability.”
Inevitably, the unfavorable elements surpassed the positives, the rankings company stated.
” We for that reason reduced the business. The volatility of its financial investment profile as well as increasing property danger drive the downsides for the team. At the same time, economic administration ability; a high degree of money; as well as holdings of shares in Arm, which can be noted, declare.”


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Leading experts from the digital and retail worlds will address the second annual National Pharmacy Summit, in CityWest Hotel, Dublin on Thursday 8th October 2015. Hosted by iQuest Events, the Summit will explore the changing role of the pharmacist and the increasingly important part that technology plays in the delivery of care in today’s modern pharmacies.
Key speakers at the Summit include:
Richard Corbridge, Chief Information Officer, HSE and eHealth Ireland who will talk about eHealth and where pharmacies fit into the Government’s strategy.
Geoff Scully, Managing Director of Littlewoods Ireland will share his insights into retailing online.
Catherine Picton, UK based health policy expert and co-author of ‘Now More than Ever – Shaping Pharmacy for the Future’ will discuss how pharmacists must adopt a more holistic approach to the delivery of health services within pharmacies.
Michael Nolan, from iQuest said, “The future is challenging and it’s time for pharmacy retailers to rethink their business model and innovate to succeed. In today’s low growth, low margin environment retailers need a comprehensive, transformational approach if they want to be able to respond to high-growth channels and emerging markets. We expect this Summit to be of big interest to pharmacists throughout the country.”
Other speakers at this year’s Pharmacy Summit include:
- Pete Doyle, Founder, SocialRetail Group, expert in social media for retailers
- Patrick McCormack, Managing Director, Sam McCauley Pharmacy Group
- Kathy Maher, President of the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU)
- John Smyth, Marketing Manager, Micksgarage.com
- Keith O’Hourihane, Community Pharmacist and Director, Pharmacy First Plus Group
- Dr Mary Casey, Associate Dean for Taught Graduate and Continuous Professional Development Programmes at the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems.
- Gordon Newman, Head of Multichannel, Lifestyle Sports
- Dr. Catriona Bradley, Executive Director, Irish Institute of Pharmacy
- Ultan Molloy, MPSI PharmEvolve Senior Consultant
- Stuart Fitzgerald, Director, Fitzgerald Power Ltd.
For further information on the conference visit here.


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Flying iPhone Raises $1.5M on ABC’s Shark Tank [VIDEO]
JD Claridge, founder of a startup called ‘xCraft’, and his partner veteran software developer Charles Manning, taught a master class on ABC’s popular reality show Shark Tank before a panel of celebrity investors, raising $1.5 million using an amazing flying iPhone product. Their pitch to the celebrity investors “was a thing of beauty”, says Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt.
The product, called the PhoneDrone, consists of four propellers and a plastic shell to turn an iPhone into a self-navigating drone that can follow you down the street hovering just over your head and shooting video. “I’m just amazed,” says Claridge. “We got more money than what we asked for—three times as much—and we got all five sharks on board.” The show raised xCraft’s valuation to $6 million within 12 minutes, breathing new life into the PhoneDrone’s KickStarter.
The pitch. The highlight is when Claridge pivots from the drone he walked in with—the $1,800 X PlusOne—to the one in his back pocket. Unfolding the propellers and slotting in his iPhone he explains that smartphones today are equipped with most of the expensive components of a drone—gyroscopes, accelerometers, GPS, cameras. That allows xCraft to bring PhoneDrone’s projected retail price down to about $300.
The deal. Manning shows how it’s done, pulling together a Shark Tank syndicate on the fly. Watch for the moment when it dawns on Cuban that the pitch may be too good to be true, and watch Manning move him past that.
Check out the following video clip from the show:


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The biggest challenge for Airbnb is the idea that staying with a stranger is strange. So Airbnb is shining a brighter spotlight on its community of hosts worldwide to inject the brand perception with a more familial enthusiasm.
During the annual Airbnb Open 2015 conference in Paris last week, there was a clear shift toward a greater emphasis on the Airbnb host community as the primary value proposition for the brand.
In the past, much of the discussion around Airbnb’s unique selling points has focused on the room sharing model’s affordable price point and direct access to local neighborhoods.
The concept of community, however, connotes a certain level of trust, familiarity and security, which helps allay the uncomfortable nature of the guest experience for more conservative travelers who are unsure of staying with a stranger.
The sense of community surrounding Airbnb is becoming its greatest differentiator in the travel marketplace.
Moving forward, the company is prioritizing its ecosystem of hosts above everything else to both further cement its relationship with those hosts and address the concerns of people who haven’t tried room sharing.
Chip Conley, head of hospitality at Airbnb, kicked off his keynote at the Open by saying Airbnb regards its hosts as partners, and he emphasized how much the company values them. The hosts are the company rather than the listings, he said, which was a refrain repeated often throughout the conference.
Conley then asked two Airbnb hosts in the audience from Queenstown, New Zealand about what Airbnb does well to engage them, and what it could do better.
The hosts answered that they love the website user experience that makes it easy to market their listing and communicate with guests. They would, however, prefer better communication directly with Airbnb corporate for those times when they have questions about how to handle specific situations.
During the Founders Session right after that, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky discussed the ongoing evolution of customer service for hosts.
He mentioned a 2011 incident in San Francisco when a guest trashed a host’s apartment and Airbnb didn’t respond as well as it should have, which spurred a “media storm.” Chesky called it a huge wake-up call for the company, and he said Airbnb now invests heavily in continually upgrading customer service levels year over year.
“Imagine if the phone number was just one click away and you called us and we answered the question within seconds and solved your problem immediately,” he said. That’s something we certainly have a vision to do.”
Chesky added that the company is still very much in its infancy, and quoted one of Airbnb’s early investors who told him, “A startup company is kind of like jumping off a cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down.”
Presently, the biggest cloud raining on Airbnb’s parade is the regulatory hurdles constantly played out in the media. Chesky emphasized that everyone at Airbnb, including Airbnb hosts, want the room sharing industry to be fully regulated, because that will legitimize the industry as an industry.
Before the birth of the sharing economy, he said, there were people and there were businesses. Now that people can be businesses themselves as Airbnb hosts, many cities are unprepared to deal with that in terms of writing new regulatory statutes.
“I think that many of us want to be regulated, because to be regulated is to be recognized,” Chesky explained. “We don’t think home sharing should be in the shadows…. I’m looking forward to maybe a future stage with Airbnb where we can look at the idea of hosting being legitimized in 34,000 cities around the world as a thing of the past.”
Nathan Blecharczyk, CTO and co-founder of Airbnb, added that one of the biggest challenges he sees for Airbnb is expectation management.
“What we do is still relatively new for a lot of people,” he said. “There’s a lot of first time guests, so it’s really trying to understand what is the guest expecting, and also explaining what it is that [we] provide, and making sure that’s a good fit.”
Never A Stranger
So what does the Airbnb host community look like for the travel consumer who has never used Airbnb before?
Or as Airbnb CMO Jonathan Mildenhall said during his session at Airbnb Open, “Why would I stay in someone else’s house?”
The uncertainty of sharing a house or apartment with a stranger is the elephant in the room for Airbnb, so the company is tackling that head on by acknowledging it’s a major issue. First, both Mildenhall and Chesky said that Airbnb is reframing the word “stranger” as “simply someone you haven’t met before.”
“Our enemy is actually not hotels, it’s not VRBO, and it’s not bed and breakfasts,” explained Peter Giorgi, global head of advertising & content at Airbnb, during his session at the Open. “Our enemy is actually the idea that strangers exist in the world, and the idea that staying with a stranger is strange.”
With that in mind, Airbnb launched the above “Never A Stranger” video that shows a young woman traveling alone and living with families around the world in places like Rio de Janeiro and Paris. The video is basically the visualization of Airbnb’s “Belong Anywhere” tagline and brand mission.
Granted, the video is a highly idealized version of the host/guest relationship. Few of us who have stayed at Airbnb properties are hugged as much as this women by both adults and children, and the listing shown in Tulum runs $1,700 per night.
Giorgi said the listing in Rio was $95 per night, so he felt comfortable showing a range of price points because Airbnb doesn’t necessarily want to be perceived solely as a cheap place to stay.
Expect to see more of this type of brand storytelling as Airbnb narrows its focus on the Never A Stranger theme. The idea of sleeping in alternative accommodations is a hard sell for many travelers, but Giorgi says the strategy is to highlight the transformative nature of the guest’s overall travel experience with Airbnb versus the guest bedroom.
The goal is really to inspire people who haven’t stayed with Airbnb to push past their immediate perceptions and perhaps step out of their comfort zone a bit to try something new.
“We wanted you to see a woman who starts out alone and ends up being embraced by all these people, and feeling like a better version of herself,” Giorgi said. “We wanted to show this idea that you could be transformed by a great Airbnb experience.”
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Photo credit: A screen grab of a scene in Tulum from Airbnb's "Never A Stranger" video. Airbnb


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Last Updated: April 30th, 2012
Adding a tempting new device to the current pool of affordable 7" tablets, ZTE and Sprint introduced the 3G-connected Optik in February, bringing to market a great 7" display, Android 3.2 Honeycomb, and an ample 1.2GHz dual-core snapdragon processor, all for $99 on a new contract. In a nutshell, the Optik is a decent 7" tablet for those on a budget. While it isn't the best tablet around, it's powerful enough for most tasks, feels great in the hand, and isn't too bad to look at.
Last Updated: April 6th, 2012
Looks like Motorola cancelled the soak test due to "deployment issues." Word has it that the update could still happen sometime next week.
DROID RAZR and RAZR MAXX users excited for an Ice Cream Sandwich update by last week's Best Buy screenshot should brace themselves for some bad news – it looks like the aforementioned devices won't be getting Ice Cream Sandwich just yet after all.
According to a letter being sent out to members of Motorola's Feedback Network, the soak test slated to begin tomorrow simply brings an update to build number 6.12.181 with various enhancement and bug fixes.


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Last year, the city of Philadelphia pumped $2 million into a number of city programs to help spur small business growth. The Philadelphia Business journal reports that those efforts are now showing results and helping entrepreneurs start a corporation – and keep it running.
“When I look at each one of the companies we helped with the city’s money I think we fulfilled our obligation to create good, quality retail in neighborhoods and to create jobs,” Patricia Blakely, executive director of the Merchants Fund, told the Journal.
The ReStore retail program has shown especially strong results, according to the paper. The program funneled more than $900,000 into 23 businesses to help them refit their store locations. That funding helped bring in more than $4 million in private investment, and created nearly 300 jobs.
The paper reports that the Women’s Opportunities Resource Center is using its $100,000 in funding to give female entrepreneurs microloans to buy equipment or make other purchases. At the same time, the Philadelphia Development has taken advantage of a city contract to give support and advice to entrepreneurs interested in forming a company.
A recent Conexus report says that Pennsylvania has a number of factors which make it a positive environment for business. The report gave the state an A grade in terms of its skilled workers, and a B in four other categories.
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Football Association of Zambia president Andrew Kamanga has slammed reports that he was about to pick a low profile Asian-based sports apparel company to kit Chipolopolo.
News has been doing the rounds on social media that Kamanga’s regime had failed to secure a high-profile sports apparel firm to kit the national team and opted for an option from Asia who current kit FAZ Super Division side Nkana.
“I think there has been a lot of speculation that we have signed up with MAFRO,” Kamanga told media on Monday in Lusaka.
“The correct position is that we have not signed up with anybody. MAFRRO approached FAZ in February this year and once there was a change of administration they came back.
“Their proposal is in but we have not yet looked at as an executive so it may be a while before any decision is made.
“In any case I just wanted to also explain because there has been speculation that we have failed bring back Nike but the truth of the matter is that the Nike issue was conclusively finalized in 2014 because the contract came to an end and the previous executive did not renew it.
“In fact when we came in I made follow ups with Nike and they were very categorical that it is not going to possible for us to get Nike back simply because whatever position they had has changed.
” They can only clothe two teams in Africa so they had two slots one belonged to South Africa and the other one was with Zambia so once we had refused to sign they ended up giving that slot to Nigeria.
“So the truth of the matter is we cannot get Nike back so let us be fair as we report. It has nothing to do with our administration it was a dead matter. We are hopeful that whenever these slots open up we may be able to convince them and get back.
“Others have accused us of not even considering Adidas who as you know Adidas is an official sponsor of FIFA itself. We may or may not but we have written to Adidas as well.
“It is on record we have had no response. Others have talked about Puma it is the same story like Nike they have limited alocations for this year it is not possible to be considered even next year.
“So if you look at those three as your top kit sponsors it is almost impossible that we will have any chance of getting one of those.
“But with Nike the only window available now is for us to be buying, it is no longer a sponsorship but we will now be the ones paying for whatever we need. So will now be forced to pay as opposed to being paid because we do not have a sponsorship deal.
“We have already identified a couple of other international kit manufacturers who we are going to continue talking to and at the right time we are going to make a decision and you will all be informed.
“So nobody has signed with MAFRO and that is where the story ends and I just hope that we do not spend too much effort on things which do not exist.”


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One of the more exciting tidbits of news out of CES 2015 so far is that Dish-owned company Sling has announced Sling TV. Sling TV is a streaming cable service that is breaking the traditional cable TV mold.
Before Tokyo Game Show, the equivalent of E3 in Japan, Sony has announced a brand new Vita related piece of hardware called the PS Vita TV. This new device lets you play Vita games on your TV as well as a few other things. First looking at the form factor, the PS Vita TV is […]


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The SA Innovation Summit and the SA SME Fund present the ANDZA Entrepreneur Competition. The competition aims to find the top investment-ready businesses in the country to fast track them to success, and provide a platform to help accelerate their innovative ideas to greater heights and further develop the South African economy.
The competition begins with a roadshow, visiting the top incubators, accelerators and regional entrepreneurial hubs across the country, in an effort to carry out an extensive search in the country to find the most innovative and talented entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs will be sourced nationwide, with a focus on Seed, Venture and Growth-stage businesses. The Top 10 will pitch their businesses to a panel of judges at the 12th SA Innovation Summit in Cape Town. The top entrepreneurs will be considered for R10 million in investment funding and acceleration.


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Just a few decades ago, the only way that many Canadian Muslims could get zabiha halal slaughtered meat was to go to a local farm and slaughter it themselves. Today, the availability of halal meat from street food vendors, in supermarkets from brands such as Mina Halal, and franchises like Hero Burgers is a testament to the growth of the halal industry in Canada.
When Mihami Shash started a new job, one of the benefits she was offered was the opportunity to participate in the company’s matched-RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) program. The company had set up a number of investment options that the employees could use to save for retirement and as an incentive to invest in these, the company would match each employee's contributions.
One of the biggest challenges Muslims face when it comes to reconciling their faith with their finances is home ownership. With house prices starting in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, how is it possible to buy a house without borrowing money through an interest-based mortgage?
Malaysia's International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance is working with its Middle Eastern counterpart on guidelines to address the number of boards on which scholars can sit to reduce conflicts of interest.


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Agrucapers will be present at the International Food Show of Dubai, GULFOOD 2018, represented through the stand of our subsidiary in Morocco, URCIMAR, which will be attended by the commercial team of our company.
Thus, from 18 to 22 February 2018, the commercial team of Agrucapers will participate in the show in which it will have many meetings with companies interested in our products.
Agrucapers and its products
It should be noted that capers, caper berries and pickles are increasingly demanded products in modern cuisine, perhaps thanks to the work of many chefs and restoration professionals that include, increasingly, these products in their recipes.
This show, one of the largest in the world, attracts producers, exporters, distributors and importers of food products from all over the world. Undoubtedly one of the most attractive appointments for professionals of food sector of the 5 continents.


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Alcatel-Lucent said it would stay out of a brewing price war in the telecom equipment market and set itself apart with better service and new products, including those from a partnership announced on Sunday with Intel Corp.
Chief Executive Michel Combes said Alcatel-Lucent wanted to gain market share but not at any cost, as it entered the second year of a three-year turnaround aimed at restoring regular profits and cutting 1 billion euros of costs.
Last year's revelations over the U.S. tapping of phone and internet data gave telecoms firms pause for thought over whether they should sell their "big data" for gain, but the commercial potential could prove irresistible.
Although figures are scarce, analysts think selling data on mobile users' locations, movements, and web browsing habits may grow into a multi billion-dollar market for the business.
The China Healthcare ICT Conference will be held at 24-25 April in Beijing. This event will gather 200+ senior executives and decision makers from Hospitals/Clinics LHINs, Pubic Health Service, CCACs 39%, Healthcare ODMs 15%, Healthcare software/solution Developer12%, Healthcare Terminal OEMs 14% and so on.
Alcatel-Lucent almost halved its net loss for 2013 as cost-cutting, a tweaked product offering and asset sales under Chief Executive Michel Combes began to take effect.
The telecoms equipment maker, which competes with Sweden's Ericsson (Stockholm), China's Huawei (Beijing) and Nokia's (Helsinki, Finland) NSN unit, said its gross margin was 34 percent and operating profit 307 million euros - both better than expected.
The ever increasing rise of the smartphone has rapidly changed the once straightforward mobile network. Users are suddenly downloading large volumes of data over their phones and other devices, causing mobile operators to frantically search for new solutions to help their networks handle the increased data traffic.
This ½-day, executive-format meeting is open to members and guests of the Telecom Council and Autotech Council. The agenda highlights a few larger vendors who are leading the segment forward and brings dozens of undiscovered companies to the stage as well. As always, we include plenty of time for networking, business discussions, and an interactive format that promotes relationships between member and non-member companies.
Network with industry leading experts and learn about latest developments on how Utilities from the US and Europe are dealing with persistent threats and vulnerabilities.
Ericsson, the world's biggest telecom network equipment maker, and Samsung Electronics Co have reached a deal to end all patent-related legal disputes.
Ericsson (Stockholm, Sweden) said on Monday the agreement included an initial payment and royalty payments from Samsung (Seoul, South Korea) for the term of the multi-year license agreement and would affect Ericsson's operating cash flow at the beginning of 2014.
Co-located with PCIA's Wireless Infrastructure Show.
A unique, invitation-only gathering of the top 200 decision makers in the Latin American tower industry
TowerXchange facilitates an open dialogue and shares knowledge between key stakeholders involved in the transformation of the Latin American telecom tower industry.
The Indonesia Power Electrical Society(MKI) and ConnecForce Events are proud to announce the officially launched the Smart Grid Southeast Asia Forum 2014 Forum, which is the SEA biggest utilities show and conference in 2014, scheduled from April. 21 to 23 in Bali.