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Judgment against ID maker Hugo Loyo
Credenciales USA and Hugo Loyo have been ordered to pay $385,519.90 for breaking state law by marketing and selling fake international driver’s license and state identification cards, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced Monday.
Loyo, who ran the south side business since at least 2008, targeted foreign born and nonnative speakers of English through newspaper ads and radio. He falsely claimed that the identification cards he was selling authorized consumers to drive legally in the United States and could be used as valid photo ID, neither of which was true, Van Hollen said in a statement.
“In this case the perpetrators preyed on vulnerable consumers,” he said.
He warned consumers not to fall for such scams. Only the American Automobile Association and the American Automobile Touring Alliance are authorized to legally issue international driver’s permits to U.S. residents, he added.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a consumers fraud alert regarding the marketing and sale of similar fake IDs in the U.S., Van Hollen said. Ads and offers for these IDs are showing up on websites and as spam email. They’re also sold on the street and through storefront operations for from $65 to $350, according to the FTC.
Because neither Loyo, nor his firm answered the complaint, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Timothy Dugan has entered a default judgment and order in the case.
Loyo is no longer in Milwaukee. It’s believed Loyo has left the country and returned to Mexico.
The court order also enjoins Loyo and Credenciales from conducting business in further violation of the law.
In 2008 Voces de la Frontera and the Southside Organizing Committee, two local nonprofits, asked Loyo to stop advertising the identification documents, but Loyo refused the requests by the groups. “I don’t do anything illegal, and they have no legal reason to ask me to stop,” he said.
Loyo started providing the IDs after a new state law took effect that required proof citizenship for a driver’s license.
He charged $100 or more for an international driver’s license and $30 for the general ID, according to Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the executive director of Voces.
She said Voces forwarded complaints from individuals to the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. The case was later referred to the state department of justice.
- Moving on
- Viewing President Obama's announcement
- Centro Hispano Thanksgiving food drive
- Rodriguez named first Hidalgo Latino Veteran of the Year
- Latino veterans honored by new group
- Afro-Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando to visit Milwaukee
- Latino groups to monitor election
- Celebrating the Day of the Dead grows
- La Casa's Villarreal to receive leadership award
- SOC "Meet the People" convention tonight


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Tronox Closes Cristal Acquisition
Describing the Cristal merger as “a game-changing, transformational moment,” Tronox president and CEO Jeffrey Quinn said it has created the world’s largest vertically integrated TiO2 producer and the second largest TiO2 producer with nine plants and combined sales of more than $2.5 billion
The “new” Tronox will have 30% of its sales in Asia-Pacific, 29% in Europe, 21% in North America, 11% in Middle East & Africa, and 9% in Latin America.
The completion follows the US Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) approval of the deal, ending 16 months of litigation. The FTC voted 5-0 to accept Tronox’s proposal to sell Cristal’s North American TiO2 assets to Ineos. The transaction is expected to close on May 1.
“This agreement will preserve a competitive marketplace, which ultimately benefits consumers in the form of lower prices and higher quality products,” said Bureau of Competition director Bruce Hoffman.
As well as gaining two chloride-route TiO2 plants at Ashtabula, Ohio, Ineos will also get an option, exercisable for 10 years after closing, to acquire rights to use the chloride process technology in a new manufacturing plant outside North America. In addition, Ineos will take over Tronox’s R&D equipment and administrative support functions at the Baltimore Administrative and Technical Center.
Tronox also had to get divest its 8120 paper laminate grade business to appease European regulators. That sale to Venator Materials is expected to close “imminently.”
While Tronox affirmed it has not made a final decision on what to do with the sale proceeds, the company said previously it could be interested in buying the first 14 million share tranche that shareholder Exxaro Resources might sell before mid-August.
In November 2018, Tronox and its largest shareholder Exxaro came to an agreement that addressed several legacy issues relating to Tronox’s 2012 purchase of Exxaro’s mineral sands business.
In effect, Exxaro has agreed to an “orderly exit” from its 28.7 million share position in Tronox.
The pigment producer anticipates that the merger with Cristal will yield pretax run-rate synergies of $100 million by the end of the first year after closing, rising to $230 million in year four.
Tronox said it now plans to upgrade its “underutilized” plants, particularly the facility in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, which is a replica of its plant in Hamilton, Mississippi, USA. Designed in the early 1990s and using “decades-old” technology, the Yanbu plant will undergo minor changes to equipment and operations in order to add more volume and improve pigment quality.
John Romano, Tronox’s chief commercial officer, noted that the closing of the acquisition has come at a time of favorable market conditions for TiO2 feedstocks and co-products. “As a vertically integrated producer and a strong feedstock environment, we expect to gain significant and differentiating benefits relative to non-integrated pigment producers,” he said.
Commenting on the current status of global TiO2 markets, Romano said he anticipates a return to normal customer demand and inventory levels by mid-year as destocking runs its course by mid-year. He noted that at the start of quarter two, markets in Europe and Asia appeared to be stabilizing and inventories normalizing while conditions in the North American market were resilient.

domain: news


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Loyalty programs under fire in California
The National Retail Federation (NRF) and the California Retailers Association have asked state officials to preserve customer loyalty programs, protect businesses from potentially ruinous financial penalties, and address other provisions of a new privacy law set to take effect next year that could interfere with consumers’ expectations for customer service.
“Data drives retail and the customer experience,” said NRF Senior Vice President for Government Affairs David French. “Retailers are firmly on the side of consumers and collectively spend billions of dollars each year to enact policies and build systems to protect personal information. But we believe the California law will have far-reaching effects that will interfere with retailers’ ability to offer the customer service Californians demand.”
NRF and CRA today submitted comments to Attorney General Xavier Becerra as the state Department of Justice prepares to draft regulations for implementation of the California Consumer Privacy Act. The law, which was passed last summer and is scheduled to take effect in January 2020, places restrictions on how retailers and other businesses can collect and use information about consumers. The letter emphasized that retailers gather data about consumers primarily to better serve them, in sharp contrast to other industries that gather consumer data primarily to monetize it by selling it to other businesses.
According to NRF, the new law may saddle businesses with penalties of between $100 and $750 per consumer per data breach incident, resulting in “enormous and financially ruinous damage awards without regard to the size of the business, the circumstances of the breach or mitigating factors such as the good faith or level of cooperation of the business,” NRF and CRA said in the letter to Becerra. Companies that are breached are “not malicious or reckless bad actors but rather are the victims of often highly sophisticated financial fraud and computer crimes,” according to NRF.


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Innovation is on the coronary heart of the American spirit, and advances in technology are sparking breakthroughs throughout each sector of the economic system. From top firms like Google and Apple to tiny startups vying for your consideration, Verge Tech has the newest in what matters in technology daily. Firms like Fb and Google are doing one thing related with our tech experiences, by tailoring our news feeds, search outcomes and the ads we see to our personal preferences. However as social media has develop into more and more connected to disagreeable bickering, race-baiting and Russian propaganda, the must-have social” label has become an albatross, stated Joseph Bayer, an assistant professor at Ohio State College who focuses on social networks.
Why it issues: The brand new language in Twitter’s rules shows that the company is no less than somewhat listening to feedback about making it simpler for individuals to understand what is taken into account a violation. Analysis from Heathrow Airport, which surveyed 2,000 British travellers, found that 25 p.c of individuals have been influenced to try a restaurant on vacation by footage they’ve seen on social media.
To accomplish this, students are supplied with eight weeks of and intersessions …Read more


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What is trending in artificial intelligence in 2018?
Machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence. Companies have started to use the smart algorithm to help the machine make a more informed decision. The possibilities of AI are innumerable and it will have a great impact in the days to come.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been predicted to be game changers. In Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018, it described that “artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are jointly contributing to the gradual construction of the intelligent digital grid.” In this article, we will talk about current AI trends.
1. Consumers will interact more with devices
Roughly 20 million Amazon Alexa speakers were sold in 2017, and if we add Google and Apple devices, you can imagine how many people are already engaging with the technology.
As smart assistants become integrated with our everyday devices, by the end of 2018, consumers will become more comfortable with voice-based technology.
two. Logistics becomes efficient
Amazon Robotics is already helping large retailers with logistics through a combination of artificial intelligence and advanced robotics. We are entering a world where the warehouse will be filled with highly efficient robots that can work 24/7 and can even work without light. The technology is growing and we will witness the prominent role of AI in different industries.
3. peer-to-peer networks
The rise of peer-to-peer networks like the one used by cryptocurrencies will help small businesses run advanced AI programs by using the collective power of connected personal computers.
Four. Machine learning will also support workers
While some worry that AI will put hordes of jobs out of work, AI technology also has the ability to empower employees, especially those in the knowledge sector.
According to Carrie Christensen, vice president of operations at Mint Solar, “This technology can empower front-line service workers to speak more effectively. Expect AI to increasingly support back-office workers in 2018 and beyond.” “.
5. AI in medical diagnosis
Ben Hortman, CEO of Bet Capital LLC, explained: “We are entering an era where a peer-to-peer computer network could have the ability to solve some of the world’s most challenging health problems by collecting and analyzing human molecular data.
This technology was inspired by two trends: blockchain and AI.
Something we read in a science fiction novel is now a reality. Technology is growing and it is also changing the world economy. However, all businesses must take advantage of ongoing technology trends.


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GEA Farm Technologies is now the exclusive distributor of products designed and manufactured by Lauren AgriSystems, Ltd.
August 7, 2014
GEA Farm Technologies is very pleased to announce a strategic alliance with Lauren AgriSystems, Ltd. to become the exclusive global distributor of the patented Tri-CircleÂ® milking liners, premium DairyGradeâ„¢ silicone milk hose, and other supporting products Lauren designs, develops and manufactures, beginning September 1, 2014.
September 27, 2013
Lauren AgriSystems, Ltd. announced today the launch of its new, redesigned website at www.laurenagrisystems.com.


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The Android 11 Beta Program is open. And this year once again, TECNO has a device on the list of early smartphones testing the upcoming version of Android. While this has been a preserve of high-end devices and mostly Google-made smartphones, things have been changing over the last few years.
Last year, the company had the TECNO Spark 3 as part of the early testers of Android 10, and this year, we have the Pouvoir 4. For those who have the Pouvoir 4, if you’re interested in testing out Android 11 before everyone else, there’s a guide by TECNO on their website on steps to follow.
Stephen HA, Vice President of TRANSSION and GM of TECNO Mobile, said: “We are dedicated to further integrate smart software and smart hardware into a seamless smart ecosystem and constantly improve consumer experience to the next level. As a long-term partner of Google ecosystem, we are excited to work closely with Google Andriod to bring even more exciting products and deliver extraordinary experiences through technology and innovation.”
TECNO Mobile is one of major player and has a presence in more than 60 countries across over the world. The Pouvoir 4 is a 4G smartphone with 6000mah battery and 7’’ screen. With Android 11, the new features users will be receiving on their device include:
- One-time permissions: It gives users the ability to specify more granular permissions for location, microphone, and camera.
- Optional location permission: It gives users more control over when an app can access location information whenever your app requests access to foreground location.
- ADB incremental APK installation: It accelerates this process by installing enough of the APK to launch the app while streaming the remaining data in the background.
- Optimized screen display: It can specify the intractable area of the display to prevent elements from notches to make users experience much better.
- Chat bubble: New multitasking surface for communicating with the most important people in your chat apps. Users can access a chat anywhere, and use your app UI to communicate before resuming their previous task.
You can look forward to our review of the Pouvoir 4 which is coming soon.
TECNO Pouvoir 4 Specifications:
|PRICE||RRP. KES. 14,999|
|Display||7-inch 720 x 1640 pixels HD+ screen|
13 MP + 2 MP + 2 MP + 0.3 MP
|Front Camera||8MP with Flash|
|Processor||MTK 2.0Ghz Octac-core (Helio A22)|
|Memory||32GB internal storage (expandable via microSD card)|
|Operating System||Android 10 with HiOS Skin|
|Network||2G, 3G, 4G/LTE|
|Connectivity||2.4G Wi-Fi, microUSB, 3.5mm audio jack|
|Colour options||Purple, Green, Black|
|Others||Rear Fingerprint Scanner, Face Unlock, Micro USB|


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Posted on September 22, 2014 10:17:00 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
DAVAO CITY -- Two mall and supermarket operators, one homegrown and another Cebu-based, are opening more branches in Region 10 before the end of the year and are looking at expansion opportunities in other parts of Mindanao.
In an interview with BusinessWorld, Ms. Agusto also said the company is considering opening another branch in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur by December and in Calinan, Buhangin, Bayugan, Zamboanga, and Mati by next year.
Recently, Gaisano opened its 25th branch in Tibungco, Davao City.
Aside from its branches in the Visayas, the Gaisano chain has two other branches in Davao City and Tagum City.
The Gaisanos also own the Grand Regal Hotel in the cities of Davao and Bacolod.
Meanwhile, LTS Pinnacle Holdings, Inc., known for its NCCC chain in the Davao Region and Puerto Princesa in Palawan, is opening three more retail outlets in Davao City within the year in addition to its existing 20.
The company is also scouting for more store locations within the four provinces in the region, namely: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley.
“(We) have been evaluating the prospects of the areas that have been identified,” Jojo N. Canda, LTS Pinnacle director of operations, told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the company’s annual three-day Kanegosyo Congress for more than 200,000 customers, majority of whom are owners of small neighborhood retail stores.
Tjader P. Regis, assistant vice-president for marketing, added that the Lim family-owned company is also “looking at all possible options (for expansion),” with population and the presence of other stores the main factors in location decisions.
Aside from the NCCC Supermarket brand, LTS Pinnacle also operates the smaller Choice retail outlets, HB1 stores which includes a pharmacy, Bread Factory, Hardwaremaxx, and City Foods and Munchies for ready-to-eat items. -- Maya M. Padillo and Carmelito Q. Francisco


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Entrepreneurs have started punching holes on government’s COVID-19 pandemic relief package, which is expected to cushion workers, stabilise businesses and promote opportunities for economic diversification.
“One would have expected that the relief fund would come as a mitigation factor for a reasonable period of time, to give oxygen to 'non operational' firms. It seems there won’t be such, at least from the current guidelines,” Nnyaladzi Malaki Monyamane, founder of a local travel agency, The Gabs Experience, told Botswana Guardian Online.
Monyamane said the fund has missed the most critical component for most start-ups and entrepreneurs, which is their rental. “Subsidising employees’ salaries is a commendable move, however it is not enough in the long run, as the offices they work from provides them the basis and justification of a 22 day monthly pay,” said Monyamane.
He said most youth-owned companies struggle with rentals and usually employ one person on a permanent basis, being the business owner. “We can only hope that going forward, the relief fund will capture this important element of business’ running costs, to avoid our malls becoming white elephants after Covid-19,” Monyamane emphasised.
He raised fears of businesses not being allowed to operate from home, saying that poses a looming risk for businesses to collapse.“Whereas operating from home has been permitted for some sectors, we still have clients who still find it difficult to go into a residential area to make a payment, and they are right, they have been robbed before,” said Monyamane. He said most entrepreneurs are considering closing offices due to the pandemic, owing to rental which is a fixed cost.


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4 January 2021 - We’re kicking off 2021 with some exciting news! Our home insurance has just been awarded two 5-star ratings by Moneyfacts.
It’s the highest endorsement possible in the consumer champion’s 2021 Home Insurance and Home Emergency Cover categories. And it makes it the fourth year in a row that Moneyfacts has awarded UW 5 stars.
The Moneyfacts Annual Star Ratings highlight the best products across the industry, taking in analysis from more than 2,000 data fields to create their ratings. These impartial ratings help consumers make more informed choices.
For their home insurance ratings, Moneyfacts looks at several criteria including:
Maximum sums insured
Accidental damage cover
Personal possessions cover
You can view the full list of criteria here.
We’re delighted to have been awarded two five-star ratings and this is testament to the brilliant service we provide to our customers. UW products and services are used and loved by more than 650,000 customers all over the UK.
16 April 2021 - UW is more than just a utilities provider. We also offer customers a range of insurance products to cover their possessions or boiler.
10 December 2020 - If you need to make a claim on your UW insurance, here's what you need to do.


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eBay (EBAY) is set to announce its second-quarter earnings results on Wednesday. Analysts expect it to post revenue of $2.67 billion in the quarter, a rise of 1.3% YoY (year-over-year) and up from $2.64 billion in the second quarter of 2018. They also expect its non-generally accepted accounting principles earnings to rise 17.0% YoY to $0.62.
eBay has managed to beat analysts’ EPS estimates in each of the last four quarters:
- Its EPS of $0.67 in the first quarter beat analysts’ estimate of $0.63 by 6.3%.
- Its EPS of $0.71 in the fourth quarter of 2018 beat analysts’ estimate of $0.68 by 4.4%.
- Its EPS of $0.56 in the third quarter of 2018 beat analysts’ estimate of $0.54 by 3.7%.
- Its EPS of $0.53 in the second quarter of 2018 beat analysts’ estimate of $0.51 by 3.9%.
Despite these earnings beats, eBay stock has gained just over 8.0% in the last year, underperforming broader indexes. It fell from $38.0 in July 2018 to $26.0 in December 2018. It’s made an impressive comeback in 2019, gaining 43.8% year-to-date. It’s also been volatile, rising 42.7% in the last three years and 86.5% in the last five years. These returns are in line with the broader indexes.
In comparison, the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) has returned 9.7% in the last year, 49.3% in the last three years, and 68.9% in the last five years. The Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 ETF (QQQ) has returned 8.8% in the last year, 79.2% in the last three years, and 113.3% in the last five years.
What’s driven eBay stock this year?
The tech sell-off in the fourth quarter of 2018 provided an interesting opportunity for investors. Shares were undervalued, and eBay’s earnings were set to expand at a robust pace. Further, eBay reported better-than-expected first-quarter results and increased its full-year guidance, driving investor optimism.
eBay has also expanded its bottom line via share repurchases. In the first quarter, the company repurchased $1.5 billion worth of shares. Its remaining share repurchase authorization was $5.7 billion at the end of March 31, 2019. So what’s next for this e-commerce giant?
Analysts expect eBay’s sales to rise 1.7% to $10.93 billion in 2019, 5.4% to $11.5 billion in 2020, and 8.6% to $12.51 billion in 2021. eBay’s revenue growth is accelerating. Its sales in the first quarter rose just 2.4%, less than peers Walmart (WMT) and Amazon. Walmart’s online business grew 37.0% in the quarter, while Amazon’s sales grew in the double digits YoY. However, eBay’s operating model ensures a high profit margin, as it transfers costs to supply vendors.
eBay investors were concerned about the company’s slowing GMV (gross merchandise volume) last year, as it affected revenue as well. eBay’s GMV, which is the value of goods sold updated on the website at a specific time, fell 4.2% YoY to $22.6 billion and was down 1%, excluding currency. Its GMV will be under pressure in the short term, as eBay has also reduced its promotional and marketing spending.
The company’s high-growth businesses somewhat offset the fall in its GMV. Its sales rose after its recent foray into the payment-processing space. In the first quarter, eBay’s payments business rose 60.0% YoY to $200 million and accounted for less than 10.0% of its sales. This number could rise, as eBay is now eyeing international expansion. Its third-party advertising business is also likely to gain traction. This segment doubled its sales in the most recent quarter.
Is eBay stock undervalued?
eBay stock is trading at a forward PE multiple of 13.0x. Analysts expect its earnings to rise 16.4% in 2019, 13.7% in 2020, and 12.0% in the next five years. eBay has a dividend yield of 1.4%. These metrics suggest that eBay still has some upside potential.
eBay’s 14-day RSI (relative strength index) score of 62 suggests that it’s trading close to overbought territory. An RSI score of above 70 suggests that a stock is overbought, while an RSI score of below 30 suggests that it’s oversold. Now that eBay stock has breached $40.0, it could see short-term resistance around $40.1 and support at $38.1.
The 38 analysts covering eBay have a 12-month average price target of $39.99 on the stock, indicating that it could trade flat in the coming year.


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Customer Service and Complaints: How Firms Can Build Long-Term Resilience and New Capabilities
Regulatory agencies around the world have intensified their focus on financial institutions’ customer service activities amid a dramatic COVID-19- related surge in complaints. These stepped-up regulatory efforts come during a period when many customer services functions have been forced to pivot to 100% remote operations and as many financial services companies are looking to build up their capabilities for managing complaints to meet the increased activity.
At the peak of the pandemic, financial institutions reacted with short-term measures to servicing customer complaints. Since then, some firms have successfully launched long-term sustainment plans while many others, still rebounding from the pandemic’s impact, continue to struggle with their approach.
Given the heightened regulatory attention, financial institutions should reexamine their customer service models, using the lessons learned during the height of the pandemic to understand how these models can be enhanced to meet changing regulatory expectations and to improve their own resilience to future market disruptions.
What’s Driving the Increase in Customer Complaints?
Beginning in April 2020, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) captured more than 3,000 complaints mentioning coronavirus or other related keywords nearly every month, according to its 2020 Consumer Response Report.
For U.S. financial services companies, the rollout of emergency relief programs, such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), unemployment benefits, CARES Act loan forbearance and loan payment deferrals, required additional customer service support. Calls related to these programs and customer payment disputes and fraud claims increased, as did individual borrower efforts to obtain loan forbearance and modify mortgages and other consumer loans.
As stay-at-home orders went into effect, a number of large global banks with multiple customer service channels and consumer products encountered various levels of disruptions. Some entire channels could not service customers after shutting down branches or offshore centers. In addition, customers’ increased use of social media and online press coverage highlighting cases of slow or inadequate responses to resolve customer inquiries amplified regulators’ concerns over how customers were being treated.
The CFPB disclosed that complaint volume increased by 54% over the prior year to approximately 542,300 complaints in 2020. The biggest driver of the increase was credit and consumer agency complaints, which increased by 59% year over year. Other categories of complaints included debt collection, credit card, checking or savings, mortgage, money transfer, vehicle, and prepaid card complaints.
Meanwhile. companies with technology-enabled customer service channels (such as websites or mobile automated responses using chatbots) faced fewer spikes in service disruptions compared to those that had to quickly adjust channels, like offshore contact centers.
Heightened Regulatory Scrutiny in the United States and Internationally
In the United States, the acting head of the CFPB, Dave Uejio, indicated in a February 10, 2021 blog post that the bureau is focused on escalated complaints and is aware of some companies not meeting their obligation to respond to complaints. “It is the bureau’s expectation that companies provide substantive responses that address the issues consumers describe in their complaints,” Uejio said, adding that he has requested the bureau’s Consumer Response unit to prepare a report highlighting the companies with a poor track record on these issues. “We will be publishing this analysis and the senior leadership of these companies can expect to be hearing from me.”
The United States is not the only country seeing a rising trend in complaints escalated to regulatory agencies. A quick sampling from regulatory agencies around the world shows similar trends. For example, in the United Kingdom, the Financial Ombudsman Service noted that complaints across most credit products continued to rise in Q3 2020.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) released data showing that between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, complaints increased 14%, compared with 2018-2019. The data shows the product categories driving complaints include credit cards, consumer loans, housing finance, and deposit taking or payments.
Also, many international regulatory agencies are signaling that there will be increased scrutiny of complaints handling and resolution. Among them, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), AFCA and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have responded with various statements and actions that make clear that they regard companies’ attention to complaints and their resolution time as critical.
In a statement, the U.K.’s FCA said it considers that “firms have now had enough time to embed new ways of working, and accordingly, failure to comply with complaint handling requirements should only arise in exceptional circumstances connected to the impact of COVID-19.”
AFCA noted that between July 2019 and June 2020, $258.6 million in compensation was awarded through AFCA’s dispute resolution work. In addition, the agency noted in its 2019-2020 annual report that it had made written submissions on areas of reform, including draft legislation for enforceable industry codes of practice.
And, in March 2021, the MAS published a report on draft regulations for complaints handling and resolution in response to industry feedback. The regulations are expected to take effect January 3, 2022.
How Financial Institutions Have Responded
To keep pace with growing customer service demands and meet timelines to respond to regulatory complaints, financial services companies have taken numerous actions including:
- Quickly establishing remote working environments to avoid bumps in service periods, and accelerating moves to a cloud infrastructure if current on-premise infrastructure cannot handle the increased volume of remote work
- Shifting overall service center placement, such as relocating from offshore to onshore, centralizing on-shore location, or consolidating off-shore operations to better support remote work
- Accelerating the digital transformation of customer service channels from a nonpersonal approach to a personal one and enhancing those channels’ capabilities, with improvements such as sophisticated chat bot responses
- Handling customer-inquiry surges by hiring contract resources or training redeployed staff
Building Overall Resilience for Future Disruptions
While these immediate responses have proven to be useful short-term remedies, financial services firms need to plan and implement longer-term strategic courses of action to deal with future customer service disruptions. There are number of important questions that business leaders should be considering around resilience. For example, in the event that another pandemic-level disruption reoccurs, does the business have a resilience strategy to withstand, or recover from such a disruption and continue to perform all customer service functions? Does the company have remote-work and return-to-office strategy? Will staff be redeployed? How will it handle spikes in channels?
The short-term strategies many firms are deploying could come at a hidden, long-term cost. Spikes in customer service inquires may have actually been depressed for certain credit products because customers were granted relief options such as payment deferrals, no-fees solutions and other favorable terms.
Once the government relief options expire, it could drive another increase in inquiries. Also, the trends that exacerbated the spike in customer inquiries, such as the use of social media to voice complaints, will continue.
Financial institutions should create the right infrastructure to handle this potential surge and to avoid the type of backlogs and issues they faced during the peak of the pandemic. The root cause of the original spike in inquiries was the disruption caused by the pandemic, including the suspension of face-to-face operations, the immediate shift to a remote work environment and the overwhelming of certain customer service channels that existing technology infrastructure could not support. Now, a subsequent cause might be that favorable terms associated with relief programs will be ending.
Enhancing Technology, Data and Digital Infrastructure
There is a lot at risk for firms that fail to make long-term investments to ensure resilience in their customer service programs. In addition to costly backlogs in customer complaints, they face additional regulatory scrutiny, loss of customers to competitors and liabilities arising from not servicing an inquiry.
Among the steps to take now, firms should review their relevant technology infrastructure and evaluate all points of contact with the customer and servicing.
This process can begin with these immediate actions:
- Set strategy based on the customer service experience the institution wants to achieve
- Perform a current-state assessment of customer servicing and complaints volume against the set strategy by answering these questions:
- What are all the contact points that occur on-shore and off-shore and through what channels are they reached?
- Where is complaint volume coming from – both internally and those that are escalated to the regulators?
- What types of complaints does the institution receive?
- What is the cost to service the complaints?
- Does a proper complaints governance framework exist to monitor, report on and resolve complaints in a timely manner?
- Determine the short-term improvements to leverage complaints by, for example, shifting the complaints intake to self-serve channels, auto-adjudicating financial related complaints, and improving first-contact resolution
Once those immediate actions are taken, these productive measures can be implemented to build long-term resilience in servicing customers:
- Invest in the in-house data infrastructure used to capture data typologies surrounding the outcome of disputes sent through all channels (i.e., evaluate and classify customer contact center types)
- Utilize those typologies in a predictive analytics workstream to identify which customer contract points lead to the highest number of inquiries that are escalated to complaints internally and to regulatory agencies. Mitigation actions derived from the predictive analytics workstream should be implemented to drive the desired customer outcomes. The goal is to become more efficient at reducing the number of inquiries that lead to complaints and to avoid spikes in complaints escalated to regulators
- Modernize technology infrastructure to handle a disruption in operations or channels
- Address the people and process risks of workers going off-line or reaching capacity by moving to the cloud to allow the dispersion of employees or relocation
- Invest in technologies that can provide contactless responses and communications to customers, such as call-back features or chatbots. These measures may enable resolution of lower-risk contact points and may also highlight contact points that often lead to complaints
- Invest in process simplification to look at single points of failure that may result in a dispute being escalated to a complaint
- Re-evaluate the costs and benefits of the contact center activities to drive continuous improvement
- Refresh the compliance governance framework and complaint resolution process
It’s important that firms learn from the experience of born-digital leaders during this period. Specifically, in the area of servicing customer inquiries, firms with more technology-enabled contact center responses suffered less disruption than those that used the old channels of customer service. Companies should start directing their customers toward, and educating them on, their digital channels and enhance those channels. For instance, a chatbot should be able to cover different response areas with good response times.
Finally, many firms today are struggling to leverage their own disparate internal data and analytics. The consumer client is looking for more predictive or intuitive output or capabilities in providing solutions. Consumers who seek resolution rather than context are jumping right into digital to complain. The time is now ripe for investment in data and analytics. A number of large financial service institutions have already made this commitment, enhancing their apps and other customer service capabilities, and even those that previously were on the fence have been forced by the pandemic to accelerate digital transformation plans by about five years.
Even without the regulatory attention, the message is very clear: Those companies able to leverage data and analytics and invest in technology infrastructure and processes that will allow them to get in front of complaints will be more successful and resilient in the longer term.


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Using clouds of ultracold atoms, a scientific team at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Germany) have made microwave fields visible.
Many students learn about the Doppler effect in physics class, typically as part of a discussion of why the pitch of a siren is higher as an ambulance approaches and then lower as the ambulance passes by. The effect is useful ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- A student is helping fund third-world African communities by designing an innovative eco-friendly water bottle.
(PhysOrg.com) -- As the federal government prepares to issue its latest guidelines for healthy eating, UW researchers have found retail prices of the most nutritious foods are increasing at a higher rate than other foods.
Though summer's flowers appear delicate and carefree to us, in fact plants must be tough enough to defend their blossoms against antagonists including florivores and nectar robbers, that is, insects who eat, steal or destroy ...
(AP) -- A Google question-and-answer page for Chinese users was inaccessible from mainland China on Tuesday less than a month after the search giant's Internet license was renewed amid a dispute over online censorship.
Neil Armstrong, who turns 80 on Thursday, became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, before the eyes of hundreds of millions of television viewers worldwide, who gazed in awe.
When an incendiary bomb hit in World War II, Berlin's Tell Halaf archaeological museum went up in flames and its 3,000-year-old statues were smashed to smithereens.
Regulators Tuesday authorised the sale of Apple's iPhone 4 in the lucrative South Korean market, after the firm's decision last month to delay sales in the country upset consumers.
A University of Arizona ecologist plans to involve Tucson neighborhoods in a giant test of reconciliation ecology.


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September 2 2018 - Running a retail business can leave you wide open to various cases of fraud. You can be attacked from all angles, and it's vital you give yourself all the tools
to prevent it.
May 19 2017 - If you've been proposed a prepaid legal plan or legal protection plan, you might be wondering what their benefits are.
January 20 2017 - It's a daunting prospect for many would-be entrepreneurs, but it is possible if you follow
January 20 2017 - If you are a small business owner, freelancer, or an entrepreneur, doing your own accounts might be quite a frightening prospect.
May 30 2012 - Stanford Graduate School of Business has reported that its graduates are much more likely to
become entrepreneurs than ever before. 16% of the class of 2011 have already started their own businesses compared to a mere
5% in the early 1990s and 10-year trend data is suggesting that there is a generational shift toward entrepreneurship.
June 11 2010 - A mere 21 per cent of small business owners employing the fewest staff (between two and 10) are earning more than
they hoped for when starting their companies - despite working an average of 58 hours per week.
March 15 2005 - Minority-owned businesses expand,
contract, and survive at different rates from non-minority owned business,
according to a study from the Office of Advocacy of the U.S.
Small Business Administration.
More articles on small business entrepreneurs


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Flame Retardants In Our Homes Are A Threat To Human Health.
Flame retardants in use in a completely move of consumer products show a intimidation to human health and may not even be all that effective, according to a allegation signed by nearly 150 scientists from 22 countries. Brominated and chlorinated ardour retardants (BFRs and CFRs) are cast-off in products such as televisions, computers, chamber phones, upholstered furniture, mattresses, carpet pads, textiles, airplanes and cars first pharma scam. These chemicals are accumulating in the situation and in humans, and some of them may mischief unborn children, upset people's hormones, and may even wager a role in causing cancer, according to the San Antonio Statement, named for the Texas conurbation that hosted the 30th International Symposium of Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) finish month.
The averral said that "BFRs and CFRs can increment ignite toxicity and their overall better in improving fire safety has not been proven" buy kronic sydney. It also states that these firing retardants "can dilate the release of carbon monoxide, toxic gases and soot, which are the cause of most enthusiasm deaths and injuries".


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It may still technically be summer but Home Bargains is already looking forward to the festive season.
It's enough to strike fear in to the heart of any parent - especially as it's still August - but the cut-price chain's shelves are adorned with Christmas decorations.
An entire display of festive stock is currently for sale at one Hartlepool store with baubles and ribbons filling the shelves on one aisle.
It appears to be the same nationwide, with many shoppers commenting on social media about the store's eagerness to kick-start the festivities.
One shocked mum who visited the store in Hartlepool on Bank Holiday Monday, said: “I could hardly believe it.
“In one aisle there was Halloween stuff and the next two were packed with baubles, lights and gift bags.
"There were even gingerbread candles and it’s still August."
The shopper, who did not want to be named, added: “It does seem to get earlier every year.”


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Posted by Laura Sinacori - email
FORT FISHER, NC (WECT) - The first annual Seahorse Sprint 5k road race took place Sunday at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.
About 200 runners laced up to kick off the "Party for the Planet 2009" a week of eco events around the globe for this week highlighted by Earth Day, which is April 22nd.
Organizers say the event is a good way to show off the aquarium, get folks outside, and to promote green events.
"It's a green event," said Amy Kilgore of the aquarium. "Because we are giving away organic cotton t-shirts and we are giving away reusable shopping bags for people to use when they go to the grocery store, and we are recycling our water and soda bottles."
Pleasure Island native, and Ashley High School cross country coach, Shawn McKee won the race with a time of 18:06. For the women, Erin Hogston finished 1st with a time of 19:54.
The aquarium hopes to add a 10k to next year's event.


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SPUTNIKNEWS – January 2018: Initial investigations have revealed that unsolicited calls were made to foreigners who were lured into making payments for speedy loan approvals, tax rebates, credit rating upgrades, and online lotteries.
Police in Gurugram — the IT hub of north India, have busted a fake call center racket in which thousands of foreigners, mostly Americans were defrauded to the tune of millions of dollars.
An official from the Gurugram police who did not wish to be named told Sputnik that approximately 300 people were running ten call centers at different locations in the city.
“We have arrested 33 people, including a person from Ghana, who were working as managers and team leaders in these call centers. We are also questioning around 250 persons who were employed to make the calls to lure foreign citizens [into paying for] cheaper loans, lotteries and tax benefits,” a senior police officer from the Gurugram crime branch told Sputnik.
Apple.Inc (US) is itself aware of scams involving iTunes Gift Cards and it has an advisory on its website warning users against using such cards for purposes other than making purchases from Apple application stores.
“It’s important to know that iTunes Gift Cards can be used ONLY to purchase goods and services from the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, or for an Apple Music membership. If you’re approached to use the cards for payment outside of the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, or Apple Music, you could very likely be the target of a scam and should immediately report it to your local police department as well as the FTC,” the online advisory reads.
Experts say that such scams are a big blot on India’s image as a lucrative business process outsourcing destination.
“Increasing number of such fraud businesses is a definitely big threat to India’s $110 billion business process outsourcing (BPO) industry and the countries engaged with India have raised concern over such cases several times with the government as well,” Jiten Jain, C.E.O at Indian Infosec Consortium told Sputnik. Link: Read Complete Article


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By Nathalie Voit
Consumers’ outlook on inflation slowly improved in the short-run but showed no signs of abating on a long-term basis, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in its monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations.
Median one-year ahead inflation expectations fell in April to 6.3% from 6.6% in March. In contrast, median inflation expectations at the three-year horizon slightly increased by 0.2 percentage points to 3.9%. The Fed noted both metrics are 0.3 percentage points below their series highs, although they remain elevated.
Home price expectations held steady at 6.0%, well above their pre-pandemic levels. Respondents anticipate home prices in the “South” Census region of the country to accelerate at the fastest pace.
Consumers anticipate a significant increase in household spending heading into the year—the Survey projects year-ahead household spending to rise to 8.0% from 7.7% in March.
Spending on the cost of a college education and rent is also projected to increase. According to the New York Fed survey, consumer expectations for the cost of a college degree and rent rose by 0.6 percentage points to 9.1% and 0.1 percentage points to 10.3%. The median expected increase in rent is now at a new record high, its worst reading since the survey began in 2013.
On a more positive note, consumers expect gas prices to increase more slowly over the near term. The expected change in gas prices one year from now fell sharply by 4.4 percentage points to 5.2%. Consumer expectations for the cost of food and medical care 12 months from now also subsided to 9.4% and 9.5%.
Participants also expressed optimism about their labor market prospects. Earnings growth expectations at the one-year horizon remain strong at its series high of 3.0% in April. The mean perceived probability of losing one’s employment in the next 12 months also decreased to an all-time low of 10.8%.
The New York Fed survey was published just days before the Labor Department released data for April consumer prices. According to the report, consumer prices in April spiked 8.3% over the last 12 months. The all-items index was slightly down from the previous month’s 8.5% 12-month inflation reading.


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According to a statement from Mr. Al Gore , board member at Apple , the new iPhone 5 will be launched in October . Al Gore specifically stated that ‘the new iPhones would be out next month’ . Al Gore , a senior board member at Apple made this statement at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit held on 21st Sept 2011 at Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Center .
Toby Shapshak, an editor at Stuff Magazine who was in South Africa attending the conference said that Mr. Gore’s quote was “Not to mention about the new iPhones coming out next month” . It is widely speculated that there will be two iPhone launches this year , one the cheaper entry-level iPhone 4S having the same design as the iPhone 4 and the new iPhone 5 .
Stay tuned as we bring you more updates about iPhone 5 Release . Subscribe .


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The launch date of Apple's next iPhone has been revealed, albeit unofficially. The hotly anticipated smartphone has been tipped for a September 10 launch by All Things D.
There has been no mention on the products which are expected to be launched. The numerous leaks point at Apple launching its top shelf smartphone alongside a budget-friendly sibling with a polycarbonate casing (you can see a roundup of all the rumors over here). Of course, iOS 7 release date is also more than likely to be announced.


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nutpods marks one of the earliest examples of the impact Helio can have in surfacing young brands with strong conviction early in their trajectory. When Helio found nutpods a few months after the brand launched, nutpods had generated less than $50,000 in revenue, but showed exceptional brand growth, largely driven by outstanding product reviews. Fast forward to today, CircleUp Growth Partners is excited to announce our investment in nutpods, acting on the data-driven conviction Helio revealed to us in 2015.
When the CircleUp team first met Madeline Haydon, founder and CEO of nutpods, we were immediately impressed by her passion for her product, unwavering plant-based vision and courage to build her brand differently. Fittingly, Nutpods was born in a less traditional way. The product, originally developed by Madeline to solve her own dietary needs, became a viral sensation on Kickstarter in a 2015 campaign. Shortly thereafter, it launched in the market and was initially sold exclusively through e-commerce channels. The nutpods product, an unsweetened, plant-based alternative dairy creamer which is now available in both a fresh and shelf-stable format, immediately resonated with consumers.
nutpods has grown at a 500% compound annual growth rate in the past two years. A major driver for the growth has been nutpods’ social media presence, which provides a platform for affinity, category and brand education, and real-time referral from the individuals and “tribes” (such as Whole30) who purchase the creamer regularly. nutpods’ consumers consider the product a true solution and not just an “alternative” to being lactose intolerant, or to avoiding the cholesterol of dairy creamer, or to improving dietary habits.
The nutpods brand is still in the early innings and 2018 is off to an impressive start. In addition to strong performance across e-commerce and natural channels, nutpods has recently increased its footprint in strategic conventional accounts. We are excited to see the brand continue to grow at a rapid pace as awareness exponentially increases.
Aside from Madeline’s leadership and the brand’s compelling growth, there are three powerful market trends that nutpods uniquely sits at the intersection of:
1. Health and Transparency Trend
People are increasingly conscientious about their health and they demand transparency from the brands and products that they purchase. Ingredient labels have become the central focus, and the longer the list is of hard-to-pronounce ingredients, the more dubious a consumer becomes.
Within the creamer category, the largest incumbent brand, Coffee Mate, has been on the market since 1961 with an unchanged ingredient label riddled with inputs hard to decipher, specifically artificial ingredients such as phosphoric acid, corn syrup solids, mono- and diglycerides, carrageenan, added sugar, and partially dehydrogenated vegetable oil. By contrast, nutpods is a dairy-free alternative made from heart-healthy almonds and MCT-rich coconuts. The product was developed to ensure that people valuing health and transparency do not have to sacrifice quality.
2. Plant-Based Movement
The popularity of the flexitarian movement continues to increase. While many consumers are not necessarily looking to remove all animal products from their diet, they are looking for ways to use animal products less. According to Nielsen data compiled by the Plant Based Foods Association and The Good Food Institute, sales of plant-based food and beverages rose 8.1% to $3.1 billion in the past year. We believe the growth in the plant-based movement will continue as consumers make a concerted effort to substitute away from animal-based products. Given the highly ritualistic behavior of coffee consumption, nutpods has an opportunity to be the plant-based substitute that will still allow consumers to look forward to their daily cup of Joe.
3. Third Wave Coffee Evolution
The way people buy and consume coffee has changed dramatically in recent years. We now dramatically favor fair-trade and full-flavor beans. People want coffee that is not only made ethically, but also tastes great. As we demand to know more about our coffee and its supply chain, we are also more intentional about what goes into our coffee. It doesn’t make sense to pay a premium for a unique roast only to have the flavor spoiled by an artificial sweetener or a plant-based milk that can be watery in texture. nutpods has more reviews on Amazon than any other creamer, including long-standing incumbents, and people overwhelming laud the delicious taste and creamy texture that pairs well with any coffee roast.
Below you can see the growth of nutpods on the Consumer Reach Index (“CRI”), a tool that CircleUp built in Helio to measure the omnichannel growth of a brand across all tracked channels. nutpods’ growth in consumer reach has accelerated at a rapid pace, particularly over the last few months, and more specifically, door growth in natural and conventional retailers has grown 400% in the last 4 months.
For relative context, nutpods still has only 1/25th of the consumer reach of an established alternative dairy incumbent, Silk, indicating that there is still significant runway for the brand to continue to grow as its ACV increases. We are excited to partner with the nutpods team for their next chapter of growth and we look forward to getting the product in the hands of what will be more loyal nutpods’ fans.


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After nearly a year since the launch of the Modern version of Photoshop Express on the Windows Store, Adobe has finally brought the application to Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.
Windows 10 Build 10125 leaks online
Ulefone Be Touch: Video unboxing and first impressions
LG G4 Review - the phone that tries to offer everything
"..is now a top seller and lets you put all your favorite sci-fi ships against each other" - Brad Wardell
galactic civilizations 3
Tronsmart's USB Smart Charger; an ideal solution for the household?
All the latest news for Windows 10 Mobile and Desktop previews
Nokia has revealed that BlackBerry's BBM app will be coming to Windows Phone, via its Lumia devices, along with other apps made for Microsoft's mobile operating system.
Adobe has released the free Photoshop Express app for Windows 8 and RT devices, allowing users to access a number of photo editing features. It also has support for in-app purchases.
Joining the ever-increasing list of applications to go cross-platform, Adobe has updated its free Photoshop Express application to include support for Android and the iPad – although it is yet to be updated for the...


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Mirzapur season 2 is all set to premiere on Amazon Prime in 2020. Here we have five powerful characters of the web series that makes it a must-watch.
From Kaleem Bhaiya To Guddu Pandit, Here's How Much Is The Net Worth Of 'Mirzapur 2' Cast
From Pankaj Tripathi to Priyanshu Painyuli, here are the actors making their Hollywood debut this year.
Amazon Prime Video India’s YouTube channel released a video compilation of all the slaps in the Mirzapur. Watch the viral video here.
Mirzapur 2 is one of the most anticipated show. Now, Pankaj Tripathi aka Kaleen Bhaiya has shared an update on the second season.
Here's what Vikrant Massey has to say on his role in Mirzapur 2
Mirzapur actor Pankaj Tripathi has reportedly bought a new mercedes
Despite making the announcement of Mirzapur season 2, makers of the series yet to declare its official release date.
Amazon Prime Video shares a sneak peek into the much-awaited season two of Mirzapur, Pankaj Tripathi aka Kaleen Bhaiya also makes his Instagram debut.
Before Sacred Games new season goes on air, Netflix shares a retro look of the series cast. Check out the pictures and videos here.
Superstar Hrithik Roshan starrer Super 30 released this Friday, and has kicked off well at the box office on its opening day.
Sacred Games season 2 teaser: Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey join Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the new season of the Netflix crime thriller


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Crowdfunding campaigns are effective ways for people to help others in need. But news that a couple conspired with a homeless man to create a heartwarming Good Samaritan story to scam people out of money highlights the importance of vetting viral feel-good stories before donating.
Mark D’Amico, Kate McClure and Johnny Bobbitt Jr. are being charged with second-degree theft by deception and second-degree conspiracy after reportedly creating a fake story about a good deed and raising over $400,000 on the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe. McClure and D’Amico claimed that Bobbitt Jr., who is homeless, gave McClure his last $20 when her vehicle ran out of gas. The story picked up tremendous press attention before it began to unravel. GoFundMe said it would refund donors.
Pretty much anyone can set up their own campaign, though instances of fraud to this magnitude are rare, according to Consumer Reports. Still, you’ll want to be careful anytime you’re giving money away, particularly around the holidays, when scams proliferate as thieves try to take advantage of people’s good will.
Crowdfunding campaigns offer some oversight (and may refund you if you are scammed; read the fine print), but not to the degree that nonprofits and charities do, which means you should be a bit more discerning in the campaigns you support.
How to Spot a Scam
So, what should you look for when donating money on the crowdfunding platforms? CR recommends donating to people you already know and trust.
If you don’t know the person, you shouldn’t be the first or one of the first to donate. Wait until a few others have donated, and read the comments that are left to see if anything suspicious pops up. If a campaign has reached its stated goal, consider donating elsewhere, as there’s no guarantee of where the extra funds will go.
In times of distress—like natural disasters or mass shootings—platforms like GoFundMe will create verified pages with campaigns that the company has vetted itself. This is an extra layer of security. For example, here’s a page for the California wildfires.
Another tip that we’ve covered before: Reverse search the campaign’s image on Google:
If you’re using Chrome, just right click the main photo on the GoFundMe page and select “Search Google for image.” If you see a ton of results, scammers probably stole that photo to use for their fake campaign.
Also, check the campaign administrator’s social media presence, and “Google the name of the recipient and ‘complaint,’ “review,’ “rating,’ or ‘scam,’” suggests Marketwatch. Avoid pages with little to no information or specifics.
Obviously, it’s not a fool-proof system. People you don’t know will continue to need donations for health care, natural disasters, etc., and you should give if you can. Just be a bit more vigilant on sites like GoFundMe so you know that your money is going to a good cause.


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With four new cell phones in the last three months, Samsung and Verizon Wireless clearly have become quite chummy lately. We've seen the QWERTY keyboard SCH-U740, the V Cast Mobile TV-capable SCH-U620, the 3G SCH-U540, and the low-end SCH-U340. And now it appears the two companies will round out their portfolios even more, with the new Samsung SCH-U410.
Sporting a rather generic flip phone design, the SCH-U410 doesn't offer an eye-popping feature set but it's not exactly a lightweight either. According to Mobiledia you'll find a VGA camera, Bluetooth, a speakerphone, voice dialing, and support for Verizon's VZ Navigator GPS service. We don't know pricing at this time but we should see the device by the middle of the year.
Discuss: Verizon to nab Samsung SCH-U410
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Top 5 Google Pixel phone features we want to see
If Google is making a phone, they need to make sure they include everything on this list.
by Iyaz Akhtar
Elon Musk says hello to Mars. BlackBerry says goodbye to phones
In this week's news wrap, SpaceX's founder explains what it will take to become a "multiplanetary species." Meanwhile, BlackBerry exits the hardware game.


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Gay Apple customer outraged after he ‘received receipt from store employee with homophobic slur printed on it in place of email address’
- Adam Catanzarite visited an Apple store to purchase a pair of headphones
- Claims he was given a receipt with the words 'email@example.com' printed on it
- Says slur was put in the place usually reserved for customer's email address
- Posted picture of the receipt to Facebook and hit out at Apple
- Wrote that it is 'not okay' for companies to use such words
A gay Apple customer claims he was handed a receipt with a homophobic slur on it after shopping in one of their stores.
Adam Catanzarite visited the Apple store at Pioneer Place in Portland last month to purchase a pair of $29 earphones.
But when he checked his receipt days later, the place reserved for the customer's email address had been replaced with the words firstname.lastname@example.org.
The receipt Mr Catanzarite claims he was given with the homophobic slur after shopping at an Apple store
The slur was printed on the receipt where the customer's email address is usually placed
An outraged Mr Catanzarite then took to his Facebook page, where he uploaded a picture of the receipt and hit out at Apple.
In the post he said: 'I know first-hand that this is an example of the type of #homophobic beliefs and actions that lead young people to harm themselves.
'This type of action is NOT OKAY, especially from a company that prides itself on being LGBTQ inclusive and welcoming.'
It is thought that when asked for his email address, Mr Catanzarite refused to give it to the employee and the letters could have innocently been entered as a way of filling out the email address field.
It is claimed Mr Catanzarite was offered a refund as an apology and a store gift card, which he says he gave away.
But now he has called on Apple to offer training to employees so they can learn the impact the word can have.
The post Mr Catanzarite wrote on Facebook after finding the gay slur on his receipt from Apple
In a separate Facebook post he explained: 'Historically, my communities have faced a history that is filled with extreme violence by individuals who are victims of their own homophobia and the society that says homophobic behavior is okay.
'The employee who entered email@example.com should not be fired (take a minute to let that settle in if you need to), but should be given an opportunity to learn about the impact of the use of the word and how these words impact the individuals who have been oppressed by them.
'Apple should give this employee an opportunity to get the resources they need to better serve their customers.'
Mr Catanzarite had been shopping at the Apple store in Pioneer Place, pictured in Portland, Oregon
A spokesman for Apple told the Oregonian that they were aware of the incident but declined to comment further.
It comes after a bar in Washington DC came under fire earlier last year for also allegedly printing a homophobic slur on a customer's receipt.
Transgendered woman Amira Gray visited Bistro 18 with a group of friends and was handed a receipt with the words 'Gay b*****s' printed on it
Ms Gray made a legal complaint and said in a statement: 'As a transgender woman I was extremely hurt, embarrassed, and upset.'
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MANILA: Singapore hopes to build up e-commerce frameworks, cyber capabilities and create an ASEAN network of smart cities as the incoming chairman for the regional bloc, the country’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday (Nov 14).
Mr Lee was speaking at a commemorative summit marking 20 years of partnership among ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea, collectively called ASEAN Plus Three.
It is important that the group finds innovative ways to harness the opportunities afforded by new technologies, he said, adding that the East Asian countries are already at the forefront of technology adoption, particularly in e-commerce and smart cities.
“There is tremendous potential if we combine efforts and leverage on each other’s strengths,” he said. ASEAN’s digital economy is projected to grow by 500 per cent, to around US$200 billion (S$272 billion) by 2025, he added.
On Monday, at a summit with China, Mr Lee said there is much ASEAN can learn from the regional superpower when it comes to financial technology, e-commerce and smart cities.
Since its establishment in 1997, ASEAN Plus Three has been a “valuable mechanism in our regional architecture”, Mr Lee said. “It has catalysed mutually beneficial cooperation across fields such as tourism, finance, health, education and food security,” he said.
He added that ASEAN Plus Three has fostered collaboration and sense of collective during tough times, such as the financial crises and the SARS epidemic.
A report published by the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), earlier this year said that the Asian financial crisis in 1997 was a "landmark event" for ASEAN Plus Three that spurred intra-regional integration in trade and investment and led to systems to ease the impact of global threats. Separately, the SARS epidemic in 2003 also prompted the countries to establish frameworks and mechanisms to combat such highly infectious outbreaks.
ASEAN PLUS THREE AN “ECONOMIC NEXUS”: PM LEE
Describing ASEAN Plus Three as an "economic nexus", Mr Lee said that in 2016, ASEAN’s merchandise trade with the Plus Three countries amounted to nearly US$700 billion, or 31 per cent of ASEAN’s total merchandise trade.
Mr Lee added that ASEAN is happy to adopt the Manila Declaration on the 20th Anniversary of ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation. The declaration will take note of the significant achievements of the ASEAN Plus Three in the last two decades and also set the direction and priorities for the coming years.
Still, there is a need to further advance economic and financial integration, he said. While he said he was glad to see the region pressing on with economic integration amid growing sentiments against globalisation, he reiterated that it is important to intensify efforts to conclude a high-quality and comprehensive Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
RCEP is a free trade agreement under negotiation since 2012, involving ASEAN Plus Three along with India, Australia and New Zealand. RCEP will bring tangible benefits to the group’s businesses and citizens, and “show the world that East Asia is confident in our economic future”, he said.
ENHANCING CONNECTIVITY TO IMPROVE LINKS
“It is also encouraging that we are deepening regional connectivity to enhance our physical, institutional and people-to-people linkages,” Mr Lee said. He said that cruise tourism is a “particularly promising sector” to deepen infrastructural and people-to-people connectivity among the countries.
He said this as he spoke about the "potential synergy" among the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 and Plus Three countries' initiatives on infrastructure. ASEAN's plan surrounds sustainable infrastructure, digital innovation, seamless logistics, regulatory excellence and people mobility.
"We can also push ahead with practical demonstration projects of common interest to showcase our commitment to promote connectivity,” he added.
He said that tourist flows across East Asia are rising rapidly, citing figures. Plus Three countries accounted for more than a quarter of tourist arrivals into ASEAN in 2015, up from just over a fifth in 2014, he noted.
He added that the group should continue to strengthen key ASEAN Plus Three initiatives such as AMRO and the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation. AMRO is seen as the Asian version of the International Monetary Fund and has been described as an "early warning mechanism" that can provide policy recommendations to avert crises, while the Chiang Mai Initiative functions as a joint reserve that provides loans for countries in financial trouble.
MAINTAINING REGIONAL PEACE AND STABILITY
He also spoke on the need to work together to maintain regional peace and stability. “Regional security is the cornerstone of our growth and development,” he said, adding that Singapore is “deeply concerned” about the situation in the Korean Peninsula.
Singapore strongly condemns recent provocations by North Korea, he said.
“These actions pose a severe threat to regional peace, security and stability. Any miscalculation will have devastating consequences,” he said, urging North Korea to desist from its provocations and abide by international obligations and commitments.
In concluding his remarks, Mr Lee said that as ASEAN chair in 2018, Singapore will do its best to further deepen growing ties with the Plus Three countries and work towards achieving the long-term goal of building an East Asian Community.
“We should build on the ASEAN Plus Three’s dynamic character, and strengthen its role in our open and inclusive regional architecture,” he said.


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Dairy Farmers of Britain believes it has struck gold with the latest development from its Lubborn Creamery near Chard, Somerset.
The first 2.25kg rounds of its new Channel Island Brie were rolling out of the packing machine this week after 10 days of ripening, destined for independent stores around the country.
Lubborn general manager Dominic Mullan said the new Brie was already selling ahead of expectations at Marks & Spencer, where it was available in own-label wedges.
“We saw the opportunity to produce a more luxurious, creamy version of our staple Somerset Brie, but produced from Jersey and Guernsey milk sourced within 25 miles of the factory.”
The prize-winning cheese is competing with premium French offerings, such as Brie de Meaux, and it is 30% more expensive than the standard Somerset Brie at about £9.50/kg, he said.
“That is because the cows give more butterfat, but 60% less volume than black-and-whites, so it is more expensive to produce.”
The £7m factory was built four years ago and has the capacity to produce for a further three or four years at 20% growth in sales, said Mr Mullan.
Lubborn also produces Capricorn goats’ cheese, which has seen steady sales growth of 15% for at least 10 years, and a stronger Camembert cheese.
The ultra-efficient dairy processes 14m litres of milk a years from 25 local farmers, and also serves as a hub for Sainsbury’s other West Country producers, including Denhay bacon and Rhodda clotted cream in Cornwall.
DFB is looking at developing new products such as Brie with fruit fillings or herb coating and even shaped cheese.
But the first off the production line is likely to be a stronger goats’ cheese for M&S, provisionally known as Somerset Barnstormer.
Later this year, DFB is planning a big campaign to boost its brand image and hopes more of its cheese will go into supermarkets with the new DFB logo.
With retail sales of £140m a year, the dairy co-op already claims the brand is well recognised.
“We are working out internally how to go forward with our branding,” said Mr Mullan.
“We want to tell the story of DFB later in the year, that our products are fresh from the countryside and local.”


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Vantiv Extends Card Processing
Vantiv LLC has signed three more credit unions for credit card processing services.
Two of the credit unions, the $190 million Paducah Federal Credit Union in Paducah, Ky., and the $98 million Border Federal Credit Union in Del Rio, Texas, are existing processing clients and will be expanding their services with Vantiv, according to the company. The $42 million Sonoma County Grange Credit Union in Santa Rosa, Calif. is the newest client.
“We are looking forward to the opportunities of this expanded partnership,” said Dale Adams, vice president at Paducah FCU. “The Vantiv debit card program has worked extremely well for us, and because of the success we have already enjoyed, it made sense to partner with Vantiv for our credit card program as well.”
Border FCU Chief Operating Officer Ruben Cisneros said the new alliance will allow the credit union to offer its members a competitive card at a lower rate.
“Vantiv gives us everything we were looking for in a card processor and more. We are looking forward to leveraging their expertise in order to grow our card portfolio,” Cisneros said.


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Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is providing to market roughly $20 billion worth of stake in its retail arm, Reliance Retail, to Amazon, BloombergQuint noted on Thursday, citing Bloomberg News. Amazon has held talks about investing in Reliance Retail and expressed fascination in negotiating prospective specials, in accordance to the report.
The shares of RIL were up 4 for every cent in mid-working day buying and selling on the BSE. The business experienced previously on Thursday become the initial mentioned Indian organization to cross $two hundred billion in industry capitalisation.
Amazon did not immediately answer to a Reuters ask for for comment, even though RIL did not immediately return an electronic mail trying to get comment.
The report comes a working day following RIL introduced that US non-public equity organization Silver Lake Companions would purchase a 1.75 for every cent stake in Reliance Retail for Rs 7,500 crore. It was also noted that KKR was in superior talks to spend at the very least $1 billion in the business.
In nevertheless another report of most likely expenditure in Reliance Retail, West Asian sovereign prosperity cash, which includes the Abu Dhabi Investment decision Authority (ADIA) and Saudi Arabia’s General public Investment decision Fund (PIF), are reported to in talks to purchase stakes in the business, in accordance to the Economical Moments.
ADIA is noted to be in conversations to spend about $750 million at a valuation of roughly $57 billion, even though PIF could funnel as considerably as $1.5 billion into Reliance Retail.
The noted specials and most likely investments adhere to Reliance Retail’s acquisition of Potential Retail’s grocery and attire company for Rs 24,713 crore to increase its share of the industry. The acquisition is estimated to consider its industry share to 38 for every cent of the organised grocery retail from the previously 22 for every cent.


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Why Should ‘Luxury’ Service Providers Pay for the Kirwan Plan?
Earlier this week, the Maryland General Assembly rejected a bill that would expand Maryland’s sales tax to services to pay for the unaffordable Kirwan education plans. This is a huge victory for Maryland’s service providers, but unfortunately, the battle is far from over.
As an alternative plan, Democrats are proposing to move forward with nine tax bills that would bring in over $700 million revenue annually to pay for the Kirwan plan. Among these bills, HB 1354 proposes that the state extend the 6 percent sales tax to a small number of “luxury services,” to raise about $72 million revenue by 2025.
The list of “luxury services” the bill would affect include cleaning services, storage, interior design, dog walking, and jewelry repair. Just by looking at this random list, it is easy to see the problem with the proposed tax.
The most obvious problem with Del. Lorig Charkoudian’s proposal is that the definition of “luxury services” is rather subjective and arbitrary. For instance, tanning services are included in the list, but nail and spa services are not. Is it considered “luxurious” to get tanning services but not spa services? Problems like this would make this proposed tax extremely difficult to administer. It could be perceived as discriminatory in many ways. This explains why most states have stayed away from adopting such a controversial form of tax.
Another even bigger problem with the luxury service tax is that many service providers are small businesses that are struggling to meet its ends. While people who use cleaning services can generally afford them, businesses offering such services are not typically giant corporations making excessive profits. Furthermore, the low-income workers who provide such cleaning and other affected services would be indirectly hit by the the new tax.
So the question is, why should low-income service providers and workers who provide services to wealthy users pay for the Kirwan plan? What makes them a better revenue source than lawyers and accountants who would not be subject to such taxes?
Some may argue that people who can afford luxury services in the first place would not use the services less because of a price change. However, this argument contradicts evidence in the literature: economists suggest that the demand for luxury goods and services is highly “elastic,” meaning that a small increase in price would drive consumers to look for substitutes. In Maryland’s case, luxury service providers in Virginia would be more than ready to take over Maryland clients any day.
Furthermore, demand for luxury services is also affected by economic cycles. Naturally, middle-class families trying to save or fight a recession would reduce their consumption of services that aren’t “necessary,” as they cannot cut back on essential goods. Amid predictions of an upcoming recession, depending on such an unstable source of revenue to fund the Kirwan plan is not a desirable solution.
Therefore, instead of looking for vulnerable groups to pay for the expensive and misguided Kirwan plan, Maryland should revise its education reform philosophy from “more money” to “more accountability.” No matter how many businesses sacrifice to pay for the plan, without more attention focused on how each additional dollar is being spent on schools, Maryland students will continue to underperform, and the demand for additional funding will never disappear.
With that said, taxing luxury services to fund anything, let alone a poorly designed education proposal, is neither administratively desirable nor politically justifiable. Along with the eight other tax bills that are under consideration, Maryland lawmakers should question whether more taxes are true solutions to the state’s education crisis.


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India’s largest luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz today announced the appointment of Martin Schwenk as the new Managing Director and CEO of its India operations effective 1st November, 2018.
Martin Schwenk will replace Roland Folger, who will assume a new position for Mercedes-Benz’s Thailand & Vietnam markets.
In the last three years under the leadership of Roland Folger, Mercedes-Benz India has witnessed significant growth rates, achieving the highest market share in the luxury car segment.
Roland Folger played a key role in formulating the brand’s growth strategy that includes market introductions of key products like the roll-out of the E-Class Long Wheelbase, qualitative expansion of the network footprint, and also the creation of the Vehicle Preparation Centre.
In 2017, Mercedes-Benz India achieved sales history by crossing the 15,000 annual sales number and in Jan-June 2018, the brand registered 8061 units of sales.
During his tenure in India, Roland Folger has also been instrumental in initiating an array of positive cultural changes within Mercedes-Benz India and successfully driving Daimler AG’s Expedition 2020 initiative.


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Zija Offers Sneak Peek Of Upcoming Super Regional Event
Zija’s Super Regional event is only weeks away as eager Distributors and customers excitedly await the new tools and products that are to be launched. Industry-altering discoveries will be announced along with 15 new and highly-anticipated products; these products will come from both the company’s Zija Core Nutritionals and Améo Essential Oils product divisions.
Zija is also expected to unveil new business-building technology, a state-of-the-art, interactive training program, exciting Compensation Plan enhancements, and much more!
The numerous product and tool revelations will allow Zija members to find better health and wellness and truly experience the company’s mantra—Life Unlimited—like never before. In addition to the impressive announcements being made on October 23-24 at the Zija event, the company will also be casting a vision for their future and providing a glimpse at big things that are coming in 2016—the company’s 10-year anniversary.
Zija Super Regional attendees will hear from keynote speaker and author, Dr. Monica Marcu, who will inspire and educate on the amazing health benefits of nature’s “miracle tree,” Moringa oleifera. Essential oil expert and innovator, Dr. Daniel Pénoël, will be attending as a featured speaker to teach Distributors how they can truly utilize and apply Améo Essential Oils in their daily lives.
Attendees will also enjoy hilarious and compelling words of world-renowned inspirational speaker, master motivator, and entertainer Dan Clark. Additionally, training from Zija’s executive team and top field leaders will be provided to help electrify Zija Distributors’ business and personal life.
Tours of Zija’s Corporate Headquarters will be offered, the newest Zija, Améo and Ripstix Supplements SWAG will be available at the on-site event store, cash and prize giveaways, and on-stage entertainment are added attractions to the biggest Zija event of the year!
ABOUT ZIJA INTERNATIONAL
Zija International, a privately held and privately funded business founded and led by Kenneth E. Brailsford, develops natural health, wellness, nutrition and fitness products. The company operates in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Zija has seen consistent growth every year since it was founded over 9 years ago and was recently named the “Fastest-Growing Company in Utah” by Utah Business Magazine. It has also been recognized on fastest-growing and top-revenue lists by Inc. Magazine, Direct Selling News, and Utah Valley Magazine, to name a few.
With corporate offices located in Lehi and more than 4 million sq. ft. of state-of-the-art warehouse, shipping and manufacturing facilities located in Utah, United States, Zija International employs more than 200 individuals and has the capacity to grow to more than two billion dollars in annual sales.


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In case you missed the news recently: Our cups are getting bigger.
According to The Daily Beast and other reports, the average bra size is now 34DD up from 34B over the last 30 years. That means there are lot more voluptuous women out there. They need (and want) stylish bras. But it’s not just that, curvy women (whether endowed at top or bottom) want better options when it comes to lingerie.
That’s why Dallas resident Psyche Terry founded Urban Intimates Lingerie, a collection that gives curvy women better support, coverage and style. The line is now available at 10 Macy’s stores nationwide, including the Pearland store.
At 2 p.m. Saturday, I will be co-hosting an Urban Intimates fashion show with Terry at the Macy’s in Pearland, 11200 Broadway. It’ll be a chance to talk with her about line, shop and get a bra-fitting (since we know most of us still are wearing the wrong size).
Terry, who previously worked in sales for Whirlpool, said she had always wanted to work in fashion. But it wasn’t until she had children and discovered she was a DD cup, not a B, she realized the need for better options in the intimates category. She started the line with her husband, Vontoba Terry in 2009, and it was launched at Macy’s in May. Urban Intimates has been worn by celebrities, including actress Nicole Ari Parker and Khloe Kardashian who loves the Everyday Sexy Bra in leopard.
“I couldn’t find anything in a Double D that was sexy and feminine,” she said. “Lingerie is so much a part of being a woman. I wanted to find great, stylish products that I could afford and there weren’t any. I knew there were other women out there like me looking for the same thing.”
Urban Intimates is not only designed to fit a woman with larger and fuller breasts, but also the underwear is cut for a woman with fuller hips and bottom in a way that is comfortable and prevents the annoying “wedgy.” Bras are $36; panties, $12-14; lacy night shirts, $30, and gowns, $34. Sizes start at M/L up to 3X.
Again, we’re at Macy’s in Pearland 2 p.m. Saturday. Come!


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Next week the rumors, the speculation, and the curiosity come to an end. Or at least that's the hope.
Apple on Tuesday is holding an event at its campus with the tag line "Let's talk iPhone." It's been more than a year since the last iPhone came out, and the event is expected to bring a full unveiling of its successor.
Along with the iPhone, next week's event should give us full details, if not the formal release, of iOS 5 as well as iCloud, the latter being the company's backup and synchronization service. Both got their debut in June during WWDC with the promise of a release this fall.
We'll be there to cover the news live, as it happens. Look for more details on how to view our live coverage in the coming days. Now, as usual, here's a wrap up of some of this week's big Apple news and rumors to get you all caught up.
News of the week
As mentioned above, Apple sent out its invites to select press bright and early Tuesday morning, a week from when the event is being held. The invite features a cluster of four iOS icons and the tag line "Let's talk iPhone" (see above). The move is a departure to last year, when Apple took the wraps off a new iPhone at its annual developers conference in San Francisco. This time around, the event is being held at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.
iPod click wheel games disappear from the iTunes Store
You might remember that not too long before the App Store, Apple began selling games through iTunes for its click wheel iPods. Even since the popularity of Apple's touch-screen iPods and the iPhone and iPad, those games have remained. But as noted by AppleInsider, Apple quietly removed them from the iTunes Store earlier this week, prompting speculation that the click wheel sporting iPod Classic is well and truly on its way out.
A filing picked up on this week by MacRumors shows that the United States Patent and Trademark Office denied Apple's application to trademark the term "Multi-Touch," the technology that registers multiple touches at once on touch-screen devices. The filing says the mark was denied for simply describing the feature and not backing up the application with proof that consumers associate the term with Apple. The application itself goes back to when Apple first introduced the iPhone in 2007, which made use of multi-touch in apps like viewing photos and navigating through maps.
New European countries get iTunes Stores
Apple's iTunes Store expanded into new territory this week. As noted by MacRumors on Wednesday, Apple's iTunes Music Store launched in a number of new countries, including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
An appeals court this week sided with Apple against Mac clone maker Psystar for infringing on its copyrights. You might remember that as the company that began offering custom-built PCs running Apple's Mac OS X. Apple filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Psystar for doing that in 2008, winning in a ruling a year later. Apple was also awarded a permanent injunction against Psystar, keeping the company from selling any hardware.
Rumors of the week
A new rumor roundup of sorts from 9to5mac this week claimed Apple's next iPhone will sport 1GB of RAM as well as a substantially more complex voice-recognition control system that lets users navigate about the phone as well as launch apps with their voice. Apple has long been rumored to be working on such efforts given its pick-up of Siri and its voice-activated assistant application last year. Macrumors piled on, providing mock-ups of what the system is said to look like, as well as a video of how it works.
Citing new information from "Mr. X," a frequent leaker of Apple product numbers, 9to5mac this week reported that two new iPhones have appeared in the company's inventory system alongside three new iPod Touch models. Before getting too excited, the blog suggests the iPods could just be white versions of existing models, with the iPhones being a low capacity model of the iPhone 4 aimed at budget-conscious buyers.
iPad shipments cut 25 percent? Not so fast
A from a J.P. Morgan Chase analyst made waves at the beginning of the week, suggesting that Apple cut fourth-quarter iPad shipments by 25 percent, a signal sales of the device might be slowing. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster the idea, suggesting any drop in Apple's iPad production in Asia could be due to a ramp up in iPad production in Brazil.
What's up with that bevy of that have popped up in the last few months? Well, according to a new report, you can blame that on a prototype of the device that went missing earlier this year. Blog M.I.C. Gadget said that while visiting Shenzhen, China, last week, it heard from an "iPhone accessories supplier" that a prototype of the device had gone missing from Foxconn's factory in that area. The tipster alleged that the device had then been sold to case makers who were eager to get a head start on production.
iPod Classic and Shuffle to be discontinued?
The non-touch based version of the iPod's taken a back seat to the iPhone for years now, but people are still snapping up millions of them each quarter. Nonetheless, that number's long been in decline. A new report from TUAW this week suggested Apple plans to trim some of the fat by shelving its two non-touch-screen based iPods: the Classic and the Shuffle. Following the quiet removal of iPod click wheel games from iTunes this week, this rumor certainly becomes a whole lot more interesting.
See also my colleague Donald Bell'son why it might not be a bad time to kill off the product that helped turn Apple into a consumer tech giant.
Patent of the week
A 2010 application published this week points to some interesting video stabilization technology Apple is seeking to patent.
The filing, picked up by Patently Apple, is for "accelerometer/gyro-facilitated video stabilization." In short, it details a system for making use of the accelerometer and/or gyroscope to track when shaking is happening during video recordings. The patent then describes a system for selectively running that data stream through any stabilization process to smooth out just the bits that register with lots of shakes.
Apple already offers stabilization in its video editing software, including both iMovie and Final Cut Pro X. The first Apple portable hardware to ship with both an accelerometer and a gyro was last year's iPhone 4, though the patent suggests the system could be used in other portable devices like handheld video cameras and portable computers.
Apple Talk Weekly is a roundup of some of the week's top Apple-related news, rumors and answers to your questions (which we skipped in this week's edition). If you have something Apple-related you want answered in next week's edition, drop me a line using the e-mail link below this post.


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Federated Media, a leading advertising network, is buying assets of TextDigger, a five-year-old semantic search company, specializing in vertical search as well as the automated tagging and organization of content. Terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition, announced early Monday, is part of Federated Media's plans to expand its technology platform to provide more tools and services to its couple hundred publisher customers. Recently, FM hired Chief Product Officer, Amy Yeh, to head up a growing technology team and platform roadmap.
"We're going to be able to accelerate traffic to [FM's network] by showing related content so that eyeballs don't leave [the publisher's] site," said Tim Musgrove, CEO and founder of TextDigger, in an interview with me. Tim will begin working at FM as Chief Scientist, but will also remain affiliated at TextDigger as the Senior Research Fellow.
As part of this deal, TextDigger, which raised a total of $5.8 million in venture financing, from True Ventures, Intel Capital, CBS Interactive and angel investors, will remain a stand-alone company and will go back to its roots of improving vertical search for publishers, such as Fark, Red Orbit and PC World.
TextDigger will also be able to help FM improve the relevancy of its ads that it displays on its network, by leveraging TextDigger's semantic technology. Additionally, FM will have the ability to re-sell TextDigger's SEO (search engine optimization) services, which helps publishers improve their SEO rankings.


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Following predictions from other banks, such as ABN Amro and ING, as well as from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB), Rabobank has also released its predictions for what the Dutch economy will look like after the coronacrisis.
The best case scenario is that the economy shrinks by 5%. That’s assuming that normal life resumes on 1 June, but that’s generally understood to be an optimistic assumption. More than likely, at least some social distancing measures will continue into the autumn, with schools and contact businesses like hairdressers to reopen first.
What are the consequences if “intelligent lockdown” continues past June 1?
If the Netherlands’ policy of “intelligent lockdown” continues for a further three months after 1 June, Rabobank economists reckon that the economy will shrink by 14%. They advise the government to avoid this if possible. However, if that situation does end up happening, it is thought that the economy will recover the next year, at least in large part: a rapid growth of 11% in the first half of 2021 is expected once normal life resumes.
The economy will take a while to recover
The reason the economy is not expected to recover fully is the long-term impact of social distancing on individuals and companies. Individuals may have lost their jobs or taken a financial hit during the coronavirus crisis: these people are likely to need time to recover from that before they begin spending the way they used to again. Companies may have been forced to close, or may take a while to get back to full strength. Furthermore, supply from factories is likely to take a long period of time to come back to normal levels.
All sectors will be affected sooner or later
All sectors of the economy are likely to feel a pinch at some point. At the moment, those who are taking a hit include small businesses, the culture sector, agriculture, and the catering industry, among others. But this will eventually trickle down into sectors like construction, which is forecasted to contract by 15% according to the EIB.
What predictions did the CPB and other banks have for the economy?
Rabobank’s predictions for the economy fall pretty much in the middle of those by other banks and the CPB predict. ING was the most pessimistic, predicting a 6-8% contraction in the economy this year and questioning whether a quick recovery was possible. ABN Amro was much more optimistic, expecting a shrinkage of 3.5% this year and growth in 2021 of 2.5%. The CPB presented two scenarios: a best-case scenario of 1.2% shrinkage and growth next year, and a worst case scenario of a 7% contraction with uncertain growth in the future.
How has coronavirus been affecting your finances? Let us know your experiences in the comments below.
Feature Image: Chronomarchie/Pixabay