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It might not be the iPhone, but the MacBook Air is selling
much stronger than many of us would have guessed. After a full month of being
on the market, the MacBook Air is still a difficult commodity to obtain in some
markets (not all), and Apple is still quoting a 5-7 business day minimum
shipping time even for the most standard models ordered from its web site.
Meanwhile, Amazon won't be shipping orders until March 16 now, and many customers who run to a Best Buy thinking they'll find one hiding out there will be surprised: there aren't many to go around. One Best Buy source (not a retail floor worker) told me that Apple has kept them pretty thin on stock. Now I can see why.
In and around Boston, the motto this weekend at Apple Stores was "no Air for you." Cambridgeside, North Shore, Burlington, even Natick were out of stock. An employee at the Burlington store told me that demand has been extremely high, admitting that some customers even ponied up for the far more expensive MacBook Air SSD because they stayed in stock longer. North Shore's staff was telling people they had "no idea" when more units would come in.
We heard reports from readers this weekend that the MacBook Air was also out of stock in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Doing some checking of our own, we learned these stores are getting daily refreshes of stock. An employee at the Michigan Avenue Apple Store in Chicago told me when I called, "We have one, but we can't take reservations, as it's first-come, first-served." He then warned me, "Unless you can get here soon, it will probably be gone, so I'd just call back tomorrow morning. We'll definitely have more in the next few days."
The Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan had "just got a refresh" according to a "genius" there, but they didn't expect the stock to last a day. The San Francisco stores are out of non-SSD MacBook Airs, and we heard similar tales at stores in Los Angeles. Even an employee at London's Regent Street Apple Store told us that the machines are selling out the moment they get in. In some markets, however, there's plenty to go around. Calling the Indianapolis location, we were told that they had "more than enough" to meet demand.
Just as with the iPhone launch, Apple is restocking nearly every day, particularly in major markets. So, while you might not be able to get a MacBook Air today in Boston, tomorrow is a new day.
A recurring theme in our discussions with the folks at the Apple Store (who just love to gab, it must be a job requirement) is that the MacBook Air is a switcher device. The perception that this puppy is the leanest, meanest portable there is has road warriors starry-eyed. When we feigned amazement at the product being out of stock in multiple locations, we were told time and time again that demand for the Air is increasing as people see it in action, in person. Of course, these are paid Apple employees telling us this, and they have a sales job to do. At the same time, we've heard plenty of similar anecdotes in the past week.
Apple, of course, remains silent on the early successes of the MacBook Air. There's speculation out there that Apple simply didn't order near enough machines from the manufacturer, and therefore the shortages aren't truly reflective of sales. That may be the case, but according to the Apple Store sales rank widget, the MacBook Air has been the top selling Mac since before the middle of February, outselling the MacBook, the iMac, and the MacBook Pro—this, despite week-long shipping delays.
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The UK’s Office of Fair Trading has reshuffled its investigation into price-fixing in the dairy market after its humiliating apology to Morrisons.
Earlier this week (24 April), the OFT was forced to settle out of court after admitting it made false accusations against Morrisons in last year’s dairy price-fixing investigation.
The competition watchdog issued a full apology and paid Morrisons some GBP100,000 (US$199,000) to settle a defamation case brought by the supermarket chain.
“The milk cartel inquiry will now be reporting directly to our chief executive John Fingleton,” a spokesperson for the competition watchdog told just-food.
Morrisons, among others, is still facing an investigation over the supply of liquid milk products in 2002.

domain: news


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Lamborghini is A Sellout
Lamborghini is rumored to be developing a 4-door SUV named the Urus. The Urus is expected to completely outsell Lamborghini’s two top selling super cars, the Aventador and the Huracan, according to Peter Valdes-Dapena from CNN Money in his article “Lamborghini Is Ready to Settle down and Have Kids”. Many had seen this coming as the company, Lamborghini, needed something new in their lineup of cars to boost sales. Concepts of other SUV’s by Lamborghini had been seen before in concept shows but those concepts never saw the manufacturing line and never came to be. A concept car is a car made to showcase new styling and technology, and are often showcased at motor shows to gauge customers reactions, according to the Merriam-Webster definition of concept cars. But this isn’t a concept anymore, the car will be coming out sometime in the next year (2018). The specked-out SUV will be rumored to pack a 650-horsepower twin-turbo V-8, a four door Lamborghini supercar to say the least. The Urus has caused a stir on the idea that, is it good for super car manufacturers to go out of their comfort zones and create a SUV simply to boost their sells and to also mass manufacture a vehicle which could hurt the value of the company, how its perceived, and its exclusivity to the world.
Super cars are definitely not for everyone as their MSRP starts in the hundreds of thousand, if they are recent produced cars. This is where exclusivity comes in, since they have to make enough cars to meet demands but also keep their exclusivities of their brand they set a number of every year of how many cars they will produce. Lamborghini for example pumped out 3457 Aventadors and Huracans last year (2016) according to Duncan Brady in 2017 from Car and Driver from his article “2019 Lamborghini Urus SUV Horsepower Revealed by CEO” . With Lamborghini set to manufacture 3500 units of the Urus by 2019, this will begin to double the manufactures output. Some believe the crave of the consumers for exclusivity of the car will hurt the company as they will be producing many Urus SUV’s when they release. The price of the SUV will also hurt the company as it is likely to be priced under $200,000, it cheapest model starting at exactly $200,000 and some models starting up to 1 million dollars, according to Lamborghinis website as of September 17th , and these cars are new coming straight from the production line. Lamborghini will be the first super car company besides Porsche to actually test the market with an actual super-car SUV. Once the company starts to sell them, others will eventually follow as it is a great opportunity to boost its sales no matter if it hurts the companies’ exclusiveness, the SUV’s will continue to sale.
Lamborghini’s production factories are all in Italy, they were all designed to manufacture small amounts of vehicles per day, they only produced 3457 varieties of Aventador’s and Huracan’s which is what they could handle with its employees and space within the factories. The factories do not have the ability to mass produce a car like the Urus because of its goal to produce 3500 units by the year 2019 a year after it releases in fall of 2018. Lamborghini acknowledging its production limits will increase its staff hiring as many as 300 new employees and also expanding its production space to add more assembly lines to produce the Urus. The company will also be getting tax incentives from the Italian government to make this happen to get their people to work, states Clifford Atiyeh from Car and Driver in his article Lamborghini Urus Hinging on Italian Tax Incentives, New Factory”.
Some view this attempt by Lamborghini to release a SUV as a sellout. A sellout, to boost their sales, to boost their vehicles even if it means to lose some exclusiveness, to go from making super cars to making family cars, a four door SUV to be specific. What matters to collectors when looking to buy a super car is the rareness of the car and exclusivity of the brand they all have ties to what a consumer of these types of vehicles want. Even if Lamborghini loses some exclusivity it still wins and the end because it will be making hundreds of millions of dollars with these cars. The Lamborghini will lose nothing and they know that, more of their cars will be on the road but to any other super car manufactures they will be a sellout, but soon to follow as well.
With Lamborghini creating a SUV, some believe that it will make it available for mostly anyone with a family to almost go 200mph in the Urus. That’s not a bad thing, everyone should be able to enjoy that power and luxury, and with Lamborghini supposedly setting its price point at under $200,000 it will be a something highly available for those who have that kind of money to spend on a fast family car for. Many will buy the car without a doubt at the end its an Italian car made in Italy, and come on who wouldn’t love to own a Lamborghini that could entirely fit your entire family in and still go astoundingly fast it a win for everyone the rich and the owners of Lamborghini that’s why when the concept of the Urus came to the drawing board they couldn’t say no. But according to Jack Baruth from thetruthaboutcars.com in his article “Hype and Hypertrophy: How Lamborghini lost its man card”, in his article he makes it clear to show that “Lamborghini lost their man card” by making a family car.
Truth be told the car is going to release at this point no matter what, and the car will make Lamborghini look like a sellout. They simply couldn’t stick to selling supercars they had to make even more money, where there is money to be made. As a super car fanatic, this will tarnish the companies name and its exclusiveness, and will put other supercar fans eyes into McLaren and Ferrari and other known super car manufacturers. This will happen because real car collectors look for exclusive vehicles not SUV’s, almost if not every car manufacture that mass produces vehicles have SUV’s in their line up why did Lamborghini, a super car maker have to make an SUV as well. The company couldn’t stick to its roots of keeping speed and exclusivity in their drawing boards. After Lamborghini more will follow, more will make SUV’s and even pickup trucks just to make more money and boost their sales to make other men richer but what happens to exclusivity then?
Even if it becomes available to everyone because of its MSRP, what’s special about it if there’s millions of others SUV’s on the road? The only difference will be the manufacturer and the twin turbo engine, which again you wouldn’t be able to enjoy because of the weight of the SUV and the speed limits of a street. You shouldn’t need a family car that reaches 200mph if your family will be in the car most of the times. Its ridiculous to think about a car being on the road with kids or older family members that could easily out run a cop, it could instantly cause an accident just because of temptation. It will not look like super car even if the car maker only makes supercars that’s not what it will be, it will be a fast SUV no matter what Lamborghini tries to sell you. People won’t look at it as a Lamborghini just another SUV like every other SUV they see on a daily basis but when they see a Lamborghini Aventador everyone will obviously know who made that car and what kind of power it makes. At the end, it wouldn’t be worth it to spend that pretty penny on a SUV might as well by a super car.
After researching for days facts about the Urus the only benefit I see from the car is the amount of money you will be making for Lamborghini by boosting its sale by doubling what they make in a year because of its mass production of 3500 units in a little over a year in a half as rumored by Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali in article from Digital Trends. In my opinion, the company is a sellout for creating a SUV that will be mass produced and double its output of cars to make more money and leaving its old ideals of exclusivity out to dry.


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The global direct selling market is a multibillion-dollar business. So is it good to join QNET, the e-commerce-based direct selling company? The company offers customers exclusive high-quality products and services while allowing them to establish a successful sales business through product promotion.
Joining a direct selling company can be a life-changing experience. Is it good to join QNET? Millions of the company’s independent representatives worldwide have gained financial independence and essential life skills through their work with the direct selling company.
“The good thing about the direct selling business is that it is a great equalizer,” says CEO Malou Caluza. “It is gender neutral and does not discriminate based on age, education, or socioeconomic background. As a result, anyone can have access to the opportunity to become an entrepreneur at a very low cost, provided they are willing to put in the hard work and have the right mindset to build a business.”
And while the COVID-19 pandemic created challenging economic times for countless businesses, the direct selling industry thrived. Because QNET operates through an e-commerce platform, its independent representatives could continue providing customers with health, wellness, and lifestyle products, unlike businesses in brick-and-mortar stores.
Caluza said it would “require years to heal” from the economic destruction of the pandemic. “Exploring direct selling is a viable and respectable profession, and if you choose the right company, you will be sufficiently supported and guided through your journey to success.”
However, there are a few things a person should consider before becoming an independent representative. One must be ready to work hard and trust the process created by the company, which was established in 1998. “The company has always maintained that it is not for those looking for overnight success,” said Caluza. “This is evident in the success stories it shares. Every one of the top leaders that the network looks up to today started with nothing and built their businesses slowly but steadily. It took them years to get where they are today. They are the company’s best ambassadors for the message that success at the direct selling company takes hard work and consistent effort over a period of time.”
As the CEO stressed, there are no shortcuts to building a successful business via the direct selling company’s e-commerce platform. For those who doubt whether it’s good to join the direct selling company, it prides itself on being fully transparent about what it takes to succeed — time and effort. “Everything a person wants to know about the company is available on its website and social media platforms,” said Caluza.
“Once you have put in the work and diligently followed the best practices that QNET trains you in, the results will be rewarding,” added Caluza. “It may take time, but it will be worth the wait.”
Enterprising People Can Find Success Through Direct Selling Opportunities
The number of direct sellers in India is expected to grow to 18 million by 2025. But not just anyone can prosper in the direct selling industry. It takes a motivated individual committed to building the business over the long term to succeed at the direct selling company.
And while there’s no foolproof formula for financial prosperity, the direct selling company provides extensive training and programs to guide independent representatives as they build their personal businesses. “A successful distributor is one who is passionate about helping people take charge of their lives [utilizing the company’s] products and services,” said Caluza. “One who leads with integrity and honesty.”
Successful independent representatives understand that rejection is often part of the process. However, those who succeed in direct sales learn valuable lessons from the rejection instead of becoming discouraged and losing motivation. To help independent representatives build their businesses for long-term sustainability, Caluza explained that the company offers them “leadership development training on professional business practices, as well as how to utilize technology to manage the business and much more.”
Is It Good to Join QNET? Only if You’re Ready to Take a Step Toward Financial Freedom
The direct selling industry offers individuals the opportunity to achieve financial stability and impact the lives of like-minded individuals. Unlike pyramid schemes, the direct selling business doesn’t require recruitment and doesn’t offer compensation for recruiting new members. Independent representatives’ earnings are based on the sale of products and services.
According to CEO Caluza, QNET has “tried to set a benchmark in inclusiveness and equal opportunity for those who are passionate and committed to growing themselves and the company.”
Upendranath Reddy is one of the direct selling company’s many success stories. He grew up in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh in India and earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. However, Reddy quickly realized he didn’t want to work in a cubicle for the rest of his life and turned to his brother, who was already involved in the direct selling business, for advice.
“My brother was very ardent about his QNET business,” Reddy explained. “He had a vision for where he would be in five years. He strongly believed that the direct selling company would help him turn that vision into a reality. I realized then that my brother, who has always been a responsible person, was working very hard for the betterment of our family. I was inspired by his belief and determination toward the business. I knew then that I had to join him to support our cause, since we both wanted the same thing.”
Reddy continued, “I studied the products and their comprehensive compensation plan. I loved its many excellent products to help people live better lives. The lucrative compensation plan opened my eyes to the possibility of becoming a full-time entrepreneur. I no longer saw the [direct selling] business as a side job. Instead, I saw the potential to build an efficient sales business. It was the opportunity to build my own business and control my time.”


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Z Hotels, one of the largest hotel operators in central London, will provide a test of the industry’s post-Covid recovery prospects after instructing agents to sell the business for close to £450m.
Sky News has learnt that Z Hotels, which opened its newest site on The Strand earlier this month, has hired the real estate advisers Knight Frank and Avison Young to run an auction of the decade-old group.
The company operates 11 sites in the capital, including prime locations in Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, Shoreditch, Soho and Victoria.
It also trades from hotels in Bath, Glasgow and Liverpool.
The timing of the sale means it will inevitably be seen as offering a glimpse into investors’ attitudes toward the sector amid booming demand for staycations but continuing uncertainty about the recovery of the central London economy.
The process is said to be opportunistic – rather than distressed – following a number of unsolicited approaches for the business.
Z Hotels’ founders include Bev King, who launched the business alongside a number of former Thistle Hotels executives.
The founders are said to own roughly 80% of the shares.
In a report published on Wednesday, the credit ratings agency FitchRatings said that Europe’s large leisure hotel groups were now better-placed for recovery, although revenue-per-available room – a key metric in the sector – was unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2025.
A spokeswoman for Z Hotels declined to comment.
Source : skynews


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New app hopes to encourage young scientists. PHOTO: Google
Google just announced the release of a new Android app that is part of the company’s “Making & Science” initiative, that will allow users to collect and record data in their surroundings.
“To bring out that inner scientist in all of us, today we’re introducing Science Journal: a digital science notebook that helps kids (and adults!) measure and explore the world around them,” said the company’s announcement. “With this app, you can record data from sensors on your Android phone (or connected via an Arduino), take notes, observe, interpret and predict. Fundamentally, we think this application will help you learn how to think like a scientist!”
The app, Science Journal, uses the phone’s sensors, or you can connect to external sensing devices, to conduct experiments, organize your projects and take scientific notes to review later, according to the Google Play Store.
Google has also partnered with a California-based learning laboratory, Exploratium, to design kits that may used in conjunction with the Science Journal app for doing experiments and evaluations. “These kits include inexpensive sensors, microcontrollers and craft supplies that bring science to life in new ways,” according the Google.
The release continues to say these kits are available for purchase in the US, or “can even be assembled yourself.”
Google adds their goal goes beyond inspiring budding scientists and makers. As part of the Google Field Trip Days project, the company says it has sent over 120,000 kids to their local science museum. The internet giant also has provided over 350,000 pairs of safety glasses to students at schools to keep young scientists safe.
The announcement continues, “Science is also fundamentally about improving the world around you. It’s not just memorizing facts, wearing a lab coat or listening to a lecture. It’s observing the world around us to figure out how it works and how we can make things better through experimentation and discovery.”
The app is available for free and can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Users will need an Android-running smartphone with 4.4 Kitkat to use the app.


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Samsung on Thusday said that the pre-booking for its Galaxy Z Flip foldable smartphone will start from Februrary 21, 2020 on its e-shop and select retail stores.
Korean smartphone maker Samsung on Wednesday launched its Galaxy A71 smartphone and priced it at Rs 29,999 for the 8GB RAM + 128 GB ROM variant.
According to two senior industry executives, the Korean giant has removed the Amazon Pay promotion from its backend with immediate effect. The company has also informed its shop floor sales executives to inform about other promotional offers to consumers.
Rejig of top deck in the country comes at a time of intense competition in its product segments
Samsung India is currently undertaking multiple initiatives to boost profit which declined three-fifths in the past two fiscals due to the price war it entered with Chinese companies like Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo and Realme in smartphones and televisions. In FY19, Samsung India’s net profit was Rs 1,540 crore, down from its recent peak of Rs 4,156 crore in FY17.
The three upcoming Samsung phones-- Galaxy M10s, Galaxy, A30s and Galaxy A50s --with model numbers SM-M107F/DS, SM-A307FN/DS and SM-A507FN/DS respectively have already received Wi-Fi certification.
Samsung is packing premium-level features into low-to-middle range smartphones across its portfolio
ICEA fears several mobile phone assembly units in the country may have to shut down if PMP is implemented early.
Hundreds of workers of the Samsung mobile company Saturday protested here, demanding salary hike and change in shift timings, police said.
The company has three R&D centres - one in Bengaluru and two in Noida -- which customise the products, said Sumit Walia.
The Korean smartphone major’s Bangalore, Noida and Delhi R&D centres will hire these engineers from top colleges. The Bangalore center is Samsung’s largest R&D centre outside Korea.
"The three R&D centres in India work on several cutting edge technologies," Samsung global senior vice-president and MD Samsung R&D Institute India Bengaluru Dipesh Shah said.
The company said two trucks will be mounted with LFD screens and will play videos on responsible usage of smartphones while skits talking about the issue will be organised at select universities, colleges and malls in Delhi.
As Samsung heats up the smartphone market in the New Year with two new offerings, the South Korean giant is looking to grow its business across channels, including online, as the year progresses, Asim Warsi, Global Vice President, Samsung India, said on Friday.
Samsung India on Wednesday launched Galaxy A8+ smartphone at Rs 32990
Samsung India is set to refresh its Galaxy "On" series in India with the launch of "Galaxy On7 Prime" in the second week of January, exclusively on Amazon.in.
Samsung India has undertaken a rejig in its senior management with new expat heads at mobile phone and consumer electronics businesses and some role changes of the Indian executives
Samsung’s pace of expansion compares with Apple’s 17% increase to Rs 11,618 crore in the year ended March, its slowest growth in five years.
For Samsung — its global spends in 2016 on the segment was about $13 bn — this year’s hiring will be a 25% jump over the last year’s 800-odd grads.
The smart healthcare programme aims to offer affordable and quality healthcare to patients from the economically and socially weaker sections of society.


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(Reuters) - Hudson's Bay Co HBC.TO reported a bigger third-quarter loss on Tuesday, hit by deeper discounts at luxury chain Saks Fifth Avenue and weak sales at its namesake stores, as the Canadian department store operator tries to take itself private.
Shares of North America’s oldest company slipped 2% in early trading.
“Across the industry, there was a pullback among luxury consumers, allowing shoppers to more frequently take advantage of markdowns, which ultimately reduced full-price sales,” Chief Executive Helena Foulkes said in a statement.
For Saks, the lull in luxury spend started in August and was most notable in metropolitan cities, the company said.
Foulkes said the company’s 15% growth in digital sales, tight lid on cost and increased inventory management were not enough to deliver the financial performance it wanted in the quarter.
Hudson’s Bay has been shutting stores and divesting assets to shore up finances and focus on Saks and on Hudson’s Bay in Canada.
Earlier this year, the retailer announced the sale of its Lord + Taylor business to fashion rental company Le Tote Inc for about $100 million.
Hudson’s Bay Executive Chairman Richard Baker has won the support of the company’s special committee to take the retailer private for C$1.9 billion ($1.4 billion) but faces a vote from minority shareholders to approve the deal on Dec. 17.
Canadian private equity firm Catalyst Capital Group Inc, which owns roughly 17.5% of Hudson’s Bay, has urged other shareholders to shoot down the deal, as has proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services Inc.
Catalyst made a rival C$2.03 billion bid for the Saks owner, but the special committee that backed the deal with Baker rejected it.
“Whether we are public or private company, our strategy remains the same,” Foulkes said on Tuesday.
Comparable sales at Saks fell 2.3% in the quarter, while those at its namesake stores decreased 3.9%.
A bright spot for the company was its off-price business, Saks OFF Fifth, which saw a 4.9% jump in same-store sales, with gains in accessories, women’s apparel, kids and shoes.
“We continue to think the future of department stores is off-price,” said CFRA analyst Camilla Yanushevsky.
Hudson’s Bay’s net loss widened to C$226 million ($170 million), or C$1.23 per share, in the quarter ended Nov. 2, from C$161 million, or 88 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier.
Total revenue fell to C$1.84 billion from C$1.89 billion.
Reporting by Soundarya J in Bengaluru and Melissa Fares in New York; Additional reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York; Editing by Mark Potter and Steve Orlofsky
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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A document containing account information, including that belonging to members of Electronic Arts' Origin service, spread online yesterday.
According to CSO Online, the leak came in the form of a Pastebin upload that has since been removed, and contained private, personal details such as email addresses and passwords.
Hundreds of accounts beginning with the letters A through F were included in the post. Certain EA titles associated with gamer profiles were also named, including Mass Effect and Star Wars Battlefront.
Sam Houston, a former community manager for Origin now working with Bugcrowd, suggested that the data dump is the result of an intentional hack into EA's databases. "Gamers are often targeted with attacks," he said in a statement, "and with EA's accounts tied into all of their games and their Origin e-commerce site, a gamer's EA account can be very valuable.
"Gaining access to an EA account would enable a hacker to play any of their PC games purchased through Origin, and could potentially be used to play on a gamer's account on a game connected via the EA account system. Those accounts are valuable not only for financial gain, but also for harassing or impersonating users."
Houston added that "Over the years, EA has been the target of a lot of ire from various gaming groups, so this could be a response to a particular issue that people are upset about."
John Reseburg, EA's senior director of corporate communications, denied Houston's claims in an email to Polygon. "At this point, we have no indication that this list was obtained through an intrusion of our account databases," according to the statement.
An explanation as to how the information ended up as part of the Pastebin file, if not the result of a breach, was not provided when asked.
Only a small number of the Origin accounts included on the list were found to be active, he added, and EA has taken action to secure these. "In an abundance of caution, we're taking steps to secure any account that has an EA user ID that matches the usernames on this list."
Reseburg went on to say that EA "[encourages] all players to safeguard their account credentials and use unique usernames and passwords on all online accounts."


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Hyderabad: Several Indian firms are set to miss the 30 November deadline for pre-registering the chemicals they manufacture with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and will therefore not be able to export these to the European Union (EU) starting 1 December.
At stake, according to the European Commission, are exports from India to EU member countries that were worth €2.78 billion (Rs15,260 crore then) in 2007.
“Quite a few companies will miss the pre-registration deadline. Despite attempts to raise awareness, everybody has been waiting for the last minute to take a call on pre-registration for REACH,” said D.M. Wakankar, REACH expert from the chemicals industry body Indian Chemicals Council (ICC) which represents at least 350 companies that manufacture and export chemicals.
REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals, the EU’s new regulatory regime which requires all chemical substances manufactured or imported into the EU to be pre-registered with ECHA.
This requires the submission of detailed technical information about such chemical substances traded so that authorities can verify if those are safe for humans and the environment.
The deadline for registration, a process that requires laboratory testing, runs up to 2018 but only chemicals that have pre-registered by 30 November can be registered.
As on 21 November, the Union government’s Chemicals Export Promotion Council (Chemexcil) claimed to have completed pre-registration of at least 4,000 chemical substances exported by 175 Indian companies.
Although estimates differ, the numbers point to a significant gap.
In a January report on Indian chemicals industry, audit and consulting firm Ernst and Young estimated that at least 750 chemicals exporting firms in India would need to comply with REACH to be able to continue trading with European nations.
K. Rangarajan, a professor at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), who has been tracking the evolution of REACH legislation, however, said there are at least 2,000 small-and-medium-sized Indian chemicals manufacturers who would need to comply with REACH regulations.
And Chemexcil estimates there are around 7,000 chemical substances that India exports, which need to be registered under REACH.
“By the deadline, we expect to complete pre-registration formalities for at least 6,000 ingredients exported by 200 companies,” Chemexcil chairman Anand R. Ladsariya said.
In a 12 May story, Mint reported that Indian chemicals and pharmaceutical companies were unaware of the REACH legislation and were ill prepared to face the tough registration process, which started 1 June.
“Bigger companies may be able to comply in time but the smaller ones who did not know well in advance about REACH and who were not able to bear the burden of registration costs will die out,” Rangarajan said.
According to REACH provisions, non-European firms have to go through a European representative to register.
“Bigger chemicals exporting companies do not go through us for the pre-registration; they will hire their own agents in Europe for the same,” Ladsariya added, explaining that there would be more than the Chemexcil-assisted 200 companies that would meet the deadline.
ECHA has set up an online system REACH-IT for companies to submit pre-registration applications.
“As we knew REACH-IT would be flooded by companies scrambling to complete pre-registration at the last minute, we had set a 15 November deadline for ourselves. But we were unable to meet that deadline,” Ladsariya said.
Meanwhile, at least two persons working with Chemexcil on REACH-related activities, independently told Mint, on condition of anonymity, that India has already contacted the EU seeking an extension, citing technical snags on REACH-IT and other reasons.
An ECHA spokesperson said in an email that the agency “cannot legally postpone the deadline for pre-registration, as this would require a legislative change”.
Rajeev Kher, the joint secretary in India’s commerce ministry who deals with REACH- related activities was not available for comment as he was in Madhya Pradesh on election duty.
A senior commerce ministry official, who asked not to be named, denied any knowledge of India seeking an extension.
IIFT’s Rangarajan said it was unlikely the EU would agree to an extension.
“This would be a blessing in disguise for European countries, who were facing competition from Indian and Chinese companies. Given the current economic scenario, they would not be willing to negotiate to allow fresh competition from non-EU entities.”


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Good launch for iPhone 5s in China
Updated 9:04 pm, Monday, December 17, 2012
Number of the day
That's how many iPhone 5s were sold in China in their opening weekend, Apple said Monday. The record launch of the device in the world's largest mobile-phone market is part of the fastest rollout yet for the iPhone. Still, some analysts - including those at Citigroup, Jefferies and UBS - have cut their price targets for Apple stock on concerns that growth is slowing at the Cupertino company as Asian component suppliers report cuts in orders. Story below.
"You need to give more products and more
capabilities to your salespeople to sell."
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William Choi, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott, on why Cisco Systems may seek a major acquisition. The San Jose company's networking-equipment business is maturing, and its stock is down 41 percent since November 2007, so CEO John Chambers is targeting software and services to boost sales. Possible takeover candidates include Citrix Systems, NetApp and Rackspace Hosting, according to analysts at Thrivent Financial and JMP Securities. Story on Page D2.
Dr. Donald Berwick, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, speaks Tuesday night at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Berwick, who studies the management of health care systems, pushes for scientific, evidence-based ways to evaluate the effectiveness of medical care and improve the trade-off of quality, safety and costs.


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- Influencer called out for ‘troubling image’ with Kenyan child Tuesday 8:18 PM
- Professor arrested for spending $185K of grant money on iTunes and strippers Tuesday 7:28 PM
- Man cuts his books in half to make them ‘portable,’ spurs online debate Tuesday 6:09 PM
- Fans defend Lana Del Rey after she was mocked for flying commercial Tuesday 5:10 PM
- Lady Gaga fans find alleged new song name in her website’s code Tuesday 4:42 PM
- Barstool Sports deletes anti-union tweets, blog post in settlement Tuesday 3:47 PM
- The ‘can have … as a treat’ meme has come full circle Tuesday 3:09 PM
- Joe Rogan says he’s voting for Bernie Sanders Tuesday 2:54 PM
- Woman spots mole in man’s TikTok video, saves him from cancer Tuesday 2:17 PM
- ‘You’ star confirms his character is queer and ‘never will be’ straight Tuesday 1:08 PM
- This Twitch streamer pooped his pants during a broadcast Tuesday 12:17 PM
- Apple’s iCloud encryption plan halted amid FBI pressure, report Tuesday 10:57 AM
- Glenn Greenwald charged with cybercrimes in Brazil Tuesday 10:48 AM
- BadBunny rips her fans for not sending her enough money Tuesday 10:06 AM
- White rapper punched in the face for saying the N-word during battle Tuesday 9:21 AM
Your beauty game is about to get a dose of awesome this May 4 with the incredible new Star Wars beauty collection from Her Universe.
The collection includes a Chewbacca grooming kit, droid bath bombs, and a Hyper Space highlight and eyeshadow palette. The palette is even embossed with the Rebel Alliance sigil! Plus, it’s designed for Padawans of all levels and abilities. So, no – you won’t need a pep talk from Yoda in order to recreate looks inspired by your favorite space princess.
But that’s not all! According to Her Universe, new items will be added to the collection in the future too. The plans for the next release have already been announced.
The collection is exclusive to Hot Topic and prices start at just under $10. Next time you whip out your lipstick to reapply, just imagine that lightsaber sound cutting through the air!
MORE BAZAAR DEALS:
- 13 thoughtful Mother’s Day gifts to fully pamper mom
- The 7 best Korean beauty cleansers
- Make spring unique with these formidable Star Wars planters
The Daily Dot may receive a payment in connection with purchases of products or services featured in this article. Click here to learn more.
Marisa Losciale specializes in NSFW culture, audio gear, and photography. A former editorial and photo director for Spoon University at SUNY New Paltz, her work has been featured in the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, Post-Trash, the New Paltz Oracle, and the Legislative Gazette.


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Alibaba is the new IPO king after listing at $68
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, secured its place in history Thursday as the largest US-listed initial public offering (IPO) of all time.
The stock was priced at $68 per share. That’s at the top of the expected range, signaling strong demand.
If you’ve never heard of Alibaba, you’re definitely not alone.
The Chinese company is often described as a mash-up of eBay, Amazon and PayPal. Alibaba has little presence in the US, though that’s expected to change. At the moment, it owns a stake in ride-sharing service Lyft.
Alibaba is hitting the public markets with some elite Silicon Valley company. The IPO values Alibaba at a whopping $167.6 billion. That’s more than double eBay’s $64 billion market value and even tops the market cap of 20-year-old Amazon.com.


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Emirates airline has unveiled plans to open up its lounges in Dubai to lower-tier frequent flyer members, said a report.
The moves comes as part of efforts to boost revenues after the airline reported a 75 percent drop in half-yea
The price of gold slipped as the dollar ticked up and European share markets extended their rally but was heading for a weekly gain as buying surged via exchange traded funds.
Spot gold was down 0.2 per cent at
New orders for long-lasting US manufactured goods in December recorded their biggest drop in 16 months as lower oil prices and a strong dollar pressured factories, the latest indication that economic growth braked sharply at the end of 2015.
Lower roaming prices in the GCC for phone calls, text messages and mobile data will come into effect from next year. The new rates will be applied in two phases, with lower wholesale prices applied to operators on January 1 and retail customer
The International Monetary Fund trimmed its forecast for global economic growth for this year to take into account the impact of recent weakness in the United States.
But the global financial institution said growth prospects for
A lower divorce rate among newly-wed Bahrainis over the past four years has been attributed to an awareness campaign on rights and responsibilities in marriage.
A recent study conducted by the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Mi
Egypt's largest listed automotive assembler and distributor GB Auto has called for lower tariffs on car imports from the United States and Asia, fearing that free trade agreements signed with Europe, Turkey and Morocco will distort competiti
Qatar’s plans will not be affected by lower oil price, but there may be more opportunities for private finance to play a role in the country’s infrastructure, according to experts.
Mamoon Alameen, a specialist on proje
Energy capital investments in the Arab world will total $685 billion over the next five years, according to a new report.
The report, by the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp), was presented to officials and delegate


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Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO has created a campaign for Masterfoods Celebrations brand that will feature Sanjeev Bhaskar, the star of television show the Kumars at Number 42. It will feature Bhaskar with his real parents and breaks on November 30.
Key figures behind Samsung’s UK direct-to-consumer proposition explain how the brand replicates the benefits of bricks-and-mortar retail online, how paid Search came to account for one in three website sales, and the secrets of an adaptive and successful brand-agency partnership.
As Markey launches his first marketing campaign since joining Boots, he explains how and why he plans to reposition the brand as a partner in “reinvention”.
We arm you with all the numbers you need to tackle the week ahead.
Amazon tops Kantar BrandZ’s list of the world’s 100 most valuable brands for the third year in a row, as a host of global businesses bounce back with a vengeance despite the trials of lockdown.


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Cryptocurrency advocate and founding partner of Crypto Oracle Lou Kerner has claimed that Bitcoin could replace gold as the world’s primary store of value.
Gold has been a popular store of value for thousands of years, being used by various ancient civilisations before triggering a gold rush in the United States during the 19th century.
Bitcoin, in comparison, is still in its infancy having been created just over 10 years ago. However, Kerner believes that it has the potential to replace gold “if it grows more than 100 fold from where it is today.”
Gold has obtained a total market value of $4 trillion since first being used over 4,000 years ago. Bitcoin, meanwhile, is worth $70 billion, while silver is worth just $50 billion.
My last crypto tweet of 2018 is a retweet of MY FAVORITE all time crypto tweet. It reminds me that crypto investor sentiment swings like a pendulum. When crypto prices are low, like now, investors think it's dead. When crypto prices are high, investors think they missed it. pic.twitter.com/mbwre0DSap
— Lou Kerner (@loukerner) December 30, 2018
Speaking to Bloomberg, Kerner admitted that if Bitcoin “becomes a strong second,” it has huge potential as it’s a “better way” for people to store their value.
As 2018 draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on a turbulent year for cryptocurrency in general. Bitcoin has fallen from its $20,000 all-time-high while many altcoins have suffered 95% declines in value.
Speaking about 2018’s prolonged move to the downside, Lou explained: “The impact of all great technological changes are overestimated in the short run and underestimated in the long run.”
He continued: “I think Bitcoin is in the broader kind of crypto category, which is this whole new platform of blockchain, cryptocurrency, smart contracts, and such that the disruption from that is gonna be bigger than the disruption that we saw from the internet. Bitcoin is kinda the early leader, kinda like the Yahoo of its day, and while it’s a massive thing, it’s not THE thing.”


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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Mobile’s expanding seaport is being positioned as a prime new commercial gateway for Dominican shippers during a trade mission led by the Alabama Department of Commerce to the Caribbean nation this week.
Denson White, director of APM Terminals at the Port of Mobile, said maritime companies in the Dominican Republic have long relied on East Coast ports such as Miami. White joined Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield and others in talks this week with high-ranking Dominican officials that outlined the ambitious improvements under way at the Port of Mobile.
“As Alabama’s port continues to grow and expand, there are various opportunities ahead for the state,” White said. “A key component is to provide the Caribbean with another shipping option. The creation of an intermodal rail facility in Mobile will provide a world-class facility and a gateway for the Dominican Republic to access not only Alabama, but also the interior U.S.”


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MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s biggest handset chip designer, yesterday posted its best monthly revenue in more than three-and-a-half years on the back of growing demand for its smartphone and tablet computer chips.
Revenue surged 35.25 percent to NT$13.22 billion (US$436 million) last month, compared with NT$97.73 billion in June, according to a company statement.
Last month’s figure was the strongest the MediaTek has posted since January 2010 and represented a 43 percent annual increase from NT$9.25 billion.
“Strong July [revenue] sets a good tone for the third quarter,” Credit Suisse AG analyst Randy Abrams said in a research note yesterday.
Last week, MediaTek issued a conservative guidance of sequential revenue growth of 5 percent to 13 percent for this quarter, but Abram said the latest sales data meant the company was likely to achieve revenue growth “above its midpoint range.”
MediaTek expects revenue to grow to between NT$34.9 billion and NT$37.6 billion in the current quarter from last quarter’s NT$33.28 billion, while forecasting that its gross margin would be about 43.5 percent this quarter.
The company also forecast that its smartphone chip shipments would increase by more than 18 percent sequentially to as high as 65 million units this quarter, from 55 million last quarter.
Abrams attributed MediaTek’s strength to a strong ramp-up of its dual and quad-core chipsets for WCDMA and TD-SCDMA phones and maintained his “outperform” rating on the stock, with a target price of NT$400.
Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Eric Chen (陳慧明) said the company was very likely to raise its forecast for this quarter’s revenue and gross margin after smartphone chip shipments grew at a much faster pace than expected last month.
The company likely shipped between 19 million and 20 million units last month, exceeding Chen’s estimate of between 15 million and 16 million. Chen retained his “buy” rating on MediaTek.
Separately, memorychip maker Macronix Electronics Corp (旺宏電子) yesterday said its revenue rose 1.4 percent to NT$1.81 billion last month from June’s NT$1.78 billion. That represented an annual decline of 32.4 percent from NT$2.67 billion.


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The shorter 2019 holiday shopping season has had shoppers on the hunt for holiday gifts earlier than past years.
According to Google data collected during the first three weeks of October, accessories, apparel and beauty products were among the top searched 2019 holiday gift ideas, with many shoppers looking to heritage brands for their purchases.
The data shows that accessories reigned as one of the top searched 2019 holiday gift categories, especially for boots and backpacks from brands like Stuart Weitzman, Tumi, Frye and Ugg.
Moisturizer was the top searched holiday gift idea within beauty, with shoppers looking to mass market brands such as RoC, L’Oréal Paris and Andalou Naturals.
Despite a decline in U.S. color cosmetics sales in the first quarter of 2019, shoppers are still searching for makeup for their 2019 holiday gifts, including large eye-shadow palettes from brands like Too Faced Cosmetics and Natasha Denona.
Scroll on to see more of Google’s top searched 2019 holiday gifts in fashion and beauty.


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Rumours are surfacing that Apple will release two new 4G LTE enabled devices next year on Japan's major network NTT Docomo.
Nikkei Business (Japanese) reported that an iPad 3 and iPhone 5 are slated for release next year, with the iPad set to premiere in the summer, and the iPhone to follow in the fall.
Though missing out on the success of the iPhone 4S in October, the rumours follows NTT Docomo's plans to roll out its LTE infrastructure across Japan in the coming months and years.
The supposed fall release date of the iPhone 5 would put it just a year after its then-predecessor the iPhone 4S was released. Historically, this seems to tie in within the time frame of previous releases.
NTT Docomo is Japan's biggest network but so far they haven't been able to add the iPhone to their network, as they were unable to come to sufficient agreements with Apple. It had been suggested that the carrier wanted to bring existing popular applications to the device, but this caused a fracture in negotiations.
In previous statements, however, the carrier stated that they were still hoping to broker a deal.
At the moment, only Softbank and KDDI carry the iPhone, which has been a massive success for both networks.
However, NTT Docomo has dominated the LTE market so far, which released Samsung's LTE-enabled Galaxy SII LTE to their network in November.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is reported to have met with both the president and vice-president of NTT Docomo last month. Although NTT Docomo have not yet commented on the meeting, it's thought that the two companies were able to reach some agreement.
This follows reports that China's Unicom is preparing to introduce the iPhone 4S and is waiting for network access from the relevant authorities.
Update: NTT Docomo has released a statement denying their acquisition of the iPhone 5 or iPad 3, saying that they haven't made an agreement with Apple at all. We will just have to wait to see if there's any truth to these rumours.


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There's the sweet smell of success at a finance firm in Kettering after their own beehives produced their first honey.
Staff at Telford Mann Pensions & Investments’ head office in Ironstone Place are buzzing after their work paid off, with the honey set to be sold to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society.
Two beehives were installed in the office grounds last year as part of its aim to create a sustainable environment around the building.
Charlie Hancock and Kieron Brace, both chartered financial planners at Telford Mann, became the company’s official beekeepers and joined the Northamptonshire Beekeepers’ Association to learn the art of apiculture.
Jilly Mann, joint managing director of Telford Mann, said: “When we moved into our purpose-built office last year, creating a fantastic environment both inside and out was a key priority.
“Charlie and Kieron have taken huge pride in this project over the last year and, despite some worry over hive rebellion amongst the bees, the queens and the scouts have done their job and the inaugural crop is looking plentiful.”
The honey – named Bee Well – will now be sold in jars from the company’s premises and that of its sister business, the nearby Ironstone Wellbeing Centre.
As part of its drive to be environmentally friendly, solar panels have been installed to help power the office and electric vehicle charging points are available to encourage the move towards clean energy transport. Other projects include the planting of a wildflower meadow.
Staff have formed a 'Garden Gang' and each member has sown their own patch of ground, with competition running high to see who will grow the best blooms.
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Quarterly corporate earnings have put investors in a positive mood.
While it's still early to draw any final conclusions, second-quarter results have come in better than most analysts had expected.
U.S. stock futures were higher Tuesday.
"The overall tone in the market is still very positive," said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Markets in London. "Any weakness does not last very long."
All three major U.S. indexes are up roughly 19% so far this year.
Earnings parade: UPS ( reported earnings in line with its )preliminary expectations. The packing and shipping company said volume in the U.S. and internationally grew, even as revenue came in slightly below forecasts.
Travelers ( reported a boost in quarterly profit , citing "lower catastrophe losses." )
DuPont ( reported earnings that beat forecasts but revenue fell short, which the company blamed on slipping chemical sales and economic headwinds in Europe and Asia. )
Nearly 160 companies in the S&P 500 are slated to report quarterly results this week overall.
Netflix ( shares sank after the streaming-video service )added fewer subscribers than expected in the second quarter.
Texas Instruments ( shares rose after the semiconductor maker reported quarterly earnings that came in ahead of expectations. )
Apple ( and )AT&T ( are up after the close. )


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October (formerly Lendix), the newly rebranded European SME lending marketplace made a splash today with what is probably the most creative promotional campaign in the history of crowdlending.
To date, the October platform has facilitated more than €240 million worth of loans to 500 small and medium-size enterprise (SME) borrowers from 15,000 private lenders along with institutional investors. However, the company felt, that marketplace lending still required major evangelization efforts.
“In October 2014 [the first crowdlending regulation] opened a breach in the banking monopoly, allowing SMEs to borrow directly from individuals and institutions. SMEs now have access to financing tools previously reserved to large companies. But they still need to get to know these tools and dare to take the leap! ” said Olivier Goy, October’s President.
The operation called “Growing Together” was designed to help them do that. For this campaign, October has rallied 11 major international corporations and convinced them to participate in promoting crowdlending among both retail investors and SME borrowers.
The 11 participating corporations include hotel group AccorHotels, talent group Adecco, insurer Allianz, Bank Arkéa, financial services groups EdenRed and Unibail, utilities group ENGIE, and SUEZ, telecommunication group Iliad, communication and services groups JCDecaux and Webhelp. The smallest one has a €1.8 billion annual turnover, the largest one, Allianz, €126 billion. Together the 11 groups represent more than €255 billion in revenues.
Corporations will both borrow and lend on October
To promote marketplace lending among retail investors, each of these large groups will, in turn, borrow €100,000 euros from retail investors of the October platform at an interest rate of 2.5% for two years. None of these groups is, of course, in need of financing, especially not in that type of amount. Their sheer presence on the platform is designed to demonstrate their trust in the digital lending process and in October as an operator.
The first €100.000 loan to hotel group AccorHotels was fully subscribed in real time during the press conference by 1,715 retail investors – each investor being able to chip in a maximum of €100.
To evangelize crowdlending on the borrower side, each large group is committed to unlocking up to €11,000,000 in funding for their SME partners, suppliers and clients. Each SME will be able to borrow up to € 1,000,000. October will wave its platform’s handling charges on these loans.
About innovation and digital transformation
Each of these large groups has thousands, several hundreds of thousands of SME customers. Thus, it is hoped that they will not only bring in the dozens of so necessary to meet the operation’s target but many more in the future.
The operation was launched under the patronage of Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister of the Economy and Finance who declared, “I believe in crowdfunding.”
However, for the Minister and the 11 groups, supporting this operation is clearly about much more than supporting marketplace lending. Rather, it is about innovation and the digital transformation of the European economic fabric.
Sébastien Valentin, Chief Communications Officer, AccorHotels said:
« Our [hotel] industry is undergoing a digital revolution, a profound change in ownership structures. For this reason, we value bringing this innovative, digital access to financing to our partners, clients and suppliers.”
Ronan Le Moal, CEO of bank Crédit Mutuel Arkéa declared:
“This operation shows that there is no more barrier between banks and Fintechs. The future belongs to collaborations between them. We are complementary in building a new ecosystem.”
Valentine de Pret, Crowdfunding project leader at Engie, added:
“Working together with October on this operation helps us as a very large and somewhat slower group to innovate. It helps us change.”
In parting, Olivier Goy invited the participating companies to extend the operation beyond France to the other European countries where they and October are present: Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and, soon, Germany.
Therese Torris, PhD, is a Senior Contributing Editor to Crowdfund Insider. She is an entrepreneur and consultant in eFinance and eCommerce based in Paris. She has covered crowdfunding and P2P lending since the early days when Zopa was created in the United Kingdom. She was a director of research and consulting at Gartner Group Europe, Senior VP at Forrester Research and Content VP at Twenga. She publishes a French personal finance blog, Le Blog Finance Pratique.


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Carrollton’s acai superfood bowl provider is putting wheels on its beach shack. Brad and Tracey Spruell, owners of Heavenly Bowls, have closed their permanent spring/summer location on the side of the VFW Building on Bankhead Highway and have decided to take their business mobile by investing in a food truck.
However, the beach shack is not going very far. In fact, starting Tuesday, May 24, they will be found in the parking lot of the Fur Babies Cat Cafe at 302 South Street in Carrollton. They will be open year-round Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. and Wednesdays from 11:00 a.m. – 4:00pm. Delivery service will also be available each day with a minimum $50.00 order. On Fridays the food truck will be available for events and deliveries. Other days, times, and locations will be announced via their Facebook page.
According to Brad and Tracey, they feel the food truck will offer many more opportunities for their business to grow, allowing them to be more visible in the community while also being available for events. “We decided a food trailer would be more versatile, so we could set up in a more central location but also be mobile to cater different events. We can come to you now for church gatherings, office meetings, subdivision parties, school events, etc.”
Though their mode of business may be changing, the delicious menu is staying the same. “We will have all the favorites, plus specialty bowls such as the Georgia peach bowl and the coffee bowl,” they promised.
Though they have invested in a food truck for the spring and summer months, they will continue to have their permanent spot at the University of West Georgia during the school year, but it will in a different location as they will be moving from beside the UWG Bookstore to the third floor of the University Community Center (UCC) Building beginning in August.
When asked about what they are looking forward to most with the new food truck, the Spruells said, “We are most excited to be able to serve the community in a lot of new ways. The community needs to know we are now ready and able to be a part of their lives–no matter the location–with healthy, delicious, Heavenly food!!”


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Richmond market is primed for significant logistics absorption
- The past year Richmond has seen a surge of spec development with four projects underway totaling nearly 1.2 million square feet.
- Demand in Richmond has been mounting, as total requirement volume climbed 85% over the past 12 months to 5.2 million square feet in Q1 2019.
- Richmond continued to attract e-commerce and third-party logistics users seeking to optimize their supply chains and find adequate labor pools at lower costs.
- The Port of Virginia’s Richmond Marine Terminal adjacent to I-95 south of downtown is driving strong demand. The most recent examples include Panattoni Development’s nearly million square feet of spec construction which has landed Brother International in its 461,700 square-foot first delivery and is seeing strong interest in its second project, while Bissell is currently underway on its 437,000 square-foot Mid-Atlantic distribution center.


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The 6th annual Christmas by the Bay is coming to the Aransas Pass Civic Center (700 W. Wheeler).
Vendors from around the state will show items such as candles, clothing, gourmet foods and jewelry, as well as Texas handmade art, gifts, metal art, holiday and home décor. There will also be Texas wine sampling, garden related gifts, accessories, gifts for the guys, and so much more.
Christmas by the Bay will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Sunday, Nov. 11 (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
The event is open to everyone, and admission to the show is $5, with children 12 and under admitted free.
Want to save $1 on admission? Simply bring a canned good or non-perishable food item (such as peanut butter, macaroni & cheese, rice, etc.) as a donation to the food pantry.
Admission is good for both days.
To learn more, call (888) 225-3427 or visit www.TexasMarketGuide.com.


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Following insider buying at smaller companies can be a very profitable trading strategy. Smaller companies are less researched than larger businesses, meaning that they offer greater potential for outperformance.
In this report, we are going to highlight insider buying at a small US-listed company, ACI Worldwide Inc (ACIW:US). ACI Worldwide is an electronic payments company. Founded in 1975, it serves more than 6,000 organizations around the world today, including 1,000 of the largest financial institutions and intermediaries. It is listed on the Nasdaq and currently has a market cap of around $2.50 billion.
Large Purchase From CEO
Our insider transaction data shows that between June 6 and June 7, ACIW’s President and CEO Thomas Warsop purchased 43,000 ACIW shares at an average price of $23.63 per share. This trade cost the insider just over $1 million and increased his holding to 178,307 shares.
Mr. Warsop has only recently been appointed CEO of ACI Worldwide. However, he has plenty of experience at the company as he joined the board in June 2015 and became non-executive Chairman in June 2022.
He also has significant experience in the FinTech space. Previously, he was Group President at Fiserv, a provider of technology solutions to the financial industry, from 2007 to 2012.
It’s worth noting that this stock purchase from the insider has increased the size of his holding significantly. This suggests that he is confident that the stock is set to move higher.
ACI Worldwide appears to have momentum right now.
On May 22, the company announced that it is set to offer banks new cross-border, real-time payment services via Swift Go. It believes these services will enable banks to improve customer experiences and become more competitive.
Then, on May 24, the company announced that it is collaborating with Red Hat to expand its payments cloud offering. This collaboration will help ACI customers take advantage of the cloud.
Looking ahead, management is confident about the remainder of 2023.
“Looking to the rest of the year, we are energized by new opportunities across our businesses, particularly in real-time payments and cloud-based technologies, and we are confident we have the right strategy in place to capitalize on them. Our renewal calendar and implementation pipeline provide us with confidence we are on track to deliver our outlook for full-year 2023 and to achieve our revenue growth target of 7-9% by 2024,” said Mr. Warsop in the company’s recent Q1 results.
In light of these developments, we see the insider buying here as a bullish development.


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The report published by the White House Council of Economic Advisers examines the cyberattacks cost that malicious cyber activities cause to the U.S. economy.
The report analyzed the impact of malicious cyber activities on public and private entities, including DoS attacks, sabotage, business disruption, and theft of proprietary data, intellectual property, and sensitive financial and strategic information.
Damages and losses caused by a cyber attack may spill over from the initial target to economically linked organizations. More exposed are critical infrastructure sectors, at attack against companies and organization in this industry could have a severe impact on the US economy.
The forecast of the cost damage in coming years….


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Contract review startup Della raises $2.5m in first seed funding round
Clients include Mishcon de Reya, Eversheds Sutherland and Fidal
Della, an Anglo-French contract review legal technology startup has raised $2.5m in its first seed funding round.
The firm said the cash injection from new investor Pragmatech Ventures and existing investors will be used to build the London-based startup’s presence in Europe and the US and enhance its AI-powered contract review offering.
It cites Mishcon de Reya, Eversheds Sutherland, Fidal, and ‘several large multinational, enterprise organisations’ as customers.
Founded in 2018, Della, which has offices in London and Paris, launched its flagship contract review product in 2020. It promises a scalable, easy to use end-to-end legal review process ‘that learns to understand questions and their associated answer’. Its users can create checklists, highlight relevant language, detect potential red flags, prepare custom reports and generate letters and other documents to help them to build their case and advise their clients.
The solution has been trained to operate in more than 20 languages and claims to allow firms to adopt AI without the significant time investment that was required for early AI legaltech players.
Christophe Frèrebeau, co-founder and CEO of Della, said the company’s bet on AI-powered solutions reflected the notion that “AI has moved up the value chain” in the legal industry.
He added: “[...] users just don’t want to use pre-trained, customised AI, due to the time it takes to train those models and the cost involved in doing that. Larger transfer learning-based models, like Della’s, are replacing those legacy solutions, and we are enabling lawyers to use AI to help with more and more complex tasks.”
Evgeny Sergeev, founder and general partner of Pragmatech, said Della’s product was “redefining what people think legaltech can do”.
“It is hard to deny the relevance of artificial intelligence and its applications in the field of law, in general, and, in particular, to legal review workflows. We strongly believe that Della will shape the future technology stack of both law firms and corporate legal teams globally, and we plan to spend a significant amount of time with the company and its management team to help them on their journey,” Sergeev said.
This year has already seen a number of notable deals in the legatech space with companies looking to grow their offerings as demand for efficient digital solutions continues to boom.
Earlier this month, New York-based legal service provider Epiq acquired legal management consultancy Fireman & Co for an undisclosed amount in a bid to broaden its data and knowledge management expertise.
And in February, Cincinnati-based legaltech SurePoint acquired Cole Valley Software, the maker of a customer relationship management (CRM) platform targeted at legal professionals, in a deal that promised to create the first legaltech platform that integrates real-time CRM into practice management and financial data.
Email your news and story ideas to: email@example.com


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Mingle offers something for everyone — even Packers fans
NEILLSVILLE – In just a few short weeks, Mingle, the annual fundraiser for Memorial Medical Center, will take place in Neillsville.
Mingle is a wonderful evening of food, conversations, entertainment, dancing and auctions geared to raise awareness and funds for the local medical center. The event will take place Sept. 4 at the Silver Dome.
At this year's event, patrons will find many items up for auction including artwork, garden art, electronics such as Kindles, iPad, TVs, trips and more.
A special raffle will take place where the foundation will raffle off two tickets to the Packers vs. Bears game in Green Bay on Nov. 9.
"Dr. Sharon Hayward, our new general surgeon, donated the tickets to the event to help create excitement. The only way to win them is to be at Mingle," said Shelley Janke, foundation director.
"The tickets are just one of many great items up for raffle and auction. We have a iPad Mini donated to us by Schuster-Campman Abstract & Title Company, a Green Bay Packer autographed football, trips to Puerto Rico and Colorado, and very unique items from over 50 local businesses. The support for this event is incredible," Janke said.
The money raised at Mingle will be used to help MMC purchase trauma equipment for its emergency room.
"This isn't an event for just the wealthy. It is for anyone interested in having a unique experience close to home," Janke said.
Jazz band, the Robert Baca Orchestra, will perform.
For tickets or more information on Mingle, call Janke at 715-743-8456, visit www.MemorialMedCenter.org or search for Mingle 2014 on Facebook.
Shelley Janke is foundation manager at Memorial Medical Center, Neillsville.


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Apple buys another property in San Jose
Apple continues to grow its San Jose office space. The tech company purchased the 101 Tech Center, an office property located at 2325 Orchard Parkway, for approximately $165.8 million from Ellis Partners.
Apple had signed a lease to occupy all of the space in the existing property earlier this year.
With the 27-acre site, Apple now has about 70 acres in San Jose’s North First tech corridor, across from the airport, according to the Silicon Valley (Calif.) Business Journal.The purchase includes a 290,000-square-foot building and 12 acres of undeveloped land, which is approved for 650,000 square feet of additional office space.
Ellis Partners purchased the site in 2011 for $48.5 million.
The recent acquisition follows Apple’s $138.1 million purchase of 43 acres of undeveloped land from Lowe Enterpris


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“This is a significant milestone in The Fresh Market’s brand evolution,” said Rick Anicetti, president and chief executive officer of The Fresh Market. “The reinvention of our stores will place an emphasis on delicious fresh fare, convenience, and health and wellness options. The company is investing in what our customers love most about The Fresh Market, while adding new categories requested by our shoppers. This signifies our commitment to our shoppers, as well as our dedication towards innovation and evolution in today’s dynamic food retail environment.”
The Triad-area stores are focused on several key areas:
• Fresh — Fresh fare remains top priority, with a robust selection of produce, meat, seafood and products from local farmers.
• Convenience — Expanded product offerings at stores and double the number of aisles will allow customers to complete a full shop for all the items on their list.
• Value — Long recognized for offering the best quality for the price, The Fresh Market has now lowered prices on hundreds of items.
• In-Store Experience — New, dedicated sampling stations will offer shoppers a chance to taste flavors from across the store, including the weekly dish from the signature Little Big Meal program.
• Health — Now a more comprehensive destination for health and wellness products, The Fresh Market offers even more items to help customers live a healthy lifestyle with its new Mind & Body department, featuring over 3,300 vitamins, minerals and supplements, as well as a specialist to assist customers.


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Razer Bringing Massive Discounts On Razer Gaming Phone, Keyboards, Mice, Headsets For Prime Day
The Razer Phone will be on sale this coming Monday for up to 25 percent off depending on the model. Right now, the Razer phone is selling for $669 to $699 depending on the color. With a 25 percent discount, we'd be looking at prices of around $500 and $524 respectively.
The Portal Mesh gaming router is currently priced at $129.94, but Razer says that it will be discounting this device by 27 percent on Prime Day.
When it comes to gaming mice, Razer will be offering discounts on the following:
- Mamba Tournament Edition: 35% off
- Lancehead Tournament Edition Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse: 40% off
- DeathAdder Elite Ergonomic Gaming Mouse: 33% off
And if you're in the market for a keyboard:
- BlackWidow X Chroma Mercury Edition: 24% off
- Orbweaver Chroma Elite RGB Mechanical Gaming Keypad: 24% off
Finally, Razer has three headsets that will be placed on sale:
- ManO'War Wireless PC Gaming Headset: 37% off
- Tiamat 2.2 V2 Analog Gaming Headset: 27% off
- Kraken 7.1 V2 Mercury Edition Digital Gaming Headset: 26% off
Please Note: while the above links are working right now, the actual discounts won't go into effect until Monday. Overall, these are some pretty solid deals, especially on the Razer Phone. Be sure to check back here at HotHardware on Monday for additional Prime Day deals.


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MELROSE PARK, Ill. — Alberto Culver, whose beauty brands include TreSemme, Alberto VO5, Nexxus, St. Ives, Simple and Noxzema, has announced that Unilever and the U.S. Department of Justice have reached an agreement that will enable Unilever to complete its proposed acquisition of Alberto Culver.
Under the terms of the agreement, Unilever will divest the Alberto VO5 brand in the United States from the Alberto Culver portfolio and the Rave brand from the Unilever portfolio. Subject to customary closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close on or about May 10, 2011.
The Alberto Culver transaction remains subject to regulatory approval in the United Kingdom, Argentina, Honduras, El Salvador and the Isle of Jersey.
In September, Alberto Culver entered into an agreement with Unilever whereby Unilever will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Alberto Culver for $37.50 per share in cash. In December, Alberto Culver stockholders approved the transaction.


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The 90's supermodel war has just been revisited with model Hailey Baldwin weighing in on the drama.
Speaking in the November issue of Harper's Bazaar Australia, the 19-year-old, who has walked the runway for Moschino and Topshop and is the face of Australian brand The Daily Edited, said she's "not trying to take anybody's spot" in the fashion industry and wants to create a path for herself.
In April Rebecca Romijn claimed Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid “are not true supermodels” and just a few weeks later former 90's supermodel Stephanie Seymour said that she questions Kengi's status as supermodels and would prefer if they were called "b*****s of the moment".
But Hailey Baldwin claims they are not trying to step on anyone's toes and they hold the supermodels of the 90's in high regards.
"The older supermodels sometimes don't agree with the fact there is a new generation of models," Baldwin said.
"We're not saying we're supermodels. I'd rather people look at us as businesspeople, and, yes modelling is our business right now, but we're not trying to take anybody's spot and we're not trying to discredit the past."
Baldwin, who famously had a dalliance with pop sensation Justin Bieber, went on to claim that she's always asked told she'll never be like iconic supermodel Kate Moss, but she says she's a "completely different individual" and wants to carve her own career in the industry.
Baldwin is best friends with fellow models Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner, and while she says she appreciated their friendship, she also believes it's important to have peers outside the industry to keep you grounded.
"If you start to BS these friends, they call you out. They're ride-or-die for you, no matter what - they have your back," she said of her hometown friends.


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The printing and publishing sector has lost businesses worth Tk4,000 crore – a third of its market demand of Tk12,000 crore – due to Covid-19.
Also, about 5 Lakh people – directly involved in this sector – are having a tough time due to the loss of livelihoods.
So, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) on Thursday sought the government's financial and policy supports for the survival of the sector.
The business leaders made the call at the DCCI organised webinar "Covid-19 Outbreak and Bangladesh's Publishing Industry: Crisis and Way Forward."
DCCI President Shams Mahmud moderated the discussion while its former president M A Momen and stakeholders of the sector joined the webinar.
Shams Mahmud urged the government to provide support to all the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – even to the ones with no bank accounts. "Cash flow in businesses is a big challenge now."
The DCCI president also said that the government did a great job by announcing a stimulus package of Tk20,000 crore for the SMEs. "But the micro, small, and medium entrepreneurs who do not have regular dealings with the banks are being deprived of the loan facility."
However, the capacity of the country's printing and publishing sector is increasing gradually, M A Momen said.
"But the annual turnover of Tk12,000 crore in the sector has taken a Covid-19 hit. And the main challenge for it is now to survive."
Momen also urged the government to take measures to safeguard the import substitute manufacturers.
The closure of educational institutions has led to a sharp fall in normal demand for printing materials, DCCI Vice President Mohammad Bashiruddin said adding that the micro-entrepreneurs now need an incentive for their survival.
Bashiruddin also called for reforming duty structure, removing the complexity of duty draw-back system and highlighted the importance of planning for creating a skilled workforce in this sector.
Conducting comprehensive research on the printing and publishing sector is necessary to find out the actual loss in the sector that happened due to the outbreak, Academic and Creative Publishers Association of Bangladesh President Farid Ahmed said.
"A long-term policy framework is also needed to make the sector sustainable."
Around 35 crore academic books published by the local printers were delivered to the students by early January, Printing Industries Association of Bangladesh President Shahid Serniabad said.
"But the printing sector of Bangladesh is well capable of printing 100 crore academic books in a year."
The market demand has fallen and about 70 percent sales have dropped due to the outbreak, Bangladesh Paper Importers Association President Md Shafiqul Islam Bhorosha said while calling for a rational distribution to the entrepreneurs from the stimulus package.


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PSP Sales Rocket A Mindboggling 62,200% Before Black Friday Begins
Who says the PSP is dead? Demand for the handheld has grown exponentially since a temporary price cut on the system, with sales reaching an unprecedented high. As the Black Friday madness starts to kick in, Sony’s handheld has toppled the Wii, PS3 and 360 for the sales crown.
Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, listed the PSP 3000 for a mere $129.99, with a copy of LittleBigPlanet, The Karate Kid movie, and a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo and a $15 gift card earlier today, causing the PSP to almost immediately sell out as word spread of the fantastic deal.
With such an increase in demand, sales sky-rocketed 62,200% causing the bundle to go from a sales ranking of 1,246 to a lofty second place.
The great deal isn’t just an Amazon exclusive, Sony announced on the PlayStation Blog that the $129.99 bundle would be available at all major retailers over the Black Friday period, meaning that the sales increase is likely to be mirrored all across the United States. Amazon are currently sold out of the PSP pack (we’ll be sure to update you if it comes back in stock), but Best Buy are still offering the bundle online.
The PSP isn’t the only set to see a sales boost as Amazon has some unmissable Black Friday deals for the PlayStation 3, with a 160GB Family Bundle with Singstar Dance and Ratchet and Clank costing only $299.99, and a 160GB Black Friday Bundle featuring Uncharted 2 GOTY edition, Pixeljunk Shooter and The Karate Kid Blu-ray for as little as $299.
Stay tuned to PlayStation LifeStyle as we cover all the best Black Friday deals as they happen, and make sure to bookmark Amazon’s Black Friday Deals page to beat the millions of other shoppers in securing the hottest deal.


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San Francisco: Tech giant Google has created new images designed to be used for your Google profile picture, the company has announced. The new images, called Google Illustrations, look quite nice and they could also be useful for people who want to associate an image with their account but don't want to use a photo of themselves, The Verge reported. Gmail, YouTube & Google Maps Will No Longer Work on These Smartphones From Today; Check Full List Here.
The new library of illustrations indicates that Google is taking a different approach from avatars like Snap's Bitmoji or Microsoft's Xbox avatars, which can let you make stylized representations of what you look like.
Ready for a new profile pic? Meet Google Illustrations: a collection of customizable designs to help you create a profile image to represent yourself across most Google products. https://t.co/iJ26HeUCuh
— Google (@Google) September 27, 2021
Google's new illustrations instead give you a wide variety of generic things and places to use for your avatar. Right now, however, the illustrations are only available to Android users, according to Google. If you're on Android, you can set one as your profile pic in Google Workspace and Contacts on Android -- follow the steps in this GIF from Google if you want to do that.
Google said it's "working on" bringing the new illustrations to iOS and web and to more products. The company said it's also going to expand the collection of illustrations available, so if you don't see one you like now, check back when Google has added more.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 28, 2021 01:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).


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FedEx to Ship First Wave of COVID-19 Vaccines Across the United States
FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., has announced that operations are in motion to transport its first shipments of COVID-19 vaccines.
Following the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, FedEx Express will begin transport of the vaccine using its FedEx Priority Overnight® service supported by FedEx Priority Alert® advanced monitoring.
About the technology: FedEx SenseAware ID, a Bluetooth low-energy sensor device, will be affixed to vaccine shipments, helping to ensure these temperature-sensitive deliveries move swiftly and safely through the FedEx Express U.S. network with FedEx Priority Overnight service.
From origin to destination, dedicated FedEx Priority Alert customer support agents are using SenseAware monitoring technology to track the location of vaccine shipments in near real-time.
This technology is complemented by the FedEx Surround platform, which leverages artificial intelligence and predictive tools to proactively monitor conditions surrounding the packages, allowing customer support agents to intervene if weather or traffic delays threaten to impede delivery times.
Vaccine distribution will be balanced among major cargo carriers, and FedEx is working closely with healthcare customers to prepare for additional vaccine shipments and transportation of critical vaccine-related supplies.
Raj Subramaniam, president and chief operating officer, FedEx Corp. said: “This is among the most important work in the history of our company, and we’re honored to be a part of the effort to help end this pandemic.
“I am immensely proud of our dedicated team members who continue to go above and beyond to help ensure the safe movement of these critical COVID-19 vaccines, especially during our busiest holiday shipping season to date. This is who we are and what we do at FedEx.”
Don Colleran, president and chief executive officer, FedEx Express said: “Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, FedEx has delivered more than 55 kilotons of personal protective equipment, including more than two billion face masks, and more than 9,600 humanitarian aid shipments around the globe.”
Mike McDermott, president, Pfizer Global Supply said: “Outstanding logistics is critical to get our products to those who need them across the country, and we’re happy to partner with FedEx in this historic effort to save lives and put an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.”


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Tiny Death Star has been pulled from both the Android and iOS app stores by publisher Disney Mobile Studios. That in itself isn't an unusual move, but Disney failed to inform the developer, NimbleBit, that it would be doing so.
"We're very disappointed to see Tiny Death Star shuttered less than a year after launch," NimbleBit founder Ian Marsh told GameInformer.
"We had no prior knowledge that the game would be removed and no longer even have a contact at Disney after the recent layoffs. Suffice to say if you're a developer looking to partner with Disney this might not be the partnership you're looking for."
Tiny Death Star was released in November 2013 and according to Marsh was still making money for NimbleBit.
"My assumption is they don't feel it is worth it to maintain the game any longer," Marsh told PocketGamer.
"[The game was] a significant source of revenue for us, so it stings that much more."
Disney also removed Star Wars Assault Team from both stores, a title which had only been live for five months.
Gamezebo reported that, according to their source, both games were now permanently retired so Disney can focus on its other title, Star Wars Commander. We've contacted Disney directly for clarification.


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How taxi rental platform Instacar is navigating the coronavirus roadblock
Instacar, a marketplace for outstation taxi rentals, started as a pre-booked, chauffeur-driven service. As mobility takes a hit during the coronavirus-led lockdown, the online marketplace is offering critical travel within Bengaluru.
Ishan Vyas, Anurag Gupta, and Priyanshi Choubey in 2016 started, a marketplace for outstation taxi rentals, in Indore. The idea was simple: solving the problem of renting cars for outstation trips.
The pre-booked chauffeur-driven taxi service aims to do away with a persistent problem – India’s unprofessional, unorganised, and unsafe cab services. The co-founders were keen to offer highly professional chauffeurs with experience and etiquette, and premium cars.
Since launch, Instacar has attracted the attention of high-profile travellers due to the availability of luxury cars and SUVs that can be booked in just a click. Noted playback singer Shaan is one of their prized customers.
Taxis can be pre-booked or scheduled on the website or app, and pricing is based on kilometres. The car drivers work full time with the startup, which offers higher control on the vehicles and chauffeurs. They are paid a minimum committed amount, irrespective of the business done.
“We've raised two rounds of funding till now, $1 million from a Hong Kong-based investor and another $120,000 from Techstars. We've also been accelerated by Techstars; we were part of the first Bengaluru batch,” Ishan says.
Since then, Anurag has left the Instacar team.
The shift to Bengaluru
In 2018, the team decided to move to Bengaluru as Indore was not sufficient, “in terms of team and scale”.
“It was a testing city and worked beautifully when we were small, but the goal was to super scale. We got into Techstars in February 2019. As a city, Bengaluru has a huge educated, open-to-experimentation customer base. Also, the most successful transportation companies in India are from Bengaluru as the acceptance rate is high,” Ishan says.
The fact that it is smaller when compared to Mumbai and Delhi makes “on-ground operations relatively easier”. The team also realised that marketing was easier in Bengaluru as people usually live and work within a radius of five to 10 km.
“Also, I have done my graduation from Bengaluru and have lived here for four years. I had a lot of connections and a soft corner for the city,” Ishan says.
The COVID-19 shift
The rapid spread of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown have negatively impacted the mobility industry. According to a Google Report, there has been a 77 percent drop in trips to public places.
To deal with this situation, Instacar decided to introduce critical travel within Bengaluru.
“It is mostly for medical urgencies like doctor's appointments, maternity care, elderly care, and so on. Our cars go through a rigorous cleaning and sanitising process, ensuring a highly safe means of transport. Our chauffeurs are educated on protocols and precautions, like wearing masks and gloves. So, we're well prepared in this pandemic situation,” Ishan says.
The focus area for the next six months is safety of passengers and drivers. Hence, the on-ground focus is on hygiene.
"Along with car sanitisation, our drivers are checked for temperature. We started using masks from March 10 as a lot of IT professionals from international countries travel with us. These measures are going to scale up. We are trying to acquire testing kits to make sure each driver is COVID-19 negative to assure customers that they are safe and the spread doesn't happen because of us,” Ishan adds.
In the pre-COVID-19 world
Instacar claims to have been doing 100-150 airport transfer transactions per day before the lockdown. The major focus was airport pickups and drops. Over 10,000 users in Bengaluru use the startup on a regular basis.
The team now has customers like Udaan, who use the services regularly for their staff.
“We focused on intercity business for almost three years before moving to Bengaluru. During Techstars, we realised that we needed a bigger repetitive hook for our customers alongside outstation taxis. We started kids transport, which worked out really well, but meanwhile, we were experimenting with multiple categories,” Ishan says.
Airport as a category came into the picture and “within one-two hours of launch, we did about 35 transactions with absolutely no marketing”. “We just notified existing customers. This happened in August 2019,” Ishan adds.
Within two months, the startup hit 150 transactions a day - with no marketing. They soon decided to scale up the airport business as the need was very high, and started ramping up the team.
“We organised our team last month and the lockdown happened. We then started getting requests from existing customers for local transport service. We built out a point-to-point (within the city) app overnight, and rolled it out,” Ishan says.
The Instacar co-founders feel that safety of passengers is going to be top priority after the lockdown is lifted and when local in-city business is scaling up.
“if you are moving out of your house, you want to 100 percent make sure that you are safe. Hence, you don't want to use public transport, other cab aggregators don't guarantee quality.”
“We are going the extra mile to ensure all our drivers are coronavirus-negative, and hygiene is taken up at utmost levels. Our customer acquisition cost is still zero because people love our service. Our week-on-week repeat is 30 percent, and month-on-month repeat is about 80 percent. With point-to-point service coming into the picture, our week-on-week repeat will go much higher,” Ishan says.
Apart from Instacar, larger startups likeand are focused on car rentals and taxi services. They are now providing mobility to hospitals and for critical care amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Speaking of future plans, Ishan says, “The bigger plan for us has always been to be operational in almost all metro cities along with Tier I and II cities.”
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)
Edited by Teja Lele


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“Personal shopper.” This phrase, though brief, has sent many a woman’s heart aflutter. The idea that another person, an expert, would look at you and understand your style and figure out your body type and then dress you—the concept is nothing short of a fantasy. E-commerce fashion provider CakeStyle wants to make that dream a reality, by shipping packages of pre-selected items straight to women’s doors. Some might call it the Trunk Club of women’s fashion. I call it the latest Chicago startup to score another round of funding. CakeStyle announced yesterday a $1 million raise from Sandbox Industries' Sandbox Advantage Fund.
According to reports, CakeStyle boxes range from $2,800 to $3,000 apiece. That’s a steep price tag, but one women are apparently willing to pay—with thousands of new customers and shipments reaching six times the number they were at the start of the year, business has been good. CEO and cofounder Cecelia Myers acknowledges that word of mouth has been instrumental to CakeStyle’s growth. She and her team plan to put their funding to work for marketing and expanding into other cities, and that includes building on this system.
“The first step will be building a strong referral program to turn existing customers in [new] cities into brand ambassadors,” Myers said. “Next, we want to share our style advice in the local markets through press and style events.” Such events will allow CakeStyle to demonstrate how the company can provide customized services to women in cities as different as Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
The CakeStyle team has its eye on expanding into major markets such as D.C., as mentioned, or Boston, but smaller cities like Milwaukee are also on its radar.
“Out of the gate, they wanted to focus on the future and how they could help,” Myers said. “They've watched CakeStyle start from an idea on a sheet of paper, and have offered integral advice from day one.” We should mention that Myers’ cofounder and chairwoman Millie Tadewaldt is also a managing director at Sandbox.
Looking ahead, CakeStyle’s focus is on expanding its customer base, building out its technology platform and growing its team (which is currently 10 strong). “Big picture: we can't wait to change how women shop online by giving the best parts of expert curation and personal choice,” Myers said. With style expertise and client data on hand, it looks like CakeStyle is in prime position to make online shopping the one thing it’s not: personal.
Visit Cake Style’s website, check out their BIC company profile and follow them on Twitter at @CakeStyleMe.


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Read more about FinTech
Olugbenga Agboola, the co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave, expressed excitement about this development, stating, “The Indian expansion for Flutterwave will be the first African company to do this at a scale where remittances from India to Africa become seamless and quick.” Agboola, who is currently in India with Nigeria’s tech minister, Bosun Tijani, and President Bola Tinubu ahead of the upcoming G20 summit, also mentioned plans to seek additional partnerships to strengthen their presence in India.
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This expansion into India follows Agboola’s announcement of Flutterwave’s intent to proceed with its IPO plans. The startup has been actively expanding its international partnerships and market reach since June, aligning with its IPO preparations. This recent partnership with IndusInd serves as a significant step forward for the Lagos-based fintech company’s path to going public.
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In June, Flutterwave secured a payment services license in Egypt and established Kigali as its settlement hub in East Africa. In July, the fintech announced an integration with the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Financial Gateway (IFG) to enable Africans to pay their airline fees in their local currencies. Despite facing challenges, such as a Kenyan court freezing its accounts in June, Flutterwave received name approval for its remittance business in August and has moved closer to obtaining a money remittance license from the Central Bank of Kenya. Featured Image Source: Benjamin Dada
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