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The Joys (and Challenges) of Humane Farming
Savannah Kuang, CUESA Staff
February 13, 2020
“We always say we raise our animals with love because we really do love them,” says Joy Dolcini of Farmer Joy, a sixth-generation family farm in Chileno Valley. “We just want to make sure they’re happy and healthy, which makes love the secret ingredient in our eggs and meat.”
For Joy, love means raising all of her animals humanely on green pastures. Joy and her family began by raising cattle and pigs to produce their own meat, and eventually started selling it to local businesses in 2018. “It certainly wasn’t my intention to start a business, but it was just a nice way for me to be able to stay home with the kids and make a little money for groceries or other necessities by selling these products,” she says.
The Chicken or the Egg?
Joy’s children wanted chickens and started raising them, resulting in an abundance of laid eggs. She started selling them at their preschool and eventually made it an actual business. “It was mostly for fun at the time,” she says. “But it got to the point where I was selling all of the eggs, and we had to buy our own at the grocery store. That got us to buy even more chickens and that process just repeated itself. That turned out to be the majority of our business.”
The farm’s animals roam freely in the pastures, while foraging on grass and feed in the barn. “We feed them a variety of foods, such as natural grains for the chickens and ducks, as well as vegetables,” says Joy. Their pigs also eat grains and vegetables, while their cows are fully grass-fed.
The Meaty Challenge
But being a small rancher dedicated to humane farming also comes with many hurdles, and right now Farmer Joy is faced with a challenge that impacts her farm and other local farmers, too. As of January, the local facility where she takes her animals for processing is no longer accepting animals from other local farmers.
In 2014, the meat company Marin Sun Farms bought the Bay Area’s last remaining slaughterhouse to support their own business and other ranchers with processing, including livestock hauling, slaughtering, cutting to meat packaging, distribution, and sales. But due to staffing, they have had to scale back to focus on their own product.
With Marin Sun Farms closing its doors to other ranchers, Farmer Joy will have to travel further to find another USDA-approved facility in the Central Valley or up north by Humboldt County. “It’s not easy to find alternative slaughterhouses,” says Joy. “There’s going to be an influx of other farmers trying to get the same spots at these local slaughterhouses.”
With just four corporations processing roughly 80% of U.S. beef, generally serving large CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) and factory farms, finding local slaughterhouses presents a barrier for small-scale livestock producers dedicated to humane farming, transparency, and traceability.
Rancher Mark Pasternak of Devil’s Gulch Ranch, who also processed pigs with Marin Sun Farms, raises concerns about production costs and factory farm consolidation. In an article by the San Francisco Chronicle, he said the loss of the facility will not only impact his farmers markets and restaurant sales, but also animal welfare and the environment. Joy shares similar concerns. “Having to haul them even farther away is going to be more difficult for the animals,” she says.
Farmer Joy butchers an animal every eight weeks, which is a much smaller scale than large factory farms that transport whole trucks full of livestock. Large slaughterhouses are often reluctant to deal with smaller farmers who only bring a small number of animals, which means small farms sometimes need to team up.
“Our other challenge is going to be finding other small farmers who wouldn’t mind us bringing one of our animal with theirs,” says Joy. “I’m hoping that, once it gets to the slaughterhouses, everyone gets the right animals back.”
Supporting Local Ranchers
Despite the transportation challenges, Joy has a few processing facility options lined up, but she emphasizes how difficult keeping these relationships is in the long run. “These places don’t have unlimited slaughter space available, so it’s a matter of time getting on the waitlist,” she says. “It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m definitely nervous about trying to arrange that when the time comes.”
Joy also acknowledges that small farmers might need to price their products a bit higher than conventional factory-farmed meat due to higher costs of labor and resources that come with treating animals and soil better. “That money is going directly to support family farms rather than large corporations,” she says.
“We’re just a very small farm, and supporting us means we’re really able to concentrate on producing high-quality products. It’s all the profit we have right now, so it makes a big difference.”
Third and fifth photo courtesy of Farmer Joy.


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|India's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow 6.5% next year, due to positive demand from the external sector and also an increase in the domestic reforms. As reported by Reuters News, the economy grew 5.4% in the third quarter, marking the slowest rate in the last three years. The economy is expected to grow 7.2% in 2014, as compared to 5.4% this year.
Hong Kong's composite interest rate declined 3 basis points (bps) registering 0.25% in February this year. As reported by News.gov.hk, the decrease in the composite rates was due to the decline ... more
Thailand's government is likely to offer financial support for export-oriented small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the indigenous industry, resulting in an increase in volume and value ... more
Singapore's small businesses are expected to be having concerns regarding the new and diverse government incentive schemes, which were announced in the recent Budget. As reported by ... more

domain: news


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Five hundred workers at an Electrolux oven factory in County Durham will lose their jobs next year when the Swedish firm shifts production to Swidnica in Poland.
Electrolux announced this morning it had decided to close its Spennymoor factory, which makes cookers, following a review. It blamed increased price pressure from other manufacturers for the decision to axe the loss-making plant.
"We looked at a whole range of potential scenarios to make the factory profitable, but came to the conclusion that the only option was to close it," said Anders Edholm, head of media relations for Electrolux.
The Unite union condemned the move, saying Electrolux would now have to import cookers made overseas into the UK.
"This is another shameless example of British workers being dumped in favour of low-wage exploitation in Poland," said Jeff Morland, Unite regional officer.
"The company's decision to move production to Poland where workers are paid a quarter of a British wage will not be profitable in the short run."
Electrolux's decision is a blow to an area that suffered from the closure of many coal mines in the 1980s. More recently, companies such as Black and Decker have also cut jobs and shifted operations overseas.
Unions are concerned that the workers will struggle to find new jobs. Many have worked there for 30 years, and may retire. Others may have to try to find temporary employment.
The workforce had made efforts to secure its future by suggesting changes at the factory, including stopping making some products and renting out space at the site.
Magnus Yngen, head of Electrolux Major Appliances Europe, said today he appreciated their "constructive" efforts.
"I do regret that despite the efforts made by our employees, the cost gap is simply too large to bridge," Yngen said.
He added that Spennymoor had suffered from a shift in consumer preferences away from free-standing cookers to built-in cookers
Electrolux declined to say how large a loss the factory makes at present, but said it expects to make savings of around 90m Swedish Kronor (£6.8m). Closing the factory will cost around Skr390m.
Unite claimed the company will have to repay £1.4m in government grants, but Electrolux said talks are expected to begin next week over how much must be repaid.


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Remember the whole electric truck thing? Yeah, well… it’s actually happening. After years of talks and countless claims by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, it looks like the company is finally springing into action and rolling out some effective electric trucks.
Earlier this week, Musk tweeted about a 500-mile trip performed by an electric truck.
Tesla team just completed a 500 mile drive with a Tesla Semi weighing in at 81,000 lbs!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022
If true, this is the most impressive trip by an electric truck to date.
Elon Musk and Tesla just began an electric truck empire that he plans to expand
Tesla is releasing two trucks. One will cost $150,000 — that’ll get you 300 miles on a single charge. The other is $180,000, which will drive you 500 miles. This is presumably the semi-truck used for the trip referenced in this tweet.
And this is the start of a plan to produce 100 trucks by the end of the year. By the end of 2024, Musk wants that number to grow to 50,000. For the drivers who are tired of paying $4.00 per gallon, this will be good news down the road. Granted, those prices won’t stay consistent, but if electric semi-trucks are normalized, gas won’t be a concern for anybody anymore.
Elon Musk and Tesla were not the first to complete electric vehicle deliveries
Believe it or not, Tesla was not the first to get going with electric semi-trucks. In fact, Volvo may have snuck its way ahead of Musk with its subsidiary company, Renault, which has already “implemented electric trucks for delivery” for Coca-Cola.
Musk doesn’t plan to implement his until December 1st. Here’s the timeline given by CDLLife.
“Musk’s tweet comes just days ahead of a planned delivery event to be held December 1 at the Tesla Gigafactory located east of Reno, Nevada. December 1 is the planned date for PepsiCo to begin to accept a delivery of 100 Tesla Semis that the company pre-ordered in 2017.”


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Geneva businessman and philanthropist Abdallah Chatila
Millions of face masks and other medical necessities are being flown into Geneva from China almost everyday.
The medical air-bridge has been set up by Geneva businessman and philanthropist Mr Abdallah Chatila who realised there was a need for a supply of material as he sensed there were some who were exploiting the situation.
Mr Chatila runs several businesses in the canton through his M3 Group.
He describes the air-bridge as a social operation. The masks are being sold at cost to the government and medical groups - and at a small profit to the public.
You can buy the masks on mystore.ch
He describes this thinking to Mark Butcher.


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Seattle, WA – January 14, 2020 — doxo, the all-in-one bill pay service that facilitates secure payment to any biller, with any payment method, on any device, today announced it was included on Built In Seattle’s list of the Best Places to Work in 2020. Companies are selected based on data submitted by companies and their employees, and doxo ranks among 50 of the best small companies to work for in Seattle.
“Seattle is home to a number of technology innovators and fintech is at the forefront of growth for startups here. doxo was born and raised in this city, and as one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in the region, we’re thrilled to be honored as one of the Best Places to Work by Built in Seattle,” said Steve Shivers, co-founder and CEO of doxo. “Our continued success can be attributed to the incredible team of 50+ employees we’ve grown over the years, who are collectively focused on fixing the fragmented process of bill pay for both consumers and businesses. We grew our customer base by over 70% last year, and we will continue to expand our team to further accelerate growth as we work to change the bill pay landscape to focus on the customer.”
Fueled by continued consumer growth and payments across its bill pay network, doxo has experienced tremendous growth in the past year. The company’s Directory of regional and national payable billers surpassed 60,000 providers across the country in 2019, making doxo the largest bill pay directory. Innovative integrations with companies like Plaid and services like Apple Pay have also served to bolster doxo’s long-standing presence in the market, and made it even easier for users to pay their bills with features like overdraft protection and paying with Apple Pay. Billers can take advantage of these features for their customers and receive fast, free, and direct payments through doxo. Additionally, the company launched doxoINSIGHTS, a series of reports analyzing anonymized data from over three million users paying billers across the country. The inaugural report, America’s Household Bills, Unbundled, was the first-ever to break down what Americans are paying for their monthly bills in the 25 largest U.S. metros, and has since been expanded to cover over 900 cities in the U.S.
Maria Christopoulos Katris, CEO and Co-Founder of Built In, said: “We extend our heartfelt congratulations to our 2020 honorees. Built In aims to change lives by connecting talented tech professionals with jobs they were born to do. These companies have become part of that mission because they stand for more than just the work they’re doing. They stand for their people and purpose.” She added: “We also extend our gratitude. These companies exemplify what it means to be an employer of choice for today’s purpose-driven tech workforce. Writing about them inspires us daily and, in terms of our offering, gives us total confidence that the professionals who visit our websites will find work that gives them a strong sense of professional and personal meaning.”
doxo is a simple, secure all-in-one bill pay service that facilitates secure payment to any biller, with any payment method, on any device. doxo currently serves over three million paying users who can make payments to over 60,000 local and national businesses, making doxo the largest bill pay directory in the nation. Billers on the network get paid directly, fast and free – and consumers have complete bill pay independence over when and how they pay their bills. doxo more than doubled its user base in the past year, and is expanding its team to further accelerate growth and change the bill pay landscape to focus on the customer. doxo investors include MDV, Sigma Partners, and Bezos Expeditions. doxo is based in Seattle, WA. For more information visit www.doxo.com.
ABOUT BUILT IN
Working in tech is a way of life. Built In helps people live it with purpose. Across the most vibrant tech hubs in the US, Built In helps tech professionals stay on top of tech news and trends, expand their networks and carve out futures at companies they believe in. Built In attracts a niche audience of 1 million tech professionals every month and, in 2019, the company hit a milestone, serving 1,100 companies annually. Built In recently launched BuiltIn.com, a national hub for tech trend coverage and resources to help professionals grow in their careers.
National Site: BuiltIn.com
Local Sites: BuiltInChicago.com | BuiltInLA.com | BuiltInColorado.com | BuiltInAustin.com | BuiltInNYC.com | BuiltInBoston.com | BuiltInSeattle.com | BuiltInSF.com
BEST PLACES TO WORK: METHODOLOGY
Built In’s list rates companies algorithmically based on compensation data and employer benefits. Rank is determined by combining a company’s score in each of these categories.
Erin Fisher, 856-422-0446


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Contributed by Nicole Leinbach Reyhle, Founder of Retail MindedAchieving a connected supply chain has proven itself a challenge time and time again, particularly as our global economy continues to recover from the pandemic. Keeping this in mind, the National Retail Federation’s recent, debut 360 Supply Chain event was a welcomed experience that delivered valuable insight and solutions for industry decision makers looking to optimize their supply chain efforts.
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This week, academics at the University of Cambridge published research into how taste in music develops over the course of people’s lifetimes.
As teenagers, people desire ‘intensity’, according to Dr Jason Rentfrow:
Adolescents’ quest for independence often takes the shape of a juxtaposed stance to the perceived ‘status quo’, that of parents and the establishment. ‘Intense’ music, seen as aggressive, tense and characterised by loud, distorted sounds has the rebellious connotations that allow adolescents to stake a claim for the autonomy that is one of this period’s key ‘life challenges’.
In early adulthood, the research suggests, people begin to develop an appreciation of ‘contemporary’ and ‘mellow’ music as they seek not to stand out, but to fit in, and find intimacy with others.
Finally, in middle age, people become ‘sophisticated’, becoming keen on jazz and classical music; but, at the same time, seek something less ‘pretentious’ and so develop ‘an interest in country, folk and blues’.
The University’s press release also includes this statement:
The explosion in music consumption over the last century has made ‘what you listen to’ an important personality construct – as well as the root of many social and cultural tribes – and, for many people, their self-perception is closely associated with musical preference.
Increasingly, we think that is true of food and beer, too — for many, they are part of popular culture as much as they are refreshment or sustenance.
The success of Brewdog and ‘craft beer’ more generally in the UK is partly down to tapping a market among young people who might previously have rejected beer (mild-mannered, session-strength, subtle) outright.
The good news for more traditional brewers is that those young people are drinking beer and, in years to come, will likely put aside the brashness of Brewdog in favour of classical, unpretentious, folksy beer. (You can look back at 6+ years of our blog to see some evidence of this process taking place, though we’ve always been pretty fuddy-duddy.)
But what about when brands and brewers grow up and perhaps lose their rebellious image? In the world of music, the coolest band is usually one no-one over the age of 20 has even heard of.


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While promoting the impending release of Midway's TNA Impact! game, wrestling star Kurt Angle told us that work on a sequel is already in progress.
Speaking on whether he enjoyed working on the game, he said that he didn't participate in its development as much as he'd hoped for, and then added, "Next year, I'm gonna have a lot more involvement."
Sounds like a confirmation to us, but we'll wait until we see how well the first game does until we'll bet money on it.
TNA Impact! is the first game to be developed for the popular TNA wrestling promotion, and will be released sometime in spring 2008.


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Sensor Tower’s most recent report on the Mobile Simulation Games Market Insights highlights the growth of newer simulation games. Games such as Burger Please! by Korean publisher Supercent and Frozen City by Century Games have been identified as contributing to this growth. Besides these simulation games, ultra-casual arena and adventure games have also performed well. These games generated $2.3 billion from January to July 2023.
Simulation games have made $2.7 billion in revenue from January to July of this year, which is a 72% increase from 2019 and exceeds pre-pandemic levels. If this spending rate continues, simulation games could have their most profitable year in 2023.
Playing simulation games
During the pandemic, the mobile gaming industry made much money – a record of $4.9 billion in 2021 alone. However, the industry’s revenue dropped in 2022 for the first time. Experts say this was just a correction and not a reason to worry.
If 2023 doesn’t earn more than 2021 in simulation game earnings, earning over $4.5 billion (which was earned in 2022) will still be good news. Plus, since we have yet to reach the year’s second half, there’s still a chance for 2023 to do even better.
The US market is important for in-app purchases, as it accounts for 43% of the $2.7 billion earned globally. By contrast, the European market only accounted for 23% up to July 2023.
Tycoon and craft games were the most successful in this genre, earning over $1.3 billion and accounting for 50% of the genre’s revenue. Two top-performing games were Township by Playrix and Family Island by Melsoft.


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INDIANAPOLIS - After a Pennsylvania couple allegedly murdered a man they met off Craigslist this week, police are advising caution when buying or selling items on the popular site.
Indianapolis resident Steve Brown said he's always cautious about his sales, even though he frequently uses Craigslist. Brown was even hesitant to meet us in a marked news vehicle.
"With Craigslist, it's kind of like going to a garage sale," Brown said. "Sometimes you may find a great deal at a garage sale, but then when you get home and plug it in you find out it doesn't work."
After hearing about recent robberies and murders connected to Craigslist, Brown says he's reconsidering using the site.
Brother Tryon Kincade, 19, and Tyshaune Kincade, 18, are facing charges for allegedly killing and robbing Indiana National Guardsman Sgt. James Vester on Wednesday.
Police say Vester came to the Wyckford Commons apartment complex in Indianapolis answering a Craigslist ad about an iPad. Friends say it was intended as a gift for his parents.
"It makes you nervous. It makes my wife nervous and it's made me reconsider how I do business when I operate on Craigslist," Brown said.
Authorities recommend taking someone with you before buying or selling something to a stranger. They also suggest going to a busy public place, like a mall or police or fire station, and asking for ID.
"There's no bargain out there that's worth your life," Brown said. "There's no bargain out there that's worth getting robbed or ripped off."


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Entrepreneurs recently flocked to Kansas City for an experimental implementation of Google gigabit fiber. The Kansas City Startup Village (KCSV) is using that fiber, and Techstars co-founder Brad Feld is getting into the act by buying a home where entrepreneurs can live and work.
But here is a dirty little secret: If you already have a Kansas City business and want to be the first on your fiber block, you are out of luck. Google is giving priority to residential installations. Here are some other things that Google can learn from America’s first fiber city, Chattanooga.


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Catherine Austin Fitts has aptly noted that the energy costs of trying to mine crypto-currencies can leave a carbon footprint the size of a panzer division. The same might also be said of the cost of all the Davos crowd flying their private jests to the conferences of the World Economic
Fleecing Forum when their leader, the perpetually scowling Hochklaus von Blohschwab Freiherr von Bomburst und Bloviation, summons them. But if you’re concerned not only about the environment, but also the costs of energy, and the impact of energy usage on the environment, you might want to check out this story that was spotted and shared by L.G.L.R. And I decided to pass it along to you, because before I sat down today with my cup of tea to go through this week’s emails and sort through articles, I ran to the grocery store to make a few “necessity” purchases, and then on my return, stopped to fill up my gas tank. Needless to say I was stunned at how well Bai Den-0mics (or “Bidenomics” to give it its popular spelling), is working. I was fortunate, because I was just barely able to afford the fill-up with the amount of cash I had on me, without having to float an issue of bonds to raise the cash to do so.
But anyway, here’s the shocker about the efficiency (and cost) of an electric vehicle, and talk about leaving a carbon footprint the size of a panzer division!
The articles make clear that the amount of subsidies behind electric vehicles actually disguise the shocking cost of buying, much less trying to operate, them:
A new study called “Overcharged Expectations” claims that without federal subsidies, the real cost of fueling an electric vehicle would amount to $17.33 per gallon of gasoline.
The study from the Texas Public Policy Foundation said electric vehicles do not stand alone in comparison with other vehicles because of the “wide array of direct subsidies, regulatory credits, and subsidized infrastructure that contribute to the economic viability of EVs.”
“Adding the costs of the subsidies to the true cost of fueling an EV would equate to an EV owner paying $17.33 per gallon of gasoline. And these estimates do not include the hundreds of billions more in subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act,” the report said.
The study claims that a 2021 electric vehicle “would cost $48,698 more to own over a 10-year period without $22 billion in government favors given to EV manufacturers and owners” and said traditional gasoline-powered vehicles are cheaper than an electric vehicle without subsidies.
“It is not an overstatement to say that the federal government is subsidizing EVs to a greater degree than even wind and solar electricity generation and embarking on an unprecedented endeavor to remake the entire American auto industry,” the report said.
According to the study, about $22 billion in various federal and state forms of aid have artificially lowered the price of a 2021 electric vehicle by almost $50,000.
And add to this the cost to the electric grid:
The report further estimates that the cost to other people for the strain on the power grid from charging electric vehicles comes out to $11,833 over 10 years, funded by taxpayers and utility ratepayers.
But in case you haven’t noticed, no one is buying these “environment savers”, perhaps because of the nasty possibility that the electric grid and energy usage is actually going up (along with the cost of using them), and even worse, forcing automakers to build things that no one is buying is hurting the industry:
The report noted that consumers have taken to hybrid vehicles far more than electric vehicles, adding, “Perhaps if D.C. politicians and bureaucrats stop trying to force Americans to build and buy their preferred types of vehicles, the cleaner and brighter future that they imagine will actually materialize.”
“It’s time for federal and state governments to stop driving the American auto industry off an economic cliff and allow markets to drive further improvements in cost and efficiency,” the report stated.
Or perhaps that’s the point of the exercise: drive them out of business, nationalize them, and then like “Obamacare”, compel everyone to buy them.
And if the sticker shock of buying and operating one of these clunkers doesn’t get you, maybe the fact of replacing their batteries, when they finally die completely and can no longer be recharged will, for they’re almost as expensive as the vehicle itself. And we may add to that the conditions under which the expensive elements for those vehicles are mined, and the labor conditions under which the people doing do work, conditions which are barbaric and inhuman, all so that Mr. Globaliney can tell himself he’s saving the environment and the planet, and feel nice and virtuous about himself.
Or we can learn the lesson: the environment savers and green energy endorsers are really not all that friendly to humanity. All this environment salvation is not about the environment at all, because the impact and effect of these “solutions” appears to be much more deleterious than the technologies already in place and in common use. It’s a scam, to make certain people rich and to sustain their power, and not to save the planet.
Nothing more, nothing less. Sorry Greta.
See you on the flip side…
Disclaimer: We at Prepare for Change (PFC) bring you information that is not offered by the mainstream news, and therefore may seem controversial. The opinions, views, statements, and/or information we present are not necessarily promoted, endorsed, espoused, or agreed to by Prepare for Change, its leadership Council, members, those who work with PFC, or those who read its content. However, they are hopefully provocative. Please use discernment! Use logical thinking, your own intuition and your own connection with Source, Spirit and Natural Laws to help you determine what is true and what is not. By sharing information and seeding dialogue, it is our goal to raise consciousness and awareness of higher truths to free us from enslavement of the matrix in this material realm.


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30 JANUARY 2017
© 2022 Business Travel News Ltd.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Hotels plans to open and operate a new hotel in New Orleans, with work expected to start in April and the property opening for business in early 2019.
The property is in the city’s Warehouse District at Baronne Street. The up-and-coming area is next to the Central Business District and home to a growing number of new restaurants, galleries and shops.
Virgin Hotels CEO Raul Leal said the company, which was launched in 2010, had had New Orleans in its sights since the beginning as it had all the elements to make it a one-of-a-kind destination for business and leisure travellers.
He added: “We’re excited to bring the Virgin experience to the Big Easy because it’s a perfect fit in terms of our values and our emphasis on creating unique and immersive experiences for our guests.”
The new-build hotel is being developed by Dallas-based Gatehouse Capital with 225 rooms, the brand’s flagship space, the Commons Club, a rooftop pool and lounge, gym, and dedicated meeting and event spaces.
Virgin is also working with Gatehouse to develop a property in Dallas and a Virgin Hotel is under construction in San Francisco. Others are in Chicago, Nashville, New York and Palm Springs.
All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum


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EA Lawsuit Coming to Close
Lawsuits and videogames go hand and hand. I rarely report on them since it usually has no impact on actual gamers.
But in 2008, Electronic Arts (EA) was taken to court because they allegedly violated antitrust and consumer protection laws in California by “establishing license agreements with the National Football League (NFL), National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and the Arena Football League (AFL). The agreement gave EA the exclusive right to produce football video games with the teams, players and other assets of the NFL, AFL, and NCAA” according to a press release from Firmani + Associates Inc, EA’s law firm in the matter.
The settlement, which establishes a 27 million dollar fund for gamers who bought Madden, NCAA Football, or AFL games made by EA, was filed last week. If approved, all gamers who bought a sixth generation game would be eligible for $6.79 per game, and those who bought a seventh generation title would receive $1.95 per game as long as the game was purchased between January 1, 2005 and the present.
However, there was a more important point to the settlement which says the EA cannot sign an exclusive agreement with the AFL for five years and will not renew it’s current agreement with the NCAA which expires in 2014.
This could mean, and should mean, other gaming companies throwing their hat in to the ring in the coming generation of football titles.
And as we saw with the NFL2K series in the early 2000s, competition brings good things to sports games. Very good things.


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Six valuable members of the Acura of Las Vegas staff have a combined total of more than 90 years in the car business.
Leading the employees with long tenure are sales consultants Louie Doblado, Mary Weisbrod and Sean Berkebile; Kathy Paul, office manager; Brad Eull, service adviser; and Brian Stroud, shop foreman.
Paul has 11 years; while Doblado has 20 years; Eull has five years; Weisbrod has 24 years; Berkebile has 11 years; and Stroud has 22 years.
For Paul, the combination of the car business and accounting is a natural.
“Accounting is a passion of mine,” said Paul, a native of Devils Lake, N.D. “I have gone into other careers, but always returned to the car business. The car business is simply very addictive. I love it.”
Weisbrod, a native of New York City who has lived in Las Vegas for nine years, loves the sales end of the car business. She has customers from several states, including Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and California.
“I like making something big happen for people,” she said, adding that she will sell cars as long as she can walk and talk. “It’s a great feeling when people are taking delivery of their new car. I especially appreciate that I have so many repeat customers who trust me. A car is the second biggest purchase a person makes, so it’s vital that we take care of the customer.
“I sell Acuras because I believe in them. They are safe, they are well-equipped, they are pretty and they give people affordable luxury.”
Doblado, a 42-year resident of Las Vegas with extensive ties to the community, said the combination of the Acura brand and leadership of the dealership has created the ideal environment.
“I could work anywhere,” said Doblado. “I am with Acura of Las Vegas because there is a solid foundation with an excellent following. People from all over the country will vacation here and purchase a car from us at the same time.”
Berkebile, a native of Florida, said the Acura brand is gold in the car business.
“Acura is going to be the Apple (computer brand) of the automobile industry in five years or less,” said Berkebile.
Stroud and Eull lead a very strong numbers in the service department as the dealership continues to score high on its all-important Customer Satisfaction Index.
“These people are the core of our store,” said General Manager Tim Donnelly. “I cannot imagine this dealership operating without them.”
Situated at 7000 W. Sahara Ave., Acura of Las Vegas is part of the Super Store Auto Group which has five stores in Southern Nevada and more than 26 in the country.
Further information regarding Acura of Las Vegas can be found by calling 367-7000 or visiting www.lasvegasacura.com.


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The NY Times and Business Insider report that Uber is holding acquisition talks with food delivery startup Postmates. Earlier this year Uber was reported to be holding acquisition talks with Grubhub. But those talks reportedly fell through. In mid-June Grubhub announced it was merging with Just Eat. Postmates is smaller than Grubhub, and would be more amenable to a take-over.
Just Eat Takeaway, a food-delivery service based in Europe, bought Grubhub. According to Gizmodo, while sales have spiked, operation costs have also been high. The acquisition of Grubhub makes it the largest digital food delivery service operator outside of China. Stories analyzing the deal pointed out a European deal was less likely to get blocked by antitrust regulators. Before Just Eat Takeaway acquired Grubhub, Uber wanted to also buy the food-delivery service.
[NFA] Geoffrey Berman, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan who was ousted last month as his office led a probe into President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani, told lawmakers on Thursday that U.S. Attorney General William Barr had pressured him to resign. Colette Luke has more.


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Facebook has reached an agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a cross-platform mobile messaging company, for a total of approximately $16 billion, including $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares.
Overstock.com has been named the 2013 Compuware Best of the Web Gold award winner in the U.S. Retail Product Order Transaction category and the Bronze award winner in the U.S. Retail Last Mile category.
Walmart knew fourth quarter results announced Thursday morning were going to be bad and its outlook weak so it gave investors something more substantial to digest by announcing plans to double the number of small format stores it will open this year and an increased omnichannel focus.
The new Wonder e-gift card app from Wonder Technologies is available free in the iTunes App store. Wonder allows consumers to instantly deliver e-gifts from participating retailers to anyone with an email address or mobile phone number.


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A new patent app has turned up from Sony that gives us an idea what the company is thinking of for the future of controlling virtual reality video games. There are two patent apps and one appears to be motion controllers that would presumably work with the PlayStation VR. Sony’s existing motion controllers for the PlayStation VR have been around for eight years.
The first of the patents shows a controller with vertical grip style and a thumbstick on top. There are buttons around that thumbstick and a trigger on the front of the controller under the index finger. This controller has a hand strap that comes out to prevent gamers from dropping it.
The controller has some sort of interlocking gears under the grip to expand and contract to give feedback in the game and deliver tactile feel. The other patent app is a system that tracks the individual finger placement using the headset. This design would require a new PlayStation Vue headset.
This could be hinting that a new PlayStation Vue is in the works. The current headset uses the PlayStation Camera to follow the position of the Move controllers reports Engadget. It sounds as if Sony wants to get rid of that camera.


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July 22- Newspaper and broadcast company Gannett Co reported higher revenue and earnings on Tuesday, benefiting from its acquisition of Belo's TV stations.» Read More
New York Times Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. told a stunned staff that he made the decision because of "an issue with management in the newsroom." The NYT reports.
NEW YORK, May 14- U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 retreating from recent record highs, as small caps resumed their sell-off and consumer discretionary shares lagged. Retailer Fossil Group Inc was the biggest percentage decliner on the S&P 500, a day after it gave a second-quarter profit outlook that was much lower than expected.
NEW YORK, May 14- The New York Times Co said that managing editor Dean Baquet will become executive editor of the company's flagship newspaper, effective immediately, succeeding Jill Abramson in an unexpected announcement on Wednesday.
NEW YORK, May 14- The New York Times Co announced on Wednesday that Dean Baquet will become executive editor of the company's flagship newspaper, effective immediately, succeeding Jill Abramson. Baquet has been managing editor of The New York Times since 2011..
*Nikon hits lowest since March 2011 on profit decline f'cast. *Sony, megabanks' earnings eyed on Wednesday. TOKYO, May 14- Japan's Nikkei average edged down on Wednesday, slipping from a 1-1/ 2- week high on profit-taking after big gains the previous day, while Kadokawa Corp and Dwango Co soared on a media report that the two firms plan to merge.
Rishi Narang, co-founder of HFT firm Tradeworx, says this prominent HFT critic is just, plain wrong.
NEW YORK, May 10- Reports this weekend that Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox wants to consolidate its pay-TV European holdings by combining the company's stake in British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc with its Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia assets would fit with the company's long-held view the Sky's would be strong together.
Gannett, the parent company of USA Today, is one of the five newspaper publishers that back Classified Ventures, the entity that owns Cars.com. Cars.com helps people buy and sell cars on the Internet. Gannett has a 27 percent stake in Classified Ventures.
TORONTO, May 2- News Corp said on Friday it would buy romance novel publisher Harlequin Enterprises Ltd from Canadian newspaper company Torstar Corp for C $455 million in cash in a move to boost its non-English book publishing.
May 2- News Corp said it would buy romance novel publisher Harlequin Enterprises Ltd from Canadian newspaper company Torstar Corp to boost its non-English book publishing. News Corp's HarperCollins book publishing unit will be the new home of Harlequin, a publisher of novels aimed at women with titles such as My Fair Billionaire and Expecting the CEO's Child.
May 2- Canadian newspaper publisher Torstar Corp said it would sell romance novel business Harlequin Enterprises Ltd to News Corp for C $455 million in cash. News Corp will run Harlequin as a division of HarperCollins Publishers, Torstar said on Friday.
April 30- Time Warner Inc raised its full-year earnings forecast after the box-office success of "The Lego Movie" and the popularity of HBO shows such as "Game of Thrones" and "True Detective" led to a near-doubling of quarterly profit.
April 30- Time Warner Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly results, helped by the box office success of its "The Lego Movie" and the popularity of its "Game of Thrones" TV series. Time Warner is home to pay-TV channel HBO, Warner Bros movie studio and cable channels such as CNN.
Amid smaller publishing budgets, more authors are actively marketing books on their own—including Skyping with readers.
April 22- Time Warner Inc named directors, including former Sony Corp CEO Howard Stringer, to the board of Time Inc, the publishing business it plans to spin off in the second quarter of 2014.. The media company named current Time Inc CEO Joseph Ripp as chairman of the board.
NEW YORK April 16- Los Angeles residents who still pass a newsstand on their way to work on Wednesday will find an unusual sight there: a new daily print newspaper.
NEW YORK, April 15- Apple Inc on Tuesday lost an attempt to dismiss lawsuits by state attorneys general accusing it of conspiring with five major publishers to fix e-book prices. Following a non-jury trial, Cote in July found that Apple from 2009 to 2010 conspired with the publishers to raise e-book prices and impede competitors such as Amazon.com Inc..
A deal calling for pension cuts with groups representing former city employees could come as early as Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press said on its website. "The two sides have made significant progress in mediation talks...," the Detroit Free Press said.
The Guardian US and Washington Post were awarded the Pulitzer prize for coverage of secret surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency.
Archie Comics will kill its eponymous hero in an upcoming issue of the "Life With Archie" series.


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No takers for shops built in SMS Hospital-Trauma Centre underpass
The initial buzz seems to have died down as even the buyers who brought three shops in the underpass from Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) haven’t paid the full amount. JDA conducted several auctions to sell other 27 shops but no buyers turned up to buy it.
Jaipur: There are no takers for shops built by JDA in the SMS Hospital-Trauma Centre underpass. The initial buzz seems to have died down as even the buyers who brought three shops in the underpass from Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) haven’t paid the full amount. JDA conducted several auctions to sell other 27 shops but no buyers turned up to buy it.
The reason why buyers are not turning up for the shops at the underpass in SMS is that JDA is not lowering the price of the auction. As per shopkeepers, the price is too much.
Another reason is that fewer visitors are taking the underpass as they are not now as cleaned as they used to be when the underpass was thrown open for the public. Patients and their relatives do not stop here due to excess of mosquitos and lack of cleanliness.
Three shops were sold in the auction. One shop sold at a price of Rs 5.22 crore, another Rs 4.45 crore and the third shop sold for Rs. 3.22 crore.
JDA asked for Rs. 50,000 as a deposit amount from these shopkeepers. The remaining amount was to be deposited within a month to the JDA. But, only one of these shopkeepers deposited the entire amount. Another deposited half of the amount, while the third did not deposit anything.
According to the one JDA official, one of the three store buyers have deposited the entire money. Another has deposited half of the money. Several reminder notices have been sent asking the buyer to deposit the remaining amount, but the JDA hasn’t received any response. The third buyer has not deposited any money.
JDA constructed 30 shops in the underpass. JDA allocated shops but set a reserve price of nearly Rs 2.25 lakh per square meter.
In the auction, the successful bidder offered a rate of Rs 32.61 lakh per square meter. With a floor area of nearly 15.92 meters, one shop was sold for Rs 5.19 crore. According to the reserve price set by the officials, the JDA was expecting nearly Rs 47 lakh.
JDA spent nearly Rs 14.50 crore to construct the SMS-Trauma Center underpass. The design plan was created under the supervision of former SMS Medical College principal Dr US Agarwal.


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Australian citrus exporters will benefit from good market conditions in the coming season, according to Citrus Australia.
In the United States, a mild winter and looming drought have decreased volumes of fresh fruit, and exports from California have been denied access to China as the two countries negotiate a trade deal.
In Central and South America, fruit volumes are also down, with volumes of citrus from Uruguay down 27 per cent and three-year dry spell in Mexico expected to continue into 2014.
Citrus Australia's market development officer Andrew Harty says while it's disappointing for American growers, it's possible demand and prices for Australian citrus this year will be higher.
"While we wouldn't wish ill on any other farmers anywhere from climatic events, certainly that is going to be a bit of a boon for us at the start of the season."
The US industry has been locked out of the Chinese market since April 2013 because of quarantine concerns held by China.
And as volumes of Australian citrus increase into mainland China, Australian exporters will benefit from the lack of competition.
Mr Harty says despite hot, windy conditions in Australia's southern growing regions, it's not likely to affect volumes.
"At this stage, the crop looks like it will produce similar volumes to what it did last year.
"There has been a bit more wind blemish in the Riverland, Sunraysia and Riverina regions.
"We have also been a bit affected by heatwaves, which will see the removal of fruit due to sun damage."


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Bolt, the second leading ride-sharing platform in Ghana, has expanded its operations in Ghana with the launch of their service in Kumasi.
Bolt (then Taxify) first officially launched in 2017. Two years later, the ride-sharing service is now in Kumasi.
Uche Okafor, Bolt’s Regional Manager for West Africa had this to say: “At Bolt, our primary mission is to make urban transportation easier, quicker and more reliable. So far, we have been able to bring Bolt’s affordable and reliable service to people in Accra. Now, we’re embarking on an expansion course across Ghana and Kumasi given its vibrant population and infrastructure is ripe for Bolt’s entry.”
With their launch in Kumasi, it increases the competition of ride-sharing in Ghana with Uber already operating in Kumasi.
Bolt drivers receive 85% of fares when compared to Uber who charge a 25% commission fee.


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Facebook made the official announcement today that Mendelsohn would drop the “interim” in her title. She will still report to Marne Levine, who recently became Facebook’s first chief business officer, a position that evolved from the chief revenue officer role vacated by David Fisher, who will leave the company in December.
“She has blown me away with her deep knowledge of the business and her focus on supporting partners and clients,” Levine said of Mendelsohn in the announcement. “Nicola has built an impressive track record over the last eight years growing our advertising business into what it is today. And Nicola has been a compassionate and thoughtful leader for our people every step of the way. I’m excited for what this next chapter means, not only for Nicola, but also for our partners, our teams, and our business.”
Since 2013, Mendelsohn had been the VP of Facebook global business group for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Mendelsohn was based in London, but will move to New York City for her new job, a Facebook spokesperson said.
The global business group is one of the core units within Facebook that works directly with ad agencies and brands to communicate the company’s positions and educate advertisers on its products. Facebook has a client council that meets regularly with top chief marketing officers and agency leaders to go over the topics that affect the social network, which has more than 10 million advertisers. Mendelsohn had been filling in for Everson whose departure was a bit of a surprise to many in the ad industry. Everson was known as a fixer in ad circles, as she was front and center to explain to advertisers issues Facebook had over the years related to discrepancies in measurement and metrics, brand safety and public safety initiatives that affect brands.
This summer, Mendelsohn and other Facebook executives had to smooth the waters with advertisers after multiple incidents created some uncertainty around the company. Facebook has had to walk advertisers through how it is changing the ad platform to account for privacy and data updates in digital advertising that could affect the performance of ads. In recent weeks, Facebook operations were under renewed scrutiny after a “whistleblower” claimed the company put profits over the safety of users.
Mendelsohn has been talking with advertisers through it all. Last month, Mendelsohn appeared on Ad Age Remotely and refuted claims that Facebook intentionally amplifies political divisions and negative content to goose engagement numbers, and addressed claims that the company tried to obscure how Instagram could lead to negative health affects for teens. “It is often written that our platforms are awash with different things that are negative, but again it’s not true,” Mendelsohn told Ad Age.
For the most part, advertising agencies and brands have stuck with the social network, preferring to work with the company on what they see as larger issues with social media than just Facebook. “We’ve made investments,” Mendelsohn told Ad Age. “We’ve built dedicated teams. We’ve improved how our systems operate and actually that’s work that we’ve been doing for years, and that we’re going to continue to do.”
Mendelsohn has a history working with brands and advertising agencies; she is a non-executive chairwoman at Diageo, and worked at BBH, Gray and Karmarama.


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Of the millions of American consumers planning to soon buy an automobile, 21 percent say that digital advertising will affect their purchase decision, says a joint report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and stats company Prosper Insights.
That's 71 percent more than the average population, per the study, which surveyed 6,200 car shoppers and 19,774 regular consumers over the course of several months last year. Marketers from Ford to Fiat attending the North American International Auto Show might want to take note.
Other key findings from the IAB/Prosper Insights report, while comparing auto shoppers to regular consumers:
- Auto shoppers are more likely to own smartphones (75 percent versus 54 percent), as well as tablets (42 percent versus 33 percent).
- They are more prone to be digital video streamers, both online (69 percent versus 56 percent) and on mobile devices (52 percent versus 35 percent).
- More likely to regularly watch digital video commercials before streaming video programming (66 percent versus 53 percent).
- Since the price points are usually steep, this isn't a shocker: They research all products online before buying at a higher clip (58 percent vs. 42 percent).


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২১ জানুয়ারি ২০২৪ রবিবার, ১০:৪১ পিএম
|Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visits Walton Mega Stall at DITF-24.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the mega stall of Walton after inaugurating the month-long 28th Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF)-2024 at the Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center in Purbachal New Town, on the outskirts of the capital on Sunday (January 21).
During the visit, the Prime Minister was overwhelmed by witnessing the `Made in Bangladesh` labeled Walton products and the remarkable progress of the local brand in manufacturing hi-tech items. She specially expressed her satisfaction on Walton brand laptop, smart fridge, air conditioner, television, lift and energy saving home appliances. She also praised Bangladesh`s progress in manufacturing such products.
Walton Hi-Tech Industries PLC`s Managing Director S M Mahbubul Alam, who was present during the Prime Minister`s visit, said, the Prime Minister greeted Walton for its initiatives in manufacturing highest standard products with advanced features. The Prime Minister told that Walton is the pride of Bangladesh`s electronics industry. She know everything about what kinds of products Walton is making. The progress of Walton and Bangladesh in the production of hi-tech products is commendable. Prime Minister was happy to know that Walton brand products are being exported to different countries. During her visit, some obstacles in the field of export of products and investment in abroad were brought up to the Prime Minister. In this regard, the Prime Minister and her Adviser Salman F Rahman assured the government`s policy support.
During the Prime Minister`s visit at Walton mega stall, State Minister for Commerce Ahasanul Islam (Titu), MP, Adviser to the Prime Minister Salman F Rahman, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Walton Hi-Tech Industries PLC`s Director Tahmina Afrose Tanna, Walton`s Additional Managing Director S M Shoyeb Hossain Nobel and Major General (Retd.) Ibne Fazal Shayekhuzzaman, FBCCI President Mahbubul Alam and EPB`s Vice-Chairman AHM Ahsan, among others, were present.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visits Walton Mega Stall at DITF-24.
Bangladeshi electronics giant Walton has set up a spectacular mega stall modeled after the Bangabandhu tunnel at the 28th Dhaka International Trade Fair. At Walton mega stall, electronics and electrical products including smart fridge, AC, TV, elevator, washing machine, laptop, computer, electric bike, home and kitchen appliances will be showcased under one roof.
শেয়ারবিজনেস24.কম এ প্রকাশিত/প্রচারিত সংবাদ, তথ্য, ছবি, ভিডিওচিত্র, অডিও কনটেন্ট বিনা অনুমতিতে ব্যবহার বেআইনি।


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Last week, the media lost no time exalting the latest Federal Reserve report that consumer credit jumped 9.3% annually in December, following the 9.9% increase in November. The back-to- back increase was viewed as a strong confirmation of a rise in consumer confidence necessary for an improvement in economic growth.
Mike Shedlock of Global Economic Trend Analysis was the first to pick up several problems with the details of the report and his analysis is worth a read.
As Mike pointed out and we confirmed, the biggest contributor to growth in consumer credit in December was government consumer loans, most of which are student loans. In order to accurately assess consumer credit trends, the government portion of consumer loans needs to be subtracted out of the data. When you do that two observations stand out:
First, government consumer loans have soared a stunning $314 billion since January 2009. Meanwhile, revolving credit has declined $162 billion and the non-government non-revolving portion of consumer credit has declined $222 billion.
Second, more recently, non-revolving credit excluding government consumer loans rose 4.5% annualized, far lower growth than the 12.5% annualized reported by the Fed’s.
So what about revolving credit? We believe the excitement about the 4.2% annualized December was probably premature. Our preferred measure of revolving credit comes from Fed’s weekly commercial bank data. We prefer this report for three reasons: 1) it is much more frequent, 2) the data is lagged by only one week, and 3) it provides a near real-time snap shot of consumer activity because commercial bank revolving credit accounts for nearly 75% of the larger monthly Fed consumer credit report.
While revolving credit at commercial banks increased 1.7% annualized, in December, it retreated a worrisome 19.7% annualized, in January. Not only is the decrease in January more than ten times the increase in December, it is more than double the combined November and December increase.
This new data suggests that while consumers may have gone out and shopped in November and December, it appears they curtailed their credit card purchases sharply in January.
Will this trend continue? Who knows? One thing for sure, though, if this trend does continue, it suggests that consumers are retrenching, not a good sign for an economy where 70% of economic growth is dependent on consumption.
Madeline Schnapp is director of macroeconomic research at TrimTabs Investment Research


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Hyundai launches Online Service Booking facility across dealer network
The Online Service Booking facility is available across the carmaker’s network of 178 UK dealers and authorised repair centres.
The five-step system uses registration number recognition technology, minimising customer data input. Users are presented with clear dates and time slots to choose from and provided with the option of a convenient collection and delivery service. Customers are then sent an immediate email confirmation of their appointment.
Tony Whitehorn, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor UK, commented: ‘The introduction of our online booking facility is just another of the many qualitative enhancements we are making to maximise customer satisfaction across the Hyundai dealer network. We have already seen more than 150 bookings since the system went live just three weeks ago, the majority of which were placed outside of normal dealership opening hours.’


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|Google Sharpens Contact Lens Vision
Tech innovator Google has applied for a patent that details a way to fit a camera into a contact lens. The patent has to do with the tech giant's smart contact lens project, announced earlier this year.
|Samsung: $2.2B Too Much for Apple
As the Samsung-Apple trial heats up, Samsung is claiming that Apple’s FaceTime video chat service infringes on a Samsung patent that covers the transmission of video over cellular networks.
|Review: Windows Phone Advances
Microsoft's new Windows system for smartphones addresses many of the shortcomings in previous versions, including new tools to simplify connecting to Wi-Fi hotspots and save battery life.
|Uber Meets Local Lookalikes in Asia
Riding on its startup success and flush with fresh capital, taxi-hailing smartphone app Uber is making a big push into Asia. There's a twist, though: a slew of competitors using similar technology.


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Shop Direct has signed a deal with SAS to help the retailer provide more personalised web pages to customers, it revealed in its full-year results.
The retailer, which owns the brands Very.co.uk and Littlewoods, said it had selected SAS as “decision engine partner to drive real-time, on-site personalisation this financial year, with intiatives including personalised homepages and top navigation already delivered”.
It is one of the ways in which Shop Direct is hoping to “develop an easier customer experience”.
In its full-year results to 30 June 2014, the retailer also said it has made “significant” investment in its data analytics capability, including funnel analytics and customer lifetime value modelling, in preparation for the “next phase” of its personalisation programme.
Further, during the year it became the first UK retailer to open an in-house user experience lab, to which it invites customers to test ideas, website changes and new technologies.
Shop Direct revealed last month how experimentation was important to its ecommerce innovation. It runs 55 tests a month live on its sites, and plans to increase this to 140 tests a month in 2016.
The company added that its customer experience had been improved after it completed its largest ever single IT project, to move its websites from a home-grown, not fit-for-purpose platform, onto Oracle’s “more stable and flexible” ATG10 cloud platform.
Mobile commerce as a ‘game changer’
Shop Direct said that mobile commerce was key to its strong financial performance this year, and reiterated its plans to become a “world class digital retailer”.
Its group sales rose three percent to £1.74 billion this year with pre-tax profit growing 512 percent from £6.6 million in 2012/13 to £40.4 million.
Shop Direct said that 84 percent of sales were completed online, up from 78 percent last year. Some 44 percent of all online sales were made on mobile devices, up from 27 percent last year.
More than half (54 percent) of customers browse and shop across more than one device, with a fifth using a combination of desktop, tablet and mobile, the firm said. Daily visits to its websites are also up, by 19 percent, to 950,000.
Alex Baldock, Shop Direct group CEO, said in the results: “These are strong results, driven by the outstanding growth of Very.co.uk and the unrelenting boom in mcommerce. Mobile continues to be a game changer for us, with more than half of our online sales now from smartphones and tablets.
“It’s clear that our strategy is working and we’ve made some big strides toward building a world class digital retailer. But we’re nowhere near the full potential of this business, there’s a ton more to do, and we’ll invest heavily to get it done.”


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Looks like Nokia are ending the year with quite a bang. In its lead up to its new Lumia smartphone series running on Windows 8, the company has not forgotten its current crop of smartphones (whoops, sorry. We guess the 808 PureView is left out again). As such, customers who purchase selected Nokia smartphones (check out the promo site for the list of models) stand a chance to win some amazing prizes, including three Toyota Vios G Limited.
The mechanics are simple. Buy any one of the selected Nokia phones, answer a (ridiculously) simple question and send an SMS. You’ll then be in the running to win prizes such as the aforementioned Toyota Vios, Yamaha bikes and also Nokia Lumia 610s.
For more information, head on to the promo site here.
(Source: Nokia Malaysia (Facebook))


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Say what you want about the tech sector, but it's never boring. Any given week will keep tech investors flooded with product announcements, earnings surprises, and crazy strategy shifts that absolutely nobody saw coming.
These are three of the most shocking pieces of tech news this week.
We know that Google isn't shy about international politics. The company has stood up to the Chinese government in a big way. The same year, Google Maps drew fire for controversial border drawings in Southeast Asia between Cambodia and Thailand, as well as in Latin America between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
This week's Google involvement in political disputes is a doozy. On Wednesday, Google renamed its Google.ps service from "Palestinian Territories" to "Palestine." That's tantamount to recognizing Palestine as a sovereign state -- an idea that doesn't sit well with Israel but was praised by Palestinian thinkers as "a step in the right direction."
Source: screenshot of google.ps, English version.
Big G's official stance isn't that the company is taking a political position, but that it's following advice from "a number of sources and authorities." The UN upgraded Palestine from an "entity" to a "state" last year, and Guatemala recognized it as a state only last month. But President Obama's latest policy statement on Palestine was that the U.S. would veto any UN Security Council bid for full Palestinian statehood, and the U.S voted against the "entity" upgrade.
Whichever side of this decades-old conflict (some would say millennia) Google might land on, the company would inevitably catch flak from the opposing side. But if Google wants to do business in the Middle East, it has to pick a name and a side here. Even backing out entirely would be seen as choosing the anti-Palestine, pro-Israel side. So some assets will always be controversial.
For what it's worth, Bing.ps is an empty domain and Yahoo! sidestepped the issue by redirecting Yahoo.ps to its Arabic subsidiary, Maktoob (meaning "destiny" or "written" in Arabic). All three services have Israeli sites up and running.
Being Swedish, I try not to take sides in international disputes. Even so, I expect the comments box below to fill up with heated arguments and maybe some personal attacks just for covering this story. I sure don't envy Google for the political heat it just invited onto itself.
Let's not go there
In happier and far less controversial news, IBM backed down from the worst idea Big Blue ever had.
IBM's attempt to sell its server operations to Chinese systems builder Lenovo has been called off. The companies couldn't agree on a price, according to Bloomberg's sources. Lenovo wanted to pay as little as $2.5 billion for the server division, but IBM's estimate of the segment's value may have been almost twice as high.
All's well that ends well. Big Blue gets to keep its unique and powerful top-to-bottom IT portfolio intact, and I hope management doesn't go looking for alternative buyers. Synergies between IBM's many moving parts are the secret recipe to the company's success, and other tech giants are trying (but mostly failing) to copy IBM's strategy.
Why change a winning team?
The Apple lottery
When my son pushed the family iPad into my face and started asking about this $10,000 gift-card lottery, I thought he had stumbled on a major scam. Apple is not in the business of running lotteries, after all, and anything that sounds too good to be true generally turns out to be empty fluff.
But Apple really is running a gift-card lottery to commemorate the upcoming milestone of 50 billion app store downloads. App grabber number 50 billion will get a $10,000 App Store gift card, and the next 50 downloaders receive a less generous but still significant $500 card. It's real, it's totally backed by Apple, and I'm still shaking my head.
Apple is the master of public relations and has built a unique brand around exclusivity and quality. Buying Apple gear is a lifestyle choice, not a bang-for-your-buck decision. You buy Cupertino's stuff because it makes you feel better.
Or at least that's the way it used to be. This attention-grabbing milestone marker didn't need a tacky lottery drawing. It smacks of desperation. And if you win, what would you do with $10,000 in App Store dollars? It's not like you can use Apple cash to grab a nice dinner or a used car. Ten thousand dollars is a nice, big, look-at-me-now number, but the winner will probably never use up the entire thing.
As one of the most dominant Internet companies ever, Google has made a habit of driving strong returns for its shareholders. However, like many other Web companies, it's also struggling to adapt to an increasingly mobile world. Despite gaining an enviable lead with its Android operating system, the market isn't sold. That's why it's more important than ever to understand each piece of Google's sprawling empire. In The Motley Fool's new premium research report on Google, we break down the risks and potential rewards for Google investors. Simply click here now to unlock your copy of this invaluable resource.
The article The 3 Biggest Surprises in Tech This Week originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Anders Bylund owns shares of Google, but he holds no other position in any company mentioned. Check out Anders' bio and holdings or follow him on Twitter and Google+.The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Google and owns shares of Apple, Google, and IBM. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Next has announced it will start selling online again after putting extra measures in place so warehouse staff can work safely.
It comes after the retailer closed down all its operations in March in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
On their website a statement explains Next warehouse managers have "successfully tested opening and taking a limited number of orders today."
It adds: "In order to operate our warehouse safely, we are limiting the number of warehouse colleagues working at any time, and so we will limit the number of customer orders we can take each day."
Next has also posted a video on their website explaining the changes they've made to "ensure colleagues can work safely" for customers.
The retailer says it's been working tirelessly to introduce extra safety measures in its warehouses and "ensure the staff who want to come to work are safe, can carry out their work safely, and feel safe."
These include additional social distancing measures, the installation of new sinks and sanatisers and limiting the number of warehouse colleagues working at any one point in time.
The new rules means Next is also limiting the number of customer orders it takes each day, and will stop taking orders each day once the limit has been hit.
As such Next is only offering childrenswear and selected homeware items online.
Next said: "We hope to add further products very shortly. In addition, we are currently operating a three day delivery window for orders placed today to further stagger the work."
Adding: "We've paused on our two person delivery service which means we are not able to take orders on large furniture items."
For more information head to the Next website.


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SAN FRANCISCO—Automated test equipment vendor LTX-Credence Corp.—set to merge with Verigy Ltd.—reported sales for the quarter ended Oct. 31 that fell short of consensus analysts' expectations Tuesday (Nov. 23). The company also issued guidance for the current quarter that came up short of analysts' estimates.
LTX-Credence (Milpitas, Calif.) reported sales for its fiscal first quarter of $75.6 million, up 3 percent compared with the previous quarter and up 83 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. The company reported a net income for the quarter of $19.7 million, or 39 cents per share, up 40 percent from the previous quarter and compared to a net loss of $3.2 million in the year-ago quarter.
On a pro forma basis, excluding charges, LTX-Credence posted a net income for the quarter of $21.3 million, or 42 cents per diluted share.
Consensus analysts' expectations called for LTX-Credence to post sales for the quarter of $77.3 million and pro forma earnings per share of 37 cents, according to Yahoo Finance.
For the current quarter, which closes Jan. 31, 2011, LTX-Credence said it expects sales to decline to between $53 million and $58 million, substantially lower than the $67.4 million that analysts had been expecting. The company said it expects pro forma earnings per share to decline to between 11 and 16 cents, also below what analysts have been forecasting. LTX-Credence blamed $1.5 million in amortization of assets and one-time expenses associated with the Verigy merger.
"As other ATE suppliers have indicated, business conditions have slowed and our guidance reflects the current business environment," said Dave Tacelli, LTX-Credence's president and CEO, in a statement. "We believe this environment is a combination of seasonality and capacity absorption, and expect the long-term fundamentals of our industry and business to remain strong."
Last week, Verigy (Cupertino, Calif.) announced it would merge with LTX-Credence, creating a new company to be called Verigy. The deal will be structured as a stock swap, with LTX-Credence shareholders receiving 0.96 shares of the new company for every share of LTX-Credence. The companies expect the transaction to close in the first half of 2011.


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I've just received this from Timberland Motorhomes, there was a thread (I cant find it) on the demise of Timberland.
Dear Mr Madge,
The rumours are quite untrue.
The following press release has just been issued and appeared last week on all the main forums as well as the Caravanning News website.
Forget the rumours... we've just moved our sales team!
Timberland Motorhomes has just launched a redesigned website with the emphasis on style, functionality and fulfilment of customer requirements.
Launch of the new website coincides with Timberland's transfer of its main product display to the company's Forever Leisure dealership at South Witham on the A1 northbound between Stamford and Grantham.
provides a showcase for the Kirmington, North Lincolnshire, company's own brand of luxury panel van conversions, its franchises Adria, Autocruise, Auto-Trail and Burstner, plus an impressive line-up of pre-owned Motorhomes.
"www.timberlandmotorhomes.com has a fresh, modern and exciting design, is easy to navigate, and it provides exactly the information our customers want whether they're looking to buy a new motorhome from one of five brands, or one of the substantial number of pre-owned motorhomes always in stock," said proprietor Kevin Cain.
The new website features an all-important new and pre-owned motorhomes search facility, video content, brochure downloads, news and events section, featured products plus details of Timberland's popular Family & Friends club.
Kevin added: We're very proud of the new website and are confident our customers will find it refreshing and informative whether they're researching or actively looking to buy a new or pre-owned motorhome.
While the sales operation has been transferred to Forever Leisure, Timberland's administration-sales HQ and production facility at Kirmington in North Lincolnshire is unaffected by the change.
Sales director Mike Lowe said: It is a sensible move for the company to concentrate our sales display on such a fantastic site on the A1.
"By doing this we are making our new and pre-owned vehicles accessible to a much wider audience and the majority of our customers will have fewer miles to travel as the site is more central geographically.
The Forever Leisure site extends to nine acres and there is ample parking space available for visitors arriving by car or even the largest motorhome. We look forward to seeing faces old and new," Mike added.
To see Timberland's new website, visit http://www.timberlandmotorhomes.com


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Vortex Holding Chamber receives patent
MIDLOTHIAN, Va. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted a patent to a device described by its manufacturer as being designed to optimize delivery of inhaled medications.
PARI Respiratory Equipment announced last week that received the patent for its Vortex Holding Chamber, a non-electrostatic holding chamber with one piece and two valves designed to work with a metered dose inhaler.
“We are very pleased that the Vortex Holding Chamber has been granted this U.S. patient because the Vortex Holding Chamber ensures patients do not have to worry about coordinating their breaths when using a MDI to get an effective treatment,” PARI president Geoff Hunziker said in a statement. “This enhances drug delivery, minimizes drug delivered to the throat and allows low resistance inhalation and exhalation with the device.”
Taro files patent infringement suit against three companies
HAWTHORNE, N.Y. An Israeli generic drug maker has sued three other companies, alleging patent infringement.
Taro Pharmaceutical Industries announced Monday that it had filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey against Synerx Pharma, DPT Labs and Karalex Pharma, alleging infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,560,445. The patent covers Taro’s Ovide (malathion) lotion in the 0.5% strength, a treatment for head lice.
Taro said the defendants’ generic versions of the drug infringed its patent, and it’s seeking injunctive relief and damages.
News article calls Mylan’s quality control into question; company responds
PITTSBURGH A news article published over the weekend calling generic drug maker Mylan’s manufacturing into question has drawn a response from the company.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Sunday that workers at the company’s Morgantown, W.Va., plant overrode drug quality controls required by the government by ignoring and deleting computer warnings of possible drug quality or equipment problems, based on a confidential internal report obtained by the newspaper’s reporters that called it a “pervasive” problem. Normally the warnings, known as “red screens,” require production to halt until a quality-control agent can investigate the matter.
The company responded by saying in a statement Monday that the Post-Gazette article was based on anonymous sources, improperly obtained documents and third-party commentary.
“Our customers and stakeholders can rest assured that whenever there is even the slightest departure from [a standard operating procedure], it will be dealt with immediately and effectively,” the company said in a statement. “This issue had no impact on the quality of our product.”


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Fulton Bank, N.A., a subsidiary of Fulton Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: FULT), recently celebrated the launch of its new Diverse Business Banking program in the Virginia market at Virginia Union University in Richmond. Fulton Bank employees, industry professionals and community leaders gathered for networking and to learn more about the program.
A group of panelists spoke about how the program is designed to serve the needs of minority, women, veteran and LGBTQ business owners. Guest panelists included Sabrina Davis, Fulton SBA Relationship Manager; Joel Barnett, Fulton Diverse Business Banking Director; Ebonie Atkins, Managing Director, Business Retention, County of Henrico EDA; Leah Fremouw, President & CEO of Bridging VA; Annette Ross, Supplier Relations Manager, County of Henrico; and Sharon Grooms, Capital Access Manager for Metropolitan Business League. Floyd Miller, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Business League, served as the moderator.
Fulton Commercial Relationship Managers Aaron Rice and Nicole Harris, and Financial Center Managers Lyndon Patrick and Christopher Dunn, were also recognized as Diverse Business Banking Advocates, a special certification program that indicates the team member has taken an extensive course about serving the unique needs of these businesses.
“We are excited to continue expanding our Diverse Business Banking program in the Virginia area,” said Joel Barnett, Director of Commercial Affinity Banking. “The initiative will allow for local and state-wide diverse business owners to access personalized banking and products that fit their businesses.”
Other services available through Diverse Business Banking include merchant services, payroll and cash management services, and small business administration products.
For more information, visit Fulton Bank’s Diverse Business Banking website.
Fulton participants at the Richmond event included Andy Fiol, Head of Consumer & Small Business Banking; Karen Frye, Commercial Market Executive; LaToya Christian, Consumer Sales Manager; Meg Mueller, Head of Commercial Banking; Linda Melton, Community Outreach Officer; Dr. Monica Ball, a customer and owner of Real Talk with Monica; Angela Snyder, Chief Banking Officer; and Joel Barnett, Director of Commercial Affinity Banking.
Participants in Richmond included Sabrina Davis, SBA Relationship Manager; Joel Barnett; Ebonie Atkins, Managing Director, Business Retention, County of Henrico EDA; Leah Fremouw President & CEO of Bridging VA; panel moderator Floyd Miller, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Business League; Annette Ross, Supplier Relations Manager, County of Henrico; and Sharon Grooms, Capital Access Manager for Metropolitan Business League.


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Amazon delivery man purposely spits on package, spreads it with hand before leaving the parcel at door
HANCOCK PARK, LA: An Amazon delivery man was caught on camera spitting on a package and using his hands to smear it as well. The incident occurred on Thursday evening at a duplex residence in LA's Hancock Park neighborhood. TMZ was able to obtain a video of the nasty incident given the deadly coronavirus outbreak that has gripped the world in its claws.
In the video footage, the delivery person is seen placing the package on the porch. He then leans over and spits on to it after which he appears to wipe some of it on the package as more saliva falls out of his mouth.
The man then stands up as if nothing happened and clicks a parcel to verify the delivery. As per sources, Amazon was contacted by a neighbor and friend of the person who's parcel had been spit on. They also had a customer service rep watch the video along with them.
The rep was seen gasping in horror upon realizing that the Amazon delivery man was an older individual and not a young guy. The rep also confirmed that the delivery guy belonged to a third party service and was reported. A neighbor shared the delivery confirmation picture which clearly revealed the spit on the box.
An Amazon spokesperson shared, "This is clearly not representative of drivers who deliver for Amazon and the care they take for customers around the world every day. We are aggressively investigating to understand what may have occurred in this situation. If it truly was a malicious act by the driver, we will be sure he is held accountable, up through and including law enforcement action."
Recently, a similar incident came to light in Pennsylvania where a woman was arrested and charged with felony counts of terrorist threats to use a "biological agent" and criminal mischief. She was also charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal attempt to commit retail theft and disorderly conduct.
The police revealed that the woman, Margaret Cirko, had entered the store and had also made threats that she was sick. She proceeded to intentionally cough on products and attempted to steal a 12-pack beer before being ordered to leave by employees.
According to the owner of the store, the woman's sick prank cost the store around $35,000 worth of products with workers being forced to clean and disinfect everything along with the health inspector. The Federal law enforcement recently announced that it is considering terrorism charges for anyone who purposely spreads COVID-19. It is not known whether the woman actually had the virus or not.
The United States of America till now has more than 104,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the country. The latest numbers follow POTUS Donald Trump signing a $2 trillion coronavirus spending package into law.
New York has reported 134 new coronavirus related deaths in 24 hours, New York Government Andrew M Cuomo shared. These numbers are a jump from 100 deaths reported on the previous day.
Friday's numbers amount to one death in the state every 10 minutes.


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As Facebook chases business and enterprise customers for its popular instant messaging and voice calling app WhatsApp, Microsoft may have just beaten the social juggernaut to the punch. On Wednesday at an event in New Delhi, the Skype-owner launched Kaizala, a messaging app designed to 'get work done' that has already garnered interest from several state governments and businesses in India.
A messaging app in 2017 ought to do more than just enable a few friends talk to each other. This is essentially the pitch of Kaizala, a made-for-India, mobile-only app available on Android and iOS.
One of the major limitations of WhatsApp has been its inability to handle large groups of people. First, there is a cap on how many people you could add to a group (256, to be precise). Then there is the major challenge of making any sense of the conversation that ensues between those tens of dozens of people.
In effect, Microsoft is tackling those two challenges. You can add as many people in the group as you want. If that wasn't enough, you can then add those groups to other groups, the company says. Second, the app offers the ability to create polls, documents, and surveys that could be created from within Kaizala app and then shared to the group to get response from the masses.
If these features don't strike a ring, it's because they are not really meant to make conversations between two friends any more convenient. And that remains one of the most interesting pitches of Kaizala, which had its origin as a Microsoft Garage project. The company wants to serve to customers who have to talk to dozens, hundreds, thousands, and lakhs of people at once.
Microsoft has been testing Kaizala with governments and businesses for months in India. During this period, the company says, more than 30 government departments signed up to the platform. More than 70,000 people from the state government are already using Kaizala for day-to-day work.
Earlier this year, during the state election in Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission used Kaizala when it wanted to efficiently survey people in the state. Andhra Pradesh's state government is also one of the major users of the service. The chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu often sends message to the hundreds of thousands of citizens in the state through the app and listen to the feedback.
But Kaizala's appeal isn't limited to government offices. Several major businesses have already signed up for the service. One example is Republic TV, a newly launched media outlet. The company is just getting started. It is now exploring more applications for Kaizala, one of which is using location data of people to offer them texts from nearby groups.
Imagine walking to a mall and automatically getting all the interesting discounted-sales pitches from different shops in that mall in Kaizala app. That's one area Microsoft is exploring, Rajiv Kumar, Corporate Vice President, Office Product Group told this correspondent earlier this year.
There is a pro version of Kaizala too, which gives an organisation advanced admin and user group rights. The pro version is priced at Rs. 130 per user every month. Both of the versions integrate with Office 365 subscription, offer offline support and work swiftly on slow Internet network, the company said.
The public launch of Kaizala comes at a time when Facebook is increasingly looking at businesses and enterprises and wondering how it could make WhatsApp relevant to them and also find a revenue source. Last year, WhatsApp said it will open its platform so that businesses could hook into its service. Months later, the company is still working on the project. And now it already has a major competitor.


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Whether they are official sponsors or not, it’s inevitable that many automakers are making connection to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
A new campaign for BMW breaks early next week during the Olympics broadcasting that pits the BMW 330e electric hybrid against the much-hyped, but still not available electric Tesla 3.
BMW is taking on Tesla, marketing its all-ready-for-purchase/lease high-end hybrid against a car for which consumers must still wait to come to market. “The car you’ve been waiting for . . . without the wait,” says the voiceover for the BMW campaign, which was created by The Vault NYC.
“In a not-so-subtle way, we are spotlighting the truism that BMW’s competitor’s automobile still isn’t here, and there is no end in sight for interested consumers,” said Jon Paley, chief creative officer and managing partner of The Vault NYC. “The spots will appeal to anyone seriously interested in purchasing or leasing a hybrid-powered car, particularly those who don’t want to wait any longer for the other company’s much-hyped product to finally come to market.”
Meanwhile. Toyota is breaking a new campaign featuring athletes Summer Sanders and Amy Purdy. Sanders is an American former competition swimmer and Olympic champion from 1992. Purdy is a world-class snowboarder and 2014 Paralympic bronze medalist.
Toyota is encouraging people to come together in the spirit of friendship and fair play through the simple act of holding hands in a new ad campaign, “Stand Together.” In addition to broadcast, the campaign will use outdoor advertising and social media elements to create an uplifting message around the teamwork theme.
Developed by Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, the campaign launched with a 60-second spot on NBC’s Olympic Opening Ceremonies. The ad features people across the world, from Toyota team members to skydivers to Team Toyota athletes Sanders and Purdy joining hands and celebrating teamwork. Set to the track of The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin',” the spot communicates Toyota’s commitment to mobility that facilitates shared experiences.
The campaign also includes a 90-second online only version of the spot.
The commercial also includes a call to action. For every person who creates a video of people joining hands and shares it using the campaign hashtag, #LetsJoinHands, Toyota will donate $20 to United Way, up to $250,000. In addition, Toyota will mix content from user and influencer submissions into pre-roll and social videos, continuously delivering fresh edits throughout the media run.
Ford is also running an Olympics-themed Snapchat campaign for the 2017 Escape, including a Snapchat lens. But since the automaker isn’t an official sponsor, it must tread carefully so as to not violate International Olympic Committee advertising rules.
“We are being very mindful of the guidelines about what advertisers can do as we evaluate opportunities to connect the Ford brand with real-time cultural events,” says Lisa Schoder, Ford digital marketing manager.
This is the first time Ford has ever purchased a sponsored lens. It will highlight the “We Are All Fans” portion of the campaign. For 24 hours, Ford’s lens will enable U.S. Snapchat users to paint their face in a red, white and blue design and activate a confetti shower.
The Snapchat effort coincides with the likelihood that social media will play a bigger role in Rio Olympics than previous Games, with viewers 85% likely to use second-screen devices, according to Global Web Index.


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Businesses prepare for new data protection rules
19 February 2018 - 10:47 by Graham Miller
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is set to come into force in May, paving the way for improved privacy and security that can be enjoyed across the UK and the EU. Now a new study from EfficientIP has found that the majority of organisations that will have to comply with its requirements are ready for its arrival.
Internet Retailing reports that 72 per cent of firms worldwide have made the necessary changes to policy, or will be doing so before the deadline, to bring themselves in line with the stricter rules of the GDPR.
In Britain, a slightly above-average 73 per cent of businesses are on track to achieve this although, interestingly, they are outshone by their counterparts in the US where readiness levels are at 84 per cent.
Analysts expect that once the regulation comes into effect, levels of trust among consumers will increase as they realise that the businesses they deal with are going to be more careful about how they handle personal information.
Organisations of all sizes will also have to take greater steps to tackle potential security risks in the digital realm, ensuring that customers can carry out safe shopping online without worrying that their data will be hacked by malicious third parties.
Report spokesperson, Herve Dhelin, said that with less than 100 days until the GDPR is enforceable, there are still a number of businesses that need to get their act together or avoid falling foul of regulators.
He also said that the tougher rules would incentivise the act of preventing data breaches and allowing people to carry out safe shopping online with international outlets, rather than being worried about whether an overseas transaction would be a security risk. This should stimulate sales growth around the globe.


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There’s not a lot of sizzle among the 54 strip shopping centers and 44 enclosed malls that Simon Property Group Inc. plans to spin off into a new public company early next year.
After all, properties like Markland Mall in Kokomo and the Muncie Mall in Muncie offer meat-and-potatoes shopping experiences. They aren’t regional destinations for big-spenders like the Fashion Mall at Keystone, to name one of the properties staying with the mothership.
Yet second-tier malls actually can be quite profitable, analysts say, though as part of Simon, a real estate behemoth that owns some of the glitziest real estate developments in the world, they were largely ignored by investors.
In an effort to unlock that value, Simon announced Dec. 13 it was spinning off the strip centers and smaller malls to focus on larger malls, its outlet centers and international expansion. In the second quarter of 2014, existing Simon shareholders will receive an equal number of shares in the new, Indianapolis-based business, so far known only as SpinCo.
Analysts almost universally praise the move, which will improve the quality of Simon’s remaining malls—lifting sales per square foot from $560 to $616. Meanwhile, the new company will have its own management team focused on exploiting acquisition and redevelopment opportunities.
But the biggest challenge facing the new company might be persuading investors to view it as a growth company, not just as a mature business that throws off a steady stream of dividends.
Simon officials seem aware of the challenge. In a Dec. 13 conference call with analysts, company officials repeatedly cast SpinCo as a growing business that has identified $300 million in development and redevelopment opportunities.
“The fact of the matter is, there have been a number of opportunities that the team has wanted to pursue that we put at the bottom of the list because we were focused on outlet growth or major redevelopment,” Simon CEO David Simon said on the call.
Analyst Rich Moore of RBC Capital Markets said Simon needed to jettison its weaker properties, a goal the spinoff achieves. He said so-called Class B malls are among the more challenged segments of retail real estate these days but still can have significant earnings power.
“There are really two types of Class B regional mall product,” he said. “One is the dominant center in a smaller town. That one works and can be very profitable. Then there is a second-tier mall in a major market, which is a much more dangerous type of product.”
A PowerPoint presentation prepared by Simon said occupancy in the SpinCo malls range from a low of 75 percent at Rushmore Mall in Rapid City., S.D., to a high of 99 percent at Markland Mall and Muncie Mall. The other Indiana mall in the SpinCo portfolio, Anderson Mall, was in the middle, with occupancy of 86 percent.
Simon did not disclose the profitability of individual SpinCo properties but said that overall they generate more than $400 million in net operating income annually. Stifel Nicolaus & Co. noted in a report that the SpinCo properties represent one-third of Simon’s portfolio but account for less than 10 percent of its operating income.
“A small percentage of Simon’s NOI, generated from low or no-growth assets, was poised to be an increasing distraction for management,” UBS analyst Ross Nussbaum said in a report.
“Simon sees rough seas ahead for low-productivity, Class B regional malls—and rightly so!” Nussbaum added. Some of SpinCo’s malls “suffer from what we call the ‘fifth mall in a four-mall-town syndrome.’”
Nussbaum and other analysts said the spinoff also will reduce Simon’s exposure to J.C. Penney and Sears, two struggling anchors that may shed space. Penney anchors 35 of 44 SpinCo malls, Sears anchors 39, and both retailers anchor 32.
On the conference call, David Simon said Simon is putting malls into SpinCo that have net operating income below $10 million. In response to an analyst’s question, he said including so many malls with J.C. Penney and Sears as anchors had nothing to do with eliminating risk for Simon.
David Simon highlighted what he sees as SpinCo’s untapped potential and pointed out that he and Simon President Richard Sokolov will have skin in the game as significant shareholders of the new company.
Both also will be on its board, with Sokolov serving as chairman. SpinCo is in the process of evaluating candidates for its executive posts.
“Unleashing those 98 assets into SpinCo with what we think will be a very good executive team certainly allows for opportunities for that company to grow,” David Simon said on the call.•