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Ulric Jerome, chief executive officer of Matchesfashion.com, revealed the digital retailer’s ideas surrounding retail and e-commerce in the waning days of 2018.
His message could have been summed up in three words: 5 Carlos Place, the five-story, 7,000-square-foot experiential town house that opened in September in the tony Mayfair section of London. House in a circa 1900 former residence, 5 Carlos Place is clearly not only a physical shopping space. Jerome said the town house is much more than the sum of its parts, which include retail, personal shopping, bespoke, cultural events and broadcasting.
The house that Matchesfashion.com built has been engineered for discovery, whether it’s a new designer or brand, interesting young chef or one with a Michelin star. “‘The Innovators’ program has a focus on trailblazing activity in the designer market,” Jerome said, adding that the idea is to feature a mix of established and emerging brands. Space at the house is given over to events that support the designers and educate consumers about why Matchesfashion.com chose the various talents. “[Customers] understand there’s a real editorial point of view,” he said. “Even the music at 5 Carlos Place is curated.”
Jerome described how 5 Carlos Place has become intertwined with its upper-crust neighborhood, which borders on Mount Street, and how the town house has been enthusiastically embraced by consumers, who act as ambassadors for the address, posting photos on social media.
“The customers really love not only fashion, but retail, and the physical space where they’re going to shop,” Jerome said. “We hired an architect who understood and wanted to create history. Don’t forget, we have a dot-com after our name.”
Matchesfashion.com uses 5 Carlos Place for next-generation global events. Prior to opening the residence, Jerome said the e-tailer would take over clients’ homes and penthouses. “We said, ‘Why can’t we create events in a modular way,’” he said.
“We do bespoke by appointment in our private shopping suite,” Jerome added. “We have a 90 percent retention rate. It’s all about a personal, intimate moment and personalization.”
Matchesfashion.com has amortized the cost of operating the location by “using the space to reach millions of people,” Jerome said, referring to mobile and digital. During 2018, the house hosted more than 39 events, welcomed 3,000 guests, unveiled five pop-up cafes and created 10 brand installations.
For example, the house recently unveiled an installation by Saloni on the top floor of 5 Carlos Place. Jerome said Saloni was chosen for its colorful designs. “The brand installation is very visual every time we launch one. We feature a new brand every seven to 10 days,” Jerome said.
Brands must pass Matchesfashion’s requisite screening process. “We created our own code of conduct,” Jerome said. “We ask brands to fill out a survey so we know where they’re coming from.”
While 5 Carlos Place is steeped in history, it’s also filled with technology, but “we don’t believe in in-your-face technology,” Jerome said. “It’s not intrusive at all. We have intelligent technology that provides a personalized customer experience with all the algorithms built thorough machine learning and AI.
“The sales staff uses technology only to maximize the best conversation with the customer,” Jerome said. Customers sign in upon arrival by scanning a bar code at the reception desk, which notifies the team of their arrival. They receive a tour of 5 Carlos Place before going to one of the shopping suites, which has been filled with any items they choose, plus other pieces, selected using data gathered from wish lists, online baskets and purchase history.
Items that aren’t available for purchase on-site can be ordered on the Matchesfashion app. Using the 90-minute delivery service, the product can be sent to the town house for pick-up or to the customer’s address.
The most important metric is consumers who visit 5 Carlos Place’s content place orders that are 33 percent larger, Jerome said, adding that 77 percent of those who engage with 5 Carlos Place content are returning visitors. Matchesfashion’s average order value is $729.
With two-thirds of Matchesfashion.com traffic coming through mobile, Jerome couldn’t overstate the importance of social media. And 5 Carlos Place lends itself to the type of drama that plays out on web sites and mobile apps.
“Consumers can watch and listen to everything happening in that house,” Jerome said. Call it a more sophisticated and fashionable version of “Big Brother.”
“We embrace the digital opportunity of social media,” Jerome said. “Our customer’s behavior changes so fast, but so does fashion. The best way to deal with this is to listen and see what the customer does, and listening on social media is the best way.”
“We created the web site and created the app so that everyone can watch and listen to everything happening in the house,” Jerome said. “The idea is to democratize luxury.” Still, Jerome noted that the white front door of the town house doesn’t have a street number.
The Matchesfashion.com’s 5 Carlos Place micro-site invites visitors to check out the house floor-by-floor. The fifth floor is reserved for podcasts, with recent recordings by Alexa Chung, Samuel Ross, designer and founder of streetwear brand A-Cold-Wall, and Skye Gyngell, a food writer who earned a Michelin star. Floor number four is devoted to film and video. On offer is a quickie film by Mario Sorrenti, who reveals the best gift he’s received and his favorite photo shoot to date. “We had a book signing with Mario Sorrenti and Kate Moss,” Jerome said. “In the last eight weeks, we produced almost 40 events.”
The third floor is devoted to private shopping with the site listing all the benefits of booking a private suite, from getting the first look at collections exclusive to Matchesfashion.com to the ability of stylists to secure sought-after products.
Events take place on the second floor. That’s where the Michelin-starred chef of London’s River Cafe, Ruth Rogers, will hold an intimate master cookery class on Nov. 21. Coinciding with the launch of the Sneaker Studio at 5 Carlos Place on Nov. 26, a dedicated installation will showcase exclusive trainer styles from Chloé, Fendi and Jil Sander for women, and Acne Studios, Eytys and Isabel Marant for men.
If some aspects of 5 Carlos Place seem familiar, it’s because the company introduced versions before the town house opened. Matchesfashion.com tested, iterated and perfected its Designers Talks event, which made its first appearance during its overseas residences and featured Zandra Rhodes sharing her inspiration from the Seventies. Recently, Leandra Medine Cohen, founder of the Man Repeller, was featured at the town house in conversation with editors from new media platforms such as Tank and High Snobiety. The discussion was live-streamed on the Matchesfashion.com web site.
Not everything that passes through 5 Carlos Place’s doors has a connection to fashion. The Artist’s Bedroom by John Booth for House of Voltaire pairs the artist and designer John Booth with the nonprofit art and design store House of Voltaire, to create Booth’s dream teenage bedroom at the town house. The immersive installation, where everything is available for purchase, features a hand-painted bed, ceramic side tables, rugs, mirrors and even an embroidered sweatshirt casually draped on a chair.
Later this month, Gucci Decor will takeover 5 Carlos Place’s personal shopping suites, installing its colorful furniture and decorative home products with unexpected elements such as an eye staring out from a vase, a chair embroidered with the face of a tiger or a metal tray with a Kingsnake painted in the center.
Whether Jerome admits it or not, the physical 5 Carlos Place remains exclusive and out-of-reach to the majority of Matchesfashion.com consumers who don’t live in London or plan to travel there. With the online and digital retailer’s broadcasting hub at the town house in full swing, Matchesfashion.com is producing creative content that it will continue to personalize and iterate upon until it gives remote consumers an experience that more closely reflects 5 Carlos Place.


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Known as a subject matter expert in indoor air quality management, Jim Clark, owner of Environmental Solutions and Services, or ESS, .began researching an area of his business that he believed was lacking back in fall 2019. While he saw the need for a product that could deep clean for mold, pathogens and viruses, Clark had no idea how vital this product would become.
When the coronavirus pandemic escalated in March 2020, Clark, a degreed mechanical engineer and Board-certified indoor environmental consultant, had just started cleaning with Steramist, a disinfecting fog/mist that goes everywhere in a room, leaving no residue. It also dries within seconds of application. In as little as five seconds, Steramist attacks bacteria and pathogens as part of a three-step process that keeps the treated surface protected for up to one year.
The three steps of the process include: Identify the problem and its source with a visual diagnosis and samples; disinfect and deodorize the area with Steramist; and protect and prevent with an antimicrobial product.
There are other products on the market that can disinfect in a similar way to Steramist — what makes Clark’s product unique is the short dwell time, the absence of residue after applied and the amount of time surfaces remain safe from germs. The products of the three-step process are also EPA and FDA approved.
Clark explained, “Typical disinfectants would work for a day. Some similar products leave residue and have to be wiped, which runs the risk of contamination. And there are other products that have a dwell time for longer than five seconds – some up to 10 minutes. That would require an extensive amount of time to clean the space, and some products only last for three months.”
The three-step process is also totally safe. “We clean kitchens of restaurants and day cares. The business can re-enter just 15 minutes after we have cleaned the space,” he noted.
One of the most important aspects of the three-step process is the cost savings. Clark gave the example of a 4,000-square-foot space, paying about $800 every two weeks for cleaning before the pandemic. After the pandemic, they are cleaning every week, if not more often. “That is over $20,000 more a year,” Clark pointed out. “Deep cleaning with ESS can save thousands of dollars.”
Clark couldn’t give an estimated cost on a treatment for any particular space, due to the fact that it depends on the size of the space, what kind of business it is and if the cleaning is due to a positive coronavirus case or being wisely proactive. He explained that most companies want that peace of mind that their space is indeed sterilized.
“Our three-step process brings a level of comfort back to an indoor space. When you know we’ve treated that space, you will feel more comfortable with going back to work,” he said. “And [businesses] can enjoy the cost savings of returning back to their pre-COVID cleaning habits.”

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Putnam Investments has chosen a Salomon Smith Barney executive to run its brokerage channel.
Joseph D. Kringdon joined the Boston-based company last week as a senior vice president. He reports to William Connolly, managing director and national sales manager.
The newly created position is the latest of several changes at the fund company.
Richard Monaghan, previously a Merrill Lynch & Co. executive, was named in November to head Putnam's mutual fund distribution business. He succeeded William Shiebler, who is phasing into retirement.
Mr. Connolly, who was also hired from Merrill, joined Putnam early this month as its new national retail sales manager overseeing sales through a range of third-party channels.
He succeeded Vincent Esposito, who now heads retail client relationship management. Mr. Kringdon's position was created in part to handle some of the tasks Mr. Esposito was responsible for, a Putnam spokesman said.
Putnam sells 33% of its retail funds through brokerages, 28% through banks, and the balance through financial planners. It has $300 billion of assets under management and is the largest fund seller through banks, with $8.5 billion in sales last year.


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More evidence is emerging that this recession has changed everything.
First, a new and rather large survey by IBM shows that Americans at all income levels, despite the tough economic situation, are not sacrificing quality to save money on their food purchases, but – big but – they are more conscientious about the brands they buy, the packaging they buy and the supermarkets they shop to find new ways to save money.
Furthermore, they have confirmed that their new spending strategy “will stick beyond the recession”, IBM said.
In the survey of 4000 American consumers – from those earning less than $20,000 per year to those earning more than $100,000 per year – 72 per cent said they are more focused on quality than price in their grocery shopping trips, and 90-92pc said health/nutrition and value will be of equal or greater importance when the recession ends, IBM said.
Consumers are becoming more flexible about brand and grocery store loyalty but are reluctant to go without coffee, meat and poultry in order to economise, IBM said.


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- July 1, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Spurred by growth among its partner companies, Concentrix Corp. is hiring nearly 200 new employees in Rio Rancho.
The company is planning to hire 195 customer service and sales positions in Rio Rancho over the next few months. Mary Scott, vice president of talent delivery at Concentrix, said the push in New Mexico is part of a larger hiring effort by the company.
“We are experiencing a ton of growth,” Scott said.
Scott said the jobs can be done at the company’s facility in Rio Rancho, located at 6090 Zenith NE, or remotely by workers living locally. All of the jobs will be full-time, though some will be seasonal.
Scott added that Concentrix, which provides customer experience solutions for client companies, works with a lot of health…


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American manufactured meat company Oscar Mayer is auctioning off a one-of-one pack of “Hot Doge Wieners” on Ebay.Read more
Since joining the crypto conversation, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has had an outsized influence on market moves. New data, however, suggests that this influence hasn’t always been positive—especially when it comes to Bitcoin.Read more
Some of the crypto industry’s most popular meme coins—Dogecoin, Baby Doge, and Safe Moon—are all down this week.
Dogecoin (DOGE)—one of the most famous cryptocurrencies due to Elon Musk’s fascination with the coin—is down roughly 4% on the day and over the last week.
Crypto as a payment option for real estate continues to gain traction as the adoption of virtual currencies for both commercial transactions continues to take shape.Read more
Robinhood had the worst debut for an IPO of its size.
Having a successful IPO doesn’t necessarily indicate future success. Just look at Facebook.
Crypto hopefuls piled on to trading arenas en masse in 2021, logging on to exchanges, cranking up the leverage, and trying to achieve the obscure dream of making millions of dollars from a few thousand.
The numbers are staggering as well. As crypto services company Crypto.
Buying Robinhood shares provides a way to get exposure to crypto through the stock market.
Robinhood’s crypto ambitions are bigger than most people realize.
The popular stock and crypto buying app Robinhood will offer shares of a new company on Thursday—its own.Read more
Robinhood is a stock and crypto investment platform.
It is due to go public July 29.
The platform has been introducing new trading features.
Ask a new investor to cryptocurrency how it’s different from trading stocks, and they’ll probably tell you about volatility.Read more


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What the industry thinks of the Falcon 900
Huge potential for innovative, British-manufactured cooking appliance range
Falcon recently launched its F900 series, a comprehensive selection of 900mm-wide catering equipment capable of being linked together virtually seamlessly via the innovative Dynamic Link System. This allows chefs to create their ideal cookline, combining the flexibility of modular systems with the looks and hygiene benefits of one-piece island suites. The first major launch from the UK manufacturer in nearly twenty years, the F900 series has already been creating excitement in the UK industry – the more so since, until now, this category of cooking appliances has mainly only been available from European manufacturers.
The F900’s Dynamic Link System in particular has been praised for its potential.
Mark Kendall, Project Director at Inox Equip Ltd, said “The interlocking mechanism was, for me, the standout thing in a very strong product”. He also recognised the importance of bringing new UK manufactured product to market. “Within our industry we have a very busy period between July to September, which can make supply difficult as European manufacturers tend to close for holidays during that period. Having British products available will make it easier for dealers, specifiers and manufacturers.”
Yvonne Martin, MD of Equipt to Cook Ltd agreed, “It’s great that we’ve got a British company investing money in new products,” she said.
Iain Munro, MD of ScoMac Catering Equipment Ltd thought these features will make it a popular choice. “Most professional kitchens are looking for equipment with nice, smooth lines and something that’s easy to keep hygienic. The F900 and its Dynamic Linking System undoubtedly delivers that, it’s clearly going to be popular.”
The early signs are that Falcon has a hit on its hands, which is music to the ears of Tim Tindle, Falcon’s MD. “I’m biased but I’d say the launch has gone extremely well, everybody seems enthusiastic and we’ve got a great opportunity to take our business forward into new sectors.”
Falcon is the market-leading UK manufacturer of professional cooking equipment. With a company history going back nearly 200 years, Falcon now supplies operators throughout the catering industry, exporting around the globe. Its comprehensive product portfolio is backed by award-winning customer support. Visit www.falconfoodservice.com for more information.


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Baby Powder Recalled
With what the company is calling “an abundance of caution,” Johnson & Johnson announced on Friday that they would be instituting a voluntary recall of its baby powder over concerns that the product could possibly contain asbestos.
According to Fox News, the recall will affect a single lot of the baby powder.
Testing by the Food and Drug Administration found that asbestos had contaminated a bottle of Johnson's Baby Powder that had been bought from a retail outlet online. It's important to note here that it was one single bottle that was found to be contaminated and the manufacturer maintains that the level of contamination of the product was extremely small.
Company officials say that this is the very first time that Johnson's Baby Powder has been recalled and taken out of the marketplace.
Get more information about the powder recall here from Fox News.


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AMD was set to buy $500 million worth of wafers from Globalfoundries, but a “choppy demand environment” caused the company to rethink this order pushing it down to $115 million.
“Today’s announcement demonstrates that the long-term strategic partnership between AMD and Globalfoundries continues to benefit both companies,” said Rory Read, AMD’s president at CEO, in a statement. ” The newly amended agreement is another step we are taking to further strengthen our relationship with Globalfoundries as well as AMD’s financial foundation.”
To amend this contract, AMD will be paying a penalty of $320 million — $80 million to be paid by December 28, 2012, $40 million before April 1, 2013 as well as a $200 million promissory note due on December 31, 2013.
This amended contract is a product of AMD’s dire financial straights. The company saw its revenue drop to $1.27 billion in the last quarter from $1.69 billion in the same quarter last year, and reported a net loss of $157 million from a net profit of $97 million last year.


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Shares in Canadian cannabis company Aphria Inc. fell to their lowest level in more than a year on Monday after a short seller published a report alleging the company has wasted hundreds of millions on foreign acquisitions that are essentially worthless.
At a short-selling conference in New York, Gabriel Grego of Quintessential Capital Management outlined his report on the Leamington, Ont.-based company, calling the company a “black hole for shareholders’ money.”
Aphria’s stock plunged both on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges when markets opened on Monday, at one point falling to a new 52-week low of $7.38 per share in Toronto, down 29.8 per cent from Friday’s close of $10.51.
Short sellers make money when stock prices in the companies they target go down. They do so by selling other investors’ shares at current prices, pocketing the profit and replacing the shares they’ve borrowed by buying them for a lower price later on. Recent prominent targets of short sellers include drug company Valeant, and mortgage company Home Capital.
While Grego lays out a number of reasons for why he thinks Aphria is overvalued, his core argument is that he says the company spent $700 million buying up subsidiaries in the Caribbean and South America that don’t add any value to the company.
“In most instances, the entities acquired by Aphria exhibit little or no sales and operating activity, minimal assets and questionable corporate governance,” he said.
Aphria called Grego’s allegations false and defamatory.
“The company is preparing a comprehensive response to provide shareholders with the facts and is also pursuing all available legal options against Quintessential Capital,” it said in a statement Monday morning.
Grego has become an influential short seller. His last major target, this summer, was a company called Folli Follie, a Greek jewelry chain that he argued had vastly overstated how much money it was making in China. The company lost three quarters of its value after regulators looked into the company and subsequently halted the stock. It hasn’t traded since.
- CBC News services keep Canadians at home and abroad informed about their communities, their country and the world. CBC/Radio-Canada is the country's largest news organization, employing more than 800 journalists in Canada and around the globe. Their stories appear on CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca and CBC News Network.
- News2019.01.24A year before cannabis legalization, people in Ontario smoked up more
- News2019.01.24Many pregnant women don’t think cannabis is harmful, UBC study finds
- News2019.01.23Canada’s chronic shortage of legal cannabis expected to drag out for years
- News2019.01.22More than half of Ontario municipalities opt in as willing cannabis store hosts


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On Air Now
The Smooth Late Show with Martin Collins 10pm - 1am
10 June 2016, 09:42
You don't have to have tons of cash to have the world's finest things!
Great news if you're planning a quiet night in this weekend, the world's best red wine can be yours for just £4.37 at Asda.
We kid you not!
A group of wine experts have come together and awarded Asda's La Moneda Reserva Malbec from Chile the best in show title at this year's Decanter World Wine awards.
240 international wine connoisseurs blind tested around 16,000 red and whites from around the world and they found Asda's bargain Malbec to be "the ultimate crowd pleaser".
Described by Asda has having "violet tints, rounded and velvety tannins, complex plum, fig, strawberry, spices flavour and excellent length" – it sounds delicious!
It took the top prize in the Chilean red category and was also crowned the best for value and money.
It's already sold out online so get down to your local Asda quick!


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Hearst has named Jessica Hogue as chief data officer, consumer media. She joins the firm on March 6.
Hogue will be responsible for driving Hearst’s data strategy across its consumer media businesses, including Magazines, Newspapers and Television, and supporting innovative solutions and personalized experiences.
The new hire joins Hearst from Innovid, where she has served since 2019, most recently as general manager of measurement and analytics.
Prior to that, Hogue spent over 12 years at Nielsen including a stint as senior vice president for digital, product leadership and client solutions.
“Jessica has a diverse yet deep background in digital data management roles, and we are thrilled to have her leading our efforts in this vital area of our consumer businesses,” states Mark Aldam, chief operating officer at Hearst.
"Hearst's consumer media businesses represent a unique and expansive audience across the portfolio of newspapers, magazines and television stations,” Hogue states.
She adds, “I'm thrilled to join the leadership team at this pivotal time to help build an innovative data strategy to power consumer experiences."


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Exports will continue to drive China's economy for the rest of the year, as the domestic market remains sluggish, according to analysts.
Chinese leaders have for many years stated that they want to move away from exports as the main source of growth and towards domestic consumption for sustainable economic growth, said Mattie Bekink, China director at the Economist Intelligence Corporate Network.
"But that is certainly not what happened during the pandemic. So China's economic recovery has been largely dependent on the return to its old export-driven model, while consumption has really lagged," she told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Thursday.
"By 2020, for example, net exports contributed to the largest share of Chinese GDP growth since 1997, and consumption has not even recovered yet to its pre-Covid trend, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics," Bekink said.
Despite global supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, China's trade surplus rose to $ 676.43 billion by 2021 - up from $ 523.99 billion by 2020, and the highest ever going back to 1950, according to official Wind Information data.
"Exports will continue to be a very important growth driver for the Chinese economy by 2022," Zerlina Zeng, a senior credit analyst at CreditSights, told CNBC on Wednesday.
On Thursday, China's central bank lowered its benchmark lending rates again due to growing concerns about a slowdown in the economy, reducing the one-year prime interest rate on loans as well as the five-year LPR. Lending rates affect lending rates for business and household loans in the country.
The world's second largest economy grew 8.1% in 2021 as industrial production rose steadily through the end of the year, according to official data from China's National Bureau of Statistics released on Monday. GDP in the fourth quarter rose 4% from a year ago, faster than analysts expected.
"China's economy is running on almost two tracks. The export-based economy is actually fine, but the domestic economy is pretty soft," Steve Cochrane, chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region at Moody's Analytics, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Wednesday.
Weak consumption in China
Still, domestic demand will continue to be a drag on the economy due to China's zero-Covid policy, which has prompted several travel restrictions in the country, including the closure of Xi'an city in late December.
Official data from Monday showed that retail sales missed expectations and grew by 1.7% in December compared to a year ago.
"Given the zero-Covid policy and the difficulties with travel tourism, even spending in the coming holiday season will be quite weak," Cochrane added.
The lunar new year - which begins in early February this year - is China's largest holiday season, with millions of people crossing the country to join their loved ones for the spring festivities.
With consumer sentiment uncertain and still weak employment, China is expected to continue its policy easing to boost the domestic economy.
"That's why the PBOC has been front-loading on monetary policy easing, including interest rate cuts as well as net injections of medium to long-term liquidity," Zeng said, referring to the People's Bank of China's recent surprising move to lower its lending rates. .
On Monday, the Bank of China lowered the cost of borrowing for medium-term loans for the first time since April 2020. It also lowered the seven-day reverse repurchase rate, another lending measure. The PBOC also injected an additional 200 billion yuan ($ 31.5 billion) of medium-term cash into the banking system.
"I would not be surprised given the huge amount of uncertainty in the economy if there are continued additions to liquidity and further interest rate cuts to help strengthen the economy in China," Moody's Cochrane added.
- CNBC's Evelyn Cheng and Saheli Roy Choudhury contributed to this report


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Globe Wireless has signed a distribution agreement to sell Addvalue FleetBroadband equipment to its maritime customers. Globe Wireless will offer a turnkey solution with installation, service and repair, as well as airtime and applications.
Frank J. Coles, President & CEO of Globe Wireless said, “Addvalue has created a highly functional and reliable FleetBroadband product line. Globe Wireless has placed a significant order for equipment with Addvalue, and will immediately begin installing these terminals aboard our customer’s vessels.” Dr. Colin Chan, CEO of Addvalue, added, “Globe Wireless is an important supplier in the maritime industry. Their large customer base and their direct approach with customers will mean that the Addvalue products are backed by the leading maritime communications and IT solution provider”.


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Huawei Scrutinized Over Iran Sanctions
Probe raises the stakes for Huawei, which faces a series of moves by Washington to diminish its already-limited business dealings in the U.S.
WASHINGTON—The Justice Department is investigating whether Huawei Technologies Co. violated U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that opens a new avenue of scrutiny of the Chinese cellular-electronics giant on national security grounds.
It’s unclear how far the Justice Department probe has advanced and what specific allegation federal agents are probing. A Huawei spokesman declined to comment.
Such a probe raises the stakes for Huawei, which is facing a series of actions by Washington to diminish the company’s already limited business dealings in the U.S. It could also have spillover effects for its much larger business overseas, particularly in Europe.
Analysts said a worst-case scenario could entail Huawei suffering the same fate as smaller Chinese rival ZTE Corp., which has lost access to U.S.-made components in a similar probe.
Investors on Wednesday sold down shares in some of Huawei’s suppliers, including a group of small optical-technology firms like Lumentum Holdings Inc., after The Wall Street Journal first reported the probe. Qualcomm Inc., which supplies Huawei with chips, also edged lower.
The Trump administration also has cited Huawei, the world’s largest maker of cellular-tower electronics and other telecommunications equipment, as a threat to American
- WSJ & l'opinionTech


text: HomeMusicHip HopG-Eazy feat. Blac Youngsta & BlocBoy JB – Drop Rajrishi Murthi June 26, 2018 Hip Hop, New Release G-Eazy has been on an absolute roll lately! Following the release of his fifth studio album ‘The Beautiful & Damned‘ late last year, the American rapper continues to dish out new music. Fresh off dropping ‘1942‘ with Yo Gotti and YBN Nahmir and teaming up with Vic Mensa for ‘Reverse‘, his latest output arrives as a fiery new single featuring Blac Youngsta and BlocBoy JB. Titled ‘Drop‘, the club-ready anthem sees the three MCs trade bars on top of a Hitmaka, Marii Beatz, and A1 produced beat. What already sounds like a certified banger primed for the summer of 2018, you can listen to ‘Drop‘ below.


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By Jamie Mercer
The Google I/O developer conference indicated no major product launches or drastic predictions of the future. As an alternative, there was a display of features, driven by artificial intelligence, designed to make people more associated, as well as more dependent, on Google.
By gathering all of the private data from its users with industry-leading artificial intelligence, Google is inserting itself into our everyday communications in ways they have never before.
The following are the key I/O reports that tell us about the future of Google.
Google has emphasised that the company has moved from a mobile-first to an AI-first approach. This means the company is placing AI at the core of all of its new products, whether that’s to improve image recognition in Google Assistant or for beating human players at games of Go.
Google’s Lens is their answer to Facebook’s augmented reality camera effects platform. Essentially, it compromises a set of vision-based computing competencies, combined into the Google Assistant photo app, which works to ‘understand’ what you’re looking at. By ‘understanding’ what you’re looking at, this means Google returns information to the user based on what it has seen.
An example of this was given by pointing the camera lens at a marquee for an upcoming concert and Google Lens extracted the date and time of this specific show. Another example would be pointing the lens at a particular restaurant and Google Lens is able to reveal all the current customer reviews. Google Lens is the next step towards the world of mixed reality and has been in development for several years now.
The equivalent of Siri for Apple iPhone, Google Assistant is embedded in Android devices such as Google Home, watches and smartphones. In the coming months, it is expected that Google Assistant will be able to have even more insightful conversations which will allow you to accomplish tasks with just a quick chat.
As well as voice recognition, Google Assistant will have the ability to understand, recognise and have conversations about what you see. An example of this would be if you were in a foreign country and you don’t read the native language.
With Google Assistant, you can hold it up to the sign advertising street food, for example, and it will ‘read’ and translate the text automatically. You can then ask ‘what does it look like?’ and Google will contextually recognise that the ‘it’ you are referring to is the name of the food written on the sign and it will provide you pictures of the dish.
Google Home will now offer ‘proactive assistance’ rather than waiting for you to give it a command. An example of this would be that the device may inform you to leave the house earlier than usual due to heavy traffic.
Google Home give you the option to make hands-free calls and asking it to dial any landline or mobile number in the US or Canada results in no charge. Additionally, the device can now register and understand up to six different voices in one household and familiarise to each personal preference as a result.
A key focus throughout the keynote was to create an all-in-one experience across all devices, even if that device doesn’t exist in Google’s Android network. In short, this means Google Assistant is now available on the iPhone.
Compared to Siri, Assistant is considered to be more advanced because Google produces a lot more private data than Apple, who are more privacy-conscious. This allows typical Apple users needing to translate a sentence into another language, or ordering takeout using voice commands to be able to do this.
Google added stricter controls for creators on YouTube after it revealed that ads were being placed beside terrorist or hate speech videos. This meant that creators were making less money.
YouTube launched ‘super chat’ in January, where members of the audience can pay to have their comments presented visibly during a live stream. In return, these viewers can donate money to the YouTuber or to a chosen charity.
Who would have thought Google wanted a slice of the recruitment advertising industry? Google for Jobs is a new search function which makes it easier for people to find employment (but harder for those official listing sites to generate revenue).
Although it is still in early stages of development, with a selection of companies testing it out, this new feature could disrupt the recruitment industry altogether.
During the conference, it was claimed that Google’s products boasted more than a billion monthly users including Google Search, Android, Chrome, Maps, YouTube, Google Play and Gmail. If this continues to grow, then Google will have to attract future potential users. Typically, users in countries with a lower income start their online journey via mobile devices.
Google has developed a mobile operating system for entry-level devices called Android Go. This device is designed to use less data and load apps quicker, even when the signal is poor.
Recently, there has been a lot of buzz about virtual and augmented reality, but Google has approached this in a different way. Google first introduced Web VR earlier in the year and now is turning its attention to immediate and practical applications, as they have already created an entry level VR headset.
During the Google I/O conference, it teased some advanced detached headsets, made in partnership with HTC and Lenovo. There has been no mention of how much they will cost, nor what they will be called or when they will be available.
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Nissan has signed a four-year global partnership with the UEFA Champions League, including the UEFA Super Cup.
The agreement represents the Japanese manufacturer's largest ever sponsorship deal and establishes Nissan as an official partner worldwide from 2014/15 to and including the 2017/18 seasons.
"Innovating to excite is what Nissan does, and as partners with UEFA we are looking to introduce new ways in which to enrich the UEFA Champions League experience," said Roel de Vries, Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Marketing and Communications for Nissan.
"Europe's most prestigious football competition will be an important global platform for Nissan, and our aim is to show fans all over the world the excitement of both football and our cars. Both are created by amazing people who have a passion for what they do."
As an official partner, Nissan will have extensive rights to the matches, pre-match training sessions, content, media, hospitality, events and the Champions League Final.
Jeanne McGann, Head of Marketing & Communications in Nissan Ireland, said: "We're very excited to be part of this initiative and the opportunities it provides; we look forward to an interesting four years ahead."
The UEFA Champions League reaches over 4 billion TV viewers a season, and the deal will bring Nissan to new audiences and keep the brand at the fore over the course of the European football calendar.


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Good news for both producers and consumers of original programming. According to THR, Starz is talking to potential partners around the world to raise $1 billion of off-balance sheet financing for original programming, in a project dubbed “Operation Turbo.”
According to the THR story, the brass at Liberty Media (Starz’ parent company) tasked Starz Entertainment CEO Chris Albrecht with finding the money to greatly increase original programming in order to compete better with efforts by HBO and Showtime.
The story also notes that Starz finances have already been restructured well in recent months, putting it in better position to be sold or spun off. Liberty & Starz have said the Starz channels (which include Encore and MoviePlex) are doing well and there are no plans to sell the channels anytime soon.


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In Business This Week: HEADLINER: ALBERT COSTELLO
WRESTLING WITH HERCULES
CEO Albert Costello got an earful at W.R. Grace's annual meeting on May 10 in Boca Raton, Fla. While hailing improved sales and pretax earnings, shareholders fumed over his refusal to discuss a merger between Grace and Hercules, a Wilmington (Del.) conglomerate. Hercules Chairman and former Grace director Thomas Gossage offered such a deal in March. "It doesn't cost to listen," shareholder Stewart Sunness told Costello.
Grace announced Gossage's resignation from the board after rejecting his proposal. Gossage has since publicly mulled a hostile bid for Grace, though he says he prefers a friendly deal. But Costello rejected the idea at the meeting, saying it would create no product synergies and that until Gossage names his price, there is nothing to discuss. "The only synergies with Hercules are cost synergies," said Costello, "and cost synergies are not enough."
Instead of discussing the Hercules bid, Costello said he believes Grace can deliver value on its own. He had better be right: Otherwise, he can expect far more pointed questions next year.EDITED BY KELLEY HOLLAND By Gail DeGeorgeReturn to top
U.S.-CHINA TRADE GETS REALLY UGLY
READY, AIM...THE U.S. AND China have fired their first shots in what could be a blistering trade war. Fed up with Beijing's failure to crack down on piracy of American trademarks and copyrights, Acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said the U.S. on June 17 will slap punitive tariffs on $2 billion worth of Chinese textiles, apparel, consumer electronics, and other goods. The choice of goods is aimed at inflicting minimum pain on U.S. consumers--and possibly winning some points with U.S. textile manufacturers this election year. News of the sanctions, due to take effect on June 17, triggered threats by China to retaliate with 100% tariffs on American goods including agricultural products, vehicles, and cameras. No word yet on the level of the U.S. tariffs, but it could top 100%.EDITED BY KELLEY HOLLANDReturn to top
SEXUAL HEALING AT MITSUBISHI?
MITSUBISHI MOTOR MANUFAC-turing of America is hiring a therapist. It has enlisted former Labor Secretary Lynn Martin to review its workplace practices in the wake of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission allegations of sexual harassment at its Normal (Ill.) plant. Martin vows she "will have complete independence" there. But EEOC officials worry that her probe could hinder their work. "Whatever her group is doing, they are not accountable to the judicial process," says John Hendrickson, the EEOC regional attorney in Chicago.EDITED BY KELLEY HOLLANDReturn to top
CORNING SHEDS A FEW MORE POUNDS
YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO RICH or too thin--at least at Corning, which is spinning off its lab-testing unit, Corning Clinical Laboratories. Corning built the unit, which has $1.6 billion in revenues, over the past 14 years. But lately it has had trouble digesting new labs, and Corning decided a tax-free spin-off was the most lucrative option. Corning also is shedding a pharmaceutical services unit with $400 million in revenues. The deals leave Corning 40% smaller, with a focus on communications and technology.EDITED BY KELLEY HOLLANDReturn to top


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Bitcoin rose to a good of about $12,500 Monday morning, its best since June 2019, in addition to remained given earlier $12,000 for about twenty four working hours prior to a 7 % pullback Wednesday and Tuesday. Cryptocurrency executive Marouane Garcon expects the decline to become a “brief pause,” incorporating that “we’re certainly inside a bull market.”
Former Prudential Securities CEO George Ball transformed his in the past distrustful tune on bitcoin, promoting investors buy it right now, “before the fuse is actually lit.” Other big cryptocurrencies trailed bitcoin this specific week, along with Chainlink sunk more than 25 % from its top last saturday.
The Housing Market Isn’t Booming For Everyone: 4 Numbers That Sum It all Up
9 Defenses Against The Biden Tax Increases
The Inside Story Of Robinhood‘s Billionaire Founders, Option Kid Cowboys As well as the Wall Street Sharks That Feed on Them
ALLEGED UBER COVER-UP
Joseph Sullivan, Uber UBER -1.8 %’s former chief safety officer, was charged again with obstruction of justice for an attempted cover up of a grand 2016 security breach, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. Rather than reporting the hack, which compromised private information for aproximatelly fifty seven huge number of Uber computer users and drivers, Uber allegedly paid the online hackers off of with $100,000 worthy of of bitcoin while Sullivan misled the Federal Trade Commission’s searching.
Inside the civil steps sent in around connection with the IRS’ seizure of bitcoin owned and operated by terrorist organizations last week, the by the name of defendants aren’t companies or men and women ; instead, the lawsuit was submitted alongside 155 bitcoin accounts. Inside rem jurisdiction as this’s prevalent of advantage forfeiture instances and appears to have been utilized before to civil suits regarding dinosaur bones, shark meat and also a reddish Lamborghini, however, it remains murky whether similar rules pertain to an intangible asset such as bitcoin.
The IRS released a draft belonging to the Form 1040 that filers will have to fill out next year, thus the doubting with regards to whether people have ordered or perhaps promote any cryptocurrencies was transferred to a more prominent location, signaling that the IRS is actually receiving much more significant and prepared to act on cryptocurrency reporting.
You are able to mitigate the tax obligations of yours by taking advantage of low extended capital profits fees, rolling at least profits directly into opportunity zones or even donating several of it. Though it is important to do mindful preparation prior to donating any cryptocurrency holdings to optimize the profit. See how buy bitcoin in Walmart.
Hip-hop star Akon is all set to start building a “futuristic cryptocurrency themed city” of Senegal right after proclaiming to have protected four dolars billion from investors. Designed on acreage donated by way of the government, Akon City will entirely have a fresh digital currency called Akoin. Phase 1 of development is actually expected being performed by 2023, and plans for period 2 operate from 2024 to 2029.
Africa is actually a continent usually ignored by traditional fiscal solutions exactly where crypto fans are optimistic digital assets have a chance to visit prosper. Nigeria-based bitcoin buying service Yellow Card nurtured $1.5 million within a seed financial support round which incorporated heavyweights as Polychain as well as Andreessen Horowitz. CEO Chris Maurice predicts “crypto will go mainstream of Africa well before another factor of this world.”


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New video shows Apple iPad 5 and Apple iPad mini 2 casings
posted by Alan F. / Sep 06, 2013, 11:20 PM
The Apple iPad 5 shell has been leaked before, so there is nothing unexpected about the thinner, smaller form factor when compared to its predecessor. In addition, a lot of the design cues obviously came from the Apple iPad mini. And check out the thinner bezels on the iPad 5.
As far as the difference between the Apple iPad mini and the Apple iPad mini 2, the one and only change involves the Apple logo. On the OG iPad mini, the Apple logo was polished into the block of aluminum while the logo on the new model is chrome and is inserted through a cut-out on the back of the shell. Other than that, there seems to be no design changes at all between the two generations of iPad mini slates.
You can check out the latest video to show off leaked Apple iPad shells by clicking on the video below.
Thanks, Anonymous Tipster
Posts: 44; Member since: Jan 10, 2013
and the change in logo will increase the retail price by how much, $100?
posted on Sep 06, 2013, 11:30 PM 8
Posts: 2236; Member since: Jun 14, 2013
Since 2010, please name the price hikes at the introduction of a new iPad or iPhone.
posted on Sep 07, 2013, 12:15 AM 2
Posts: 2036; Member since: May 29, 2013
S4 cost Samsung around $250 to cost same with HTC One and every other flagship. Phone aren't that bad, some stuff they charge you like 1000% more than it cost to make like "premium cables" that are no better than a $5 one.
posted on Sep 07, 2013, 12:34 AM 0
Posts: 10457; Member since: May 14, 2012
It's the same news posted over and over again... But this time there's a video! /s
posted on Sep 06, 2013, 11:42 PM 3
Posts: 1610; Member since: Oct 14, 2012
To be very honest iOS 7 looks so cheap on the pad :p
posted on Sep 06, 2013, 11:49 PM 3
Posts: 248; Member since: Sep 01, 2013
My prediction that Apple sales will fall to 75% by 2016 is perfectly on track!! Apple are so out of touch with reality, they are more greedy than Goldman Sacks banksters!! Roll on Nokia Lumia 1520. And for those that say Lumia will not be branded with Nokia but Microsoft are talking rubbish. 2.5 billion people in the world use the word Nokia to refer to a mobile phone, so why would Microsoft move a name that is so powerful! You remove the name Nokia, the 2.5 billion people in the world won't recognize it as a mobile phone. SIMPLE. .
posted on Sep 07, 2013, 2:18 AM 0
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Blizzard's Brack Makes Non-Comment About Console Development, World Gasps
World of Warcraft production director J. Allen Brack noted in a recent interview that Blizzard will "definitely work on a console game at some point." The company has yet to release a full-on console game (since Lost Vikings II in 1997). Console ports of Diablo and StarCraft were tremendously late and mediocre at best, and Blizzard shut down work on StarCraft: Ghost after the game failed to meet internal quality standards.
Talking to Gamasutra, Brack pointed out that the company's pre-WoW bread and butter, real-time strategy, has to date been a better experience on PC. Echoing dozens of comments made by various Blizzard staff over the years, he said that when the developer has a solid idea for a console game, they'll make one – and not before.
Tell us why StarCraft 64 was totally awesome and Blizzard needs to stop being such PC fanboys in the comments below!


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A cutting-edge form of technology designed to help drivers find parking spots is being trialled in a street running off one of New Zealand's busiest roads.
Thirty-six solar-powered parking sensors developed by Palmerston North company Frogparking have been installed in parking spaces off Bellwood Avenue, off Dominion Road.
The sensors detect when a car has parked over top of them and when they leave, sending this information wirelessly to a digital sign on the main thoroughfare.
Drivers can tell simply by looking at the sign on Dominion how many spaces are available and whether they should bother turning into Bellwood Avenue.
Don Sandbrook, founder of Frogparking, said the trial agreement with Auckland Transport was "a major milestone" for the company.
He was keen to see how the technology helped Auckland drivers.
"This technology will help direct motorists travelling along a busy main road to parking spaces near a key retail area," Sandbrook said.
"This will also reduce traffic congestion and time spent circling the block looking for a place to park."
Auckland Transport said it was installing the parking sensors as part of the Dominion Rd upgrade.
"The sensors and real-time information signage are currently being trialled on Bellwood Avenue to ensure the electronic systems operate satisfactorily," a spokesperson said.
"Upon completion of the trial, further sensors may be installed, however this decision will be made following consultation with our designers."
Sandbrook said the idea for Frogparking came to him about four years ago when he saw a parking warden traipsing around in the rain marking car tyres with chalk.
"I thought 'the poor bugger - what a job!'" I figured I could put a device under the car to notify the warden of when the car arrives and leaves."
Sandbrook's technology has since been rolled out all over Palmerston North, with 2300 sensors now making life easier for wardens.
He has also developed a smartphone app which enables users to find available parking spaces and pay for their parking.
The technology is being used by Wilson Parking in Auckland's Princes Wharf, by a hospital in South Australia, by Christchurch Airport, and by businesses in the US and Germany.
Sandbrook said the technology had now moved on to serve a much greater purpose than just parking enforcement.
"Anyone who manages car parking spots is a potential customer of ours. There is a strong appetite to better understand and manage parking use."
He said the technology could reduce traffic congestion, help authorities understand how to price parking areas, and help people avoid driving around in circles trying to find a parking space.
The company helped its customers monitor and analyse detailed parking data and implement parking strategies, he said.
Commercial property investment company Smales Farm is installing about 100 of the sensors at its two Takapuna properties.
Smales Farm would use the cloud-based software system to better understand how tenants and visitors use its parking spaces, said general manager Daniel Henderson.
"We're interested in new technologies that can help us understand usage and make the right type of parking available to people," he said.


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Boston, MA (PRWEB) August 22, 2006 –-
BroadVoice, the leading provider of high quality, feature-rich broadband phone services to consumers and businesses, announced that 100% of its customers in the US now have access to 911 service. A BroadVoice customer dialing 9-1-1 is connected to either a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), or the National Emergency Call Center, both of which are capable of dispatching emergency services.
BroadVoice automatically provides Enhanced 911, Basic 911, and 911 service to eligible customers. For Enhanced 911 and Basic 911 service a BroadVoice customer must enter and maintain their physical address location. When customers with Enhanced 911 service place 9-1-1 calls, BroadVoice automatically transmits their physical address to the dispatcher, whereas customers using Basic 911 and 911 service must talk to the operator to provide their location. Customers using 911 services can change their registered physical address by visiting the BroadVoice web site, http://www.broadvoice.com/.
BroadVoice VoIP phone service allows consumers and business to save 70% or more on phone service while enjoying innovative features not available with traditional phone lines. "Traditional phone companies have felt competitive pressure from VoIP carriers. In response, they've cited their 911 service as a competitive advantage. Naturally, the old phone companies want to keep that advantage, so they haven't been particularly helpful in providing VoIP carriers with access to their 911 call centers," said Les Berry, BroadVoice president. "Now that we've overcome these roadblocks, we can provide 911 services to every customer. This has been our objective from day one."
BroadVoice is the leading provider of high quality, feature-rich broadband phone services to consumers and businesses. BroadVoice VoIP phone service allows thousands of customers in the United States and more than 120 other countries to use their high-speed DSL or cable modem to make and receive phone calls anywhere in the world. Customers benefit from unlimited domestic and international calling and a suite of more than 25 basic and advanced features for one low monthly price. Founded in December 2003, BroadVoice is privately held and based in Billerica, MA. For additional information, visit http://www.broadvoice.com/.


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Świat Lnu with the Autumn-Winter collection at MFS
Polish Linen at the Kind+Jugend 2018
Świat Lnu at the Home Decor 2018
The 44th Munich Fabric Start Fair is behind us! The leading trade fair for the textile industry, like every season, set a new level in the coming collections. This year, we had the opportunity to admire over 1,800 collections from textile designers and suppliers from around the world.


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Family heirlooms are often packed away for safe keeping. For one man from China, hiding a 26-carat black diamond worth $14.5 million was not in his plans.
A businessman from Hong Kong commissioned craftsman Stuart Hughes of Liverpool to help him show off his family treasure.
The result? An iPhone 5 boasted by Hughes to be “the world’s most expensive phone,” valued at $15 million.
According to Hughes’ website, this iPhone includes 600 flawless white diamonds, a full solid gold dressing and 53 diamonds on the rear that make up the iconic Apple logo.
However, the reason this particular iPhone is so valuable is on the face of the phone.
The Chinese businessman, identified only as “Joe,” contacted Hughes and asked to have a rare, black diamond incorporated into the iPhone.
“It’s not often that people get to deal with a very, very rare diamond,” Hughes said.
Hughes said he was contacted 18 months ago by Joe, who expressed interest in his gold chassis iPhone handsets.
Joe then told Hughes about the black diamond that had been in his family for generations. Hughes spent nine weeks creating the solid gold chassis of an iPhone 5 and then placed the black diamond as the home button.
The appraisal Joe had done on the black diamond put its value at approximately $14.5 million, according to Hughes, who said he saw the certificate of authenticity.
Hughes told CNN that one of the solid gold handsets with the diamonds that he crafts is worth approximately $153,000.
“We had a tech guy in Macau who was able to set the stone, which to this day has never left China,” Hughes said.
Hughes set a record in 2011 for crafting an iPhone 4S with 500 individual diamonds, totaling more than 100 carats. That phone was estimated to be valued at $9 million.
The 42-year-old craftsman is known for making lavish and expensive items, including an iPad made of solid gold he debuted two years ago.
“I am a craftsman,” Hughes said. “I basically fulfill and make up these ideas.”
Throughout the years and his many projects, Hughes said this particular handset is right up near the top of the most lavish projects he’s completed.


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MILAN – Starbucks’ former leader Howard Schultz is returning to the helm of the company as an interim CEO after the coffee giant’s current chief executive announced his retirement. Kevin Johnson said he would retire next month after five years as president and CEO and 13 years at Starbucks. Johnson, 61, a former executive at Microsoft and Juniper Networks, succeeded Schultz as CEO in 2017.
He will leave his post on 4 April and serve on the company’s board and in an advisory role through September.
Starbucks made the announcement Wednesday ahead of its annual meeting.
The shakeup in leadership comes as Starbucks has not been able to slow a grassroots unionization drive that took off in Buffalo, New York, last year. In December, two out of three stores voted to join Workers United, affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, becoming the first Starbucks stores in the U.S. to form unions.
Since then, four more stores – one in Mesa, Arizona, and three others in the Buffalo area – have joined them, and more than 130 other locations have petitioned for union votes.
On Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board issued a formal complaint against Starbucks, alleging the company took retaliatory actions against two Arizona employees who were part of the union campaign.
On Tuesday, a group of investors that hold a combined $1.2bn in Starbucks stock sent a letter to the company, urging it to adopt “a global policy of neutrality for all future attempts of workers to organize” and reach a “fair and timely” bargain with those who have voted to unionize. The investors also criticized Starbucks’ previous response to unionization efforts.
“Starbucks has responded to union organizing activities suggests a departure from international norms and standards as well as from its commitments to them,” the investors said.
In an open letter to Starbucks’ employees, Johnson said he told the company’s board last year that he was considering retirement. His most obvious successor had been Roz Brewer, the company’s chief operating officer, but Brewer left the company in February 2021 to become the top executive at Walgreens.
“On behalf of the entire Board, I want to express our sincerest thanks to Kevin for his leadership of Starbucks. Kevin and the entire executive team stepped up to the challenge of the pandemic and navigated one of the most difficult periods in modern history. The economic certainty provided to partners during the early months of the COVID shut down, as well as during mandatory quarantines, underscores our core values and will be an enduring legacy for the company. During Kevin’s tenure, Starbucks scaled an industry leading digital offering spanning nearly 45 million Starbucks Rewards members in the U.S. and China,” said Mellody Hobson, Independent Starbucks Board of Directors chair.
Some observers expressed surprise that the board would name Schultz instead of a new permanent CEO.
“It’s curious that they were not able to find a successor within a year,” said Timothy Hubbard, assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business in an interview with AP. “For a company the size and stature of Starbucks not to have a solid succession plan is surprising.”
Starbucks expects to name a permanent CEO by the last quarter of this year. While Schultz leads the company, he will get $1 in compensation. Schultz, 68, is also rejoining Starbucks ‘ board.
Schultz bought Starbucks – then 11 stores and 100 employees – in 1987. Four years later, when Starbucks went public, the chain had grown to more than 100 stores. Starbucks now has more than 34,000 stores worldwide.
Schultz, who served as chief executive of the company from 1987 to 2000, and then a second time from 2008 to 2017, has been running his family foundation and working on various philanthropic efforts since he last stepped down.


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Users of older BlackBerry handsets in Canada today reported what appears to be a network outage preventing them from sending and receiving messages as well as accessing mobile services.
However, a BlackBerry spokesperson said the problem actually covers a wider area.
“We can confirm that a service issue is impacting some users in Canada and the Asia Pacific region,” said Lisette Kwong, senior manager of corporate communications for BlackBerry in an email. “Our technical team has identified the potential cause of the issue and has reduced its impact on customers’ service.”
The issue began sometime around 9 a.m. today, according to Canadianoutages.com, a Web site that monitors and tracks the performance of various services in the mobile, Internet provider, airlines and public transport spaces.
“Because all data traffic is routed through BlackBerry’s servers, there have previously been incidents where a BlackBerry server outage would cause a blackout of e-mail, Internet and ping messaging services,” according to Canadianoutages.
The site also broke down the types of service difficulties experienced users were complaining about:
- Send/receive messaged (74 per cent)
- BlackBerry messenger (23 per cent)
- Ping (2 per cent)
The outage is believed to have affected the BlackBerry Internet Services and is limited to devices running on operating systems older than the BlackBerry 10 such as the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smart phone.
Later versions of the OS are not affected since they do not compress all mobile traffic through BlackBerry networks.
“…BB10 devices (Z10, Z30, Q10, Q5) are not affected by this outage due to the fact that they don’t use the BlackBerry infrastructure (BIS). Only legacy devices are affected,” according to a comment posted on the Canadianoutages site posted by Bill Johnston
“BlackBerry outage in 3 – 4 provinces, blackberry users report email and messaging outage,” Tweeted @BrettsBane
Posts on Twitter show complains about the interruptions from British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec.
Kwong said the BlackBerry team is working towards a full resolution of the problem as quickly as possible.


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H&M Group Dedicates Supply Chain to Producing Protective Equipment for Hospitals
Posted on March 23 2020
Following the ever-growing spread of the coronavirus, Swedish retail giant H&M is collaborating with the European Union to dedicate its massive supply chain to producing personal protective equipment for hospitals and healthcare workers. As the coronavirus pandemic grows larger and larger, hospitals across the world have struggled with lack of surgical masks and access to equipment, and H&M will be distributing the materials to countries across the EU where they are needed the most. The H&M Foundation has also helped donate $500,000 USD to the World Health Organization, to help prevent the spread.
View this post on Instagram
Right now we're facing a situation that no one could really prepare for. In these times of uncertainty we’re following the advice from government and local authorities. We're adapting to ever-changing situations, and are truly grateful to have fantastic teams collaborating to support our customers, colleagues and partners all around the world. In response to the prevention and control of the disease outbreak, we have already, or will shortly, close many of our stores. In stores that remain open or are re-opened, we’re prepared to respond quickly to any emerging situation. We’d also like to share the good news that the non-profit @hmfoundation has donated 500,000 USD to the World Health Organization to help prevent the spread of this pandemic. Please stay safe and take care of one another, wherever you are. H&M


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Samsung Galaxy Star Advance Samsung India e-Store Since the launch of feature-rich Motorola Moto E in May, numerous smartphone makers (both MNC... ...http://www.ibtimes.co.in/samsung-galaxy-star-advance-star-2-plus-ace-nxt-officially-launched-price-specification-details-605843
Samsung Electronics has joined hands with Aircel, one of India's leading innovative mobile service providers, and Google's Helping Women Get Online... ...http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/press-releases/297346/google-samsung-aircel-join-hands-promote-internet-adoption-women-india
Samsung India has launched three affordable smartphones in India in a bid to compete against the Indian phonemakers like Micromax and companies... ...http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/samsung-fights-back-with-3-new-affordable-phones/1/374995.html
HYDERABAD: Muslims across the city celebrated Eid in grand and traditional fashion. It was a special day and Hyderabad was covered in festive... ...http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/Festive-Cheer-Envelops-the-City/2014/07/30/article2354633.ece1
BANGALORE: If qawwali is what makes you sway, then this is the place to be. Ustad Amjad Warsi and Ustad Asad Warsi, better known as the Warsi... ...http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Warsi-Brothers-to-weave-magic-with-qawwalis/articleshow/39255067.cms
Latest Arshad Warsi Photos,...
SYED SOHRAB ALI WARSI


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European Commission asks for feedback on Aspen’s proposal to cut some drug prices
The commission had begun an investigation in 2017 amid concerns of excessive pricing for some cancer drugs, and is now requesting feedback
The European Commission has requested feedback on a proposal by Aspen Pharmacare to cut prices on six cancer drugs by three quarters, to remove concerns over excessive pricing.
The European Commission began an investigation in May 2017, citing concerns Aspen had been abusing its dominant position in a number of markets by charging excessive prices for critical off-patent cancer medicines.
After acquiring the cancer medicines from another company, Aspen started to increase their prices in Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and the UK in 2012 and then implemented the same strategy in all other countries in Europe where Aspen sold the medicines, the commission said in a statement.
“In certain cases, high profit margins can be explained by, for example, the need to reward significant innovation and the commercial risk-taking. However, the commission’s investigation has not revealed any justifications for Aspen's very high profit levels,” the commission said.
Aspen’s prices exceeded its relevant costs by almost 300% on average, including when accounting for a reasonable rate of return, although differences did exist between products and countries, the commission said. Aspen's medicines have been off-patent for 50 years, which meant that any research and development (R&D) investment on the medicines had already been fully recouped, the statement read.
Aspen has proposed to cut the prices of the drugs, on average, by 73%. These reduced prices would be the maximum that could be charged for at least 10 years. Aspen would guarantee the supply of the medicines for the next five years, and, for an additional five-year period, will either continue to supply or make its marketing authorisation available to other suppliers.
Aspen said in a statement it was “pleased that the commission has responded positively to the proposed commitments and is hopeful that the result of the market testing will also be supportive of the proposed resolution of this matter”.
Interested parties have two months to submit their views.
In afternoon trade on Tuesday, Aspen's share was down 3.57% to R141.20, putting it on track for its worst one-day performance in about three weeks.
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The tech heavy index rebounded on Friday from losses earlier within the day, with buyers in latest periods spooked by rising rates of interest that offset optimism about an financial rebound.
The Nasdaq was up about 0.5% Friday afternoon at 12,784. A detailed beneath 12,686 factors would verify the Nasdaq has been in a correction since closing at 14,095.47, its highest ever, on Feb. 12.
Since Feb. 12, Elon Musk’s Tesla, whose hovering inventory has been Wall Road’s most traded over the previous 12 months, has tumbled 24%. It’s now down 20% in 2021, however stays up virtually 50% over the previous six months.
Rival electrical automotive firm NIO has dropped 34%, whereas mature technology-related corporations together with Apple , Microsoft, Amazon and Fb , have seen a lot smaller declines.
Rising rates of interest disproportionately damage high-growth tech corporations as a result of buyers worth them primarily based on earnings anticipated years into the long run, and excessive rates of interest damage the worth of future earnings greater than the worth of earnings made within the brief time period.
The $20 billion ARK Innovation ETF, run by prime inventory picker Cathie Wooden and beloved by many retail buyers, has been slammed within the Nasdaq sell-off. Centered on “disruptive innovation”, the fund owns a few of Wall Road’s most unstable shares and on Friday fell 6%, placing its loss since Feb. 12 at virtually 30%.
Traders have additionally accelerated a months-long rotation into industrials, supplies and different cyclical sectors seen as more likely to outperform because the financial system recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, and away from corporations, similar to Peloton Interactive and Netflix, that benefited from folks staying dwelling throughout the pandemic.
The S&P 500 progress index, which incorporates lots of coronavirus winners, has fallen 4% in 2021, whereas the S&P 500 worth index has gained 5%.


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Falls from cherry trees epidemic this year
Ljubljana, 15 June - Cherry picking seems to be a popular activity for Slovenians these days and the number of people falling off cherry trees is already twice as high as in the whole of last year. The number of cherry trees in intensive orchards has almost tripled in the last fifteen years.
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People are trying to get back to normal here. The city hall is off-limits because of quake damage, but they have moved the board of education to an evacuation centre, complete with desks and computers.
There are no longer queues for petrol. More food shops are opening up. But the main department store is closed because of damage, and there are less people on the streets.


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Air freight executives to join transatlantic security group
Executives from private companies related to air cargo—including airlines, airports, and carriers such as FedEx and UPS—will be joining an advisory group for transatlantic aviation security that has been set up by...
BIFA expresses concerns over rollout of new UK customs system
The British International Freight Association (BIFA) has raised concerns over the development of a new computer system that is set to replace the existing system for processing customs declarations in the UK. Robert Keen, BI...
UPS will hire 100,000 seasonal employees this year
UPS will be hiring 100,000 employees this year to fill full- and part-time positions over peak season, from November through to January. Hires include package handlers, drivers and driver-helpers, some of whom will be staffi...
Ninth consecutive month of year-on-year decline in air freight volumes
Air freight volumes have declined year-on-year for the ninth consecutive month, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Volume, measured in freight tonne kilometres (FTKs), contracted by 3.2% in July...
UPS adds 15 new hybrid electric vehicles to UK fleet
UPS, in partnership with start-up Tevva, has added 15 new hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) to its UK fleet, capable of switching autonomously between electric and diesel power. The vehicles can reach up to 250 miles using the...
Latest US-China tariffs hit consumer goods and fuel
The US has imposed $112 billion worth of new tariffs on Chinese imports, including consumer goods such as shoes, food, dishwashers and nappies, with the aim of reaching 15% duties on $300 billion by the end of the year. In r...


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The report notes that Bharti Airtel is giving Reliance Jio a tough fight, as the former jumped 10% in the last six months to achieve 85.6% 4G reach- thereby narrowing its gap with Jio from 22% in November to 12% now.
“If Jio is the king of 4G availability in India, then Airtel is the country’s Maharaja of download speed,” the report said, as Airtel continued to dominate the download speed rankings as in past editions of the report.
At 8.7 Mbps (megabits per second), Airtel’s download speed is 2.4 Mbps faster than rival Jio, and the company also pulled ahead of Idea, Vodafone, and BSNL by a wide margin
Airtel is also offering the most seamless video experience among its peers, as the telco jumped over five points to score 44.4 (out of 100), taking the pole position in the ‘Video Experience’ category.
However, the streaming experience offered by India’s telcos continues to be far from perfect when compared to global benchmarks. Netherlands, a leader in the category, has a score of 73%.
Opensignal’s CEO Brendan Gill told TOI that though the Jio effect is hard to ignore, the other operators have not been complacent. “Airtel’s growth, for instance, indicates more investments by the operator in developing its 4G network,” he said.
He believes price wars in the country’s unique telecom market will soon abate, giving way to stability. “When consumers pay less for services, operators cannot invest enough, and that in turn has an impact on user experience,” Gill said.
In case of upload speeds (a factor crucial for social media use), Idea dominated the category at 3 Mbps. Vodafone came second with a score of 2.6 Mbps. Jio continued its command over network latency at 62.5 milliseconds, leading rival Airtel by 13%.
While all of India’s operators improved in latency, which measures time taken for data to travel over a network, the metrics varied widely across India’s various regions, indicating network congestion.
Opensignal measured network parameters across 5.4 million devices, and analysed over 20 billion data points between December and February, both at a national level and across all 22 telecom circles.


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What’s the Latest on the Relationship with Microsoft and Bitcoin Acceptance
Microsoft showed an interest in bitcoin a while back, but the big question is whether it still has such an interest. The answer is that it seems to be yes.
Around the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, the company briefly ceased accepting bitcoin and interestingly enough, it was at the same time the cryptocurrency experienced one of its most prominent highs.
Perhaps one of the most prominent reasons that the company stopped accepting the cryptocurrency was due to its volatility. Another potential reasons that the company stopped accepting bitcoin was the high fees associated with the cryptocurrency.
The move against bitcoin did not last though. A week after stopping to accept bitcoin, the company re-evaluated its position and announced that it will continue accepting bitcoin. To clarify though, a spokesperson for the company stated,
“We’ve restored bitcoin as a payment option in our stores after working with our provider to ensure lower bitcoin amounts would be redeemed by customers.”
The hope is that Microsoft’s use of bitcoin would spark more interest in the cryptocurrency. Currently, Microsoft is participating in the Bakkt Exchange with other companies such as Starbucks and BCG.
Moreover, those who are interested in purchasing bitcoin can do so with Microsoft. According to the company’s website,
“When you redeem Bitcoin to deposit funds into your Microsoft account, you can use it to purchase games, movies, and apps in the Windows and Xbox stores. You cannot use these funds to purchase items in the Microsoft online store.”
The website continues, “Money added to your Microsoft account using Bitcoin can’t be refunded. You can’t use money in your Microsoft account to buy gift cards. Support for adding money to a Microsoft account with Bitcoin is not available in all countries and regions. “


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GE investing $43M in Decatur plant
- Ben Piper, Staff
General Electric plans to invest $43 million to retain more than 1,000 jobs at its Decatur plant.
GE said the investment will create a center of excellence for top-freezers and green manufacturing at the site.
This investment is in addition to a $16 million influx of cash earlier this year to transition to a new product insulation process, a GE release said.
The company is investing more than $400 million to create four similar centers for excellence across the country and create 500 green jobs by 2014.
The new centers of excellence for refrigeration products will be located in Louisville, Ky.; Bloomington, Ind.; Decatur, Ala.; and Selmer, Tenn.
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Cheap Flight Day is today, August 22nd.
What is “Cheap Flight Day”?
It is the day that airlines typically drop fares on many, if not most, of their routes. You’ll see this price decrease for both international and domestic flights. It is a great time of the year to get a nice deal on plane tickets.
Why August 22nd?
August 22nd marks the start of the fall travel season according to the airline calendar.
Now is the time of year when summer is coming to an end and children are going back to school. Thus, this is simply due to a steep drop in demand for leisure travel. As fewer people travel, ticket prices fall.
Although August 22nd is the official day, it is better to think of it as a period of time. These reduced fares will continue to be available through early November (through Thanksgiving). After that, demand goes back up due to holiday traveling and those seeking warmer weather.
How much can you except to save?
According to Brian Ek, a travel analyst at Priceline:
“United and Southwest have already rolled out their fare sales, but expect more to follow suit, and expect published fares to drop as much as 10 percent to 20 percent.”


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Hong Kong | Beijing has warned there are still hurdles to securing long-term trade peace with the United States after Donald Trump agreed to a staged roll-back of tariffs on Chinese goods in return for a commitment to buy more American farm goods.
The "phase one" deal agreed over the weekend halted new US tariffs on $US160 billion ($233 billion) of Chinese goods scheduled to kick in on Sunday after Washington said China promised to crack down on intellectual property theft and not to manipulate its currency.
Beijing also agreed to buy more American agricultural goods such as soybeans. However, the deal was seen largely as a victory for China after the US President backed down on his earlier refusal to cut some of the existing tariffs on Chinese goods.
While the agreement marks the first significant step towards ending the 18-month-long trade war and buoyed investor sentiment in Australia and around the world, critics said it was light on detail and failed to address China's most damaging trade practices.
China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, welcomed the deal but said there were still many issues that both countries needed to address. "A lot of problems still exist in the current China-US relationship and they need attention," he said during a visit to Slovenia.
Under the deal, which Mr Trump hailed as "amazing", Washington cancelled 15 per cent tariffs on $US160 billion of Chinese goods scheduled to kick in on December 15. It also agreed to halve tariffs to 7.5 per cent on another $US120 billion of goods. Tariffs remain on another $US360 billion of goods.
China’s State Council on Sunday confirmed it had temporarily suspended planned tariffs on US goods, also scheduled for December 15.
Washington said China would increase purchases of US goods by at least $US200 billion over the next new years. Purchases of agricultural goods such as soybeans would rise by as much as $US50 billion a year. Chinese officials would not confirm those figures.
However, the rhetoric from China's leaders was subdued and there was little commentary about the deal in the state-controlled media. Beijing is wary that an erratic Mr Trump and his hawkish advisers could change the deal at any time.
"The signing of the deal does not mean the end of the trade war. The trade war will last for a long time and is expanding to more sectors including politics and high technology. The pressure of decoupling still exists," Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Relations at Nanjing University, said.
This deal should go a long way in reversing the downward spiral in bilateral trade relations.
— Wendy Cutler, former US trade negotiator
"The deal means the conflict between the two countries is somewhat contained but the conflict has not been removed."
Mr Trump said negotiations on a "phase two" deal would begin immediately.
The US also said the deal would tackle concerns about intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer and currency manipulation by China. American financial services companies would also have better access to provide services such as banking and insurance in China.
US stocks rose modestly on news of the deal, which had been flagged in media reports, while China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.8 per cent on Friday before China announced the deal at a late night press conference.
"This deal should go a long way in reversing the downward spiral in bilateral trade relations and increasing certainty for US businesses," said Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator who is now vice-president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
Still, Ms Cutler said, "it's unclear on how far the phase one agreement goes in addressing the key structural issues that brought the US to the negotiating table 17 months ago".
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AP Moves Online Video Service To NDN
The Associated Press is “broadening its range of video services” as part of a long-term global digital transformation strategy, announcing today the transition of its hosted online video operation in the United States to a digital platform provided by News Distribution Network (NDN).
Atlanta-based NDN, a digital video and ad solutions company that distributes multimedia content to digital publishers, will now provide the 1,500 affiliates of AP’s Online Video Network (OVN) with AP’s breaking news coverage. In addition, NDN will offer fresh video content from top news brands in more than a dozen categories, enhanced customization and revenue opportunities. The upgrade is slated to be completed in the first quarter of 2011.
Nick Ascheim, general manager of AP Digital, said OVN and NDN are similar in that they both provide a turnkey, or hosted, solution for customers who want video news on their sites, but who may not have their own video player and video content management system.
“Each network works with affiliates to promote its video player, aggregating hundreds of sites into a distributed network supported by the sale of advertising,” Ascheim said. “This agreement between AP and NDN offers the opportunity, in effect, to combine these networks, increasing their reach and scale.”
Ascheim added: “Our arrangement with NDN is the next step in the evolution of AP’s online video efforts. Under this new distribution agreement, members will continue to receive AP’s unmatched video coverage of breaking news, and now have the opportunity to reach new audiences with engaging content from other news providers.”


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Local man sues Facebook over privacy concerns
PADUCAH — There have been a lot of complaints about recent changes to Facebook and one of the big ones is concern about privacy.
But one local man isn't just complaining. He's taking the social networking giant to court and claims he's doing it for all Facebook users.
He says Facebook is going too far and is violating federal wiretapping laws by tracing every website that Facebook users visit, even after they log off the site.
Neither the plaintiff, David Hoffman, of Paducah, nor his attorney Mark Bryant are commenting about the suit. But a local computer expert did have a lot to say about privacy concerns for Facebook users and had some advice she said all of us better heed.
The premise of this class action lawsuit is based on cookies that websites like Facebook use to collect data.
"I really don't find it surprising at all and kind of surprised no one's really filed a lawsuit before on that," said computer guru Chloe Dewesse, co-owner of Connecting Point.
Deweese said in some cases, cookies can be cause for concern.
She said while some sites store cookies to track data for their advertisers, others can be malicious. If web browsers don't take action, the batch of cookies just pile up.
But it's easy to get rid of the cookies Facebook and other sites use to chew up your privacy. To learn more about removing cookies, click here.
While only time will tell what will happen with the lawsuit, Deweese said now is the time for all Web users to pay attention to cookies and realize what they view in private might not be so private after all.
Deweese said cookies can also slow your computer down.
The plaintiff is asking for $100 per day for everyone on Facebook or $10,000 per violation, along with punitive damages.
We also reached out to Facebook to get their response but they didn't answer our email.
If you'd like to read the complaint filed in court, click here.


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Iowa needs retail pet sale bans
In its January 2017 issue, Rolling Stone published an investigative story into the dark world of puppy mills and their presence nationwide. The article references two Iowa federal and state-licensed dog breeders: Randy Stoen of Dows and Steve Kruse of West Point. Their inspection histories and reports, and all federally licensed dog breeding operations, can be found at www.aphis.usda.gov.
These two breeders are an example of several operators in Iowa whose actions in 2016 are a blight on those breeders who are responsible and reputable, concerned with producing a healthy, fit and genetically sound puppy that will bring years of companionship to a family. They are notorious for direct violations of the Animal Welfare Act and have consistent histories of violations over multiple years. On several occasions, state troopers and local sheriff's deputies were required to participate in inspections.
There are now 189 jurisdictions nationwide with retail pet sale bans on puppies coming from commercial breeders, 86 of those bans being enacted in 2016. The time has long passed for the naysayers in Iowa’s Legislature to step out from behind the “slippery slope” excuse and recognize the neglect and abuse of dogs in commercial breeding facilities is an issue that needs to be addressed now. For the sake of the reputable dog enthusiasts. For the sake of the thousands of dogs that suffer neglect at the hands of disreputable puppy millers. And to erase the national embarrassment that are Iowa’s puppy mills. To learn more about this problem in Iowa, please visit www.iafriends.org or www.bailingoutbenji.com
— Tracey Kuehl, Davenport


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How the Fossil Fuel Industry Is Gearing Up for EVs
Direct investment in battery components and charging stations by carmakers may help move the needle on EVs, but change will come more slowly for old-fashioned oil companies.
As electric vehicles (EVs) roll into the mainstream of driving in the United States, an industry that has relied entirely on fossil fuels is undergoing a rapid and profound transformation that poses a new, if hardly existential, challenge for the fossil fuel industry itself.
Carmakers have already made considerable strides toward converting much of their fleets to EVs in the coming decade, promising to provide EV technology that’s affordable, efficient, and available in every corner of the country. That has prompted oil companies — recognizing that millions of drivers soon will have no need for their gas pumps at all — to take their own first steps to join the EV revolution.
But don’t expect the major oil companies to give up on old-fashioned petroleum products anytime soon. While they acknowledge that the EV transformation is an unstoppable force that they will have to address, there’s still plenty of money left to be made in the traditional drilling and refining of petroleum products for non-automotive uses.
Digging for EV Battery Components
For automakers, direct investment has become a matter of economic survival. This includes both EV charging infrastructure and behind-the-scenes EV resources such as mines that provide exotic minerals for batteries.
General Motors recently invested some $650 million in a project with Canadian mining company Lithium Americas Corp. to develop a lithium mine in Nevada. It’s projected to be the largest North American source of lithium when it opens in 2026, with the potential to provide enough lithium to produce up to one million EVs annually. The deal follows a $69 million investment in an Australian company that produces nickel and cobalt — two other minerals that are essential to EV battery projects.
Stellantis, the European-based parent company of Jeep and Ram, has also invested in Australian mining projects, including an operation that produces manganese sulfite, which is also needed for battery production. This comes as Stellantis moves aggressively to secure stable, long-term supplies of materials needed to electrify a full 100% of its European passenger cars and 50% of its North American car and light truck fleets by 2030.
As for carmakers’ involvement in charging stations, the most obvious example is Volkswagen’s $2.45 billion Electrify America network, which already operates more than 3,500 ultra-fast chargers at 800 stations across the U.S. and Canada and aims for a total of 10,000 chargers at 1,800 stations.
These initiatives are part of a worldwide investment in charging technology that’s projected to hit $100 billion this year as investors and automakers rush to meet the ever-growing demand for private and public charging options. Efforts here in the U.S. got a major boost last October when President Joseph Biden signed a massive infrastructure bill that included $7.5 billion to build a half million chargers.
Big Oil’s Record Profits Offset EV Worries — for Now
Despite the seismic realignment the EV revolution has set in motion, ExxonMobil isn't making drastic changes just yet.
Corporate leaders say the continued stream of income from fuels for airplanes, transport trucks, and for industrial uses such as heating, power generation, and chemical production means even the widespread adoption of EVs may have relatively little financial impact for years to come. As if to emphasize that point, the company posted a record $55.7 billion in profits in 2022 — the highest ever for a U.S.-based oil company.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods made headlines in 2022 when he told MSNBC he believed all new passenger cars sold worldwide will be electric by 2040. But even with that transformation, Woods said he expects global oil demand in 2040 to match its 2013 level thanks to non-automotive uses. (It can also be assumed that this demand will come from the remaining ICE vehicles on the road.)
“That change,” he said of the shift to EVs, “will not make or break this industry, quite frankly.”
Woods’ sentiment was underscored by the nearly $200 billion in profits that ExxonMobil and other western fossil fuel giants generated in 2022. That staggering total includes $39.9 billion in profit for Shell — nearly double its 2021 earnings — and a record $28 billion in profit for BP.
Just how little will the switch to EVs hurt the oil industry in the short term? According to IHS Markit, a global financial consulting firm, estimates EVs will reduce global demand for oil in 2026 by just 1% — about 1.1 million barrels per day.
Still, it doesn’t hurt to hedge your bets. Oil companies around the world are committing resources to exploring new power-generating and storage technologies, including battery technology.
The EV Revolution Brings New Business Opportunities
While Big Oil may not fuel the cars of tomorrow, it’s still angling to make money from them.
For ExxonMobil, that means a focus on producing synthetic fluids for EVs — which still have plenty of parts that need lubrication — and fluids used in thermal management for batteries, electric motors, and electric components. The company also is investing in new technologies for lightweight automotive plastics that can reduce the overall weight of EVs without compromising safety.
In Europe, where the shift to EVs will be more sudden, major companies such as Shell are hoping to expand beyond traditional charging stations with projects that will provide EV fill-ups at more user-friendly spots, including city lampposts.
Shell signaled its commitment to that concept in 2022 by converting one of its downtown London gas stations into a stylish charging hub, replacing gas and diesel pumps with ultra-fast chargers powered entirely by renewable energy. The company’s network of commercial Recharge stations is slated to grow to more than a half-million charge points globally by 2025.
BP, meanwhile, announced a $1.23 billion investment in BP Pulse, a UK-based EV charging infrastructure system, and partnered with the EV charger manufacturer Tritium to provide commercial chargers in England, Australia, and New Zealand.
The V8 Isn’t Dead Yet
While car companies are vocal in their promises to move largely — or completely — to EV lineups in the next decade, even major EV players such as GM haven’t given up on gas-powered technology just yet.
GM pledged to sell only electric consumer vehicles by 2035, but it clearly recognizes there’s a lot of money to be made from internal combustion engines in the meantime. The company announced in January that it will invest more than $900 million in four US plants devoted largely to producing the next generation of its small-block V8 gas engine.