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Sean O’Reilly: We’re going shopping for
consumer goods dividends… on this CG edition of Industry Focus. Greetings Fools, I am Sean O’Reilly here in studio at Fool headquarters in Alexandria
Virginia. It is Tuesday, November 17th and this week is dividend week on Industry Focus.
Vincent Shen is out today and filling in for him and joining us on the phone from the Windy
City, Chicago Illinois, is Motley Fool contributor Adam Levine-Weinberg.
Morning, Adam and how’s it going? Adam Levine-Weinberg: I’m doing well, how
are you Sean? O’Reilly: Not too shabby. I’ve got my
coffee, got my water, ready to talk some dividends, it’s all good.
Levine-Weinberg: That sounds great. O’Reilly: So Adam I talked to you a few
days ago about today’s show, and once again thanks for filling in for Vince. And you’re
willing to dive right into the carnage of the retail sector for some reason I’ll never
understand. You picked Macy’s for a great consumer sector
dividend stock, which I happen to agree with and we’ll get into the reasons why in a
few. Before we get into the new gritty of Macy’s as an income stock, can you just
give listeners some perspective as to what’s been going on in the retail sector? Because
last week alone was a bloodbath. Levine-Weinberg: Yeah that’s right, Sean.
Retail stocks really got hit hard last week and Macy’s was definitely one of the big
reasons for that. Macy’s stock peaked in mid-July at $73.61. But since then it’s
fallen by nearly 50% and as of this morning it’s below $39.
So a lot of that drop has happened in just the last week or two after its Q3 earnings;
which were already expected to be pretty bad, were even worse than that. And the company
is seeing strong, big sales declines. But the result of this is that the quarterly dividend
is still $.36 and so the annual yield which in the middle of July was a little under 2%,
is now 3.7%. And that really makes Macy’s an intriguing stock at least for dividend
investors. O’Reilly: Yeah that is just crazy. Because
that’s more than a 30-year treasury right now. I mean these are higher than bonds in
the U.S. Government. So what’s going on with the business?
Because you and I did a, you were very gracious enough to call in a number of months ago and
we talked about Macy’s then as well. And we both, I think were, I mean their returns
on equity, their shift to doing the online and the stores, it was all just awesome. They
were clearly the strongest player especially compared to a JCPenney or a Sears. What’s
going on with the fundamentals? Because long-term I think the story’s intact.
Levine-Weinberg: Yeah so obviously you wouldn’t want to invest in Macy’s just because of
the high dividend yields if you really thought that the business was in grave danger. Because
sooner or later if you’re not making money, have to cut the dividends and then as income
year after year. O’Reilly: Then game over.
Levine-Weinberg: You’re out in the cold. There’s no guarantees to dividend. The company
can stop it at any time. Though looking at Macy’s, last quarter their
comparable store sales, so that’s sales in stores that have been open for at least
a year, declined 3.6% from the prior year quarter. And Macy’s is expecting another
decline on comparable sales for about 2% across the full year.
So that’s definitely not good and Macy’s has definitely seen a trend in the past 2
to 3 years of slowing comparable store sales gains. But this is the first time in quite
a while, really since the Great Recession that you’ve had a year-long […] decline
in comp sales. On a year-to-date basis, Macy’s EPS is $1.56
or $1.76 excluding some asset impairments and that’s down year over year. Last year
it was $2 and a penny. And Macy’s current guidance fiscal year implies that you’ll
see that some of its decline continued into the 4th quarter. Again excluding any gain
from asset sales or special items. But you have to put this in the broader context because
Macy’s has come out of a six-year streak of double-digit EPS growth.
So it’s not like this is a company like you mentioned, Sears, JCPenney, where there’s
been a lot of struggle. There, a few bad quarters could be a really bad sign. For Macy’s,
the company’s basically been doing well until this year. And so it’s worth looking
[…] to see why it’s not doing well in 2015 and whether it might be able to recover.
O’Reilly: Yeah, so they’ve got this shift to where they’re trying to meet consumers
in cyberspace as well. I mean, they built that huge distribution facility which as I
understand it and I’ve talked about it before, they built it in Oklahoma and I’m pretty
darn sure it rivals an Amazon warehouse. Like it’s top of the line, it cost them $3-4
million and it was it. Is online sales balancing these declines in physical stores at all?
Levine-Weinberg: So Macy’s a couple of years ago stopped reporting its online sales separately.
And it had for a long time just reported the gross numbers for online sales without necessarily
breaking out the exact dollar amounts. But as of a few years ago they were already at
$2 billion and rising by at least 20% a year. And a in a lot of years they’re rising like
40%. So they’re actually growing their online business faster than Amazon for quite some
time. O’Reilly: That’s an achievement in itself
I would think. Levine-Weinberg: Yeah, and so that’s definitely
a big business for them. But it’s still smaller than the retail stores and the comp
sales figures that I was discussing earlier, that actually includes the online.
So you can, that’s if the online is still growing at a healthy clip and if the retail
is declining even faster. And so that’s creating some need to kind of rebalance and
figure out a new strategy to get the most value out of the stores that are in the network
right now. O’Reilly: So comps are dropping, they’re
projecting decline in earnings for this year. What are they doing to recover?
Levine-Weinberg: So Macy’s is basically going after this with a multi-prong strategy.
So the first thing is they’re trying to explore some new growth avenues beyond the
traditional department store and even beyond the online component of its traditional department
store business. So one thing that they’re doing is they bought the Bluemercury chain
which is sort of luxury fashion or beauty stores. More boutique size. So quite small
compared to a department store. And they are building more of those standalone
Bluemercury stores and at the same time they’re putting Bluemercury boutiques into existing
Macy’s department stores to make better use of space and to boost sales in the beauty
department of each Macy’s store. They’re also testing Macy’s Backstage which is a
new off-price concept. So it’s like a T.J. Maxx or a Nordstrom Rack.
O’Reilly: I was about to say that’s reminiscent of Nordstrom’s Nordstrom Rack and that’s
been a huge success. Levine-Weinberg: Yeah and Macy’s has already
been in that business to some extent because they also own the Bloomingdale’s chain which
is upscale relative to Macy’s. And Bloomingdale’s has a chain of outlet stores. So Macy’s
is trying to sort of move that more into the mass-market now. And it’s just a test at
the moment, but they are really talking about rolling that out more broadly over the next
few years. And Macy’s is even testing an e-commerce
joint venture in China. So they have a bunch of different things that they’re trying
which will hopefully add more growth. At the same time they also need to focus on getting
costs down to be more in line with the sales they’re seeing today.
So the company announced last week as part of its earnings report that they’re cutting
their SG&A spending by about a half billion dollars relative to their prior plan. And
that will be implemented by 2018. So you’ll see incremental improvements in their selling
cost over the next few years. As part of that they’re closing 35-40 stores in early 2016
and plan to continue closing stores that are underperforming.
O’Reilly: Now those are essentially, sorry to interrupt, low traffic, unprofitable stores
obviously not the big ones in urban areas. Levine-Weinberg: Right. That’s true for
the most part. There are some stores in urban areas where they’re closing the store not
because it’s unprofitable, but because the real estate is so valuable that they can make
more money by selling the building to someone who wants to redevelop it. But in most cases
yeah, the stores that are closing are the ones that are in the lower performing malls
where there’s just less traffic. Maybe these are malls where JCPenney’s or
Sears had a store which closed and so now there’s fewer people coming to the mall.
And you know there’s been a problem in the U.S. for quite some time that there’s just
too many malls relative to how many people want to go to the mall these days. And so
this is just a process that’s going to continue for a while with paring down to a number of
stores that’s more in line with today’s reality, where you don’t actually need to
go to the store for every single purchase. Some things you might just want to buy online.
O’Reilly: Got it. Well before we move on, no go ahead.
Levine-Weinberg: Go ahead. theme, I wanted to point our listeners to
a special article written by five industry focus contributors detailing their top picks
for dividend stocks. Just head to Dividends.Fool.com to learn our picks for the best dividend stocks
of 2016. Once again that’s Dividends.Fool.com. So Adam, getting back to Macy’s, I was talking
a little bit about the dividend sustainability in the context of the cost cuts and everything,
and actually their growth potential. Because if they aren’t growing that dividend will
not last for long. Levine-Weinberg: Sure. So if you look at the
annual payout, it’s now $1.44. And that’s up from just $.20 during the Great Recession.
So you can see that Macy’s really has been increasing its dividends quite rapidly in
the past few years. So $1.44 is about 40% of Macy’s projected EPS for this year excluding
any asset sale gains or special items. So that’s a pretty good payout ratio.
It means that you’re getting a good proportion of the income but it’s not so high that
you’d have to worry that a small blip in earnings would make the dividend too high
to afford for Macy’s. On a cash basis Macy’s has generated operating
cash flow of about $2.2 billion over the past 12 months. And the current dividend payout
comes to roughly $450 million annually. So this means that Macy’s has really plenty
of cash to cover its planned capital expenditures which it’s reducing to under $1 billion
a year going forward. And still have a lot of money left over for dividends and also
for some share buybacks. And just like if it were able to get its profit
margins back to last year’s model, see who could boost its cash flow, because if you
look at its operating cash flow which is $2.2 billion in the past 12 months just a year
ago it was $2.7 billion. So there’s definitely some opportunity just in doing the retail
basis a little bit better. And Macy’s is also likely to bring in a lot of cash from
selling off real estate. Either real estate in stores where it doesn’t want to operate
a store anymore, or in some cases it could be really large stores in urban areas like
New York, Chicago, and San Francisco where the stores are so massive that you could sell
off the upper floors of those stores, bring in a lot of money, and still keep most of
the sales because you’d have a lot of space left.
So Macy’s is actually working with a real estate company to identify potential deals,
both for these flagship stores in those three cities I mentioned, as well as a few other
stores. And while those proceeds might get distributed through buybacks rather than dividends,
the faster Macy’s can reduce its share count the less it has to pay out in dividends for
any given dividend rate. Which means it can basically raise its payout faster.
O’Reilly: Yeah, on a per share basis. Yeah. Levine-Weinberg: Yeah, exactly.
O’Reilly: So for Foolish investors you’ve made a lot of great points. What’s the bottom
line, the conclusion that Foolish investors or just our listeners can go to check out,
do their own research, but that you want them to know?
Levine-Weinberg: Yeah so I think the main take away here is that Macy’s has suddenly
become a high-yielding stock with a 3.7% dividend yield. And the payout ratio remains quite
modest. And beyond that Macy’s profitability should improve going forward due to its cost
cuts, attempts to sell off real estate, and that leaves a lot of room for dividend growth
in the future. O’Reilly: Awesome. Well, thank you for your
thoughts and I can’t thank you enough again for filling in for Vince, Adam.
Levine-Weinberg: You’re very welcome. O’Reilly: Have a great day. That is it for
us Fools. If you are a loyal listener and have questions or comments we would love to
hear from you. Just email us at [email protected] Again that’s [email protected]
As always people in this program may have interests in the stocks they talk about and
the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against those stocks. So don’t buy
or sell anything based solely on what you hear. For Adam Levine-Weinberg, I am Sean
O’Reilly. Thanks for listening and Fool on!


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For orchardists like Paul Paynter, getting sufficient people to pick their apple crop is a challenge.
New Zealand Apples and Pears chief executive Alan Pollard says work is underway to facilitate the flights that were delayed this month due to the Level 4 lockdown.
Pollard told Rural News that a lot of planning goes into each flight.
"There are a lot of details required - whether we organise chartered flights or commercial flights, pre-departure testing regime and self-isolation arrangements," he explains. "There is also the visa process and making sure contracts have been secured for the workers.
"We are hopeful of getting the three delayed flights to Auckland early next month."
Earlier this month, the Government announced that the first stage of one-way quarantine-free travel with Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu will commence in October. It also issued new requirements for these workers: they must receive their first vaccination pre-departure, undertake Day 0 and Day 5 tests and complete a self-isolation period of seven days - pending a negative Day 5 result.
Pollars says growers are comfortable with the new requirement.
He says anyone in NZ, including RSE workers, get fully vaccinated if they wish to be, as part of the plan to keep everyone safe.
He adds that self-isolation and Covid tests for RSE workers were part of the lockdown last year and won't be an issue for the sector.
Pollard says the sector is very happy with the Government decision to resume RSE arrivals.
Normally, there would be 12,500 RSE workers in the country around this time. Due to Covid, this number is around 7,000 - with half of them scheduled to return home.
Pollard says the Government has agreed to a quota of 14,400 RSE workers and the sector hopes to ramp up numbers in the coming months.
Apple growers need workers for thinning orchards in October and November, with summerfruit growers needing workers for harvesting in December and January. Apple growers will start harvesting in February.
Pollard says last year weather events led to a 40% drop in the apple harvest.
"If we have a full season this year, then there will be another 100,000 tonnes of fruit to harvest and we will need an extra 2,500 workers."
The sector also relied on backpackers, but Covid has stemmed their arrival in the country. Pollard estimates there are 5,000 backpackers in the country right now, compared to the usual 50,000.
Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor says officials in New Zealand are working with partner Pacific countries and the industry on the final measures that need to be in place and exact dates of the October flights.
"Substantial planning has been under way both in New Zealand's horticulture and viticulture sectors and in our partner countries for the arrival of these workers, with some incoming flights deferred in August and September because of New Zealand's Alert Level 4 settings," O'Connor says.
"We will be closely monitoring this first stage of one-way quarantine-free travel.
"Our intention remains to broaden eligibility for quarantine-free entry to New Zealand from these countries and Tokelau when we can be sure it is safe to do so."
Horticulture New Zealand says it welcomes the Government's decision that quarantine-free travel for Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers from the Pacific will commence next month.
HortNZ chief executive Nadine Tunley says the announcement is a relief for both the New Zealand horticulture industry as well as the Pasifika communities who have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic.
"Confirmation that our RSE workforce can travel is a positive step that will give growers some confidence about labour for the coming season. It will go some way towards winter pruning being completed and the coming season's harvest being picked."
But Tunley notes that even with the increased movement of RSE workers from the Pacific, the horticulture industry will still be short of seasonal workers.
"That's why the whole industry is behind additional programmes to attract more New Zealanders to horticulture," says Tunley.
"Our industyry is grateful to the Government for this agreement. We will continue to work closely with the Government to ensure the safety of our workers, their whanau and the wider community."

domain: news


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Last year, American toy company Hasbro announced plans for its first indoor water park and family resort, themed around some of its biggest toy and game franchises.
Now, it has been officially confirmed that the world’s first ever Hasbro-themed water theme park will be opened at Meridian’s Malaysia Tourism City (MTC) development in Kuala Linggi, Melaka, through a Hasbro licensing agreement secured by M101 Holdings Sdn Bhd.
M101 Holdings which has signed a licensing agreement with the US-based toy and board game company is a private entity of Meridian Bhd executive director Datuk Seth Yap who signed a licensing agreement with Hasbro Live! (Hasbro) regional director Natalie Chan yesterday during the official launch of the 622-acre MTC.
“By signing the agreement, we will be partnering with Hasbro to develop the world’s first Hasbro-themed water theme park, which is to be an iconic branded attraction that will be an essential anchor at the heart of the MTC master plan. The water park will be 20 acres in size, offering a wide range of branded new rides that are not available in other parks of the world,” said Yap as quoted by Edge Prop.
MALAYSIA TOURISM CITY PROJECT IN KUALA LINGGI
Melaka welcomes the initiative by the Meridian Group for development project, The World’s First Hasbro Water Theme Park.
YB Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi, Minister of MOTAC witnessed the signing of MOU for Malaysia Tourism City. pic.twitter.com/jsuZvdvCbG
— MOTAC (@MyMOTAC) May 7, 2019
“We will try to keep the theme park within a budget of less than U$20 million instead of a few hundred million. But it will be a very unique theme park that offers an enjoyable Hasbro brand experience to the visitors,” he added.
The theme park is the second partnership between Yap and Hasbro. Yap who is also the CEO of M101 Holdings will also bring the world’s first Monopoly-branded hotel, the Monopoly Mansion by Sirocco at M101 Skywheel in Kuala Lumpur.
The Hasbro water theme park is part of the first phase of MTC development which is expected to kick off by end-2019. The phase includes a weekend market and an adventure park. The water theme park is expected to open in 2022.
Hasbro’s portfolio of brands includes “My Little Pony”, “Monopoly”, “Magic: The Gathering”, “G.I. Joe”, “Furby”, “Transformers”, “Power Rangers”, and more.


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EU to US: “Fine, we’ll have that trade war over the right to be forgotten”11 Feb, 2013
Last week, a US diplomat warned that the new European draft regulation about data protection could “spark a trade war”. Now, Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for justice, let the US know that a trade war over the issue sounds absolutely fine to her.
She says she will not yield to US lobbying to water down the data protection for EU citizens. As she told the FT:
“Exempting non-EU companies from our data protection regulation is not on the table. [If] companies want to tap into the the European market, they have to apply European standards.”
The US are dead set against a so called ‘right to be forgotten’ that the EU wants to impose on companies that store personal data.
Under the proposed EU regulation, companies would have to delete personal data at the simple request of users. Not only would services like Google and Facebook have to delete the data “without delay”, they would also have to “take all reasonable steps” to inform others who have republished the data to delete them.
Internet companies who do not comply with the EU regulations could face fines to up to 2 percent of their global annual revenues.[photo: US Army, Flickr]
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Hopes are high for a strong 2005 holiday shopping season, at least according to merchants who use electronic "shopping-cart" software from LaGarde Inc. The vendor's recent survey of 100 electronic retailers suggests that the season will be a good one for online merchants. Nearly 75 percent of respondents say they are expecting higher sales, with more than 21 percent anticipating "a considerable increase" over last year, LaGarde said.
In addition, merchants deploying LaGarde's StoreFront product are expecting the online holiday season to start earlier than the traditional store shopping season. More than 25 percent believe their surge begins in August or September, while more than 60 percent peg the beginning of the holiday rush at before Nov. 1. October has the highest monthly spend rate among respondents, reports LaGarde.
Meanwhile, in traditional "brick-and-mortar" stores, the whole concept of seasonal retailing could be on the verge of big change. Retailers are moving toward a monthly revamping of their sales floors, to meet customer demand for new merchandise, according to Bob McKee, fashion industry solutions director of software and services vendor Intentia Americas. Some merchandisers are changing their floor mixes as frequently as 24 times a year in order to gain a competitive edge, he says. That's a sharp departure from fashion retailers' old practice of purchasing new collections four times a year for women, and twice yearly for men.
The trend places new demands on retail supply chains. Retailers and manufacturers need to increase collaboration through the sharing of real-time information, McKee says. Manufacturers need to know when a new fashion collection is finalized and ready for production. And they must manage inventory according to ever-evolving forecasts, while timing deliveries to coincide with production cycles.
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Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the prospects for the Renault plant in Moscow on his official website. As you know, in the morning of May 16, the Renault Group announced the sale of a subsidiary of Renault Russia (as well as a majority stake in AVTOVAZ), the new owner is FSUE NAMI. Shortly after, the head of the Russian capital announced that most of the staff of the Renault plant in Moscow and its subcontractors would be retained, and there was a strategy for the company’s product line.
The foreign owner decided to close the Renault Moscow plant. This is his right, but we cannot allow thousands of workers to be out of work. That is why I decided to move the factory to the center of the city and resume production of cars under the historic Moskvich brand,” said Sobyanin.
He added that KAMAZ would become the new technology partner of the revived Moscow automobile factory Moskvich. In the first phase, the production of classic cars with combustion engines will be organized, and in the future, electric cars will be added to the production plan. According to the mayor, the Moscow government, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and KAMAZ are now working to localize the production of the maximum number of auto parts.
More than 100 years ago, the company in question was founded as the Moscow Automobile Assembly Plant, named after KIM, and this plant began producing Ford cars. Then for decades it was called first MZMA, then AZLK and produced the legendary Muscovites.
Production declined in the 1990s and since 1998 the factory started collaborating with Renault under the name Avtoframos. In recent years it was called Renault Russia, its products were 70% localized (Wikipedia data for 2019). The latest mastered models are Renault Kaptur, Arkana crossovers and the new Duster.
- The cessation of their production was announced at the end of April 2022.
- “Driving” can be read in Viber.
Source: Z R


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Up 300% YTD, is BILL.com Still a Buy?
December 14, 2020 at 06:34 AM EST
Remote working has accelerated demand for Bill.com’s (BILL) cloud-based financial software. This, along with growing demand for its simplified payment solutions from SMB’s, could lead to a substantial increase in the company’s earnings and revenue. So, despite a skyrocketing rally so far this year, we think BILL still has plenty of upside left.
Bill.com Holdings, Inc. (BILL) offers a cloud-based software that digitizes and automates back-office financial operations for small and midsize businesses (SMB) worldwide. The company also markets artificial-intelligence-enabled financial software platforms. With more SMB customers now reopening their businesses, BILL is expected to experience higher demand for its online billing services in the coming months.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a boon for many fintech companies, with individuals and businesses doing more transactions remotely. BILL is well positioned to benefit from this ongoing digitization of B2B payments due to businesses’ increasing adoption of its cost-effective and productive digital solutions. Also, strong demand across all channels, due to the need to manage back-office financial operations remotely, should keep driving the company’s revenues.
A Growing customer-base and revenues have allowed BILL to gain 277% year-to-date. This impressive performance, combined with several other factors, has helped BILL earn a “Strong Buy” rating in our proprietary rating system.
Here is how our proprietary POWR Ratings system evaluates BILL:
Trade Grade: A
BILL is currently trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages of $111.45 and $82.53, respectively, indicating that the stock is in an uptrend. Also, the stock has gained 59.9%, over the past three months, reflecting solid short-term bullishness.
BILL’s revenue has increased 31.4% year-over-year to $46.21 million in the first fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2020. The increase in revenue was primarily attributable to a significant increase in subscription and transaction revenue. Its gross profit has risen 31% from the year-ago value to $34.10 million, while cash and cash equivalents have grown 554.1% from the prior-year quarter to $564.15 million over this period.
On December 9, BILL and Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) introduced Bill Manager, a new platform that offers businesses the option to pay and get paid with increased simplicity. This strategic partnership will help BILL to create connections between businesses and their clients, which should drive revenue growth for the company.
On December 1, the company announced the closing of a $1.15 billion of zero-percent senior notes offering. BILL intends to use approximately $1.10 billion of the net proceeds from the offering to fund capital expenditures, potential acquisitions, and strategic transactions.
Buy & Hold Grade: A
In terms of proximity to its 52-week high, which is a key factor that our Buy & Hold Grade considers, BILL is well positioned. The stock is currently trading just 1.7% below its 52-week high of $145.97, which it hit on December 11th. This can be attributed to the increasing adoption of BILL’s payment platform.
Peer Grade: A
BILL is currently ranked #13 of 96 stocks in the Software – Application industry. Other popular stocks in this industry are Oracle Corporation (ORCL), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) and Adobe Inc. (ADBE)
ORCL, MSFT, and ADBE gained 14.4%, 35.2%, and 44.3% year-to-date, respectively. This compares to BILL’s 277% returns over this period.
Industry Rank: A
The Software – Application industry is ranked #20 of the 123 StockNews.com industries. The companies in this industry design, develop, and support software used to collect, store, report, and analyze data from various business operations.
The demand for software applications have increased significantly amid the pandemic. More businesses and employees are using cloud collaboration platforms to communicate to remain functional. We think the increased investments on IT infrastructure by businesses should lead to continued growth of software application providers in the upcoming months.
Overall POWR Rating: A (Strong Buy)
BILL is rated “Strong Buy” due to its impressive financials, short-and-long-term bullishness, solid price momentum, and underlying industry strength, as determined by the four components of our overall POWR Rating.
BILL is well positioned to climb in the upcoming months despite gaining 277% year-to-date. With many countries experiencing a second wave of coronavirus infections, the need for digital transformation is increasing, which should keep benefiting BILL.
Analyst sentiment, which provides a good sense of a stock’s future price movement, is good for BILL. It has an average broker rating of 1.33, indicating favorable analyst sentiment. Of11 Wall Street analysts that rated the stock, 8 rated it a “Strong Buy.” The consensus EPS estimate for the next year indicates a 28% improvement year-over-year. Moreover, BILL has an impressive earnings surprise history, with the company beating consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. The consensus revenue estimate of $251.83 million for the next year represents a 28.9% increase from the same period last year.
Want More Great Investing Ideas?
BILL shares were trading at $141.87 per share on Monday morning, down $1.56 (-1.09%). Year-to-date, BILL has gained 272.85%, versus a 16.12% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
About the Author: Imon Ghosh
Imon is an investment analyst and journalist with an enthusiasm for financial research and writing. She began her career at Kantar IMRB, a leading market research and consumer consulting organization.Up 300% YTD, is BILL.com Still a Buy? appeared first on StockNews.com


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Most of the time, manufacturers have a pretty good handle on the kinds of options pickup buyers want in their trucks. The key words here are "most of the time."
Toyota Tacoma is best small pickup, Ford Ranger is worst, PickupTrucks.com/USA TODAY Shootout shows.
Nissan, Hyundai sales set records; Honda plunges, Toyota sags.
Nissan says it sold 19.4% more new vehicles in November than it did a year ago, including sales of its Infiniti luxury unit.
Every year, the Texas Auto Writers Association has a big shindig where they test anything that could be considered a truck and decide which are the best ones. Appropriately, it's called the Texas Truck Rodeo, but no, they lasso calves with lassoes from the truck beds.
Nissan is recalling 2.14 million vehicles in the U.S., Europe anf Japan for an ignition problem that can cause the engine to stall and not restart. It's the third-largest recall ever for Nissan.
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A Lebanese pop up dining experience is coming to the capital for one weekend only.
Edinburgh diners can experience exclusive Lebanese cooking between April 29 and 30 at Tanifiki in Portobello.
Food delivery service, Fuze, hosts these pop up dining events at Tanifiki every month. Each event offers a different culture for guests to try.
A menu has been released on the Fuze website of the cuisine on offer this month. The limited menu only offers two main options of Spiced Lamb Shank or Falafel.
Five variations of side dishes can be ordered alongside the main courses and a mouth watering Orange Cheesecake is on offer for dessert.
The whole evening will cost you £36 per person to be immersed into Lebanese culture. This price includes appetisers and drinks on arrival.
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The morning newsletter arrives every day before 9am and the evening newsletter, manually curated by the team, is sent at 6.30pm, giving you a round up of the most important stories of the day.
To sign up to any of our newsletters, visit this link here.
Fuze Edinburgh announced the collaboration on social media. They said:
“Meze food is coming to Portobello. Dates confirmed for our next dinner pop @tanifiki_ ! Full menu will be coming tomorrow so watch out for that!
“Tickets are on sale now and can be booked on the Fuze website - link in bio"
27 year old founder, Dylan Smith, hosts a different pop up event each month around the city. Previous pop up events have included themes such as Thai, Indian and Chinese.
The company started as a food delivery business over the coronavirus lockdown, offering fine dining from home when every restaurant was closed down.
Smith is known for his creative hybrid meals as he has previously combined cultures together to create special dining experiences.
Tickets can be booked for the event here.


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Beginners and existing affiliate marketers can benefit from a newly launched funnel building software designed to increase online sales. Software development company GrooveDigital explains its affordable all-in-one service can help users build, grow, and manage an online business quickly and efficiently.
Find out more at https://groovepages.groovesell.com/a/b7GYewYNYKI2
The newly launched funnel building service was developed in a bid to help those who are now working from home or looking for remote affiliate opportunities due to the global pandemic. The company made its flagship product, GrooveFunnels, free to use for life at the peak of the crisis.
After this, the company experienced a period of growth and has now developed a new GrooveFunnels suite of products. This includes a full website creator, online funnel builder, and sales and affiliate platform that enables digital marketers and infopreneurs to sell their products.
As well as helping people to sell, the software can also help members take payments and manage customers with physical products, digital products, and services. It also offers a full-featured affiliate system to help users recruit and manage commission-only salespeople and affiliates to help them grow their business long-term.
People looking to grow their affiliate business or make it look more professional can benefit from the new software and tools. The intuitive platform supports upsells and downsells as many people may expect, but in addition the software automatically adds order bumps before purchases and true 1-click up-sells to the user’s funnels.
This function can help affiliates increase their dollar per transaction. Online business owners and e-commerce managers can also benefit from the software as it is essentially an online marketing tool designed to help any businesses that want to reach a wider online audience.
A spokesperson said: “We decided to make our GrooveFunnels software free to users for life based on what we saw happening within the industry. Everyone was giving free feature-locked accounts or extending the trials on software products. But we wanted to give more. We did not think it was right to turn around and charge people later if they got used to using our service.”
To find out more, interested parties are invited to visit the link provided. https://groovepages.groovesell.com/a/b7GYewYNYKI2
Release ID: 88979442


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Soon AMD will start shipping Brazos and right after that the company will start internal testing of Deccan, a next-generation platform consisting of its Krishna APU and Yuba chipset. Deccan is expected to start sampling in Q2 2011 and mass shipments are expected by the end of 2011.
Interestingly, the article also mentions that Acer plans to use the Brazos platform for a tablet.
AMD is set to announce its Brazos platform, a combination of the company's Ontario APU and Hudson chipset, at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011. The company has already prepared its next-generation platform codenamed Deccan, which consists of its Krishna APU and Yuba chipset, according to sources from PC players.
Although AMD originally did not have strong interest in the netbook market, the company has recently started changing its attitude and its new Brazos platform has already received orders from Micro-Star International (MSI) for its netbook, and Acer for its tablet PC, the sources added.


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Avilution, an innovative software company that has been developing a groundbreaking avionics framework, broke ground today on a new facility at Huntsville International Airport in Huntsville, Ala.
“Our customers are innovative pioneers who are building the next generation of general aviation aircraft,” said Mark Spencer, Founder of Avilution. “We are working to provide customized solutions that fit the aircraft’s mission and unique requirements.”
The avionics framework developed by Avilution is called eXtensible Flight System (XFS). This framework allows for the rapid development of robust and future-proof avionics that free the consumer from vendor lock-in and obsolescence. Avilution’s first packaged commercial offering, the Unpanel™, is an unique avionics package tailor made for VFR pilots. The new facility will house up to 24 employees and the facility is slated to be completed in late October 2020.
“Huntsville International Airport is proud to be home to Avilution,” said Rick Tucker, CEO of the Port of Huntsville. “Being that we are an airport and the software being developed by Avilution is avionics framework, we couldn’t think of a better location for the facility. We are excited to see world class software that is shaping our industry being developed right here in Huntsville.”


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Angela Spindler lands N Brown CEO role
ANGELA Spindler, the former Asda and Debenhams executive, currently running Burnley-based retailer The Original Factory Shop, has been named as the new CEO of multi-channel home shopping group N Brown.
Mrs Spindler will succeed Alan White on July 1, becoming the first woman to lead the FTSE 25o, Manchester-based business.
Other strong contenders for the role included long-serving group finance director Dean Moore.
N Brown chairman Andrew Higginson, said: “We are delighted that Angela has decided to join N Brown and lead it through the next phase of its exciting growth.
“She brings a tremendous breadth of experience to the role, most recently as a successful CEO, and the board firmly believes she has the personal qualities to lead the team, and the business, as it continues its growth online and internationally.”
Mrs Spindler, who plans to relocate from Yorkshire back to her native Cheshire, said: “N Brown is a fabulous business which has been very successfully adapted to benefit from the multi-channel retail revolution.
“I am really looking forward to working with a great team and to building on the momentum they have established. The business has some excellent brands and is well placed to deliver growth both in the UK and Internationally. I am delighted to be joining.”
N Brown is the name behind brands including Simply Be, Jacamo, Figleaves, and JD Williams. It has its headquarters on Lever Street in the city centre, a call centre at the Manchester Arena and a distribution hub in Oldham.
Angela Spindler, who is married to the Dean of Manchester Business School, Professor Michael Luger, has been chief executive of private equity-owned The Original Factory Shop since 2009, where she has an expansion drive.
She started her career in marketing and sales with Coca Cola UK, before spending 10years in a variety of marketing and sales roles at Pedigree Masterfoods. She then spent a decade at Asda, in marketing, trading and retail development roles.
Her final position was managing director of Global George, a fashion business with sales of over $3.5bn across 11 international markets. This was followed by a year as MD of Debenhams, before joining the private equity owned Original Factory Shop in January 2009.


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Tesla Opens Parts Distribution Center in Giengen, Germany
An opening ceremony for the parts and distribution center was held on January 12, with the center set to employ 18 people to start before ramping up hiring, according to Site Manager Marcin Prusak.
“By the end of 2023 we want to have around 100 employees here, and by the end of 2024 around 200. The motto is: grow slowly and sustainably,” said Prusak. “We are gradually filling the capacity of the warehouse, depending on the growth of the delivery area, the network and our local team.”
Tesla Led EV Registrations in Germany for December and Full Year 2022 https://t.co/xfPUls8TSm
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) January 6, 2023
The center is roughly located between Münich and Stuttgart, and the staff is made up of an international team hailing from Germany, Italy, Iran and other countries still.
Tesla’s Gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany opened just last year, and the plant is still working to ramp up production of the Model Y SUV, which reached a weekly production output of 3,000 units just last month.
The Brandenburg factory is also facing union concerns from Germany’s largest metal-working union, IG Metall, due to worker claims of long working hours and low pay.
In recent weeks, Tesla’s Giga Berlin plant has had parking lots overflowing with Model Y units set to be delivered.


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According to coffee industry projections, in order to keep up with consumer demand, an area nearly the size of Honduras and Nicaragua combined will need to be converted to coffee cultivation.
The majority of coffee expansion will come at the expense of forest habitat according to the industry’s Sustainable Coffee Challenge. For Central America, where coffee is grown at high elevations, the conversion of forest to coffee cultivation is impacting the health of watersheds that provide water for coffee growing communities, municipal drinking water and for Honduras, energy for the nation’s largest electric utility, the El Cajon hydropower station.
High elevation forests serve as the headwaters for the watersheds, placing coffee at the heart of the challenge to reduce deforestation associated with coffee cultivation.
The situation for the coffee industry is compounded by its reliance on industrial coffee drying fueled by firewood from tropical forests. The Costa Rican Coffee Institute has declared conventional coffee drying an environmental emergency.
What cloud forests have been “protected” though the formation of National Parks and “protected regions” in Honduras now hang in the balance, as the agency in charge of these majestic parks is reporting that 45% of the park system is now deforested.
Municipalities and community water boards are declaring water emergencies as deforestation and climate change are impacting the water supply.
Sustainable Coffee Challenge Goals
In order to try to achieve a balance in increasing supply, while limiting coffee’s impact on deforestation, industry leaders and conservation organizations have proposed the following ambitious goals to achieve by 2030:
Become carbon neutral (or positive) for coffee by:
- Reducing Green House Gas (CHG) emissions and transitioning to renewable energy sources and/or conserving 500,000 hectares of forest
- Achieve land neutrality (or positivity) via forest conservation or reforestation programs
How does the Mesoamerican Development Institute (MDI) and the Café Solar® Program Provide Practical Working Solutions Toward Achieving these Goals?
MDI is scaling up carbon-neutral coffee processing using hybrid solar/biofuel industrial coffee drying with our patented drying technology. The drying technology eliminates entirely the use of firewood in industrial coffee drying.
MDI’s Integrated Open Canopy™ coffee production conserves and/or restores forest habitat on private lands (coffee farms). Carbon sequestered in the forest habitat combined with the use of clean technology in processing allow for high quality carbon offsets to be sold to international markets to provide incentives for farmers to adopt this land-sparing method of coffee cultivation.
These high elevation patches of forest habitat are not only essential for healthy watersheds, they conserve local biodiversity as well. Integrated Open Canopy™ farms have been found to support more birds, including forest-dependent species not supported by shade coffee, than other cultivation methods.
MDI’s team of local biologists, coffee producer organizations, and partnered university researchers are working to advance the Yoro Biological Corridor. This Corridor includes the coffee regions connecting eight threatened national parks and the watershed supplying the El Cajon hydropower utility. The goal is to scale up carbon-neutral processing to serve coffee producers and replicate Integrated Open Canopy™ farms throughout this landscape.


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Samantha Kalman has been making games for years, and now she’s decided to take on the challenge of making multiple new VR games on her own. And if you still classify yourself as a VR skeptic, Samantha’s infectious passion might just change your mind.
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The Greater Newark Convention and Visitors Bureau (GNCVB) in partnership with United Airlines announced the launch of Shop Local in Newark. This initiative reflects United’s mission of connecting people and engaging local and global communities to make a difference.
For more than two decades, United has operated a hub at Newark Liberty International Airport. Before the pandemic, United operated more than 425 daily flights to more than 160 cities across the globe from EWR, offering the New York/Newark region the most flights to the most destinations. As part of this initiative, United will spotlight five Newark-based small businesses including Off The Hanger, a luxury fashion and decor studio, in the January 2021 issue of its award-winning onboard publication, Hemispheres.
“United is the first major airline to endorse and promote the small business community in Newark,” says Ricardo Salazar, acting president and CEO of GNVCB. “United’s marketing support of Newark’s small business community during this critical juncture is a boost to our growing entrepreneurial sector. I’d like to personally thank GNCVB Board Director Blenda Pinto, United Airline’s director, Corporate & Government Affairs Northeast Region, who supported and recommended us to lead this effort.”
“During this season of giving, we are incredibly grateful for the continuation of the great partnership between GNVCB and United Airlines,” says Gregory Good, GNCVB board chair. “While the Coronavirus pandemic has forced us all to make adjustments, United has stepped up to promote Newark as a great place to live, work and play with its Shop Local Newark initiative. The pandemic is bringing out the best in humanity and United’s support of Newark’s small business community only magnifies the significance of their partnership.”
Newark has a rich tapestry of minority-owned and multi-cultural restaurants and small businesses, offering an array of unique products and international cuisine. Shop Local Newark, was created to help local businesses recover some of the losses they suffered because of the COVID-19 pandemic by boosting sales throughout 2021.”
“It is essential that small businesses across America survive the pandemic,” said Pinto. “These storefronts are the lifeblood of our communities, and it’s imperative that United leverages our strong ties to Newark to encourage our customers to shop locally and fuel the local economy. During this unprecedented time, we remain stronger together.”
Shop Local Newark by engaging in practices such as wearing a mask, adhering to social distancing guidelines and following all public health protocols. For the most up-to-date COVID-19 resources, and more information, please visit newarkhappening.com.
To access more business news, visit NJB News Now.Related Articles:


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No word from Fiat in Australia on plans for the iconic 500 even though an updated version being launch in Europe on 4 July (the anniversary of the cute, hip 500’s debut back in 1957).
The current Fiat 500 has been around since 2007 and locally - despite a rearrangement of the model lineup and prices slashed to start from juts $16,000 - sales have slowed to just 1,394 units for the first six months of this year (down by more than 5.0-per-cent on 2014).
For the updated model, Fiat has incorporated a few features from the new X model and we see inside a new central console to support the new 5.0-inch infotainment system screen which uses the Uconnect system and facilitates satellite navigation (TomTom in the previous generation).
In turn, this means revised air-vents and we’ve also noticed a new design steering wheel and – stop the presses! - a normal, lockable glove-box (very un-Fiat 500).
Fiat says there are some 1800 changes for the updated 500 and on the styling front enthusiasts will pick the revised two-layer air intakes, a new bumper and revised headlights (including LED DRLs).
At the rear, new boxy tail-lights do transform the iconic Fiat 500’s looks.
In the absence of any official word from Fiat Chrysler Australia, some have speculated we’ll see the updated 500 in local showrooms early next year.


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Home › magazine › latest news › Gojo unveils new hand hygiene solutions
Gojo unveils new hand hygiene solutions10th of May 2012
Hand hygiene specialist Gojo has developed two new dispensing systems which it claims represent the next generation in hand hygiene solutions.
The no-touch LTX - Lifetime Performance Dispenser - comes in 1200 and 700 ml sizes. Gojo claims the 700 ml size is the smallest sealed dispenser on the market. Meanwhile the ADX - the Anywhere Design Dispenser - comes in 1250 and 700 ml sizes.
Managing director of Gojo in Europe Mike Sullivan explained that both systems carry a lifetime performance guarantee and have been designed to reduce material used in manufacture, and packaging waste.
The company also debuted Purell Advanced hygienic hand rub, which Sullivan described as a "breakthrough formulation for entire hospital use". Gojo claims to have maximised the effects of alcohol in the rub to give it antimicrobial efficacy combined with skin conditioning.
And Purell Advanced is to be Europe's first certified sustainable alcohol hand rub, Gojo also announced. "We are hoping this move will inspire the rest of the industry and other companies will follow suit."


text: https://arstechnica.com - Recently, General Motors' commercials have been throwing shade on rival Ford for its use of anything other than steel in truck beds. And the stock model continues to use steel, albeit a new alloy that GMC says is 50 percent stronger than before. But there will be a better option available, called CarbonPro. As the name suggests, this uses carbon fiber in place of steel for the inner panels and bed. The weight saving for the truck bed alone is 62lbs over the conventional unit. The weight saving continues throughout the vehicle, with aluminum used for body panels like the hood, fenders, and tailgate; in all, it weighs up to 360lbs (163kg) less than the outgoing truck.


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Match People joins Fortnite manufacturer Epic Video Games
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Share All discussing alternatives for: Tinder happens to be bypassing the Play Store on Android to avoid Google’s 30 % cut
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Tinder moms and dad organization fit party recently become the latest high-profile software maker to hard Google on its 30 % charge for every Android deals through the Enjoy shop. To prevent make payment on organization on in-app acquisitions of subscriptions to providers like Tinder silver and Tinder positive, Match team will today inspire users to enter charge card info into Tinder’s systems, in accordance with Bloomberg, citing newer data by Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter.
The move is much like one created by well-known computer game creator legendary Games, which this past year launched the Android version of battle royale hit Fortnite via its own online launcher in order to prevent the 30 percent slice. Particularly, Tinder are Match Group’s more profitable organization, and between their registration treatments and various other in-app purchase options like spending money on the ability to know an individual keeps read their message, the application is frequently among the greatest grossing complimentary software on both iOS and Android.
“At complement people, we constantly testing latest posts and features to supply efficiency, regulation and option to the customers,” claims Match cluster spokesperson Justine Sacco in a statement fond of Bloomberg. “We will always try to give choices that benefits their unique experience and offer installment alternatives is the one example of this.” After inputting your own mastercard into Tinder’s system, the app supposedly defaults to that installment method for any in-app acquisition as time goes by, permitting Tinder to sidestep the cut forever. Bing was not straight away available for opinion.
Epic and Match may be the best two high-profile businesses to thus far openly bypass the Play shop while nevertheless attempting to focus on Android os users. However prominent subscription solutions like Netflix and Spotify has for decades shown distaste when it comes to 70-30 style of modern application stores, that has been applied by fruit back in 2008 and lent a few several months afterwards by Google because of its Enjoy Store.
Many companies treat the 30 % cut just like the price of conducting business, especially on apple’s ios the place you bring Apple’s quality-control and fast grasp on their ecosystem, even though some begrudgingly reference the charge as the “Apple taxation.” Despite the reality legendary video games did bypass the Google Play store, they made a decision to launch Fortnite on iOS through the software shop and make the success, as an instance. Android os, however, is far more open and so more flexible with how designers should make money and achieve users much more straight. That’s unwrapped the doorway for Epic now fit class to test.
Despite Apple’s firm method of App shop charges, Spotify has submitted an antitrust grievance against Apple with the European percentage wanting to get variations pressured through legislation. The EU has become undergoing investigating Apple for alleged anti-competitive strategies, with Spotify arguing that Apple’s 30 percent slice leaves 3rd party service at a disadvantage when contending against its own offerings, like Apple tunes.
For years before that, Spotify and Netflix both have come with creative ways to drive men and women outside the fruit and Bing ecosystems on cellular to avoid spending the cost, sporadically capitulating towards the storeowners and jacking-up monthly subscription costs for mobile sign-ups because of this.
Final August, Netflix began apparently screening an approach similar in concept to Tinder’s that allows customers sign-up right to its services through a mobile website that would bypass the iOS App Store. In December of this past year, Netflix ended permitting in-app expenditures of any sort both for brand-new and present customers on apple’s ios.
Apple features attempted to try and especially appease firms that fee for membership services, lowering its App shop fees back in 2016 from 30 to 15 per cent on any services that a user was basically signed through the cellular software for extended than 12 months. Yahoo accompanied fruit in that rules in late 2017. It seems agencies get more fed up with the condition quo and so are deciding on trying to bypass the middlemen entirely.
It’s not clear whether Bing will require activity against Tinder for attempting to skirt a shop; In the past, Apple has actually reportedly hindered Spotify’s apple’s ios app by limiting updates if it realized the music online streaming service ended up being attempting to bypass the software shop. Yahoo grabbed no motion against Epic, but which wasn’t a definite comparison because Tinder remains getting written by the Play Store and officially however bound by Google’s conditions. Regardless, in the case Bing decides to do nothing, that could mean even more software adhere Match Group’s lead in pushing customers to offer the app maker, rather than the Enjoy Store, their unique bank card information.


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MINSK, 5 February (BelTA) – Belarus is set to supply 3.6 million tonnes of dairy products and 316,000 tonnes of meat to Russia in 2020, Head of the Main Department for Foreign Economic Activities of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry Aleksei Bogdanov said at a press conference on 5 February, BelTA has learned.
“The food demand and supply balance sheets for 2020 have been signed. The export of Belarusian dairy products to the Russian Federation will amount to 3.6 million tonnes. As far as meat is concerned, some 316,000 tonnes is to be shipped. The export of meat and dairy products will be nearly as big as last year,” Aleksei Bogdanov said.
In 2019 Belarus shipped $4.3 billion worth of food products to Russia, up 3% year-on-year. “We reduced the share of the Russian market by 1.2 percentage points. However, Russia's share in Belarus' export remains rather big,” he said.
In his words, Belarus' export has grown on the back of dairy products. Export revenues generated by this commodity rose by 23%. Belarus also shipped more eggs, flax fiber, gelatin, seeds and rapeseed oil. Meat export shrank because of import restrictions. In fact, in spring 2019 the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) imposed temporary restrictions on the import of bone-in beef and cattle from countries that do not have an official spongiform encephalopathy status of the World Organization for Animal Health, including Belarus. The restrictions were removed later. “Our beef export to Russia shrank as a result. The export of poultry, sausages and pork dropped insignificantly, too,” Aleksei Bogdanov informed.
“However, there is no overstocking at warehouses of Belarusian companies. The commodities that did not get into the Russian market were re-channeled to other markets,” he said.


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Countries with the most Bitcoin ATMs
As we all know, the last few years have represented the boom of cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, the most famous in the world and whose profitability is 60%, much higher than traditional assets. Currently, it is attributed with characteristics similar to those of money and functions equivalent to “digital gold”. This industry has broken records at an accelerated pace, since after surpassing one trillion dollars in market capitalization at the beginning of last year, it took only one quarter for it to double to 2 trillion dollars, and by the end of the year its capitalization was half a trillion dollars more.
There are currently about 36,600 cryptocurrency ATMs installed. Most of them are in the United States, which has 32,598 devices, followed by Canada with 2,410, (Mexico has only ten ATMs). Thus, North America is the region with the highest number of installed cryptocurrency ATMs, with 95.1% of total market share, according to data from Coin ATM Radar.
Among the wide mosaic of cryptocurrencies existing today, Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) are the undisputed leaders of the crypto world for several reasons that have made them the leading players in this new market and the favorites of investors. Let's learn a little more about these cryptocurrencies.
These are followed by Spain (224), El Salvador (205), Poland (178), Switzerland (147), Hong Kong (143), Austria (133), Romania (128) and Italy (73), which ties with the Czech Republic, which has the same number of installations. Europe is the second region with the most installed devices with 3.8%, followed by Asia with 0.7% and Central and South America with 0.2%.
As we can see, the latter is a region with many areas of opportunity for the future, in terms of Bitcoin promotion and investment, since it only has 85 cryptocurrency ATMs, excluding El Salvador, a nation that apart from being the fourth country with the most cryptocurrency ATMs, is a pioneer in the world for adopting Bitcoin as an official currency, so that businesses are obliged to accept it as a payment method and citizens can pay their taxes with it. Bitcoin has thus become the second currency denomination in that country.
Meanwhile, Colombia is positioned as the South American territory with the most extensive network of ATMs of this type, with a total of 33 existing devices.
Brazil is the second country with the second largest number of Bitcoin ATMs in the region, with 22 in total. Argentina occupies the third position with nine. Meanwhile, Costa Rica has seven cryptocurrency ATMs, and Peru has only three.
It should be noted that, the top ten Bitcoin ATM operators run around 25,597 devices, this represents 69.9% of the total. In addition, there are another 603 companies operating the remaining 30.1%. Among the top operators we find the following companies: Bitcoin Depot, Coin Cloud, CoinFlip, Bitcoin of America, Bitstop, RockItCoin, Coinsource, ByteFederal, Localcoin and National Bitcoin ATM.
Is Bitcoin a store of value like gold?
For some time now many analysts have been saying that Bitcoin is or will be digital gold. However, such a statement carries with it a great responsibility for this asset: to occupy a place like that of metal as a store of value.
Who is buying Bitcoin?
Almost since Bitcoin came out, it has been at the center of the debates, with positions for and against it on issues such as whether it is money or not, if it is a store of value or not, what it is backed by, if it is better than fiat money or if it is just a speculative instrument that will generate a big bubble that will burst in a negative way for all those who believe in it.


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The world’s hottest tech companies are now worth more than $5 trillion, and they could be pointing out the next big bubble
|06/19/2018||Posted by BusinessMediaguide.Com under General World News||
- The most prominent US and Chinese tech stocks are worth more, by market cap, than the stock markets of the eurozone and Japan.
- Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are worth $5 trillion, according to data compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. US tech stocks are worth even more, at a $6.6 trillion market cap.
- Michael Hartnett, BAML’s chief investment strategist, has cited this size as a reason investors should reduce their exposure to tech stocks.
- “Long FAAMG + BAT” is considered the most crowded trade, according to BAML’s global fund-manager read more >>>


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Responding to the increased complexity of cyber security investing, Allegis Capital has added four venture partners.
The move is a significant expansion of a team that includes four investing partners, a chief financial officer and current Venture Partner Jean-Louis Gassee.
“What the addition of venture partners really signals is growing complexity,” said firm founder and Managing Director Robert Ackerman.
The new additions are:
- Nawaf Bitar, a senior vice president and general manager of the security business unit at Juniper Networks and a former senior vice president of engineering at IronPort Systems, an Allegis portfolio company;
- Hossein Eslambolchi, founder and CEO of CyberFlow Analytics, a cyber security analytics company, and a former global chief technology officer at AT&T;
- Tom Gillis, the co-founder and CEO of a security-focused software company in stealth mode and a former vice president and general manager at Cisco Systems’ security technology group; and
- Jeffrey Williams, a vice president of worldwide sales and business development at FireEye Inc., which filed last week to go public, and a former vice president of sales at IronPort.
Each will offer strategic advice to the firm on the security landscape, investing opportunities and innovation. They also will provide deal flow, assist with due diligence and work with portfolio companies.
Complexity in online security investing has increased, especially when it comes to scaling technology, says Ackerman. Formalizing long running relationships with each of the new additions was a logical move, he said.
Earlier this year, Allegis said it was raising a Special Opportunities Fund. It did not disclose the size of the fund.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.


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This month (April 2021), IAG Cargo, the cargo division of International Airlines Group (IAG), celebrates its 10th anniversary – marking a decade of transporting vital shipments safely and efficiently for customers across the world.
IAG Cargo was created in 2011 following the merger of British Airways World Cargo and Iberia Cargo, bringing together two distinct brands focused on providing a quality services for their customers to unlock the full potential of their networks. Since then, IAG Cargo’s mission – to be ‘always moving’ – has led it to become one of the largest cargo operators in the world, serving key sectors of the global economy including ecommerce, tech, manufacturing, automotive, pharmaceutical and aerospace.
In total, in the last decade it is estimated that IAG has served nearly 14,000 freight forwarders, operated 950,000 flights, transporting millions of tonnes of cargo and flown to over 450 destinations worldwide using 30 models of aircraft. Today, the business is trusted by some of the world’s best-known brands to transport their precious cargo, from ancient artefacts for The British Museum, endangered animals for BornFree, vaccine shipments for Biological E to airplane parts for Boeing.
Today IAG operates in 60 countries, across 5 continents and employs more than 2,250 professionals worldwide. The business has grown significantly in its first 10 years – integrating Vueling in 2013, Aer Lingus in 2015 and Level in 2016 to expand its network; invested in new facilities to increase capacity and developed innovative and specialist product offerings in areas like pharmaceutical, live animals and high security shipments.
John Cheetham, Chief Commercial Officer at IAG, said: “This is a major milestone for IAG Cargo. It’s been exciting to see the business grow and transform into one of the largest cargo carriers in the world today.
“We’ve built a strong relationship with our customers across the world to understand their needs and adapted our products, as well as launched new products and routes to support them. We’re very proud of our ‘always moving’ spirit to provide some of the most flexible options for customers, helping them get their freight across the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We look forward to continuing to expand our offering in the years to come.”


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Posted on: October 10th, 2014 - News Blog
Carnival Cruise Lines held a conference and reception earlier this month at its Miami headquarters to recognize 15 travel agencies that were selected to be part of the cruise line’s newly created “Excellence Awards.”
Agencies were selected by Carnival’s sales team for their innovative marketing techniques, brand advocacy and sales success strategies.
During the two-day event, Excellence Award recipients had the opportunity to learn about Carnival’s latest product innovations and marketing strategies through informative presentations by Carnival’s management team.
Excellence Award representatives also enjoyed a meet and greet with Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill, Executive Vice President of Sales and Guest Services Lynn Torrent and Vice President of Worldwide Sales Join Rein and Carnival Corporation & plc Chairman Micky Arison, among others.
Winners also received complimentary airfare and hotel accommodations and enjoyed a celebratory dinner with the Carnival team at a local restaurant.
Agency winners and representatives included:


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What a surprise
Nothing reveals Phone (1) design before leakers do
A month ahead of its July 12 event, Nothing surprise dropped an image of the Phone (1)’s transparent design.
Nothing is not waiting for leakers to spoil its first smartphone, the Phone (1). Carl Pei’s tech startup — makers of the transparent Ear (1) wireless earbuds — decided to catch everyone by surprise today with a full-blown image of the rear of the Phone (1).
The image, shared on Nothing’s Twitter and Instagram accounts shows off the Phone (1)’s transparent backside and confirms the teaser shapes and symbols are indeed outlines for components such as the camera and the wireless charging coil. “Bold. Warm. Full of soul. A return to instinct. This is phone (1),” reads the accompanying text for the Phone (1).
Last week, Nothing announced a virtual event for July 12 where the Phone (1) was expected to make its official debut, but it looks like Pei and the company are firing up the hype machine early. As I always say, Pei’s social media savvy is one of his greatest strengths when it comes to launching products.
“Leaks are harder to contain nowadays and many of you have been waiting for a long time,” tweeted Pei. “So here it is. This is phone (1) design. More to come. Tune in on 12 July.”
On Tuesday, Pei tweeted “The essence of marketing: Don't tell me what to feel and just make me feel it.” Springing the Phone (1) a month ahead of its official launch event definitely made us feel something — we weren’t expecting a complete look at the rear.
Is there room for the Phone (1)? — That is the question. Apple and Samsung dominate mobile worldwide; the latest iPhone 13 and Galaxy S22 are the pinnacles of smartphones. Can a new startup like Nothing break into such a saturated and competitive market with the Phone (1)?
A semi-transparent design might have worked for $100 Ear (1) wireless earbuds, but a smartphone is not an accessory, and it comes with a higher sticker price. The Phone (1) distinguishes itself from other devices with its see-through backside, but most people tend to slap a case over their phones. Perhaps Nothing is betting that people won’t cover up the Phone (1), but attractive hardware is only half of why people choose a particular phone model.
Software is equally important to a good phone. We know that the Phone 1 runs Android, customized with NothingOS, Nothing’s own launcher. But how much differentiation can tweaks to Android’s stock UI really provide? Google’s stock Android experience is “pure” and “clean” yet that hasn’t convinced more people to buy a Pixel over a Samsung Galaxy phone.
Pei’s work at OnePlus gives him some credibility when it comes to building a complete smartphone experience. Can he do it again with the Phone (1)?
We’ve got a full breakdown of everything we know about the Phone (1) that includes all of the tech specs and features that Nothing has announced. We’ve got our calendar marked for July 12, but something tells us to keep a close eye on the company’s social media accounts. This is only the start of the marketing blitz.


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Feb 26, 2015 New tools for users with troubling activity and the friends who report them.
Feb 26, 2015 What's the connection between sunglasses, white gloves, and an economic slump?
Feb 25, 2015 Google already has 20,000 employees in Mountain View, and now is planning a new, bigger headquarters
Feb 23, 2015 What makes Snapchat popular could be the hard-to-use user interface.
Feb 20, 2015 Like many retailers, Wal-Mart had a system where employee hours constantly changed.
Feb 19, 2015 A conversation with economist Elena Panaritis, advisor to the Greek government.
Jan 29, 2015 How company's global director of diversity is trying to live up to her job title.
Jan 26, 2015 The decision to cancel flights in the face of a storm is complicated.
Jan 22, 2015 Planning an inexpensive trip to Europe? Better research airfares first.
Jan 13, 2015 Downward oil-price trend may not bode well for biggest customers of jet manufacturers.


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A Swedish power plant is working to eliminate fossil fuels by 2020. To get to this goal, they have started burning recycled wood and garbage - including rejected clothing from H&M warehouses.
"For us, it's burnable material. Our goal is to use only renewable and recycled fuels," said Jens Neren, head of fuel supplies at Malarenergi AB.
This plant has burned 15 tons of rejected clothing from H&M warehouses in 2017. However, the plant burns about 400,000 tons of trash to make fuel in a year and supplies 150,000 households with energy.
The Head of Communications for H&M, Johanna Dahl said, "It is our legal obligation to make sure that clothes that contain mold or do not comply with our strict restrictions on chemicals are destroyed. H&M does not burn [for fuel] any clothes that are safe to use."
Renewable energy is constantly replenished and will never run out. Power plants that utilize these resources over fossil fuels are choosing not to use sources like coal, oil, or natural gas that cannot replenish.


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I've just returned from the Incentive Research Foundation's Annual Invitational in Palm Springs, Calif., where a huge ballroom-full of some of the biggest names in the business struggled over the future of the incentive industry. You could feel the collective angst in the room during the two roundtable discussions.
Most in the group felt this industry is suffering from recent perception problems because there's never been a unified voice promoting the value of incentives. Representatives from the group had contacted all the major incentive firms looking for corporate CEOs like Texas Roadhouse's G.J. Hart (recently seen on CNBC extolling the virtues of his 2.5 million incentive trip for his restaurant owners) who would be willing to speak out on the value of their programs. None of their clients was willing — not a single CEO!
“We can't be ashamed of what we do,” cried out one incentive house member of my roundtable discussion. Ironically, when I approached her later, she was unable to speak on the record. And therein lies the problem.
So what does all this mean for the group travel incentive program as we know it? For one, the group agreed that companies will need solid metrics — tracking revenue, orders booked, units sold — to prove there was a spike as a result of the program. There'll be no more “it pays for itself by generating incremental revenue.”
Also, adding meetings to an incentive event for the sake of adding meetings is not enough. Companies now realize they have their brightest and boldest in the room and are tapping them for real action plans.
The group also agreed that adding corporate social responsibility events to an incentive trip as a way of justifying it doesn't ring true. If companies have a culture that embraces, great. If not, this could be a trend that will soon fade.
This month's cover story is a collection of some of the brightest names in the industry — 20 people who are leaders in, green/CSR efforts, and in their work to elevate our profession. Craig Ardis, director of global event management at Zimmer Inc. — one of our 2009 winners — embodies the spirit of a Changemaker: When Zimmer canceled a program in California last year, the company decided that rather than pay hefty cancellation fees, it would donate the rooms to a nonprofit organization that could use them to reward volunteers. As a result of the donation, Zimmer has enhanced its relations with the community. Meet Ardis and our other Changemakers, starting on page 20.
More On / Meetingsnet.com
See our newly updated section on Incentives and Motivation, on our Web site.


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LG G5 Lite hinted at through GFXBench Listing
GFXBench, which in the past has been our trusted friend in leaking specifications of upcoming phones, has now revealed to the Internet the details of an unknown handset from the stables of LG.
The latest listing reveals that the device will come equipped with the recently announced Snapdragon 625 chipset, the first of its kind to be manufacfured using a 14nm process.
The listing further reveals that the handset will sport a 5.3-inch Quad HD display. The phone will come with a respectable 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory.
The new smartphone which looks to be a budget device at best will come with 8-megapixel shooter at the front and the back. Surprisingly, the listing claims that the phone will run on the outdated Android 4.4 platform.
The listing further reveals this model number of the phone which bears the mark of the upcoming LG G5 model number, hinting to this being a toned down lite version of the soon to be launched G5, in which case the phone coming with Android 4.4 makes no sense.


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The consumers may be the big winners but at what cost to farmers and small business?
HEATHER EWART, PRESENTER: For years policymakers and consumer groups have called for greater competition and lower prices from Australian supermarkets, and finally, it seems to be happening, as the leading supermarkets go head to head, trumpeting price cuts in the hope of being able to claim they're delivering the lowest prices. It began with milk slashed to $1 a litre and soon spread to other staples, leaving many suppliers worried they'll be hurt in the price war crossfire. Greg Hoy reports.
MARION MACDONALD, DAIRY FARMER: As a dairy farmer, I find the pricing of milk down to this sort of level is really a bit of a kick in the teeth for us. I like a bargain in a supermarket just as much as everybody else, we're all trying to make ends meet and provide a good lifestyle for our families, but at the end of the day, I think that we will end up paying for this as consumers as well as farmers.
GREG HOY, REPORTER: Marion Macdonald, who runs a 260-cow dairy farm in Victoria's Gippsland district, is like many Australian farmers fearful and furious about possible repercussions from a rock 'n' roll advertising jingle now flooding the nation's airwaves. A promotional price war between major supermarkets triggered by the Coles chain, which under new management of the Wesfarmers group has thrown down the gauntlet to its old rival Woolworths, slashing bulk milk to $1 a litre, along with similar price cuts for other staples. Woolworths and others soon followed, but between them Coles and Woolworths control more than 70 per cent of the $80 billion grocery sector, so should consumers be celebrating such competition in what traditionally has been regarded as a near duopoly market?
CHRISTOPHER ZINN, CHOICE: How can you have true competition, really, where they match each other blow for blow, price reduction for price reduction, and really it's the collateral damage in terms of dairy farmers in this case or other independent retailers?
ALLAN FELS, FORMER CHAIRMAN, ACCC: There may be a temporary outbreak of competition that is very welcome. There're not many third party pressures on those two on their prices. There're not many constraints from other players that would keep the prices down permanently. We're still at the mercy of the duopoly.
GREG HOY: Coles wasn't available for interview, insisting its prices will stay down and that it will absorb any losses rather than pass them on to suppliers. Any suggestion the milk industry might be destroyed, it says, are ludicrous. But in a meeting with the Council of the National Farmers' Federation, Coles has failed to soothe the rising anger felt across rural Australia.
DENITA WAWN, NATIONAL FARMERS FEDERATION: There was an awful lot of defence and a lot of anger in the room against Coles. Obviously the focus has been on the dairy sector, but nevertheless this is much bigger. Coles is taking a significant change in marketing their fresh produce and it's not confined to milk. It is also the beef industry, the egg industry, the pork industry and who knows into the future.
MARION MACDONALD: There have been so many calls for greater transparency and for the ACCC to investigate what's been going on. As a dairy farmer, right at the end of the chain, I couldn't applaud that more.
GREG HOY: Coles insists it recently increased payments to large milk processors for its house brand milk, in one case it says on the strict proviso the processor Fonterra pass on five cents a litre extra to dairy farmers. Coles told us Fonterra then reneged on the deal and refused to pass on the money to farmers. Fonterra would not comment. Nor would the ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel comment on the so-called "Milk Price War", soon to be examined by a special Senate inquiry that begins next Tuesday. The ACCC won't confirm or deny if it is now examining this issue. But appearing before another parliamentary inquiry recently, it appeared the ACCC chairman may be sympathetic to the Coles argument that processors like Fonterra may have something to answer for here.
GRAEME SAMUEL, CHAIRMAN, ACCC (Last Thursday): It may well be that the issue is not so much the retail price of milk that's being charged to the consumer that is the centre of the potential problem for the dairy farmer, but it may well be that the relationship to the dairy farmer and the processor is the issue. And some of the focus in more recent times on Coles, Woolworths, the IGA group, Aldi and the like, may be - and I have to emphasise the word "may be" misplaced and misdirected and it may well be that it's the relationship between the farmer and the processor that becomes a relevant factor.
GREG HOY: But others aren't convinced Coles can so easily wash its hands of any risk to suppliers.
DENITA WAWN: Those complexities mean that certainly the processors have the upper hand when it comes to its relationship with the farmers, and that's why we say Coles cannot make guarantees the farmers are going to be worse off.
GREG HOY: Consumer group Choice says it's uncertain if promoted price cuts are in fact offset with price rises on other items, suggesting that unlike Woolworths, Coles will not publish its prices online to assist with independent price monitoring. Choice says it's time to end traditional reliance on the ACCC to investigate and resolve such issues.
CHRISTOPHER ZINN: The ACCC seems to have had a fairly hands-off view in terms of the supermarkets. We've been pushing for more action, more scrutiny. One of the main things is we'd like to see a supermarket ombudsman, and this is really someone who can have some expertise in this industry, some oversight, someone who can give some leadership to it and where necessary order early market investigations if things are going on which are potentially in breach.
GREG HOY: In the meantime, the rock 'n' roll promotion of supermarket price cuts continues, with opinion divided as to where it might all end.
DENITA WAWN: We're currently ascertaining legal advice from our lawyers about what if any legal avenues are available to us. Obviously this is a very political issue. ... We will maintain that campaign and ramp it up if and when we think is necessary.
ALLAN FELS: Downward pressure on price is not illegal under the Trade Practices Act, and also there isn't that much recourse that farmers can have. I don't think we're gonna bring back a minimum price for milk. That went in the year 2000. That system was fairly harmful to consumers.
MARION MACDONALD: For every litre of milk you have to pay the farmer's family to survive, you have to pay the processor's families to survive and also the Coles employees families to survive. By shrinking the size of the pie so dramatically, there just isn't enough money to go around all those families. So, at the end of the day, somebody will have to be squeezed out, and that means less competition, and ultimately, that puts more power in the hands of the big players, and the little players like you and me, the consumers and the farmer, we're the ones that are gonna suffer.
HEATHER EWART: Greg Hoy with that report.


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Speech Industry Sees a Flurry of Patent Activity
Since 2000, there have been 21,281 patents granted in the United States for speech technologies, according to a report from tech consulting firm iRunway, which points to significant strides in the development of the technology in the past 15 years.
According to iRunway's research, Microsoft, Nuance Communications, AT&T, IBM, and Google have led the industry in the number of patent filings, with the markets for virtual assistants, mobile technologies, and automotive systems seeing some of the most robust activity.
Of the speech recognition patents issued, 3,209 are related to the application of the technology in mobile devices. The report identifies AT&T, Nuance, Microsoft, IBM, and Google as the key patent holders in this space. Apple, it points out, does not have a large speech recognition patent portfolio and licenses most of its technology from Nuance, which powers its Siri virtual assistant.
The report also identified 648 patents that were applicable to automotive systems, which iRunway says is becoming a key applicant of speech recognition technology. And while car manufacturers used to rely on Nuance and Microsoft to implement speech recognition functionalities in their vehicles, Apple and Google have emerged as major players vying for a large share of the market with their CarPlay and Android Auto speech-controlled infotainment systems respectively. Many auto manufacturers have also begun developing these technologies on their own, with Denso, General Motors, and Honda leading the way.
iRunway points out, however, that much of the technology developed in mobile can be extended to cars, which is blurring the lines between the two industry segments.
The report also highlights the fact that at least 172 patents belonging to some of the leading technology providers are due to expire in 2016, bringing them into public domain. This, it says, "will likely prompt a new wave of development in the speech recognition domain with a dramatic impact on the application of this technology. This is likely to reduce licensing costs and make speech recognition technology more easily available to the larger market."
It already credits the virtual assistants, especially Apple's Siri, with demonstrating "the promise of a comfortable future with speech recognition and voice-enabled processes penetrating household and industrial applications."
Microsoft's Cortana, it adds, could have the most profound effects going forward, though. "Microsoft's Cortana, available in Windows 10 for mobile phones, tablets and, importantly, desktop units, may dramatically advance the virtual assistant experience, providing Microsoft with a significant edge over competitors," it says. "Unlike previous virtual assistants, Cortana is now tailored to local languages, customs, and cultures, and to the corresponding nuances of speech."
And that is only expected to increase as more companies experiment with applying natural language processing, linguistics and neural networking to the technology, building massive dictionaries of vocabulary, and deploying it in cloud-based architectures. Of those, "it appears that linguistics may be the key to reducing processing time and providing a more seamless user experience," the report concluded.
Overall, iRunway predicts that speech recognition will continue to be an area for growth in patents, particularly as the number of Internet-connected devices grows.


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iOS 8 Jailbreak News: Apple Fixes iOS 8 “Backdoor” Vulnerabilities
Different forensics and surveillance vulnerabilities were closed by Apple. Such information is mentioned by jailbreak expert Jonathan Zdziarski in his new iOS 8 review. While this is not exactly iOS 8 jailbreak news, you should still learn what the so-called “backdoor” bugs were and how this changes everything to iPhone users.
All the vulnerabilities Zdziarski mentions troubled him before. He highlighted the problems back in July during the Hackers on Planet Earth conference. All the “backdoor” services that were present in Apple mobile firmware could potentially allow government and Apple collect your private information and personal data.
The latest iOS 8 specs, according to the jailbreak expert, address all these issues and finally restrict or guard them.
There were a lot of rumors and reports about NSA collecting records on users and spying on iDevice owners. According to the Cupertino-based company, it never created anything to help government spy on customers and all the iOS functions “do not compromise user privacy and security.”
iOS 8 fix vulnerability news luckily doesn’t mention the possibility of jailbreaking. In other words, hackers can still find new and use their old vulnerabilities to allow users jailbreaking their iOS 8 device and install unsupported apps, hacks, tweaks and games. The vulnerability is fixed through disabling wireless access to com.apple.pcapd which Apple added into its iOS 8, Zdziarski claims. You can find his full review in the official iOS jailbreak expert blog.
Apple is going to release its iOS 8 on Wednesday, September 17th. Hopefully hackers can present their jailbreak programs as quickly as possible.


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Why Jonathan Adler is Fisher-Price’s New Creative Director
The Mattel brand behind toddler favorites like the Thomas and Friends and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse toy series—not to mention View-Masters and Chatter Telephones—first encountered Adler when it enlisted him to work on Barbie’s 50th anniversary in 2009.
Now, as creative director, Adler, who recently keynoted at Interior Design’s Giants of Design at his Parker Palm Springs in California, will seek to target millennials with fond memories of the 85-year-old brand who are now becoming parents themselves. “Jonathan’s influence will bring a modern sensibility to our iconic design,” Fisher-Price executive vice president Jean McKenzie said in a statement. “While staying true to what we’ve always stood for—enriching developmental play, quality, and safety—we are contemporizing form, function, and style.”
Adler’s first line of baby gear, newborn toys, crib bedding, and nursery décor will debut this fall while his multi-year agreement will have him consulting on style direction for children up to five years old. “My goal is to marry modern with the brand’s expertise in early childhood development,” Adler said in a statement. “Babies—and parents—deserve baby gear and toys as stylish as they are.


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Now you can charge this Model S for a $1 a day
It seems that AGL's CEO, Andy Vesey, is throwing down the gauntlet to add to the current flattening of the traditional electricity supply business as more Australian homes add solar generation to the sun-rich country.
The new initiative was announced at the Australia Energy Week Conference in Melbourne, reports the Australian Financial Review. Vesey proposed that it will cost a customer A$365 a year to juice up their electric vehicle at home regardless of the make or manufacturer.
This is a reasonable deal for 20kWh+ EVs like the Nissan LEAF, but for a 90kWh battery like those found in many Tesla Model S, just wow!
Vesey's A$1 a day plan was presented as follows at the conference: "For a dollar a day if you have an electric vehicle and you have an AGL smart meter and a charger you can get energy for that car for A$1 a day, as much as you like."
CEO Andy Vesey Tweeted news of the deal, which will be available from November.
— Andy Vesey (@AndyVesey_AGL) June 21, 2016
We see this as brilliant marketing and a reasonable deal even for the modest driver.
Hat tip to SparkEV!


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1. Mulberry Icons, reimagined
The iconic leather goods house celebrates its 50th anniversary this year! To commemorate Mulberry’s significant milestone, the brand launches the first in a series of Mulberry Editions drops – a curated collection of Mulberry’s most iconic silhouettes, reimagined in miniature – the icons.
The much-loved Iris, Amberley, Bayswater, Bayswater Tote and the newly relaunched Alexa have returned for the festivities, this time in collectable, miniature form in five classic Mulberry hues, and the eye-catching Mulberry Pink archival check.
The Mulberry Icon Editions bags are available at Mulberry Newmarket now – and stay tuned for more limited edition drops throughout 2021.
2. A new Sussex royal
On the one day of the year reserved for love, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they’re expecting baby number two. The timing couldn’t be more perfect as royal author Elizabeth Holmes pointed out, that this announcement was too, made on the exact day that Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced that they were expecting Harry, on February 14th, 1984.
The news was confirmed via a spokesperson who informed People magazine, “We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child”. And we couldn’t be more thrilled for the happy couple.
3. Framing Britney Spears, by The New York Times
Framing Britney Spears, a documentary by The New York Times, landed on Aotearoa’s small screens this week, exclusively via ThreeNow.
The much-awaited documentary centres around the pop star’s 13-year court-sanctioned conservatorship, controlled by her father, Jamie Spears, which sees Britney unable to gain access over her own personal fortune – and life. This documentary is a heartbreaking yet powerful insight into not only Britney’s life, but the media treatment she’s received since her rise to fame in 1998. It’s an eye-opening must-watch for Britney fans and ’90s kids alike.
Stream the full documentary on threenow.co.nz now.
4. Mi Piaci – In Harmony
As our country is reminded to not get too complacent over the current global pandemic, Mi Piaci releases their latest campaign for AW21 – aptly titled In Harmony.
The collection nods to the year that has been, the many challenges we’ve faced, and the exploration of finding the symmetry that allows us to live in harmony. The range features faithful Mi Piaci favourites reinterpreted with the modern woman in mind – from the utilitarian who favours a chunky tread sole to the dancing queen in a siren-red pump.
Our pick? The range of knee (and thigh) high boots. With new technologies which allow for extra stretch and comfort around the leg, there’s bound to be a perfect fit for every woman.
Shop Mi Piaci In Harmony in store and online now.
5. Pop-ups galore at Precinct 35
Some of Auckland’s favourite local designers will soon take residence at the hip Precinct 35 – a concept store and gallery located in the heart of Wellington. Across three weeks, designers Hej Hej, Penny Sage, and Grey Lynn sweethearts Mina and Thom Morison will take turns to pop up shop for Wellingtonians to view their wares – allowing them to browse ranges that were previously only available online.
Now, more than ever, we’re looking for new opportunities to support the local fashion industry. And what better way to support than to pop on down to Precinct 35 to check out the weekly offerings – and grab a coffee from neighbour Milk Crate while you’re at it!
Hej Hej, February 16-21
Penny Sage, February 22-28
Mina & Thom Morison, March 1-7
Precinct 35, 35 Ghuznee Street, Te Aro, Wellington.


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Senate votes to force banks to trim fees for debit transactions
Retailers say they could pass savings on to consumers
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted last night to force big banks to reduce fees for debit card transactions and permit merchants to offer customer discounts if they use cash, checks, or debit cards for purchases.
The Senate voted 64-33 to include the fee requirement in a package of financial rules the Senate is considering to ward off a repeat of the financial crisis.
The vote was a major defeat for banks, which lobbied heavily to defeat it. But the measure received heavy bipartisan support and surpassed a 60-vote threshold for passage. Both Massachusetts senators, Democrat John F. Kerry and Republican Scott Brown, supported the amendment.
The measure from Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, would force credit card companies to charge businesses less for debit card transactions than for those of credit cards.
Under current practice, a business that accepts major credit cards signs agreements with the card companies to pay a percentage of each transaction, usually about 2 to 3 percent. But credit card charges cost more to process than swipes with a debit card. The change would represent the most direct and tangible consumer benefit of the regulatory overhaul and would amount to a triumph for Durbin, who failed to get a similar proposal attached to an overhaul of credit card regulations last year.
The issue pitted the politically popular appeals of small business owners against the influence of community banks and the lobbying power of the credit card companies.
Durbin’s measure requires that once merchants can pay lower fees for debit card purchases, they then would be able to offer discounts to their customers based on their method of payment.
“To bring competition to credit cards is going to help these businesses and ultimately help consumers,’’ Durbin said.
“This is an issue that is not just a Main Street small-business issue, this is an issue that affects in our industry 160 million consumers a day,’’ said Henry Armour, chief executive of the National Association of Convenience Stores, which support the proposal.
In addition to the vote on the credit card issue, senators supported:
■ Ending the ability of financial institutions to choose the credit rating agencies that rate their investment products, a measure aimed at eliminating potential conflicts of interest. The measure, sponsored by Senator Al Franken and passed 64-35, Democrat of Minnesota, would require an independent board to assign ratings firms to assess the risks of new investments. It would replace a current system whereby banks issuing investments select and pay ratings agencies for their assessments. Critics had argued that relationship created incentives for ratings agencies to issue rosy assessments and resulted in safe ratings for risky investments that fueled the 2008 economic breakdown. Both Brown and Kerry supported Franken’s measure.
■ Ending the government’s reliance on ratings agencies as a standard for determining credit worthiness. The most prominent agencies are Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Corp. and Fitch Ratings.
■ Rolling back a proposal that would force banks to own a piece of mortgage-backed securities that they sell to institutional investors. Senators agreed by voice vote late Wednesday to give banks a way to avoid the requirement they hold at least a 5 percent interest in mortgages they assemble for sale. Banks lobbied against the requirement — designed to force banks to have “skin in the game’’ to ensure they make better loans.