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Providers laud Invacare - but will they buy more product?
YARMOUTH, Maine – Rehab providers nationwide have applauded Invacare’s decision to stop selling power wheelchairs to the Scooter Store, writing off about $10 million a year in revenue.
“We’re impressed, because for many in the industry, money is the bottom line,” said Debbie Libby, the rehab coordinator for Susquehanna Valley Mobility Services in Montandon, Pa. “It’s nice to see someone finally standing up for what’s right.”
Invacare stopped selling power wheelchairs to the Scooter Store in January, shortly after coming across a letter that the Scooter Store sent to a handful of congressional offices opposing efforts to carve out complex rehab from national competitive bidding.
While providers applauded Invacare and encouraged other manufacturers to follow its lead, few said they would now buy more wheelchairs from Invacare. By parting ways with the Scooter Store, Invacare has stated that it hopes to generate additional business from independent providers.
“We probably won’t do less business with any of our other vendors because of this,” said Jim Poteet, owner of Metrocare Home Medical & Rehab in Germantown, Wis., who buys from Invacare, Pride Mobility Products, Sunrise Medical and Drive Medical, in that order. “We need to make sure we preserve customer choice.”
Over time, however, that may change, said Jim Sloan, president of Medco Inc., in Orange Park, Fla.
“Right now, we’re not making any changes, and Invacare and Pride are neck-and-neck,” he said. “But down the road, if this slows down the Scooter Store from coming into competitive bidding areas and getting bids, things could be different.”
It may be business as usual for now, but at the very least, providers say, Invacare’s stand has changed the way they view manufacturers who continue to sell to the Scooter Store.
“While I understand Pride’s point of view—the Scooter Store’s a major account for them—and I give them kudos for their work in Washington, D.C., they appear to be playing both sides of the fence,” said Jim Greatorex, president of Portland, Maine-based Black Bear Medical. “That may have ramifications at some point.”


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Samsung settles with Microsoft in patent dispute
Geekwire is reporting that there has been a settlement in a Microsoft case against Samsung. Microsoft charged that Samsung’s use of Google’s Android operating system violated some Microsoft patents. Samsung will now pay Microsoft an undisclosed sum/percentage for each Android-based product sold. Microsoft previously settled with HTC in a similar case and under similar conditions. There may be less acrimony here than you think, says Geekwire:
Perhaps not coincidentally, both Samsung and HTC make devices that run Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system. The Microsoft lawyers say in the post that the latest deal gives Microsoft and Samsung “greater patent coverage relating to each other’s technologies, and opens the door to a deeper partnership in the development of new phones for the Windows Phone platform.”
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A Kuwaiti fish store has been shut down after its owner was found to have stuck fake eyes on his produce to make it seem fresher, according to reports.
The bizarre incident was reported by Kuwaiti newspaper Bayan on Twitter on Saturday.
Images showed the clearly distinguishable plastic lens covering the yellow eye of a fish.
وزارة التجارة تغلق محلا لبيع الأسماك يضع عدسات مزيفة للأسماك لتبدو على انها طازجة! pic.twitter.com/RCj7roilWT
— جريدة بيان الكويتية (@Bayan_kw) September 1, 2018
The outlet was closed by police, according to the publication.
Social media users were quick to mock the owner and posted their own pictures of fruit and other produce with the same googeley eyes, but some praised his creativity.
Bayan reported that a local fish merchant even announced a line of “fish without cosmetics” in response.


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- Growing headwinds to the economy resulting from the novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) outbreak in China, delays to the 2020 budget, and the impact from drought, will see the Bank of Thailand maintain its dovish stance.
- Against the backdrop of still-low inflation and low-to-negative real rates across emerging markets we believe there is scope for further easing from the Bank.
- As such, we now forecast policy interest rates to be cut further to 0.75% in 2020, taking Thailand’s real rate into negative territory, given our expectation for inflation to average 1.3% through the year.
The Bank of Thailand (BoT)’s decision to cut at its February 2020 monetary policy meeting signals its increasingly bearish outlook for the Thai economy. The monetary policy committee voted unanimously to cut the key policy rate by 25bps, taking it to an all-time low of 1.00%, citing a number of downside risks to growth. We had expected the BoT to hold through 2020, however the outbreak of the virus and delays to the passing of the 2020 budget will likely portend slower economic growth than we had previously anticipated, and given this, we expect further easing by the BoT in 2020. Indeed, the willingness of the BoT to respond quickly and take rates lower than they have ever been indicates the Bank’s wariness towards a sharper economic slowdown and the subsequent disinflationary and financial instability impact. As such, we at Fitch Solutions have now revised down our key policy rate forecast to 0.75% end-2020 and note likely downward revisions to our growth forecast of 3.0% for 2020.
Thai Rates Fall To Historic Low As Economic Woes Mount
Thailand – Key Policy Rate & Inflation Rates, %
Growing headwinds to the economy resulting from the coronavirus outbreak in China, delays to the 2020 budget, and impact from the drought, should see the BoT maintain its dovish stance. Thailand’s economy is highly exposed to weaker tourism arrivals from China, given the significance of the tourism sector to the wider economy. Tourism receipts account for around 13-14.0% of Thailand’s GDP, with 27.6% of visitors coming from China. The Chinese government’s order for the suspension of international tour sales and restrictions on movement in 27 Chinese provinces as of February 5, will severely impact tourist arrivals to Thailand, with other international tourists also potentially avoiding trips to or within the region. A contraction in the tourism sector will likely result in higher unemployment, given that the sector accounts for around one in six jobs, and erode domestic confidence, which had already been showing signs of weakness before the virus outbreak. Regional growth also looks set to be lower given the outbreak weighing on supply chain activity and broader external demand. The outbreak comes amid delays in passing the 2020 budget and droughts which threaten Thailand’s agricultural sector, which accounts for around 8.0% of output. These negative shocks to the economy are likely to prompt the BoT to embark on a more dovish course through 2020.
China A Key Source Of Tourists
Thailand – Tourist Arrivals By Region, % Of Total
Against the backdrop of still-low inflation and low to negative real rates across emerging markets, we expect the BoT to cut again in 2020, taking its key policy rate to 0.75% end-2020. Headline inflation averaged 0.7% y-o-y in 2019, coming in at 0.9% in December, and core inflation proved even weaker, averaging 0.5% y-o-y through the year. Weak core inflationary pressures and the likely disinflationary impact of lower oil prices as a result of the virus outbreak will offset some of the food price growth stemming from the drought impact and higher pork prices. As such, the potential for inflation to overshoot the upper bound of the BoT’s 1.0-4.0% inflation target range appears low. Accordingly, we forecast inflation to average 1.3% in 2020, although the shock of the coronavirus could see this revised lower. Moreover, with real rates across emerging markets low or in negative territory, the BoT could tolerate the real rate becoming negative (see chart below). This is more probable is the context of a strong Thai baht also curbing export-competitiveness; the BoT, alongside the Ministry of Finance, announced measures aimed at easing credit outflow restrictions and decoupling the link between the baht and gold appreciation, effective from November 8 2019.
Thailand With Room To Cut Further Relative To EMs Outside Asia
Emerging Market – Real Rates, %
While taking rates to 0.75% will leave the BoT with less policy space for a more aggressive downturn, we note that the economy is already facing strong headwinds and subdued credit growth. As such, low rates now appear more appropriate for the Thai economy, particularly alongside prudent macroprudential policies and cautious lending by Thai banks. Loan growth came in at 2.1% y-o-y in November 2019, reflecting subdued demand and supply dynamics. We note that the November 2019 and February 2020 policy interest rate cuts have yet to feed through to domestic lending rates and that loan demand may increase as credit conditions loosen. However, we believe that the lower lending rates will do little to support economic activity as households and SMEs will opt for refinancing or paying down existing debts over leveraging-up, given weak domestic confidence.
This commentary is published by BMI, a Fitch Solutions company, and is not a comment on Fitch Ratings Credit Ratings. Any comments or data included in the report are solely derived from BMI and independent sources. Fitch Ratings analysts do not share data or information with BMI. Copyright © 2023 Fitch Solutions Group Limited. All rights reserved. 30 North Colonnade, London E14 5GN, UK.


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These engineers have been working closely with Google on the Pixel smartphone line.
In a $1.1 billion deal with HTC, Google will take away about half of HTC’s research and design division, which means that around 2000 engineers, who work in this team will now be called Google employees.
These engineers are not new to the Google stable. They have been working closely with Google on the Pixel smartphone line.
Rick Osterloh, senior vice-president, hardware, Google, announced in the company blog, “I’m delighted that we’ve officially closed our deal with HTC, and are welcoming an incredibly talented team to work on even better and more innovative products in the years to come.”
Though these engineers will move to Google, they will not move to the US. These employees will be based out of Google’s innovation and engineering hub in Taiwan.
The expansion will make the Taipei-based unit the Company’s largest engineering department in the Asia-Pacific region.
Even for HTC, this deal is a win-win situation. The mobile phone company is now richer by a few billion dollars and at the same time, it is lighter by 2,000 employees.
Experts say that it’s business as usual for HTC. Though this acquihiring will create a dent in its research team, the Company can live with it. HTC will now focus only on a few premium models.
The agreement also includes a “non-exclusive license for HTC intellectual property.” Presumably, the IP is a new phone that is already in the works


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A staple of the human diet since time immemorial. With a place in our history, in our culture, on our tables. Whatever the recipe or method, breadmaking is regarded by many as a science, or even an art – and this is the craft to which our fresh dough factory devotes itself day in, day out.
It’s part of a common imaginary: at the breaking of dawn, a pristine milk bottle is delivered at the doorstep by the milkman. The milk round tradition might have changed, but Pingo Doce challenges itself to bring back the freshest milk.
Nearby Lisbon, an organic farming project is promoting the social inclusion of people with disabilities, closing the circle between solidarity and on-the-job training. One of its star products is bela-luz thyme, a natural substitute for salt.
It’s a long journey. The carefully picked beans are dried and roasted, before going global. Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are drunk each day worldwide. But consumers are looking for new ways of tasting this unique product.
Behind the magic hands of the Polish grandmother is a secret none will dare to unveil. What if her delicious consommé was store-bought? To celebrate the 3rd anniversary of our Polish soup factory, we invited chef Kuba Kuron to cook three beloved Biedronka recipes.
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While Apple and Samsung are set to hash out their differences and hopefully come to a settlement agreement, Motorola and Microsoft are still at each other’s throats and in the latest development, Motorola has won an injunction against Microsoft’s Windows 7 and the Xbox 360 in Germany. The court ultimately ruled in Motorola’s favor in the case of four lawsuits filed against Microsoft pertaining to alleged patent infringement that covers the H.264 video encoding standard, a format which reportedly is used by roughly 80% of all digital videos.
The injunction will prevent the distribution of Windows 7, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and the Xbox 360. Motorola is even going as far as requesting the infringing products be recalled from their retail outlets and destroyed. Motorola is also demanding royalties be paid to them which has been estimated at $4 billion annually, a figure that Microsoft is obviously objecting to. According Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents, it seems that this ridiculously huge figure was made in order to force Microsoft into a broad cross-licensing agreement, a move in which the European Commission is investigating as this could violate EU antitrust laws.


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Last week, the Bitcoin network resolved more than $30B in a single day.
The Bitcoin network’s value has been soaring recently, with a new daily all-time high reached last week.
On Oct. 6, the daily settlement value of Bitcoin reached an all-time high. With $31B in transactions being resolved on the Bitcoin network.
The network’s daily settlement volume has increased by almost 40 times since the beginning of 2020, setting a new milestone.
Daily settlement traffic has subsequently dropped dramatically, according to Coin Metrics statistics, with the Bitcoin network clearing $11.6 billion in transactions on Oct. 10.
Willy Woo, an on-chain expert, tweeted that the volume of money moving on Bitcoin’s blockchain now surpasses that of big centralised payment networks Visa and Mastercard in the US.
“At the moment, the Bitcoin network is performing 190,000 transactions per second. Compare that to Visa’s $130,000 per second for US consumers and Mastercard’s $55,000 per second.”
According to Bitinfocharts, the average value of a Bitcoin transaction has been gradually growing over the last three months, reaching $732,000, a 273% rise since July 1.
A rise in the number of transactions worth more than $10M has also been reported by Chinese media source Wu Blockchain.
According to Coin Metrics, the daily value of Ethereum transfers is $5.3 billion. In early September, Ethereum temporarily overtook Bitcoin in terms of daily settlement volume, but Bitcoin quickly reclaimed the lead.


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West Chester, Pa. – Driven by a substantial increase in comparable-store sales, Electronics Boutique Holdings reported strong financial results in its fiscal third quarter with net income hitting $7.1 million.
The specialty retailer of video game hardware, software and PC entertainment software and accessories reported a 55.3 percent increase in revenue in the third quarter, hitting $283 million, up from $182.2 million in the year-ago period. Comparable-store sales jumped 37.7 percent in the third quarter, due primarily to the significant sales strength of new and pre-owned video game software on all major platforms.
Net income in the third quarter, ended Nov. 2, reached $7.1 million, compared with the $2.9 million reported in the same quarter of last year.
On a pro forma basis, which excludes the results of operations and related expenses associated with the retailer’s EB Kids and BC Sports Collectibles businesses in the current and prior-year periods, third quarter revenue reached $279.2 million, compared with $175.8 million in the same three months in 2001. Pro forma results for the current year exclude a restructuring charge reversal of $2.2 million.
Pro forma net income for the third quarter was $6.1 million, compared with $3.8 million in the third quarter of last year.
Electronics Boutique said video game software comprised 65 percent of company sales in the third quarter, and that total video game revenue grew by 87 percent in the three months, compared with industry revenue growth of 38 percent, as reported by NPD.
For the nine months, revenue increased 39.4 percent, hitting $783.2 million, up from $561.7 million in the same nine months in 2001. Net income for the first nine months was $8.5 million, compared with a net loss of $30,000 reported in the same period last year.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Electronics Boutique anticipates a comp-store sales increase of 8 percent to 12 percent.


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Posted on April 25, 2022 in Calendar, Pro-Am & Scramble.
BMW Golf Cup France 2022, team spirit
For its 35th edition, the BMW Golf Cup France is adopting a new team game formula: the Stableford Scramble. This unmissable event for golf and car enthusiasts has been organized by the Promogolf agency since its creation in 1987. Registration for these different stages is done exclusively online.
Animated by 80 BMW dealerships for as many regional qualifying competitions, the BMW Golf Cup revives a friendly game formula where each participant shares his game with a member of his family, a friend, a ( e) another player of his club.
The regional stages, open to all, begin on May 8 and end on October 2.
During each of them, the best team meeting the qualification criteria will win their ticket for the National Final which will take place on October 16, 2022 in Paris.
BMW France and its network of dealerships will offer all participants Test Centers with the latest innovations in the range: Active Tourer, i4, iX3, iX, i7, but also sports events such as approach competitions, hole in 1, from drive…
On the partner side, the Swiss watchmaker ORIS, Bowers & Wilkins and its high-end audio products, the equipment manufacturer Mizuno and Champagne RSRV remain loyal to the tournament and its endowment.
The LiLLii Water brand is joining them this year by offering responsible hydration since each packaging is made from 89% plant-based raw materials.
Registration for the BMW Golf Cup France takes place exclusively online via the website dedicated to the tournament – www.bmwgolfcup.fr – the starting point for a relationship between golfers, BMW and each dealer.
A major player in golf on a global scale, BMW is a partner of:
- The Ryder Cup as a "Global Partner"
- The PGA European Tour as official and exclusive partner
- The biggest international tournaments such as the BMW International Open (Munich) BMW PGA Championship (Wentworth)
Finally, BMW France has remained an official partner of the French Golf Federation since 2006.
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Unusually, Microsoft responded to a common rumor.
The news reached the technical press a few days ago. Accordingly After Windows 11, the ability to run Android apps and games on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles may also be available. The rumor was launched by Microsoft itself after a product page for the Android runtime environment appeared in the Windows 11 factory app store, saying that it is Xbox compatible software.
Contrary to its usual protocol, Microsoft was willing to comment on press reports, Windows Central According to his own response, there are currently no plans to bring Android software to Xbox. Accordingly, there was simply incorrect information on the Windows Subsystem Component product page for Android.
After migrating your Xbox system software to Windows 11, running Android apps and games on consoles probably isn’t great, but the solution to managing them using the gamepad seems pretty problematic. In addition, it is unclear how much of the business stake Microsoft will receive in this step.
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