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Shares of Magna International (NYSE:MGA) hit the fast lane in February. The stock traded up 19% for the month, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, as investors applauded the company’s quarterly earnings report.
Magna is a Canada-based auto supplier, and like most in the automotive industry the company had challenges in the early part of 2020. The pandemic forced the company to temporarily halt production at more than 300 factories worldwide, and led to reduced sales as automakers trimmed the number of cars rolling off the line.
But the company bounced back in the second half of 2020, finishing the year with a flourish. Magna mid-month reported fourth-quarter earnings of $2.83 per share on revenue of $10.57 billion, easily besting analyst expectations for $2.03 per share in earnings on sales of $10.12 billion.
Magna is also optimistic about the future. The company said it sees revenue in 2021 coming in between $30 billion and $41.6 billion, well ahead of the $38.45 billion consensus. By 2023 the company expects sales of between $43 billion and $45.5 billion, with margins growing from a predicted 7.1% to 7.5% in 2021 to between 8.1% and 8.6% in 2023.
The results led to at least three price target hikes by Wall Street analysts and propelled the company higher for the month.
Magna is a well-regarded auto parts supplier, but a lot of the excitement around the stock centers on the role it appears likely to play in the electrification of the industry. Magna has set itself up to be for automakers what Foxconn Technology is for Apple and other tech giants.
Magna has deals in place to build Jaguar’s I-Pace electric car and a vehicle for Fisker under contracts, and has worked with others including Sony on potential vehicle designs. Though not as sexy as some of the electric vehicle start-up names, Magna arguably has positioned itself to be as big a beneficiary, if not bigger, of the EV trend than a lot of the start-ups.
Those interested in investing in the future of the automobile could do a lot worse than buying shares of Magna International.
This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the “official” recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. We’re motley! Questioning an investing thesis — even one of our own — helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.


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We break down our annual Star Rating list to highlight some of this year’s crown achievements.
8 months ago
Attractions and Landmarks, Destinations, Events, Guide, Hotels, Lists, News, Star Ratings, Uncategorized
Forbes Travel Guide announced its first-ever London Star Ratings today, with six Five-Star hotels, 16 Four-Star hotels, two Five-Star spas and seven […]
4 years ago

domain: news


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Our representative participated as a speaker at the Japan Inbound Summit 2020.
Jul 3, 2020
Our representative participated in the event that key players in the field of Japanese inbound tourism discussed the future of the industry, which was wiped out by the novel coronavirus.
▼Abount The Japan Inbound Summit
▼Session our representative spoke “Aiming for making a Chubu region to be chosen by travelers with a new perspective”


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PuTTY is now available in the Microsoft Store
The update frequency of PuTTY is extremely low. In the past, it was updated once a year. In recent years, it was sometimes updated twice a year. The latest version is the v0.76 version released in July last year. The version currently released on the Microsoft Store is v0.76. The name of the app is PuTTY, the developer is Simon Tatham, and it is the official version.
There is also PuTTY with the same name in the Microsoft Store, but it has been marked as unofficial. Now that the official version is released, it is estimated that the developers of the unofficial version will also stop updating.


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A deficiency of Orexin, a neuropeptide hormone, an ingredient that encourages hunger and wakefulness, may leave narcoleptics with a lack of energy-burning brown fat. Narcoleptics are excessively sleepy and prone to gaining weight, irrelevant of the amount of food they consume. Orexins allow us to eat more and lose more at the same time, according to Devanjan Sikder of the Sanford-Burnham Research Institute.
MAYWOOD, Ill. — Eighty-one percent of hospital patients are at high risk for obstructive sleep apnea, a Loyola University Health System study has found. The findings suggest that hospitals should consider giving patients a five-minute …
ScienceNewsline – Top Science News
It’s assumed that more brown fat is produced when you spend a lot of time in the cold. White fat stores calories , brown fat burns them, generating heat in the process. Orexin-deficient people with narcolepsy should be examined to find out whether their brown fat activity is compromised.


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Seller confidence declines for the sale of businesses
For the first time in the last 28 editions of Pepperdine University’s “Market Pulse”, seller confidence has declined in 4 out of 5 price ranges. That means for business owners who want to sell, there are changing market conditions to consider and deal with.
Craig Everett, PhD, director of Pepperdine University Private Capital Markets, says “This is a sign the market has peaked, and more people are expecting a correction in the year or two ahead.”
From the Market Pulse Report:
“The final sale price of businesses varied depending on its valuation according to the Q1 2019 Market Pulse Report. Lower middle market companies in the $5 million to $50 million range had the highest the final sale price at 101% of benchmark. On the other hand, small businesses valued under $500,000 had the biggest drop from their asking price with final sale prices going from 91% of the pre-set asking price in Q1 2017 to 85% in Q1 2019.”
Businesses with enterprise value of $5 million or more are most in demand right now. The market is not cooling at all for those sellers,” said Gary Papay, managing partner of IBG Business. “That’s reflected in supply-demand sentiment and multiples.
Sell now or wait?
For those sellers who are having an emotionally hard time letting go and whose business is valued at under $5 million, it is most likely go NOW or wait another five to seven years for the market to cycle back up to current conditions.
Unfortunately, Market Pulse goes on to report that for the lower quartile of the market, drivers (or lack there of) remain the same.
Business Owners, by-in-large are still cursed with:
Unrealistic expectation of values
Declining sales trends (especially in bricks & mortar)
Dated business practices (technology)
Over reliance on the owners themselves
Significant customer concentration
At Strategic Succession, we’ve been addressing this for years. with business owners. We see that many financial planning and business advisors are not helping Business Owners adequately plan for the disposition of their largest asset.
About the Market Pulse Report
Market Pulse Report is published quarterly by the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA) and M&A Source with Pepperdine University Business School. It compares conditions for businesses being sold on Main Street (values of $0-$2MM) to those being sold in the Lower Middle Market (values of $2MM-$50MM). The Q1 2019 survey was conducted April 11-15, 2019 and was completed by 292 business brokers and M&A advisors. This is the 28th edition of this quarterly report.
Want thoughts on your situation? Let’s talk.
Read more here: HEADWINDS BUSINESS OWNERS WILL FACE AS IT COMES TIME TO SELL


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World-Class Selling: Social media can help you find new customers
- Roy Chitwood, Guest Columnist
While technology today is more sophisticated than ever, selling remains the same — you’ve got to find people to sell and sell the people you find. For sales people who are already using cold calling, email and newsletters as part of their marketing efforts, increasing their presence on social media can help generate leads, improve contact with existing customers and break the ice with new prospects.
Prospecting is a cornerstone of selling, yet it’s also one of the biggest challenges salespeople face. Many sales people dislike it, making it their lowest priority, while others avoid it altogether.
Simply put: If you can’t prospect, you can’t sell. Making this connection with people is vital to sales success. If you don’t have any prospects, you aren’t going to have any customers.
The first rule of prospecting is figuring out where your potential customers are. Since nearly everyone today can be found on some form of social networking, it’s logical for sales people to establish a presence there. Social media can greatly improve a salesperson’s odds of making a sale by connecting her with a large number of people she might not otherwise have reached.
Not a replacement
Connecting with prospects on a social network doesn’t mean that salespeople can abandon all other prospecting activities, however. A salesperson’s social network may contain a small handful of viable prospects — and a deluge of “suspects,” unqualified leads that will never result in a sale. Reliance on a Facebook post or a tweet to take the place of more proven prospecting practices such as cold calling is a recipe for disaster. This is why it’s critical that salespeople continue all of their current prospecting activities.
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Del Rey offers hints at a few of the stories from their 40th anniversary collection, From A Certain Point of View. They also seem to be the stories highlighted in the book’s blurb.
Fantasy Flight Games, who currently hold the Star Wars roleplaying liscense, is releasing a special edition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the West End Games version. Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game began in 1987 and was a key foundation of the original Expanded Universe, some of which has been seamlessly brought over into the current canon.
The hardbound reprints of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game and The Star Wars Sourcebook feature a foreword from Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo.
Random House has posted the complete blurb for Phasma, the novel by Delilah S. Dawson that’s helping kick off Journey to The Last Jedi.
Our next book will be the paperback of Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: Empire’s End on August 29, followed by Force Friday on September 1, with our first wave of The Last Jedi merchandise. That includes the novels Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson and Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray. See more in our book release schedule.


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Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Company (CATL) announced a series of agreements to secure future supplies of raw materials, according to local reports, as global demand for electric vehicle (EVs) continues to accelerate.
CATL was reported to have signed a deal worth almost US$300m to acquire Canadian mining company Millennial Lithium at C$3.85 per share, outbidding an earlier CAD3.60 offer made by China’s Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Company, one of China’s leading producers.
Earlier this week, Australia’s AVZ Minerals announced it had secured US$240m in funding from a private investment firm partly owned by CATL to develop its concession in the lithium rich Manono region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, giving Suzhou-based CATH Energy Technologies a 24% stake in the project.
CATL had previously acquired stakes in Lithium Corporation, which has concessions in Argentina, Canada’s Neo Lithium Corporation and Australia’s Pilbara Minerals.
All global battery manufacturers including CATL are scrambling to secure future supplies of raw materials to feed growing worldwide demand for EVs with vehicle manufacturers ready to sign multi-billion dollar contracts with companies offering both the most advanced technology and the ability to guarantee supply.


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Consider the plight of today’s U.S. mail carrier. Your employer is slagged off in the media for being fiscally irresponsible, your pension is a political football, and you may or may not be delivering mail on Saturdays depending on which way the wind is blowing. And now you may not even be sure who your employer actually is anymore.
That’s because today Amazon announced that it has struck a deal that will see the Postal Service delivering Amazon packages to consumers on Sundays starting in the New York and Los Angeles markets – first deliveries will begin next weekend. The program could be expanded to Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix (our editor just did a happy dance) next year. Financial details of the arrangement have not been disclosed.
Let’s take a look at this step by step, shall we? Businesses and individuals pay postage rates set by the USPS’s governing board and can expect their items to be received six days a week…unless threats of reducing that to five days a week are made good on.
Along comes one retailer that pays the postal service a bit extra to get special Sunday delivery treatment. When this happens in dustier countries, we call it a bribe. Here, where Amazon may be the last high-volume customer the post office has, we call it a good idea.


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Closed Nokia plant could open up doors to foreign investors and also bring in Jaya as an ally
GN Bureau | February 19, 2015
Finance minister Arun Jaitley can achieve twin objectives of getting an ally in Parliament and send signals to foreign investors about India’s tax regime by accepting a suggestion to revive Nokia plant in Tamil Nadu.
It is learnt that the Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY) has sent a proposals and suggested that it is ‘highly desirable’ that the mobile handset manufacturing activity at the Nokia plant at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu be revived.
Jaitley had recently met former chief minister and AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaaa in Chennai and her party’s support is crucial in Rajya Sabha. Revival of the Nokia factory, which had given direct employment to nearly 8000 people, may boost TN’s sentiments. It will also lift the Modi government pitching for Make in India.
Nokia had suspended mobile handset production at the plant in November last. The company had tax troubles and other legal issues. Nokia began its operations in 2006. It was Nokia's largest plant in the world. Due to tax issues the factory remained out of agreement of sale with Microsoft.
According to the DeitY, the revival plan would send "positive signals to the domestic and global industry". It remains to be seen whether Jaitley will take this proposal to the logical conclusion and provide some kind of incentives in his budget this month.
Things don’t turn up in this world, as former US president James A. Garfield once said, until someone turns them up. This is all the more so, when one considers the hidden gems that are waiting to be discovered. The world is full of talented young people who need just a nudge to provide that spark th
On Gandhi Jayanti this year, the Khadi India outlet in Connaught Place in the capital once again set a new record of khadi sales in a single day. In a single day, the Khadi India showroom at Connaught Place marked sale of Rs. 1.34 crore and broke its own previous record of Rs. 1.01 crore se
In Mumbai, the ninth most populous and congested city on the planet, high rentals compel citizens to spend five hours on an average travelling to work every day. Mumbai’s Metro Rail System extending towards Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) will not only provide East-West connectivity
Tourism is a huge part of global culture nowadays and is also one of the biggest sources of revenue across the world. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), in 2019, the tourism industry contributed $8.9 trillion or 10.3% to the global GDP. The industry witnessed a massive lull in 2020 d
The Life and Times of George Fernandes By Rahul Ramagundam Penguin/New India Foundation, 624 pages, Rs 799 Amer
After years of intense preparation, India is about to take the next step in information and communication technology. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch 5G services in India on October 1 and also inaugurate the 6th Edition of India Mobile Congress 2022 to be held till October 4, at Pragati Maidan, Ne


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Bethesda doesn’t want you to download the latest update for New Vegas until it’s put out a fix for it.
Hot on the heels of the news that Obsidian’s patch for Fallout: New Vegas has made the game unplayable for just about everyone, Bethesda has officially stated that it’s working on fixing things. Oh, and it’s also telling users to decline accepting the update.
According to a post on the bethesda blog, the game’s developers have found what’s causing the problem and will be putting out a new patch soon:
“Regarding the Xbox 360 update, we’ve discovered a solution to the issue that’s causing problems with game saves,” it read. “We’ll be hosting a replacement update on Xbox Live as soon as humanly possible.
“If you haven’t grabbed the New Vegas update on 360 today, we recommend you decline the update until the new one is live. We’ll be sure to let you know when it’s up.”
Fallout: New Vegas has earned a reputation for being enjoyable, but broken. The fact that an update designed to fix the game wreaked this much havoc is pretty ironic. To quote John Funk: “On some level I can’t help but find it funny in its absurdity at this point. Even when Obsidian tries to fix the game, it breaks it.”


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7th Nov 2019
Basf has unveiled Elastopan polyurethane for Mizuno's new training footwear. The shoes are meant to improve balance and athletic performance. The high-performance material solution enables Mizuno's Centre of Balance (COB) technology that transmits information to the soles of the feet through activation bumps moulded into the surface of the midsole.
12th Oct 2019
Huub has collaborated with textile innovator Devan Chemicals to bring even more performance-enhancing technology to its triathlon and cycling racewear. The two companies have been working on a project around 'Moov&Cool' which has resulted in improvements to athlete performance. Hubb is a wetsuit and apparel specialist having exp in field of endurance...
9th Oct 2019
Eurojersey, developer of high-performance Sensitive Fabrics, has chosen Framis Italia as its heat taping technology partner. Thanks to the innovative NoSo bonding technology performed by Framis Italia, it is possible to manufacture seamless sports garments using special adhesive tapes with elevated elastic properties to ensure maximum freedom of...
17th Sep 2019
Burlington Industries has got a $1.6 million contract to supply the US Marine Corps with micro denier polyester fabrics for use in their physical training (PT) trunks. This lightweight woven 100 per cent micro denier polyester fabric utilises Burlington's Moisture Control System (MCS) technology for advanced breathability and moisture management.
13th Sep 2019
Braskem's I'm green Polyethylene (PE) bioplastic has been used in ProdTek's new Turf Cushion line of turf underlay products, enhancing its sustainability. ProdTek's Turf Cushion is installed under artificial turf for applications such as play grounds, play areas, sports fields, roof tops, and indoor play areas where shock attenuation is critical for...
13th Sep 2019
Sympatex is set to display the pilot production slots of Utmospheric, a seamless, no-stitch three-dimensional waterproof inner shoe, for 2020/2021 winter season, at Lineapelle, in hall 22P M11-M19/N12-N20. The international exhibition of leather, accessories, components, fabrics, synthetics, and models will be held from October 2-4, 2019, in Milan.
3rd Sep 2019
Meryl has collaborated with Adidas by Stella McCartney to develop an ecological tennis collection based on sustainable yarns. Athletes like Garbine Muguruza or Kristina Mladenovic have collaborated on this project with the intention of positive change for the world and awareness of sustainability values. Meryl is Nylstar's luxury textile brand.
23rd Jul 2019
Texon, a leader in the development of eco-friendly, structural materials for the global footwear industry, has introduced Texon Vulcan - a new product with up to 50 per cent recycled fibre content that can provide extra shape and enhanced levels of support in vulcanised shoes. Texon Vulcan is a non-woven polyester felt with strong performance...
9th Jul 2019
DuPont Biomaterials, that develops high performance, renewable materials, showed its DuPont Sorona fibre stretch applications at the recently held Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2019. From presenting to industry peers to an eye-catching acrobatic performance, the Sorona team highlighted how garments today no longer need spandex for athletic movement.


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The federal government will have to pay N40.70 for every litre of imported petrol, to ensure the retail price remains N145 per litre.
The group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, revealed this at a press conference in Abuja.
Baru stated that the landing cost of petrol is now N171 per litre.
“The landing cost comprising CIF (cost, insurance and freight) of petrol as of last Friday was in the neighborhood of $620 per metric tonne, so with the official exchange rate of N305 to the dollar, the landing cost should be N171.40 per litre,” he said.
“The government has consistently indicated that N145 per litre is the price and it has mandated the NNPC to keep the depot price at N133.28 per litre, so as to maintain a cap of N145 per litre.
“So, there is a lot of profit in between after taking the transportation cost of N7 off; there is sufficient margin for marketers in that PPPRA template at the price cap.”
According to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) price template, marketers are allowed a profit margin of N14.30 to cater for distribution costs.


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Dear Web developers: Microsoft knows how many hours of your life have been wasted trying to troubleshoot designs and functionality for Internet Explorer 6, and they’re sorry. They promise they’re never going to do that to you again.
To ensure such nightmares are never relived, the company will start rolling out automatic upgrades to Internet Explorer across Windows 7, Vista and XP, the company announced in a blog post today. Rather than relying on users to update the browser themselves or requiring you to trick your parents into updating theirs around the holidays, Windows will update to the latest compatible version of IE on its own.
By adding this feature, Microsoft borrows from other browser manufacturers like Google, who enables automatic updates for its frequently-updated Chrome browser. If this kind of functionality were available on Windows ten years ago, it could have help saved many headaches for front-end developers and designers, who have long wrestled with multiple versions of IE to get things looking just right. Microsoft has come a long way in terms of supporting the latest Web standards in recent versions of IE, but version 6 has stubbornly lived on. It’s now to the point where even Microsoft can’t wait to see it die.
This doesn’t mean that every Windows machine on the planet will automatically be updated to the latest stable build of Internet Explorer overnight. The automatic update feature will be rolled out in Australia and Brazil first, and then to other countries over the course of next year. The software will upgrade to the most recent version of the browser that’s compatible with one’s operating system. Thus, Windows XP users can only go as high as Internet Explorer 8. Still, that’s a huge and worthwhile improvement from version 6.
The feature will be available to most Windows users, but it can easily be disabled, much to the delight of corporate IT departments everywhere.


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On may 3, 2002, hp and compaq completed the combination of their businesses as a result of the merger, compaq is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of hp and shares of compaq common stock no longer trade on the new york stock exchange. Hewlett-packard company (nyse: hwp) and compaq computer corporation (nyse: cpq) announced today a definitive merger agreement to create an $87 billion global technology leader the new hp will offer the industry's most complete set of it products and services for both businesses and consumers, with. Two years after hewlett packard's merger with compaq a wharton management professor who specializes in studying mergers and acquisitions. Hp & compaq merger1 hp-hewlett packard the company pre-merger in 1938, two stanford graduates in electrical engine. Carly fiorina and the hp compaq merger in september 2001, hewlett packard’s gutsy new ceo, carly fiorina – ‘the most powerful woman in business,’ according to fortune magazine in 1998 – announced the acquisition by hewlett packard of the major pc manufacturer, compaq. Many solution providers were against the hp-compaq merger but 10 years later, partners reflect on the historic deal and how it changed hp -. Hewlett-packard co on friday officially closed its $19 billion buyout of rival compaq computer corp, bringing to a close one of the most divisive merger battles in recent memory.
Cio sign in | register 7 worst tech mergers and acquisitions we're all waiting to see if pending buyouts by at&t hewlett-packard and compaq. Leadership and change management in the merger of hewlett-packard reasons for the merger hp was the proposed merger consolidated hp compaq's product into. Hp and compaq merger the failure of the merger between two leading competitors in the global computer industry, hewlett-packard company (hp) and compaq computer corporation (compaq) failed as the synergies identified prior to the merger. Agata stachowicz-stanusch politechnika śląska culture due diligence based on hp/compaq merger case study of course the merger was a.
This could happen on this merger between hp and compaq as a result of following causes conversations are usually not applied: due to in contrast to cultures. Family members of the co-founders of the hewlett-packard co are opposing the planned merger between hp and compaq computer corp analysts called the families' actions a psychological blow to the proposed merger. The hp-compaq merger did spend a lot of time and money evaluating the impact on customers before executing their post-merger it integration plan.
Worst tech mergers and acquisitions: hp and compaq a corporate merger, like a marriage, can yield a whole stronger than its parts -. Transient description the next is a quick description of the 2 corporations: hp all of it started within the 12 months 1938 when two electrical engineering graduates from stanford college known as william hewlett and david packard began their enterprise in a storage in palo alto. Embattled computer manufacturer hewlett-packard confirmed monday that it will split into two separate and publicly traded companies, eliminating 5,000 jobs in the process the move breaks up the computer technology giant created after hp’s controversial merger with compaq in 2002, offering a. Hewlett-packard company (nyse:hwp) today announced that it completed its merger transaction with compaq computer corporation (nyse:cpq) as planned the trading of compaq common stock will be suspended before the opening of the market on may 6, 2002, and hp will begin trading under the new nyse.
Two years after hewlett packard's merger with compaq, people are still asking some hard questions about the company's prospects the reason.
617 per cent to this end, the scope of this paper is to analyse the effect of hewlett-packard and compaq merger and to derive whether such a merger. How can the answer be improved. Hewlett-packard’s shareholders are about to vote on the biggest merger in the computer business the battle over teaming up with compaq. With only weeks left before hewlett-packard shareholders vote on the company's merger with compaq computer, the outcome is murkier than ever two separate independent surveys of employees, commissioned by one of the deal's main opponents, reported that workers were against the merger and 20% of. Corporate mergers - like marriages - can result in the whole being stronger than its parts -- or they can end in utter disaster the it industry has suffered its share of disastrous marriages here is the worst merger ever: in the late 1980's, hp determined that their pa-risc systems architecture. When two big computer makers, hp and compaq, completed their $19 billion merger in may, many believed that carly fiorina, chief executive of the combined firm, would be the first to go she was considered damaged goods after the bruising proxy battle preceding the deal but on november 11th it was. Case about hp and compaq merger after 6 years the merer is proven succesfull.
Transcript of cultural issues in hp and compaq merge cultural issues in hp and compaq merge cultural clash the merger was ill-fated from the start. 6 big mergers that were killed by culture marking what cnet calls “a concluding chapter in one of the worst mergers in history” hp and compaq. In the old days, the conventional wisdom on wall st was that mergers were exciting, they created value, they just were good and the bigger the. Hewlett-packard plans to hold employee celebrations worldwide this week to mark the first anniversary of the compaq merger janet stashak won't be going to the party she lost her job two weeks ago, joining the ranks of thousands of hp and former compaq employees who were axed as part of the $19. The hewlett-packard and compaq merger: a case study in business communication “can we still pull this off” as carleton s (carly) fiorina left hewlett-packard’s headquarters in silicon valley late. The world’s largest corporate information technology merger began in september 2001 when hp announced that they would acquire compaq in an. Hewlett-packard plans to buy compaq computer high-ranking executives from both hp and compaq earlier this year said that mergers.


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BEIJING - Chinese search engine giant Baidu announced on Friday that its driverless car has finished road tests and succeeded in automatic driving in mixed road conditions.
The test vehicle left the Baidu building in Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park and drove to the Olympic Forest Park via the G7 Beijing-Urumqi highway and the Fifth Ring Road before returning via the same route.
The vehicle reached a top speed of 100km/hr during the test, according to the company.
Baidu said the test was completed with a driver in the car who would take control of the vehicle in case of emergency.
Launched in 2013, the company's driverless car project is based on the core "Baidu car brain" technology, which includes high-precision electronic mapping, positioning and decision-making systems.
"Automatic driving faces challenges in a variety of driving conditions such as bad weather and congestion," said Wang Jin, senior vice president of Baidu.
"It is a great challenge to test in Beijing, a city with so many complicated road conditions, but luckily we made it," said Wang.
Baidu announced its plan to develop a driverless car in June. It has previously worked on "semi-autonomous" cars with German automaker BMW.
The driverless car is scheduled to make its debut at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen Township in east China's Zhejiang province from Dec.16 to 18.
IT companies such as Google and Apple are working with auto manufacturers including Toyota and Tesla to develop their own driverless cars. In May 2014, Google presented a concept for a driverless car without a steering wheel or pedals and unveiled a fully functioning prototype in December of that year.
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Small Business Cybersecurity Study ReleasedOctober 24, 2012
Last week, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Symantec released a study on small business cybersecurity that revealed a stark contrast between the perceptions and practices of small businesses, and the need for improving online safety policies and procedures. Several key findings from the study include:
- Seventy-one percent of small businesses say their business is somewhat or very dependent on the Internet for day-to-day operations;
- A majority of small-business owners (55 percent) say that the loss of Internet access for 48 straight hours during a regular business week would be disruptive to their business – two-fifths (38 percent) of which say it would be extremely disruptive; yet
- Fifty-nine percent of small-business owners say they do not have a contingency plan outlining procedures for responding and reporting a data breach loss such as: loss of customer or employee information; loss of credit or debit card information; or loss of intellectual property.
According to a recent study by Symantec, in 2011 18 percent of all cyber-attacks targeted small businesses. Today, that number has increased to 36 percent. Over the past several months, a number of articles have been written about the significant increase in cyber-attacks on small businesses. One article from the New York Times also highlighted the lack of protections afforded to small-business bank accounts. Under federal law, small-business accounts to not receive the same safeguards as consumer accounts, even though a majority of small businesses are sole proprietorships.
The current lack of critical infrastructure protections for our nation’s digital networks (including our financial, communications, and electric grids) coupled by the dramatic increase in cyber-attacks on small businesses and the inadequate protections afforded to small businesses under current federal law, makes this an important issue for America’s small business community and one that NSBA will continue to closely monitor.
For updates or additional information on small business cybersecurity issues, please follow us at @NSBAAdvocate or follow NCSA at @StaySafeOnline.


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The Brazilian supermodel — known simply as Gisele — remains signed to United Talent Agency for representation outside of fashion and beauty.
“I am thrilled to welcome Gisele to CAA Fashion and look forward to continuing our long history of working together, creating world-class opportunities spanning the multifaceted fashion and beauty industries,” CAA Fashion agent Anne Nelson — who was Bündchen’s agent for two decades at Elite Model Management and IMG Models — told WWD in a statement. Nelson, an industry veteran, joined CAA Fashion in September.
Headed by talent agent Christian Carino, CAA Fashion has been busy signing big names across fashion and entertainment since launching in 2020.
Bündchen, 41, has a 21-year career in fashion. She has been shot by prominent photographers and walked runways for the industry’s most notable fashion houses. Starring in campaigns for Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Versace, Victoria’s Secret and Ralph Lauren and gracing the covers of Time, Forbes, Rolling Stone, Vogue, W, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, Bündchen — married to NFL quarterback Tom Brady — is one of the world’s most recognizable faces.
Among her many endeavors, Bündchen has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environmental Program since 2009. In 2018, she released New York Times bestseller “Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life,” sharing her personal life story.


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Industry attorney Robert Ullman left a legacy of significant contributions to shaping the dietary supplements industry when he and his wife Joan died together in an accident on August 15, 2015. His many contributions to the industry are described in this NPI Center interview from 2005, when he was awarded the NPA’s President’s Award for his lifetime of commitment to our industry.
Here is the official statement on his passing from the Shelton Group:
Legendary industry attorney Robert Ullman has died, leaving a legacy of significant contributions to shaping the dietary supplements industry as we know it today. Bob and his wife Joan died together in an accident on August 15, 2015, leaving behind their son Marc Ullman and daughter Gail Ullman Corbett.
Bob Ullman, who was born in Frankfurt Germany on December 26, 1933, graduated from New York University, B.S., magna cum laude, in 1955. He was a member of The Law Review at New York University School of Law, from which he graduated with honors in 1961. Upon graduation he joined the firm of Bass and Friend, which evolved into Bass and Ullman in 1969. Thirty years later, when Bass and Ullman dissolved, Bob formed Ullman, Shapiro & Ullman, LLP with his son Marc Ullman and colleague Steve Shapiro.
A seasoned litigator with 45 years experience practicing law in the dietary supplements industry, Bob was awarded the President’s Award from the National Nutritional Foods Association (now the Natural Products Association) in recognition of his contributions in 2005. “Bob Ullman was a true pioneer when it came to representing the industry,” said NPA Executive Director and CEO Dr. Daniel Fabricant. “His and Milt Bass' work on so many landmark cases as NPA's attorneys still reverberates through all that we do defending the industry on the regulatory, judicial and legislative fronts. In addition to the wonderful work he did, those who knew Bob knew him as dedicated husband, father and friend. He will be sorely missed.”
Bob was noted as much for his day-to-day defense of industry interests as well as for his involvement in pivotal vitamin hearings before Congress and related lawsuits against FDA in the 1970s. These included the legendary Vitamins A and D case, in which the FDA attempted to categorize high dose vitamins as drugs, as well as other precedent-setting cases that have helped protect consumer access to dietary supplements. In the mid 1990s he handled the landmark FTC case defending calcium’s bone building properties on behalf of Metagenics. He was lead counsel in the Traco and Oakmont Black Currant oil cases, which effectively ended FDA's attempt to regulate dietary supplements as food additives and which were cited by Senator Hatch as one of the justifications for his introduction of DSHEA. He also tried a number of important US Postal and FTC advertising cases involving dietary supplements and direct marketing.
”My father literally dedicated his life to defending this industry and inspired us all by the passion he brought to defending his clients and the indsutry,” said son and partner, Marc Ullman.
The funeral for Bob and Joan will be at 9 a.m. on Wednesday August 19 at Gutterman’s in Woodbury, 8000 Jericho Turnpike, Woodbury, NY. Contributions in honor of Bob and Joan Ullman may be made to the Alzheimer’s Assciation at Alz.org.


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Contact: Ed Eberle, 608-266-3516
Madison–Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch will host a Small Business Roundtable discussion in Kenosha as part of Governor Walker’s effort to gain input and recommendations to improve the business climate in Wisconsin. Governor Walker’s focus is to catalyze the private sector for job growth, and to create the conditions for small businesses and entrepreneurs to adapt and thrive.
“Kenosha is a critical entryway into the Wisconsin economic community. Governor Walker has often stated that Wisconsin is open for business. We look at Kenosha as the front door and welcome small business entrepreneurs to Kenosha County and the State of Wisconsin. Our dialogue with Lt. Governor Kleefisch will allow business leaders in Kenosha to obtain answers to questions that may foster a more robust business environment in Kenosha,” said Lou Molitor, Executive Director of the Kenosha Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Kenosha Chamber of Commerce has invited local business owners and leaders to a round-table discussion with Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, 9:00 AM-10:30 AM, Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at UW Parkside Student Center Walnut Room, 900 Wood Road, Kenosha Wisconsin. They will discuss ways in which small businesses can move our economy forward and create jobs for Wisconsin workers as the Walker Administration works to reform government, provide safety in our communities and no tax increases.
Following the roundtable the Lt. Governor will tour Jockey International, 2300 60th Street, Kenosha.
The more than 130-year-old company makes men’s, women’s, and children’s underwear and loungewear. Jockey International licenses and distributes its apparel in more than 120 countries and holds numerous licensing agreements. Chairman and CEO Debra Waller and her family own the company. Jockey International was founded by Samuel Cooper in 1876 as a hosiery company intended to relieve lumberjacks of blisters and infections resulting from shoddy wool socks.
The event is part of a continuing series of business round-table sessions hosted by Lt. Governor Kleefisch at the request of Governor Walker.


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01 Jun Essex stores welcome indoor tomato plant that keeps on producing
Well we can be sure that this little bit will help!
Locals from Essex do share a dream of growing their own tasty fruit and vegetables, but not everybody has a garden or the required space to do so.
Now a new unique and super-productive indoor tomato plant is being launched by Tesco aimed at helping people living in urban areas without gardens.
The mini tomato plant has been naturally developed over the last five years by produce experts who have bred together varieties to come up with one that is small, compact and most importantly very productive.
The Mini Tomato Plant goes on sale this week priced at £4 at a Tesco near you!


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Event Re-Cap: SAP SME Summit & Power of Small Roundtable
Just one month after Hurricane Sandy roared through New York City, SAP’s NYC office hosted SAP’s first-ever small and medium sized enterprise (SME) summit yesterday. To kick off the summit, a lively “Power of Small” panel discussion, which included SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott and the Regional Administrator of the US Small Business Administration, focused on SME recovery after the hurricane and other strategies to help SMEs remain competitive.
The one-and-a-half hour discussion took place in front of media, analysts, small business owners and other influencers, and was streamed to the Web. Hubertus Kuelps of SAP moderated.
Kathryn Wylde of The Partnership for New York City answered audience concerns about small businesses hurt by Hurricane Sandy. Wylde provided encouraging information and recommended small business owners communicate with the NYC Economic Development Corporation and their respective borough’s Chamber of Commerce. Jorge Silva-Puras of the Small Business Administration also articulated an optimistic standing on the health of SMEs in the US. Silva-Puras said the small business community has not only grown and recovered over the last several years but also added two thirds of the United States’ recent job growth.
A former small business owner himself, SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott highlighted the role technology plays for SMEs. From cash registers to cloud software, McDermott made it clear that technology is central to SMEs everywhere. SAP solutions-which were exhibited in the latter half of the SME Summit-allow small businesses to grow into larger, more profitable businesses. Panelist John Evarts of Mediafly agreed that technology like SAP’s in-memory solutions greatly help small startups transform into “scale-ups” like his own.
Speaking of startups, McDermott announced that SAP has powered over 150 startups in Silicon Valley with SAP HANA, which enables entrepreneurs and SME owners to make fast and informed business decisions. Cloud and mobile applications powered by SAP were demonstrated throughout the Summit.
SAP’s “Power of Small” panelists also illuminated public policy and human capital as factors that make or break small businesses. Sunil Hirani of trueEX expressed concern over immigration policies and the effect they often have on entrepreneurship and SME success in the US. With nearly one third of New York’s SMEs owned by immigrants and millions of immigrant entrepreneurs, most panelists agreed this policy should be reexamined to ensure SMEs thrive.
Linda Rottenberg of Endeavor highlighted the importance of people and human capital for SME survival. Rottenberg believes encouraging mentors or “mentor capital” is a crucial factor for the livelihood of businesses and embodies that belief in her global nonprofit. Bill McDermott announced that SAP has committed to Endeavor and its mission to catalyze long-term economic growth by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating the best high-impact entrepreneurs around the world. McDermott said SAP’s ecosystem thrives on the “power of small” because small businesses, which have intellectual capacities far beyond their larger counterparts, compromise 88% of SAP’s new business portfolio.
The “Power of Small” Roundtable made it clear that policy, people, capital and technology drive small business growth. What is often overlooked, McDermott pointed out, is the spirit of a leader with a big idea.
Watch the re-play of the roundtable here.
You might also like: “Growth Tips for Small Business Owners”


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Twitter Tests Full-Screen Ads on Fleets
Twitter has announced that it will start testing advertisements on Fleets, Twitter's take on Instagram and Snapchat's disappearing stories for tweets.
The intention of monetizing the app further comes from Twitter's goal of doubling its annual revenue by 2023 from last year’s.
According to Twitter senior product manager Justin Hoang and global product marketing manager Austin Evers, “Fleet ads are full-screen billboards for advertisers.” They further went on to state that, "Appearing in between Fleets from people who are sharing pictures from the dog park in Fort Funston or video of their morning coffee stroll in Williamsburg, Fleet ads are all about connecting your message with the everyday."
Fleet ads would support images and video in 9:16 and the video ads would be up to 30 seconds long. Brands would also have the option to add a "swipe-up" call-to-action and would also be able to access the ad metrics for impressions, profile visits, clicks, and website visits, along with video views, 6s video views, quartile reporting, amongst others.
These test ads are currently limited to a select group of people in the USA on both iOS and Android. The fast-food franchise Wendy's was one of the first brands to test its ads on Fleets besides other brands from various markets.
Twitter said that they would seek to understand how the ads perform for customers on Fleets and gauge the effectiveness of it.


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The cannabis industry is taking a hit from inflation. While costs of living have risen, people have had to take on more work and responsibilities with less time and money to spend on pleasure.
For most, saving money has always been a priority, but it is especially of key concern now. Buying cannabis legally means paying tax on the purchase, whereas buying cannabis through the illegal market cuts out the requirement to pay tax.
While discretionary wallets are being squeezed, most consumers are well aware that the illicit market existed long before cannabis became legalized in certain states. The legal market is effectively in competition with the illegal market, even more so now that some degree of legal consumption may be swapped for illegal purchasing. The triangulation of crime, economics, and marijuana is expected to drive cannabis facilities to reassess their security plans.
Cannabis growers and stores are already highly targeted by criminals, as theft can be lucrative. Due to regulations, some stores can only accept cash payments, rendering their brick-and-mortar locations storage for cash reserves. Products can also be easily resold on the black market, where demand may increase from those affected by inflation and are resorting to illegal purchases. This makes the pipeline of stealing and reselling attractive to criminals.
Furthermore, times of economic downturn often bring out an increase in crime. The danger is in the dynamic between consumers who want cheaper weed at all costs and the criminals who are willing to acquire products and steal the market share by any means.
Money is everything.
An article on economic progress by Brian Bell for the World Economic Forum reports that those “who leave school during recessions are significantly more likely to become involved in crime” than those who leave school when job opportunities are otherwise abundant.
“Recessions typically lead to an increase in youth unemployment rates, leaving young people to face more difficulties in finding jobs.”— Do recessions increase crime?, Brian Bell, Research Fellow, LSE Centre for Economic Performance
Unemployment rates tend to be 5 percentage points higher than normal during a recession. Arrest rates tend to be 10 percentage points higher than normal for a cohort entering the labor market during a recession This may be due to people having pessimistic outlooks on acquiring legal work or generating desired levels of income through legal means before resorting to criminal methods (Becker 1968).
These statistically significant findings are concerning. The highest share “of consumers in the United States who currently smoke marijuana as of July 2019, by age group” are 18-29 years of age, 22 percent.
“Although cannabis is still federally illegal, it has been legalized for recreational consumption in 10 states since 2012. Nationwide support for the federal legalization of cannabis has grown every year, with 18 to 34-year-olds being the biggest supporters. Seventy-eight-percent of Americans in that age group supported marijuana legalization in 2018, nearly double the level of support in 2003.”— U.S. consumers who use marijuana 2019, by age group, Statista Research Department
Cannabis businesses seeking to strengthen their security plans can give Cannabis Compliant Security Solutions a call today.
Cannabis Compliant Security Solutions


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Nautique announced the beginning of a new four-year strategic plan, which it says sets "aggressive improvement goals" for each area of the company.
The new plan, which the Nautique team has been developing for months, divides the company into 12 departments and sets goals for each of them.
"The plan is expected to produce significantly positive results for Nautique customers, employees, dealers and vendors over the next four years," the company said in a statement.
In 2007, Nautique began to execute its first strategic plan and the results were "dramatic," the company said, adding it resulted in the company being in its most financially stable position ever despite the global economic slump that occurred during its execution.
"I am incredibly proud of our team and the results we have achieved the past three years. We have the best team and most financial stability that our company has ever experienced. However, we are not even close to being satisfied," company president and CEO Bill Yeargin said in a statement. "As part of our execution of a new strategic plan we will be making the company even better, which is tough to do when you already lead the industry. We will be the best getting better."


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Asus Android Tablet Eee Pad coming soon
Asus is about to launch it’s Android based tablet / slate computer in this year itself. It’s an official announcement.
Well, here it comes, a tablet PC war. After the come up of Apple iPad, OEMs like Asus, HP, and others are trying to make tablet PCs, not operated by desktop OS but by mobile OS. Tablet PCs are coming up with proprietary OS and Android OS.
Anyway, the new Asus Eee Pad is an NVidia Tegra based tablet PC with Android OS. Announced at a conference Asustek Computer chairman Jerry Shen in Taiwan, Eee Pad will be introduced, demoed at Computex 2010 around June 1 to 5. And it will be available by Q3 of 2010. Eee Pad will cost around $479 to $510 (USD.)
As reported in DigiTimes, “To compete against Apple’s iPad, Asustek has strengthened the Eee Pad’s industrial design and has cooperated with Google to adopt its Android platform. Asustek will also add features that iPad currently does not support such as USB, integrated webcam, and Adobe Flash, Shih noted”


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Posted 05/19/2015 at 9:40 AM
Posted 2 years ago
The latest product from Apple could find yet another purpose after all, according to some of the recent buzz.
It appears that the latest generation of the Apple TV set-top box will contain support for the newly-released Apple Watch.
The new version will be on display at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference to be held on June 8th.
While there aren’t too many published details as to just how Apple Watch wearers will get to precisely use it with the Apple TV, it is apparent that is is being positioned as a ‘primary input device’.
This is in addition to future development that will provide a ‘Find My Watch’ tool in the latest version of iOS much like those for the iPhone and Macs.
One could speculate that any plans involving the Apple Watch in this way may possibly include integration with streaming services like Netflix and YouTube among others.
Another possible feature to speculate on could be its usage with other media players down the line that use Bluetooth connections, but the world will have to wait until next month to see exactly what Apple has in store for two of its most in-demand products of late.


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Russ Hubler acquired his first dealership on January 10. Becoming a dealer principal is a tradition in the Hubler family – his grandparents, parents, and siblings are all dealers. He is settling into his new role as owner of a Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram store in New Castle, Indiana, and figures to work on improvements at that store for now. But Hubler already is thinking of expansion.
“We have the opportunity to bring in another franchise,” he tells Automotive Buy Sell Report. “But I have to make this one right first.”
His dealership is called Hubler Automotive to differentiate it from his siblings’ stores, which are also in Indiana. Hubler acquired the store from Maurie Goodwin, whose children were not interested in taking it over, he says.
Goodwin “didn’t want to sell out to a big conglomerate,” says Hubler. “He was very concerned about his employees and the community. That is near and dear to me (and) we just really hit it off.”
At 110 years, it is the oldest privately-owned dealership in Indiana, says Hubler. It is also the only franchised car dealership in New Castle, a town of some 18,000. The location – in a small town – appealed to Hubler.
“You can really make a bigger difference in a small community,” he says, (and) “really get to know the people. That is something I have always been passionate about.”
Hubler has already connected with the local Chamber of Commerce and Police Department. And he makes sure to greet all customers that come into the store. He will soon hold a mixer featuring local food and wine from a local winery. People in New Castle have noticed the changes at the familiar dealership, he says.
“They are really excited to have someone young and enthusiastic in here,” says Hubler, who is 35.
The dealership is not image compliant, but that doesn’t have to be addressed for several years, he says.
Hubler has sunk $100,000 into improvements including touching up the showroom – “If you were to walk into the store now you would say ‘wow’” – and putting new equipment in the service department. One investment is a $20,000 tire tread depth reader that a customer drives over to gauge if a vehicle’s tires need replacing. Hubler has paired that with a “Buy three, get one free” offer.
The investment is worth it, he says because “it is all about the quantitative data. It is not just telling the customer he or she needs tires.”
He inherited a “tenured and talented sales staff,” says Hubler, whose average tenure is 15 years. “It’s a very lean and mean organization, he says. The store’s monthly sales average had dropped to 38 units in January from an average of 80, but was already back up to 82 in February, says Hubler.
Used car sales is one area ripe for improvement, say Hubler. New Castle was the site of a now-closed Chrysler plant, and residents are still brand loyal. He buys used inventory from Chrysler, online auctions, and private party purchases.
“We have a big sign out front that says ‘Sell Us Your Car’,” a $200 investment that has already paid for itself, he says.
In the short term, his goal is “100 cars across the curb” monthly including 60 to 75 used. “There is a lot of untapped potential here,” says Hubler.
He is also looking to expand his footprint by acquiring a shuttered Ford dealership next door. That could become an expanded service and used car area or house another franchise, he says.
Runs in the family
The dealership business runs deep in Hubler’s family tree. Grandparents on both his mother and father’s side were car dealers, as was his great grandfather on his mother’s side. His parents met at a dealer conference. His father ran a dealership group before selling out 15 years ago, and his uncles own dealerships. His brother Greg owns two Chevrolet franchises and one Ford franchise; his sister Christi owns a Chevrolet store.
Russ Hubler worked in the business his entire life before acquiring the Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram store with the help of his father Howard, who is also an investor in Christi Hubler Chevrolet. The three siblings have discussed forming a dealership group, says Russ Hubler, and already share some expenses.
When he is ready to acquire an additional franchise, Russ Hubler says he can’t pin down what franchise is of the most interest. He has clearly thought about it, however.
“We are a deeply ingrained Chevy family,” says Hubler. “But there is also room for a GM brand” in New Castle.


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Ex-movie theater projectionist Steve Guttenberg covers high-end audio news and reviews.
CNET's favorite speakers, including sound bars, wireless speakers, and full surround sound systems.
The Audiophiliac was on the prowl at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest last week in Denver for the best sounding gear, priced from affordable up to "sky's the-limit!"
The Audiophiliac visits the Audio Connection store, and gets bowled over by the sound!
The Micromega MyAmp isn't short on features or sound quality, says the Audiophiliac.
Despite phone makers flooding the market with cheap devices, Chinese company Oppo believes there's potential in higher-end handsets, even in emerging markets.
High-end audio is expensive, but so are high-end cars, watches, wines, and other pricey indulgences.
Ahead of Photokina, the Japanese lensmaker announces a coming 15-30mm model that combines a fast f2.8 aperture with image stabilization.
Final Audio Design's Pandora Hope VI is the rare full-size high-end headphone that really delivers the goods plugged into phones and portable music players!
Pros and enthusiasts in the US can rejoice that many of Canon's SLR lenses are a notch less pricey now. Better exchange rates might deserve some of the credit.
Panasonic's well-known hi-fi brand is making a comeback, as the company lifts the lid on the first Technics hi-fi products in six years.
Small enough for a desktop, the Burson Timekeeper can also be used in your main stereo system.


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CP Industries just got an expensive lesson in the unintended consequences of protectionism.
Based in McKeesport, Pa., the company makes seamless vessels to store gases at high pressure — steel cylinders of up to six tons that it sells to the likes of the Navy, NASA and T. Boone Pickens’s Clean Energy. It has received the first bill from the 25 percent tariff that President Trump placed on steel from China and a few other countries: $178,703.09 assessed on a steel-pipe shipment scheduled to arrive at the Port of Philadelphia on Thursday.
That’s equivalent to about two weeks’ payroll. Over all, tariffs on steel pipe that the company has ordered from China — some already on its way across the Pacific — will add more than half a million dollars to raw-material costs over six months alone.
“How long can we last?” mused Michael Larsen, the company’s chief executive. “I don’t know. We could go down relatively fast.”
The tariff will add about 10 percent to the cost of CP Industries’ cylinders, which can sell for up to $35,000. And foreign rivals are already swooping in to lure away some of the company’s biggest clients. “We haven’t lost a big one yet, but the discussion over who is going to pay for the tariffs has started,” Mr. Larsen told me.
What most sticks in the executive’s craw is that he will probably end up losing business to the company’s main rival in China, Enric Gas Equipment Company of Shijiazhuang, which also makes jumbo vessels. Noting that Enric’s goods are imported under a classification not subject to the tariff, a CP Industries news release added, “It is impossible for CPI to compete with its Chinese competitor on this basis.”
This is what economists mean when they warn about the costs of protectionist policies. A tariff to protect one industry amounts to a tax on all of its customers. The steel tariffs tax the nation’s more high-tech manufacturing — carmakers, aerospace companies, makers of vessels to store hydrogen for use in fuel cells — to pay for a ring of protection around an aging industry that makes a raw material.
As Lawrence H. Summers, a top economic adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, quipped at a conference in China a couple of weeks ago, the trade moves amount to “a bit of a ‘Stop, or I’ll shoot myself in the foot’ kind of strategy.”
None of this is unknown to Mr. Trump’s trade advisers, by the way. Governments Democratic and Republican have repeatedly granted protection to the American steel industry since the 1960s, when foreign producers started making inroads into the United States.
In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon imposed “voluntary restraint” agreements on exporters from Japan and Europe. About a decade later the Carter administration established a system that allowed some steel imports as long as they were sold above a certain price.
President Ronald Reagan established a limited pool of imports that it apportioned among foreign producers. The first President George Bush renewed it. Mr. Clinton deployed diplomacy and antidumping measures to protect American steel makers. And in 2002 President George W. Bush put a new ring of “safeguards” around steel that lasted 20 months, until the World Trade Organization ruled them illegal.
They mostly shrugged off the repercussions for the many manufacturing companies that relied on steel. But in 2003, the United States International Trade Commission surveyed manufacturers about the effects. Not only did the tariffs imposed by the Bush administration put many American companies at a competitive disadvantage, but companies also reacted in ways that did the American economy no good.
Almost 500 steel consumers responded to at least some of the questions asked by the commission. About half of respondents reported paying higher prices. And roughly half reported problems procuring steel of the quality and quantity they needed. Over a third reported delayed deliveries; 132 reported steel shortages. About one in six said these problems had reduced sales, and one in three said they had cut into its profitability. A total of 82 companies — including 11 makers of auto parts, nine welded-pipe producers and five makers of fasteners — said they had lost sales to foreign competitors because of the higher cost of steel.
How Trump’s Protectionism Could Backfire
President Trump’s tariffs against steel and aluminum imports, designed to protect blue-collar workers, could instead undermine their livelihood.
Some steel consumers shifted from importing steel to importing assembled steel parts that were not subject to the new tariffs. York International — which makes air-conditioning systems, furnaces and the like — reported importing steel assemblies and complete products from overseas. The auto-part maker Metaldyne simply moved some of its operations to South Korea, where it could obtain cheaper steel.
Mr. Larsen is sympathetic to the plight of American steel companies. Though it is owned today by Everest Kanto Cylinder based in Mumbai, India, CP Industries emerged as an independent company in a 1989 spinoff from U.S. Steel. And still, whatever old loyalties persist, it makes little sense to force the company to obtain its steel domestically. For starters, no company in the United States produces pipes big enough to make its trademark six-ton containers.
The company estimated that it could get only a fifth of the steel pipe it needed domestically, from only one American firm. Domestic pipe is, moreover, delivered in random lengths and requires additional milling, cutting and testing, raising processing costs by about 16 percent. And Chinese pipes are much cheaper, the company added: Pipes from China delivered in Philadelphia cost $1,680 per metric ton, while U.S. Steel is charging $2,728 per metric ton at its works in Lorain, Ohio. A 25 percent tariff will not close the gap.
CP Industries isn’t simply going to let itself be pushed out of business. An option to consider is importing German steel — which so far has been exempted from the protectionist fusillade. But it will take time to shift suppliers. And German steel will be more expensive.
Of course, there is lobbying. CP Industries has requested a waiver from the tariffs, and it is working to get Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation on its side. Something else it could do is move part or all of the manufacturing process overseas to avoid the steel tariffs.
“We have a whole list of ideas that we could execute,” Mr. Larsen told me. “But nothing we do will be more efficient than what we are doing now. And it will mean less value added in the United States.”
Mr. Larsen is not, by the way, an evangelist for free trade at all costs. Six years ago, when he was at Taylor-Wharton International, a manufacturer of smaller vessels for high-pressure gas, he teamed up with Norris Cylinder to bring an antidumping case against Chinese rivals and won. The government imposed an antidumping duty on Chinese imports to level the playing field.
He would love to try that approach against his new Chinese competitors. But Mr. Trump nipped the strategy in the bud: Dumping — selling below cost in order to drive rivals out of business and gain market share — is not necessary when you are suddenly granted a 10 percent cost advantage. That’s roughly the kind of edge that the steel tariffs gave the makers of high-pressure gas vessels in China.
“As it stands today,” Mr. Larsen lamented, “they cannot be overcome.”


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Fund focus: Marlborough Special Situations
Each week, Financial Mail on Sunday focuses on a top-performing fund, examing its secret of success and whether it's right for you. This week: Marlborough Special Situations
Giles Hargreave anticipated the banking crisis long before it hit - and he has been avoiding stocks with exposure to other hard-pressed sectors such as retailers and property.
But having steered clear of recent horrors, he is focusing on making clients more money - and he thinks there are plenty of opportunities.
Hargreave, 59, manages with five others the Marlborough Special Situations fund, a £160m UK focused smaller companies portfolio.
Over most periods, its returns have been in the top ten of the sector, if not absolutely top of the pile. In five years he has returned 237%, compared with the next best in the 60-strong sector at 203%.
Smaller firms are risky at the best of times and obviously more so when the economy is shaky. Hargreave cuts risk by holding up to 200 stocks. But he is not pessimistic.
'You read that the whole world's going to hell,' he says, 'but that's not what I see with the companies I hold. They make profits, they're doing fine.' And the stock market has turned a corner, too, he says. Not only are banks bouncing back and other bombed-out sectors attracting interest, but more small firms are floating.
Themes that dominate his portfolio include commodities - he holds companies that make and transport industrial goods - and food production, where he holds stocks involved in fertilisers, GM and animal husbandry.
The falling pound has prompted him to lift his quota of foreign stocks to 15% and to favour those generating earnings in other currencies.
'There will be car crashes,' he admits. 'Smaller firms do go wrong. But the fun is back in this sector.'
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SYRACUSE — It’s just after noon on a sunny weekday in downtown Syracuse when a man in bright yellow construction vest steps up to Tall Paul’s Dog Cabin.
“Can I get a dog?” he asks the man behind the hot dog cart stationed at the corner of Warren and Madison streets near the Equitable Towers.
“Hey,” vendor Paul Waleski replies. “If you can’t get a dog here, I’m in trouble.”
Paul “Tall Paul” Waleski has been in this business for almost 30 years. At one time, he shared the downtown sidewalks and plazas with almost a dozen other food cart vendors. He always prided himself on being the first one out each season, often starting in the snow and cold of mid-March.
In recent years, he hasn’t had to compete to be first. He’s often been the only sidewalk “push cart” vendor operating downtown. As recently as 2016, there were six cart vendors downtown, according to city records and syracuse.com archives.
Food trucks, which are licensed separately from the sidewalks carts, have also dwindled after a recent surge, This year just one food truck, Lady Bug Lunch Box, has a regular spot, parking most days on East Fayette Street near Fireman’s Park.
In 2019, there was a boom in food trucks permits, with as many as 12 licensed to operate in or around downtown, city records show. But that was due mostly to a weekly food truck “rodeo” in Clinton Square, which has been discontinued.
COVID-19, which cut the number of downtown workers in the past two years, hasn’t helped, particularly for the sidewalk vendors, who are locked into specific locations.
But more workers are now returning. Could there be a resurgence in outdoor food vendors downtown?
Alex Ippoliti thinks so. This month, Ippoliti launched a food cart, Skinny’s, in Lincoln Plaza at the corner of Salina and Fayette streets. It began last week with snacks like deep-fried Oreos and funnel cakes, but Ippoliti plans to add hot dogs, sausages and more.
Eventually, he hopes to operate as many as six carts offering various foods and snacks around downtown.
“If you look at old pictures, this city was built on carts, on vendors on the streets and sidewalks,” said Ippoliti, a veteran at several local restaurants who has also worked for mobile food operators. “And then it looked like it was disappearing. I just thought, let’s bring that back. It’s like something old that’s new again.”
Thirty years ago, dozens of vendors sometimes competed to sell food on the go in the city. Among the dozen or so downtown permits awarded each year went to longtime regulars like Bob’s Barkers in the Chase Lincoln bank plaza, Louie’s Dog House in Hanover Square and Gary Kimber’s Roadside Café and others in Columbus Circle.
By 1991, the competition got so fierce the city set up a “lottery” held each December to award the most coveted spots.
When Waleski showed up last December for the lottery at City Hall, he was the only vendor there. Ippoliti applied for his permit later.
Still, Skinny’s and Tall Paul’s currently occupy just two of the 33 sidewalks spots and 12 park or plaza spots available citywide this year. Most are downtown, but there are a few in other neighborhoods.
City records show just one sidewalk vendor with a 2022 permit for a location outside of downtown: Mercedes Jones has a permit for Soul Food Extension at the corner of Midland Avenue and Oxford Street, near the Onondaga Creekwalk. It’s also not far from the new JMA Wireless 5G manufacturing plant on Cortland Avenue.
There are currently no sidewalk carts at some of the principal locations where you could easily find them in the past. Columbus Circle outside the Onondaga County Courthouse, which in the past has had three or four vendors at a time, has none.
That’s partly because the former vendors have retired or moved on and, Waleski believes, there aren’t many people interested in replacing them.
“Nobody wants to work anymore,” is Waleski’s opinion on the lack of new vendors. “People think, ‘Oh you just stand around and serve hot dogs. But I’ve got to get supplies, lug all this stuff here, set up and prepare and then break it down. It’s work.”
The decline in the number of vendors seeking locations hasn’t been sudden and didn’t just happen with COVID. By the middle of the last decade the lottery was drawing just a handful of applicants, including two or three food vendors and a couple of ice cream carts.
At around the same time, there was a brief surge in the then-new concept of food trucks seeking on-street parking spaces.
The food trucks are also more rare downtown. There were gatherings called food truck rodeos in locations like Clinton Square and Lincoln Plaza, but the only regular downtown event now takes places on Fridays outside the Everson Museum of Art.
Food trucks are common on private property in the city next to craft breweries and similar outlets in city limits. In the suburbs, they are also common on private property, including a multi-truck rally each Wednesday night at Great Northern Mall.
The city has been wrestling with the issue of sidewalk carts, and more specifically, food trucks for several years.
In 2018, the Syracuse Common Council approved an ordinance sponsored by Councilor Michael Greene that cut fees for food truck permits and expanded the places they were allowed to set up. The food truck licenses were were set at $500 per season, while the sidewalk cart fees remained at $1,500.
Greene argues the difference is due to the fact that the food trucks aren’t guaranteed a specific spot each day, while the sidewalks carts have exclusive rights to a location.
The following year, the Wednesday food truck rallies drew good crowds to Clinton Square.
But that created tension with some of downtown’s existing restaurants, often referred as “brick-and-mortar” businesses.
In 2020, the city reacted to what Greene calls the “pushback” from downtown brick-and-mortar restaurants and stopped the Clinton Square gatherings. Then the pandemic hit.
Eric Ennis, the city’s director of business development, said he’s hopeful that a return of more downtown workers to their offices will spur an increase in the sidewalk carts, food trucks and more.
“We are starting to see that trend change, seeing more office workers return to the downtown core,” he said. “We know what happened (in 2020 and 2021) and now this summer we’ll see what opportunities that opens up for the future.”
The city, he said, also has a “Summer Dining Guide” posted on its web site that offers assistance to businesses interested in making use of the city’s rights of way — streets, sidewalks, park space etc. That includes a continued push for business to make use of curbside space through what are known as “parklets.”
He also suggests that cart or food truck operators can look for opportunities to set up on private property, which would fall outside of city regulations.
That could help ease the tension between between the seasonal vendors and the permanent businesses.
Merike Treier, director of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse, said in 2020 that she heard that some restaurants reported a 40% loss of business on food truck rally days in Clinton Square.
Now, she says, the goal should be to find what she calls “balance” for all the businesses that want to operate downtown.
“Our year-round goal is to create opportunities for people to come downtown,” she said. “That should be done in a way to lessen the impact on existing business while allowing opportunities for food trucks and other operators.”
Greene said he has no immediate plans to offer any new legislation in the council to address either sidewalk carts or food trucks. Like Ennis, he thinks there’s an opportunity to assess the demand as workers return.
But he thinks food trucks and other vendors are important to the downtown
“There’s a missed opportunity,” he said of the pushback against food trucks. “I think they add a lot of vitality downtown. We need to do anything we can to bring that vitality and energy downtown.”
That’s what Alex Ippoliti is hoping to accomplish by bringing more food carts back to the area.
“I believe in downtown,” he said. “This used to be the place to be. It can be that again.”


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WATSONVILLE, Calif. – West Marine, Inc. ended the year debt-free, according to the company’s financial results for the 2009 fourth quarter and fiscal year ended Jan. 2, which were released today. At the end of 2008, the company had long-term debt of $47 million.
The fourth quarter of 2009 was West Marine’s second consecutive quarter of being debt-free at the end of the period. The second half of 2009 was the first debt free period for West Marine in over 20 years.
Net revenues for the 13 weeks ended Jan. 2 were $103.9 million, a decrease of $7.1 million from net revenues of $111.1 million for the 14 weeks ended Jan. 3, 2009. Comparable store sales for the fourth quarter decreased 4.8 percent.
According to the company, West Marine’s fourth quarter net revenues – adjusted to remove the impact of an extra week in the fourth quarter of 2008 – increased by $1.5 million and adjusted comparable store sales increased by 3.2 percent. Net loss for the fourth quarter was $12.8 million, compared to a net loss of $29.0 million for the fourth quarter last year.
For the entire fiscal year, the company’s net income was $12.4 million, an improvement of $51.2 million over the net loss of $38.8 million for fiscal year 2008. Net revenues for the 52 week year were $588.4 million. Adjusted to remove the impact of an extra week in the 2008 fiscal year, 2009 fiscal year adjusted net revenues decreased by $36.8 million, or 5.9 percent, and adjusted comparable store sales decreased by 2.7 percent versus fiscal year 2008. Cash generated from operating activities for the year more than tripled to $62.6 million, compared to $20.6 million for fiscal year 2008, an all-time record for West Marine.
“We are certainly pleased with our progress during 2009 and are delighted to report such a significant improvement in earnings and cash flow,” Geoff Eisenberg, West Marine’s CEO, said in the year-end report. “Especially considering how difficult a year it was for the boating industry, I think it’s quite noteworthy that West Marine was profitable for the year.”
According to Eisenberg, the company was able to gain ground this year because of changes in the market.
“The changes we made during 2008 and early 2009 helped position us to take advantage of changes in the competitive landscape, which included the liquidation of one of our primary national competitors, Boater’s World,” Eisenberg said. “We also benefited from an increase in boat usage in some markets, continued strength in do-it-yourself type projects, plus positive customer response toward our expanded product assortments and new store formats. Our associate teams did an outstanding job improving our overall productivity, understanding and fulfilling customers’ needs, increasing inventory turns, managing capital and positioning West Marine well for the future.”
To read the complete financial report, click here.


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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), for the first time ever, generated revenue from selling iOS and Mac products for education beyond $1 billion. iPads were one of the popular gadgets that saw scorching demand accounting for an almost 94% tablet market share in the education sector.
Efforts paying off
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced these numbers during the quarterly conference call. The statistics reflect the growing presence of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the education market where Windows-based PCs continues to dominate.
Total education sales were up 8% year on year for the September quarter, and iPad sales climbed 22% in the same quarter. Mac sales also rallied by 8% compared to the last year’s quarter. The performance looks much more impressive when considering that research firm IDC expected PC sales to be down by 10% in 2013, with educational PC sales even worse.
In his first-quarter letter to investors of Greenlight Capital, David Einhorn lashed out at regulators. He claimed that the market is "fractured and possibly in the process of breaking completely." Q1 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more Einhorn claimed that many market participants and policymakers have effectively succeeded in "defunding the regulators." He pointed Read More
The Cupertino-based firm has been working vigorously to increase sales of the iPad in education, taking steps such as offering iTunes accounts for pre-teens before the school session starts in Augus. This enabled students to purchase textbooks and education material from iTunes and the iBookstore.
Transition helping Apple
Apple is getting support from the drift made by the traditional classrooms by adopting tablets instead the traditional textbooks. iPads are being used by a number of schools in the United States for better learning process, and giving access to teachers to create, distribute and connect with iBooks Author and other iOS device management software. For instance, a school system in the Netherlands gave students iPads instead of traditional textbooks along with other Apple products.
The trend of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPad taking a chunk out of PC sales is not new. A year ago, a report signaled the same news that the iPad was rapidly gaining traction in educational institutions.
Other devices are no threat
Cook dismissed the idea that Chrome Books and other rivals providing similar product at lower costs to the institutions are any kind of challenge for Apple.
“We see Chrome Books in some places,” he said, “but the vast majority of people are buying PC/Mac or an iPad.” The CEO also said that he is more than satisfied with the performance of the iPad in the past three months, which added 94% of tablets in education.


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Wal-Mart Corporation already has a dark reputation for its treatment of employees, wiping out of small local businesses, and thuggish litigation practices. Now, it has decided to go to war with historians in trying to force through a huge store in the middle of one of the most important historical areas from the Civil War — the Wilderness Battlefield. As in other such cases, it has convinced local businesses to accept a Faustian bargain of the promise of taxes and jobs in return for destroying the unique character of the area.
Locust Grove, Virginia holds great meaning for historical and Civil War buffs. It is the area where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first fought. Wal-Mart, however, believes that it is much better suited for another big box store. Virtually every leading historian, including filmmaker Ken Burns and Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough, have written to H. Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., to build further away from the Wilderness Battlefield. In a letter with 253 leading scholars and writers, they argue that “The Wilderness is an indelible part of our history, its very ground hallowed by the American blood spilled there, and it cannot be moved.”
As in past such cases, the company enlisted locals who are willing to trash their own history and culture for the lure of jobs and taxes — ignoring the negative impact of these stores on local businesses. They found a willing ally in R. Mark Johnson, a tire shop owner and chairman of the county’s board of supervisors “In these economic times, the fact that Wal-Mart wants to come into the county is an economic plus. This is hardly pristine wilderness we’re talking about.” It also happens to be an area where more than 100,000 Union troops battled 61,000 Confederate troops on May 4, 1864 — leaving 4,000 dead and 20,000 wounded. It wasn’t a particularly “pristine” sight.
The Wal-Mart effort is reminiscent of Disney’s effort to build a huge Heritage Amusement Park despite objections from historians and preservationists. As with Wal-Mart, Disney and CEO Michael Eisner lured local businesses to call for the development, which would have destroyed one of the most beautiful and unique areas of Virginia. This included an attraction where people could “feel like slaves” by picking cotton under the eye of white bosses. After a long and intense fight, Disney abandoned the plan.
Hearings are scheduled for February and March.
For the full story, click here.


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When you heard that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were getting divorced, did you think first of their Gucci clad kids or the fate of their Kohl's collection?
If it's the latter, don't worry. Kohl's released a statement this morning promising that neither collection will suffer just because the relationship's over. Apparently, they have separate contracts.
More From ELLE
In November, when Kohl's announced their partnership with the crooning couple, they were thrilled to be the first brand to introduce a collection designed by a married couple. Though their merchandise separately targeted men and women, they were sold and marketed as a package deal. Now, Kohl's tells WWD, "The Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony brands have always been positioned as two separate, distinctive collections."
It's a good thing, too, since Kohl's has high hopes for both lines and set their profit goals quite high—that, and the collections don't even hit stores until fall.


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The English football wife’s club is about to gain another member as 23-year-old, Namibian-born English footballer Ryan Nyambe pops the question to his long-time girlfriend.
The Blackburn Rovers shared the exciting news through stunning pictures, on his social media Sunday afternoon.
The soon to be Mrs. Nyambe also took to her Instagram page, expressing joy. “I never smiled so hard! can’t wait to spend forever being weird with you,” Sidumi said.
Former Brave Warriors coach, Ricardo Manneti, led the pack of Namibian prominent personalities in congratulating Nyambe.
“Congrats Range Rover,” Manneti said.
MTC’s chief commercial officer, Melvin Hosea Angula also commended on Nyambe’s tweet saying, “Congrats cuz”.
The English footballer who also plays for the national team, Brave Warriors, recently started his own clothing brand called ‘Nyambe clothing’.
The brand is a combination of luxury meets street-wear.
Born 4 December 1997, Nyambe’s football career started in his teens when he signed to the Blackburn Rovers academy at the age of 13.
He joined the Blackburn Rovers Football Club in 2015 and has been making Namibia proud, ever since.
Congratulations are definitely in order and we are looking forward to hearing the wedding bells.
•By Foibe Shahepa (SYM intern)


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In the past, if you want to make food blue, you have to add synthetic pigment. However, some people just don’t like synthetic pigment, some even will be allergic to it.
In 2013, FDA has approved a natural colorant-- Phycocyanin which extracted from blue-green algae as food additive. Thanks to a recent research improved the productivity, and now Phycocyanin has successfully realized industrial production.
Researching extracting technologies of Phycocyanin lasted three years, Zhejiang Binmei Biotechnology
Co.,Ltd has extracted phycocyanin from spirulina successfully, and rapidly opened the international markets.
Phycocyanin is a natural blue edible pigment approved by FDA. It can be widely applied in food and cosmetics industries. By adopting ultra pure water low temperature and physical membrane extraction technologies, BINMEI has achieved the large-scale production of phycocyanin and filled the blank in China. At present, BINMEI has obtained 8 technical patents.
Britain researchers have discovered a method that can promote spirulina to produce a large number of phycocyanin. Stimulating with a specific frequency of light is the essence of the method.
"As the demand for natural pigments increasing, phycocyanin is in short supply. However, the producing cost is still high." said Chelsea Brain, one of the researchers. Blue is very rare in nature. The reason is that most of the "blue" is the result of light scattering. It is not the color of the pigment itself.
For example, blue eyes are a visual illusion that caused by the blue light scattering into the cornea. And the blue color of butterfly’s wings is a kind of color change that caused by the reflection of the fine dust in the air. Even the color of blueberries is caused by a purple pigment.
Phycocyanin, also known as an "accessory pigment", is a complex of proteins that can combine with chlorophyll, to absorb light and store energy in the form of glucose in the body.
Because the pigment is harmless to human body and good water soluble, it can be used as food colorant. In order to make the blue-green algae produce large amounts of this pigment, the researchers make them receive the stimulation of light at a specific wavelength.
Some researchers are wondering whether it can be used in beer processing. The answer is yes. By adding the blue phycocyanin in yellow beer, we can get the green beer. At least, the invention makes our ideas of trying green beer a reality.


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The 'Mera Bill Mera Adhikar' mobile app will be available on both IOS and android platforms. The invoice uploaded on the app should have the GSTIN of the seller, invoice number, amount paid and tax amount.
An individual would be able to upload a maximum of 25 genuine invoices in a month on the app and the invoice should have a minimum purchase value of Rs 200, an official said.
Over 500 computerised lucky draws would be conducted every months where prize money could run into lakhs of rupees. Two lucky draws will be done in a quarter where the prize amount could be Rs 1 crore, officials said.
The scheme is in the process of being finalised, they said, adding it could be launched as early as this month.
To curb the menace of GST evasion, the government has already made electronic invoice mandatory for B2B transactions where the annual turnover exceeds Rs 5 crore.
The 'Mera Bill Mera Adhikar' scheme would ensure electronic invoice generation even in case of B2C customers so as to enable the buyer to be eligible to participate in the lucky draw.
The scheme is conceptualised in a way so as to incentivise citizens and consumers to ask for genuine invoices from the seller when making business to consumer (B2C) purchase of goods or services, which are under the purview of Goods and Services Tax.
The scheme is conceived so as to encourage tax compliant behaviour, in the B2C stage of the transactions, by the consumers and business across India.
GST Network (GSTN) has developed the technology platform which will enable citizens to register themselves and upload invoices on a user-friendly mobile application and portal.
This scheme is expected to serve multiple objectives of incentivising and rewarding compliant behaviour by the consumers, encouraging tax compliant businesses, boosting consumer spending, and, checking tax evasion.
Wednesday, 29 Nov, 2023
- For More Capital, Byju’s Must Pass a Tough Test
Top shareholders at Byju’s have demanded the company meet certain conditions before they consider any future capital infusion into the beleaguered edtech firm that is battling a deepening fund crunch, people in the know of the matter said.Virtual Influencers Now Making Real Money? AI, AI, Sir!
As social media influencers, Kyra and Naina have hit the big time. Only thing is, they’re not actually real — not entirely anyway. Titan, Realme, MG Motors and Boat are paying a premium to advertise through 3D-animated humans, or virtual influences, who have become quite the phenomenon on Instagram with views of up to 21 million for their reels.Timing of Burmans’ Open Offer Fishy: Religare Ind Director Ahmed
Hamid Ahmed, an independent member on the Religare Enterprises board, has described the timing of the Burman family open offer to buy more shares as ‘fishy’ in the first such media comments by any of the independent directors at the financial services company the founder-promoters of Dabur are seeking to control.
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NEW DELHI: Indian arm of British motorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield
total sales registered 52 percent jump in March 2016, informed the company in a BSE
The company sold 51,320 units last month as against 33,679 units during March 2015.
The company's exports increased 53 percent when compared with corresponding month previous year.
While sales of models with engine capacity up to 350cc was up 55 percent, for above 350cc motorcycles
the growth stood at 34 percent.
The company ended its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2016 with 60 percent increase in total sales.
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Leaked Microsoft Lumia 650 Press Photo SurfacesBy cheatmaster 12:19 Sat, 31 Jul 2021 Comments
A recent press shot of the upcoming Microsoft Lumia 650 is now out of the leak factory, courtesy of @evleaks. The photo shows the front of the device, which is rumored to sport a 5" 720p display and either a Snapdragon 210 or Snapdragon 212 chipset.
Visually, the phone will see just like the Lumia 550, save for a metal frame, which add some extra polish. This isn't the first time we see a press shot of the phone, as it leaked in white and the phone even went on pre-order by mishold last week.
Back then, the listing revealed the full spec list showing an 8 MegaPixel (MP) rear capturing camera with Light Emitting Diode (LED) flash, a 1.1 Giga Hertz (GHz) quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 2,000 mAh battery. It runs Windows 10 Mobile, naturally, and weighs 150g.
Expect the phone to cost about $199 unlocked in the US, while in the Eurozone its price could be something like €199. Most probably, the phone will go official at MWC 2016 at the discontinue of the month.
Source | Via
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The Inquirer says it has “confirmed” that 3D graphics giant Nvidia is hard at work building its own x86 processor
with integrated graphics to compete with the offerings of Intel and AMD. Both Intel and AMD–which acquried ATI back in July–have been busy strapping integrated graphics on their own chips, it seems logical that Nvidia would want to play, too. Their efforts would be bolstered by its recent hiring of a bunch of engineers from Stexar, a now-defunct company that was founded by ex-Intel brains. The Inq says development is already underway, and we’ll be seeing a new CPU from Nvidia sometime in 2006.


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Windows 8 is Microsoft's most critical launch since 1995 as it unifies mobile and PC computing.
Articles about Windows
Windows XP's next-to-last Patch Tuesday saw four updates to it. Office 2003 is also going off support, but no updates were released today for it.
It's Patch Tuesday, so Microsoft released many non-security updates in addition to the security patches. Windows 8.1 gets an even dozen.
So is Microsoft right to pull the plug on Windows XP support? I think it is. The line has to be drawn somewhere, and I think April is as good a time as any.
[CORRECTION] All versions of Windows and Internet Explorer will receive updates on Patch Tuesday next week. The recent IE zero-day will be included in the fixes.
The next version of Security Essentials will include prominent warnings that Windows XP is not a safe operating system.
Microsoft has begun closed, 'private preview' testing of its Windows Azure Government Cloud with select U.S. government customers.
Reports on Monday that Microsoft has extended support for Windows XP in China are incorrect.
The next on-premises versions of Microsoft's Exchange Server and SharePoint Server won't be available until some time in calendar 2015.
With Windows XP's end-of-support date just over a month away, Microsoft is turning up the warning volume.
There are many reasons why users will be sticking with Windows XP after Microsoft ends all support next month. In the final analysis, none of them are good excuses.
Security firms FireEye and Secunia say Windows continues to be the most-targeted OS and businesses can expect to be attacked by malware once every 1.5 seconds.
Even after Apple dragged its brand through the mud over the recent SSL/TLS coding bug for iOS and Macs, its computing platforms are still the better choice for security.
Microsoft has released a second test build of its new 64-bit RyuJIT.Net compiler.
Microsoft is introducing a Windows Enterprise Edition SKU available for the first time to those without Software Assurance.
When running Dropbox, Mac OS X and Windows together, one wrong setting can quickly fill up all available disk space. Not a good thing.