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June 30, 2010
By Jeremy Torobin
Globe and Mail Update
GDP unchanged as second quarter gets off to slow start
Canada's economy was unchanged in April after seven straight months of growth, reflecting the more sluggish expansion that policy makers have warned would start in the second quarter, as retail and manufacturing dropped.
The country's gross domestic product on a seasonally adjusted basis unexpectedly stayed at an annualized rate of about $1.2-trillion during the month, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. Retail trade fell 1.7 per cent, mostly erasing the previous month's 1.9-per-cent increase as people bought fewer cars and less clothing, and the factory sector had its first drop since last August, mainly due to a 1.2-per-cent decline in non-durable goods such as pharmaceuticals, printing and food products. Meanwhile, the mining and wholesale industries gained.
Most economists had anticipated a monthly gain of 0.2 per cent, after a reading of 0.6 per cent growth in March, as a stimulus measures and tax incentives that have fuelled domestic spending taper off and mortgages become more expensive. The Bank of Canada's latest forecast for the economy, which policy makers will update on July 20 with their next interest-rate decision, has the first quarter's eye-popping 6.1-per-cent pace of expansion giving way to a 3.8-per-cent annualized rate during the April-through-June period.
``The weaker-than-expected profile for GDP growth raises the chances that the BoC pauses its removal of monetary accommodation at the July meeting,'' said Jonathan Basile, vice-president of economics at Credit Suisse Securities in New York, adding that the result may cause Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to lower his second-quarter growth prediction. ``This was not our expectation going into today's report.''
Gross domestic product in April was up 3.3 per cent from a year earlier. At the same time, it is unmistakable that the recovery is settling in at a more sustainable pace. Inflation slowed considerably in May, Statistics Canada reported last week, and job growth was a more average 24,700 in May following an unprecedented gain of almost 109,000 in April.
After becoming the first Group of Seven central banker to tighten monetary policy a few weeks ago, Mr. Carney will probably raise his benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points for a second-straight time next month but then may pause if he doesn't do so in July, most economists say. The European debt crisis and the march to austerity in several economies, plus the stock-market volatility all of that is causing, will loom large in his decisions, Mr. Carney has repeatedly suggested.
``We expect growth resumed in both May and June,'' said Dawn Desjardins of RBC Economics. ``The external environment, however, has the potential to weigh on Canada's economic outlook if developments damage the global economy's momentum and hurt confidence.''


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Game designer Will Wright has joined the advisory board of the Masters of Digital Media
(MDM) program at the Centre for Digital Media, Great Northern Way Campus in Canada, school officials announced recently.
Additionally, author and artist Art Spiegelman, best known for the genre-bending autobiographical, historical, Holocaust memoir, graphic-novel style books Maus I and Maus II, has also joined the board.
Both Spiegelman and Wright were speakers at the MDM program’s summer speaker series, Krazy Talk! Industry Giants, presented by the Masters of Digital Media Program jointly with Vancouver Art Gallery and held at the Centre for Digital Media.
The 20-month graduate MDM program offers a project-based curriculum for students interested in careers in digital media, including video game development. The program has only been around for one year (it launched in September 2007).
In addition to being a co-founder of Maxis, Wright was given the Game Developers Choice Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. And in 2007, he was the first game developer to be awarded a BAFTA fellowship.

domain: news


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They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But imitation, at least as it's practiced in the food industry, is often nothing more than opportunism.
When news broke earlier this month that Nestle had caved in to regulators in its long-running battle against knock-off versions of its Nespresso capsules, it seemed to mark an end to an era where innovation, originality, and novel thinking were what led to success.
Knock-offs are the polar opposite of a true breakthrough. But that doesn't mean they are insignificant. Sometimes they are better than the original. Sometimes they build markets and help create demand.
Here are our picks for the five most glaring knock-offs in the food industry — some good, some bad.
The Oreos brand is synonymous with "sandwich cookie." But the truth is that there were such cookies before Oreos. The idea — two flat, round cookies combined with cream filling — first appeared under a brand named Hydrox. Some may remember Hydrox ... it was remarkably like Oreos, only not quite as sweet. Fans of the brand, or just enemies of Oreos, will be pleased to know that the Hydrox brand has returned.
One of the most fascinating success stories in recent years is Graze, the subscription snack business that swept Europe, where subscribers get a healthy snack combo in the mail every week. It's seamless, fun, and an easy way to increase the amount of nuts, dried fruit, etc in a daily diet. Graze began it's U.S. rollout several months ago, but not before General Mills lifted the idea and launched a snack subscription service of its own, dubbed Nibblr.
3. Almost the entire ramen industry
The entire ramen phenomenon didn't begin until a man named Momofuku Ando invented precooked noodles in 1958. Then, in 1971, Ando changed history by selling the noodles in one of those just-add-hot-water cups under the brand Nissin Cup Noodles. Seemingly within months, every food company on earth was selling its own versions.
4. Hershey spreads
The world, it seems, really loves the hazelnut spread known as Nutella. Consumer longing for the spread is so intense and so widespread, that parent company Ferrero has taken to buying hazelnut producers in order to ensure supply. It's all enough to drive Hershey to jealous distraction. So the U.S. chocolate maker decided earlier this year that it would launch a line of Nutella clones — chocolate and hazelnut spreads that come in jars that look shockingly similar to Nutella jars.
5. Unreal candy
Of course not all knock-offs are bad. Consider the example of Unreal candies. The Boston-based company is "rethinking" some of the biggest names in candy, and making knock-off versions that use healthier ingredients. Unreal offers versions of Snicker's, Reese's, M&M's, peanut M&M's, and Milky Way that shun artificial colors and chemical emulsifiers and use milk from grass-fed cows, real cane sugar, and cocoa beans.


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Silicon Valley is known for its growing volumes of software engineers, website designers and other tech-types — but the region has also added manufacturing jobs this past year.
The growth this year is far from robust, considering the sector has lost 86,000 jobs in the past decade. But manufacturing employment has slowly replenished some of the past decade’s layoffs, thanks largely to specialized companies that serve the technology industry.
The San Jose metropolitan area’s manufacturing sector employed 159,200 people in June, up 3.7 percent from 153,500 people a year earlier, according to California’s Employment Development Department.
Most of the gain was in computer and electronic product manufacturing, which rose by 5,200 people this past year, to 109,700 in June from 104,500 a year earlier — a 5 percent jump.
Bay Area economic and manufacturing analysts point out that job levels are well below historical norms and, they said, unlikely to fully recover. Still, the hiring comes amid an improving regional economy that has shown more strength in recent months than many other parts of the U.S.
Nationwide, the manufacturing sector employed 11.7 million people in June, up 1.4 percent from 11.5 million a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Doug Henton, CEO of San Mateo-based Collaborate Economics Inc., said Silicon Valley companies excel in manufacturing specialized goods, from computer hardware to communications equipment, as well as exporting their products.
California had $13 billion worth of exports in May, up 10.5 percent from about $12 billion a year earlier, according to an analysis of U.S. Commerce Department data by San Rafael-based Beacon Economics.
That was the state’s 19th consecutive month of year-over-year gains, Beacon said.
Henton noted that California was hit hard in recent years by the depressed housing market, which had manufacturing jobs. However, he said Silicon Valley has a “diversified” manufacturing base that supports some of the valley’s largest employers, including consumer electronics companies and solar panel makers.
“These are significant portions of our economy,” he said.
Focus Business Bank, a single-branch lender in San Jose, is one of many banks to serve Silicon Valley’s manufacturing companies. In general, those clients are seeing increased “demand and sales,” said President and CEO Dick Conniff.
Some clients provide specialized services to tech companies, such as precision machining or manufacturing test equipment, as opposed to making the final product, Conniff said.
Nevertheless, he said the increased workload “still hasn’t resulted in increased hiring.”
“Hopefully it will come,” he said, “but it hasn’t happened yet.”
Since January 2010, the San Jose area manufacturing sector had at least 13 months of employment growth. However, many months it rose by only a few hundred people, and June’s employment level was 35 percent less than a decade ago, when the San Jose-metro area had 245,200 people in manufacturing.
Gino DiCaro, spokesman for the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, said he wasn’t aware of any subsector with strong hiring gains, and the hiring uptick, statistically, is “just minute.”
Bare printed circuit board manufacturing, for instance, employed 4,300 people in the San Jose area in June — up slightly from 4,100 a year earlier, but far below June 2001’s total of 15,200, according to state figures.
“The gains are both small and only recent,” DiCaro said of manufacturing in general.
Eli Segall can be reached at 408.299.1829 or email@example.com.


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Microsoft India has appointed Karan Bajwa as the new Managing Director of its sales and marketing group (SMSG) in the country. His new tenure starts in July 2013 and Sanket Akerkar, the current Managing Director will help with the transition until July. Bajwa will be based out of Gurgaon and will report to Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman Microsoft India. Bajwa has been with the company for over five years and currently is the head of the enterprise business in India.
The company notes that Sanket Akerkar will be moving back to the US to take up another assignment in the company. Akerkar has been with Microsoft Corporation since 2003 and moved to the Indian subsidiary in 2010.
Besides Bajwa’s appointment, the company has also announced that Floris van Heijst, General Manager – Marketing & Operations, Microsoft India, will take up a senior appointment within Europe in July 2013. Heijst had joined Microsoft in 2005 and has been in India since 2010. The exact position that Heijst and Akerkar has not been disclosed by the company yet. It’s also not clear who will replace Floris Van Heijst.


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Chegg to buy online tutoring matchmaker for $30M
Online textbook and student hub Chegg Inc. will buy tutoring marketplace InstaEDU for $30 million cash.
The deal, which is expected to close by the end of this month, is significant because it could mark the early days of a rollup of small ed-tech companies that have prospered over the past couple years as investors look to make education more efficient.
But the buyout also is interesting because newly public Chegg, based in Santa Clara, will use cash instead of its stock, which has fallen from a $12.50-per-share IPO price to a Monday close of $5.41, to buy InstaEDU.
No matter for Alison Johnston Rue, her brother Dan Johnston and fellow Stanford University graduate Joey Shurtleff, who founded San Francisco-based InstaEDU in 2012 and raised $5.1 million in venture funding from Social+Capital Partnership LP, Battery Ventures and others.
In contrast, Chegg raised about $200 million in venture funding from the likes of Insight Venture Partners, Foundation Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers since its founding in 2005 at Iowa State University. It went public in November, raising $187.5 million.
InstaEDU users pay as little as 40 cents per minute for one-on-one sessions with more than 3,000 college students/tutors from Stanford, the University of California, Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other schools.
Tutors make about $20 an hour for their video, voice or text sessions on more than 2,500 subjects. Sessions last about 45 minutes on average, InstaEDU has said.
“On-demand tutoring — anytime, anywhere, on any device — is a very disruptive idea, and it’s about time that high-quality tutoring was made affordable and accessible for all students through technology,” Chegg Chairman and CEO Dan Rosensweig said in a press release.
Ron covers biotech, higher education & sports business.
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With Apple Pay launching in the UK in July 2015, followed by Android Pay’s recent arrival, it begs the question of when mobile payments will be the norm not novelty.
Insight and informed opinions abound. For example, TSYS found 29% of respondents to its 2016 UK Consumer Mobile Payment Study had used their smartphone to make a mobile payment in-store in the last month — only 3% were unaware of the capability.
Ben Woods, European editor of The Next Web, offered a more skeptical view earlier this month. He cited Transport for London’s figures, which saw contactless payments on its network rise to more than 25% of all journeys, but cards not phones made the vast majority. He said, “mobile payments are likely still trudging towards the mainstream,” and that mobile companies and retailers haven’t convinced “regular Joes and Janes,” to care.
Two opposing viewpoints — one of accelerating mobile payment adoption and the other suggesting to not believe the hype — and at a surface-level, they are both right.
It’s human nature to adopt anything that makes our lives better and our daily tasks easier, faster, cheaper and more enjoyable. Standing on a crowded platform on a cold, wet London morning, the last thing you want to do is scramble to unlock your phone and open your payment app, all while packing onboard like sardines. A much nicer option: neatly tuck your contactless card or Oyster card inside a glove — voilà, a hands-free contactless payment experience.
In the transit scenario, not only is paying by mobile slower and less convenient, users don’t get any added value for clearing these hurdles. There’s no Tube loyalty card. No reward. And to me, that’s the critical consideration in how quickly mobile payments will reach critical mass — it all depends on what else is in your mobile wallet.
Mobile Payment is the Least Important Part of a Mobile Wallet
Now don’t get me wrong. Getting more consumers to adopt mobile payment options can streamline experiences, offer a rich source of transactional information and save money on transaction fees. It’s very strategic; just ask Starbucks. But globally, both the capability and desire to pay using mobile devices will depend on what people get out of it.
What’s here and now in the UK, are mobile wallet apps pre-installed on every Android and iOS device (93% of the UK smartphone market). Android Pay and Apple Wallet allow users to save a brand’s coupons, loyalty cards, tickets and more. Plus, they provide dynamic engagement capabilities without having to build an app, such as changing wallet card content to a new offer, sending expiration alerts, updating loyalty balances/rewards and triggering cards to display on entry to a specific location, geofence or beacon zone.
Businesses that don’t have an app of their own can benefit from the ease of downloading mobile wallet items and low deletion rates, to dynamically update wallet contents and reach out with advanced app-like engagement capabilities to sustain customer engagement over time.
What Consumers Want in Their Mobile Wallets
According to Forrester Research, Inc.’s February 2015 report, “The Future of Mobile Wallets Lies Beyond Payments,” the top things US and EU7 consumers want in their mobile wallets are loyalty points/rewards and coupons/offers with mobile payment credentials coming in lower, as seen on the chart below.
Shopping’s Peas in a Pod: Mobile Wallets and Mobile Payments
The use of smartphones is already ingrained in the process of shopping, from pre-shopping research through to in-store excursions where product information, price checking, searching for digital coupons and pulling up loyalty cards are common practice. Globally, 85% of consumers have used their smartphones in-store — up from 72% a year ago (DigitasLBi’s 2015 Connected Commerce study).
With broader mobile wallet offerings that streamline shopper experiences, provide value and reward loyalty, the consumer’s decision to be able to apply these benefits and pay in one tap becomes a massive convenience. It offers the type of cyclical benefit that snowballs to drive widespread behavioural change required for something as fundamental as how we pay for things.
Swiping or tapping a credit card to pay isn’t difficult, and pulling out a phone to do the same isn’t easier, but by bringing together payments with customer-focused offers and rewards, Apple Wallet and Android Pay are poised to become a central hub for the shopping experience whether integrated into your brand’s app or standing alone.
It’s Early Days
We’re in midst of a sea change in how people use mobile devices to interact with the world and businesses around them. Marketers have a unique window of opportunity to deliver the type of mobile experiences that get noticed, drive action and ready their customers to fully replace their physical wallets with mobile ones.
Mobile payment adoption is poised for rapid growth, but the key in getting there is taking a customer-centric approach not a transaction-focused one.
Need some inspiration for what mobile wallets can mean to your customers and business? Check out our Mobile Wallet Inspiration Guide.
This post previously appeared on The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s blog.


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Commodity Update; Gold – 18 November 2014
Gold continues to recover; further upside in doubt as India moves to curb gold imports
Gold held stable at earlier highs throughout much of last week as investors waited with bated breath for European GDP and US retail sales figures on the Friday.
While each of the above survey releases eventually met or surpassed estimates, geopolitical risks and lingering concerns over some of the world’s more problematic economies saw gold rally once again in late Friday trading.
Although concerns over global growth and stability remain valid, the road ahead for gold over the remainder of the week is clouded with uncertainty.
On the one hand both analysts and investors are widely anticipating the most recent FOMC meeting minutes, due for release on Wednesday, to show policy makers adopting a more dovish stance toward the outlook for the global economy; which would be positive for gold prices.
On the other hand the Indian government is widely expected to announce fresh curbs on gold imports this week as part of a bid to contain the nation’s spiralling trade deficit. With October imports of the metal exceeding $4 billion, roughly 30% of the deficit, further import restrictions are the “low hanging fruit” when it comes to measures designed to reduce the deficit.
While it is not certain that the government will go ahead with the additional curbs, or whether these would actually prove effective at limiting imports given the ease with which the metal can be smuggled, it is likely that gold prices will suffer on the back of any such announcement.
This is because the nation is the world’s second largest gold consumer, with October imports accounting for 20% of net purchases globally during the same month according to data from the London Bullion Market Association.
In short, while there is good reason to think that gold presents an attractive opportunity to hedge growing uncertainty over global growth and stability; there are also good and valid reasons to be remaining on the sidelines.
Accordingly, we hold a neutral position on the likely trajectory of the metal in the immediate future.
Spot Gold // Hourly Intervals
The contents of this report and the Stockatonia website (https://www.stockatonia.co.uk/


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|July 20, 2004,
as reported by just-food.com: EU’s Trade
Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, will spend the week traveling
to Turkish cities, attending the Fourth Euro-Med trade
ministerial conference and hopefully resolving some outstanding
trade issues Europe’s neighbor to the south.
Lamy is to travel to Istanbul and Ankara this week
to discuss bilateral trade issues, including Turkey’s
ban on imports of beef.
The visit will be coupled with the Fourth Euro-Med
trade ministerial conference, which Lamy will co-chair
in Istanbul on 21 July.
The Commission said a large part of Lamy’s visit
will be devoted to seeking a satisfactory resolution
of long-lasting bilateral trade problems, such as the
Turkish ban on imports of beef.


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Denise Dogon, CEO of Dogon Group reports, “There is a better quality of life in Cape Town, when compared to other cities. Cape Town is recognised as one of the most beautiful and desirable places to be. More recently, TripAdvisor, the respected and largest dotcom website for discerning travellers, awarded Cape Town the status of ‘Best City Destination in the World’, as voted by its international followers. When you consider the many aspects of beauty and culture, the quality of our restaurants and the value for money, it’s an easy decision to purchase here.”
Denise says that the demand for Cape Town properties has reached unprecedented levels, with investor confidence in the residential market rocketing. She announced that Dogon Group has outperformed its record sales in previous years with Atlantic Seaboard sales continuing to break records. The last six months have produced significant results, with Dogon Group experiencing huge demand from all sources, especially the Internet.
Rob Stefanutto, Managing Director of Dogon Group, has completely sold out the new Mirage development in De Waterkant. The R400-million development by the Nova Group, solely marketed by Dogon Group Properties, consists of 66 apartments, two levels of retail space and a 63-room, five-star hotel that is independently owned and managed by a European hotel group. The apartments range in size from one to three bedrooms and were priced between R1.8-million and R8.9-million. The Mirage’s penthouse was sold for R27-million.
Rob said that the new development represents a healthy barometer of Cape Town’s real-estate industry. “With the return of the investor, new developments are springing up all at once, many of which are sold out before they even reach the market. Because the market has been stagnant for a while, people are realising there is a shortage of stock and that they will never be able to buy at these prices again.”
Denise and her team, Adrien Epstein and Vicky Atlas, who specialise in luxury property have sold over R100-million-worth of homes in the last month. Denise added that Cape Town’s property boom is highlighted in sectional title sales, which have seen exceptional results within the Dogon Group – with the sale of an apartment every second day. Monthly rentals have increased from between R20 000 and R50 000 per month to approximately R50 000 to R100 000 per month for a three- to four-bedroomed family home. The demand for short-term holiday rentals is also on the increase in Cape Town; so much so that tourists are struggling to find accommodation for the summer season.
Denise added that while buyers are predominantly South African, they come from all corners of the world including African countries, Europe and the United States. Denise said that Cape Town property has become increasingly desirable to many South Africans who are looking to relocate. Dogon Group has sold over a billion-Rands-worth of residential property since the beginning of 2014.


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Amazon wants to bite into Apple’s iPad market, particularly in the classroom. This week the company launched a campaign to get more Kindles into schools around the country.
Amazon’s new online tool Whispercast makes it much easier for schools and businesses to manage hundreds of Kindle e-readers at once. Plus at $70-$80 a pop, Kindles are cheap compared to an iPad.
That, says Altimeter Group analyst Chris Silva is a winning combination. “When everybody has access to the technology because its simple and cost effective, the idea takes hold,” Silva says.
That’s certainly what Amazon executives are hoping. Right now, Apple has a lock on the tablet market in schools. But as schools move away from desktop computers and embrace tablets, thereby pushing up tablet demand, Amazon has the opportunity to capture new customers.
Senior analyst Sarah Rotman Epps with Forrester Research says it makes sense for tech companies to get their products to kids. “Students are their customers of the future,” she says. “And if they can provide them a great experience when they are young, then they’ll have a leg up on competitors in the future.”
Rotman Epps says Amazon’s Kindle is a viable alternative to the iPad, but she doubts it can compete with iPad sales.
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The fashion industry is the world’s second largest industrial polluter, second only to oil. In fact, 20% of global production waste comes from the textile and apparel sectors.
Plus, the rise of fast fashion means that we’re throwing out our clothes at an alarming rate. The average consumer bought 60% more clothing in 2014 than in 2000, but kept each garment half as long. Another survey found that women in the UK only wore their clothes an average of 7 times before disposing of them. As a result, over 90 million items of clothing end up in landfills around the world.
And apparel spending worldwide is only projected to grow, intensifying the impacts of both production and post-consumer waste.
Why Isn’t Technology the Answer?
Many see textile recycling technology as a panacea to the world’s growing apparel waste. A handful of companies, such as Econyl, Evernu, Worn Again and HK Research Institute are developing mechanical or chemical processes to recycle textiles.
The allure of technology is understandable—it represents creativity, innovation and the future. These days, it’s seen as the answer to every problem. If it hasn’t already provided the solution, our unyielding faith in its potential leads us to believe that it will.
This may present a problem though —particularly when it comes to the fashion industry.
At this point, there are many limitations to textile recycling technologies such as:
- Unable to separate clothes with more than two fiber types
- Unable to recycle clothes with more than 5% elastane (elastic)
- Unable to ensure that the recycled natural fibers are long and strong enough to produce an entire garment out of
- Energy and/ or chemical intensive
As a result, it’d be naïve of us to expect that they’ll be able to process any significant amount of discarded textiles in the near future. It’ll be a while before textile recycling technology can catch up to the pace at which we’re currently throwing clothes away – if ever.
Extending Clothing Life Will Allow Technology to Catch Up
There’s immense value loss in disposing of clothes so frequently. A recent study conducted by Fibersort and the European Regional Development Fund found that approximately 64% of post-consumer textiles are rewearable, meaning that we’re throwing out clothes well before the end of their useful life. To give you a sense of the scale of the loss (and the size of the potential), less than 15% of the 15 million tons of used textile waste is recycled in the United States annually!
Even if textile recycling technologies were to be commercialized, that wouldn’t solve for the number of used garments lost to downcycling and landfills each year through inefficient collection
So what’s the answer? Purchasing fewer, higher quality clothes and wearing them longer.
As consumers, we have tremendous power to reverse these destructive trends of the fashion industry. According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), extending the life of clothing by an extra nine months of active use would reduce carbon, waste and water footprints by around 20-30% each and cut resource costs by 20%.
Clothes should not have a similar lifespan as the food and beverage industry. Small changes in our behavior can change that and allow textile recycling technology to eventually catch up.


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First quarter net sales decreased 6% with comparable sales down 7%
First quarter diluted loss per share of $0.15 vs. guidance of ($0.27) to ($0.34)
Strong balance sheet maintained with $144 million in cash and no debt
Repurchased 13.0 million shares for $105 million life to date under existing $150 million share repurchase program
Board of Directors appointed Timothy Baxter as new CEO
Columbus, Ohio - May 30, 2019 - Express, Inc. (NYSE: EXPR), a leading fashion apparel retailer, announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2019. These results, which cover the thirteen weeks ended May 4, 2019, are compared to the thirteen weeks ended May 5, 2018.
Matthew Moellering, the Company’s Interim CEO and Interim President and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, stated: "The first quarter marked solid progress toward our goal of positioning Express for long-term growth. Comparable sales and earnings beat the high end of our guidance."
"While we had a soft start to the year, the health of the business improved throughout the period. As a result, we were able to reduce promotion levels in the back half of the quarter," Mr. Moellering continued. "We are making significant headway on the implementation of several new business initiatives focused on product, brand and product clarity, and customer acquisition and retention. While much remains to be done, we expect to build on this progress throughout the year."
On May 21, the Company announced that its Board of Directors appointed Timothy Baxter Chief Executive Officer, effective June 17, 2019. He will assume day-to-day leadership of the company and will also join Express’ Board of Directors. Mr. Baxter will succeed Mr. Moellering, who has served as Interim President and Interim CEO since January 2019. Mr. Moellering will remain with Express as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Baxter was most recently Chief Executive Officer of Delta Galil Premium Brands, a group of specialty retail apparel brands. Prior to that, he spent 26 years with Macy’s, Inc. and the former May Department Stores in various roles, most recently as Macy’s Chief Merchandising Officer.
"We look forward to Tim joining us in June. The entire leadership team is eager to collaborate with him and accelerate our action plan to return Express to profitable growth," said Mr. Moellering.
The following information was filed by Express, Inc. (EXPR) on Thursday, May 30, 2019 as an 8K 2.02 statement, which is an earnings press release pertaining to results of operations and financial condition. It may be helpful to assess the quality of management by comparing the information in the press release to the information in the accompanying 10-Q Quarterly Report statement of earnings and operation as management may choose to highlight particular information in the press release.
View differences made from one quarter to another to evaluate Express, Inc.'s financial trajectory
Compare this 10-Q Quarterly Report to its predecessor by reading our highlights to see what text and tables were removed, and by Express, Inc..
Ticker: EXPR CIK: 1483510 Form Type:10-Q Quarterly Report Accession Number: 0001483510-19-000055 Submitted to the SEC: Tue Jun 11 2019 12:50:46 PM EST Accepted by the SEC: Tue Jun 11 2019 Period: Saturday, May 4, 2019 Industry: Retail Apparel And Accessory Stores


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SYFY has introduced us to the some of the biggest guilty pleasure horror films ever, including "Sharknado" which has starred just about every A to D list celebrity you can think of. And, thanks to the Players Weekend nicknames, Mark Melancon has invented a new SYFY thriller of his own: "Sharkhorse Park."
Thanks to the beauty of Twitter, someone took advantage of the situation and Photoshopped their depiction of Sharkhorse Park -- and it's terrifying. It's also very well done.
SYFY seems to be on board with Melancon's idea for the newest horror movie franchise. This is just in time to keep Hunter and Lexi Pence busy until Game of Thrones is back.
Looking forward to seeing your first draft, Mark!
- SYFY (@SYFY) August 28, 2017


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DOZENS of Cash App scams have been spotted on Facebook.
Researchers say the scams can be found easily with a simple search.
According to Snopes, scam ads have been spotted on Facebook that promise $750 in Cash App rewards for free.
The fake adverts are said to lead to a Google Docs page that will ask you for personal information.
A scam like this could steal your data.
This can result in you being spammed with phishing emails or even identity theft depending on what type of information is given away.
One of the scam adverts noticed by Snopes was posted in May 2021 and hadn’t been removed by Facebook.
If you spot a scam post or advert on Facebook you should report it instantly.
To report a Facebook post, click the three dots in the top right of the post and select “Find support or report post”.
How to stay safe
If an online offer looks too good to be true it often is.
Always check that an offer or advert is from the company it claims to be.
You can do this by checking spelling, website links and having a look on the company’s official webpage.
Never give out personal details to strangers online and be very cautious of where you type banking information.
In other news, if you’re sick of getting automated scam calls to your iPhone there’s an easy way for you to avoid them.
Nasa has revealed stunning footage of a solar flare in action.
And, the US space agency is planning for a ‘golden asteroid’ probing mission to launch this summer.
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Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Source: The Sun


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The ELEPHONE brand is well known for their interesting and affordable phone models, but the scope of their production is much wider. They are also dabbling in the audio accessories like TWS earphones or smart devices like webcameras or even smartwatch models. And according to our insider information that’s exactly what they are plan to launch soon – a new smartwatch piece. We even have some alleged picture of this
[From $17,500; bmwmotorcycles.com]
The Stealth Commuter
It took a small army of designers and engineers to build Specialized’s 33-pound, long-range Turbo Vado SL e-bike. A 320 Wh battery, plus a lightweight motor and fittings, created a ride you can actually lift, which still assists up to 28 mph. “You don’t need a big engine to get to top speed,” says Senior
Alphabet’s Verily has announced plans to launch Coefficient, a health insurance subsidiary that will eventually leverage Verily’s various technologies and health-related devices. The insurance subsidiary will be backed by Swiss Re Group’s Swiss Re Corporate Solutions commercial insurance unit. According to Verily, its Coefficient will, among other things, offer ‘novel insurance and payment models.’
Verily Life Sciences is a health-centric business owned by Alphabet. In an announcement on Tuesday, the
Hyderabad, Telangana, India (NewsVoir) Conekt Gadgets, developers of smartphone peripherals and accessories, today, announced its new set of offerings into India’s accessories market. In August 2018 Rohit Sharma, an Indian international cricketer hired as Brand ambassador unveiled the brand and took wraps off its highly anticipated product line and in last year company renewed him as brand ambassador till 2021 December.
The company launched portable bluetooth speakers – Spin, Sparkle
MOSCOW, Aug. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Scientists from NUST MISIS have developed a new type of energy-efficient devices – thermocells that convert heat into energy. This will make possible creation of portable batteries that can be applied to virtually any surface, including clothing, to generate electricity directly from the surface of the body. The results are presented in the Renewable Energy journal.
Thermoelectricity – electricity obtained from heat due
Samsung has revealed a new triple charging pad, with the Wireless Charger Trio aiming to keep not only only your phone but your accessories topped up more easily. The sleek desk charger may not be quite as clever as Apple’s AirPower promised to be, but the difference is Samsung is actually going to ship its version.
Rather than allowing you to position your devices anywhere you like atop the Wireless
If you’ve ever used a wireless charger, you know there’s exactly one place you can put your phone on it to work. Now, a new type of wireless charging technology is hitting the market and it’s more effortless than ever.
“People have generally not had a great experience with wireless charging,” explained Noah Dentzel, CEO and co-founder of Nomad. The company is known for its high-quality mobile accessories.
September means one thing in the tech world: new gadgets. While last week’s IFA conference was a physical event, all eyes are on Apple as to whether it will be holding its famous new product launch event digitally, or resorting to the press release route.
One product which may not get a big launch announcement is the new Apple Watch Series 6. According to serious
Digitogy is already operating in multiple international markets delivering ‘out of the ordinary gadgets’ that help people solve technical problems, issues with the body, and awkward exercise movements. The service and brand name is already well established across most of Europe serving the UK, French, and German consumers.
Digitogy’s CEO proudly said in a statement “Today is another proud day for our firm as we expand into yet another
Fitbit has a trio of new devices, each one aimed at providing you with varying levels of health information and insight. In some cases, that means new types of information we haven’t seen in a wearable as of yet. Take the new Fitbit Sense, which has a dedicated EDA (that stands for “electrodermal activity”) app that measures your body’s reaction to stress. Something we think we can all use and
Los Angeles: Amazon.com Inc. introduced a wearable fitness gadget called the Halo Band, entering the market for health monitoring devices dominated by Apple Inc. and Fitbit Inc.
The wrist band uses what Amazon describes as artificial intelligence software to monitor a range of personal wellness metrics, from physical activity to sleep and even mood. The device’s features include 3D scans for body fat and voice-tone
For as long as consumer electronics have been tied to the holiday season cycle, engineering heroism is what got those devices on shelves. There is incredible pressure to deliver high quality devices, in abundant quantity, on schedule in order to meet revenue targets. To make it happen, engineers become heroes: last-minute flights, all-nighters, hand carries, and strokes of genius are all baked into these epic deliveries. I was an
Batman is known as the ultimate ‘man with a plan’ – an ultra-prepared, impeccably skilled, unflappably cool crimefighter who always has the right tool for the job.
And when we say tools, we mean the arsenal of groovy gadgets Batman keeps stashed away for just the right occasion – from Batarangs, to grappling hooks, to Bat-shark repellent and beyond – some of which are just as iconic as the Caped
Amazon on Thursday unveiled a new health gadget, dubbed the Amazon Halo Band, with plans already underway to distribute the wearable device to some patients at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego.
Cerner Corp. customers, such as Sharp HealthCare, will be able to let patients share data from the wearable into their medical record—the latest step in a partnership with Amazon that Cerner announced last summer.
Sharp HealthCare will be the
The Halo is a $100 wrist-worn device that, among other functions, listens to your conversations so you can understand how you sound to others. And it comes with a companion app that scans your body three-dimensionally to track your progress gaining your “quarantine 15.”
Amazon is upfront about these invasive functions, which users of the Halo have to opt into using. What’s revealing is that one of tech’s biggest companies
Ubisoft has revealed more details about the third season of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege Year 5: Operation Shadow Legacy.
We already knew that Splinter Cell star Sam Fisher was coming out of retirement to be the next Rainbow Six: Siege playable character, codenamed Zero, but now Ubisoft has dropped more information about the upcoming season.
Fisher is an Attacker equipped with a new gadget,
The livestream mostly kept mum about new gameplay details; But it did promise a “mysterious surprise” that will be kept under wraps until the update goes live.
When it comes to its esports tournament, PUBG Mobile will be combining the existing World League and World Championship into one large “mega event,” said James Yang, Director of PUBG Mobile Global Esports. Pro teams from regions around the world will compete in
Attacking team composition in Rainbow Six Siege has, for years now, depended largely on the choice of who to bring along as a hard breacher, particularly for certain bomb sites. Teams on offense know that they’ll need a Thermite, Hibana, Ace, or Maverick if they’re going to get through reinforced walls. With Operation Shadow Legacy, that’s about to change: now, eight more attackers will have the option to bring a
We’ve got fresh 2020 data on which phones are holding their value and which phones aren’t – useful information if you think you might want to trade your current handset in for a newer model in the near future.
A new annual report put together by cash-for-gadgets enterprise MusicMagpie is based on trade-in data collected from its own deals with customers. As well as showing which handsets hold their value,
The Manila city government on Monday turned over thousands of gadgets and connectivity devices to the Division of City Schools (DCS)-Manila in preparation for the new blended distant learning setup.


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Job concerns growing reason for data complaints, forum told
THE NUMBER of complaints from people seeking access to personal information held on them increased last year due to the economic downturn, with many people concerned about potential or actual dismissal from their jobs.
Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes said yesterday the top item for complaints to his office in 2010 was about failure to respond adequately to requests for access to personal data.
Individuals have a right under the Data Protection Acts to be given this data. “In past years, the top spot was always occupied by unsolicited direct marketing,” Mr Hawkes said. “I think with the economic downturn we are currently suffering, we’ve seen increasing use of the right of access by people who are fearful that they are going to lose their jobs or, who sometimes may have lost them.
“They are using the right of access to see what exactly is going on in relation to them within a particular organisation, or to see was it justified that they should have been picked out for dismissal from the company.”
Mr Hawkes said that despite the best efforts of many companies, Irish people continued to complain their data protection rights were not being respected. His office opened some 783 formal complaints last year, of which 39 per cent related to people seeking access to their personal data.
In 2009, the number of complaints in this category was 29 per cent of an overall 914 complaints.
Mr Hawkes said he thought the downturn was also tempting some companies to opt for cheaper forms of marketing “but unfortunately, without asking for consumer consent”. He said his office had been active in prosecuting “repeat offenders” because it is a criminal offence to send such marketing by electronic means.
He was speaking at the third annual Irish Computer Society Data Protection Conference in Dublin. Mr Hawkes told delegates he hoped the statistics would show how failing to respect customer privacy carried a cost, and that treating personal data was “simply good customer service”.
There has also been a “very significant” increase in the number of reports of security breaches in the past year. The figures rose from 119 in 2009 to more than 400 last year. In 2009, theft of laptops or other IT equipment was the main source of breaches. But last year, the main source was more traditional types such as mistakes with direct mailing, with information sent to the wrong person. Mr Hawkes said many of these affected only a few customers.
“It’s now less usual, but unfortunately still too common, to have reports of large-scale data breaches due to loss of unencrypted data equipment.” Most recent examples of data breaches cited at the conference included theft of the GAA’s database of over half a million members, with details that included sensitive health information in some cases.
Also cited was the hacking of Fine Gael’s new election website, which resulted in the theft of data on more than 2,000 people who had submitted comments. An Irish Times story on an investigation into Fianna Fáil for allegedly sending unsolicited e-mails ahead of the election was also cited.
Mr Hawkes told The Irish Timeshis office had liaised with Fine Gael and it had addressed the original issue of how it was using information gathered on its site. It emerged that, in some cases, the e-mail addresses used by Fianna Fáil had been given to the party by individuals themselves.


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This week, Ad Age hosted its 11th annual Small Agency Conference & Awards, celebrating creative shops with fewer than 150 employees.
Amid some of the most uncertain times in recent memory, the entire three-day conference took place online with a litany of workshops and panels featuring small-shop creatives, branding chiefs and adland stalwarts, all of whom shared their two cents about where to go from here. And while some of the pomp and pizzazz of last summer’s event in New Orleans may have been missing, the insight on offer was as valuable as ever, if not more so.
Here are eight key takeaways from the sessions:
Everything is up for re-evaluation
Between rampant social upheaval in the United States and widespread COVID-19 fears, it’s safe to say that no one’s life is where they expected it to be at the start of the year. “And, at the center of this Venn diagram of ‘what the fuck is happening?’ is advertising. It’s the change big agencies have been dreading,” said Greg Hahn, an advertising veteran who recently co-founded Mischief USA with No Fixed Address, an award-winning Canadian agency. If mass change is ever going to be catalyzed in the ad game, it’ll come now.
Know who you’re willing to lose
When brands take public political or social stances, such as Nike’s alignment with Colin Kaepernick or Nascar’s recent ban on the Confederate flag from its races, they have to acknowledge that some customers may abandon them. But for smaller agencies and brands, the option to alienate certain demographics isn’t always a luxury the can afford. Supporting social movements “might be bad for business, but it's good for morale,” said Mark Fitzloff, founder of Portland, Oregon agency Opinionated. “The freedom of being independent is empowering.”
True diversity takes time
The U.S. is in a period of social reckoning unseen since the civil rights movement, and the corporate world’s spotlight now shines squarely on diversity, equity and inclusion. “If you are going to change the ethnic composition of the advertising industry, it’s not going to happen this month,” said Grace Blue’s North America CEO Claire Telling. And in striving for meaningful diversity in the office, Ashley Richardson-George, head of digital at New York-based Circus Maximus, warned against approaching random employees of color for their thoughts on D&I initiatives, especially without proper compensation for their extra work.


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Southern LINC has changed its name to SouthernLINC Wireless to better reflect the company's product offerings.
Blue Wireless & Data is continuing its buying spree with the purchase of Light Speed Wireless. The buy will expand Blue Wireless' business.
Qwest Communications International reportedly is in talks to snap up MCI, according to circulating media reports. The spike in chatter comes on the heels of SBC Communications' planned acquisition of AT&T.
Verizon Wireless, Sesame Workshop, Nortel Networks, Horizon PCS, iPCS, ICOA, Panera Bread, Linksys, Dust Networks and SureWest Communications.
Hoping to turn up the heat on the competitive smartphone OS market, Symbian has upgraded its operating system with the launch of Symbian OS version 9 (v9). Devices sporting the updated OS will hit the market in the second half of this year.
palmOne has unveiled the Treo 650, an EDGE-enabled device featuring a digital camera, PDA functionality and a mobile phone. Cingular Wireless will begin selling the smartphone later this week.
Cincinnati Bell said it needs a little more time to file its fourth-quarter results as it works through its refinancing plan. The company also reiterated its full-year 2004 guidance.
On the heels of its acquisition of YYireless1.Net, U.S. Wireless Online has secured $3 million in institutional funding, with $1.5 million of the commitment already distributed.
Six months after acquiring European game publisher Macrospace, Sorrent is relaunching the combined brands as Glu Mobile. The goal, according to the renamed company, is to create a single global identity.
SAN DIEGO--Any doubts about what Qualcomm sees as the flashiest use of its BREW platform were allayed today at the start of the BREW 2005 Conference when a 3D game was recreated on stage. Even Paul Jacobs, CEO-elect, got into the act when he descended from the ceiling wearing a Ninja outfit.
Qualcomm's BREW Developers Conference is in full swing today in San Diego. Here's a glimpse at what's making news at the show, including new product unveilings.
Sprint Nextel continues to push the mobile video envelope. The latest: the carrier has taken the wraps off of a new mobile sports and entertainment network. Sprint Power View will feature made-for-mobile video programming that will be centered on sports and entertainment content.
Lucent Technologies may be in the midst of an international tie-up with Alcatel, but that isn't stopping the company from making plays designed to strengthen its position in the mobile space. To that end, Lucent revealed a deal to acquire Mobilitec for an undisclosed sum.
Nokia is rolling out the Nokia E62 wireless e-mail device in an effort to make wireless e-mail more of a mass market application. The device will be available exclusively in the U.S. from Cingular Wireless.
I was in Denver last week when a gunman walked into a classroom and opened fire, forcing the mass evacuation at a school complex in Bailey, Colo. Although the Columbine massacre was nearly seven years ago, the fragile sense of safety in schools was once again rocked to the core. In this recent tragedy, the gunman took six hostages, but released four of them during the 4-hour siege.


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ALL ABOUT FASHION, STYLES & EVENTS!!! CONTACT: +255762200027 OR EMAIL: email@example.com
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Beyonce Surprises Young Fans at Target 1-Year-Anniversary Celebration
Beyonce gave a group of young fans one hell of a surprise when she popped up and started dancing along to her new song “Countdown” at a Boys & Girls Club event at a Harlem Target store yesterday.
The superstar was on hand to help Target celebrate the 1-year anniversary of that particular store, as well as the release of her new album “4.”


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Nowadays, foreign investment in factories in Mexico is taking off again, even in industries in which China has been dominant. For instance, Mexican exports of electronics more than tripled, to $78 billion, from 2006 to 2013.
A significant shift in cost competitiveness is behind Mexico’s manufacturing revival. A decade ago, average direct manufacturing costs in China were estimated to be 6 percentage points cheaper than Mexico’s, according to the BCG Global Manufacturing Cost-Competitiveness Index. Now, Mexico is estimated to be 4 percentage points cheaper.
In China, labor costs soared and productivity wasn’t able to keep up. In Mexico, the 67% rise in average Mexican manufacturing wages from 2004 to 2014 was almost entirely offset by productivity gains in the modern industrial sector and an 11% depreciation of the peso against the U.S. dollar.


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Today, the process of getting and staying compliant with food safety rules is cumbersome and bureaucratic. As a result, companies struggle and spend significant resources to achieve compliance. FoodDocs — an innovator in the food safety industry – has raised £1.8M ($2.4M/€2.1M) to solve food safety compliance issues with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
The funding is led by Bonnier Ventures with Forward Venture Capital, and Spring Capital also joining the round with existing investor United Angels VC. The funds will be used to continue the strategic growth journey, drive further expansion in the US and the UK to reach more clients and partners, and further improve AI capabilities.
“The food industry is hungry for change because of the pandemic”, said Katrin Liivat, co-founder and CEO of FoodDocs. “Compliance processes need to become more efficient and company-friendly – that’s where we change the game. Leveraging AI, FoodDocs makes getting compliant 500x faster than the traditional method and allows food businesses to save 20% of their time on staying compliant.” Liivat added that the market is ready for innovative solutions to face food safety issues with simple yet genius food safety software.
Thanks to machine learning, FoodDocs is able to create a HACCP plan in less than 1 hour when compared with manual scrolling through various instructions and legislation which typically takes at least 3-4 weeks. This means that food business owners and quality managers can save up to 120 working hours on getting compliant if they use our AI solution. On the other hand and when it comes to staying compliant, our system needs only an average of 15 minutes to shift from a traditional to a digital food safety management system. Both software programs are powered by AI and intuitively create all the necessary documents in minutes.
Filling in daily food safety monitoring forms is one of the most tedious and repetitive jobs for a food business team. As the FoodDocs team has a wealth of experience in the food safety field and knows how it feels, we’ve incorporated a feature that deals with this repetitive but essential task. Our digital FSMS solution fills in monitoring sheets automatically according to previously inserted data. With this function, you can free up your employees’ time and allow them to focus on other tasks. All that is left to do is for your employees to verify the information in the sheets.
The solutions that FoodDocs has developed are already valued by over 15,000 customers including Huboo, Smart Lunches, The Oxford Food Co., and Bolt Market. The latter company has used FoodDocs solution to expand to 40 new business locations in nine countries.
Melanie Goldfinger, Operations Manager of Croatia for Bolt Market confirms the value of FoodDocs, commenting that FoodDocs helped to accumulate all documentation accurately together. “They saved us a lot of time and are clearly customer-centric service providers. They strive to make our HACCP goals as smooth as possible and take time to educate all our team members on the usage of the platform.”
FoodDocs was established by two female food safety experts. Their mission is to help serve safe food and make food safety rules easy to follow, offering one solution for all food safety tasks. “We have been impressed by Katrin and Karin’s deep understanding of the large and complex food safety market. The positive impact that FoodDocs delivers for food safety and food businesses, by empowering them to operate more efficiently, is remarkable. We think FoodDocs have all the pieces needed to win and become a leader in this important category.” said Victor Bodin, Investment Director at Bonnier Ventures.


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Rich Pedroncelli/Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
An employee waters plants at a medical marijuana dispensary in Sacramento, California. Voters in the state legalized recreational marijuana in the November 2016 election.
© The Associated Press
The battle to legally grow, sell, buy and smoke pot in California has been a long one.
Voters in the state ushered in medical marijuana 20 years ago, but took until last fall to approve a plan to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana.
Now, California officials are faced with setting rules for a product that has been outlawed by the federal government since the 1930s — a challenge that lawmakers and regulators in the other states that chose some form of marijuana legalization in the November election also are confronting.
Like California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada voted to legalize recreational marijuana. They also will need rules about where pot shops can be located and whether dispensaries can sell food and candy infused with marijuana. They will also have to dovetail their recreational regulations with an existing medical marijuana industry, while Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota will be building medical systems from the ground up.
It could take several years. Colorado and Washington paved the way for recreational marijuana by legalizing it in 2012, but they are still sorting out policy details.
There is often a gap between the language of ballot measures like California’s and the detailed regulations needed to get marijuana markets off the ground. And the referendums that voters approve often call for quick implementation, giving legislators and regulators little or no time to enact policies before the drug becomes legal.
“There’s no perfect implementation, there’s no perfect legalization effort,” said Michael Correia, a federal lobbyist for the National Cannabis Industry Association. “There’s going to be hiccups.”
In Montana, medical marijuana has been legal since 2004, but had become out of reach for many patients following a series of limitations issued by the Legislature. Now, after a November referendum, the state is poised to roll back restrictions on the number of patients a medical marijuana grower can serve, effectively opening the medical marijuana market once again.
Maryland, which approved medical marijuana in 2014, is now dealing with a spate of lawsuits against the commission charged with awarding sales licenses. Shops just opened in Alaska in October — almost two years after recreational marijuana was legalized there — and in Oregon, officials rushed to approve new packaging and labels just days before new rules took effect in October.
Arkansas and Massachusetts already are discovering the difficulty of setting up a regulatory system. Arkansas has delayed the launch of its medical marijuana program to give public agencies more time to prepare and lawmakers have introduced bills to restrict how the drug is used. Massachusetts lawmakers delayed the opening of marijuana shops by six months and proposed bills that would limit how much can be grown and possessed.
Already this year, at least 12 states are considering legislation to legalize and regulate marijuana. Another seven are looking at measures to decriminalize simple possession of marijuana and nearly 30 ballot measures related to marijuana are being considered for elections in 2017 and 2018.
And they have been able to adopt marijuana policy largely unbothered since 2009, when the federal government announced that it would not interfere with state laws that legalized cannabis. It is unclear how Republican President Donald Trump will approach marijuana policy.
No state has legalized recreational marijuana through its legislature. Even in Vermont’s General Assembly, which has already legalized medical marijuana and decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot, a recreational marijuana bill failed to pass last year.
But lawmakers in Colorado and Washington who have toiled over marijuana policy for almost five years say legislation, rather than the ballot box, is the way to go.
Building and regulating a new industry can be costly. For example, in 2014 Oregon estimated that it would cost almost $4 million annually to legalize marijuana — though states project tax revenue could far outweigh costs.
Frank McNulty, a former Republican state representative from Denver, opposes legalization. But he advises other states to work with the marijuana industry to establish a regulatory framework if a ballot initiative appears likely to pass.
In Colorado, the 2012 recreational marijuana ballot initiative took effect 30 days after the election. That left lawmakers without enough time to work on regulations, McNulty said. And, he said, poorly aligned medical and recreational systems have fed into black market sales.
Three years after marijuana could first be bought and sold in Colorado, officials are still working through regulatory changes. This year already, bills have been introduced that would create a licensing system for marijuana smoking clubs, prohibit advertising marijuana without a sales license, and allow the use of medical marijuana for stress disorders.
Similarly in Washington, which legalized marijuana on the ballot in 2012, lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow retailers to sell marijuana merchandise like clothing that bears a store’s logo, regulate in-home marijuana production, and standardize the packaging and labeling of edible marijuana products.
Regulators also should brace themselves for a plethora of marijuana-infused edible products, such as candies and baked goods, which can be popular with first-time users who may be averse to smoking the plant.
Edibles affect the body differently than smoking marijuana. Because THC, marijuana’s psychoactive compound, is absorbed through the stomach rather than the lungs, it takes longer to feel its effects and the resulting high is lengthier than a smoker’s.
This can be a problem for inexperienced marijuana users who ingest too much and find themselves paranoid, uncoordinated or hallucinating. Though marijuana proponents argue that too much marijuana can’t kill you, cannabis consumption has been associated with deaths, including that of a 19-year-old man who jumped from a hotel balcony after consuming a cookie that contained six times the suggested amount of marijuana in 2014.
What’s more, candied products can easily be confused with regular sweets and ingested by children who can experience even more severe effects. Emergency room visits and calls to poison control centers for children who accidentally consumed marijuana increased dramatically in Colorado after legalization.
Colorado has passed laws that require explicit labels and markings on edible products and set limits on serving sizes. But McNulty, who now lobbies the Colorado General Assembly, said the state needs to go further and regulate potency. Marijuana plants have been engineered to be more potent than they were 40 or 50 years ago and need to be regulated accordingly, he said.
Bringing California Online
One test of how well legalized marijuana is working will be when California, with about 39 million people and the sixth largest economy in the world, opens its recreational marijuana shops.
Market researchers estimate that the California cannabis market will grow by 18.5 percent annually over the next five years, reaching $6.5 billion by 2020. By comparison, revenue in Massachusetts and Nevada, which also legalized recreational marijuana in November, is expected to be about $1.07 billion and $629.5 million, respectively.
But regulating the California market won’t be easy. Already there are rumblings of pushing implementation back a year from 2018 to 2019.
And it won’t be entirely up to the state. Local governments will have a lot of say in determining when and where marijuana is bought and consumed.
They can ban commercial marijuana activity within their borders and will also oversee code enforcement as marijuana growing facilities are built. Ahead of the November vote, San Jose and other cities in California banned pot sales, at least in part to give themselves more time to develop regulations.
Some cities want to restrict felons with recent drug convictions from cultivating marijuana at home, while others have proposed a permit system for at-home growers, said Jordan Ferguson, an attorney who works for city governments around California.
Cities could also boost their treasuries by imposing additional taxes and fees on marijuana and the businesses that sell marijuana. Ferguson spoke of cities that could potentially double their annual budgets through development agreements with marijuana business owners eager to start operating.
“Some [cities] are taking a very conservative position and [remaining] hands-off until they see how the dust settles,” Ferguson said. “Some are saying, ‘Well, we’re going to regulate what we think is [reasonable] and if somebody disagrees with us, ultimately a court may have to settle it.’ ”
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With a good credit record and a substantial project on the line for a major city, Long Island, N.Y.-based QnA Tech sought financing options to close a nearly $750,000 deal. Not only was the project more than three times larger than the solution provider’s average, several million dollars in future opportunities were also at stake.
Fortunately, a new Ingram Micro Financial Services (IMFS) program called Direct Express Alternate Financing was there to help. Designed to supply flexibility for tackling large business deals, Direct Express supplements a regular Ingram Micro credit line. This enables solution providers to finance their day-to-day operations and win significant new business.
“Our manufacturer partners were pushing us in various financing directions,” recalls Keith McAvoy, director of corporate strategy for the Long Island City, N.Y.-based QnA. “But we wanted more than just credit.”
According to McAvoy, his firm sought a distribution partner that genuinely understood its business and supported its growth goals. When QnA officials contacted Ingram Micro in early 2015, good things happened fast. QnA received a dedicated account representative who introduced the firm to IMFS. “We were pleased that Ingram Micro clearly recognized our potential,” McAvoy says.
After completing the necessary disclosures, QnA immediately leveraged Direct Express to close the deal. “Previously, we couldn’t have closed the deal without crippling our business,” says McAvoy. “With Ingram Micro’s help, we established we could handle the municipality’s needs.”
That success led to peer referrals, both within the city’s approximately 125 agencies and more broadly. “It was like gaining 125 new customers,” McAvoy says. “And, it opened doors to other state and local governments, as well as enterprise opportunities.”
In addition, McAvoy credits Ingram Micro with helping QnA expand to its first distant location in Florida. “Now, I feel very comfortable getting on the phone with our Ingram Micro representatives to discuss a million-dollar deal,” he says. “It’s a true partnership that’s helping our business grow.”


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Chinese handset maker Vivo on Sunday launched a new smartphone “Y95” that comes with the all-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 processor, at INR 16,990.
The smartphone comes with “Halo FullView” 6.22-inch display and sports 13MP+2MP artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled rear camera and 20MP selfie camera.
Vivo has committed to bring the best in product innovation, be it technology, design or pure play smartphone experience. With the launch of the all-new ‘Y95’, we bring this promise to a wider consumer set looking for the unbeatable product experience, at an unbeatable price point, Jerome Chen, CMO, Vivo India, said in a statement.
The AI-powered dual camera at the rear can capture bokeh shots and is also optimised with 140 different photo scenes that automatically enhance your images.
“Y95” is powered by latest Snapdragon 439 octa-core processor and combined with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. It houses 4,030 mAh battery and comes with Funtouch OS 4.5 operating system (OS) (based on Android 8.1)
It also comes with ‘Jovi smart scene’, a personal assistant that helps you keep a tab on your daily steps, calories burnt, update you with matches and scores about your favourite sports team, weather and a lot more.
The smartphone is currently available on offline channels and Vivo India e-store. It will be available on online platforms (Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm) from November 26.
With inputs from Candid.technology


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Kim Kardashian never knows what to expect when she visits a store as a spokesmodel for Fusion Beauty.
“Yesterday a girl showed me a tattoo of my face on her arm,” said Kardashian, who met the fan at Macy’s in Glendale, Calif. “That was pretty fun and different.”
Kardashian said she’d been “everywhere,” including Toronto, during a visit to Nordstrom’s Galleria Dallas store Wednesday.
“I love doing appearances — it’s a really good way to connect with people and they always tell me what their favorite product is,” she said.
Her fans, who are mostly young women in their teens and 20s, screamed and cheered when she appeared on the cosmetics floor at Nordstrom looking fit for a cocktail party in a black Azzedine Alaïa party dress, a Martin Katz white gold necklace and Christian Louboutin shoes.
Like her other two appearances for the retailer, the first 150 people to purchase $75 of Fusion products had queued for hours along a black rope to meet the celebrity. Kardashian autographed photos and met fans one-by-one for two hours.
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The Fusion Beauty contract ends in March, and while Kardashian says she “genuinely loves everything beauty,” she’s not jumping into the color category.
Anyway, she wants to focus on the Kardashian Kollection fashion brand she’s launching with her sisters, Kourtney and Khloe, in August at 400 Sears stores.
“We’re seeing a rollout of the line — it looks really amazing,” she said. “We’re extremely involved, we’re so picky. We get inspiration from all different photos, stuff that we love, but we might not love the cut or fit exactly so we modify everything. We try everything on ourselves and have fit models for different body types. Me, Kourtney and Khloe make sure we’re at all the meetings.”
Kim’s namesake fragrance is doing “really well,” and there is expanded distribution this year to Nordstrom, Wal-Mart and Perfumania.
She and her sisters entered the beauty business themselves last spring with a five-piece treatment line called PerfectSkin by PerfectScience Labs LLC. Sold on the company’s Web site, the five products can be purchased as a set for $39.90.
In addition, the sisters have a clothing line on QVC called K-Dash and run three contemporary clothing stores called Dash in New York, Miami and Calabasas, Calif. Kim and mother Kris Jenner are also spokeswomen for Skechers’ Shape-ups.
A K-Dash store that was originally planned to open last summer at the Mirage in Las Vegas has been postponed due to a change in investors, she said.
“It’s still in the works,” she said. “We are going to launch that definitely this year.”


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As a result of collaboration between the Agri-D Convention, IOTA Foundation, and Hyperledger, the Agri-D Food Hack presents a virtual hackathon contest for the design of blockchain solutions to support sustainability, security, and development throughout rural and global food systems.
The event is a public educational experience supported with a contest that carries over $5000 worth of prizes. Presenting challenges for teams to create applications or software solutions that can help combat three tracks of food waste, rural development, and sustainable agriculture.
“The IOTA Foundation is excited to support the Agri-D hackathon. Traceability for food products as well as transparency for producers is important to increase the security and safety of consumers. Rural communities and small producers need accessible tools and technologies that guarantee the level of digitisation that the industry craves for. IOTA’s technologies, in particular IOTA Identity, offer a sustainable infrastructure for this kind of innovation. We are looking forward to seeing what new solutions hackers will come up with!”
– Dr. Michele Nati, IOTA Foundation
With an array of developer workshops covering such topics as Digital Identity, Smart Contracts, Encrypted Data Streams, and DLT Architecture, there is much for participants to learn at the hack. With industry experts and world leading technologists from the UN World Food Program Innovation Accelerator, IOTA Foundation, Hyperledger, Zignar Technology, and more, the open event offers vast insights and opportunities in the use of Blockchain technology for social good.
Held on the 5th-7th November, the overall objective of this contest is to educate developers and businesses on the accessibility of the technology and to support them in creating new solutions that will be continually supported by community and eco-system mentorship programs and future business development opportunities from the IOTA Foundation and Hyperledger. With a focus on the Agri-D Convention’s key values such as open access, technology for social good, and industry innovation in order to support the global journey towards more resilient food systems.
Registration for participation is open now – don’t miss out!
Registration can be made via online application through the official website
• Dominik Schiener – Founder, IOTA Foundation
• Julian Gordon – VP Asia Pacific, Hyperledger
• Kyriacos Koupparis – Head of Frontier Innovations, UN World Food Program, Innovation Accelerator
• David Boswell – Head of Ecosystem, Hyperledger
• Eric Hop – Lead, Smart Contract Protocols, IOTA Foundation
• Jelle Millenaar – Lead, Digital Identity Protocols, IOTA Foundation
• Gianfranco Campos – CEO, Zignar Technology
• Plus, many more…
5th November 0900 CET – Deadline for Registration
5th-7th November – Agri-D Food Hack
12th November – Finalists present their projects live at the Agri-D Convention


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NEW YORK AP) - Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who lost out in Chrysler's 1998 merger with Daimler Benz, wants to buy the troubled automaker back from its now-unhappy German owners.
Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. on Thursday made a $4.5 billion cash offer for DaimlerChrysler AG's troubled U.S.-based Chrysler unit.
A deal would put Kerkorian in charge of Chrysler a decade after he claims he was tricked out of a potential billions of dollars in the 1998 deal in which Germany's DaimlerBenz combined with Chrysler.
The offer disclosed Thursday from Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. is slightly lower than at least one competing bid from Canadian auto-parts supplier Magna International Inc., worth a reported $4.7 billion.
Tracinda said it would place a $100 million deposit for the right to exclusive bargaining rights.
Tracinda in a statement said it wants "to build and strengthen" the troubled automaker and "will offer the UAW and Chrysler management the opportunity to participate as equity partners in the transaction."
DaimlerChrysler shares climbed $3.08, or 3.8 percent, to $84.07 on the New York Stock Exchange after rising to a new 52-week high of $84.75.
California-based Tracinda said its offer is subject to Chrysler reaching a new collective bargaining agreement with the United Auto Workers as well as a deal with DaimlerChrysler on sharing the unfunded pension liabilities and health care costs of Chrysler retirees.
A message seeking comment was left Thursday with a UAW spokesman.
Tracinda also said it's ready to start a more extensive review of Chrysler's financial books right away and believes it could complete it within 60 days.
Han Tjan, head of corporate communications for DaimlerChrysler in New York, said the German-American automaker is talking with partners about a sale and that the chairman is satisfied with the process.
"All of our options are still open. For us to talk about (Tracinda) is speculation," Tjan said.
At least two groups in addition to Tracinda and Magna reportedly have expressed interest in Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler. Cerberus Capital Management LLC and a consortium of investors led by Blackstone Group each have reviewed Chrysler's finances and are expected to make bids.
In a letter to DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsche, Tracinda said it has been following the developments at Chrysler closely and has been studying available materials about the automaker.
"Having been a major shareholder for over a decade we are very familiar with both Chrysler and the automotive industry, and have come to believe, all factors considered, that a private ownership approach is in the best interests of all Chrysler constituencies," said the letter, signed by Tracinda adviser Jerome York, a former Chrysler Corp. executive.
The letter said it would be easier for a privately owned company to take a long-term approach "to build Chrysler into a robust and lasting, stand-alone entity."
Kerkorian long has had interest in automotive companies.
Late last year he dumped the last block of what once was a nearly 10 percent share of General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker.
He had Kerkorian pushed an alliance between GM, Nissan and Renault SA. GM's board voted to explore the idea of an alliance, but after three months of discussion the idea was scrapped. York served as Tracinda's representative on the GM board but stepped down after the alliance talks fell apart.


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Inflation static for two consecutive months
Inflation stayed static for two months running, according to a report released today.
The Consumer Price Index showed prices rose by 2.8 percent in Julyl - the same level as June.
However the health and personal care sector was again the largest contributor to the rate of inflation - on average, the cost of health and personal care items increased by 7.5 percent year-over-year.
The report says the household goods, services and communications and the fuel and power sectors also impacted strongly on the annual rate of inflation, as price shifts in these sectors were 2.9 percent and 13.0 percent, respectively.


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Stories We're Watching
During the Arab Spring, optimists predicted a bright future for democratic upheavals. But the reality from Ukraine to Thailand is far messier.
Sorry, Congress, America can't save Ukraine by selling it natural gas.
Beijing is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on defense, but no one quite knows what they're up to.


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Kendall Jenner Flaunts Her Toned Abs in a Cropped Moto Jacket at LAX
The 20-year-old flaunted her toned tummy in a pair of skin-tight high-waist jeans and a simple black crop top for her travels. Kendall opted to top off her look with an edgy cropped leather jacket, which she paired with a black handbag and black heeled boots that elongated her tall frame. The brunette kept a low profile in a pair of oversize sunglasses and tucked her hair underneath a newsboy-style hat.
The oldest Jenner reportedly celebrated at a $2.2K a night Airbnb beach house in Malibu over the Independence Day weekend, and she took to Instagram on the Fourth to share a shot of herself relaxing by the beach.
"The 4th in Malibu thanks to @airbnb," Jenner captioned the image, which shows the incredibly toned model and two friends from behind facing the waves. In the photo, the reality star leans to the side and has one arm raised up in the air as she enjoys the California weather. Looks like the perfect way to spend a summer weekend to us.


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From powering the staggering growth of e-commerce to smart trade finance contracts on the blockchain, in the last decade fintech has changed forever the way we think about financial services and what we expect from them.
The UK, a world leader in financial services and banking, is at the forefront of the integration of digital technology and financial services and the fintech sector is worth at least £6.6bn in turnover, and employs more than 61,000 people.
London is the natural centre of this activity with roughly three quarters of the fintech companies based there according to various databases (Beauhurst, Pitchbook). But despite being the largest cluster, London definitely does not hold the monopoly when it comes to creating exciting fintech companies. Ecosystems have matured throughout the UK and a new fintech unicorn could now start from practically anywhere.
Thanks to technology, financial services need no longer be constrained to the square mile of the City or East London and the increasing presence of fintech startups outside the capital is evidence of this.
According to TheCityUK, an industry-led body which represents financial services, two-thirds of the jobs the sector provides are already based outside of London, with 30,000 people employed in Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester alone to significant numbers employed in Belfast, Cardiff, Liverpool and Sheffield.
This means there is a natural base of talent for fintech companies that choose to start outside London to draw on. All the evidence suggests that many of them are doing just that.
Worldpay, the payments group, employs 70,000 people in Greater Manchester while rival Adyen, which recently floated, is also based in Spinningfields, in the city. Edinburgh has Money Dashboard, a personal finance app and Nucleus Financial, an investment platform serving 90,000 customers while Crowdcube is based in Exeter and Wealthify, in which the insurer Aviva has taken a stake, is based in Cardiff. Atom Bank, which has raised £149m from investors, is headquartered in Durham, where it employs 300 people.
Increasingly, fintechs are looking for places that offer a deep pool of talent at lower costs than London in order to increase their runway. “North-shoring” - London firms moving operations to Northern cities is a reality. Companies that cast their net outside London and the South East have found that they are able to offer a higher quality of life and lower cost of living to recruits. On top of this, their employee attrition rate is lower.
Fintech is a key tech battleground, globally, but the UK has an advantage: an incredible pool of outstanding entrepreneurs who have already built companies worth billions cumulatively and are now ready to pass on this knowledge.
In order to carry on growing and to stay ahead in fintech we must do three things. Firstly, we must break down the regional silos and unlock the potential that increased collaboration across the whole of the UK holds by becoming one fintech nation. Secondly, we must facilitate the transfer of knowledge from one generation of entrepreneurs to the next. Lastly, we must encourage innovation in areas where digital transformation has only just begun: private wealth management, insurance, tokenisation of assets and capital markets technology are great examples where fintech has huge potential.
One of the ways that Tech Nation will contribute to this is through the Fintech programme launched with the Treasury’s backing earlier this month. There’s no time to lose. Applications for Tech Nation’s fintech programme are now open until 27 July.
We want to see startups from across the country apply to the programme, the first of its kind in the world. Fintech is disrupting financial services and banking at scale, creating huge benefits for consumers as well as bringing new jobs and increasing productivity in areas that have sometimes felt left behind by the march of progress.
When it comes to fintech, no region need be left behind.
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The International Air Transport Association (Iata), which is the representative body for the global airline industry, has reported that global air cargo demand in April suffered the greatest year-on-year fall ever recorded. Measured in cargo-metric ton-kilometres (CTKs), demand in April was 27.7% down on that during the same month last year. When considering only international air cargo, the drop was 29.5%.
But air cargo capacity fell even more dramatically. In terms of available CTKs, global air cargo capacity in April was 42% down on that in April 2019. Regarding international operations, the fall was lightly less – 40.9%. This drop was due to the loss of the belly cargo carrying capacity provided by airliners. In fact, airliner belly cargo capacity on international routes in April collapsed by 75%, year-on-year.
On the other hand, increased use of freighter aircraft increased capacity by 15% during April, which somewhat offset the decline in airliner belly cargo capacity. And the cargo load factor increased by 11.5 percentage points, which was the largest such increase yet recorded. This suggested that there was a significant air cargo demand which could not be satisfied because of the lack of airliner belly cargo capacity, owing to the halting of most passenger flights.
“There is a severe capacity crunch in air cargo,” warned Iata director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac. “Demand fell by 27.7% compared to April 2019. But capacity was down 42% because of the sharp cuts in passenger operations which also carry cargo. The result is damaging global supply chains with longer shipping times and higher costs. Airlines are deploying as much capacity as possible, including special charter operations and the temporary use of passenger cabins for cargo.”
Air cargo operations were still being hampered by sluggish government bureaucracies. To be effective, air cargo had to move efficiently along the entire supply chain.
“Governments need to continue to ensure that vital supply lines remain open and efficient,” he stressed. “While many have responded with speed and clarity to facilitate the movement of cargo, government red-tape – particularly in Africa and Latin America – is preventing the industry from flexibly deploying aircraft to meet the demands of the pandemic and the global economy.”
Of Iata’s regions, the one that suffered the worst decline in CTKs was Latin America, with a drop of 43.7%. The region with the least severe decline was North America, where cargo demand fell by 11.5%. Africa had the second least decline, with a 21.7% reduction in demand. For the Asia-Pacific, the drop was 31%, for Europe it was 33.7% and for the Middle East it came to 36.3%.


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Wrappers and cartons from McDonald’s make up nearly a third of fast food litter on our streets, a survey has revealed.
Its wrappers, sachets and straws made up 29 per cent of all fast food litter. In city centres it was as high as 53 per cent while Burger King accounted for just three per cent.
Nationwide, chippies and kebabs were second at 21 per cent, pastie shop Greggs third at 18 per cent, KFC fourth on eight per cent followed by Subway and coffee shops on five per cent.
Keep Britain Tidy, which is launching a “Dirty Pig” campaign, said food accounts for a quarter of all street waste compared with 16 per cent six years ago.
Chief Phil Barton said: “The same brands appeared again and again. We condemn litterers but McDonalds, the local chip shop, Greggs, KFC and Subway need to do more to discourage it.
“We want all fast food chains to reduce packaging.”
He said the problem could also be fuelling the rat population which has grown to an estimated 65-80million.
The survey of ten cities over two days in December also revealed a North-South divide. In Manchester and Leeds, Greggs topped the list. London was worst for coffee drinks.
A spokeswoman for McDonald’s said every restaurant was expected to send out three litter patrols a day.
She added: “We do more than most chains. Obviously there’s a scale to this. We sell a lot of food.”


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Mubadala Reinvests in AMD to Maintain Liquidity
(Benzinga Lightning Feed Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Stock in Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD), the second-largest maker of personal computer processors, traded higher Monday and today after its largest shareholder took steps to avert a potential cash shortfall.
Mubadala Development Company, the investment arm of the government of Abu Dhabi, increased its share of AMD by 19 percent and took an extra board seat last month, in a move that positions the company to bail out AMD should their cash reserves dip too low.
Mubadala became AMD's largest shareholder back in 2008, and bought AMD's manufacturing facilities in order to create GlobalFoundries, a made-to-order semiconductor producer that now has AMD as one of its largest customers.
AMD shares have lost about 56 percent so far this year, and concerns about the company's volatility continue amidst the recent gains facilitated in part by Mubadala. On Monday, AMD stock closed at $2.36 per share, the company's highest since October 18th, but analysts remain cautious.
In October, AMD forecasted fourth quarter sales numbers below analysts' predictions, and cited weak demand in all of their product lines as the driving force behind cutting 15 percent of their staff. Revenue projections put the company on track to experience its fourth consecutive quarterly sales decline, which has led analysts to believe that AMD's cash reserves will fail at some point in the near future.
To boost cash reserves, AMD announced last week that it will sell facilities in Austin, Texas in an effort to raise between $150 million to $200 million. The company is expected to close the deal in the first quarter. After selling the space, AMD plans to lease it back.
Mubadala now has a 15 percent stake in AMD, and unexercised warrants for additional stock purchases bring its total holdings to about 19 percent. Its latest re-investment in the company has helped ease concerns about AMD's liquidity, and at the time of this writing AMD's stock had risen an additional five percent since yesterday's strong close.
(c) 2012 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]


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It’s been a busy month for social network changes: after YouTube’s switch to One Channel and Twitter’s release of free analytics, it’s now Instagram’s turn to roll out something big. The wildly-successful social networking and photo-sharing app, known for its square images and dream-like filter options, has launched video—an obvious response to the growing popularity of another micro-format platform, Vine. So how do the two compare? Check out our handy chart to see how they stack up.
Clearly the winner is Instagram—for now. But brands are still embracing both (check out videos from Lululemon and Lowes), so Vine-loyalists shouldn’t despair just yet. Not to be outdone, Twitter revealed the same week that Vine would be introducing new features soon but stopped just short of announcing what those might be. Users will have to wait and see if the changes allow Vine to maintain its hold on the micro-video space or if the power of Instagram makes it the new platform of choice.
With the social media landscape changing as rapidly as ever, BKV's Social Media team is always available to help brands navigate the latest apps, platforms and trends. Contact BKV's social media experts today!


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Today Whitebox announced the close of its Series B funding, totaling $18 Million. This tremendous achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our passionate employees, our collaborative and innovative clients, and the forward-thinking investment community.
We have achieved growth outpacing the market over the last three years and this year across the board. I, for one, don’t take those milestones lightly, especially when faced with a global pandemic and the near-constant challenges associated with it. There are many to thank, and much more exciting news to share.
First, let me recognize the outstanding members of our B round team who worked closely with Whitebox to close this round. Our $18 Million Series B was led by Noro-Moseley Partners. Noro-Moseley was joined by existing major investors who are increasing their support: TDF Ventures; TCP Venture Capital’s Propel Baltimore Fund; David Williams, global chairman, Merkle; and Chris Brandenburg, co-founder of Millennial Media. Additionally, Whitebox is gaining two great new board members in Alan Taetle, General Partner, Noro-Moseley and Elizabeth Feidler, Vice President, Noro-Moseley.
Whitebox presented our investors with an undeniable and unprecedented track record of growth. This year, in particular, while the U.S. was under stay-at-home orders meant that we were the lifeline from our clients to consumers who depended on our ability to move and ship with accuracy, speed, and precision. Thanks to our holistic ecommerce technology, our clients saw a 53% increase in new customer acquisition across all channels where they sell. And driving and supporting those sales is a key unique differentiator of Whitebox. Omni-channel is the present and undeniable future. Additionally, our clients saw a 180% increase in ad-driven sales and a 1092% increase in DTC growth across all sites. Our company saw 4.5x year-over-year growth in Q2 2020 v Q2 2019. In my 20-year career after leaving the nuclear Navy, I’ve never seen numbers like these.
Some companies would double-down on their existing team to keep up with this momentum and pocket that 348% increase in revenue. Whitebox did the opposite. We invested both in our employees and our community to better serve our present and future clients and reinvest in the economy. Over the last year, we’ve added two new warehouses in Las Vegas, NV and Memphis, TN to ensure our clients are closer to customers. And, we’ve expanded our headquarters in Baltimore, taking over Under Armour’s former space. In addition, we’ve grown our Whitebox team to 125 full-time employees across all three locations. These people are world-class, from the factory floor to the front office. Every single one of them went above and beyond to ensure consumers had what they needed as fast as possible and that our clients were well taken care of.
This $18 Million infusion of funding has several distinct and strategic purposes. Whitebox will use this investment to further our mission to eliminate the complexity of commerce, create opportunities others can’t, and eliminate costs others won’t so brands and their customers can develop strong and lasting relationships.
Here’s where we plan to invest:
Today, we celebrate the exceptional Whitebox team, our wonderful clients, and our supportive investors. I’m exceptionally proud of how far we’ve come in so short a time. It’s no accident that we’ve created the leading ecommerce solution for DTC brands and enterprise companies, one that is perfectly suited to meet this moment and the demands of the modern consumer while saving our clients time, money, and resources and maximizing ROI.
Thank you to everyone who made today possible. My real and virtual door is always open for your thoughtful questions, candid conversation, and of course, curious new clients.