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New York City, 21 January– The worldwide economy will continue to grow at a stable rate of around 3 percent in 2019 and 2020 amidst indications that worldwide development has actually peaked. Nevertheless, an uneasy mix of advancement difficulties might even more weaken development, according to the United Nations World Economic Scenario and Potential Customer (WESP) 2019, which was released today.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned “While worldwide financial signs stay mostly beneficial, they do not inform the entire story.” He stated the World Economic Scenario and Potential Customer 2019 “raises issues over the sustainability of worldwide financial development in the face of increasing monetary, social and ecological difficulties.”.
Worldwide development is anticipated to stay stable at 3.0 percent in 2019 and 2020, after a growth of 3.1 percent in2018 Development in the United States is forecasted to slow down to 2.5 percent in 2019 and 2 percent in 2020, as the impulse from financial stimulus in 2018 subsides. Constant development of 2.0 percent is forecasted for the European Union, although dangers are slanted to the drawback, consisting of a prospective fallout from Brexit. Development in China is anticipated to moderate from 6.6 percent in 2018 to 6.3 percent in 2019, with policy assistance partially balancing out the unfavorable effect of trade stress. A number of big commodity-exporting nations, such as Brazil, Nigeria and the Russian Federation, are forecasted to see a moderate pickup in development in 2019–2020, albeit from a low base.
Nevertheless, financial development is unequal and is typically stopping working to reach where it is most required. Per capita earnings will stagnate or grow just partially in 2019 in numerous parts of Africa, Western Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Even where per capita development is strong, financial activity is typically driven by core commercial and city areas, leaving peripheral and backwoods behind. Removing hardship by 2030 will need both double-digit development in Africa and high decreases in earnings inequality.
More clouding the potential customers are a confluence of dangers with the possible to badly interfere with financial activity and cause considerable damage on longer-term advancement potential customers. These dangers consist of subsiding assistance for multilateral methods; the escalation of trade policy conflicts; monetary instabilities connected to raised levels of financial obligation; and increasing environment dangers, as the world experiences an increasing variety of severe weather condition occasions.
The coexisting look of numerous essential dangers threatens efforts to attain the 2030 Program for Sustainable Advancement– the generally embraced strategy including 17 particular objectives to promote success and social wellness while securing the environment. “Together with different short-term dangers, there is an increasing seriousness to handle far more essential issues. What we have actually hitherto deemed long-lasting difficulties, such as environment modification, have actually ended up being instant short-term dangers,” highlighted Elliott Harris, UN Chief Economic Expert and Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Advancement.
Enhancing worldwide cooperation is main to advancing sustainable advancement.
The report highlights that enhancing worldwide cooperation is main to advancing sustainable advancement. The multilateral method to worldwide policy making is dealing with considerable difficulties, consisting of a pattern towards higher unilateral actions. Pressures have actually emerged in the locations of global trade, global advancement financing and taking on environment modification. These hazards come at a time when global cooperation and governance are more crucial than ever– much of the difficulties set out in the 2030 Program for Sustainable Advancement are worldwide by nature and need cumulative and cooperative action. Waning assistance for multilateralism likewise raises concerns around the capability for collective policy action in case of a prevalent worldwide shock.
Worldwide trade stress position a risk to the financial outlook.
In the middle of the increase in worldwide trade stress, worldwide trade development moderated throughout 2018, from development of 5.3 percent in 2017, to 3.8 percent. While stress have actually materially affected some particular sectors, stimulus procedures and direct aids have actually up until now balanced out much of the direct financial influence on China and the United States. However an extended escalation of trade stress might badly interfere with the worldwide economy. Straight affected sectors have actually currently seen increasing input costs and postponed financial investment choices. These effects can be anticipated to spread out through worldwide worth chains, especially in East Asia. Slower development in China and the United States might likewise decrease the need for products, impacting product exporters from Africa and Latin America.
An abrupt tightening up of worldwide monetary conditions might stimulate monetary chaos.
As worldwide monetary conditions tighten up, a suddenly fast increase in rate of interest or a considerable conditioning of the United States dollar might worsen emerging market fragilities, resulting in increased threat of financial obligation distress. This threat can be additional intensified by worldwide trade stress, financial policy change in established economies, product rate shocks, or domestic political or financial interruptions. Lots of low-income nations have actually currently experienced a considerable increase in interest concerns. Nations with a considerable quantity of dollar-denominated financial obligation, high bank account or financial deficits, big external funding requirements and minimal policy buffers are especially susceptible to monetary tension.
Environment dangers still not completely incorporated into financial decision-making.
An essential shift in the method the world powers financial development is essential. Economic decision-making should completely incorporate the unfavorable environment dangers related to emissions. This can be attained through tools such as carbon rates procedures, energy effectiveness guidelines such as minimum efficiency requirements and building regulations, and decrease of socially ineffective nonrenewable fuel source aid routines. Federal governments can likewise promote policies to promote brand-new energy-saving innovations, such as research study and advancement aids. In nations that stay extremely dependent on nonrenewable fuel source production, financial diversity is crucial.
For more details, please go to: www.bit.ly/wespreport. Media contact: Dan Shepard, UN Department of Global Communications, +1 (212) 963-9495


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Dutch-South African startup Co-Founders; Bas Hochstenbach, Lara Dendy Young, Justin Rijnberg (Source: Conservation Club website)
Dutch-South African startup, Conservation Club, is pleased to officially announce the close of USD $200,000 in its first capital investment raise since the business was founded in May 2020. Experienced Dutch angel investor, Annelies van der Vorm, provided the investment and is slated to join the young company’s advisory board as they gear up for expansion over the next few months. This funding will be used to hire key team members, as well as further develop their online platform’s tech systems for optimal performance.
Conservation Club Co-Founder, Lara Dendy Young, says: ‘Annelies brings to the table a wealth of experience that will set a strong foundation for our organization as we build for the future.”
Other company Co-Founder, Justin Rijnberg, adds: “We’re not only impressed by the decades of work she’s done with social enterprises and other key players in the tourism sector, but also her complete alignment with our business’ core values. Our team is excited to have her on board as we work to transform the future of travel in Africa.’
Impact Investor and Nuarro Lodge Co-Owner, Annelies van der Vorm, says: ‘It is a privilege to be part of this fantastic new initiative which is led by the next generation of entrepreneurs who are committed to building a sustainable Africa.’
The company, which officially launched its operations in February of this year, is an online platform that facilitates direct bookings to a selection of curated accommodation offerings and multi-day travel experiences across South Africa. Conservation Club is on a mission to bring together a community of like-minded local and international travellers who are keen on enjoying and contributing to conservation efforts on the continent.
The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a devastating blow to the travel and tourism industry, slowing down conservation efforts, and exposing some of the key flaws in need of addressing within the sector. One such problem is the lack of local travel and residents’ participation in conservation. The focus on international tourists has meant seasonal to no sales at all, due to the strict travel restrictions implemented in the wake of the Coronavirus. Conservation Club offers a much welcome approach – honing in on exciting experiences that give a new outlook to conservation, while creating access to top destinations for residents to connect with the vast beauty that lies right at their doorsteps.
For now, Conservation Club is positioning itself for expansion into other African regions during the second half of the year. This is in a bid to make their mark as Africa’s backstage travel pass.
Chaka secures $1.5M pre-seed round to power digital investments and wealth management opportunities across Africa
Chaka CEO, Tosin Osibodu at a press briefing (Image & Press Release: Chaka)
Chaka is thrilled to announce its $1.5M pre-seed funding round led by Breyer Capital, a global venture firm focused on catalyzing growth in high-impact companies like Spotify, Facebook, and now, Chaka. Other participants in the round are 4DX Ventures, Golden Palm Investments, Future Africa, Seedstars, and Musha Ventures.
Chaka is a technology solutions company on a mission to enable every business and person in Africa to access borderless digital investment and wealth management opportunities. The team combines investment expertise and best-in-class technology to provide reliable digital Investing, trading and wealth management solutions that are easy-to-use and easy-to-integrate.
Their mission is to enable digital border-less investing for African businesses and individuals. They’re powering the digital investment landscape in Africa through partnerships with asset managers, financial technology firms, and regulators with whom we have a shared mission. We achieve this by providing trading solutions that are easy to use and easy to integrate.
With this capital, they will focus on the goals to build a roster of formidable partners and accelerate expansion to other markets within West Africa. This investment also enables them to hire top talent and integrate more advanced functionalities into our investment and wealth management solutions.
Jim Breyer, CEO of Breyer Capital, shared his view on this investment and it illustrates their shared vision: “We are proud to align ourselves with a company that is leveling the investment playing field for Nigerians (and Africans at large). We’re confident in the value Chaka provides through its digital tools, and we look forward to playing our part in supporting Tosin, Bo, Olaolu, and the Chaka team.”
This is a significant milestone for Chaka and could not have come this far without their users, partners, early investors, and a talented, achieving team of Champions.
They see digital investments as a means to boost economic transformation in Africa, and we’re very keen to bring this vision to life.
elmenus, Egypt’s Leading Food App Secures $10M Pre-Series C from Fawry, Luxor Capital and Marakez
Co-Founders (Image: elmenus)
elmenus and Fawry to co-develop innovative solutions for restaurants and customers
Luxor Capital’s first investment in the MENA region, previous investments include the biggest food ordering platforms globally, such as Zomato, Deliveryhero and Glovo
elmenus, Egypt’s biggest food discovery and ordering platform, has secured new funding from three new investors, based in the MENA region and North America. Fawry Group, the renowned digital transformation and e-payment platform is leading the investment from Egypt. The investment follows Fawry’s new strategy to take minority stakes in fast-growing, Egyptian, technology businesses. As well as investing, Fawry will work closely with elmenus to develop innovative solutions to benefit restaurants and consumers. Also investing is Marakez, a leading Egyptian real estate developer.
Ashraf Sabry, CEO of Fawry, said: “Fawry is looking forward to its journey with elmenus, working closely with the executive team and entering many ventures together. By this investment, we show our desire to not only be a payment catalyst but to be a strategic partner to elmenus, its customers, restaurants and their riders. The Egyptian food space has high growth potential, with technology disrupting the status quo, as customers’ needs in food service provision rapidly change.”
From North America, investment has also been received from New York-based hedge fund, Luxor Capital Group, which has $11 billion of assets under management. elmenus is its first investment in the MENA region testament to its’ growth track record and market opportunity in Egypt. Luxor has a long history of successfully investing in food technology companies around the world.
Amir Allam, CEO of elmenus, commented: “Attracting new investment from Fawry, Luxor Capital and Marakez – following the endorsement of industry veteran, David Buttress, earlier this year – validates elmenus’ unique strategy. We are accelerating the adoption of online ordering by users, while enabling restaurants with new verticals – to help them scale. This funding demonstrates the investors’ strong belief in our position in Egypt, and our capability to dominate the market.”
elmenus, which now has over 1.5 million monthly users, is the most comprehensive platform for restaurant information and food discovery in Egypt, and its aim is to personalize food recommendations at a dish level. elmenus continues to expand rapidly, and today’s announcement follows the investment and board appointment of David Buttress – the former CEO of global food ordering firm, JustEat – announced earlier this year.
By the end of 2021, elmenus expects to empower 12,000 restaurants with new data and tool offerings to help them scale their businesses, across 20 Egyptian cities. Its cutting-edge digital solutions will also drive its existing database of several million users, to switch to online ordering.
MarketForce secures $2M Pre-Series A round, plans to launch in Nigeria and scale up RejaReja in East Africa
MarketForce Co-founders, Tesh Mbaabu (Left) and Mesongo Sibuti (Right) (Image & Release: MarketForce)
Kenyan-based MarketForce, a B2B platform for retail distribution of consumer goods and digital financial services in Africa, announces a $2 million Pre-Series A round, bringing total funding to-date to $2.5 million. With this fresh round of funding, MarketForce has brought on V8 Capital, Future Africa, Greenhouse Capital, Launch Africa, Rebel Fund, Remapped Ventures, and a couple of strategic angel investors as new investors. They joined Y Combinator and existing investor P1 Ventures, who also participated in the oversubscribed round.
In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 90% of household retail transactions are in cash, and delivered through a network of about 100 million MSMEs, with 42 million in Nigeria alone. Retail payments on the continent are expected to top $2.1 trillion by 2025, and MarketForce aims to digitize a large portion of these offline transactions.
Co-founded in 2018 by Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, MarketForce uniquely combines a field sales automation SaaS solution with it’s “RejaReja” B2B marketplace to digitize how informal retail merchants buy and sell FMCGs and digital financial services. RejaReja helps these corner shops, commonly referred to as ‘dukas’ in Kenya, get better service, assortment, and access to new revenue opportunities, outfitting them with the technology and support they need to transform themselves from simple FMCG outlets to comprehensive financial service hubs for the continent’s last-mile communities. Currently available in Kenya, RejaReja offers informal retailers next-day delivery for hundreds of SKUs from the leading FMCG brands.
Last month, MarketForce announced the strategic acquisition of Digiduka, which was formed and funded during the inaugural cohort of the Antler programme in Nairobi. This was a huge fintech step forward as RejaReja now provides a wallet that allows retailers to collect mobile money and bank payments via mobile app, WhatsApp bot or USSD shortcode, eliminating the high mobile money transaction fees and enabling merchants accept digital payments, access working credit and earn more by acting as distribution agents for popular financial services such as airtime, bills, utilities, and even insurance.
With this round of funding, MarketForce plans to launch in Nigeria and to scale up RejaReja to more towns in East Africa.
“We are seeing significant demand for our radically improved way for companies to distribute their goods and services in Africa, and we’re thrilled to get a boost from returning and new investors at this crucial time,” said Tesh Mbaabu, Co-founder and CEO of MarketForce. “The combination of our technology with the offline distribution network that we are building is essential to creating maximum output and impact in African retail distribution. Our goal is to create income growth opportunities for a million retailers and independent sales agents across Africa within the next five years.”
“Our clients and partners understand MarketForce’s power to increase sales performance and productivity across markets and industries,” said Co-founder and CTO Mesongo. “We are building the operating system for retail distribution in Africa, and we have the right combination of technology and team to make our Pan-African vision a reality.”
Today, MarketForce clients are able to gain access to both our software and the RejaReja marketplace, which has garnered over 15,000 retail customers, processing thousands of orders daily, and we are experiencing double digit revenue growth month over month. The MarketForce SaaS product on the other hand has garnered over 10,000 monthly active users, with over 300,000 transactions worth over 500 Million USD processed to date through the platform in 3 key markets; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Clients and partners include Safaricom, Pepsi, Grain Industries, Fort Beverages, Madison Insurance, Platinum Credit, Momentum Credit, Letshego, Pezesha and Lami.
“We are proud to back MarketForce to build the future of retail in Africa and help catalyze the digitization of the African retail market, which is highly informal, fragmented and undigitized, but holds a lot of untapped potential to improve incomes and enable millions of African retailers to grow their businesses. MarketForce sits in a place that enables them to generate a lot of value and empower every single participant in the massive retail industry,” said Adenike Sheriff, Principal at Future Africa.
“We are excited to strengthen our partnership with MarketForce,” said Mikael Hajjar, Managing Partner at P1 Ventures. “MarketForce is one of the fastest-growing African leaders in sales and distribution automation technology. We’ve witnessed the pain point that MarketForce’s product addresses and how its customers realize major productivity gains over substitutes.”
“I have known Mesongo and Tesh for over two years and MarketForce has proven that they know how to leverage the entire retail supply chain as a gateway for digital payments. Their organic as well as acquisition-driven growth & expansion strategy thus far has proven that their understanding of unit economics and marginal customer acquisition costs is solid. As a pan-African fintech company, they are very well positioned to tap into the $700 billion that gets transacted in this space every year,” said Zachariah George, Managing Partner at Launch Africa.

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Washington Wizards guard Mike Miller, despite the urgings from his teammates, will continue to wear LeBron James' signature Nike shoes.
Wizards guard Mike Miller wore James' Nike shoes in training camp and was told by teammate DeShawn Stevenson not to wear them.
"He got to get them out of here," said Stevenson, a noted James agitator who engaged in a war of words with him two postseasons ago that later involved rappers Soulja Boy and Jay-Z. "LeBron shoes -- we off that. We already got war against them. He can't wear that. It's all beef right there."
And Wizards forward Caron Butler says in his blog:
"Mike Miller, whom I love, has to take those LeBron shoes off. That's just not acceptable around here. You heard that, Mike!"
Despite the so-called beef, Miller tells Lee that he didn't understand how intense the rivalry is between the Wizards and the Cavaliers.
But that has changed.
I'm starting to understand what it is. There definitely is a competitive little atmosphere," Miller said. And Miller said he wouldn't let his friendship with James keep him from wanting to beat him. "He's a great basketball player," Miller said of James. "You always have friends in the league. That's how it is. The ball goes up, it's going to be us against them. It doesn't matter who it is."


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Once upon a time, people adjusted their furniture to fit their computers, TV sets, and stereos. Sometimes, they pushed books--remember those?--aside on living room shelves and bedside tables, making space for alarm clocks and land line phones. At school and at work, the story was pretty much the same.
But now our everyday technology, which is increasingly becoming consolidated on hand-held devices and tablets, is pushing both consumers and designers to re-think the landscape of furnishings.
Writing in the New York Times on March 28, Steven Kurutz discussed this trend with a variety of leading designers, including Philippe Starck and Yves Behar. They focused on how companies are creating furniture to accommodate smart phones and PCs in their various forms.
“The rate of technological change has gotten so fast that we need to inform the design to reflect it,” Ryan Anderson, director of future technology for Herman Miller--the legendary furniture maker known for manufacturing pieces by Charles and Ray Eames--said to Kurutz.
"In decades past...designers had time to anticipate where technology was headed and to plan for it," Kurutz wrote. Today, they have to work in real-time, designing to accommodate new gadgets "almost instantly" to make tables, lights, and desks seem relevant to potential buyers.
Starck has designed, for chic lighting maker FLOS, a slick-looking $396 lamp that includes a built-in dock for Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Jonas Damon, a creative director at frog, has become well-known for designing a witty iPhone dock that has the basic lines of an analog alarm clock. And (although the article doesn't mention it) Herman Miller's newest desks and tables for homes, offices, and schools often come with hidden "troughs" to hide power adaptor chords or actual outlets built into them.
Herman Miller hired Anderson very recently, Kurutz reported, to help the company predict how to design future seats, work surfaces, and other products as the technology landscape evolves. One can imagine the questions he tackles: What happens when people sit less and less at desks--what are their furniture needs? How will tablet computing influence how and where people work and type? It seems to me as if the deeper question Anderson must be facing is this: how does a company that has sold furniture made to accommodate 20th-century technology evolve in the 21st century?
Kurutz's piece includes observations from Starck, Behar, and Karim Rashid on the future of furniture. Rashid looks forward to "upholstery that reacts to temperature, tiny speakers built into seating, and wallpaper embedded with liquid crystals that turn a wall into a giant TV screen," Kurutz reported. Behar predicts more modular furniture that can be mixed and matched, with outdated pieces swapped out for new ones that incorporate new technologies as they are released. And Starck imagines that eventually, people will become "bionic." He foresees that we'll be embedded with microchips that turn us into devices ourselves. So shelves and other furniture will become...well, obsolete.
In many ways, the sci-fi future Starck describes reflects contemporary designers'--and technologists'--ultimate design goals. Obviously, one is simplicity. And another is a user interface that is utterly intuitive.
Images: Classroom desks with power outlets, Herman Miller; D'E light, Flos USA
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com


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On 7th Mar, during his semi-annual testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, Fed Chair Jerome Powell commented on rate hikes, which prompted a negative reaction in the US market. The US consumer spending and the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge both increased unexpectedly in January, highlighting the resilience of the US economy and the difficulty in taming inflation. If the economic data remains strong, the Fed is prepared to accelerate rate hikes, Powell said.
AI can read your mind
A recent paper published by researchers in Osaka University showed that AI can now read your mind with terrifying accuracy. Using the latest stable diffusion generative model, researchers were able to reconstruct images a person saw by translating brain scan data (from fMRI scans) into images.
The researchers trained the AI model using paired images and fMRI scans. Once trained, the model can be fed new fMRI scans and reconstruct images associated with images viewers saw when the scan was taken. In other words, the AI reads your mind…
This is another example of the surprising capability of the diffusion models. They were trained using data on the internet and are capable of translating the text into images (thanks to the abundance of image annotation available on the web). This capability has enabled them to take limited training input (fMRI brain scans) and produce relatively high-fidelity images without specialized fine-tuning.
AI can not only replicate humans’ voices, and faces (in both picture and video format), it can also reconstruct what humans see. It might be time to stop believing everything you see on the internet and to limit over-sharing (count us out from sharing our latest fMRI brain scans on Instagram).
Crypto-exposed Silvergate Capital (SI) was hit by a bank run. After a delayed annual report, Crypto firms such as Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com, and others began distancing themselves from the bank by halting transfers via the bank’s Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN). Put simply, customers of these crypto firms use SEN to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ether, and other digital assets. Silvergate was forced to shut down SEN, which led to a 58% fall in share prices.
EV maker Rivian is selling $1.3 million in green convertible bonds, due in 2029. Green bonds enable companies to attract investors who are willing to accept lower returns in exchange for supporting green projects. However, this move can dilute the company’s shares as these bonds can be optionally converted into shares. Briefly, the world’s third most-valuable car company, Rivian Automotive Inc., failed to meet revenue targets last quarter and has announced expectations to deliver 50,000 vehicles this year, significantly less than Wall Street’s hope of 60,000. The company’s share price fell ~92% from its peak, and it laid off 6% of its workforce last month.


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Cisco research shows digital banking needs a human face
A recent Cisco report has demonstrated how banks must drive their own disruption. This isn’t just a matter of the way transactions are processed, it’s a matter of putting a human face on banking services.
Ironically, digital technology has accomplished the exact opposite of what was predicted at the dawn of the computer age, in the middle of the last century. Back then, it was predicted that digital technology would dehumanize the world. In fact, it is in the process of doing the opposite. Digital tech has facilitated communication to the degree that no government, no business and certainly no financial institution can ignore.
The financial services industry has already moved ahead of many other industries when it comes to digital technology. The key challenge today is to turn digital capability into profitability by using fintech in ways that are advantageous both to the customer and the financial institution. This includes developing multiple channels of communication with customers by driving connectivity across multiple devices.
The quality of that communication is also important. Banks will need to connect customers with experts, either in person or over the phone, to offer advice, answer questions and provide counseling regarding banking products.
In short, the foundation of future profitability will be built on personal service with a personal touch. Digital technology has spread the ability to communicate to such a degree that no financial institution can rely simply on its reputation for expertise and knowledgeability. It must now demonstrate that expertise and communicate that knowledge on a person to person basis.


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Many Texas residents use technology manufactured, distributed and sold by Apple Inc., such as iPhones, iPads and Macintosh computers. Part of the technology used to create these and other devices Apple manufactures comes from others who have patents on that technology. In some cases, entities have accused the technology giant of using their patents without permission, and patent law supports some of those claims.
One such claim filed in Jan. 2014 came from a Midwestern university. The university's licensing section filed a lawsuit against Apple when its patented technology was discovered in chips that are in many of the iPhone maker's devices. The patent in question is for a process that increases processor efficiency.
The Wisconsin jury assigned the task of determining whether the university's claims, represented by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, were true recently ruled that Apple did, in fact, use the technology without permission. Apple attempted to have the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office review the validity of the patent since part of its argument in the case was that the patent in question was not valid. That request was denied in April.
In a ruling made by the federal judge presiding over the case, it was stated that damages could be as high as $862.4 million. As this case moves into its second phase, during which damages will be determined, another patent law case was filed by WARF against Apple. Just because a large corporation is involved, that does not mean that it has the right to infringe on a smaller entity or individual's patents. WARF is just one example of patent holders, both in Texas and around the country, fighting to protect their rights.
Source: The Huffington Post, "Apple Loses Patent Lawsuit To University Of Wisconsin-Madison", Andrew Chung, Oct. 14, 2015


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In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter, we cover two pieces of research that between them set out the scale of the challenge facing retailers in a cost-of-living crisis. Between them, studies from Wunderman Thompson Commerce and Sorted suggest that shoppers are now cutting back on their spending, shopping in a more considered way, while demanding better service at the same time. Covid-19, according to a significant minority of respondents to the Sorted study, is no longer any excuse for poor service.
But the retailers that we report on today have good answers for that. Currys’ chief supply chain officer Lindsay Haslehurst says that customers are indeed more demanding than ever, in the wake of the pandemic. The electricals and technology retailer is focusing on getting service right first time and offering expert advice as it looks to build customer relationships for the long-term.
Hobbycraft, which reports growing full-year sales and profits this week, says that while it has met the same supply chain issues and rising costs as many retailers, it has responded through a focus on the customer experience. For Hobbycraft, that has meant expanding the experiences it offers its shoppers, through online and offline workshops and demonstrations, while adding new stores and new subscription services.
Meanwhile, New Look is focusing on the customer experience as it brings new technology to play. It’s first improving the checkout experience before shifting to a new ecommerce platform.
In today’s timely guest comment, Colin Neil of Adyen UK has advice for retailers considering how they can continue to invest in technology in a cost-of-living crisis.


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Amazon Prime Day 2020 is the next sale in the retail giant's annual event, following Amazon Prime Day 2019 which took place last July. And what a day that was. First off, the 'day' lasted 48 hours, which is a bit of a stretch of the definition of a day, but we're not complaining because it gave us more time to shop for some epic deals.
Amazon Prime Day 2019 kicked off at one minute past midnight on Monday 15 July and ended at midnight on Tuesday 16 July and, as Amazon had promised ahead of the event there were millions of items on offer for Prime subscribers and the best ever prices on many Amazon devices such as the Echo Dot, Kindles, Fire TV sticks and Fire tablets.
We had a great time digging through the offers to bring you the very best Amazon Prime Day deals and over the two day Prime Day sale period we posted over 100 articles highlighting deals in categories such as home appliances, fashion, smart home, gardening, and much more. Our mission on T3 is to help you live a smarter life and that means buying the right products for your needs at the very best prices, so Prime Day was the perfect event for that.
When is Amazon Prime Day 2020?
Our latest prediction: Amazon Prime Day 2020 will start on Monday July 13, 2020 and run through to the end of Tuesday July 14, 2020, making it a 48-hour event.
Why? Because Amazon Prime Day 2018 was a day-and-a-half of deals that started on July 16, 2018 and Amazon Prime Day 2019 was two days of deals that started on July 15, 2019. In previous years it did start earlier, so there's also the possibility that Prime Day 2020 could start on Monday July 6, 2020 but we're predicting a start date of July 13 until we get more intel.
It's also likely that there will be some sort of 'Countdown to Amazon Prime Day' event with early discounts ahead of the actual Prime Day sale. That's because last year saw Amazon's competitors kick off their competing sales early. For example, in the UK Currys held a week-long 'Black Tag Summer Deals Event' which ran from July 8 to July 14. And in the US Walmart had thousands of "special buys" and "rollbacks" on its site between July 14 and July 17.
Interestingly, Google was a partner of Currys for the Black Tag Summer Deals Event which meant that while Amazon was the place for cheap Amazon devices during Prime Day but Currys (and in the US, Walmart) were where you'd want to head if you wanted a cut price Google smart assistant.
Based on those competing sales from last year, here's how things could shake out for Amazon's Prime Day sale in 2020.
- Countdown to Amazon Prime Day: Early deals from Monday July 7, 2020 until midnight on Saturday July 11, 2020 – predicted
- Amazon Prime Day 2020: Monday July 13, 2020 and Tuesday July 14, 2020 – predicted
Remember, these are our predictions based on writing about Amazon's sales for the last few years so they are not set in stone. We'll update the dates as soon as we hear anything from official sources.
What will the best Amazon Prime Day 2020 deals be?
It's almost guaranteed that Amazon will discount its own devices heavily and if 2019 is anything to go by some of those discounts will appear in the weeks leading up to Prime Day 2020 and some will continue after Prime Day has ended but the lowest prices will be reserved for Prime Day itself.
As happened on Black Friday 2019, we'd expect the Amazon Echo Dot with Clock to be a) heavily discounted for Prime Day and b) a hugely popular purchase as a result. For Black Friday 2019 it dropped from £59.99 down to £34.99 so if we're lucky we might see it selling for £29.99 over the Prime Day sale period this year. And even if it doesn't drop that low, it's almost certain it will at least match its Black Friday 2019 £34.99 sale price.
As for the Echo Dot WITHOUT a clock? That dropped to £22 for Prime Day 2019 and it dropped to £22 again for Black Friday 2019, so deal hunters will be looking to see if it hits a new sub-£20 low this year.
Prime Day 2020 could also be an amazing time for anyone looking to snap up the current generation consoles – the PS4 and the Xbox One. That's because the PS5 and new Xbox Two will be coming in time for Christmas 2020 so you can expect stock of the current consoles to get some hefty price cuts in the months leading up to the release of the new consoles. That should please gamers as console deals were rather thin on the ground over Prime Day 2019 and Black Friday 2019.
And as with 2019, Amazon Prime Day 2020 won't just be about deals for Amazon Prime subscribers. Expect to see big 'Alternative Prime Day' sales from retailers including Walmart and Best Buy in the US and Currys and John Lewis in the UK, both online and in store.
What sold well on Amazon Prime Day 2019?
We know from our own data that Amazon devices were hugely popular this year, which is hardly surprising given the massive price drops they saw. The Echo Show hit its cheapest ever price, so that was a big hit in the sale as was the Echo Dot, which hit a £22 Prime Day low (and that price has not been beaten since).
Other products that proved popular were 4K TVs, coffee machines, headphones and fitness bands.
According to Amazon, Prime members worldwide purchased more than 175 million items throughout Prime Day, making it the largest shopping event in Amazon history. Top-selling deals in the US included iRobot Roomba 690 Robot Vacuum, MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener Chamberlain MYQ-G0301, and Amazon Smart Plug. Top selling deals worldwide were Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, and Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote.
Some of the top-selling deals from around the world, excluding Amazon devices, included:
- United Kingdom: Sony PlayStation Classic Console, Oral-B SmartSeries Electric Toothbrush, and Shark Vacuum Cleaner
- United States: LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, Instant Pot DUO60, and 23andMe Health + Ancestry kits
- Canada: PlayStation 4 Slim with Spiderman and Horizon Zero Dawn, LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, and 23andMe Health + Ancestry kits
- Australia: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Finish Powerball All-in-1 Max Dishwasher Tablets, and Huggies Ultra Dry Nappies (Australia, you need to up your sale shopping game!)
We also have some interesting data about Prime Day 2019 from market intelligence firm Numerator who surveyed Prime Day 2019 shoppers to get a picture of how the event went.
We know that shoppers looking to buy into the Amazon ecosystem (that's Amazon devices like the Echo, Kindle, Fire TV sticks and tablets and Ring Video Doorbells) were offered some really good deals. According to Numerator, the depth of discount on Amazon ecosystem products averaged 45% this year, compared to 37% in 2018. Echo, Fire TV, and Kindle products were all offered at the deepest discounts seen to-date. Additionally, Alexa-enabled products averaged a slightly higher discount of 32%, and many deals on these products – like an Alexa-enabled Instant Pot – included the Echo or Echo Dot as a bundled package.
In relation to other retail holidays, Numerator found that this year’s Prime Day shoppers ranked Prime Day #2 in terms of deal quality, behind Black Friday and ahead of Cyber Monday. Last year, Prime Day ranked below both Black Friday and Cyber Monday in terms of perceived deal quality, so this year’s shake-up proves Prime Day’s growing popularity.
Numerator adds that for 36% of Prime Day shoppers, this year was their first time shopping Prime Day – that’s down from last year’s 44%, but still a significant number of newcomers to the day of deals. 58% of Prime Day shoppers participated in 2018 as well, and 12% of this year’s shoppers participated in the first ever Prime Day back in 2015, showing that Amazon has succeeded not only in attracting first-timers, but also in maintaining loyal enthusiasts.
Hitwise provided further information as to the success of Prime Day 2020, suggesting that it's a shopping event that Amazon is not going to abandon any time soon. According to the market intelligence firm, online visits, transactions, and sign-ups all spiked in key markets. In the US Amazon's share of transactions among the top 50 retailers was 72% during the 2018 holiday season and rose to 86% on Prime Day. In the UK, Amazon’s focus has been on growing the number of Prime subscribers, and it worked. Over 80 thousand people signed up to Prime each day over the 48-hour period. That's a +147% rise compared to last year.
Hitwise says that in the US, the Nintendo Switch was the most searched product, overtaking the still popular Instant Pot. Searches for the Ring doorbell grew significantly this year due to a deal which bundled it with the Echo Show (both Amazon products). In the UK, the Nintendo Switch was also the top searched product followed by laptops, Fitbit, Audible and PS4. They weren't the most purchased Prime Day products, though: Hitwise said – as did Amazon – that the most purchased products in both the US and UK were Fire TV Sticks and Echo Dots, which is not surprising given the massive discounts they got.
Interestly, it seems that the Amazon Prime Day effect extended to bricks and mortar stores, too. Placer Labs analyses footfall in locations such as shopping malls and retail outlets and it found that the offline impact of the Prime Day sale didn't just affect Amazon, where Amazon’s Whole Foods storesaw visits around 25% above what they were during summer 2018. Walmart saw higher than average in-store traffic over the Prime Day period as did Target and Best Buy. "If Prime Day 2019 is any indication, expect greater levels of crossover between offline and online pushes," Place Labs concludes. "And this doesn’t just mark a significant event for Amazon, but for the retail community as a whole."
I don't want to wait for Prime Day 2020. Can I get some deals now?
Yes, you can. Simply head over to Amazon's daily deals page to see what's on offer today.


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November 14, 2007 |
TOKYO: Microsoft Corp will spend $75 million in 2007 on its "Windows Embedded" operating system, up 33 percent from 2006, an executive of the world's largest software maker said on Wednesday. Ilya Buckshteyn, marketing director of Microsoft's Windows Embedded Division, also told Reuters in an interview that the company expected the product targeting businesses to post annual sales growth of 25 percent through 2010. Buckshteyn said annual growth for the Embedded product targeting consumers would be about 50 percent.
October 12, 2006 |
J P Morgan Securities on Thursday cut its second quarter earnings-per-share estimate for Microsoft Corp to 33 cents from 38 cents and maintained its "overweight" rating on the stock. "While a Technology Guarantee/Protection program does not impact our overall 2007 revenue estimate, Microsoft will have to defer revenue recognition from the sale of Windows until the company ships copies of Vista to the consumers who availed to the program," it said in a research note.
November 20, 2007 |
SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp said on Monday hired Robert Youngjohns, chief executive of Callidus Software , to lead its sales and marketing team in North America. Youngjohns will join Microsoft on Dec. 3 and lead the company's 8,500-person sales team in North America. He will report to Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner. Callidus, a maker of sales performance management software, said it picked Leslie Stretch, a senior vice president, to replace Youngjohns as president and CEO. Youngjohns will continue to serve on the Callidus board of directors.
March 18, 2010 |
BRUSSELS: Norway's Opera says downloads of its browser have more than doubled after Microsoft Corp was forced to give European users a choice of Web software to settle European Union antitrust charges. Microsoft started sending updates to Windows computers in Europe in early March that tell them to pick one or more of 12 free Web browsers to download and install, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Some 100 million Europeans using Microsoft software will be asked to choose between rival browsers by mid-May under a deal the company struck with EU regulators to foster more competition.
April 28, 2015 |
NEW DELHI: Microsoft Corp has began rebranding the Nokia retail stores world over, from India on Tuesday, even as it plans to rebrand 9,000 stores across the country to Microsoft Priority Resellers. The Redmond headquartered company will rebrand the stores into two categories - Microsoft Priority Resellers and Microsoft Mobile Sellers - where the former would have all Microsoft products including XBox gaming consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and accessories.
January 28, 2011 |
NEW YORK: Stocks are rising in early trading after a report showed that the US economy is growing. The Commerce Department said Friday that US gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 3.2 percent between October and December. That's up from 2.6 percent in the previous quarter. Microsoft Corp. rose 2.4 percent after its fourth quarter earnings beat analysts' estimates. But Ford Motor Co. lost 7 percent after its revenues fell short of Wall Street's projections.
July 16, 2014 |
Microsoft Corp is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years, as the software maker looks to slim down and integrate Nokia Oyj's handset unit, people with knowledge of the company's plans said. The reductions — which may be unveiled as soon as this week— will probably be in areas such as Nokia and divisions of Microsoft that overlap with that business, as well as marketing and engineering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren't public.
July 7, 2006 |
BANGALORE: Expanding on its "customer-focused commitment to interoperability", Microsoft Corp on Friday announced the creation of the Open XML Translator project. The project, developed with partners, will create tools to build a technical bridge between the Office Open XML Formats and the OpenDocument Format (ODF), Microsoft said in a release. "This work is in response to the government requests for interoperability with ODF as they work with some constituent groups who make use of that format.
March 23, 2005
BRUSSELS: Microsoft Corp. has been told its proposal to select a non-partisan trustee to help monitor EU-imposed sanctions against it is unacceptable, the European Commission said on Wednesday. The European Union executive imposed remedies on the US software giant one year ago, along with a record 497 million euro ($654.9 million) fine and the company was suppposed to nominate a "monitoring trustee" as part of this decision. "We have officially informed Microsoft that their proposal on the monitoring trustee is not accepable," spokesman Jonathan Todd said.
June 3, 2009 |
WASHINGTON: Microsoft Corp. says Windows 7, the next version of its computer operating software, will go on sale Oct. 22. Windows 7, which replaces the much-complained-about Windows Vista, will be available on new PCs. Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, will also sell versions that people can install on existing PCs. Upgrades will be free for people who buy a new Windows Vista computer shortly before Windows 7...


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Renault Plans New Diesel Engine in France
Beside helping the alliance concentrate its efforts on environmentally-friendly units, the new engine will indirectly fight against the economic turmoil by preserving around 450 jobs at the factory, the aforementioned source nots. Furthermore, building it in France is a decision that perfectly complies with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's requirements who asked the domestic automakers to maintain operations in the country in exchange for government funds.
The Cleon production plant was severely hit by the economic recession, with engine production down to 569,000 units in 2008 compared to 740,000 units in 2007. Additionally, transmissions production fell from 783,000 units in 2007 to 653,000 units in 2008.
Since it will be launched in 2011, the new engine will perfectly meet Euro 5 emission regulations, which become mandatory in 2010. And speaking of emissions, the French manufacturer says the CO2 levels of the upcoming unit will be cut by around 30 grams per kilometers while fuel consumption is reduced by around 20 percent, Autonews wrote.
Specifically, the diesel unit will generate 130 horsepower, similar to the current 1.9-lite diesel configuration already included in Renault's lineup. The first models to get the new engine will be Megane, Laguna plus a series of light commercial vehicles.


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A rallying cry has been made to businesses in Alnwick to join in with a late-night shopping initiative in the run-up to Christmas.
Karen Scrimshaw, of Narrowgate-based Marilyn and Melrose, is co-ordinating the festive scheme, which would see traders throwing open their doors until 8pm on Thursdays.
She wants to kick off the seasonal shopping scheme towards the end of the month, possibly October 23, and is hoping as many traders as possible will register their interest.
A number of ideas are being drawn up, including a Christmas shopping trail featuring the businesses who join in, introducing discounts and incentives, as well as offering refreshments, to entice late-night shoppers.
Karen, who runs the shabby chic, retro and vintage studio with husband Paul, said: “I am hoping that a lot of shops will get involved in this.
“The more businesses that take part, the better it can be for everybody, both for the retailers and the people that are shopping.
“This isn’t just about the businesses, but local people getting involved and utilizing what is in their locality.”
Karen says that she has already spoken to a number of businesses about the late-night openings and has received decent feedback so far.
Lisa Aynsley, of newly-opened Hotspur 1364, on Narrowgate, is coming on board.
She said: “I think it is a really cool idea. There are some really great shops in Alnwick and late-night shopping in the run-up to Christmas will hopefully encourage people to shop locally.”
Meanwhile, Julie Robinson, of Regram Runway, on Narowgate, as well as Bondgate Without-based The Emporium added: “I think this will help the local traders.”
Any businesses who would like to register their interest should email Karen at email@example.com


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Capcom has shown off the new design for Claire Redfield in the Resident Evil 2 remake.
During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the Japanese game company released a new image, below, that shows Claire's new look for the upcoming remake.
Claire has undergone a number of changes. Like counterpart Leon, Claire has a new face design (I've seen people say she looks like Zoey from Left 4 Dead). Outfit wise, Claire's ditched the hot pants from 1998 Resident Evil 2 in favour of jeans, and her jacket is now long sleeve with a subtle print on the back. Oh, and she's riding an officially-licensed Harley-Davidson in the remake.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Capcom's Kellen Haney said the development team debated how much of the new Claire should retain her appearance from the original Resident Evil 2, which came out on the original PlayStation in 1998. The developers went for an appearance that would "line up with the iconic scene of Claire entering Raccoon City on her motorcycle".
Here's that Claire arrival scene from Resident Evil 2, by the way.
I played the Resident Evil 2 remake at E3 in June and was thoroughly impressed. The game has more to do with the recent Resident Evil 7 than Resident Evil 2, with a claustrophobic over-the-shoulder camera and a dark, terrifying aesthetic. It was also super cool to revisit the Raccoon Police Department.
The Resident Evil 2 remake comes out 25th January 2019 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.


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The frustration is a common one, and a form of friction very well-known to the PYMNTS New Orleans Bureau, in fact: having to send a check — a paper check, with envelope and postage stamp and the hope that the mail carrier doesn’t forget to take it — to a person (say, a landlord) who for one reason or another will not get on the digital payments train, not even for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions.
That’s not to be rude or unfair to such payments recipients. After all, according to Jeff McCrory, director of electronic payments for Fiserv, the concept of P2P payments was strange to pretty much everyone in the mainstream a mere five years ago. And receiving and sending checks is a deeply ingrained habit that’s hard to break. As well, if you talk to such people — including, say, that landlord — you will likely find out they have anxieties about the security aspect of P2P payments, which, like it or not, will play at least a modest factor in the payment method’s next phase of growth.
More about that in just a bit. A new PYMNTS interview with McCrory about P2P payments — where they are in 2019 and where they are headed in the 2020s — comes amid a bright, shining time for the payment method. That’s mainly due to the growth experienced by Venmo and its financial institution-centric counterpart Zelle.
Zelle P2P payments are increasing. While year-over-year payment values increased by 56 percent, transaction volume increased by 71 percent. Early Warning, the network operator of Zelle, also said that in the second quarter of 2019, “$44 billion was sent through the Zelle network on 171 million transactions.”
“There has been a full-court press [on P2P awareness] over the last two to three years,” McCrory told PYMNTS. And that marketing blitz has come as more consumers not only have an increased comfort level with their smartphones and mobile devices, but treat such devices almost as bodily appendages. “These devices have truly become ubiquitous.”
Of course, that’s not all that is working in favor of more P2P mainstream acceptance in the coming decade. The growth of the payment method is part of the larger, global trend of real-time payment deployments, a general effort that not only involves shifting consumer demand, but also development of new or improved payment technologies, along with regulatory changes. “It’s a culture of ‘I want what I want, when I want it,’” McCrory said. That culture, of course, has been crafted in large part by quick, same-day or even real-time eCommerce deliveries. “Why shouldn’t your money be fast, too?”
More Than Speed
P2P payments will offer something else besides speed and convenience in the 2020s, at least according to what McCrory told PYMNTS. It allows participating financial institutions (those that offer Zelle, for instance) or payment services providers to meet consumers on their own digital terms and stand out in an increasingly crowded and competitive field.
“Financial institutions are competing in experience,” McCrory said, a trend that reflects wider moves in the world of digital commerce. “To differentiate themselves, financial institutions are transforming themselves into consumer experience providers.”
Of course, consumers have to be brought along — and not just those who were born into a world of digital payments and commerce. “Consumer education has to teach you how to interact online. There are scammers out there,” McCrory noted, making the point that consumers need to be aware of the situations in which they should choose a payment type other than P2P payments, such as sending money to people that are not known to them.
P2P payments promise to offer lower costs than those dreaded checks — a payment method that can, McCrory said, cost between $6 and $8 to process if one takes into account all those costs of sending and accepting checks.
The rise of any number of P2P payment options has increasingly brought on board consumers seeking speed in payments, where settlement is marked by seconds and minutes, not hours or days. It’s a well-known fact, too, that corporate payments (the B2B kind) are ripe for digitization and for a wholesale move away from the paper chase, where checks are still stubbornly tied to 50 percent of corporate transactions.
Indeed, there are plans or deployments in more than 40 countries around the globe to bring faster payments or real-time payments into the fold. We can expect P2P payment to play a big role in these larger payments trends.


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On Sep 22, 2016, Yahoo issued a press release: “A recent investigation by Yahoo! Inc. has confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.”
Yahoo states that it has not yet completed the investigation, and adds that “The ongoing investigation suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information; payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system that the investigation has found to be affected. Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo’s network. Yahoo is working closely with law enforcement on this matter.”
At least 500 million user accounts – Wow! Could the breach be blamed on lack of sufficient cybersecurity or that Yahoo could not face the brunt of the purported “state-sponsored” attack.
Cybersecurity experts warn that the breach is a massive disaster that can have severe ramifications. Cybercriminals who have access to the data could now resort to “credential stuffing” cyber attacks. Now, what is “credential stuffing”? The stolen username and passwords are used for trying to gain access to other websites. This attack process is quite easy now with available software. Though credential stuffing has a quite low rate of success, considering 500 million user accounts means thousands of other accounts could be hacked into. “This was why we were warned not to use the same username and password for multiple websites. But how many do follow the security measure.”
Yahoo claims that most of the passwords were encrypted and could not be broken. This attack took place in 2014, and was discovered only in July 2016 when cyber criminals started to offer stolen Yahoo account credentials for sale. Yahoo uses multiple encryption protocols for passwords, and it is possible that one of them had been broken.
Yahoo also alerts that some security questions were also compromised. Hence, users who use the same credentials for accessing multiple accounts must change them immediately.
Precautions Against Cybersecurity Breaches
Most precautions are actually necessary standard procedures.
- Change your Yahoo account credentials immediately
- Change the security questions and answers to your Yahoo account
- If you have used the same login credentials (user name, passwords) or security questions for other websites, then change them immediately
- Do not use the same login credentials for multiple accounts
- Change your security passwords on a regular basis.
- Be wary of phishing emails that appear to be genuine. They may contain the stolen credentials and would look pretty convincing.
- Be wary of phishing phone calls that appear authentic with stolen Yahoo data.
- Use strong passwords that are a mix of lower case and upper case alphabets, numerals and special characters
- Make use of two-factor authentication or other extra-precautionary measures where available.
Related Resources:TEST YOUR EMAIL SECURITY GET YOUR INSTANT SECURITY SCORECARD FOR FREE


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The Salvation Army is getting out of the thrift shop business in Rutland.
The religious organization announced it would close its store on Field Avenue in November and repurpose the space. Capt. Timothy Shaffer, the head of the local chapter, stressed that the organization itself is not leaving Rutland.
“The Salvation Army reorganizes its structure sometimes,” he said Friday. “The thrift store — they decided to close it down and focus more on our social services, such as youth programming. ... We’re still here. We’re still doing programs and stuff like that. It’s just the thrift store is not going to be part of that at this time.”
The organization has run the store at Field Avenue since 1996 and has offices and a food shelf in Howe Center. The reorganization consolidates their operations at the Field Avenue location. Shaffer said part of the motive was having everything in one place.
“Right now, people don’t know we’re at Howe Scale,” he said. “We want to make sure people know the Army is there and the store is a better location for us. There’s better visibility.”
Shaffer said the closure was “not necessarily” spurred by competition from Goodwill, which opened a store across the street in 2016.
Shaffer said the store will close Nov. 20 after a liquidation sale and they intend to have everything moved from Howe Center by the end of that month. He said the move should not disrupt the food shelf.
“Normally in November and December, we don’t really have a food shelf, because we do our Thanksgiving baskets and Christmas baskets,” he said. “If someone needs food, we would never deny anyone food. We would go and get the food. I don’t think anything would disrupt that.”
The change will come with an expansion of programming.
“My wife is trying to look at doing a youth drop-in center,” he said. “We have all the items to do that.”
Shaffer also said the store might not be gone forever.
“There is a chance — I’m not saying it will — they could reopen in a smaller aspect,” he said.


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3M Company MMM will be importing more than 55 million masks into the United States each month, following a public showdown between President Donald Trump and the company last week. Trump on Monday said that the U.S. government has reached a deal with 3M to manufacture and bring in millions of respirator masks into the country over the next few months to make up for the shortage of protective gear amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The United States, which has become the new epicenter of COVID-19, has been facing acute scarcity of medical equipment like masks and ventilators as it struggles to contain the spread of the deadly disease. The U.S. government has been urging a number of companies to come forward and join the fight against the pandemic by producing masks, ventilators and other medical equipment.
3M Strikes Deal With U.S. Government
On Apr 6, Trump said that the White House and 3M Company have reached a deal that will bring more than 55 million masks every month into the United States. Per the new deal, 3M will import 166.5 million respirator masks to the United States over a period of three months. This will add to the 35 million masks that 3M manufactures domestically every month, said the company.
“So the 3M saga ends very happily,” Trump said at a White House press briefing on Monday. The remarks come after Trump and other critics accused 3M of unpatriotic behavior as it continued to sell N-95 masks to other countries despite a shortage in the United States. Trump last week had said that if 3M fails to follow his orders and ramp up production of ventilators and face masks, it “will have a big price to pay.”
3M has operations in China where a bulk of its production for respirator masks take place. Trump even invoked the Defense Production Act so that he could get more N-95 respirators from 3M.
Other Companies Join the Coronavirus Fight
There has been a shortage of surgical masks since the outbreak of the virus. This has seen governments urging companies to ramp up production of respirator masks and other medical equipment. Automakers have been playing a key role in this respect, with General Motors Company GM and Ford Motor Company F encouraging their suppliers to assist in the production of face masks and ventilators. General Motors and Ford each carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Last month, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. FCAU said that it plans to make a million face masks a month and distribute it in North America in an attempt to fight the deadly coronavirus. Also, Volkswagen AG VWAGY said that it is trying out using 3D printing to produce hospital ventilators. Fashion brands The Gap, Inc. GPS and Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA LVMUY have also been working aggressively toward ramping up production of surgical masks.
Hospitals across the United States are struggling to purchase surgical masks and other medical equipment as suppliers are reportedly not being able to meet the demand. Moreover, prices of these products too have skyrocketed. Given this situation, large-cap players need to come forward and ramp up production of these protective gears to help the government in its attempt to fight the pandemic.
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Ningbo Zhoushan Port sees rise in cargo throughput in H1
Ningbo Zhoushan Port - the world's largest port by throughput volume for the past 11 years – handles 568.89 million metric tons of cargo in the first half of this year, up 2 percent year-on-year. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]
Ningbo Zhoushan Port - the world's largest port by throughput volume for the past 11 years - handled 568.89 million metric tons of cargo in the first half of this year, up 2 percent year-on-year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Transport.
It handled 13.25 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) – standard 20 foot shipping containers - over the six-month period, 4.7 percent less than last year.
In June, container throughput at the port reported positive growth for the first time this year, standing at 2.53 million TEUs, a yearly uptick of 4.5 percent.
The scenario is largely due to the port operator's efforts to seek out new growth drivers.
The port has made strong efforts to expand its presence in the domestic market and stabilize its number of overseas container routes.
From January to June, it handled 8.3 percent more domestic containers than last year.
Meanwhile, the port has also stepped up efforts to develop an integrated sea-railway transportation system. Goods are offloaded onto trains in Ningbo and then transported overseas by sea, and vice versa.
On April 15, the new Chuanshan Port Area was established, which is designed as part of the sea-rail combined transport system. By the end of May, a paperless procedure for handling containers was introduced at the port, which has helped improve the efficiency of sea-rail combined transport.
Currently, the service has covered 54 cities across the nation. In the first half of this year, its sea-rail combined transport volume totaled 444,000 containers, 15.1 percent more than the same month last year.


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E-Readers May Become Gadgets Of The Past: Report
E-Readers' popularity has started to decrease at a rapid rate as users tend to lean more towards a tablet. Shipment of e-readers is expected to decrease by over 35 percent in 2012 when compared to 2011, which may make the e-readers a gadget of the past.
An IHS iSuppli Consumer Electronics report says that shipment of e-readers will fall from 23.2 million units in 2011 to 14.9 million units in 2012, which is a whopping 36 percent drop. Furthermore, e-readers shipments is expected to fall to 10.9 million units in 2013 which will be a 27 percent decline from 2012.
The report also suggests that by 2016, the e-reader market will amount to just 7.1 million units losing more than two-thirds of its market when compared to the sales in 2011.
The shipment of e-readers grew from 1.0 million to 10.1 million from 2008 to 2010 which is ten times in just two years. But the demand of e-readers was short lived as multifunctional tablets, which offered immense functions when compared to e-readers, appealed more to the customers.
An array of tablets is on offer from various tech companies and Apple leads the pack with its iPads. The recently-launched 7.9-inch iPad mini is flying off the shelves as the company struggle to meet customer demands.
The iSuppli report indicates that tablet shipments will climb up as high as 120 million units in 2012 and up to 340 million units expected by 2016.
The decrease in prices of 7-inch tablets is also a factor for the downfall of e-readers. Google's Nexus 7 is available for just over $150. Users can take advantage of reading, surfing the internet, playing games, watching movies, et al on the tablet.
"To try to maintain its market, ebook readers are likely to continue to sell at cost or even less in the future. Industry rumors speculate the Txtr Beagle reader, an ultra-low-cost model with a 5-inch screen, potentially selling for as little as $13 alongside operator subsidies in 2013-less than the cost of the display alone. Such extremely low pricing may serve to prolong the life of the ebook reader market for a little while," reported iSuppli.
If you own an e-reader have you ever thought of replacing it with a tablet?


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Happy birthday, CFPB
Tomorrow, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau completes its first year of operation. Created under the Dodd-Frank Act, we’re starting to see the benefits of a strong federal agency that protects consumers from the dangers posed by an unchecked financial industry.
The CFPB notched its first enforcement action—and hopefully, the first of many—yesterday with the announcement that Capital One will pay up to $210 million to settle federal charges that it violated consumer protection requirements. According to CFPB charges, Capital One used “deceptive practices” to sell unnecessary add-ons to credit card holders. Between $140 million and $150 million will be paid to the two million customers affected. Capital One will pay another $60 million in fines, with $25 million going to the CFPB and $35 million to the bank-regulating Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Today, the CFPB followed up this victory with the release of a report on the private student loan industry, to which American consumers owe more than $150 billion in debt. The extensive report identifies several consumer protection issues in the private student loan marketplace. Importantly, though, the report doesn’t just stop there: It includes strong congressional policy recommendations by CFPB Director Richard Cordray and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
These actions by the CFPB are encouraging, but the history of financial regulation teaches us that the real challenge is maintaining vigilance over time. This means keeping up with financial intermediaries’ attempts to arbitrage between different regulatory agencies, bypass current regulatory structures, and capture regulating agencies. The CFPB had a good first year, but the real challenges will appear in the years to come.
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Jaguar Land Rover and Chery Automobile Co are seeking regulatory approval for a 17.5 billion yuan ($2.78 billion) car venture in eastern China, two people with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters on Monday. The deal marks Jaguar Land Rover's latest effort to expand its appeal in the world's largest auto market where luxury sedans and SUVs remain in hot demand even as the overall car market cools.
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Amid indications that iPad component availability is improving, iSuppli Corp. is raising its shipment forecast for the product to 13.8 million units in 2010, up from its July outlook of 12.9 million.
Apple in its earnings announcement for the fiscal fourth said it shipped 4.2 million iPads during the three-month period ending September 25. The pronouncement indicates that Apple has been able to overcome limitations in component supply so that it can ramp up production.
“In its previous iPad forecasts, iSuppli noted that the only constraint on shipment growth now is production—and not demand,” said Rhoda Alexander, director of monitor research for iSuppli, in the press release. “The only factor limiting production is the availability of key iPad components, such as the Field Fringe Switching (FFS) LCD panels, projected capacitive touch screens and NAND flash. Despite ongoing yield issues, Apple’s suppliers have steadily increased monthly production to meet Apple’s demand. Production rates are now on target to meet the expected strong fourth-quarter sales.”
By end of year, iSuppli expects the iPad production rate to approach or exceed 2.5 million units per month. With Apple bringing on additional suppliers in 2011, iSuppli also has increased its 2011 shipment forecast to 43.7 million units, up from 36.5 million, and expanded its 2012 outlook to 63.3 million units, up from 50.4 million previously.
Beyond its rising production, iPad sales also are benefitting from improvements in Apple’s retail strategy.
“In addition to its traditional channels, Apple now is expanding to sell the iPad through new retailers, including Amazon, Target, Verizon and Walmart,” Alexander said in the release. “Apple has moved more rapidly than expected to push the iPad out to new retailers, which will give it maximum retail presence during the critical holiday sales period.”
Demand for the iPad is rising as users find new ways to use the product to replace tasks previously done on or with paper.
Interest from the education sector also is increasing even as Apple has yet to offer incentives to the education segment to purchase iPads. However, the company is expected to offer those kinds of packages in 2011 and beyond, similar to deals that Apple currently offers on its laptops to students and teachers. As usage increases in primary education, expect increased interest from students’ other family members, young and old.
Source: iSuppli Corporation
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]


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During the launch event of its latest top of the range (here you will find all the details on specifications and prices), the company of Lei Jun also announced the new Xiaomi GaN Type-C 65W charger, an economic solution that fits perfectly even with the latest Mi 10 Pro.
The Pro variant of the Mi 10 series, in fact, arrives with a 4780 mAh battery and support for 50W fast charging, a novelty for the Chinese brand. For the occasion, the company also unveiled the Xiaomi GaN Type-C 65W charger, able to fully recharge the top of the range in just 47 minutes, using the 50W recharge. The brand’s new charger uses gallium nitride technology (GaN, in fact), a gap semiconductor that replaces silicon offering increased efficiency and a smaller footprint, with dimensions reduced by 48%.
Obviously there is support for various types of fast charging (including the PD 3.0 protocol), for maximum versatility. The product is already on sale in the Chinese Xiaomi online stores – including YouPin – at the price of 149 yuan, about € 19 at the current exchange rate. For fans of the Chinese brand, we point out that this is not the first 65W of Lei Jun’s company; however, this is the first gallium nitride solution, a new technology that aims to replace silicon


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Can free trade in the agricultural industry play a role in fighting hunger on a global scale, or does it simply make the problem worse?
Food trade has a different set of rules
International trade has brought the world economy immense growth. Since 1990, the value of all goods and services worldwide has more than doubled. This has prompted some to ask whether liberalizing trade can help in tackling world hunger.
One of the most prominent advocates of free trade is the Indian economist Jagdish Bhagwati, a professor at New York's Columbia University who has lent his expertise to institutions such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. But even Bhagwati warns that eliminating subsidies and removing trade barriers won't be a catch-all solution.
"It might surprise you, because I'm an advocate of free trade," Bhagwati told Deutsche Welle, "but it is generally not a good idea to assume that every instance of deregulation helps everyone."
Bhagwati advocates free trade - with an eye on compensating the losers
Bhagwati says that individual cases must be carefully reviewed to see who benefits and who loses out.
One French NGO tried to do exactly that. Momagri was founded by French agriculture cooperatives, including the seed manufacturer Limagrain and the Credit Agricole bank.
"We are for free trade," said Jacques Carles, Momagri's vice president. "But free trade needs rules, otherwise there's just the law of the jungle."
The special circumstances of agriculture also play a role. "Food production cannot be compared with manufacturing t-shirts, shoes, or cars," Carles said.
Carles says that the economic models used by the World Bank, for example, don't factor in the finer points of agriculture. For one, there are extreme price fluctuations in the agricultural industry. Also, the supply of food never completely meets the demand, especially due to the fact that weather and harvests are not entirely foreseeable.
As part of a Momagri project, a team of researchers led by French economist Bertrand Munier created an economic model specially developed for agriculture. After correctly predicting price fluctuations in food since 2008, the researchers are now trying to predict how free trade - with no subsidies or trade restrictions - would affect the revenue of manufacturers.
Who wins, who loses?
"The only countries that would profit from maximal liberalization of the food trade are the countries of Latin America, especially Brazil and Argentina," said Carles. Those countries have huge amounts of land that could be used for industrial agriculture.
Carles sees Africa suffering the most from deregulation
Most South American countries are members of the Cairns Group, an interest group of large agriculture exporters. It's no wonder that this group advocates a wide-reaching reduction of subsidies and trade barriers, says Jagdish Bhagwati.
"As large exporters, they stand to gain a lot," he said.
In Europe and the US, however, a complete liberalization of trade would reduce farmers' profits by 20 percent, according to Momagri's calculations. Small farmers in Asia and Africa would be especially hard hit, with income losses of 30 to 40 percent in China and India.
"In Africa, the effects would be drastic," said Carles. "Farmers' incomes would drop by half - and they are poor enough to begin with."
More than half of those who have too little to eat worldwide are small farmers in Africa and Asia, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
"It's a total paradox," said Marita Wiggerthale, a consultant for global trade and global sustenance at Oxfam. "Those who are producing the food are the same ones suffering from hunger. The harvests are often so poor that there isn't enough to feed themselves and their families."
There are many reasons for this phenomenon. The plots are often too small, money too short for seed and fertilizer, or access to markets too limited. Wiggerthale says the farmers need help - and more than simply investments to improve conditions.
"Fair trade also means that a government can protect certain products," Wiggerthale said, adding that she doesn't think that would threaten world trade. "Around 90 percent of what small farmers produce is for their home markets. Only ten percent is exported."
Pressure from world bankers
However, in the last few years, many countries have reduced these protections, often under pressure from the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) leans on countries that have borrowed money to reduce their trade barriers, according to a study conducted by the Swiss NGO Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, which is associated with the Christian churches.
African nations feel the pressure of the IMF and World Bank
Their researchers investigated the effects of trade liberalization on rice farmers in Indonesia, Ghana and Honduras. All three countries liberalized their trade because of international pressure, and according to the study, this had a negative impact on the local rice farmers.
The farmers found themselves unprotected against international competitors, and many had to give up farming without any other job opportunities in sight. "Through the liberalization of trade, the small farmers' right to food was abused," the study concluded.
Momagri's Jacques Carles believes that behind the pressure for wide-ranging trade liberalization are interested parties from the finance and agriculture industry.
"In the last five to 10 years, the number of investment funds that buy large amounts of land from poorer people - in Africa, especially - has increased," he said. "We're talking millions of hectares. Their goal is to produce food for export."
A world security council for food
Jagdish Bhagwati is still convinced, however, that free trade has more benefits than consequences.
"Of course, the losers of trade liberalization must be compensated and helped," he said, "but no one does that."
Indonesia liberalized its rice trade in 1995
Jacques Carles, on the other hand, considers the question of food security so important that he thinks it should be top priority.
"We need a world security council for food," he said, "along the same lines as the Security Council of the United Nations."
The task of the world security council would be to foster an international dialog, anticipate crises, and intervene, if necessary. Not with soldiers, but with strategic food reserves that would influence prices on the world market.
But with none of the major lobbies concretely promoting the idea it remains simply a pious wish.
"They're always saying at these summits that the poorest people have to be helped," said Carles, "but nothing ever happens."
Author: Andreas Becker / mz
Editor: Nancy Isenson


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In October 2013, the FBI seized roughly 26,000 BTC from website Silk Road during the arrest of alleged owner Ross William Ulbricht. Two companies, Robocoin and Bitcoiniacs launched the world's first bitcoin ATM on 29 October 2013 in Vancouver, BC, Canada, allowing clients to sell or purchase bitcoin currency at a downtown coffee shop. Chinese internet giant Baidu had allowed clients of website security services to pay with bitcoins.
In 2013 and 2014, the European Banking Authority and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a United States self-regulatory organization, warned that investing in bitcoins carries significant risks. Forbes named bitcoin the best investment of 2013. In 2014, Bloomberg named bitcoin one of its worst investments of the year. In 2015, bitcoin topped Bloomberg's currency tables.
Bitcoin is pseudonymous, meaning that funds are not tied to real-world entities but rather bitcoin addresses. Owners of bitcoin addresses are not explicitly identified, but all transactions on the blockchain are public. In addition, transactions can be linked to individuals and companies through "idioms of use" (e.g., transactions that spend coins from multiple inputs indicate that the inputs may have a common owner) and corroborating public transaction data with known information on owners of certain addresses. Additionally, bitcoin exchanges, where bitcoins are traded for traditional currencies, may be required by law to collect personal information.
Exchanges, however, are a different story. Perhaps the most notable Bitcoin exchange hack was the Tokyo-based MtGox hack in 2014, where 850,000 bitcoins with a value of over $350 million suddenly disappeared from the platform. This doesn’t mean that Bitcoin itself was hacked; it just means that the exchange platform was hacked. Imagine a bank in Iowa is robbed: the USD didn’t get robbed, the bank did.
Market Risk: Like with any investment, Bitcoin values can fluctuate. Indeed, the value of the currency has seen wild swings in price over its short existence. Subject to high volume buying and selling on exchanges, it has a high sensitivity to “news." According to the CFPB, the price of bitcoins fell by 61% in a single day in 2013, while the one-day price drop in 2014 has been as big as 80%.
Another interesting way (literally) to earn bitcoins is by lending them out, and being repaid in the currency. Lending can take three forms – direct lending to someone you know; through a website which facilitates peer-to-peer transactions, pairing borrowers and lenders; or depositing bitcoins in a virtual bank that offers a certain interest rate for Bitcoin accounts. Some such sites are Bitbond, BitLendingClub and BTCjam. Obviously, you should do due diligence on any third-party site.
In December 2013, Overstock.com announced plans to accept bitcoin in the second half of 2014. On 5 December 2013, the People's Bank of China prohibited Chinese financial institutions from using bitcoins. After the announcement, the value of bitcoins dropped, and Baidu no longer accepted bitcoins for certain services. Buying real-world goods with any virtual currency had been illegal in China since at least 2009.
On 18 August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. Later that year on 31 October, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list. This paper detailed methods of using a peer-to-peer network to generate what was described as "a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust". On 3 January 2009, the bitcoin network came into existence with Satoshi Nakamoto mining the genesis block of bitcoin (block number 0), which had a reward of 50 bitcoins. Embedded in the coinbase of this block was the text:
The proof-of-work system, alongside the chaining of blocks, makes modifications of the blockchain extremely hard, as an attacker must modify all subsequent blocks in order for the modifications of one block to be accepted. As new blocks are mined all the time, the difficulty of modifying a block increases as time passes and the number of subsequent blocks (also called confirmations of the given block) increases.
On 19 June 2011, a security breach of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange caused the nominal price of a bitcoin to fraudulently drop to one cent on the Mt. Gox exchange, after a hacker used credentials from a Mt. Gox auditor's compromised computer illegally to transfer a large number of bitcoins to himself. They used the exchange's software to sell them all nominally, creating a massive "ask" order at any price. Within minutes, the price reverted to its correct user-traded value. Accounts with the equivalent of more than US$8,750,000 were affected.
One of the first supporters, adopters, contributor to bitcoin and receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was programmer Hal Finney. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software the day it was released, and received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto in the world's first bitcoin transaction on 12 January 2009. Other early supporters were Wei Dai, creator of bitcoin predecessor b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bitcoin predecessor bit gold.
Our second assumption is that the supply of bitcoin will approach 21 million as specified in the current protocol. To give some context, the current supply of bitcoin is around 17 million, the rate at which bitcoin is released decreases by half roughly every four years, and the supply should get past 19 million in the year 2022. The key part of this assumption is that the protocol will not be changed. Note that changing the protocol would require the concurrence of a majority of the computing power engaged in bitcoin mining. (Related: How Does Bitcoin Mining Work?)
With the Bitcoin price so volatile everyone is curious. Bitcoin, the category creator of blockchain technology, is the World Wide Ledger yet extremely complicated and no one definition fully encapsulates it. By analogy it is like being able to send a gold coin via email. It is a consensus network that enables a new payment system and a completely digital money.
If fewer people begin to accept Bitcoin as a currency, these digital units may lose value and could become worthless. There is already plenty of competition, and though Bitcoin has a huge lead over the other 100-odd digital currencies that have sprung up, thanks to its brand recognition and venture capital money, a technological break-through in the form of a better virtual coin is always a threat.
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, a concept that was discussed in the late 90s. The first Bitcoin specification and proof of concept was published in 2009 in a cryptography mailing list. The concept was presented by a person or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto. The real identity of Nakamoto has been a mystery since that time, with various theories on who the individual or group may be.
On 5 December 2013, the People's Bank of China announced in a press release regarding bitcoin regulation that whilst individuals in China are permitted to freely trade and exchange bitcoins as a commodity, it is prohibited for Chinese financial banks to operate using bitcoins or for bitcoins to be used as legal tender currency, and that entities dealing with bitcoins must track and report suspicious activity to prevent money laundering. The value of bitcoin dropped on various exchanges between 11 and 20 percent following the regulation announcement, before rebounding upward again.
The simplest way to approach the model would be to look at the current worldwide value of all mediums of exchange and of all stores of value comparable to bitcoin, and calculate the value of bitcoin's projected percentage. The predominant medium of exchange is government backed money, and for our model we will focus solely on them. The money supply is often thought of as broken into different buckets, M0, M1, M2, and M3. M0 refers to currency in circulation. M1 is M0 plus demand deposits like checking accounts. M2 is M1 plus savings accounts and small time deposits (known as certificates of deposit in the US). M3 is M2 plus large time deposits and money market funds. Since M0 and M1 are readily accessible for use in commerce, we will consider these two buckets as medium of exchange, whereas M2 and M3 will be considered as money being used as a store of value.
Stefan Thomas, a Swiss coder and active community member, graphed the time stamps for each of Nakamoto's 500-plus bitcoin forum posts; the resulting chart showed a steep decline to almost no posts between the hours of 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time. Because this pattern held true even on Saturdays and Sundays, it suggested that Nakamoto was asleep at this time, and the hours of 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. GMT are midnight to 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (North American Eastern Standard Time). Other clues suggested that Nakamoto was British: A newspaper headline he had encoded in the genesis block came from the UK-published newspaper The Times, and both his forum posts and his comments in the bitcoin source code used British English spellings, such as "optimise" and "colour".
Bitcoin has become more widely traded as of 2017, and both short term traders and long-term investors are looking to participate in this exciting market. The price of bitcoin fluctuates on a daily basis, and can see some significant price volatility. Prices can be affected by numerous influences. Some of the possible drivers of price include: further acceptance, more exchanges opening, regulations, weakening paper currency values, inflation and more.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses cryptography to control its creation and management, rather than relying on central authorities. The presumed pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto integrated many existing ideas from the cypherpunk community when creating bitcoin. Over the course of bitcoin's history, it has undergone rapid growth to become a significant currency both on and offline – from the mid 2010s, some businesses began accepting bitcoin in addition to traditional currencies.
Bitcoin turns 10 — how it went from an abstract idea to a $100 billion market in a decade CNBCBitcoin is 10 years old today — here's a look back at its crazy history Business InsiderFactbox: Ten years of bitcoin Reuters10 years later, we still don't know what Bitcoin is for Telegraph.co.ukIt's Bitcoin's 10th Birthday. Here's What People Are […]


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Spotlight on ICTs at ZNCC symposium
BUSINESS| April 29, 2011, 2:31 p.m.
ICTs will come under discussion at the Zimbabwe Information Communications Technology Symposium in Harare soon. The symposium will be hosted by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) on 11 May.
The event, to be held at the Crowne Plaza Monamotapa, will feature talks by ICT and business experts, and will seek to address challenges and review successes in improving the use of ICTs in Zimbabwe.
The theme of the symposium will be “ Embracing ICT for Business Growth.”
The symposium presents a unique opportunity for the ICT industry players in Zimbabwe to exchange views and lessons learned with the business community on the impact of new technologies on their business operations. The Symposium is set to be Zimbabwe’
s leading forum for learning about best ICT practices in business, networking and building local and international partnerships.
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Sotheby’s (NYSE:BID) delivered a profit and missed Wall Street’s expectations, AND came up short on beating the revenue expectation. The revenue miss is a negative sign to shareholders seeking high growth out of the company. Shares are down 0.89%.
Sotheby’s Earnings Cheat Sheet
Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 7.26% to $1.33 in the quarter versus EPS of $1.24 in the year-earlier quarter.
Revenue: Rose 0.28% to $304.8 million from the year-earlier quarter.
Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Sotheby’s reported adjusted EPS income of $1.33 per share. By that measure, the company missed the mean analyst estimate of $1.37. It missed the average revenue estimate of $318.14 million.
Quoting Management: “Our business and the market for quality art at the high end continue to be strong,” said Bill Ruprecht, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We saw significant sales growth in Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art and posted the best results in the market in the vast majority of key sales this Spring. We continue to see fierce competition for high-end consignments and as a result, lower auction commission margins.”
Key Stats (on next page)…