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ENYO Retail and Supply Ltd., has announced investment of over eight billion naira into downstream retail business with the aim of expanding market share in the downstream sub-sector.
Mr Abayomi Awobokun, the Chief Executive Officer, of the company said in a news briefing in Lagos yesterday that the company was formed by group of Nigerian investors, operating under ENYO Retail and Supply Ltd, led by its Chairman, Mr Tunde Folawiyo.
He said that the objective for setting up the company was to Impact positively in the downstream sun-sector of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
The CEO said that despite the challenges confronting the sector, his team of investors is ready to expand beyond its present market share of one per cent in near future.
He explained that Enyo’s service innovations is the first to offer customers what he termed loyalty scheme which he said is an opportunity to reward its loyal buyers.
“We want to use innovations and modern designs to our advantage, to grow business in the downstream sector. Enyo doesn’t want to get involved in the business of importing products. We buy from those that import and then sell.
He then listed some of the challenges in the downstream sector which investors and government should look at such as negative stigma, supply shortages, customers distrust, congestion and poor road facilities.
He hinted that the company is looking at delving into a twenty four hours services in the future- with a combination of pumps where customers can either serve themselves, or be served by attendants, adding that the company is planning on buying over stations across the country for rapid growth.
According to him, “There are negative stigmas affecting the downstream sector. Past events have given it a bad name. There is general distrust between the customers and the marketers.
“ Nigerian economy is also another challenge. Nigerians don’t buy fuel for luxury like driving from Lagos to Akure just for sightseeing. They buy fuel for essentials and not pleasure.
“There is also the challenge of lack of basic infrastructure. Moving of products from the depots to the filling stations is very challenging. But despite all these challenges, there is still room for growth,’’ he said.
Awobokun reiterated the company’s commitment to Nigeria and outlined its achievements in less than two years of operation in the country.
“We are about 18 month old and our major investor is Folawiyo Energy and we have invested over N8 billion to build 56 retail stations across Nigeria.
“We have 17 filling stations that are under construction which is expected to come on stream by June. Because we are in a competitive environment, we placed importance on technology-driven innovations.
“We are trying to change the narrative. We focus on training and career growth.
“We are set to be a major player in near future because right now, nothing much is happening in the sector. Since we are focusing only on retail business, our business model is based on available margin,” Awobokun added.
The CEO said that ENYO’s acquisitions of new retail stations is part of its expansion plans to provide Nigerians with trusted fuel and other quality petroleum products and services.
“We are entering into a contractual agreement with key dealers across the country to fast track rapid acquisition of stations.
“We believe that having stations at strategic locations will help us drive our commitment to the provision of quality fuel and petroleum products.” he added.
He said that that recently, the company launched its fuelled by Trust – ‘1 litre is 1 litre’ initiative – which is targeted at ensuring consumers are provided with their products value worth.
He said that leveraging on the words ‘trust’ and ‘fuel’, Enyo Retail and Supply is reinforcing its commitment as a truly customer focused brand.
Awobokun said that its continuous delivery of authentic and innovative products and services is fuelled by positive customer and stakeholder experiences.
He said ENYO Retail and Supply Ltd, which was founded in 2017, currently has over 55 stations and currently distributes over 1 per cent of the national fuel consumption in Nigeria.
“The company operates in over 13 states of the country and serves over 50,000 customers daily.
“Products and services from the company include Premium Castrol Lubricant, Superior Liquefied Gas, Vehicon, Reelax, and, Diesel 2Door.
“ In 2019, ENYO intends to grow its footprint to achieve up to 2 per cent of the local market share for PMS bought from retail stations nationwide,’’ he said.


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UK: M&S Hits Back With Big Is Beautiful
Marks & Spencer is hoping big is beautiful with its latest advertising campaign, aimed at boosting sales. A new TV advertising campaign, featuring a larger size model, gets under way in the UK next week, just days after it was revealed that leaked documents appear to show a fall in its clothing sales. Research carried out by the leading store has revealed that women are getting bigger and this is reflected in the company's new advertisements which include a size 16 model. The new campaign represents the first time that Marks & Spencer has consolidated its £20m advertising budget into a single brand campaign. One 30-second ad features the dramatic image of a larger woman celebrating the fact that she can now buy stylish clothes which suit her size and shape. The fit of Marks & Spencer women's clothing has been improved this autumn as a result of an extensive nationwide survey. Using the most up-to-date body scanning technology, measurements were taken showing that women have become taller and curvier in the last 10-12 years. According to unconfirmed reports, non-food sales in M&S's 297 stores across the country fell 6 per cent in the week ending August 19, compared with a year ago. However food sales, which account for 40 per cent of turnover, rose during the period.
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BMW Malaysia Sdn Bhd yesterday handed over a fleet of BMW 5-Series Hybrid with eDrive Technology to Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to be used at the upcoming Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry (CEPSI) 2018.
The fleet will be used as the official cars for the conference, which will start on Sept 17-22, 2018, at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. BMW Malaysia is the official electro-mobility (e-mobility) partner.
TNB is hosting CEPSI 2018 on behalf of the Association of Electricity Supply Industry of East ASIA and the Western Pacific (AESIEAP).
The cars were handed over by BMW Group Malaysia MD and CEO Harald Hoelzl to TNB’s chief corporate officer and AESIEAP 2017/2018 secretary general Datuk Roslan Ab Rahman yesterday.
“The collaboration signifies BMW Malaysia’s intention in being a key partner in transforming the e-mobility local industry and the country’s ambition in sustainable development. We look forward to exchanging our industry-leading expertise and insights, as well as gaining knowledge from the many thought leaders at CEPSI to shape a better Malaysia,” said Hoelzl.
Roslan said the cars sponsored by BMW will be used to shuttle VVIPs and AESIEAP executive council members throughout the five-day conference.
“This e-mobility partnership is the first of its kind for CEPSI since its inception in 1976 in Hong Kong. The partnership is timely as the electric vehicles (EVs) are generating a revolution in transportation across the globe,” he said.
TNB through its wholly owned subsidiary, TNB Energy Services Sdn Bhd, is collaborating with Malaysian Green Technology Corp to deliver an integrated services to EV owners in Malaysia, said Roslan.
With the conference themed “Reimagining the Utility of the Future”, BMW will be sharing its thoughts on the mobility of the future, courtesy of Dr Alexander Kotouc, the head of product management for BMWi who is a keynote speaker at the event.
The premium automaker will also be unveiling a new model from its BMWi portfolio.
“CEPSI 2018 is also an opportunity for us to share a truly progressive model from our portfolio of visionary mobility,” added Hoelzl. — TMR


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We’re always pleased to see efforts to help worthwhile charitable organizations, and this is one of those times. In an effort to combat Parkinson’s desease, Washburn Guitars and Sam Ash Music have joined forces for the month of May, 2007.
The two companies have announced that ten percent of the sales price of all Washburn guitars sold through Sam Ash retail stores, and online at SamAsh.com, during May 2007, will be donated to the Parkinson’s Unity Walk. The organization is the largest grassroots fundraiser for Parkinson’s research in the US and guarantees that 100 percent of all donations goes directly to research.
Washburn Guitars was established in 1883 and is located new Chicago, IL. They also build banjos and mandolins.
Sam Ash Music was founded in Brooklyn, NY in 1924 and now operates 45 stores nationwide.


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Mike Shields was the Advertising Editor at Business Insider. He started at Business Insider in May of 2017.
He was previously a Senior Editor at the Wall Street Journal where he helped launch the CMO Today vertical. Previously Mike logged stints at Adweek and Digiday.
Premium Advertising 2021-10-18T17:06:04Z
Scott Galloway thinks fraud will take down digital advertising. He's wrong.
Galloway says 'The edifice of digital advertising is unstable and likely to collapse.' Columnist Mike Shields argues ad spend is only increasing.
Premium Advertising 2020-12-03T22:05:38Z
TV advertising needs to move a lot faster to fix its targeting problems if it wants to beat YouTube and TikTok to mainstream ad budgets
You have to wonder if TV gets its targeting act together if there will be any people under 60 worth targeting, as many cut the cord during COVID-19.
Premium Advertising 2020-10-30T17:25:36Z
Amazon, Google, and now Facebook are pushing into cloud gaming, which could finally give advertisers a way into this market
Introducing advertising to cloud services could open them to a much wider audience. Or it could completely turn off gamers.
Premium Advertising 2020-10-21T12:42:00Z
As TV giants push their legacy businesses to the background, it may be time for them to embrace selling like Facebook and Google do
Ad sellers need to quickly pivot to a 'platformization of sales' and strategic partnerships to stay competitive, columnist Mike Shields argues.
Premium Advertising 2020-08-06T12:47:00Z
The fundamental mechanics of a $330 billion-plus global digital advertising market are set to crumble — and most CMOs don't have a plan
Apple, Google and the US government are completely rewriting the rules of digital marketing just as advertising is getting more data-driven than ever.
Premium Advertising 2020-06-17T20:46:17Z
Advertisers: If you actually care about the Black Lives Matter movement, pull your ads from Fox News
If brands truly care about the Black community, they should start with "defunding" Fox News, columnist Mike Shields argues.
Premium Advertising 2020-06-02T18:44:49Z
Older fans may leap back into watching sports on TV post-pandemic, but networks are going to have a tougher time winning back younger viewers
After months of being trapped in our homes, columnist Mike Shields wonders if new entertainment habits will stick.
Premium Advertising 2020-03-30T20:55:16Z
Advertising is coming to video games, and the shift could happen sooner than marketers think
As video games surge in popularity during the pandemic, brands and gaming companies could consider running ads there.
The Summer Olympics will be postponed, and that could lead to an unprecedented media disaster with tons of ramifications
Even if NBCU recovers from Tokyo's Games being called off, broadcast networks would be damaged overall, says BI columnist Mike Shields.
Premium Advertising 2020-02-10T21:41:30Z
Tech companies like Samsung are moving into the advertising business, using data to target people — but it will take a lot more than that to succeed
Samsung Ads could make it big — if it reaches its audience correctly, says BI columnist Mike Shields.
Premium Advertising 2020-01-13T20:05:13Z
Samsung's new Star Wars-like bot could become the digital hub of the connected home — and that should worry Google and Amazon
The home assistant is incredibly cute — and terrifying at the same time, says BI columnist Mike Shields.
Premium Advertising 2019-12-26T17:32:00Z
The 2010s were supposed to be all about tectonic shifts in media and advertising. Here's a look back at the blockbuster deals that did — and didn't happen.
Just think — the streaming wars never would have happened if Verizon hadn't launched Go90.
Premium Advertising 2019-12-13T12:17:47Z
NBCU and Comcast's new streaming service Peacock just isn't bold enough and they may lose the streaming wars. Here's what they should do instead.
Expert Mike Shields said Peacock should aim higher than being NBCU's streaming play — and aspire to become the ad-supported premium video hub.
Premium Advertising 2019-11-18T14:21:09Z
TV has peaked just like the magazine industry did, and TV ad executives refuse to accept it
People inside the magazine world didn't see the party about to crash then, and TV people don't seem to see it now, says contributor Mike Shields.
Premium Advertising 2019-10-30T15:05:48Z
Roku is hot, but it may need to sell if it wants to take over the TV ad business
Roku generated plenty of buzz with its $150 million acquisition of the ad-tech firm Dataxu. What's next? It may be time to sell to a tech giant.
Premium Advertising 2019-10-18T17:32:49Z
Brands are stuck paying for declining audiences for sports. They need to figure out a way into games like 'Fortnite.'
Contributor and former BI advertising editor Mike Shields argues that the publicity "Fortnite's" black-hole spectacle brings is perfect for advertisers.
Premium Advertising 2019-10-04T16:19:04Z
The digital ad business can't police itself. It's time to let the feds do it.
The digital advertising business is getting squeezed from every direction. But is heavy regulation such a bad thing?
Premium Advertising 2018-10-08T22:23:37Z
TV execs are vowing to work together on advertising — but buyers are getting impatient
BI PRIME: One of the biggest themes at Advertising Week was the TV industry's need to protect itself against Facebook, Google, Amazon and Netflix. That had executives pledging to radically change the commercial TV model while vowing to work together
Premium Advertising 2018-10-01T21:37:54Z
Google may have pulled off a TV ad-tech coup just as Comcast and Disney were duking it out over Fox and Sky
BI PRIME: Disney and Fox spent much of the past year in a prolonged, high stakes bidding war for Fox and Sky. Their battle may end up benefiting an unexpected player: Google.
Premium Advertising 2018-09-30T02:43:00Z
Amazon has discussed building its own advertising technology for OTT TV — and it would put it in competition with Comcast and Google
BI PRIME: Amazon has discussed building proprietary ad tech for TV and video. And it has had conversations with some big video players about someday licensing the tech, which should make Comcast or Google nervous.


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A Chicago woman is suing Starbucks for more than $5 million (R73 million), claiming that the coffee giant under-fills its popular hand-blended iced coffee, tea and other drinks, making customers overpay for beverages.
In a lawsuit seeking a jury trial and class action status, alleging false advertising and consumer fraud, Stacy Pincus accuses the world’s biggest coffee retailer of serving its customers “much less than advertised – often nearly half as many fluid ounces.”
“As a result of this practice, Starbucks’s cold drinks contain significantly less product than advertised, by design and corporate practice and procedure,” the suit filed last week says.
Starbucks baristas typically fill cold-drink plastic cups to the top black line printed on the cups and then add ice.
Pincus says that since April 2006, she and millions of other Starbucks customers have been defrauded because Venti cup customers get only 0.4 litres of beverage – the amount of liquid obtained when filling cups to the top line – even though menus state a 24-ounce/0.7 litre total.
“Starbucks includes these three black lines on its cold drink cups to ensure that its employees fill these cups with less fluid ounces than are advertised on Starbucks’s menu for a given cold drink,” the lawsuit says.
“In fact, Starbucks instructs its employees to provide its customers with fewer fluid ounces than advertised.”
more on all4women.co.za


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Volvo XC40 brought brand sales to record levelsJanuary 22, 2019
It seems that the leaders of Volvo Cars can be proud of themselves: last year, the Swedish brand reached new heights, having realized a record number of cars, as told to the press by Lex Kerssemakers, the head of the European office of the brand.
According to him, last year Volvo Cars set a personal record for itself: 642,253 cars of the brand were sold around the world, and the Swedes crossed the barrier in more than 600,000 cars for the first time in their history, and Volvo’s top management dreamed for 15 years. recent years, – said the head of the European division of the brand.
The XC60 mid-size crossover remained the most popular model: it sold around the world in an edition of 189,459 copies. The second place went to the big crossover XC90 – 94,182 cars were sold.
However, the record-breaking additional increase in sales was given by the new compact crossover XC40. He massively entered the European market a year ago, and this year the Swedes are going to sell at least 150,000 copies of this model – twice as many as last year. It is worth noting that the XC40 in 2018 won numerous awards, the most important – the World Car of the Year (World car of the year 2018) and the Car of the Year in Japan 2018/2019 (Car of the year Japan 2018/2019).
The next goal of Volvo Cars is 800,000 cars sold per year, but the brand’s management does not yet guess when this milestone will be overcome.
- Mahindra to Bring Formula E to India for Electric Vehicle Advertising
- Audi announced participation in Dakar
- European Honda CR-V left without gasoline engines
- New Praga R1 racing car presented
- Renault will release a budget analogue of the new generation Logan sedan


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The best PS4 Black Friday 2015 deals – mega-round-up of the cheapest prices
Black Friday 2015: The best Xbox One deals – retailers with cheapest prices
Rockstar co-founders Dan and Sam Houser have made this year’s Top 100 MediaGuardian 2011 hitlist, the publication announced last night.
MediaGuardian 100 headlines
MediaGuardian 100 Latest
Houser brothers make MediaGuardian 100 2011


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The manufacturing sector faces a slew of challenges due to the pandemic. A survey by the US National Association of Manufacturers found that nearly four out of five manufacturing companies expect a financial hit from COVID-19. More than half (53.1%) anticipate a change in operations primarily due to the injection of new technologies and reimagined business processes.
Writing for Forbes magazine, Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, CEO of Instrumental, said: “Between solutions that leverage the power of the cloud for visibility and automation that optimizes work, necessity will drive invention: manufacturers will do five years of innovation in the next 18 months.”
Indeed, the cloud will be a staple for every manufacturer’s technology stack in these challenging times. Even before the pandemic, the cloud was poised to bring undeniable benefits for manufacturers. It includes a 22% rise in profitability and a 23% decrease in operational costs on an average. And spurred by the pandemic, manufacturers are likely to ramp up their investments in the cloud. In IDC’s wave 3 of the COVID-19 Impact on IT Spending Survey, analysts predicted "a significant increase in demand for cloud software."
There are five clear drivers for this trend.
Across industries, the demand for cloud infrastructure has seen a sharp uptick, growing a record 34% YOY in Q1 of 2020. This surge is because the cloud dramatically shrinks our dependence on physical, on-premise infrastructure – and consequently, physical proximity. This facet has immediate benefits for companies that are following social distancing measures.
In the long-term, the cloud could unlock better connectivity and more seamless supply chains, overcoming supply chain disruptions arising from COVID-19, as expected by 35.5% of companies in the US survey we cited.
These benefits span short, near, and long-term impact areas for manufacturers:
In the short-term, the cloud enables business continuity.
Several of the critical activities on the manufacturing value chain, from product design to marketing and customer service, rely on in-person contact. The cloud eliminates this dependence by providing an “anytime, anywhere” platform for communication. This has immense implications for new product development (NPD) – companies no longer need to press pause on innovation. Still, they can stick to their planned go-to-market (GTM) strategies by leveraging the cloud. Similarly, on the operational side, the cloud can help maintain business continuity across people processes, production, and even marketing/sales via online platforms.
Visit our Manufacturing page


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This could be taken to a whole new level in 2017 as reports are suggesting that Samsung will release a foldable smartphone that you’ll actually be able to buy.
As you may or may not know, Samsung has its own display business, this has allowed to it to release the curved screen Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, as well as becoming a leader in the curved TV market.
Over the years it has also been slowly but steadily showing off foldable screen concepts at technology shows like CES and MWC.
Well now, according to the Korea Herald, Samsung is finally ready to unveil a finished product in the form of a smartphone that will fold out to become a 7-inch tablet.
According to its sources the smartphone is almost nearly ready, and so any final decision will be based purely on whether or not Samsung thinks we’re actually going to want a foldable smartphone.
With Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone 8 expected to arrive this year, Samsung will be under extra scrutiny to show that it is still the market leader for making Android smartphones.
Taking risks has paid off for Samsung in the past, the release of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge showed that even a slightly gimmicky feature like the curved screen was enough to sway buyers and the resulting S7 edge turned it into a full-blown design feature.
Of course creating a phone that’s also a tablet is an entirely different kettle of fish, and that kettle could seriously backfire on them.
Best Smartphones You Can Buy Right Now:


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Christmas turned out to be very favourable for Rovio as it was reported that the Angry Birds game received 6.5 million downloads over the holiday season.
Spokesman for Rovio, Ville Heijari, told that, "We're really excited to have such a massive number of new people get acquainted with Angry Birds over the holidays, we have exciting new releases lined up for 2012, and can't wait to introduce them to the public," reported All Things D.
The download count includes free as well as the paid version of this game along with expansion packs Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Seasons. In fact, in totality the Angry Birds downloads done this seasons Christmas day broke all previous records of 2 million downloads during the same time last year.
This shows that the popular game has achieved the level of being an essential app in smartphones and tablet. There are few other apps like Facebook and Google search and some other that are considered as essential, reported Into Mobile.
Analysts believe that Rovio might have to offer more this year to keep the popularity it has achieved last year intact.


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Released: December 01, 2014
Consumer Action INSIDER - December 2014
Table of Contents
- What people are saying
- Did you know?
- Anti-arbitration petition delivered to PNC and Wells Fargo banks
- Debtors’ rights and social networking privacy
- Hotline Chronicles: Sometimes you’re ‘cool’ to cancel—sometimes not
- ‘Gainful Employment’ rule fails to fully protect students and taxpayers
- Federal consumer watchdogs have day at the ‘Beach’
- Serving America’s servicemembers, military families and veterans
- Class Action Database: AT&T must refund mobile ‘cramming’ charges
- ‘Primed and Prepped’ for money management
- Coalition Efforts: Mortgage data, deceptive practices and predatory loan pushback
- CFPB Watch: Prepaid protections proposed and in-language access
- About Consumer Action
What people are saying
Your San Diego training on empowering veterans and servicemembers was a great event. Very informative! — Edith Smith, African American Business Women of Vision (AABWV).
Did you know?
You don’t have to rack up credit card debt or get swept up in the holiday season’s commercialism. Instead, consider creating holidays that instill more meaning into the season and encourage more creativity and less frenzy. A great place to start looking for inspiration is the Center for a New American Dream, which offers tips and resources to “Simplify the Holidays” and help you reduce stress and increase personal fulfillment.
Anti-arbitration petition delivered to PNC and Wells Fargo banks
A petition signed by more than 67,000 consumers and activists was delivered Nov. 20 to the PNC Financial Services Group Inc. headquarters in Pittsburgh and the Wells Fargo & Co. headquarters in San Francisco calling on these banks to remove terms in their contracts that deny customers their right to a day in court.
Public Citizen delivered the petition to PNC, while Consumer Action delivered the petition to Wells Fargo. Consumer Action’s petition can be found here.
The petition was organized by national consumer and citizen groups Public Citizen, Consumer Action, The Other 98%, Alliance for Justice, American Association for Justice, Americans for Financial Reform and National Association of Consumer Advocates, and targeted the five biggest banks that use forced arbitration clauses: PNC, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp.
Forced arbitration clauses, buried in the fine print, prevent consumers who have been harmed or ripped off from holding their bank accountable in court and instead force them to plead their case to a private arbitration provider picked by the banks. The result is that consumers cannot practically or fairly resolve disputes with powerful institutions or seek remedies for harm caused by wrongful conduct of such institutions.
The petition comes as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) studies the use of forced arbitration by financial institutions against their customers. It has been nearly a year since the CFPB released its preliminary data on the arbitration study, confirming that the clause is prevalent in most everyday consumer financial product agreements. The CFPB is authorized to ban forced arbitration after it releases the final report.
“It’s not acceptable for banks to force consumers to give up legal rights in order to open an account or get a credit card,” said Linda Sherry, director of national priorities for Consumer Action. “Along with our allies, we call on these powerful large institutions to do the right thing and eliminate forced arbitration in their contracts.”
“The broad response that the petition has received around the country shows a strong consumer demand for an end to this rigged game designed by Wall Street,” said Christine Hines, consumer and civil justice counsel for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division.
Debtors’ rights and social networking privacy
Each year, Consumer Action publishes as many as a dozen or more new consumer education resources. While many of these publications are developed as part of special educational partnerships, some are produced with money from our general financial literacy budget. Funding for this budget comes from general purpose grants, cy pres awards (from class action lawsuits) and other miscellaneous income, and typically is used to address a need that we feel is critical yet unmet. Two such publications, released last month, help consumers understand their rights when facing a potential debt collection lawsuit and direct social media users how to protect their privacy.
What to know when a debt goes from collections to court
Consumers at risk of being sued for an unpaid debt or already facing a debt collection lawsuit must know their rights and options if they have any hope of defending themselves or retaining the income and assets that are exempt from garnishment or levy under the law.
Consumer Action’s 16-page Debtors’ Rights: Protecting yourself from debt collection lawsuits helps consumers who owe money understand how to avoid a debt collection lawsuit, what the legal process is if they can’t avoid being sued, where to find free or low-cost legal help, the process of responding to a suit, their rights if they lose the case, and how to file a complaint against a debt collector if their rights have been violated.
“There has been an alarming increase in debt collectors prevailing in court not because they were in the right, but because the consumers they sued either weren’t aware of their rights or didn’t know how to preserve them,” said Linda Sherry, Consumer Action’s director of national priorities. “Our new guide to “debtor’s rights” urges people who owe money and are being pursued by collectors not to bury their heads in the sand—that just makes matters worse. Instead we give practical advice on how to deal with collection lawsuits.”
Keeping posts, tweets safe from prying eyes
As of January, according to Pew research, 74% of online adults use social networking sites, yet a more recent Pew survey found that eighty-one percent of people do not feel secure using social media to share private information with another trusted person or organization. These concerns are largely justified for social media users who don’t exercise reasonable caution, learn the data-use policies of each social network they participate in or take advantage of available privacy controls.
Privacy and Control for Social Media Users: How much do you want to share? presents the potential privacy risks in social networking and prepares social media users to make wise choices about what they share and who they share it with. It includes information about how to use the privacy controls on social networking websites and apps and offers tips for enjoying social media while still protecting their personal privacy.
“Everyone and her grandma is using social media these days,” noted Sherry. “Our publication is designed to remind people that ‘sharing’ too much can have drawbacks—sometimes quite serious ones like job loss or becoming the targets of scams and fraud.”
Both publications are available for free download at www.consumer-action.org and can be freely reproduced by consumer educators to distribute to their individual clients and throughout their communities.
Hotline Chronicles: Sometimes you’re ‘cool’ to cancel—sometimes not
James* signed a contract for pest control services sold by a door-to-door salesman. Later that day he changed his mind, but when he called to cancel, he was told there was a $170 cancellation fee. When he called Consumer Action’s hotline to complain, he learned that under the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Cooling-Off Rule, James couldn’t be charged a cancellation fee as long as he let the company know within three days of the purchase.
Under the Cooling-Off Rule, consumers have three days to cancel a purchase of $25 or more under certain circumstances (see below). This right to cancel expires at midnight of the third business day after the sale.
To protect your rights under the Cooling-Off Rule, send your cancellation by certified mail. You can save almost $2 by tracking delivery on the U.S. Postal Service website instead of purchasing return receipt service.
Some states have stronger protections for canceling purchases, so check with your state consumer protection agency or attorney general’s office. If you paid for the service or goods with a credit card, you may have another way out if you have buyer’s remorse. For example, if you buy something with an American Express card and the merchant refuses to accept your return, AmEx will refund the full price (up to $300) for up to 90 days under its Return Protection benefit.
The ‘cool’ rule
You are entitled protections under the Cooling-Off Rule for:
- Door-to-door sales
- Sales at your workplace
- Sales that take place at temporary rented facilities like convention centers, hotel rooms or restaurants
It does NOT apply to:
- In-store purchases (although many merchants have generous merchandise return policies)
- Car sales (new or used)
Wait a minute—no cooling-off period for cars? Many consumers are surprised they can’t cancel a car purchase “just because.” After all, buyer’s remorse is more common on expensive purchases. (If a consumer gets a new car with serious mechanical issues, they have rights of redress under state “lemon laws,” but this can be a long road. Read “Lemon Law for New Cars” at the Nolo legal rights website.)
Used car sales are a different matter, as they are usually “as is” transactions, meaning there may not be a warranty to cover any repairs. However, you may still have some rights, for example if the dealer concealed defects he should have known about or made representations about the car's being in good condition, or if your state mandates warranty coverage. California allows the sale of two-day cancellation options when consumers buy a used car from a dealership. Cancellation options cost between $75 and $400, depending on the vehicle's sticker price, so Consumer Action recommends against buying them.
*Not this consumer's real name.
‘Gainful Employment’ rule fails to fully protect students and taxpayers
Late last month, the Department of Education (ED) released its latest gainful employment rule intended to rein in underperforming educational programs. The rule aims to prevent programs with extremely poor student outcomes from receiving federal student aid funding. While many argue the rule is a step toward protecting vulnerable students from unmanageable debt burdens, it has its shortcomings.
Student loan debt has crossed the $1.2 trillion mark, with $1 trillion coming from taxpayer-funded federal student loans. Many for-profit vocational schools—including Corinthian Colleges and ITT Tech—have been targeted by government agencies for deceptive marketing techniques and abusive lending practices. At for-profit schools, up to 90 percent of revenue can come from federal funding—especially outrageous because for-profit schools enroll only 10 percent of students but are responsible for 50 percent of student loan defaults.
Consumer advocates argue that these schools should be required to show the public they are getting a return on the investment of tax dollars by adequately preparing graduates to get jobs. The Institute for College Access and Success warns the average graduate of a for-profit college owes more than students at public or non-profit colleges and that about 19 percent of for-profit college students will default on their loans in the first three years of paying them back. For-profit colleges say this is because they enroll disadvantaged students who are more likely to need financial help and struggle more after graduation. Critics, Consumer Action, its advocacy allies and the Obama Administration say it's because these colleges overcharge for degrees that don't deliver on their promise of employment opportunities after graduation.
Last summer, Consumer Action joined more than 50 student, civil rights, veteran, consumer and education organizations in urging the Obama Administration to strengthen its draft gainful employment regulation. But the outcome, released last month, was disappointing. The final rule fails to protect students who withdraw without getting a degree or certificate and lacks consideration of student loan default rates. (Between one-third and one-half of students at for-profit colleges drop out before they graduate, but they still owe the loans.)
Under the revised rule, programs will no longer be held accountable for their “cohort default rates” (CDR), the percentage of borrowers at a school who are defaulting on their student loans. Under the previous rule, colleges lost eligibility for federal aid when too many of their students defaulted on loans: Colleges with a CDR above 40 percent lost eligibility to offer student aid and colleges with three consecutive CDRs at or above 30 percent lost eligibility to offer both loans and federal Pell Grants.
Although loan default and failure to graduate are the most serious risks faced by for-profit college students, the final rule does not include a provision that would have considered the default rates of all students at a particular school. Instead, the rule considers only graduates’ debt burden relative to their post-graduation income, and does not consider the fate of students who leave without a degree. The new rule will cut off federal aid to school programs where graduates, on average, spend more than 8 percent of their discretionary earnings, and 20 percent of their total earnings, on federal student loan payments. (Discretionary income is defined as the amount by which adjusted gross income exceeds the poverty line.)
By failing to include a default rate standard, the Administration ignored the most vulnerable students: those who withdraw from failing programs with debt but no degree. "This rule lets drop-out factories off the hook at the expense of students and their financial security," said Rory O'Sullivan, deputy director of Young Invincibles, a coalition partner.
However, the ED estimates that 1,400 programs (99 percent of them at for-profit colleges) will fail the rule in the first year. Those programs enroll some 840,000 students—one in five of those attending for-profit institutions. Programs that repeatedly fail the test will become ineligible to receive federal student aid.
"The final gainful employment regulation does not do enough to stop the fleecing of students and taxpayers," said Pauline Abernathy, vice president of the Institute for College Access and Success, a coalition leader. The new rule “lets programs where most students borrow, but few graduate, keep using taxpayer dollars to bury students in debt they can’t repay, so long as they limit the debt of the few students who complete.”
The final rule also provides important, but incomplete, protections against programs that do not qualify students to get the license or certification legally required to practice in their intended field. In recent years, some for-profit colleges advertised programs that claimed to prepare students for a specific occupation, but after taking out loans, many students found that they were not qualified under state law to practice their chosen occupations.
Advocates are pleased that the final rule does not water down the debt-to-earnings metric applied to graduates. But since a majority of for-profit college students face barriers to completing their degrees—including adequate support from their schools—eliminating the proposed default rate standard seriously weakens the rule.
Federal consumer watchdogs have day at the ‘Beach’
Consumer advocates, collection industry representatives, state and federal regulators and academics gathered at California State University, Long Beach on Oct. 23 to exchange information about how debt collection and credit reporting issues affect Latino consumers, especially those with limited English proficiency.
Throughout the day, panelists mentioned several debt and credit-related problems experienced by Latinos. One panelist mentioned that Latinos are often hounded by collections related to affinity fraud (such as purchases pitched on Spanish-language infomercials or as part of multilevel marketing schemes) rather than by traditional credit card or auto loan collections. Panelists raised other issues: Latino consumers' tendency to believe that they owe a debt, when they may in fact have legal defenses to the debt; not understanding that debt can change hands several times; problems related to faulty translations of consumer contracts; needing help with such tasks as checking a credit report and disputing report errors; and collection agencies that illegally threaten arrest and deportation.
During one session, panelists talked about the importance of communicating with Spanish-speaking consumers. Collection industry representatives on the panel said that they communicate with consumers in Spanish when they know or determine that the consumer is a Spanish speaker. One industry representative, whose company hires third-party collectors, explained that his company will take back the file of a Spanish-speaking consumer if the subcontractor is unable to provide Spanish-speaking collectors.
One idea that was discussed during the session is whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) should mandate a centralized repository to hold documentation about the debt from origination through payoff, including information about its subsequent purchase by debt buyers. Some consumer advocates and industry speakers agreed with the idea, but it has been on the table for many months without earning widespread consensus in comments submitted to the CFPB’s Advance Notice of Rulemaking on debt collection issues that closed earlier this year.
In another session, as part of a broader discussion on access to justice, panelists discussed the high cost of providing Spanish interpreters in court. Courts in Colorado and New Mexico were mentioned as providing significant access to Spanish interpreters. California’s five-year court access plan and related funding issues were also discussed. When discussing Spanish-language videos created by courts, panelists agreed that not all limited-English speakers use the Internet. One panelist suggested that the CFPB use funds recovered in a recent enforcement action to pay for California’s language access program.
Another problem discussed at length was the difficulty that Latino consumers and others can experience when they try to obtain their annual free copy of a credit report. One panelist described problems seen among clients of a law school legal clinic, including difficulty answering security questions, problems related to spelling of names (e.g., Cortes vs. Cortez) and order of names (e.g., maiden name before husband’s last name, etc.). In response, a speaker from the credit reporting industry talked about the importance for credit bureaus to avoid giving a credit report to the wrong person. He noted that a consumer who is denied a report can call or write to request the report.
The day closed with a session on best practices for educating consumers about debt collection. Some of the ideas discussed may sound familiar to Consumer Action INSIDER readers. These included having material on websites available in Spanish; collaboration with other agencies; working with in-language media; reaching consumers early, even before they get to high school; and recognizing that Latino consumers are not monolithic, which might mean, for example, that a website is not the right tool for everyone. Some specific examples of best practices include members of ACA International, a debt collection industry association, speaking at schools about credit and debt management; the CFPB making information about new remittance rules available in consular offices; and referring consumers to the Consumer Reports en Español website.
As if anticipating the call to continue making consumer information available in Spanish, the host agencies FTC and CFPB did not disappoint. Both announced new tools for Latino consumers at the event.
The CFPB now has Spanish instructions for sending the debt collection “action letters” previously posted on their site.
For its part, the FTC unveiled new fotonovelas—picture books—including one based on debt collection complaints received from Spanish-speaking consumers.
As for a suggestion that the federal agencies write new rules to prohibit collectors from making threats related to a consumer's immigration status, no surprise announcement was made...but stay tuned.
Serving America’s servicemembers, military families and veterans
Last July, Consumer Action announced it was joining forces with the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE), Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Visa Inc. to form the Veterans Financial Coalition to address the needs and financial challenges faced by servicemembers as they transition to civilian life.
In a joint statement, the Veterans Financial Coalition indicated it would address the needs of servicemembers through three main goals: (a) to educate transitioning servicemembers, veterans and the community service organizations that serve them, (b) to conduct research and advocate for consumer protection for veterans, and (c) to raise awareness of veterans’ financial needs.
Consumer Action has implemented activities to address those needs.
With a focus on educating transitioning servicemembers, military families and veterans, Consumer Action created a new educational module, “Economic Survival Guide for Servicemembers and Veterans,” and rolled it out at train-the-trainer workshops in San Diego, CA and Hampton, VA. The survival guide, developed by Consumer Action with a grant from Visa Inc., includes a question-and-answer backgrounder booklet, PowerPoint slides, a lesson plan with games and activities and a brochure. The materials are designed to help servicemembers, military families and veterans learn their rights and how to assert them when necessary.
When Consumer Action’s community outreach managers Linda Williams and Nelson Santiago teamed up for the rollout in San Diego, advocates with the Department of Defense, California Attorney General’s Office, Fleet & Family Support Center, Courage to Call and other local veteran support agencies gathered at the San Diego Convention Center for the train-the-trainer event. In Virginia, community-based organizations from all over the state and the District of Columbia turned out for a half-day training on how to use the new information, tools and resources.
The trainings were broken into three segments: “Engaging the Adult Learner,” a “leaders’ session” on effective ways to present the new module, and a “strategy session” on how to reach servicemembers, military families and veterans with the important information.
The Consumer Action outreach team opened each training session with an interactive pre-training activity. The activity—a true-and-false quiz—introduced participants to many of the topics that would be covered during the training, such as the Military Lending Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, signs of scams, student loans and facts about alternative and predatory financial services. Teams of participants competed for points, and the activity not only set the tone for the rest of the training, but afforded participants the opportunity to ask questions, tell stories and share their experiences working with servicemembers, military families and veterans.
Trainer Williams followed the true-and-false activity at both trainings with an interactive segment that provided participants with tips and strategies for engaging adult learners. Participants’ feedback on the training was 100% positive. When asked on the training evaluation to agree or disagree with the statement “With the information I learned today on adult learning principles, I can now more effectively engage my client,” 62.5% of the California training participants strongly agreed and 37.5% agreed, while 67.7% of the Virginia participants strongly agreed and 32.3% agreed.
Williams facilitated a robust discussion during the session on consumer protections for servicemembers and veterans, the credit side of alternative financial services and ways in which servicemembers and veterans can avoid and defend against identity theft. She reviewed consumer protections in detail, including the Military Lending Act (MLA) and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).
Currently, MLA protections apply to these “closed-end” loans:
- Payday loans for no more than $2,000 and with a term of 91 days or fewer;
- Auto title loans with a term of 181 days or fewer; and
- Tax refund anticipation loans.
Closed-end credit is paid in set installments by a specific date, as opposed to “open-end” credit such as credit cards.
Williams noted that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Department of Defense are working on new rules that are expected to expand the types of credit products covered by the MLA’s 36% interest rate cap for servicemembers. Williams told the audience that if the proposed rules to improve the MLA are adopted, it would close loopholes that allow lenders to offer products that escape current regulations. Williams encouraged participants at both trainings to submit comments in favor of updating and improving the MLA by the Nov. 28 deadline. Read the proposal here.
Santiago led the portion of the session that focused on the transactional side of alternative financial services, such as check cashers, money transfers and prepaid cards. He told participants that a common concern with these products is that they charge very high fees and target a disproportionate number of low-income and minority households, including servicemembers and veterans, who can ill afford the cost of these predatory products.
Williams and Santiago rolled out segments of the new module using different techniques and strategies, including games, question-and-answer sessions and videos, to demonstrate how to present the module in their own workshops.
The evaluations for both trainings were overwhelmingly positive. A San Diego participant answered “What would you change to improve the training?” with “I wouldn’t change a thing.” Another participant wrote, “Great info. Great training materials. We will use it in our next train-the-trainer workshop.”
Consumer Action is distributing the new materials to our network of community-based organizations. They are also available for free download to consumers and community educators on our website.
Class Action Database: AT&T must refund mobile ‘cramming’ charges
Class actions involving Red Bull energy drinks, Ghirardelli white “chocolate” chips, and Pure Via sweeteners were among 14 new cases added to the Consumer Action Class Action Database during October and November.
One notable case is Federal Trade Commission v. AT&T Mobility, LLC.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) brought the action against AT&T under the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or business practices. The FTC charged that AT&T billed consumers for unauthorized third-party charges, a practice known as mobile “cramming.” AT&T agreed to a $105 million settlement, with $80 million going to consumer refunds.
The FTC alleged that many AT&T customers have been paying up to $9.99 per month for random subscription services such as horoscopes, flirting tips, celebrity gossip, wallpaper or ringtones.
The FTC’s investigation into AT&T showed that the company received very high volumes of consumer complaints related to the unauthorized third-party charges placed on consumer’s phone bills. For some third-party content providers, complaints reached as high as 40 percent of subscriptions charged to AT&T consumers in a given month. In 2011 alone, the FTC’s complaint states, AT&T received more than 1.3 million calls to its customer service department about the charges.
Additionally, the FTC found that the phone bills masked the cramming by putting the unauthorized charges under the heading for “AT&T Monthly Subscriptions”, making it look like the subscriptions were part of basic mobile phone services. The settlement requires AT&T to clearly indicate any third-party charges and provide consumers the option to block third-party charges.
Current and former AT&T customers who paid for unauthorized third-party charges after Jan. 1, 2009, may be eligible for refunds. Click here to apply for the refund. The claim deadline is May 1, 2015.
‘Primed and Prepped’ for money management
In November, the Bayview YMCA in San Francisco invited Consumer Action’s Audrey Perrott back to the Primed and Prepped program’s current eight-week session on food service preparation and hospitality management. Kelly Armstrong, co-founder and project manager of Primed and Prepped, asked Perrott to present the MoneyWi$e “Teens and Money” module to the students enrolled in the program.
The Primed and Prepped program provides food service training to young men from underserved communities. Armstrong, a financial educator and long-term partner with Consumer Action, sought Perrott’s participation because an earlier MoneyWi$e training for previous program graduates proved to be beneficial. Consumer Action’s MoneyWi$e modules are created in partnership with Capital One Bank and contain a wealth of information on personal finance topics designed to empower consumers to manage their money, save and financially prosper.
Perrott has conducted financial literacy trainings for youth and adults at the Bayview YMCA before and said she welcomed the opportunity to return to the facility.
“I appreciate the opportunity to share information with these young men and empower them to make informed decisions. The activities in the module equip them to handle real-life scenarios,” explained Perrott.
The young men welcomed Perrott by preparing her a meal from their industrial kitchen. They were eager to learn and share information about their own banking and money management skills. One young man shared with his peers that he uses online banking as a tool to manage his account.
During the hour-and-a-half workshop, Perrott not only covered the substantive material from the module, but also gave the students a chance to put their knowledge into practice in a number of MoneyWi$e activities, including Wants vs. Needs, Jamal’s First Paycheck, Check Writing, Check Register, and Monica and Sarah. (All modules and activities can be found on the MoneyWi$e website.)
Armstrong requires the young men in her class to write in journals, where they chronicle what they have learned. Perrott provided the students with a take-home assignment to conduct a weekly spending evaluation and return to class with a journal entry on how they modified their spending or re-evaluated making a purchase based on what they learned in the classroom.
“Thank you for taking time out of your life to give a very insightful and meaningful financial literacy workshop to the students of Primed and Prepped,” said Armstrong.
Coalition Efforts: Mortgage data, deceptive practices and predatory loan pushback
Advocates have been speaking out to improve options and treatment for borrowers and banking customers.
Improving mortgage data collection. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing to improve collection of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. HMDA data provide a wealth of information to evaluate mortgage lending for patterns of discrimination and understand the dynamics of the mortgage market for underserved borrowers and communities of color. Consumer Action joined other advocates in a letter supporting the CFPB’s efforts to improve HDMA data collection and suggested additional data sets, including whether racial/ethnic data is self-reported or based on the lender’s observation, if applicants are first-time homebuyers and whether the applicant speaks English as a second language.
Consumer protections weakened by Reg AA repeal. In August, federal banking regulatory agencies repealed Regulation AA, which banned banks from unfair and deceptive acts covered by the FTC Credit Practices Rule (such as piling on late fees, retaining security interests in household goods, etc.). In its stead, the agencies jointly issued the Interagency Guidance Regarding Unfair or Deceptive Credit Practices (the Guidance), which clarifies to banks and financial services providers that the credit practices described in Reg AA are still not permissible. Consumer Action joined coalition advocates in seeking a stronger rule that mirrors and improves upon the protections originally included in Regulation AA.
Fix the predatory lending industry for good. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is currently developing new rules to regulate short-term, high-cost loans. Consumer Action has joined nearly 500 other organizations from around the country in a letter urging the CFPB to write regulations that are strong enough to effectively end this ongoing debt trap.
CFPB Watch: Prepaid protections proposed and in-language access
Shopping with a prepaid card or making a mobile payment may soon be much safer. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed new rules that would:
- Limit consumers’ financial losses if a prepaid card is lost or stolen;
- Add credit card-like protections to prepaid accounts that feature lines of credit; and
- Require issuers to conduct investigations when errors are brought to their attention.
The Bureau has proposed a $50 limit on losses if consumers report unauthorized transactions within two business days of learning of the problem, just as with a debit card. This protection would apply to general-purpose reloadable prepaid accounts “registered” with the issuer—but not off-the-shelf prepaid debit cards that cannot be reloaded.
The protections would also cover most government benefits cards (unemployment, child support, tax refund, etc.), payroll cards, campus cards and mobile payment services, including PayPal and Google Wallet.
“Our proposal would close the loopholes in this market and ensure prepaid consumers are protected whether they are swiping a card, scanning their smartphone or sending a payment,” said Director Richard Cordray at the CFPB’s November public field hearing in Wilmington, DE.
The proposal would also require fees (including monthly, ATM and reload fees) to be clearly disclosed prior to purchase. For prepaid accounts allowing cardholders to borrow via a line of credit, the CFPB would require that issuers evaluate cardholders for their ability to repay a debt and that certain CARD Act protections, such as a minimum 21-day repayment period, limit on late fees, etc., would also apply. However, issuers would be required to wait 30 days after a consumer registers a prepaid account before they could offer a line of credit. Money from the prepaid account could not be automatically taken by issuers to satisfy payments on the debt.
In September, Consumer Action joined the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and other advocacy organizations in calling for many of these consumer protections. Advocates had also recommended that the Bureau require FDIC insurance and a ban on overdraft fees on prepaid accounts. The Bureau stopped short of requiring FDIC insurance, but would require that issuers must be explicit if accounts are not protected with FDIC insurance. Instead of outrightly banning overdraft fees, the Bureau proposes that if prepaid card issuers offer overdraft protection (and charge for it), they must give consumers the same protections they would have when using a credit card.
The CFPB is seeking public feedback on its prepaid proposal at Regulations.gov. Read the proposal. When submitting comments, specify Docket No. CFPB-2014-0031.
Financial access in-language. The CFPB has heard advocates’ call for greater attention to the financial concerns of Limited English Proficient (LEP) consumers. Last month it created a Language Access Task Force to improve its outreach efforts to communities of limited-English speakers.
Already, the Bureau accepts complaints in more than 180 languages and has translated key guides and resources. Its financial empowerment toolkit (“Your Money, Your Goals”) is available in English and Spanish and a fact sheet on its international money transfer rules is available in eight languages (Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Arabic, Spanish, Russian and Haitian Creole). The CFPB’s Spanish-language Web portal offers many resources, including guidance on submitting a complaint.
With the formation of the task force, the CFPB seeks to identify barriers that exist for LEP consumers. For example, housing advocates say that English-language foreclosure notices and mortgage modification plans have harmed limited-English-speaking consumers, arguing that in-language documents and multilingual housing counselors could have prevented some from losing their homes.
The Bureau has asked for public feedback about whether its in-language financial education materials and consumer protection rules are reaching the right communities. Click here to submit a language access suggestion to the CFPB. The deadline is Jan. 6, 2015.
About Consumer Action
Consumer Action is a non-profit organization that has championed the rights of underrepresented consumers nationwide since 1971. Throughout its history, the organization has dedicated its resources to promoting financial and consumer literacy and advocating for consumer rights in both the media and before lawmakers to promote economic justice for all. With the resources and infrastructure to reach millions of consumers, Consumer Action is one of the most recognized, effective and trusted consumer organizations in the nation.
Consumer education. To empower consumers to assert their rights in the marketplace, Consumer Action provides a range of educational resources. The organization’s extensive library of free publications offers in-depth information on many topics related to personal money management, housing, insurance and privacy, while its hotline provides non-legal advice and referrals. At Consumer-Action.org, visitors have instant access to important consumer news, downloadable materials, an online “help desk,” the Take Action advocacy database and nine topic-specific subsites. Consumer Action also publishes unbiased surveys of financial and consumer services that expose excessive prices and anti-consumer practices to help consumers make informed buying choices and elicit change from big business.
Community outreach. With a special focus on serving low- and moderate-income and limited-English-speaking consumers, Consumer Action maintains strong ties to a national network of nearly 7,500 community-based organizations. Outreach services include training and free mailings of financial and consumer education materials in many languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. Consumer Action’s network is the largest and most diverse of its kind.
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Here's something you don't see often. Shares of IBM (IBM 0.44%) have fallen as much as 7.7% today on an earnings miss -- an event as rare as chicken lips. The stock's plunge took more than 100 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.60%) index, dragging the blue-chip index into the red today despite the gains being made by 25 of its 30 components. The Dow's price-weighted nature magnifies IBM's every move, and today it's working against the index.
The company is usually as reliable as time itself. Big Blue hasn't missed Wall Street's earnings targets since 2005, for crying out loud. Yet it did this week.
First-quarter sales fell 5% year over year to $23.4 billion. Non-GAAP earnings increased 8% to $3 per share but still fell just short of analyst targets of $3.05. As if that didn't hurt enough, management held full-year targets steady but lowered guidance for the second quarter. Business is supposed to pick up again in the back half of 2013.
Orders from the U.S. government fell 13%, at least partly due to the sequester action in the first quarter. IBM also expected Chinese government orders to come in weak but forgot to account for ripple effects among businesses owned by the Chinese state and various provinces and cities. IBM's CFO called this China syndrome a "once every 10 year event," and it was exacerbated by a weak yen. In other words, IBM doesn't expect that particular headwind to come back anytime soon.
But IBM won't just rest on its laurels and hope for the best. Management is taking some drastic action to turn things around. That's the good news. The bad news is that I'm not sure Big Blue is making the right moves.
IBM's business model has long been an archetype for the enterprise computing industry. Its top-to-bottom combination of hardware, software, and services is the envy of Silicon Valley. Networking giant Cisco Systems (CSCO 0.53%) added a server division in order to get closer to the IBM ideal. Oracle (ORCL 1.16%) walked further down the same path when it acquired Sun Microsystems. And the list goes on.
It's not an easy path to follow. Cisco's server sales are finally gaining some traction, four years after it entered the market and scared away several longtime partners. That's a long and painful road, even if the potential payoff is great. I'm not at all sure that Oracle is getting its money's worth for the $5.6 billion it spent on Sun. Hardware sales have dwindled to $671 million in the recently reported third quarter, down from a quarterly peak of $1.2 billion in the summer of 2010. Many rivals find their way to the IBM model, but only Big Blue truly knows how to make it work.
But systems-builder magazine CRN reports that IBM is about to sell its mid-tier server operations to Lenovo, only a decade after it sold its consumer systems division to the Chinese titan. Lenovo has confirmed that it's discussing a major acquisition with somebody, though nothing is writ in stone quite yet. But it does seem that IBM is about to strip off an important part of its corporate identity.
That would instantly dismantle IBM's trend-setting top-to-bottom business model. The synergy value of its software and services will be diminished. Like I said, I don't like this idea at all.


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SE “Artyomsol” – the largest salt mining enterprise in Europe – stopped work in April due to hostilities. The stock of finished products was taken out in April.
Acting spoke about this to Vilny Radio. director of SE “Artyomsol” Victor Yurin.
“The enterprise does not work, it is idle, according to the order, until an indefinite time. The shelling is constant, the administrative building is partially destroyed.
There were direct hits in the mines, the material composition. The production process is not possible. We’re not putting people in danger. Moreover, most of the residents of Soledar, employees of the State Enterprise “Artyomsol” have already been evacuated. Most of the employees of the administration, engineers and technicians (engineering and technical workers – ed.) are not in place,” the head of the enterprise said.
According to him, no one was injured or killed at the GP.
Yurin explained that the enterprise was stopped back in April, because it became impossible to export finished products from Soledar by rail.
“Our Sol junction station, where we pulled up wagons from our sidings, is regularly shelled. Artyomsol is mainly focused on the shipment of products by rail.
By car, we can take out only a small part. Therefore, even under normal circumstances, we need to ship the mined salt into something (railway cars – ed.). And if the railway is not working, we can’t actually do it either,” he explained.
According to him, the stock of finished products from the State Enterprise “Artyomsol” was taken out in April.
The head of the State Enterprise “Artyomsol” believes that now Ukraine will have to import more salt from abroad.
“In order for salt to be on sale, it must be made. In some stores [our salt] is probably there. I met in Kyiv, in Vinnitsa. But Turkish, Romanian salt appeared … While the battles are going on, we will have to replace [ our salt] imported,” he added.
According to him, the shutdown of the State Enterprise “Artyomsol” will be felt by consumers abroad.
“We were the largest salt mining enterprise in Europe. Among our regular customers are Hungary, Poland, Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Romania,” Yurin added.


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Chicago-based cloud software platform ActiveCampaign has announced its integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365, a move that allows businesses to grow and streamline customer base management. The collaboration offers major new offerings for ActiveCampaign’s over 145,000 customers in 170 countries that help bring in $165 million in revenue.
The move is designed to align sales and marketing teams through system communication so they can focus on building great relationships with customers. By using data from email, text, website, and social media platforms, users can leverage valuable insights into creating personalized customer experiences.
ActiveCampaign is designed to make discovering and qualifying leads more accessible for growing businesses by:
- Streamlining lead securing and qualifying
- Leads scored based on actions
- Automated next steps
The partnership aims to make sharing leads easier for marketing and sales teams to automate collaboration.
The integration also serves to improve CRM data across channels by automating and customizing consumer experiences on their platforms of choice. Whether customers prefer ActiveCampaign or Microsoft 365’s platform, customers will now have access to capabilities of both.
The direct integration is currently available on ActiveCampaign’s Professional and Enterprise plans.


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Printed Stickers Designed to Monitor Food Temperatures
A plastic temperature-recording sticker that could provide detailed histories of crates of food or bottles of vaccine would be the first to use all-printed electronics components—including memory, logic, and even the battery. The cost per sticker could be only 30 cents or less.
Thin Film Electronics, based in Oslo, Norway, aims to marry the company’s printed memory with printed transistors from PARC in Palo Alto, California; a printed temperature sensor from PST Sensors, a spin-off from the University of Cape Town in South Africa; and a printed battery from Imprint Energy, a spin-off from the University of California, Berkeley. The first prototype using all the components is expected later this year.
“There are lots of efforts in academia and research where they play with printing electronics,” says Janos Veres, who manages the printed electronics team at PARC. What’s new is “somebody trying to do it commercially and figuring out what are the first things you can make with 10 or 20 bits of memory and a simple battery,” he says. “We need a library of different building blocks that are made by the same standard manufacturing process to get this ecosystem working.”
The envisioned product will be designed to work either with a printed display or a contact readout, and include a battery that can last six to nine months, allowing the sticker to make a continuous record of temperature. Existing temperature sensor stickers that cost just pennies offer a crude measurement—using a chemical reaction to change color when they hit certain thresholds, alerting to possible spoilage.
At the higher end, systems that can record exact temperatures over long periods of time, and store this data for either display or retrieval, cost $15 to $25 or more, and are limited to high-value items or pallet-sized shipments.
Jennifer Ernst, a Thin Film Electronics vice president, says the mix of materials, substrates, and printing technologies is still in development. “To the best of my knowledge, it’s the first time a set of companies have announced a plan to put a fully integrated system together,” she says. If it all works out and the performance is reliable, “we can achieve cost targets that silicon systems just can’t touch,” she adds.
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Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.
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Food Co-op Growth is Strong
Feb 26, 2018 08:55AM
Chicago Market: A Community Co-op which recently passed the 1,000-Owner mark, has identified a potential retail location for this local, sustainable grocery business to become a vibrant part of the community. As a cooperative business, each owner has a stake in the success of the store and a say in the way it is run.
They are waiting to hear from the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) regarding a bid for the Gerber Building, a historic structure adjacent to the Wilson Red Line Stop, in Uptown. This would be an ideal location, bringing healthy food options to the neighborhood and serving thousands of daily commuters with groceries, prepared foods and perhaps even a walk-up coffee window.
Once Chicago Market secures a site, fundraising and design planning will begin. Cooperative businesses open when individuals in the community work together, and the financial plans call for more than 2,000 owners before the store opens. The recent push to 1,000 Owners, which was quickly accomplished, shows that community interest in this project is very strong.
For more information, visit ChicagoMarket.coop.


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House sales in Scunthorpe look to increase in coming months
HOUSE sales in Scunthorpe look set to increase in the next three months, according to the latest housing market survey.
Last month, 26 percent more surveyors in the East Midlands predicted transactions to rise rather than fall over the next quarter.
In tandem with this, house prices held steady during December and surveyors reported a fall in prices to a much smaller degree than in previous months.
In line with this, surveyors in the East Midlands had a positive view of the price outlook between now and March. Two percent more respondents predicted a rise rather than a fall in prices over the following three months – the first positive price expectation since February 2010.
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Jonathan O'Shea, East Midlands residential spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), said: "We too have seen a marked upturn in applicant and viewer activity.
"In 2010, the last time things picked up this early, we had a good year. Confidence does seem to be improving which might have been helped by the impact of the Funding for Lending Scheme.
"This being said, first time buyers are still struggling to access the market and there is a clear need for more homes to be built."


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- Webinar Invitation -
The Welsh Government and the Food and Drink Wales Industry Board have just launched a series of priority actions to support the food and drink sector in Wales in its recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic has had a sudden and significant impact on nearly all businesses and supply chains within the food and drink sector whatever their size. There is now a huge challenge for individual businesses’ survival. The pandemic’s impact threatens our sector’s success.
These actions will be our joint short term focus and will target support for the sector over the coming months until next summer. For now the priority is survival however we must also help the sector move to recovery.
Please find the plan here: Covid-19 Recovery Plan
The Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs will be hosting a webinar to discuss the plan at 16:30 on Wednesday 5 August.
To book your place please email Bwyd-Food@gov.wales.
The webinar will run on the Microsoft Teams platform and is limited to 250 attendees.


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Bed, Bath & Beyond Reveals Dozens Of The 150 Stores It Plans To Shut Down
Bed, Bath & Beyond has identified dozens of stores that it plans to close, revealing which properties and communities will feel the impact as the company works to recover from its financial turmoil.
At the end of August, the retail giant announced it would close 150 of the "lower producing" stores but didn't give details on which specific stores would get the ax. The company also announced it would cut 20% of its workforce.
"We are working swiftly and diligently to strengthen our liquidity and secure our path for the future," Bed, Bath & Beyond interim CEO Sue Grove said in an Aug. 31 statement. "We have taken a thorough look at our business, and today, we are announcing immediate actions aimed to increase customer engagement, drive traffic, and recapture market share."
The closures and layoffs are a part of the company's efforts to stabilize its finances. Also in the Aug. 31 announcement, Bed, Bath & Beyond said it secured commitments for $500M in new financing to shore up its balance sheet.
In July, Bed, Bath & Beyond revealed on its first-quarter earnings call that its sales were down 25% from the previous year and the company's stock price plummeted, as Bisnow previously reported.
The company is scheduled to report its full second-quarter results later this month, but the past quarters have not been promising for the retail giant. In the three-month period ending May 28, the company reported a net loss of $358M and its total sales fell from 1.95B in 2021 to $1.46B.
Earlier this month, the company's former chief financial officer, Gustavo Arnal, died by suicide. The company appointed Chief Accounting Officer Laura Crossen to serve as interim financing chief following Arnal's death.
The company's board earlier this year ousted Mark Tritton, who became CEO in 2019 after leaving Target, and Chief Merchandising Officer Joe Hartsig.
The retailer hasn't yet revealed where the remainder of the 150 closures will occur. Most of the closures in recent years have been among the hundreds of stores with its namesake Bed, Bath & Beyond brand. The company also owns 135 Buybuy Baby store and 51 Harmon, Harmon Face Values or Face Values banners.


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When it comes to impact investing, the arts and culture don’t get a lot of love.
For Laura Callanan, that’s a huge missed opportunity to invest in artists and enterprises with the capacity to find creative ways to address societal problems. So five years ago, she launched Upstart Co-Lab, with support from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, aimed at connecting impact investors to the creative economy. “We believe creative people solve problems,” says Callanan, formerly senior deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Recently Callanan took that effort a step further with the launch of Member Community, a coalition of 10 organizations, foundations and individuals focused on impact investing in the cultural sphere. With a $1 billion of impact investing capacity, the aim is to stimulate local economies and create jobs by supporting creative economy enterprises.
While there’s no one definition of what comprises the creative economy, Upstart relies on 145 codes from the North American Industry Classification System, which are used by U.S. federal statistical agencies to classify business establishments. Industries range from retail bakeries to wood office furniture and doll manufacturing. So pretty diverse. Upstart’s focus is on ethical fashion, sustainable food and social impact media, among other areas.
Beyond Arts and Culture
Callanan got the idea for Upstart when she came to a realization: Almost none of the impact investors out there funded creative economy businesses. That, she saw, was partly due to terminology. Creative economy businesses tended to be placed under the “arts and culture” umbrella, thereby limiting their appeal.
With that in mind, she also needed a model for building support for investments in a broader group of enterprises. One possible area was gender lens investing, which had quickly been adopted by a growing number of investors. Callanan decided to reach out to advocates of that approach. “I wondered if we could borrow from their particular recipe to make the case,” she says.
After that, Callanan started doing research, bringing together impact investors to explore the area, while also working with such partners as community development group Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC), which launched a $6.2 private-debt million New York City Inclusive Creative Economy Fund.
Then about a year ago, Callanan decided she needed to do more. With the help of several impact investing gurus, she set out, she says, “to figure out what would bring more jet fuel to this effort.” Her idea: to put together “a small community of arts lovers, artists and arts institutions who want to help make this space with us,” she says. That turned into Member Community.
While she’s not asking for members to start investing right away, “We’re putting them in a position where they can decide to pull the trigger and make their own decisions,” Callanan says. The three-year effort includes such foundations and individuals as Creative Capital, which funds artists, and angel and impact investor Lorrie Meyercord. Members also have access to more than 150 investment opportunities. “Some folks will be in learning mode for the first couple of years,” she says.


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TV casino games are set to further increase in popularity during 2018 following an impressive showing in 2017.
The pioneering cryptocurrency is big business in iGaming, as winning jackpot amounts speak for themselves.
Let's go behind the scenes to examine the importance of the customer service function at online casinos. Online casinos offering attentive customer support typically generate positive reviews with players!
Online Casino Reports showcases the very latest gaming brands to be introduced on the site for summer 2017.
The US Open 2017 starts on Monday without the players that have won most of the titles in recent years.
The most anticipated fight of the year goes down August 27th at 4:00 GMT. It is definitely worth staying up for.
Discover why some sports fans are using sophisticated arbitrage betting tools to cover every outcome and still earn a profit.
The time is finally here! The Premier League is back in action this weekend and we've got everything you need to know about Matchday 1.
Does the sublimation of the gambling issue in the final federal to DFS merger represent acceptance by omission?
The paper introduces a new Bitcoin payment security protocol to preserve economic benefits for miners.
Some incredible Horse Racing from the Qatar Goodwood Festival kicks off with action from Today until Saturday.
The number of online casinos allowing players to register an account through social networks is growing, but there are pros and cons to consider.


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whitestorm - Fotolia
When Nick Burton joined Avon International as vice-president of digital products and architecture in January 2019, he knew he was in for a challenge. The world-famous beauty brand was keen to embrace digitisation, but was encumbered by a reliance on legacy IT.
What Burton couldn’t have predicted as he embraced the challenge in front of him, was how much the world and his company’s operations would change during 2020.
“Coronavirus means we’ve shifted our focus to rapidly helping the business to navigate through this really weird period,” says Burton, neatly summarising the huge upheaval facing senior executives since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Avon has had a particularly tough hurdle to overcome. The firm’s distance-selling model relies on representatives visiting customers door-to-door to take and deliver orders. That model has stayed consistent throughout the company’s 135-year history, but it was a practice that would be impossible to continue during lockdown.
“The IT team rapidly turned its attention to the key question for us as a business – in a world where our reps are in lockdown, and therefore can't leave their home because selling Avon products is not an essential reason for leaving home, how do you support them so they can continue to sell?” says Burton.
The answer, as he explains to Computer Weekly during a socially distanced video-conferencing call, came through the smart use of digital technology.
Taking up the challenge
Around the same time as the UK went into lockdown in March, Burton moved to a new position at Avon, chief information and digital officer (CIDO). The move followed Avon’s merger with Brazilian cosmetics group Natura at the beginning of 2020.
Natura decided to structure the group in two halves – a Latin-American operation with multiple brands, and Avon International, which includes operations outside Latin America, plus the brand and the product portfolio.
Burton’s move to the CIDO position at Avon International reflects that transition. In addition to digital architecture delivery, Burton now manages all the local market IT teams. Colin Shenoy, formerly vice president for IT at Avon, is now vice-president of IT at Natura, where he manages group-wide technology infrastructure concerns.
Before joining Avon, Burton spent 18 years at vehicle glass repair specialist Belron, including leading IT. Although he enjoyed the role, it was time for a fresh start.
“We weren’t building new stuff to respond to the crisis; we were adapting the things that we had”
Nick Burton, Avon International
“I’d reached the end of the road in terms of appetite to do more digital stuff at the company,” he says. “When I found out about Avon – which is a well-known and beloved brand, but often forgotten by a lot of people outside emerging markets – it was a new challenge. They hadn’t fully embraced a digital way of interacting with customers and sales representatives.
“It’s definitely a much faster pace here at Avon. People often ask me how I’ve gone from windscreens to cosmetics – and, actually, a lot of the fundamental principles are universal. It’s around putting the customer at the heart of what you do and building products that are going to meet their needs, so that hasn’t really been a challenge.”
In his first 18 months at Avon, Burton instigated a lot of change. One of his priorities was to deal with the company’s significant legacy IT issue – for example, it runs 60 different enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. He is also focused on the firm’s digitisation process – work that paid dividends when the world went into lockdown.
“Nobody knew what was going to happen, so you had pull everything right back, take stock, and deal with the stuff that needed to be dealt with immediately,” says Burton. “We largely did that from our own resources, both in terms of people, and the systems and the applications we already had. We weren’t building new stuff to respond to the crisis; we were adapting the things that we had.”
Coping with lockdown
While the IT team’s big focus during lockdown has been on helping to modify the firm’s distance-selling model, this transformative effort was proceeded by a week or so ensuring that office-based staff would be able to work from home.
As a global business, Avon was already a heavy user of collaboration tools, including Microsoft Teams, Office 365, and Jira workflow-management tools. The good news, says Burton, was that the firm’s corporate network stood firm and was able to support more than 12,000 people online concurrently.
“We already made heavy use of collaborative tools because it’s a global business,” he says. “Working virtually was comfortable for the vast majority of people, so it was really only a question of whether the infrastructure would cope with the sheer volume, which it has admirably. So we were through that initial but fundamental phase within about a week.”
With the remote-working strategy in place, the technology department started thinking about how digitisation could help the business and its sales reps to cope with the new situation. The first change involved allowing reps to send deliveries straight to customers, rather than having to rely on door-to-door deliveries.
“In essence, we gave the ability to add an alternate delivery address – nothing dramatically complicated, but that opened up a number of other things that we needed to take care of around how invoicing worked and some related areas,” says Burton, who adds that this change involved making modifications to 30 of the firm’s legacy systems.
Although the technical challenge was considerable, the impact for the business was transformative. “For a rep, it was the same experience of placing an order – they just had a new option to say, ‘tick here if you’d like to deliver it to your customer’s address’,” he says.
Making the most of digital
Burton’s team bolstered its work around delivery modifications by focusing on e-commerce. The pandemic has put a new emphasis on the importance of being able to allow reps and customers to use digital channels. During the first three weeks of lockdown, UK e-commerce at Avon grew sixfold.
“It was just a dramatic shift,” he says. “With that came the need to support, from a supply-chain point of view, lots more smaller boxes being shipped. So the challenge of how you manage that flow became an issue – how you manage the warehouse-management system and the physical layout of the warehouse, together with social distancing? How to handle that peak was a real focus in the third and fourth week of Covid-19.”
Read more about how retailers coped with the pandemic
- Retailers reach for tech to keep staff connected in the crisis.
- Retail must weigh up high street versus online investments after coronavirus lockdown.
- How Blackwell’s is responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
The company’s e-commerce presence includes a URL with the rep’s personal store name, so they receive commission for driving sales. It’s a similar approach with digital brochures – as with e-commerce, Avon had already started creating an online alternative to its paper brochures in 2019. That effort was upscaled through lockdown, with digital brochures created on a weekly basis.
Once again, reps can send a personalised link to clients or share the brochure through their social channels and receive commission on any sales. Across digital channels, Burton and his team have used technology to enable a rapid business transformation – and that change is likely to have long-term ramifications.
“We’ve pretty much sorted out our front end, in terms of the customer-facing concerns,” he says. “The next thing that we need to tackle is the layer where we manage all of our business logic, so all of our pricing and promotions, and how we manage compensation and orders.
“That’s very complex – we’re clear on how we’re going to do it. We were going to get started this year. We’re clear on what we’re going to do in that space – it’s just a matter of getting back to it.”
Building for the future
Burton continues to look for new ways to push technology-enabled change. While his team is battling to break Avon’s reliance on legacy systems, he says the aim is to take advantage of on-demand IT services in as many ways as possible.
“I’m a massive proponent of doing stuff on the cloud,” he says. “We had been planning to move all of our front office, all of our customer-facing systems, onto AWS about now. But that got put on pause because of Covid-19. We’re now starting to resuscitate some of that work.”
In many ways, Burton and his team’s efforts during the pandemic have been all the more remarkable given the technical debt they face. “Everything we’ve done to cope, we’ve done on-premise – so, extra credit to the team for that,” he says. “We can’t just go to a control panel and dial it up, although I wish we could have.”
In the future, Burton aims to use the cloud to introduce more of the emerging business use cases his department has helped support during lockdown. In fact, the team is already thinking about how it might use pioneering technology in innovative ways.
“We’re using machine learning to predict the likelihood of a rep not placing orders and becoming a lapsed representative,” he says. “We’ve rolled that out as a platform for people internally who have to manage teams of reps.”
Two years from now, Burton hopes to be in a position where more customer-facing services – such as e-commerce and digital brochures – have been rolled out across all of Avon’s international markets.
“I want the capabilities that help the reps and our consumers to be everywhere,” he says. “And I would like us to have made good progress, so that we have a number of implementations and are moving into a rapid cookie-cutter-type production line of roll-outs, so we know what’s going to simplify that real complexity in our legacy architecture.”


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David Jaffe clarifies a few points about the number of multiplayer maps that will be available in the upcoming Playstation 3 exclusive car combat game, Twisted Metal.
First off, JAFFE RULES!!!!!!! And second, that sounds like a great selection of maps, im really looking forward to playing this game!!! Keep going Jaffe! Only a few months to go before Twisted Metal rocks the world!!!!
Still remember twisted metal black like was yesturday. Visually awsome too.
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