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Need support for your new business ,or expanding your existing business contact us on email@example.com
Follow the latest retail news on our blog Retail Blog or on twitter @retail360_
Women’s apparel retailer Bebe Stores Inc named retail industry veteran Steve Birkhold as its new chief executive as it looks to turn around its business amid declines in same-store sales.
The company also reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter sales, hit by a 15 percent drop in same-store traffic.
Birkhold, who replaces founder Manny Mashouf, joins Bebe from French fashion brand Lacoste, where he was heading its North American business.
The appointment comes three months after Bebe’s board said it had started a search for a new CEO. The retailer, at the time, said it was looking for an executive who could build the brand and lead its strategy of turning into an omni-channel company.
Omni-channel retailing is a structure which enables retailers to speed up their supply-chain operations and enables customers to experience a single mode of shopping whether online, through catalogs or at brick-and-mortar stores.
The company in November appointed Ben Baum as its chief digital officer, a move aimed at beefing up its omni-channel operations.
Bebe on Thursday reported sales of $124.6 million. Analysts on average had expected sales of $142.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company said sales were hurt by lower traffic at stores open for more than a year and the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Same-store sales fell 10.5 percent in the quarter.
Bebe’s shares, which have lost a third of their value in the last six months, closed at $4.00 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.
UAE telecommunications giant Etisalat has topped Arabian Business’s countdown of the Gulf state’s largest listed companies.
With a market capitalisation of AED71.78bn (US$19.54bn) at the start of 2013, the firm beat lender National Bank of Abu Dhabi and port operator DP World to come first in the rankings.
The countdown indexes UAE-based firms listed on the Dubai Financial Market, NASDAQ Dubai and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange bourses.
This latest list was heavily dominated by banks and construction firms, with six of the top ten firms operating in these sectors.
The international fast food giant will temporarily change signs at selected stores across the country to the affectionate Australian nickname for the chain, in celebration of Australia Day, which falls on January 26 – a move that is its first such globally.
“We’re incredibly proud to embrace our ‘Australian-only’ nickname,” said Mark Lollback, the company’s chief marketing officer in Australia, in a statement on Tuesday.
“What better way to show Aussies how proud we are to be a part of the Australian community than change our store signs to the name the community has given us?”
Surveys have showed at least 50pc of Australians use the nickname.
Thirteen stores will change their store signage this week, starting from the state of New South Wales on Tuesday, the company said.
McDonald’s signage will return to each site from early February.
According to a national survey, “Macca’s” is the second most recognized Australianism, just behind “footy” for Australian rules football.
Australia is the only country in the world that refers to McDonald’s as Macca’s and the restaurant has formally submitted the word to the Macquarie Dictionary for consideration in their next update.
The restaurant has said the abbreviation reflects its place in the Australian community, which has a penchant for jocular nicknames.
Dubai’s Just Falafel opens first store in London
Dubai-based restaurant chain Just Falafel has opened its first store outside the Middle East in London’s Covent Garden, amid plans to open 200 outlets in the UK over the next five years.
“With our central kitchen now fully operational, two additional London locations under construction, and a further ten-plus stores in our pipeline, Just Falafel plans to satisfy the UK’s growing appetite for fresh, healthy dining choices in 2013,” Just Falafel’s CEO Fadi Malas said in a statement.
“Just Falafel plans to achieve at least ten percent of that objective this year with the opening of 20 stores; with Cambridge, Exeter and other markets currently in development,” the statement added.
“We are receiving more than 100 franchise enquiries each week. The challenge is in securing suitable storefronts to meet our expansion objectives,” Malas said in October.
Co-founder Malas is an entrepreneur with family ties to England as well as Beirut. The brand, which has previously said it may list its shares in the UAE, said full-year profit in 2011 was AED7m ($1.9m).
Jan 7 (Reuters) – Irish retail sales volumes fell on a monthly basis for the first time in five months in November, dropping 1.1 percent from a month earlier, provisional data showed on Monday.
Volumes were 0.5 percent lower in November on an annual basis having posted their largest growth this year in October when the index climbed 3 percent, a slight downward revision from provisional data posted over a month ago.
The statistics office confirmed that retail volumes rose 1.7 percent month-on-month in October. Economists polled by Reuters expectedc that retail sales fell by one percent for the year as a whole in 2012.
Morrisons has announced that it has appointed Nick Collard as its group marketing and customer director.
He will be appointed to the management board in June, with responsibility for marketing, own brand ranges, insight, loyalty, customer relationship management and format. Casper Meijer will lead the other commercial functions from June as group trading director.
Morrisons also said that Belinda Youngs has been promoted to corporate brand marketing director, reporting to Nick Collard.
Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips said: “Nick’s doing a great job in taking our marketing forward and now has the opportunity to lead one team integrating our own brand and customer engagement.
“The recent announcement of our partnership with Ant and Dec is a great sign of how Nick’s team can showcase the talent of Morrisons colleagues and the value they offer our customers.”
Nick Collard joined Morrisons in January 2011 as commercial director for ambient and frozen from Boots, where he was brands director. He was appointed marketing and operations director in April 2012.


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Eyes on the Street: Tweet Us Your Pics of Sidewalk-Hogging Businesses
Clarence shot the above photo of a common sight in NYC: car-oriented businesses that illegally commandeer sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to walk around parked cars or pushing people into the street. He writes:
I just snapped these photos of a brand new curb extension in Sunnyside, on 37th Street and Queens Boulevard, and a car dealership is already using it for car storage, blocking the sidewalk and ramp for disabled access. In Sunnyside DOT has been doing quite a few curb extensions to make a better pedestrian environment, so it’s really appalling that car dealership is using this.
The business in this case is LT Motors, which loves the new sidewalk space so much the dealership is advertising it.
This is a pervasive problem, and one the city should address.
Earlier this week Doug Gordon of Brooklyn Spoke called for tweets of sidewalk parking photos, and we’re going to piggyback on that meme. Post your pics of sidewalk-hogging businesses on Twitter with the hashtag #sidewalkhogs, and we’ll highlight the most egregious examples next week. Winners will receive a Streetfilms DVD. Be sure to include as much location info as possible in your tweets.
As for LT Motors, a spokesperson for local City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer writes: “We have reached out to the NYPD on this. They will be stepping up enforcement to address the pedestrian safety hazards.”

domain: news


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Belgium business confidence decreased to -5 in July of 2019 from -4.9 in the previous month, in line with market expectations. It was the worst reading since February 2016, mainly due to a deterioration in confidence among manufacturers (-9.1 vs -8.5 in June) and traders (-4.4 vs -0.7). On the other hand, confidence improved among service providers (4.5 vs 2.0) and constructors (2.6 vs 2.1). Business Confidence in Belgium averaged -7.06 Index Points from 1980 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 9.20 Index Points in March of 2000 and a record low of -31.80 Index Points in March of 2009.
Business Confidence in Belgium is expected to be -3.20 Index Points by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Business Confidence in Belgium to stand at -4.80 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Belgium Business Confidence is projected to trend around -6.50 Index Points in 2020, according to our econometric models.


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After much goading including, by yours truly, Jet Airways has finally embraced social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. Welcome aboard!!!
Jet Airway’s objective is reaching a larger cross-section of its customers and keeping them informed on a real-time basis, and will also provide customers with news updates about flight schedules, new customer programs, route additions, services and special offers, etc.
Besides being a connecting medium, Jet Airways will also provide guests with news updates about flight schedules, new customer programs, route additions, services and special offers, etc.
On Facebook you can browse the official page and become a Fan. You will be able to view our latest information, photos, videos and more, which will be updated from time-to-time. What’s more, you can also connect with other Jet Airways fans and share your experiences.
Via Twitter, stay updated on-the-go with promotions, trivia, real-time help, maintenance alerts, best deals, news feeds and more.
Follow Jet Airways on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JetAirways.
Follow Bangalore Aviation on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BLRAviation.


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Food in a British supermarket too rotten to be sold is still being digested—by a plant that turns it into electricity to power the store. The Sainsbury's store says it's the first retail outlet in the country to remove itself from the national power grid, receiving electricity directly from a nearby anaerobic digestion plant that turns food waste from Sainsbury's outlets into bio-gas, the BBC reports. "Sainsbury's sends absolutely no waste to landfill and we're always looking for new ways to re-use and recycle," a company spokesman says.
At the digestion plant, expired food is placed in tanks and digested by bacteria that thrive without oxygen, breaking the food down into methane gas which is used to generate power, explains Popular Science, which notes that anaerobic digestion plants are planned for numerous US cities and the Kroger grocery chain has a distribution plant partly powered by old food. And there is plenty of room for expansion of the effort: More than a billion tons of food are wasted every year, with people in North America and Europe wasting around 220 pounds each, the Smithsonian finds. (A restaurant in Chicago, however, has managed to limit its waste to just 8 gallons in two years.)


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- Finix, the payments-as-a-service fintech that helps software companies manage their payments in-house, just added Amex Ventures to its cap table with its latest Series B extension.
- The $30 million extension was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
- Business Insider got permission to publish the 20-page deck Finix used to raise its Series B and this extension.
- Digital payments have taken off, a trend that has only accelerated amid the coronavirus pandemic. Finix saw payment volumes on its platform more than quadruple between the second quarter last year and this year.
- With this additional funding, Finix is focused on building scale beyond the US, which means continued hiring and ultimately doubling its current headcount of 85 employees, Richie Serna, CEO of Finix, told Business Insider.
- Find more pitch decks in our searchable PITCH DECK LIBRARY here.
Payments, while not the most glamorous part of running a business, are crucial for just about any company.
There are two main ways companies can start accepting payments: Build out a payments infrastructure in-house (the route taken by the likes of Airbnb and Uber), or outsource entirely to the developer-friendly likes of Adyen, Stripe, or Square.
Finix — the payments fintech backed by investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and, now, American Express — offers a third way. With its payments-as-a-service model, Finix enables software companies to bring payments in-house without having to build it themselves.
On Wednesday, Finix announced a $30 million extension to its Series B that included involvement from first-time investor American Express Ventures.
"We're basically providing payments as an infrastructure, enabling our software companies to have that same developer-friendly experience to integrate in a matter of days, but also with the full control of the do-it-yourself model, being able to own those merchant relationships," Richie Serna, co-founder and CEO of Finix told Business Insider.
Finix takes on so-called 'payfacs'
To be sure, payments are complex, with several parties from processors to card networks to banks sitting at different steps of the process, each one collecting fees.
Finix, which has raised $96 million to date, is taking aim at the first layer on the merchant side of the payments flow, known as payments facilitators or 'payfacs.' That's the space that fintechs like Adyen, Square, and Stripe play in.
These payfacs' plug-and-play application programming interfaces (APIs) make it easy for merchants to tap into legacy infrastructures like WorldPay and Fiserv. And for that ease of use, they charge merchants fees on each transaction they process. With Finix, companies sidestep payments facilitators and the fees they charge, instead enabling merchants to make money off their own payments.
As is often the case in payments, Finix's distribution strategy is what some call a network of networks. Instead of selling its tech directly to merchants, Finix is targeting software companies like Passport Labs and Clubessential, who in turn can offer payments to their network of merchants.
Clubessential, for example, is a business management platform for country clubs. It offers tools for membership management and accounting, and, through Finix, payments.
Given the upfront investment, it historically hasn't made sense for a business like Clubessential to bring payments in-house unless it was processing north of a billion dollars per year, Serna said. But with Finix, the cost of bringing payments in house is drastically lower.
"With a platform like Finix, we actually dropped that barrier to entry down to $50 million a year in volume, which is very achievable when you think about a platform," Serna said. "If you are a software provider for mechanic shops or RV rentals, you probably only need a hundred of those to get to that point. And that's why you're starting to see all of these companies really start to rethink their payments."
Finix is planning to double its headcount
Finix's Series B first closed in February, led by Sequoia Capital. But Sequoia later told Finix that its investment presented a conflict of interest given Finix competes with Stripe, an existing Sequoia portfolio company. Finix kept the funds, but Sequoia returned its equity, board seat, and information rights.
Amex Ventures is also an investor in Stripe. And Visa counts both Stripe and Finix as portfolio companies of its venture arm.
"American Express has many partners in the payments space and it is a core part of our business model," an Amex spokesperson told Business Insider. "American Express Ventures will continue to invest in innovative companies that support and deliver value for our customers, in this case our merchants."
With this additional funding, Finix is focused on building scale beyond the US, which means continued hiring and ultimately doubling its current headcount of 85 employees, Serna said.
And as payments have become increasingly digital — a trend accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic — Finix has seen payments volumes on its platform more than quadruple from the second quarter last year to this year.
Here's the pitch deck Finix used for its Series B and this extension.


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The GST council on Thursday approved four main tax slabs – 5 per cent,12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent under a proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) that aims to lower tax incidence on essential items and to keep the highest rate for luxury and demerits goods.
Here’s how new GST rates will impact the common man:
- Luxury items like high-end cars and demerit goods including tobacco, pan masala and aerated drinks, will be taxed at the highest rate and would also attract a cess in a way that the total incidence of tax remains at almost the current level.
- Tobacco currently attracts about 65 per cent total tax and for aerated drinks the current rate is about 40 per cent.
- With a view to safeguarding the interest of poor and keeping inflation under check, half the items in Consumer Price Index basket like foodgrains, would not be taxed at all.
- The lowest rate of 5 per cent will be on items of mass consumption which are used particularly by common people.
- The third category of standard rate of 12 and 18 per cent would accommodate most of the goods and services. Those goods used by common man like soap, toothpaste, would be brought in the 18 per cent bracket.
- The fourth slab of 28 per cent would be applicable mainly on white goods such as refrigerator, washing machine etc on which the present tax incidence is 30-31 per cent cent (excise duty of 12.5 per cent plus VAT 14.5 pc).
- While the Centre proposed to levy a 4 per cent GST on gold, a final decision was put off as there was no consensus yet on tax rate for gold.
The rates agreed by the GST Council have to be approved by Parliament, which meets from November 19 for the winter session. Once implemented, the new indirect tax regime - GST - will subsume various taxes including excise, services tax, octroi and other levies and the proceeds will be shared between the Centre and states.


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It’s National Donut Day…AGAIN!
Happy National Donut Day! No need to panic, you didn’t fall into a coma and miss the last eight months. It’s still November 5th, which marks the second National Donut Day. The first Donut Day and most widely celebrated happens the first Friday in June.
If you had no idea today was also a day to honor donuts, you’re not alone. Many shops we contacted in hopes of grabbing a free chocolate glaze had no clue about the second holiday either. It’s almost like some foodie was looking for another universally sanctioned excuse to pig out on donuts and just pointed to the calendar blindfolded declaring “time to make the donuts another holiday!”. That’s not exactly how it went down, but it was thanks to a food blogger that we now have a National Donut Day # 2.
John Bryan Hopkins the founder of the Foodimentary food blog and the person basically responsible for popularizing all the ridiculous food holidays we gluttons follow religiously like National Bison Day and National Ranch Dressing Day is credited for making up November fifth’s donut day. Apparently, he used to spend a lot of time reading Ladies Home Journal and found a reference to a November 5 Doughnut Day that dates back to the 1930s. He believed a store chain must have celebrated the day in honor of Veterans Day, which takes place a week later on November 11th. That’s all the evidence he needed to permanently mark the additional donut holiday on the calendar.
Its sister holiday has a more significant origin story. During World War I, the Salvation Army dispatched young women nicknamed “doughnut lassies” to serve up thousands of donuts to soldiers in an effort to help boost morale. To honor these “lassies”, the Salvation Army officially declared the first Friday in June to be National Doughnut Day, which is the day the majority of donut shops celebrate, usually with free donuts.
Although most shops seem to be in denial about November’s Donut holiday, some places have been giving away free donuts today according to some lucky customers who took to Twitter to gloat.
— Cam McWilliam (@CamMcWilliam) November 2, 2018
So head over to your favorite coffee shop and unleash your inner Homer in honor of this glorious day. Maybe if you do a little sweet talking, you can even score a donut or two on the house.


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Sales were up for most Japanese automakers in September, but Toyota and Honda were still down, despite growing signs of hope.
Read This Article
Honda plans to invest $98 million into an engine plant in the curiously-named Anna, Ohio, ahead of its plan to build next-generation powertrains, such as advanced hybrids.
Who were the sales winners and losers last month? We have it all right here.
The Fit is go, for expansion: Honda is planning to do a crossover on the Fit's compact architecture, to coincide with an all-new generation.


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UPDATE: Google Disco Discontinued.
Yesterday I posted about Facebook Acquiring Beluga to make use of their mobile group messaging technology.
Mobile Group Messaging War
Facebook is not the only contender in this space. Now that they’ve acquired one of their would-be competitors, they only have to deal with the applications like GroupMe, Groupflier, Celly, Fast Society, and Kik, although Facebook will easily dominate the market share in my opinion.
Enter Google Disco
That’s right; now Google has entered the fray.
Their new service, Disco, is offered both as an online service and as an iPhone application. No Android download yet, due to the acquisition of Slide; yet this very same Slide acquisition gives Disco the ability to support Facebook integration in order to import your friends, etc.
Disco is extremely bare-bones currently and I’m guessing Google just wanted to get into the competitive landscape ASAP.


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Damon Szatkowski, a 20 year old Dallas man and his mother, Karen, have filed a civil lawsuit against General Motors and the dealership where he purchased his vehicle, which subsequently crashed due to a supposed faulty ignition switch.
When he was 17, in 2011, Szatkowski was driving his 2006 Pontiac Solstice, bought for him by his uncle, Jeffrey Pyros at Rick Weaver Buick and Pontiac in Erie.
Unfortunately that particular make and model had a dangerous defect with the ignition switch which would turn itself off, losing the steering, brake and airbags.
The car suddenly ran into a wall in North Street, Luzerne, and the airbag did not deploy, leaving Szatlowski with severe and permanent brain injuries, as well as physical injuries. According to the law suit, General Motors knew about this problem well before the crash and had sent out an information service bulletin to its dealers in 2005, warning about a stalling problem due to the faulty ignition switch.
More than two years later, in 2014, General Motors began to recall some of its vehicles, including the same Pontiac Solstice because of the defective switch.


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Once a bestseller with kids, mini 4WD race cars are making a surprise return in Japan: this time, with adults.
Racers tested their cars last month at the Japan Cup in Tokyo.
A man says he never thought he would get so involved.
A woman says she’s been coming for seven years.
Mini 4WD cars had a golden age in the 1980s and 90s.
The current generation of fans is people in their 20s to 40s.
Toymaker Tamiya introduced the first 4wd mini cars in 1982.
They were notable for their high speeds.
At their peak, more than 30-million of the cars sold each year.
But interest wanted.
A Tamiya official says the new customer is an adult who enjoyed 4WD cars as a kid.
Sales began to rebound in 2005.
A shop owner says sales tripled in the last five years.
A car that sold for 20 dollars in the 1980s now goes for almost 100 dollars.
Tamiya even commissioned a full-scale version.
Its top speed is 111 miles per hour.
The car is a hit with visitors.
A Tamiya spokesman says people appreciate the craftsmanship that went into the car.
Almost 200-million mini 4WD cars have sold worldwide.
What was once old, is new again.
Source NTV / NBC News Channel


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Buyers will have to be charged much more for their web-based and phone connections, if not the telecommunications business will find it hard to invest in new technological advances, according to a new report.
The findings are derived from the most recent report by the brand new Zealand Telecommunications Forum directly into state of the sector.
It mentioned New Zealanders are benefitting out of a major autumn in the price of telecommunications assistance, with typical prices these days smaller than ever.
The report points to Consumer Price Index information, that demonstrates telco charges have dropped dramatically with history decade while various other utilities costs, including fuel, electrical power and council fees have increased.
This comes while the demand for data has steadily cultivated in the last 10 years. The report claimed inside 2018/19 the common fixed high speed broadband connection second hand 208GB per month, while 5 yrs earlier the regular relationship used only 32GB monthly.
The forum’s chief executive, Geoff Thorn, believed while prices that are minimal have been perfect for consumers, today’s marketplace economics are actually tough the potential of the industry to maintain investing from the fees needed to meet ongoing need and make sure New Zealander’s benefit from the very best engineering the planet had to provide.
The sentiment was echoed by some other industry stakeholders inside a web conference hosted through the telecommunications forum.
Vodafone chief executive Jason Paris told the web seminar the trade built a great deal of goodwill during the Covid 19 lockdown & buyers have to realise the genuine worth belonging to the items they’re benefitting out of.
“I think as a business we need to undertake a greater job of shooting this Covid business opportunity and also the basic fact they we’ve been able to re set as a vital system to show that any of us should be able to get more importance for the service we offer.
“There will be a buyer that walks directly into a Vodafone shop now as well as happily buys a $2000 iPhone then complains aproximatelly twenty dolars to connect with [the movable network].”
Paris stated the economics is actually out of “whack”.
“The worth picture is out of whack as well as its a business concern as well as its additionally a resetting of buyers expectations in phrases of the caliber of the products and solutions and connectivity that New Zealander’s obtain and also the requirements of theirs to end up being a return on buy from that, for us, to find a way to purchase these brand new technologies.”
Chorus chief executive JB Rousselot stated the companies New Zealanders had been given ended up being amongst the best in the globe.
“When you look during which pricing graph people are obtaining a whole lot far more worth to get a price that is not growing exponentially.”
Two Degrees chief of company affairs Mathew Bolland mentioned telcos were incorporating exponential value to businesses.
“I don’t understand how a lot of thousands of businesses that are small and also trades people are going all around new Zealand and The assistance which keeps generally there online business running and also rising they are having to spend $40 per month on.”


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(OTC: WDDMF) (TSX-V: WMD) is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement with the Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis Commission (“AGLC”) to supply the province with high-quality, branded cannabis products for sale in Alberta’s adult-use market.
“We’re proud that the AGLC has selected WeedMD as a cannabis supplier to join its network as it looks to establish a cannabis framework for its adult-use markets,” said Keith Merker, Chief Financial Officer of WeedMD. “This represents a strategic partnership as we look to expand our product reach across the country to support Canada’s legal adult-use market. Alberta’s high standards align with the highly-regarded quality of our cultivation standards, product portfolio, and commercial practices as we look to meet the expected demand of this new market.”
WeedMD will supply the Alberta market with cannabis products starting the first day of legal sales. This agreement represents a key milestone in WeedMD’s strategic plan to develop a national distribution platform for the Company’s medical and adult-use products, building upon the recent announcement of WeedMD’s supply agreement with Shoppers Drug Mart1. WeedMD is actively working with provincial distributors, regulators, and retailers to expand its adult-use distribution program, particularly as the Company completes the final stages of its 220,000 sq. ft. greenhouse retrofit within its 610,000 sq. ft. greenhouse facilty in Strathroy, Ontario.
1 Pending Health Canada approval
Sponsored Content Release
FinancialBuzz.com, a leading financial news informational web portal designed to provide the latest trends in Market News, Investing News, Personal Finance, Politics, Entertainment, in-depth broadcasts on Stock News, Market Analysis and Company Interviews. A pioneer in the financially driven digital space, video production and integration of social media, FinancialBuzz.com creates 100% unique original content. FinancialBuzz.com also provides financial news PR dissemination, branding, marketing and advertising for third parties for corporate news and original content through our unique media platform that includes Newswire Delivery, Digital Advertising, Social Media Relations, Video Production, Broadcasting, and Financial Publications.


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When you hear people say they're getting Botox, you probably assume that means facial injections. But nowadays, there's a growing group of men trying out Botox in a completely different part of their body: their balls.
Botox injected into testicle skin to make balls look smoother and larger has been dubbed "Scrotox", and while it's not exactly common, demand for it appears to be on the rise. GQ reported that in addition to giving balls a rounder and fuller appearance, Scrotox can also mean less testicular sweating and more sensitivity during sex.
There has been some research on Scrotox's other uses. One 2014 study, for example, found that Botox may to help temporarily decrease scrotal pain and tenderness; the problem, of course, is that men have to continually receive the treatment to keep pain at bay. A 2015 study also suggested that Botox can alleviate scrotal inflammation and chronic pain when surgical intervention hasn't been effective enough.


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The new benefits by the UP government will add on to the subsidies already available on EV purchases.
Foxconn chairman recently visited India to extend business ties in the country.
The Nexon EV stopped a total of 21 times for fast charging throughout the drive.
MG Comet EV may come with a range of 300 km on a single charge.
The Minister for Road Transport and Highways mentioned that India will soon generate its own clean fuel like Ethanol and Hydrogen
Nissan targets 55 percent of its global sales from EVs by 2030
The ultimate guide to India's green mobility revolution is here
Know your EV
How Electric Vehicles Work: In Comparison With Petrol/ Diesel Vehicles
Types of Electric Vehicles in India: BEV, Hybrid And Others
Welcome to Green Wheels India – India’s Own Electric Vehicle Website!
EV Charging Ultimate Guide: Charging Levels, Plug Types and The Best Charging Practices For Your EV


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AceShowbiz - Harrison Ford isn't completely off duty although Han Solo has died. The actor playing the iconic character in the popular sci-fi film franchise is tapped to preview Star Wars Lands coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World in ABC's special "The Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60".
The special will air Sunday, February 21 at 8 P.M. ET. To celebrate the 60-year legacy of the Disneyland theme park, it will include Elton John, Josh Gad and Witney Carson as participants. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel, will also join the celebration.
The planned "Star Wars" theme parks for Disney Parks in Anaheim, California and Orlando, Florida were first announced during Disney's D23 Expo last summer. The Star Wars Lands will be inhabited by humanoids, aliens and droids, and one of them will feature Han Solo's starship freighter the Millennium Falcon that visitors can fly in.
"Every store and restaurant will be operated by local inhabitants, making each experience deeply immersive. Nothing in the land will be out of character or stray from mythology," Disney chairman and CEO Robert Iger said. He promised, "Guests will truly become part of a 'Star Wars' story. It's going to be a whole new level, a whole new galaxy."


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Commission releases its Report on Intellectual Property Rights in Third Countries
The European Commission published today its biennial Report on the Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in third countries. The Third Country Report identifies so-called ‘priority countries’ where the state of IPR protection and enforcement is a source of major concern.
Commission welcomes key progress in trialogue on Anti-Coercion Instrument
Early on Tuesday, the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission made a breakthrough on the main outstanding issues of the legislative process of the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI).
EU exports under Free Trade Agreements surpass €1 trillion
EU trade deals mean increased exports, more stable economic relations and secure access to resources, a new report out today shows.
EU strengthens protection against economic coercion
The European Commission has today proposed a new tool to counter the use of economic coercion by third countries. This legal instrument is in response to the EU and its Member States becoming the target of deliberate economic pressure in recent years.
Trade and security: Commission highlights work to defend EU interests and values
The European Commission is today presenting key findings related to defending EU interests when it comes to export controls and foreign investments in the EU.
EU exports boosted thanks to stronger implementation and enforcement of trade deals and global rules
Effective implementation and enforcement of EU trade agreements and international trade rules have added €5.4 billion to EU exports in 2020.
Strengthening the EU’s autonomy – Commission seeks input on a new anti-coercion instrument
Today, the European Commission launched a 12-week public consultation to seek input from businesses, organisations and individuals in shaping a new legal instrument to deter and counteract coercive practices by non-EU countries.
Strong EU trade enforcement rules enter into force
Robust new trade enforcement rules have entered into force that will further strengthen the EU’s toolbox in defending its interests.
Commission launches new complaints system to fight trade barriers and violations of sustainable trade commitments
The European Commission has today launched a new complaints system for reporting market access barriers and breaches of Trade and Sustainable Development commitments in the EU’s trade agreements and under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences.
EU strengthens trade enforcement arsenal with revamped regulation
Today, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on reinforcing the EU’s Enforcement Regulation.


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BRIDGEPORT — Running a restaurant has been challenging enough during the coronavirus pandemic.
But how about selling one? And hoping the new buyer keeps the name and serves your recipes?
That is what Paul Goncalves, owner of the well-established San Remos pizzeria on Main Street in the North End, is attempting.
“Yes, it’s more work right now,” Goncalves acknowledged of running his business. “Trying to get new customers. Keeping everybody safe. It’s a challenge for all restaurants now.”
In fact, Goncalves has continued to offer take-out only and so far not re-opened indoor dining, even though COVID-19 safety restrictions allow it. Normally he could seat 40 to 50 patrons.
The pandemic, however, is not what is motivating his search for a buyer all these years after taking San Remos over from his uncle in the mid-1990s.
“The commute is getting too much for me,” said Goncalves, who drives back and forth daily between Bridgeport, where he and his parents immigrated from Portugal in 1994, and Westchester County where he lives.
And all that time on the road and on the job — he said he is up at 7:30 a.m. and usually not home until around midnight — means he sees little of his 7-year-old daughter and two sons, 12 and 15.
“Time goes so fast now. If you don’t spend time with your kids, in the future you’re probably going to regret it,” Goncalves said. “The last time I had a vacation with my kids was four years ago.”
So he is looking to sell and maybe open a new place or go to work for another restaurant closer to home. But that does not mean he wants to see San Remos end with his tenure. Ideally, Goncalves said, whoever purchases San Remos will preserve the status quo.
Goncalves said that he has tried hard to maintain the same recipes and ingredients that his uncle, Sergio Fernandes, used when he bought the location in 1986.
“The dough, the cheese, the tomato sauce is still the same as 1986. Nothing changed,” Goncalves said. “We make a homemade tomato sauce.”
“I love cooking,” Goncalves added.
Beyond his desire for continuity, Goncalves said there is also a practical reason he would recommend his successor not shake up the formula: “The business is established. If someone comes in to start a new business, especially right now, it’s going to be really tough. ... Right now, coming in and just throwing everything away, that’s not a good idea to do it.”
Ron Rogg of Monroe runs the Pizzaholics Facebook page and group dedicated to “all things pizza.”
“I used to work in that area years and years ago and used to order from them quite often at the time,” Rogg recalled of San Remos.
Rogg characterized San Remos as a solid neighborhood spot that may not necessarily top “best of” lists or lure foodies, but does not have to, either.
“It’s one of those places, seems like they have their loyal fan or loyal customer base,” Rogg said. “They’re a traditional place. That neighborhood pizza-type of thing. ‘This is where we go on Friday or Thursday night. Been doing it for 30 years.’ ... I enjoyed their food. It’s not one of those ‘upper echelon’ pizza places, but you know when you call up and order your weekly special, you get consistency.”
Steven Auerbach and Steve Nelson, political activists in the North End, are both San Remos regulars.
“Their entrees are good, too,” Nelson said. “Lasagna. Chicken Florentine. ... They have a good taste for their food. It’s very, very good and reasonably priced.”
Nelson said whenever he runs various summer youth programs, “I always feed them with his food. Always.”
“They’re like family to me,” Auerbach said. “Everything on the menu is excellent and his prices are the best. ... San Remos never fixed up the place to get the ‘yuppie crew.’ A lot of people go out to dinner to eat mediocre food in a beautiful environment or exceptional food in an environment that’s not trendy. This is that (latter) place.”
Both men said they would have to start making extra visits to San Remos, though they and the rest of Goncalves’ customers may have more time to enjoy his cuisine. Goncalves said he so far has had no interested buyers and, while he would, ideally, sell by the summer, does not plan to shut down if that does not happen. He said he will stay open another year or two if necessary.
“What I’m gonna miss about it is you deal with the customers,” Goncalves said. “I have people brought their own kids — 2 years old, 3 years old — now they’re adults. They have their own kids, now.”


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You may think if a doctor prescribes a medical treatment, it's been thoroughly tested. But that's not always the case. A Consumer Reports' investigation found some medical devices like defibrillators and joint replacements may not even be tested at all.
Dr. Stephen Tower is an orthopedic surgeon. When the arthritis in his hip became too hard to bear, he opted for a metal-on-metal hip. But the new hip, he says, caused him so much pain, exhaustion, and depression that he had to have it removed. The tissues around the hip had been destroyed, and metal debris was spreading down his thigh. Tower says normal friction in the artificial joint caused cobalt, a toxic metal, to be released into his body, leading to serious tissue, heart, brain, and thyroid problems.
Consumer Reports says this particular type of hip, called the ASR XL, was made of chrome cobalt metal, but it was never clinically tested before the FDA cleared it to be sold. Because of high failure rates and complications like Dr. Tower experienced, it’s now off the market.
While metal-on-metal hips have been widely criticized, a Consumer Reports’ investigation has found that there are other dangerous devices that are being implanted.
Hundreds of thousands of women have had mesh slings inserted to support internal organs as they age, such as the uterus and bladder. Again, those products were never clinically tested before being marketed for that use.
The FDA’s own database shows thousands of complaints about the mesh, including debilitating infections. Yet it’s still on the market—not even classified as high-risk.
Consumer Reports believes that the FDA should require rigorous testing for implantable devices, just as they do for prescription drugs.
Consumer Reports also urges creating a national registry to keep track of implanted medical devices and to be able to alert patients if there is a problem. Currently there is no such tracking in the U.S., and it’s estimated only a fraction of device problems actually do get reported.
Complete Ratings and recommendations on all kinds of products, including appliances, cars & trucks, and electronic gear, are available on Consumer Reports’ website. Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org.


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Nikola founder Trevor Milton was convicted Friday by a U.S. jury of fraud in a case alleging he lied to investors about the electric and hydrogen fuel cell company’s technology.
The jury found Milton guilty on a count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud after deliberating for roughly five hours. Milton was acquitted on another count of securities fraud. Milton potentially faces years in prison.
Prosecutors had alleged that Milton made false and misleading statements about “nearly all aspects of the business,” including that Nikola had a fully functioning prototype despite Milton knowing it was inoperable. Milton had also claimed that Nikola had built an electric and hydrogen powered pickup from the ground up with Nikola parts and technology, despite not doing so, according to prosecutors.
“Trevor Milton lied to Nikola’s investors — over and over and over again. That’s fraud, plain and simple,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the verdict was released. “Let this case serve as a warning to anyone who plays fast and loose with the truth to get investors to part with their money. It won’t end well.”
Business partners who worked with Milton prior to Nikola described him to CNN Business in 2020 as hard to trust, with a tendency to exaggerate and not follow through on promises. Some had questions about his character and integrity.
Nikola went public in 2020, and briefly surpassed Ford in value that year despite never having delivered a vehicle. General Motors announced in 2020 that it planned to invest in Nikola and work together on an electric truck. GM had also planned to supply the startup with equipment for its hydrogen fuel cell trucks.
Milton’s statements about Nikola came as the company joined the mounting number of tech and EV companies going public through special purpose acquisition vehicles, or SPACs. He also was accused of defrauding the seller of a Utah ranch, who accepted Nikola stock options as part of the purchase price based on Milton’s claims about the company.
But Nikola’s stock fell sharply after a scathing report alleged the company was an “intricate fraud.” The report was published by Hindenburg Research, a short-seller that profits by betting against companies.
Milton, of Oakley, Utah, was indicted in July 2021.
GM later gave up its ownership stake in Nikola and ended plans to produce its pickup truck, the Badger.
Milton, who called the report criticizing Nikola a “hit job,” and “lies,” resigned from his position as Nikola chairman in Sept. 2020.
Nikola’s stock has fallen roughly 95% since reaching a high in June 2020. The company acknowledged in 2021 seven “inaccurate” statements from Milton about the company’s progress made from July 2016 to July 2020.
Last year Nikola agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $125 million to settle charges that it defrauded investors.


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Small cell semiconductors: 0 to $500 M in 5 years
A new forecast predicts dramatic growth in the semiconductor market supporting small cells, from $90 million in 2012 to more than $650 million in 2017. In particular, semiconductors supporting carrier-grade small cells (excluding consumer and enterprise femtocells) will ramp from practically zero revenue in 2012 to a staggering $500 million in 2017.
"Multi-band, Multi-mode, higher power, and MIMO requirements will actually make the semiconductor market grow faster than the small cell market itself," explained Joe Madden, principal analyst at Mobile Experts. "Mobile operators that install a carrier-grade small cell will be looking for coverage in multiple bands and modes, so the semiconductor dollar content in each picocell and metrocell will increase over time."
"For the past three years, we have forecasted that the market will shift from consumer femtocells to a new class of carrier-grade small cells. This forecast confirms our previous guidance, and dives one level deeper to illuminate the semiconductor parts necessary to make it all work. The shift in focus will be even more dramatic at the chip level. In fact, where 90 percent of the small-cell semiconductor market in 2012 is devoted to consumer femtocells, by 2017 the consumer femtocell contribution will be 15% or possibly less."
The report, Semiconductors for Small Cells, which includesmore than 73 charts and exhibits, can be found at mobile-experts.net/product_info.php?products_id=56.


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It’s been nearly six years since the Xbox One brought Microsoft’s gaming platform into the current generation, and in that time a lot of popular games have come to the platform. And it turns out a lot of these games have managed to become its best-selling games, according to NPD analyst Mat Piscatella this past week.
Having shared NPD’s lists of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games and exclusives, Piscatella did the same for the Xbox One to commemorate Microsoft’s recent Inside Xbox livestream. He revealed two lists covering sales data in the US, one for the top ten best-selling Xbox One exclusives, the other for the top ten overall best-selling games on the platform.
It should come as no surprise that that list is totally lacking in surprises. Of course, Grand Theft Auto 5 is at the top, but that was a given anyway, since Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of the best-selling games ever, period. But as far as franchises go, the Call of Duty series boasts the strongest presence, with a grand total of five games filling spots up and down the list. It’s a good indicator of what’s been successful on the Xbox One, because, as the rest of the full list shows, its overall best-sellers are near-exclusively shooters.
1.) Grand Theft Auto 5
2.) Call of Duty: WW2
3.) Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
4.) Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
5.) Red Dead Redemption 2
6.) Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
7.) Battlefield 1
8.) Star Wars Battlefront
9.) Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
10.) Destiny 2
A little more variety can be found in the list of best-selling system exclusives. There’s the expected mix of Halo, Gears of War, and Forza titles, but there are a few surprises near the bottom of the list like Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 as well. Piscatella also pointed out that the list below also covers the PC sales of these titles, as the Xbox Play Anywhere program makes them available on both platforms. "It is impossible to separate sales of these games between PC and the Console. It's one platform," he said.
1.) Halo 5: Guardians
2.) Halo: The Master Chief Collection
3.) Forza Horizon 3
4.) Gears of War 4
5.) Forza Horizon 4
6.) Forza Motorsport 5
7.) Sea of Thieves
8.) Forza Motorsport 6
9.) Forza Motorsport 7
10.) State of Decay 2
Interestingly, none of these titles managed to join the third-party games in the overall top-ten list for the Xbox One, something a number of PS4 exclusives have been able to do on their platform. It’s just one of the ways Sony has managed to hold a lead over Microsoft in this console generation, as demonstrated most recently by Sony acquiring Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive.
Going into the holiday season and next year, there’s potential for new games to join the Xbox One’s best-seller lists. That could happen very soon, as Piscatella previously predicted that Xbox One-compatible titles like Borderlands 3 and the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will be among the best-selling games of 2019.


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Video Jacking: Major Smartphones Vulnerable to Hacking Threat
Major smartphones – the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy phones and Google’s Nexus phones – are vulnerable to the hacking threat called “video jacking”, when plugged into public charging stations, this according to cyber security company Aries Security.
“From the moment that you plug in that cable to the moment that you unplug, that cable is exposed and recorded,” Brian Markus, CEO of Aries Security, told CNBC.
The CEO of Aries Security describes video jacking this way, “When you connect to your contacts, all of that is recorded. If you do an e-mail or a text, everything on the screen is 100 percent recorded.”
How does video jacking work?
According to Markus, video jacking happens when an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy phone or Google phone is charged in a rigged public charging station. Hackers, he said, can compromise a public charging station by attaching an HDMI cable.
An HDMI cable is a widely available smartphone accessory that allows images from a phone to be projected onto a TV screen.
Once a smartphone is plugged into a charging station with a hidden HDMI cable, hackers could secretly record a video and record everything you do on your phone.
With the HDMI cable, Markus said, “There’s no security prompting asking the user if they’re sure that they want to allow this to go out.”
Dangers of Using Public Charging Stations
In May this year, cyber security company Kaspersky Lab warned about the dangers of charging mobile phones in public charging stations.
“Smartphones can be compromised when charged using a standard USB connection…,” Kaspersky said in a statement.
In the blog post entitled “Charging your smartphone’s battery over USB can be dangerous,” Kaspersky researcher Alexey Komarov wrote, “USB ports were designed not just to provide charge, but also to transfer data. So whenever a mobile device is connected to a USB port, it attempts a handshake, during which it transmits some data.”
He added, “On average, it takes more than 100 kilobytes of data just to tell the host system about the phone’s files and folders — for reference, that’s about the size of Alice in Wonderland e-book.”
In a 2013 paper called “Mactans: Injecting Malware into iOS Devices via Malicious Chargers,” researchers led by Billy Lau found that iOS devices can be compromised in just one minute after being plugged into a malicious charger.
To demonstrate the vulnerability of iOS devices, Lau and his associates built a malicious charger called Mactans, using a BeagleBoard.
“While Mactans was built with a limited amount of time and a small budget, we also briefly consider what more motivated, well-funded adversaries could accomplish,” Lau and his associates wrote.
In another paper called “Charge Your Device with the Latest Malware” published in 2014, researchers led by André Pereira highlighted the dangers of Android smartphones of physical attacks using the USB.
Mobile phone attacks through USB can be accomplished through the use of public fake charging stations, Pereira and his associates wrote. They added, “USB connection is a threat that should not be overlooked.”
So the next time you are on the road and your mobile phone battery is slowly dying on you, do not be tempted to charge into that nearest public charging station.
To prevent possible attacks through unknown charging points, Kaspersky advises smartphone users to exercise the following:
• Use only trusted USB charging points
• Protect your mobile phone with a password, or with another method such as fingerprint authentication, and never unlock it while charging
• Use encryption technologies and secure containers
Better yet, bring your own charger. This way, you are sure that you are out of harm’s way.
Image from iStock/xrrr.


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New Delhi:Truck and bus radial tyres (TBR) import surged 57 per cent while that of radial car tyres by 20 per cent in the first two months of 2016-17 fiscal, prompting industry body ATMA to ask the government to impose anti-dumping duty on import from China.
In April-May period of this fiscal, 2.8 lakh TBR tyres have landed in India compared with over 1.8 lakh in the corresponding period a year ago.
In May alone, import of TBRs reached 1.5 lakh units which is almost 40 per cent of the replacement demand of TBR tyres in India per month, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) said in a statement.
Dumping of TBR tyres at such a large scale is also adversely affecting the interests of rubber growers in India, ATMA said, adding that it has written to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for quickening the process of imposition of anti-dumping duty on import of TBR tyre imports from China.
“As the truck and bus tyre segment is the single largest category, accounting for over 55 per cent of industry turnover, the dumping of imports is having a serious and adverse impact on the domestic industry,” it added.
ATMA Chairman K M Mammen said: “There has been no let up in dumping of tyres from China. Such indiscriminate import and dumping is hurting capacity utilisaton levels in the industry which have come down significantly over the last two years.”
ATMA further said China dominates as the source country and its share in import of TBR in India has gone up to an unprecedented 95 per cent in 2016-17, up from 90 per cent in 2015-16, 70 per cent in 2014-15 and 40 per cent in 2013-14.
“The per unit import price from China is even less than the cost of raw materials that go into the making of the tyres,” ATMA claimed.
Tyre manufacturers in India have made major investments to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore towards creating new capacities for manufacturing of state-of-the-art TBR tyres in view of rising radialisation, said Mammen.
“But indiscriminate import and dumping of cheap tyres from China are seriously undermining domestic manufacturing,” he added.
The industry body said Indias position as a target country by China has become further vulnerable with the US imposing severe dumping and anti-subsidy duties against Chinese imports to the USA.


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Ito Kish has a new curated collection coming soon
It’ll be available at Robinsons stores this June
Apr 23, 2018
It’s been almost a year since furniture designer Ito Kish closed his shop in Makati, much to everyone’s heartbreak. Although he has since been selling his collections online, it has been quite a while since people were given the chance to take a look at his works in person.
Late last year, Kish partnered with Robinsons Department Store for an exclusive, curated collection of tableware and ornaments. The bonus was that these collections came with affordable price tags.
This summer, Kish once again collaborates with Robinsons for the new home brand, “Curated Home.” Curated Home features three collections, collectively spanning over 60 items chosen by Kish himself.
The collections cover tableware, ornaments, and even small furniture like coffee tables.
The Curated Home items will be available at Robinsons Department Store starting June 29.
Manila Fame 2019 features handicrafts from Marawi and Antique
This is what the ban on secondhand goods means for the circular economy
Let’s talk about “the elephant onboard:” airline waste
Haul books for as low as P50 at National Book Store’s sale
Getting through the ‘mini-city’ this holiday season


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© Volvo Cars Electronics Production | July 22, 2019
Volvo Cars invests in Israeli start-ups MDGo and UVeye
Volvo Cars has made investments in two Israeli technology start-ups through the Volvo Cars Tech Fund, the company’s venture capital investment arm.
Both UVeye and MDGo have their headquarters in Tel Aviv, where Volvo Cars has been involved with DRIVE, a so-called ‘accelerator’ for young companies in the mobility sector, since 2017. UVeye and MDGo have developed their business in recent years with the help of DRIVE, offering the potential to boost quality and safety respectively. They represent the Tech Fund’s first investments outside the US and Europe. “MDGo’s technology aims to do something that is close to our hearts, which is saving lives,” says Zaki Fasihuddin, CEO of the Volvo Cars Tech Fund. “Their mission as a company seamlessly connects with ours at Volvo Cars, so we are happy to support the continued development of MDGo.” “Premium quality standards are at the core of the Volvo brand and we are intrigued by the possibilities that UVeye’s technology offers,” Zaki Fasihuddin says. “This type of advanced scanning technology could allow us to take the next step in quality.”


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York International Formation
Borg-Warner spins off York International
April 9, 1986 (PD: 201404)
On April 9, 1986, Borg-Warner spun off York International as a publicly-held corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
York had been part of the Borg-Warner conglomerate since its acquisition in 1956. However, as Borg struggled economically in 1985, rumors began surfacing that it would sell its Air Conditioning Group (as the York Division was called at that time).
In July 1985, Borg announced its intention to launch its Air Conditioning Group as an independent company (called York International) that would be owned by Borg’s shareholders. Borg’s board of directors approved a stock distribution plan for the new company and named Stanley Hiller, Jr. as the new company’s CEO in September 1985.
York’s yearly revenues grew from $1.8 billion in 1988 to $5 billion in 2005 as the company established itself as the largest U. S. corporation devoted solely to the manufacture of HVAC equipment.
On December 9, 2005, Johnson Controls announced the completion of its $3.2 billion acquisition of York, whose products were seen to complement those of JCI’s Building Efficiency Group, of which York became a part.
York’s logo as it looked in 1987, one year after it was spun off from Borg-Warner


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With industry minds currently preoccupied with the potential crossover of real money gambling with games on social networks, it was unsurprising that this theme, along with mobile, dominated content at the seventh annual Online Bingo Summit held at London’s Paddington Hilton last week.
Gambling content after all forms the basis of several of Facebook’s most profitable games, such as Zynga Poker and Caesars-owned Slotomania, while online bingo is arguably the real-money sector’s only truly social game, promising the greatest audience and product crossover.
Social games providers such as Slingo – whose Zynga-licensed version of its slots/bingo hybrid has 17.2 million monthly active users (MAU) on Facebook – thus rubbed shoulders with more familiar exponents of the real-money space on the panels and presentations in front of an audience that included representatives from all the major UK online bingo brands and providers. Senior figures from Tombola, Foxy, Playtech, 888/Dragonfish, Sun Bingo, Jackpot Joy, Paddy Power, Wiliam Hill, Ladbrokes and Costa Bingo were all present, alongside smaller operators and suppliers, mainland European operators, European lotteries, affiliates, even a provincial Canadian regulator.
Search engine giant Google was first to present to the 200-strong audience. Deputising for former Paddy Power and PokerStars marketing man Fintan Costello, gambling industry manager Marie Despringhere said that the 351 active bingo brands in the UK “means that every single day I could be playing bingo on a different site throughout the year”. This made differentiation of brand increasingly difficult, she argued, particularly against the backdrop of a 300% rise in TV ad spend by bingo brands in the UK since 2009 to reach £20m in 2011 (Source: Mintel). The rise of multi-screening among bingo players, referring to their use of laptops, mobiles and tablets while watching TV, made it even harder to compete for their attention, she added.
The solution? Google-owned YouTube, according to Despringhere, citing TGI data that online bingo players are 43% more likely to watch video online as the typical internet user. “YouTube is the largest video site in the world, the second largest search engine in the UK and the biggest homepage in the UK. YouTube bingo search is growing, whether it’s for bingo keywords or TV, whatever it is, bingo players watch TV, they go on YouTube and they search for bingo queries.”
The different revenue models deployed in social games and real-money gambling were the subject of investigation on the innovation panel on Day 1, featuring Slingo CEO Rich Roberts, Sumit Gupta of the company behind Facebook game Bingo Bash and Bingocams CEO Marin Muyser. Gupta told the audience that of BingoBash’s 2.2m active players on Facebook, “only 2% have ever paid anything to us”, with those users paying 10c per game. Roberts put the industry average at somewhere between 5-7%. “If you are doing 3% it will be very difficult to make money on it” he argued, who added that most games in the space were probably yielding around the 2% mark. Roberts also argued that a long view needed to be taken of the huge valuations currently being placed on social gaming companies, that moderator Leigh Nissim pointed out were “significantly higher than egaming business that are potentially generating more cash”. On IGT’s recent US$500m buy of DoubleDownCasino, Roberts said: “It was really about what they think IGT is going to do with DoubleDown…as a full wagered gambling product.”
Rob Wheeler of games developer Cozy Games also crunched metrics from various sources to conclude that social games on Facebook need to be generating at least US$30 per month per 1,000 players to be profitable. Established social networked casinos such as IGT-owned Double Down are making US$125, with Cozy’s recently launched product to date yielding a respectable US$71, according to Wheeler.
But if social and mobile were undeniably the dominant themes of this year’s online bingo get together, someone clearly hadn’t remembered to tell the players who sat on this’s year’s popular Player Panel. The three female players and one male player were completely underwhelmed by the idea of playing bingo on Facebook and on mobile, and denied that names and brands made them more or less attracted to a site, despite the big UK brands dominating among their favourite sites. Tombola and Jackpot Joy garnered the most mentions, ahead of Paddy Power, Mecca, Costa and Bet365, with players praising the homepage layout and ease of navigation at Tombola. The sole male player on the panel, Owen from Manchester, also confessed that his wife didn’t even know he played bingo: “It’s just I am in my room playing bingo, and my wife is next door”…”Playing bingo” quipped Nissim, prompting laughter from the audience.
Angus Nisbet of MeccaBingo.com made the point during his presentation that while the overriding objective for his brand remained “getting in front of your customer in as many places as possible”, co-ordinating brand messages across Mecca’s retail and online arms remained a challenge, particularly when parent Rank Group was sending out four million-plus pieces of customer communication a year. “How can we expect customers to trust a brand if the retail and the online brand don’t appear to be communicating with each other?”, said Nisbet. “We have different departments, 50 people working in the retail business, others in the dot.com, some people work for both. You have to make sure if you are sending an email from the retail business, you don’t contradict that with an SMS that comes from the dot.com proposition.”
The changing role of bingo affiliates was also considered by a panel consisting of Roo Wright of leading portal Bingoport, Ben Starr of affiliate site Oh My Bingo and Adi Frum of Moon Bingo operator NetBoost Media. Wright made the case for affiliates to be treated as an extension of the operator’s marketing arm rather than as a separate division, to avoid competing against operators on SEO, PPC, and player management and reactivation, as well as the need for dual tagging of players to reduce “unattributables”. Regulated markets represented more of a threat than an opportunity for affiliates, the panel agreed. Starr said: “We are going to wait and see how operators get on there [Spain]. It is highly taxed, and it does filter down to the affiliates and squeeze our margins. It will affect us, we will see how competitive those regulated industries are.”


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DEARBORN, Mich. - DETROIT is exhuming another face from the past to pitch its cars to a new generation.
A digitally revived Steve McQueen, who died in 1980, will be reprising the character of Lt. Frank Bullitt in a commercial promoting the redesigned and retro Ford Mustang. The ad is part of a heavy push by the Ford Motor Company to convince Americans that a new crop of cars coming out this month are worth buying on their own merits, not because of a $5,000 rebate or zero-interest financing.
To make its pitch as loud as possible, Ford will spend $150 million to $200 million this quarter on advertising, the most ever in a quarter. Commercials will be focused on three new vehicles from the Ford division: a new large sedan, the Ford Five Hundred; the Freestyle, a cross between a station wagon and a sport utility vehicle; and the redesigned Mustang.
The Ford division also said yesterday that it would jettison its somewhat defensive advertising theme, "If you haven't looked at Ford lately, look again," which it has been using in commercials for cars like the beleaguered Taurus sedan. The successor slogan is "Built for the road ahead," which echoes the "Built Ford tough" tag line of its truck campaigns.
In one of the "Road ahead" commercials, a 60-second spot called "Cornfield" that will start showing in November, the revived McQueen swaggers out from behind a field of cornstalks and jumps behind the wheel of a 2005 Mustang. Other ads in the series will start running on Sunday.Continue reading the main story
The "Cornfield" commercial follows the recent resurrection by General Motors of Harley Earl, its long-dead design chief, in a series of Buick commercials that sometimes also included Tiger Woods. Buick has since moved on, changing campaigns for 2005 and no longer using the actor who portrayed Earl.
McQueen, who played the title character in the 1968 film "Bullitt," is "an icon," said Tom Cordner, co-president of J. Walter Thompson USA in Detroit, which developed most of the new Ford division campaign, and "the car's an icon," he added, referring to the Mustang. Thompson, part of the WPP Group, is the longtime agency for the Ford division.
The stakes are considerable for Ford. In the last decade, the company's automotive earnings have come almost entirely from sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, but those markets are now under assault from the likes of Toyota and Nissan. This year, all the Big Three domestic automakers have rededicated themselves to designing passenger cars that they hope American consumers might get excited about.
"People would acknowledge that we have been extremely strong in trucks," Steve Lyons, president of the Ford division, said in an interview yesterday. "You'd have to say the car side would not be our strong suit."
In fact, passenger cars make up only about 32 percent of the company's sales, down from 42 percent in 1998.
Over all, Ford's market share in the United States this year through September has declined to 18.4 percent from 19.5 percent, according to the AutoData Corporation.
"Their market share has fallen to levels not seen since the 30's, and most of that decline is in the passenger car area," said David Healy, an analyst at Burnham Securities.
"To bolster their North American profitability, they can no longer depend to the extent they have on the F-150 and, to a certain extent, the S.U.V.'s," he added.
Mr. Lyons said Ford was hoping that the new vehicles would increase its total retail volume next year by 15 percent.
"With these new products, the only way to go is up," he said.
And what better way to breathe a little life into your sagging car sales than with a dead actor?
"Cornfield" begins with a farmer using a bulldozer to build a racetrack in his cornfield. He then pulls a new Mustang out of his red barn, takes it for a spin and stops along the road at a checkered line. McQueen, as Frank Bullitt, emerges from the cornstalks. The farmer tosses him the keys and the Bullitt character gets into the car and tears off down the track.
Ford had to negotiate first with the McQueen estate and then with Warner Brothers, which released "Bullitt," over the rights to use the character's likeness. The company is not saying how much it paid. Ford also had to find a look-alike of McQueen to pose in the commercials and then digitally impose the character's icy gaze onto the body double.
Ford said yesterday that it would also spend more money than it has before on nontraditional forms of advertising like event sponsorship and integrating products into TV shows, which it sees as a way to fight the commercial-zapping made possible by digital video recorders like TiVo.
Pursuing that strategy, Ford will sponsor a commercial-free episode of the NBC series "American Dreams." Though it is set in the 1960's, the new Mustang and Five Hundred will make appearances, apparently in a flash-forward sequence.
The Mustang will also take a bow on "The O.C.," the teenage drama on Fox, where it will be driven by the waifish lead actress, Marissa Cooper. And Jennifer Garner will also drive the Mustang on the ABC spy show "Alias," in which all manner of Fords have already appeared.
"This is not product placement," said Ford's advertising manager, Rich Stoddart. "Product placement is easy. You give someone a box of soap and say, put this on the shelf and make sure the camera sees it. This is totally different."
Ford will also take on reality TV in giveaways that will be part of the ABC series "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
In one clip from the show that Ford executives played at the campaign kickoff event yesterday, a family whose home is being extremely made over opens the garage to find a Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup. The father can barely contain himself.
"I think it's safe to say he was more excited about the Super Duty than he was about the new wallpaper in the living room," Mr. Stoddart said.
THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING Correction: October 21, 2004, Thursday The Advertising column in Business Day on Friday about efforts by Ford to sell cars on their merits rather than with special financial offers misstated the name of the actress driving a Ford on the Fox drama "The O.C." She is Mischa Barton. (Marissa Cooper is a character on the show.)Continue reading the main story


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The expected Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege already has a release date and Ubisoft accompanied the announcement with a new Cinematic trailer. Ubisoft today announced the latest installment of the successful franchise Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six will be available around the world on October 13, 2015 to PlayStation4, Xbox One, and Windows PC.
Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is inspired by the organizations against terrorism that currently exist in the world, ay puts players in the middle of deadly clashes melee. For the first time in a game franchise Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, players will besiege your opponents, a new style of assault where enemies have the means to transform the environment in modern fortresses as teams Rainbow Six leading the assault to break the enemy’s position.
Till now Only Minimum Requirements of the game has been revealed.
|OS:||Windows 7 x64, Windows 8 x64, x64 Windows 8.1|
|CPU:||Intel Core i5-2500K||AMD FX-8120|
|Clock Speed: 3.3 GHz||Clock Speed: 2.6 GHz|
|Cores: 4||Cores: 8|
|Release Date: Q4 2010||Release Date: Q4 2011|
|* CPU Score: 6479||* CPU Score: 6591|
|GPU:||NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670||AMD Radeon HD 7970 / R9 280x|
|Release Date: Q2 2012||Release Date: Q1 2012|
|* GPU Score: 5380||* GPU Score: 5171|


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Across the industry, dealers need to invest in new training, tools and equipment to support EVs, and the amounts involved are significant.
Buick spokesman Sean Poppitt said in a statement to Automotive News (subscription required) released Tuesday that the investment required to upgrade a Buick EV dealership averages between $300,000 and $400,000 .
There are currently around 2,000 Buick dealerships in the United States. For those businesses unwilling to make the investment, General Motors has made them a takeover bid.
Poppitt confirmed the buyout plan but didn’t say how many retailers accepted the offer, if any. In most cases, dealerships that sell Buicks also sell vehicles from at least one other make, so a store could accept the offer and stay in business selling other brands.
In a similar offer to Cadillac dealers, about two-thirds rejected the offer in favor of the EV future. Around two-thirds of Ford dealerships also plan to invest in electric vehicle upgrades.
Buick doesn’t sell electric vehicles, at least in the US. That situation will soon change as Buick has confirmed two electric vehicles for its US lineup by the end of 2023. One will have conventional proportions, while the other will have a more coupe-like profile. The US electric vehicles, which may be called the Electra and Electra GS respectively, are expected to feature styling previewed from Buick’s Wildcat EV concept unveiled in June. Buick will also stop introducing gas-powered vehicles in the US as early as 2024. By 2030, the range should consist exclusively of electric vehicles.


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Automotive teardown specialist Sandy Munro is a brutally honest veteran who tells things as they are. This is one of the reasons why he regularly criticizes Tesla for its vehicles’ inconsistent build quality, and, more recently, why he came away unimpressed after operating Ford’s upcoming BlueCruise driver assist system, which allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel in designated “blue zones” across the United States.
Munro recently took a drive with Ford Driver Assist Technology Chief Engineer Chris Billman on a freeway, and immediately, the teardown expert and former Ford engineer noticed a number of interesting behaviors from the hands-free system. While he liked some of BlueCruise’s behaviors, Munro quickly observed that Ford’s advanced driver-assist suite could not take the off-ramp by itself. This made it quite different from the Autopilot that Munro has been using for some time now in his Tesla Model 3.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Munro soon learned that BlueCruise required manual interventions when navigating curves. And when these happened, the alerts prompting drivers to keep their hands on the wheel did not include loud, audible warnings. Manual interventions with BlueCruise were also required for basic maneuvers like lane changes, and Billman was quite unclear if Ford has any plans to expand the system’s driver-assist features to inner-city streets like Tesla’s FSD Beta.
At the end of the trip, Munro concluded that Ford BlueCruise, at least in its current iteration, still has a lot of room to improve. The teardown expert highlighted that for Ford to make BlueCruise impressive, the veteran automaker must fix the system’s incapability to handle curves on the highways, even those that the company describes as “sharp curves.” Munro also noted that Ford needs to improve BlueCruise’s disengagements, which could be unclear to the driver.
“I would suggest that the sweeping curve stuff, you need to address that. I think that would be something that you absolutely flat out would want to have, better than what you’ve got today. And the reason basically is that, um, you know I got a pension plan that I need to be fully funded. I guess I’ve been a little bit spoiled by watching what Tesla’s been doing with the Full Self-Driving Beta. That is really impressive, and I’m going to suggest that somehow, if you can get your hands on that and try it out, it’ll really help you understand what I was talking about as far as improvements are concerned,” Munro said.
Interestingly enough, Ford has mounted a rather pointed strategy in promoting BlueCruise, which would be released for the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning, with both CEO Jim Farley and Ford North America Product Communications director Mike Levine taking shots at Tesla’s Autopilot. Farley, for one, highlighted during BlueCruise’s announcement in April that the system was tested in the real world so that Ford’s customers “don’t have to,” and Levine is known to frequently mock FSD and Autopilot for its flaws while engaging in arguments with Tesla owners on Twitter.
Watch Sandy Munro’s take on Ford’s BlueCruise in the video below.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to firstname.lastname@example.org to give us a heads up.


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Hyderabad: Punjagutta Metro Station has been turned into a book lovers paradise by the team of Kitablovers. Their ‘Load The Box’ Book Fair will be conducted for four days from April 21 to 24.
A bookfair organized by the New Delhi-based start-up Kitablovers will be held in Expo Galleria, Panjgutta from 10 am to 9 pm.
This is a one-of-its-kind book fair in the country, where people don’t choose the books, but the box. Just grab a box, pay for it and fill it with as many books as you can. Different types of money saver boxes are available at the fair at the prices of Rs 999, Rs 1650, and Rs 2750.
Book lovers will be able to choose from a collection of over 2 lakh books from various authors and genres, including literature, biographies, crime, international affairs, dictionaries, romance, fantasy, religion, and science.


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“The problem is that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is not very effective. This is not a constraint in many countries. People host their servers and market their content using it as a sales tool because they know their content won’t get out. They (pirates) say, ‘regulations don’t matter to me,'” revealed Pankaj Gupta, Director – Solution Consulting, Synamedia during a discussion at the ‘Future of Video India’ event hosted by Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA).. The conversation was moderated by Shad Hashmi, Manager of APAC Partners, Media and Entertainment, Amazon Web Services, in which the duo discussed several facets of piracy and how it affects the bottom line of streaming companies. in line.
What is the DMCA? The DMCA is part of US copyright law and is about a set process for removing content from the internet. It discusses the rights and obligations of owners of copyrighted material who believe that their rights under United States copyright law have been violated on the Internet.
“The problem is that the end user doesn’t even know if he sometimes uses a pirate service. They think they are consuming a legitimate service because they are configured so well,” Gupta remarked.
Gupta warned that the hackers were exploiting some sort of advice. “They actually teach people how to steal content and how to post stolen content by providing free support services. If you have some software knowledge and know some part of the Python language, you can easily steal content and publish it. With Python, one can open Google Chrome, access the source code, modify that source code and start getting the content for free,” he explained.
Piracy has become a sore point for major streaming companies, resulting in significant revenue loss. The AVIA discussion highlights the pervasiveness of piracy in today’s world.
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Main takeaways from the discussion
Hashmi warned that platforms dealing with pirated content have become “quite advanced” as they even boast parental controls. “These hackers are starting to look legitimate and are hiding their activities from the end consumer, which I find disturbing,” he said.
State of India’s Piracy Ecosystem: “We have seen that content is really vulnerable when it comes to the Indian landscape. People fly left, right and center. We have seen blockbusters released in India (on OTT platforms) available on Telegram’s social media pages within just five minutes of release. I have yet to come across any content produced in India that is not available on the pirate network,” Gupta said.
How hackers work: “A marketing ad is placed on social media by one of the hackers. They do content aggregation. You watch premium content from around the world available in one place and that too at a fraction of the cost. aggregate and put it on sites where it’s legitimately difficult to remove it.” says Gupta. He added that piracy in the days of broadcast required investment and skill to hack the content. “But now it’s “has become so easy. Technology is available online and content is available online through a whole chain of distributors, wholesalers and resellers. They distribute content using social media as a marketing tool. Technology to rebroadcast content is available for as little as $30 per month and contains premium features including billing and payment systems to collect pirated content electronically,” said Gupta declared.
Telegram Bane: Gupta said hackers target most social media platforms, but their DMCA is highly effective, causing marketing campaigns to be quickly taken down as soon as they are highlighted. “But the problem with Telegram is that it is not very quick to remove such an advertisement or a stream served by the hacker,” Gupta added.
The convenience of payments: “Hackers use every possible mechanism, be it regulations or payments, to stay anonymous. They use all payment methods including bitcoin. They also accept payment in other forms. You can pay them by PhonePe. You can pay them through JazzPay in Pakistan. All possible payment methods are accepted by them, making it easy for end subscribers to get their content,” Gupta added.
Different actors in the pyramid: Gupta said pirates operate in a hierarchy where they pass content on to those below the food chain. “Aggregators sell it to wholesalers at a discount, and then those wholesalers pass it on to resellers through social media. So everyone in the food chain takes a cut of the subscription that people pay to those admin panels of social media,” Gupta revealed.
- Problem of resellers and retailers: Hashmi said there was no barrier to entry if someone wanted to try their hand at hacking. Gupta said resellers offer content at 33% off the sale price. “The end user in turn realizes 66% or twice the revenue of its cost. They are so organized that everyone knows where to find the content. Everyone knows where to find technology. And everyone knows how to publish and market these pirate streams using social media without any cost,” Gupta lamented.
Importance of Content Audit: Gupta said a content audit will help streaming services uncover any vulnerabilities in their video distribution ecosystem that allow hackers to steal content. “We have done such activities with some of our clients and they were amazed at what we found and could link it directly to lost revenue,” Gupta added. He also suggested that services monitor their content on different platforms including social media, open web, closed IPTV networks, Telegram and others.
Block password sharing
Credential sharing is a big problem, according to Gupta. He said none of his relatives in India were using a legitimate subscription. “Friends share passwords and share the cost of getting the content with each other. They actually go on social media and buy credentials from a hacker because they don’t want to pay all of it.
He said there are scammers selling their credentials online. “They sell the credentials at a subsidized rate so they can make some money off of them.”
Netflix’s experiment to curb the practice
Netflix, the largest streaming company based on the number of users, recently announced a pilot project in three Latin American countries, Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, in which it asks users to pay fees to add profiles outside of their own household. The fees will not be what they usually charge and are available at a discounted rate. Users will be allowed to add up to two people outside their homes, the company said.
“Accounts are shared between households, which impacts our ability to invest in new TV shows and movies for our members.” – Chengyi Long, Director, Product Innovation, Netflix, had reasoned in the company’s message.
Additional users will receive their own profile, personalized recommendations, username and password.
“We have just done the first big tests by country, but it will take time to sort all this out. I think we’re going to spend about a year iterating and then rolling it all out to get this solution launched globally, including in markets like the US,” said Greg Peters, Chief Product Officer and Director of the operation of Netflix. said during an earnings call.
Outside of Netflix, there’s no word on another major OTT company exploring measures to stem password sharing.
How do hackers access encrypted content?
Hashmi said people spend a lot of money on digital rights management to encrypt their content. Gupta offered the analogy of a gold reserve. “The gold needs to be transferred from one point to a bank or multiple banks. We use an armored vehicle to transfer the gold, and it is driven by a designated driver. The gold reserve is your CDN (Content Delivery Network).The armored vehicle is your DRM (Digital Rights Management) and the driver is the token.Gupta continued.The bank is the end user.
“You have to make sure that the driver is the driver and that no one steals the identity of the driver and takes the armored vehicle to another place. That’s what happens in the real world. The identity, which is the token, is stolen, then it’s cloned, it’s redistributed, and the content ends up in many other places instead of the bank.
Gupta said that even if you secure the identity of the driver bringing the gold to a bank, “the bank itself could be vulnerable. You can easily impersonate a bank to make it a legit bank by jailbreaking the device and installing mod APKs in the device. The modified app behaves like a legitimate app provided by the service provider, he added.
Understanding Analog Hole and Forensic Watermarks
Hashmi explained that hackers use high-quality cameras mounted on a phone to broadcast streams everywhere. There are 4K cameras available for a few $100. This tactic is also known as the analog hole.
Gupta proposed a way to protect the content of screen recordings using forensic watermarks. The forensic marker will insert bits of its code into the video itself that cannot be recognized by anyone. “This is done for each user so that you (the streaming company) can, by watching the video or running that video in the system, identify who the end user is,” Gupta said.
Gupta said hacking monitoring cannot be done by people. Companies will need to take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) because hackers have no modus operandi, he said.
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Clarification About Netflix Assumptions On Blocking VPN
There was some worry about Netflix Blocking VPN... but read this great news. Unlocator Service is Still working!
Because it developed very fast, Netflix's streaming business that within months the company had modified from the best ever-increasing client of the US Postal Service's first-class mail service to the prime source of Internet traffic in North America.
Three years ago, it started proposing an impartial streaming facility separate from DVD rentals. Two years ago, Netflix proclaimed its objectives to rename and reorganize its DVD home media rental service as a sovereign supplementary company named Qwikster, absolutely dividing the DVD rental and streaming facilities.
Netflix has contradicted it arrangements to clear-out on the use of alternatives and virtual private networks (VPNs) to control users from availing the streaming service's numerous libraries worldwide. Last year, it was stated that several users had acquired a blunder message when attempting to avoid geo location limitations utilizing VPN merits. VPN provisions permit subscribers to confuse Netflix into idea they are in a new part of the world, even if this infringes the site's terms of service.
However, Netflix's major product executive is being adamant with the online video monster has not transformed its procedure. He declared that the prerogatives that Netflix have amended it procedure on VPN are bogus. People who are utilizing a VPN to avail the facility from outside of the area will find that it still functions precisely as it has constantly performed.
As numerous users had difficulty circumventing the geo-block, assumption about new regulations emerged last year. VPN contributor declared that while attempting to watch another country's Netflix files, its users have experienced a blunder message. As well as they accepted the initial statement from a few customers that Netflix blocked access owing to VPN or alternative procedure.
This is the very first time they have ever heard Netflix demonstrating this kind of blunder message to a VPN client. They have a nagging notion that Netflix may be experimenting these new IP blocking schemes provisionally in particular markets. Currently the blocks do not look as if insistent and may simply be aimed at IP ranges that surpassed too lots of concurrent logins.


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Stock Markets57 minutes ago (Sep 09, 2021 03:36AM ET)
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of carmaker Renault is seen at a dealership in Paris, France, August 15, 2021. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
By Yilei Sun and Sarah White
BEIJING/PARIS (Reuters) – Renault (PA:) is in advanced discussions to end its joint venture to build vans with China’s state-backed Brilliance, a source close to the matter said, as the French firm overhauls its struggling Chinese operations.
The tie-up dates back to 2017, when Renault and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd set up manufacturing operations in Shenyang, the provincial capital of Liaoning, and set out to make a push into electric commercial vans in particular.
The Chinese market has proved difficult for some foreign producers, however, with sales faltering right before the COVID-19 pandemic, which walloped the industry.
Renault last year ditched its main passenger car business in China following poor sales at its loss-making venture with Dongfeng Motor Group. But it is making a fresh attempt to crack the market with Geely Holding Group, announcing in August a hybrid vehicle joint venture.
Renault said in a statement its joint venture with Brilliance was still beset by challenges despite a transformation plan set out in June 2020, but declined to comment on its possible end.
“We do not comment on market speculation,” it said. “The two shareholders have brought a lot of support (to the venture) and are in regular contact about the development of the group.”
Brilliance had no immediate comment.
Brilliance’s parent Huachen Group has defaulted on billions of yuan in debt obligations. Chinese regulators have launched an investigation into possible violations of disclosure laws by the company.
France’s Les Echos newspaper, which reported the possible end of the tie-up, said the matter would be discussed at a board meeting of the joint venture this month.
Brilliance had not promised future investments in the joint venture for new models, the source close to the matter said, adding to Renault’s doubts about the operation.
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Today's letter from the Editor
£20000 - £25000 per annum + benefits: Ashdown Group: Internal Sales Executive ...
£28000 per annum: Recruitment Genius: This company specialises in the installa...
£30000 - £35500 per annum: Recruitment Genius: This is a great opportunity for...
Negotiable: Recruitment Genius: A Provisioning Specialist is required to join ...
Page 3 Profile: Andrew House, sony ceo
The diagnostic doctor?
No, that was Gregory House MD. Andrew House is the president and CEO of Sony. There have been good and bad days for the Welsh businessman since he took the top job at Sony’s PlayStation department two years ago, but yesterday must have been one of the best.
As well as unveiling his company’s latest games console to tech enthusiasts at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles, Mr House was able to publicly offer a knock-out blow to rivals Microsoft. He announced the PlayStation4 would go on sale later this year for $399 (£256), $100 less than Microsoft’s Xbox One. Stealing a march on Bill Gates in the race for gamer’s hearts, the 47-year-old also said Sony would allow gaming without an internet connection or authentication, unlike Microsoft.
And he was well-received?
His speech was hailed by tech commentators as the ideal response to the Xbox One launch last month. Alex Simmons, UK editor of entertainment website IGN, said Mr House had bloodied Microsoft’s nose. The bookmakers Paddy Power even slashed the chance of Sony outstripping Microsoft on console sales in 2013 from 4/11 to 2/9. The Xbox One’s odds drifted from 15/8 to 11/4.
You said he’s had bad days too?
Mr House has been a Sony man for more than 20 years, moving to Sony’s Tokyo office in 1990 after emigrating to Japan to teach English. His career has taken him to the US and back to Britain, where he ran PlayStation Europe before his promotion to head of the company’s gaming wing in 2011, and return to Tokyo.
He said last year: “The challenge for me has been getting back to a point where I’m operating for 95 per cent of the day in Japanese.”
In 2012, Sony posted the second biggest losses in its history, although the PlayStation side of the business managed to scrape a profit.
- 1 Nigel Farage: Me vs Russell Brand on Question Time – he's got the chest hair but where are his ideas?
- 2 Harry Potter fans can apply to the Hogwarts-inspired College of Wizardry
- 3 Jessica Chambers: 19-year-old woman 'doused with lighter fluid and burned alive' in the US
- 4 Russell Brand calls Nigel Farage 'poundshop Enoch Powell' in BBC Question Time debate
- 5 Orange Wednesdays are no more


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Bringing her big hula hoop too
[Update: After mixed messages, Bandai Namco has confirmed that Tira can either be purchased as a standalone, day-one, DLC character, or comes as a bonus character to those who buy the Season Pass, whenever it is purchased. So you get Tira as a “free bonus” when you commit to the Season Pass, or you can buy her separately on day one. You do NOT get Tira for pre-ordering Soulcalibur VI. Bandai Namco apologised for the confusion.]
Bandai Namco has announced that Juri Tira has staked a claim on the Stage of History, and will be heading to Soulcalibur VI as a pre-order bonus, or a standalone paid DLC character.
An exciting new trailer features “The Bird of Death” getting down to business with her trusty weapon, Esserine Drossel, which is essentially a bladed hula hoop. A dangerous assassin with a flirtatious nature. Tira’s immaturity belies a deadly intent and a fast, close-range fighting style that can chop up an opponent in seconds.
I’ve seen a lot of comments calling for Tira during recent character reveals for Soulcalibur VI. The good news is that you have your girl, the bad news is that she is only coming in as DLC. Tira will arrive in game for free for those who pre-order SCVI, or will be purchasable as a standalone character, much like Eliza in Bandai Namco’s Tekken 7.
Soulcalibur VI launches October 19 on PS4, PC and Xbox One.


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During its re:Invent conference, Amazon Web Services (AWS) unveiled three new artificial intelligence (AI) services for its cloud computing platform: Rekognition for image recognition; Polly for text-to-speech and Lex for speech recognition. AWS CEO Andy Jassy said that the company plans to add more AI services in 2017.
All of the leading cloud computing vendors have been racing to adding AI capabilities to their services. “Jeff Bezos is convinced about the power of A.I. to help Amazon.com and AWS grow,” said industry analyst Jeff Kagan. “I think we can expect to see more of these kinds of announcements from them in the near future. These are very important first steps for both AWS and for enterprise customers.”