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Concerns regarding cost and community impact bubbled to the surface of a special meeting of the White Salmon City Council focused on potentially seeking a license to open a retail marijuana shop.
At a special meeting called on Monday to discuss the process for obtaining one of three retail marijuana licenses available in Klickitat County, a divided council decided to not initiate the lengthy application process, mostly citing the cost it would take to do so. Councilors Mark Peppel and George Rau voted “yes” on the matter with Councilors Bill Werst and Allan Wolf voting “no.” Councilor Jason Sabourin was not in attendance at Monday’s meeting.
Despite the failure of Monday’s motion, Werst noted after the vote that he would be interested in bringing the issue to the floor again during the council’s next meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
Werst’s primary issue with giving city staff the go-ahead to pursue a license through the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) was the $7,500 price tag.
“Just from my personal business experience we don’t have to accept the first number offered to us. I like where we’re going and I support you spiritually, but I will vote ‘no’ on this one for that reason,” Werst said.
Mayor David Poucher explained to the council before the meeting that opening a retail marijuana shop could be a source of revenue for the town. The option to open such a facility stems from Washington Initiative 502, which was passed by voters last year and allows those aged 21 and older to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana as long as it is consumed within the confines of their home.
Entities interested in applying for a license will have the chance to do so between Nov. 18 and Dec. 17. The City of North Bonneville is currently planning to apply for a license of its own and John Spencer, former city administrator for North Bonne-ville and consultant for Pulse Con-sulting, spoke to the council via teleconference on Monday.
Spencer indicated that just to begin the application process, which includes an operating plan and site design, could cost as much as $7,500. Poucher said covering the internal cost of paying for city employees to work on the application would probably cost another $7,500.
The operating plan would include everything from training and hiring practices to inventory onto how to destroy unused product. The building design must include secure storage, security cameras, be at least 1,000 feet from schools and parks, and meet a variety of other standards set by the WSLCB.
As with North Bonneville, Spen-cer recommended White Salmon create a Public Development Au-thority (PDA) to oversee the operation of the marijuana shop. To do so, City Attorney Ken Woodrich would have to create a new ordinance first so the new PDA could be the licensee to the WSLCB for the shop.
“But the city can’t run the PDA; I think you have to make that distinction and it’s an important distinction. City staff aren’t going to be down there minding the till at this facility,” Woodrich said. “It is a liability buffer. It’s kind of like a separate corporation, that’s why you can’t share resources with them because you lose that veil of protection. The only way you can share resources with them is by treating them as a separate entity.”
Spencer said that if the city were to manage a pot shop through a PDA it could have control over the location, advertising, and staffing whereas if a private, unaffiliated entity were to open a shop in White Salmon the city would have little to no say in its operations.
He also stressed that while White Salmon’s location is beneficial to opening a retail marijuana store there are never any guarantees when starting any type of business.
“I don’t want anyone thinking that this is an automatic cash cow, though I do think the chances of it being profitable are strong,” Spencer said.
And then there is the issue of the amount of licenses available in Klickitat County. If more than three entities apply for licenses, the WSLCB will conduct a lottery-style selection process, meaning White Salmon could potentially spend the money to apply for the license and then not obtain one.
“So fortunately in Klickitat County since there are three at-large licenses your odds are slightly better than in Skamania where there are only two at-large licenses, but it is a lottery, so there is a chance you would spend the money to do this study and end up with nothing because you wouldn’t be selected,” Woodrich said.
After hearing from Spencer and Woodrich about the PDA and licensing process, councilors debated whether or not the risk is worth applying for the license at all. Despite his “no” vote, Werst agreed with Peppel, who said the city needs to take advantage of opening a pot shop as an economic opportunity, especially while competition is scarce.
“It would just frost me if four years from now I’m looking over at Hood River Port and they’ve got a whole operation going over there and our people are once again driving across the bridge to spend their money,” Werst said.
Bingen-White Salmon Police Chief Tracy Wyckoff said during the meeting that at the very least the council could use the opportunity to form its own pot shop as a way to better monitor its distribution.
“Right now it’s such a mess for us to deal with I would like to see some structure to it so we know where we stand on what sort of enforcement actions we can take. Right now it’s just kind of in the air. It’s really, really hard for us,” Wyckoff said. “So overall no, it’s not something I’m thrilled about coming into our society, and I do understand your reasoning behind getting on board and making a money from it when it’s coming here anyways.”
Councilor George Rau, who cast a “yes” vote on Monday, voiced some concern about whether or not the city forming a PDA to operate a marijuana shop is best for the community.
“One thing we did last year was focus on changing the vision statement to say that this is a great place to live, work, play, and stay. If we raise the bar by allowing within city limits a dispensary of recreational marijuana are we actually degrading the life quality of the citizens?” Rau said. “Are we seeking revenue but in adverse fashion to the detriment of the community? So we go back to those fundamentals and ask ‘does this fit in our city mission?’”
Though the council ultimately voted not to pursue the marijuana retail license at Monday’s meeting, the panel did decide entities interested in opening a pot shop can lease property from the city, especially if the city could potentially require lessees to pay a certain percentage of their gross profit, though Woodrich said he was unsure if that is legally possible.
“We have had two individuals who haven’t put anything in writing, they’ve only talked to us verbally because they don’t want anyone to know what they’re doing, but basically they said ‘we might be interested in that.’ So maybe it would be better for the city to say ‘we have this piece of land, this is our lease and we want x percent of the gross from it’” Poucher said.
The White Salmon City Council meets again on Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. in council chambers at 116 NE Church Ave.


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Adult Swim Games have released the opening cinematic to upcoming retro-inspired platformer Rain World. The bleak, emotional opening sets the stage for the post-apocalyptic industrial wasteland that your little “slugcat”…
Telltale Games has announced the release date and title for the third episode of The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series -“A New Frontier. The episode is titled “Above the Law,”…
The first new Mass Effect game in five years is out today in North America. Developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts, Mass Effect: Andromeda is available for PC (Origin), Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. A companion app is also available for iOS and Android.
“We’re very happy to welcome the fans back to the Mass Effect universe,” said Aaryn Flynn, VP and GM of BioWare. “The team’s vision for this epic new chapter was to take what our fans love about Mass Effect – great characters and combat – and add more emphasis on exploration while telling a different type of story. We’re following a group of characters who are just starting their heroic journey, and we can’t wait for our fans to discover more about them and this new galaxy.”
Mass Effect: Andromeda distances itself literally from the original trilogy through both time and space. A 600-year long journey thrusts your colony-seeking crew into an all-new galaxy far from our Milky Way. You play as one of the Ryder siblings, a brother or sister. Your Ryder is a Pathfinder, a leader and vanguard of the dangerous exploration missions you’ll undertake.
In addition to a single player campaign, Mass Effect: Andromeda will feature cooperative multiplayer, which play similarly to the multiplayer found in Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Mass Effect: Andromeda also utilizes the Frostbite 3 engine, which is featured in all of EA’s games of the last few years such as Dragon Age: Inquisition and Battlefield 1.
Launch day reviews have been lukewarm, ranging from praise to harsh criticism. The title currently hovers around a mixed Metascore of 75 (stay tuned for our review).
Mass Effect: Andromeda is available in Standard Edition ($59.99), Deluxe Edition ($69.99), and Super Deluxe ($99.99). The Deluxe Edition grants access to additional digital goodies, such as armor, booster packs for multiplayer, and a pet space monkey. The Super Deluxe Edition is digital only and comes with everything in the Deluxe Edition, plus “a [multiplayer] Premium Pack coming your way every week, for 20 weeks.”
Mass Effect: Andromeda is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The big sci-fi action sequel releases tomorrow. The first ten hours been available over the last week through Origin Access. Apparently it suffers from some awkward character animations. Players are blasting the internet waves with mockery and jokes, like they did with Battlefield 1 and pretty much every Assassin’s Creed. Things quickly took a sinister and cruel turn, however.
A targeted harassment campaign focused on a female employee at Electronic Arts, who was singled out as being the “lead animator” and sole arbiter of Mass Effect’s woes. Not only are video games vastly collaborative products, but the woman in question isn’t even a current employee.
BioWare’s General Manager Aaryn Flynn responded via Twitter: “Recently a former EA employee was misidentified as a lead member of the Mass Effect: Andromeda development team. These reports are false. We respect the opinions of our players and community, and welcome feedback on our games. But attacking individuals, regardless of their involvement in the project, is never acceptable.”
— BioWare (@bioware) March 18, 2017
The harassment campaign can be traced back to the Ralph Retort, a GamerGate-friendly blog. The GamerGate losers are always at hand to make gamers look like complete troglodytes by harassing game developers – particularly any that aren’t straight white dudes. A similar situation happened with Alison Rapp while she was employed at Nintendo, and blamed for localization in which she had no hand in. The most recent case was with No Man’s Sky and Sean Murray, who had to all but withdraw from social media. Writer Katherine Cross has a good twitter thread breakdown of this terrible cycle of online abuse.
This isn’t even BioWare’s first rodeo with targeted harassment. Jennifer Hepler wrote much of Dragon Age: Origins and its sequel, but was harassed right around the launch of Mass Effect 3.
BioWare is known for creating heavily story-based action-adventure games with an emphasis on characters and relationships. They have a passionate and vocal fanbase, which can be terrifying when things get ugly. Exhibit A is the controversy that still surrounds Mass Effect 3’s ending, and the fact that BioWare would later go back and update it due to the feedback.
The industry would benefit from game companies being more open about the design process. Many complaints stem from the general public being ignorant on how video game design and creation actually works – especially the amount of time, money, and people it takes. But when game developers are hit with witch hunts it doesn’t exactly embolden companies to become more open. If anything, it’s the opposite. As game developers become more diverse and games more mainstream, hopefully we can strike a nice balance in the future – and shut down any harassment as soon as it crawls out of the sewer.
Mages of Mystralia is already far along in development, and has been playable at trade shows and conventions like PAX over the last year. The indie developers at Borealys Games have…
It’s been a really good year for games, and it’s only March. One of this year’s highlights is Horizon Zero Dawn, an open world adventure that launched in February, exclusively to the PlayStation 4. Sony announced that Horizon Zero Dawn global sales have exceeded 2.6 million units during its initial two week launch period, a very healthy number for a system exclusive. Developed by Guerrilla Games, it has become the best-selling new property launch on the PS4 to date.
“We knew Horizon Zero Dawn was going to be something special, so to see the incredible critical reaction to a brand new game would translate into this level of sales is really gratifying,” said Shawn Layden, Chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment. “Guerrilla has crated a game that is nothing short of exceptional, and the reactions we have seen from fans – from hours and hours of gameplay streaming to endless photo sharing – shows just how impactful it has been.”
Horizon Zero Dawn stars Aloy, an outcast hunter in a lush post-apocalyptic fantasy world filled with giant robotic beasts. The title received universal praise from critics and fans, and currently enjoys an 89 Metarcritic score. It’s praised for its visual style, engaging combat, and immersive world and story-telling steeped in lore.
“We’re thrilled that Horizon Zero Dawn has been embraced by critics and players alike,” said Hermen Hulst, Guerrilla Managing Director. “Developing the game was a labor of love, so it’s extremely satisfying to see that it elicits the same passion and enthusiasm from the gaming public that we felt during its development.”
Hulst went on to tease future plans with Aloy and Horizon Zero Dawn: “This is only the beginning of Aloy’s story, with the team already hard at work on an expansion.”

domain: news


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Facebook Inc saw the first signs of user disenchantment in the midst of public scandals over privacy and content, with second-quarter revenue and average daily visitors missing analysts' projections.
Facebook Inc. on Wednesday warned revenue growth would slow in the second half of the year and said that expenses would grow faster than revenue next year, sending shares down as much as 22 per cent over concerns about the impact of privacy issues on the social media company's business.
Instagram has grown to 1 billion monthly users from 600 million in late 2016, while Facebook's two messaging apps, Messenger and WhatsApp have each reported well over 1 billion monthly users. Analysts were generally expecting earnings-per-share of $1.72 on revenues of $13.3 billion. But the results followed a period in which data-privacy issues came under harsh scrutiny, with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg testifying before U.S. Congress for hours on the company's missteps. News that the data firm accessed information from as many as 87 million Facebook (FB) users without their permission broke in the final weeks of the first quarter.
"Fundamental damage to the Facebook platform has been "very contained" in our opinion and is generally better than feared from the white knuckle period a few months ago", Daniel Ives, head of technology research at GBH Insights, said in a note to clients Wednesday.
There's a scratch in Facebook's Teflon coating as the social networking company loses approximately US$150 billion ($219b) in market capitalisation in under two hours, Reuters has reported. At the stock's lowest point, more than $148 billion of the company's value - significantly more than the entire market cap of IBM ($134 billion) - had been wiped out.
Facebook suffered a blow in China on Wednesday when regulators there withdrew their approval of a company innovation hub to support local startups, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter. "It just seems like the magnitude is beyond anything we've seen, especially across a number of the tech (companies) we cover".
"So far, there has been no evidence that shows that controversies, such as the spread of fake news, Russian interference in the USA elections, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, have prompted advertisers to divert ad dollars", says Haris Anwar, senior analyst at Investing.com.
They were also expecting 2.25 billion monthly active users for the quarter.
Although Facebook shares were in a slump after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke earlier this year, the stock had risen sharply and hit record levels this month. Mobile ads accounted for the vast majority of Facebook's total revenue, but also came up short of analysts' estimates.
Wehner gave three different reasons why the company's revenue growth would decline: currency headwinds, greater investments in new kinds of content-sharing, like disappearing videos, and greater user control over privacy - a direct response to criticism the company has fielded. Facebook disrupted some business by putting in place new rules to get all political advertisers to verify their identities.
Facebook used to be made out of corporate Teflon.
Wehner said quarterly revenue growth would be closer to 30 percent the rest of the year.


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The round comes from existing investors, CMO Scott Brazina said in an email. Investors in the company include Atlas Venture, Flybridge Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures and Thomvest Ventures.
The new funding brings the Boston-based firm to $75 million raised since its founding in 2007. DataXu last raised $27 million February 2013.
Atlas Venture partner Jeff Fagnan recently referred to the company as a candidate for an IPO. DataXu reported hitting $87 million in revenue in 2012 (putting the firm at No. 5 on the 2013 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies), and says it serves more than 700 companies.
The company's system works by creating a unique algorithm — described by the company as a "mini valuation machine" — for each of its customers using consumer activity data. The technology then makes bids for digital ads for the customer based on the algorithm, and chooses content of the ads deemed likely to lead to a consumer conversion.
Read more: The 50 top-funded tech firms in Boston


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Two local shops in downtown Campbellsville are trying to start trivia nights.
Venture City Comics is hosting its first trivia night at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 25. The cost is $5 a person or $20 for a four-person team. They want at least 16 people or four teams. Anyone can register before that date or can show up. There are enough spots for six teams.


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OVER 55,000 people signed the petition to support legislation that would ban working on Sundays, the civic association Alliance for Sunday - Slovakia, which ran the petition, announced on January 27.
The association will continue to collect signatures until July this year, with the goal of reaching 100,000 signatures, which would require parliament to deal with the issue, association head Anton Čulen said, as reported by the SITA newswire.
He called on political parties and Christian churches to support the idea of free Sundays and claimed that former Eastern Bloc countries lag behind western Europe in this area, as in the west most countries have laws that prohibit working on Sundays. The professions that would be most affected by such legislation in Slovakia would be construction, retail and big shopping malls.
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
28. Jan 2014 at 10:00


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The South Korean electronics giant, Samsung, just recorded record breaking profits for the quarter at 8.3 billion in U.S. dollars. Samsung has estimated they sold roughly 500 handsets a minute.
There is no doubt that Samsung, now valued around 230 billion dollars, is a giant in the manufacturing of consumer electronics and mobile devices. And now that this financial quarter’s numbers are in, it shows the company is doing very well against their rival, Apple. In all, Samsung, which is the world’s largest information technology company, amassed some 8.3 billion dollars (U.S.) in profits. Samsung claims a good percentage of that revenue came from their popular Galaxy line of smart phone ‘phablets’.
Other smartphone makers did fair, but when it comes to comparison, Samsung leaves them far behind in the dust. Comparatively, the Taiwan-based HTC released 18 different makes of cellular phones last year, LG released 24 and the Finland-based Nokia released 9. Apple, with all of their supposed innovation and technology, only released a single smartphone last year, which was the iPhone 5.
While sales of the iPhone 5 were ‘okay’, Samsung rolled out a total of 37 smartphone types last year alone. Furthermore, Samsung produced their smartphones with a very wide assortment of sytles and prices that could fit the budget of any consumer on the market.
Currently Samsung’s Galaxy S III has overtaken Apple and is the world’s most popular, best selling smartphone. In early spring 2013, Samsung will be releasing the Galaxy S IV, and many other new phone models, which should keep the company well ahead of Apple, or any potentially new smartphone contender.
Samsung is saying that their new Galaxy model will come with an unbreakable screen that will have and incredible 440 pixels per inch, super high-definition resolution. The new Galaxy will also have a much faster processor as well as a higher resolution camera.
Analysts are predicting that Samsung will see an even larger increase with their smartphone sales by more than a third this year. They further stated that Apple will lag farther behind as Samsung offers an even broader range of mobile devices. Over all, it is projected that Samsung will sell 290-320 million smartphones in 2013, which is up from an estimated 215 million in 2012.
Samsung’s operating profits from their October-December sales rose some 89 percent to 8.28 billion dollars from a year ago, which was 8.6% higher than their previous record of 7.29 billion dollars in July-September, 2012.


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In his talk, ManoMano manager Adrien Boullet highlighted how fast e-commerce and in particular the marketplace distribution model are advancing. Last year 15 million new online shoppers were added in Europe, with 70 per cent of these saying that they intended to shop online after the pandemic too. In addition, 57 per cent of global e-commerce sales were generated via marketplaces in 2020, as compared with 10 per cent in 2008. This figure is expected to rise to 70 per cent in 2022.
Miles Agbanrin also referred to the high growth rates in e-commerce in his talk. See our separate report on this.


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The mushroom industry is mushrooming.
Mushrooms are small enough that it can be easy to not notice how big the mushroom industry has become. Mushroom farmers have doubled their growth rates in the last year, from January 2016 to January 2015, according to market research provided by the Mushroom Council. And according to FreshPlaza.com, there were 29 billion in mushroom sales in 2013; by 2019, it's estimated that it'll be at $50 billion.
Hard to say what's driving this, whether it's happenstance, people's tastes changing or perhaps mushroom growers and executives no longer being content to offer to the public a vegetable that's known as being a fungus and is mostly seen as a topping on a pizza or burger. Whatever the reasons, the food industry has been finally putting the fun back in fungi, and mushrooms are appearing with foods that they're normally not associated with, and they're even showing up in non-foods. Here's what I mean.
Mushrooms and burgers. Sure, plenty of restaurants have served mushrooms on burgers for years. There would be no news here, but I'm talking about mushrooms inside the burgers. That's become a thing.
In the last year, over 200 restaurants, from upscale to diners, have been offering blended burgers, according to the Mushroom Council. That is, the mushrooms are blended into the meat, making a healthier burger since a lot of the fat is gone but still retaining the flavor. That's the idea. I haven't tried the burgers yet, but I love mushrooms, so it sounds logical to me.
In any case, the Mushroom Council is currently partnering with Sodexo, a food services company headquartered in Paris, to bring these blended mushroom burgers into 250 school districts from kindergarten to high school.
Sodexo's spokesperson, Steve Cox, says that their numbers show that 85 percent of kids who are served blended burgers prefer them over the all-beef patty. Knowing how my daughters feel about mushrooms, I have a bad feeling that they'd be in that 15 percent. But certainly it's a good thing if America's youth ends up embracing the blended burger.
Because it isn't only less fat and fewer calories that these mushroom blended burgers have. Cox says that the kids who eat the blended burgers will consume 304 million fewer milligrams of sodium per year than they otherwise would.
Mushrooms and packaging. This may be the weirdest example of how the mushroom industry is flourishing.
As many companies are looking for more eco-friendly ways to do business, some companies, like Dell, have been using packaging that is grown and not manufactured, and that's where mushrooms are coming in. Mushroom packaging is made from the roots of mushrooms, called mycelium. Using mycelium instead of glue to create the packaging allows it to be non-toxic and biodegradable; IKEA recently announced that they're going to use mushroom packaging.
Mushroom cereal. Nobody's going to replace your marshmallows with mushrooms, but the mycelium I just mentioned? The company MycoTechnology, is looking into replacing gluten in cereals and wheat with mycelium.
Mushroom bacon. If you're a vegan, you probably know that thinly sliced mushrooms that are cooked in the oven can taste like bacon. At least that's what many vegans say.
Mushroom beer. Yeah, I know. Now, I'm just making stuff up, right? No, actually, I'm not. Mushrooms are even turning up as ingredients in beer.
Mushroom Coffee. Not making this up either. Mushroom coffee. Sounds... uh... delicious, right? Well, Four Sigmatic is a mushroom company that specializes in making mushroom coffee, and one of their spokespeople who reached out to me sang the praises of both its taste and health benefits. Apparently, mushrooms, full of vitamin D and potassium, among other things, can do everything from giving you energy to reducing stress and building immunity.
Mushroom ice cream. Unlike mushroom beer and coffee, this seems to be more of a novelty than something that could go mainstream. I think it's safe to say that you probably won't be buying this for your kid or nephew's birthday party, but a few years ago, somebody did, indeed, come up with ice cream that was partially flavored with mushrooms.
Mushroom hunting. This, too, seems to be on the rise, or at least is faring well as a hobby. There are mushroom hunting clubs (here's one for the citizens of Michigan), websites that sell equipment for mushroom hunters, a lot of books about mushroom hunting (here's one) and mushroom home growing kits (so you don't have to hunt). Just don't hunt mushrooms without knowing what you're doing. In fact, CBS recently reported that thanks to El Nino, which has done a number on the world's crops, there are more toxic mushrooms around the San Francisco area than normal, thanks to all of their rain.
But as long as you buy mushrooms commercially, they're perfectly safe to eat -- as long as you don't cut up and sprinkle your mushroom packaging on a salad.


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Our favorite NewTeeVee hater has the floor again. Online video is a “disappointment” because Google (s GOOG) is subsidizing YouTube’s bandwidth, said Mark Cuban at the D Conference yesterday. Here’s the video (I sure hope that BMW pre-roll paid for my bandwidth!):
“When Google bought YouTube, they didn’t get into it with a focus on monetizing it immediately, and so as a result it took off, and the message was ubiquity and volume,” said Cuban, the original Internet video entrepreneur with Broadcast.com and now chairman of HDNet. If Google got taken out, he contends, the industry would disappear, because if people had to pay to upload videos, most of them would stop. “If the model isn’t there where it’s complete subsidy, the whole concept of Internet video gets flipped on its head.”
Is everything really Google’s fault? Cuban doesn’t hold Hulu as accountable as YouTube because it has focused on monetization from the start, and doesn’t worry about other profitless web services like Twitter because its 140-character missives should hardly clog anyone’s pipes (besides perhaps Twitter’s — downtime is its middle name).
Cuban knows how to put a good diatribe together, and he’s been honing this one for years. But we say, have a little optimism! Enabling people to push the boundaries of self-expression can’t be so bad.


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Reading, November 2017, UK brands are struggling to cope with a rising volume of queries and growing consumer expectations, according to the Eptica Multichannel Customer Conversation Study, which was released today. The 100 UK companies surveyed could only answer 44% of routine questions asked on the web, email, Twitter and Facebook, down from 49% in 2016.
Social media saw the biggest fall, potentially driven by its increasing use by consumers as a customer service channel. Just 34% of tweets and 35% of Facebook messages received a successful answer, despite 94% of companies advertising their Twitter handles, and 89% having Facebook pages. Performance has dropped substantially – in 2016 48% of tweets and 45% of Facebook messages received an accurate response.
Conducted since 2012 by digital customer experience software provider Eptica, and designed to test real-world performance, the Eptica Multichannel Customer Conversation Study evaluated 100 leading UK brands from the insurance, banking, travel, telecoms, utility, electronics manufacturing, fashion, consumer electronics retail, food and drink retail and entertainment sectors, on their ability to provide answers to ten routine questions via the web as well as their speed, and accuracy when responding to email, Twitter, Facebook and chat.
As the table below shows, on the positive side, the web, email and chat channels all saw improvements in both accuracy and speed.
|Accuracy 2017 versus 2016||Speed 2017 versus 2016|
|40% (38%)||26 hours 23m (34 hours 15m)|
|Chat||22% (16%)||2m 14 seconds (7m 40)|
|34% (48%)||4 hours 57m (4 hours 14m)|
|35% (45%)||3 hours 25m (8 hours 37m)|
The study evaluated 100 UK brands, split equally between the insurance, banking, travel, telecoms, utility, electronics manufacturing, fashion, consumer electronics retail, food and drink retail and entertainment sectors, analysing the speed, relevance and quality of their responses to routine customer queries via the web, email, chat, Facebook and Twitter. Research was completed in Q3 2017.


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Honda announced two key approaches to its battery supply strategy, noting that the most important challenge in the electric vehicle era is the global supply of batteries. First, Honda will strengthen the external partnership to ensure a stable supply of liquid lithium-ion batteries in each region. North America: Honda will source Ultium batteries from GM. Apart from GM, Honda is exploring the possibility of establishing a joint venture company for battery manufacturing. China will strengthen Honda's cooperation with CATL, while Japan will supply batteries for mini electric vehicles from Envision AESC. Secondly; Honda will further accelerate independent research and development of next-generation batteries. Honda will invest approximately $2024 million to build a production line of all-solid-state batteries currently in development, with the goal of getting them operational by spring 343. Honda aims to adapt its new generation batteries to new models. It will be available on the market from the second half of the 2020s.
Honda will produce more than 2030 million units by 30, introducing 2 new EV models
Honda also announced that special plans are being made to bring new EV models to the market. From now until the second half of the 2020s, Honda will offer products tailored to the market characteristics of each region. North American Honda will unveil two midsize and one large EV models in 2024, which it is developing in partnership with GM. While China introduces a total of 2027 new EV models by 10; Japan will first launch a commercial-use mini EV model in the 2024 million yen price range in early 1. Then Honda launched personal-use mini-EVs and EV SUVs. zamwill be instantly introduced. Popularization of EVs after the second half of the 2020s zamAssuming it will be the moment, Honda will start promoting the best EVs from a global perspective. In 2026, Honda will begin adopting the Honda e:Architecture, an EV platform that combines the hardware platform and software platform. Through an alliance with GM, Honda will launch affordable EVs starting in North America in 2027 with a cost and range that will be as competitive as gasoline-powered vehicles. Through these initiatives, Honda plans to launch 2030 EV models worldwide by 30, with a full range of products from commercial mini electric vehicles to flagship-class models, and produce more than 2 million units per year. Honda plans to set up an EV facility in Guangzhou, alongside Wuhan, China, dedicated to its EV manufacturing operations. A dedicated EV production line is also being considered in North America.


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NEW YORK (
iPhone is now more important than crude oil. At least, with Apple's after-hours
rally on a blowout quarter about to send its market cap to $420 billion, it will surpass
as the most valuable company in the world.
Market capitalization may not be the best valuation tool for investors -- last year, there were times when Exxon Mobil, Apple and Warren Buffett's
were all jockeying for the top position on the market-cap list, and Berkshire is now less than half the market cap of Apple and Exxon Mobil.
, up 13% this year and at a $247 billion market cap, and
after its big 2011 run, are now ahead of Berkshire Hathaway, which has dipped below the $200 billion mark. It was a two-horse race between Cupertino and Texas most of the time, though, and still is.
Ask the iPhone's Siri "What is the biggest market cap company in the world?" and it will give you a new answer starting Jan. 25
There are other ways to size up the mega-cap competition, too. When it comes to revenue, Apple still can't hold a candle to Exxon Mobil: Apple may have blown past all estimates with $46 billion in revenue, but for Exxon Mobil, $46 billion would be a global economic disaster quarter. The Wall Street consensus for Exxon Mobil revenue in the fourth quarter is $119 billion. Exxon Mobil's quarterly profit line alone often surpasses the GDP of many small countries -- last quarter it rivaled the GDP of Malta and surpassed the GDP of the Bahamas.
That said, Apple just earned $13.87 a share, vs. an expectation for just under $2 from Exxon Mobil in quarterly earnings -- to be reported next week. And with an iPhone costing $199 with a two-year contract and a barrel of oil hovering around the $100 mark, the most precious commodity in the world isn't just reflected in the new king of market cap.
>To contact the writer of this article, click here:
>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to
and become a fan on


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The NCB Financial Group published an article on September 30, 2016, about Banks uniting to educate the public about cybercrime.
Major financial institutions have come together to exert a heightened sense of alertness amounts their customers to be more cautious in conducting their transactions via electronic means as fraudulent activity rises with ABM and card machines bring prime targets.
- CIBC First Caribbean International Bank, First Global Bank, Jamaica Money Market Brokers Merchant Bank (JMMB), National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCB), Sagicor Bank Jamaica and Scotiabank Jamaica (BNS) have come together to optimize the level of awareness relating to ABM/Cards scams in Jamaica.
- The joint effort produced ‘Protect yourself Online!’, an online Security Campaign aimed at increasing customer vigilance to their protect privacy and finances when conducting transactions via electronic channels. This effort has been backed by the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology under its National Cyber Security plans.
- Sloganed ‘Stop and Think before you Click’, the campaign launched as part Cyber Security Awareness Month in October. Due to advancing cyber threats posing the risk of damaging customer finances and company trust, the institutions believed a social intervention to educated Jamaicans on cyber-crime and online safety was a necessity.
- Prevalent attacks in Jamaica included Automated Banking Machine (ABM)/card fraud and phishing scams. However, banks have formulated tips which customers can use to safeguard themselves from falling victim to these activities. For more in-depth information on measures and threats, persons can visit stopthinkconnect.org.jm.
Contributed by: Kyle Sterling from Jamaica. Kyle is a member of the CCST Discord group from the G5 Cyber Security Foundation Ltd. Learn more about CCST (Caribbean Cyber Support Team) by visiting caribbeancst.org. CCST is a collaborative group on the Discord platform for Caribbean people in IT, from beginners to experts.


text: Ikea has provoked laughter from Twitter users after a user commented on the latest initiative of the Swedish company. “Google Ikea Valladolid, you will not regret it.” Go Google IKEA Valladolid and see which street it is on, you will not regret it. – ⸙cuchu⸙ (@lasuspiritos) September 23, 2020 This message from a Twitter user has gone viral on social networks and is that the latest initiative of Ikea in Spain has managed to get the smile of many. Many users are recommending the search, so if you want to discover the surprise for yourself, do not read on until you discover what the ingenious idea of the Swedish store has been that has used the neighbors from around to choose the name of the street where your new department store is located. The location of the store in the Arroyo de la encomienda town, in Valladolid, is none other than the street ‘I need a screw’, which has caused laughter among users of the social network. Read more: You have closed cereal boxes the wrong way your whole life and this video that went viral on TikTok proves it This name is not pure coincidence. According to some users, before Ikea opened this store, it launched a survey on its Facebook page where it encouraged residents of the town to choose the name of the street where it would be located. Among the options to choose were ‘I need a screw’, ‘Like at home, nothing’ and ‘Hug street on the sofa’. Users will end up opting for the first, as can already be seen in Google Maps. This article was published in Business Insider Spain by Andrea Gómez Bobillo.


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In June, thousands of sales executives, managers, and reps from across the tech landscape attended our Selling Forward Conference to watch and interact with the world’s top sales and marketing thought leaders. Through more than 20 sessions over two days, the speakers and participants discussed the strategies, tactics, and technologies that they have deemed necessary for success in the “next normal.”
To understand exactly how technology companies have responded to the economic uncertainty from a sales and marketing perspective, we also surveyed the conference attendees. This resulted in 1,050 unique responses from sales and marketing leaders, primarily from B2B technology companies.
These respondents answered questions regarding the impact of COVID-19 on their business, how they have reacted to the challenges it presented, and their future outlook. Participants were also asked about their perceptions of AI in the workforce.
Key highlights include perspectives on…
- 84.4% feel that teams are as productive or even more productive when working remotely
- 22% reported that there will “never be a complete return to in-office working.”
- Only 28% expected that most people would be back in the office in Q3 2020, and 20% expected it to be Q1 2021 or later.
Technology Needs by Sales Teams
- Sales leaders say their number one need in 2020 is “operational efficiency,” followed closely by “better sales performance”
- “Cost cutting and value” ranks second-lowest, consistent with the economic optimism expressed by participants
AI and Sales
- Only 3.68% called AI a “sales job killer”
- 34% said AI definitely improves sales performance if applied correctly
- 36% reported that AI can potentially improve sales performance.
Economic Adjustments and Rebound
- 62.7% of sales teams have had some change to their target buyers, industries, or sectors.
- 19% expected a rebound in Q3, while the rest anticipate the rebound to come in Q4 2020 or beyond.
Success of Remote Work
In recent years, there has been a gradual movement towards remote work, and it seems that COVID-19 simply accelerated it. An overwhelming 84.42% of participants said they feel that sales teams are either as productive or even more productive when working remotely. Not only is work from home a success, but it appears that many feel comfortable doing it.
Of the remainder, 28% predict that they will be back in the office by sometime between July and the end of September, whereas the rest expect it to happen in Q1 2021 or even later.
Teams are also finding new efficiencies in remote work. With companies like Twitter, Square, UpWork, Facebook and Coinbase all shifting to remote forever and remote-first policies, it is clear that dispersed teams will be much more prevalent in the future.
The question remains: will remote sales teams be as successful in the long run? There are numerous factors involved in answering that question, including economic factors in the wider marketplace, technology available and more, which are covered elsewhere in this survey.
Without a doubt, the most successful remote teams will be those that embrace the best tools for managing and training remote reps. Based on these results and the overall trend among top sales teams, those tools are overwhelmingly AI-powered in nature. For example, teams that employ AI-powered conversation intelligence can train new remote reps 50% faster.
Economic Impact on Selling
It is not surprising that 80% of the respondents reported that their businesses had taken a hit as a result of the economic downturn. Most believe they will recover, but timelines differ. Only 19% expect to see a rebound in Q3 of this year, 33% think it will happen in Q4, and the rest predict it will happen sometime in 2021.
Changes to target buyers, industries, and/or sectors were not as significant as expected. There has been a general shift, with a mere 4.48% reported a “significant” change, 58% had made some changes, and 37% said that they hadn’t changed a thing.
This perhaps correlates with the positive outlook, with teams believing that their typical target markets will return to their previous positions and buyers will normalize along with them.
Positive Economic Outlook
Positivity and confidence about the future is extremely high, regardless of when a rebound is expected. The majority (over 75%) of respondents indicated that they are optimistic, with 51% said their future outlook was positive, with an additional 24% saying they were “very positive.”
Even more surprising is that only 5.68% held a negative outlook. Seeing as the vast majority of respondents were in B2B organizations, this is inspiring and exciting.
The Role of AI in the Future of Sales
Success in the current climate requires sales performance improvement with technology being one of the main drivers of change within a sales organization.
33% of participants said they would use technology to create greater operational efficiency within their teams. An additional 16% said they would use it to scale without any additional hiring.
These are both an indicator that teams still anticipate growth and expansion, but are perhaps negating their risk by looking to do more with less. In these times of reduced budgets and extreme cost control, sales tech can produce true positive ROI rather than becoming just another cost center.
It is technologies like AI that are proven to help teams to generate more revenue. Which is likely why AI is beginning to be viewed in a positive light. Just 3.68% of respondents called AI a job killer. Moreso, over a third said that they completely believe that AI improves sales performance and 36% reported that they think it can potentially improve sales performance.
Right now, many teams do not employ AI, and therefore many salespeople have not been exposed to it. When asked if they were confident that AI would make teams more efficient and effective in the future, 48% they weren’t sure. However, 39% said it would.
In the end, although most sales teams were impacted by the COVID pandemic, the vast majority were able to successfully pivot. Organizations have found their stride in remote selling and are even positive about what’s to come. In fact, forward-looking teams have turned to AI to achieve scale and growth when the time comes.


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Members of the Princeton business community are raising money for the victims of Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday, November 20.
Each business involved the Princeton’s Hurricane Sandy Relief Drive will donate a portion of their proceeds from the day to towns on the New Jersey coast as well as the American Red Cross. Each business will determine the percentage donated.
“We will be working with charitable organizations in the areas that were hit the hardest, donating funds to help rebuild these impacted communities,” said Jack Morrison, president of JM Group on Nassau Street, who is spearheading the drive. “Please join us in helping those in need by shopping and dining at the participating Princeton community businesses.”
Restaurants managed by JM Group — Witherspoon Grill, Blue Point Grill, and Nassau Street Seafood & Produce Co. — will all be participating. Others restaurants and retail businesses include: Agricola; Alchemist & Barrister; Chambers Walk Cafe; D’Angelo Italian Market; Elements; Eno Terra; Ivy Inn; Jazam’s; La Jolie.
Also Main Street; McCaffrey’s supermarket; Mediterra; Nassau Inn; Olives; ONE 53; Princeton Corkscrew; Princeton Farmer’s Market; Princeton Mattress; Princeton Record Exchange; Princeton Tour Company; Princeton University Store; Rouge; Ten Thousand Villages; Teresa Caffe; Terra Libri; Terra Momo; The Bent Spoon; The Peacock Inn; Triumph Brewing Company; Whole Earth Center; Winberie’s; Witherspoon Bread Company; and Zoe.
Businesses interested in participating are asked to contact Erika Cosentino at Erika@jmgroupprinceton.com or go to www.jmgroupprinceton.com and click on “Princeton’s Hurricane Sandy Relief Drive.”


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Yahoo Lawsuit Wants Poison Pill Nullified
Shareholders filed suit against Yahoo, seeking the elimination of a severance plan the company adopted to keep it from being taken over by Microsoft.
Following the call by corporate raider Carl Icahn to Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock to eliminate the plan, where Yahoo staffers would be free to leave the company under certain conditions with a generous payout after a takeover, a lawsuit by Yahoo’s shareholders made a similar demand.
The litigants already have a case in the works against Yahoo, as the New York Times noted. Two Detroit pension plans that are already angry about the breakdown of Microsoft’s lucrative takeover bid for Yahoo called for the company to eliminate the poison pill:


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Despite the fact that soybean oil is now being sold at a government-set price, the market supply has yet to return to normal.
Grocery store owners claim that dealers are not providing them with enough soybean oil. However, they hoped that the market supply would improve in a few days.
Humayun, the owner of a wholesale shop at Krishi market in Mohammadpur, told The Business Post that he was not getting enough oil.
The store has a daily demand of between 8 to 10 cartons. Each carton can contain either 4 pieces of 5-litre bottles, 9 pieces of 2-litre bottles, or 16 pieces of 1-litre bottles. However, he only received two or three boxes of Teer and Bashundhara soybean oil every day.
He sells soybean oil in 5-litre bottles for Tk 980-985, two-litre bottles for Tk 390-395, and 1-litre bottles for Tk 196-198.
Soybean oil has not been available in the market since the day before Eid. Many have returned home without oil. This issue was later the talk of the country.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Monday told the reporter that trusting edible oil traders was a mistake. They have failed to keep their words.
He said: “We accept our failure because the traders did not pay heed to our words and broke their commitment to keeping the price at a reasonable price for 7 days during Ramadan. I have told all our organizations to sell the oil at a fixed price.”
“No instances of oil syndication were found in the market. However, the retailers and dealers have taken the opportunity. But, we will not let anyone take advantage,” he added.
Md Sharif, the owner of a wholesale shop at the Shantinagar Kitchen market, said he had got some 5-litre Teer oil bottles at Tk 980. But he did not get oil from other companies like Bashundhara, and Rupchanda.
While most shops in Karwan Bazaar were closed on Tuesday due to the weekly market holiday, one or two remained open but were short on edible oil.
Md Jahangir, the owner of Nur Jahan store, who had only one 5-litre bottle of soybean oil, said: “If you want to buy this bottle, the price will be Tk 985.”
Another store clerk Jasim Uddin said he was selling loose soybean oil at Tk 210 per kg while a litre will cost Tk 190.


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When milkman Mark Woodman started out in business there were eight dairies in the Rumney alone.
Now there are only three in the whole of Cardiff.
From everyone having their early morning pinta delivered to the doorstep in glass bottles, the numbers dropped off so drastically with the rise of the supermarkets and cheap plastic consumerism that Mark ended up only delivering to a handful of addresses per street.
But, since consumers' ecological awakening to the global problem of environmental pollution , Woodman's Dairy - Mark's small family run business - has boomed.
"We used to get maybe a couple of enquiries from potential new customers a week, but since Monday I've probably had about 100," says the 57-year-old, who set up the firm in 1983 after completing a degree in business.
"For the last 20 years the supermarkets have chipped away at us, selling milk in plastic containers much cheaper - we couldn't compete with that.
"However, since Sir David Attenborough 's Blue Planet II programme in early 2018, there's been a resurgence of interest in glass bottles."
Indeed, the show's highlighting of the shocking extent discarded plastic has on our oceans saw many say 'enough is enough'.
And, coupled with UK governmental plans to eliminate environmental waste by 2042, the demand for a 100% recyclable and non-toxic alternative just keeps on growing.
"Every time there is something about the plastic problem on the news, we get another influx of calls," adds Mark, who's gone from delivering from 8,000 glass bottles to 12,000 in the last 12 months.
And he admits that the potential is there to double the size of the business.
"Customers are keen to do something to reduce the amount of plastic they are buying.
"For instance, we deliver to the north and east of Cardiff, along with the city centre, but I've just had about 30 people from a Facebook group on Pontprennau contact me to ask if we'll get up to them too."
The dad-of-four adds that, having recently spent £3k revamping his 45-year-old electric milk float , he's also looking at turning his firm's fleet of diesel vans fuel free.
"I'm proud to be part of a movement that's helping to make the world a better place, because there's so much waste these days.
"All my kids have grown up, so it's just me and wife at home - but we still get through two bags of recycling a week.
"There's so much plastic because, by packing things that way, it makes it easier for the shops to barcode.
"So it's great to be part of countering that and being more eco-friendly.
"And long may it continue."
A spokesman for Friends of Glass, the organisation that supports the environmental benefit of glass, said: "We're delighted to see this upswing in doorstep deliveries of milk in glass bottles in Cardiff.
"It’s wonderful to see this sea change in people’s attitude to sustainability.
"Glass bottles can be recycled infinitely - that’s why they are so much better for the environment."
To discover how to get your milk delivered or the whereabouts of your nearest local diary, go to www.findmeamilkman.net


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Chrysler May 2012 Sales Rise 30 Percent, All Brands See Sales Gains, and Chrysler Sets 26th Consecutive Months of Sales Increases.
Recall Roundup: Ford’s Windstar Axle Recall Grows; New Recall Touches F-150, Mustang Transmission SensorsMay 10, 2012
Ford has expanded its recall on the Windstar, has added a recall on the transmission in the F-150, Mustang, Expedition, and Navigator.
Chrysler Sales Jump 20 Percent in April 2012, Breaks Several Sales RecordsMay 1, 2012
Chrysler Group Reports April 2012 Sales Climb 20 Percent to 141,165 Vehicles, Buoyed By Strong Chrysler Brand Sales.
Into the Real World: Chrysler PHEV Town & Country Minivans Enter Testing PhaseApr 27, 2012
Chrysler's plug-in hybrid-electric minivan project is taking another baby step toward production by entering its second phase. Read here.
Chrysler Earns $16.4 Billion In First Quarter of 2012Apr 26, 2012
Chrysler Group's first quarter 2012 net income was more than four times the amount it made in the first quarter of 2011.
Friday the 13th Special: Top 13 Unluckiest CarsApr 13, 2012
What cars are most unlucky? Check out Automobile Magazine's Top 13 Unlucky cars for Friday the 13th, only on Rumors.
Feature Flick: WOT Highlights the Best New York Auto Show DebutsApr 12, 2012
Want to see the highlights from the New York International Auto Show? Check out the latest episode of Wide Open Throttle only on Rumors.
Weekend Roundup: 2012 New York Auto Show, 2013 SRT Viper, 2013 Lincoln MKZApr 6, 2012
Been away from your computer this week and missed all the automotive news? We’ve gathered a few of the top stories of the past week for your...
New York 2012: Miss Anything at This Year’s Show? Get Your NYIAS Fill HereApr 6, 2012
See the Viper, BMW M6 Convertible, Chevy Impala, and more highlights from the 2012 New York auto show at Automobile Magazine's Rumors.
New York 2012: 2013 Ram 1500 Focuses on Fuel EconomyApr 5, 2012
The 2013 Ram 1500 promises best-in-class fuel economy thanks to a new eight-speed transmission.
Chrysler’s March 2012 Sales Up 34 Percent; What Models Were Hot Last Month?Apr 3, 2012
Chrysler's sales rose 34 percent in March 2012, but here are the models that were hot (and not so hot) last month.
Flame-Throwing Ram, Other Custom Vehicles Bow in MoabApr 3, 2012
Off-road customizer brings flame-throwing Ram 1500 out to Moabi. Equipped with a Viper V-10, the truck breathes fire in more ways than one.
Ram Releases Teaser Photo of 2013 Ram 1500 Before New York UnveilingApr 2, 2012
Ram has again teased the 2013 1500 truck -- this time, from inside. View the 2013 Ram 1500 interior shot right here on Rumors.
Feature Flick: New Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram Ads Tug At America’s HeartstringsMar 30, 2012
Chrysler has had great success with its Clint Eastwood-narrated ad from this year's Super Bowl. Now, the automaker is looking to capitalize on that...
New York 2012: Ram Teases Chrome Grille on 2013 1500 Ram TruckMar 29, 2012
Ram is using the 2012 New York auto show to debut what should be the 2013 Ram 1500. Here's the first teaser. What do you think it is?


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Floods affect Reef, Stars the ticket for boat shows, Oman ambitions
There is plenty of news this week from around the world, but the plight of Queensland has stolen the headlines.
Described by the Premier of Queensland and the Prime Minister as Australia's worst peacetime disaster, with the potential to rival Cyclone Tracy (which flattened Darwin and killed 71 people) and eclipsing the legendary floods of 1974, the Queensland floods have risen to a new peak.
Many suburbs in Brisbane are preparing to evacuate today and Toowoomba residents are still reeling from the 'tsunami' of water that flowed through yesterday, ripping houses off their peers, jumbling cars like toys in muddy, fast-flowing currents and sweeping people away.
More than 70 people have been reported missing and 8 people are confirmed dead.
Initial estimates of the damage in Queensland are being tallied in the billion of dollars. On the ground, the Premier, Anna Bligh has requested people donate at their local banks rather than calling the Premier's hotline which is being used as a source of information for emergency workers and flood victims. You can also donate online at www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html
In other news, London is celebrating an enormous boat show this year, hoping to match the 102,000 visitors that attended last year's event. The approach this year was interactivity - get your hands on sailing, boating and all its bits - as well as celebrity. Too many 'names' to mention, but all of them famous in their fields. Read all about why aligning a brand or event with high profile people is a great way to cut-through in our exclusive interview with publicity-pro, Max Markson.
Marinas in Dubai and Cyprus, new products from Musto, the wrap up of PIMEX and details of the upcoming, bigger than ever Brisbane Tinnie and Tackle show are all here this week.
Please send your own news and views and keep in touch!
Jeni Bone, editor
Look to London: Celebrities attract the crowds Jeni Bone, In the lead up to the recent Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show, plenty of column centimetres were devoted to the big names who would be on show - stars of the catwalk, TV, soaps, Olympics and extreme sports - all recruited to bring a broader range of people to a boat show.... [more] Share this story
The Wave, Oman aims to be region's top yacht spot Mourjan Marinas IGY, Dubai-based marina developer, Mourjan Marinas IGY will develop and manage The Wave, a luxury marina facility in Muscat, Oman, to ensure it becomes one of the region's top yachting lifestyle destinations.... [more] Share this story
Great Barrier Reef deluged with tonnes of toxic water Jeni Bone, Queensland's Great Barrier Reef is being flushed with toxic, pesticide-laden sediment that environmental experts fear could devastate fragile corals and marine life, damage that may require as long as a century to repair.... [more] Share this story
Price site raises ire of Marine Retailers in the US Jeni Bone, In the US, a new website that provides consumers with information, including pricing, on boats and other sports products will soon go live and has raised the ire of the Marine Retailers Association of America.... [more] Share this story
Queensland flooding health risks Jeni Bone, Along with loss of property, possessions and lives, the flash flooding in Toowoomba and other regions in Queensland will have massive impact on the state's economy and the health of its residents, according to scientific experts.... [more] Share this story
Musto launches new Evolution Collection Tracey Porter, Technical marine sportswear brand Musto is set to dramatically broaden its reach following the release of its eagerly anticipated 2011 collection, due to hit stores next month.... [more] Share this story
Musto presents new Lifestyle Collection Tracey Porter, Distinctive men's and women's marine lifestyle label, Musto has forged a new direction with the launch of its highly sought-after autumn/winter 2011 collection next month.... [more] Share this story
Barz Optics launches new Maui model - ideal for all water activity Barz Optics, Barz Optics has just this week launched its new MAUI model, fitted with polarised photochromic acetate lenses.... [more] Share this story
Karpaz Bay Marina to welcome luxury hotel and beach club Marketing Matters UK, Owners of the soon-to-be-completed Karpaz Gate Marina in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), part of the Karpaz Bay Resort, have announced plans for a new luxury hotel and beach club on the site.... [more] Share this story
WA grants for recreational boating facilities - closing soon! Department of Transport WA, Time is running out for authorities to apply for their share of a record $6.5 million in State Government funding to improve facilities for recreational boating in WA.... [more] Share this story
Snapper consultation extended due to flooding Qld Fisheries, Due to flooding in key fishing areas, consultation on future management arrangements for the Rocky Reef Fin Fish Fishery, which includes snapper, has been extended and meeting dates postponed.... [more] Share this story
Brisbane Tinnie and Tackle Show: largest ever scheduled for April 2011 Marine Qld, Save the date for Queensland's largest outdoor and leisure show, the Brisbane Tinnie and Tackle Show and National 4x4 Show and Outdoors Expo, 8-10 April 2011.... [more] Share this story
Creation of Superyacht Association for the Philippines Chris Ashton, The world of sailing and superyachts has, up to now, been mainly focused around the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Several associations in Asia and Australia, however, have been created, in more recent years, to promote the area as an important third destination for superyachts.... [more] Share this story
New Solas Life Jacket Light from Burke Marine Colin Burgess, Burke Marine is now distributing the UML Sea Flash SOLAS life jacket light. A compact super light weight product that will be a must have for sailors of all levels.... [more] Share this story
Navico cartography toolkit for third-party developers Sandman PR, Navico has launched its innovative Cartography Toolkit which enables third-party developers to create mapping content for its renowned range of navigation products. The software tools and documentation allow experienced GIS engineers to convert content data into a format compatible with Navico products including Simrad NSE / NSO and Lowrance HDS, as well as the recently-launched B&G Zeus system.... [more] Share this story
Raymarine's Extended Warranty Program Liza Sticpewich, Raymarine customers benefit from new Extended Warranty program, giving three years peace of mind... [more] Share this story
Andrew Short Marine - Innovative promotion does the job Bob Wonders, Kylie Short claims a $1000 barbecue. The promotion was aimed, of course, at increasing sales of Mercury outboard engines, and included two-stroke and four-stroke models from 40hp up.... [more] Share this story
PIMEX 2011: USD17m business transacted over four days PIMEX Event Media, Phuket is in celebratory mood as the eighth Phuket International Boat Show (PIMEX) comes to an end and delivers the goods. 2011 looks set to be another successful year for the regional marine industry as seven boats and numerous luxury cars were sold at PIMEX. According to Show Director Andy Dowden, transactions at the show exceeded USD17 million with more expected post-PIMEX.... [more] Share this story
London Boat Show - RYA announces Henri Lloyd partnership Ellie Williamson/RYA, Tullett Prebon London Boat Show - The RYA has revealed a brand new partnership between its Junior and Youth Racing Programmes and Henri Lloyd, announcing the exciting new venture at the London Boat Show on Friday (7 January).... [more] Share this story
Fairline launches all new Targe 50 Gran Turismo Saltwater PR, Fairline Boats, a luxury motor yacht manufacturer, is introducing the latest addition to the Targa express cruiser range with the world launch of the spacious three cabin, two en-suite Fairline Targa 50 GRAN TURISMO at this year's Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show.... [more] Share this story
Licence fees at work for Mitchell River Tim Mitchell, DPI Victoria - Licence fees at work for Mitchell River - Using $85,000 from the Recreational Fishing Grants Program, the East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority has placed 30 log structures into the lower Mitchell River, below the cut at Eagle Point.... [more] Share this story
Sydney Rigging Specialists announce New Director Bruce Clark, Sydney Rigging Specialists are happy to announce the appointment of Craig Garnett as a new director to the company joining Bruce Clark and Peter Gardner who started the company 15 years ago.... [more] Share this story
Phuket International Boat Show - USD $100 million in boats on display Andy Dowden, Phuket International Boat Show (PIMEX) 2011 - The show opened today to a packed in-water display and Exhibition Hall. 47 boats fill the marina basin, an increase of more than 25% on last year, and the Exhibition Hall is packed with marine products, luxury cars and high-end real estate.... [more] Share this story
Fountaine Pajot announces launch of new Salina 48 Evolution Kate Elkington, With upgrades inspired by Fountaine Pajot's exclusive Flagship range, the exciting new Salina 48 Evolution has been launched to critical acclaim.... [more] Share this story
Cheaper Fuel berths in Sydney Harbour Bailey's Marine, Sydney Harbour will have a new refuelling station in early 2011 with the Baileys fuel depot edging closer to opening its bowsers to commercial user and public users.... [more] Share this story
Marine Rescue Swansea and Lake Macquarie are joining forces Martine Tylee, Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie and Marine Rescue Swansea are joining forces to make their service to the boating public even better. The new, single, unit will be called Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie and it will have its radio base on Swansea Heads and its boat base at Pelican.... [more] Share this story
2011 Tullett Prebon London Intl Boat Show bursting with attractions Jeni Bone, Fashion identities, celebrities and stunts will herald the opening of this year's 2011 Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show on Friday 7 January.... [more] Share this story
Wave power study proves promising for Spain Media Services, The first detailed assessment of wave energy potential along the Spanish Coast has been completed. The study is aimed at including ocean energy in the country's '2011-2020 renewable energy National Plan'and shows plenty of potential in the sustainable, alternative energy stakes.... [more] Share this story
Sydney City Marine adds electronics showroom Jeni Bone, Sydney City Marine has added an electronics showroom to its vast array of offerings, run by experienced marine electricians, Rocky Tassone and Stuart Graham.... [more] Share this story
Sauter designs self-sufficient Life Support Superyacht Jeni Bone, Sauter Carbon Offset Design presents the Ocean Empire life support Superyacht, the world's first totally self sufficient Zero Carbon Life Support Vessel (LSV).... [more] Share this story
Boats join the auction at 'The Event 2011' Ray White Marine, A series of high-performance and ultra-luxury marine vessels, from sports cruisers to luxury motor yachts, will be showcased on the Gold Coast in January as part of The Event 2011; a major annual campaign regarded as the largest real estate auction in Australia.... [more] Share this story
Marine study in Malaysia shows diversity and damage Jeni Bone, According to the WWF, preliminary results from an expedition in the seas off Sabah, Malaysia have uncovered a huge diversity of marine life that may just make this part of the 'Coral Triangle' the most biologically diverse area of our planet.... [more] Share this story
America's Cup 2013 - San Francisco wins hosting right - its official Stephanie Martin, The world-famous San Francisco Bay will be home to the 2013 America's Cup Finals and the Challenger Selection Series for the Louis Vuitton Cup, as well as an America's Cup World Series event in 2012. This will be the first time the America's Cup has been hosted in the United States since 1995.... [more] Share this story
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Sibal launches 4G, admits 3G has ‘not successful’ (Lead)April 10th, 2012 - 2:45 pm ICT by IANS
Kolkata, April 10 (IANS) Launching Airtel’s 4G services in Kolkata Tuesday, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal admitted that 3G services have not been as popular as 2G due to lack of liquidity in the market to invest in the infrastructure and the devices required.
“We will give the environment to the industry to manufacture low cost quality smart phones. But it is the industry which has to deliver. This is the biggest challenge for the industry,” he told reporters.
“3G has not delivered because they paid such huge prices for the spectrum and there is no liquidity in the market for them to invest in the infrastructure and the devices to deliver 3G, for which 2G was successful and 3G was not successful.”
He hoped that the industry would keep this in mind and “ensure that people of this country have low cost devices”.
Sibal was speaking at the launch of broadband wireless access (BWA) services based on 4G technology here.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel Tuesday became the first telecom operator to launch broadband wireless access (BWA) services based on 4G technology in the country.
The high speed service was inaugurated by Sibal.
A successor to the 3G and 2G families, 4G is expected to be five times quicker than 3G services. It would offer services such as high-definition mobile TV and video conferencing.
Asked when the 4G will be rolled out in other cities, the company’s chairman and managing director Sunil Mittal said: “We are working very fast to launch in the other circles that we have.
“Hopefully, within this month it will be launched in Bangalore, within weeks followed by Pune, and then Chandigarh.”
Airtel, which had bagged BWA spectrum in four telecom circles - Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka - for Rs.3,314.36 crore in 2010, selected Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE to manage its services in Kolkata.
The other players are yet to announce plans to rollout 4G services.
- Airtel launches 4G services in Kolkata, first in India - Apr 10, 2012
- Huawei to manage Bharti Airtel's 4G network in Karnataka - May 01, 2012
- Sibal to launch Bharti Airtel's 4G services Tuesday - Apr 09, 2012
- Bharti Airtel launches 4G services in Bangalore - May 07, 2012
- Bharti Airtel to launch 4G services in Kolkata - Apr 03, 2012
- Airtel unveils 4G service in Bangalore - May 07, 2012
- Bharti Airtel buys 49 percent of Qualcomm's India business - May 24, 2012
- Qualcomm to get BWA spectrum shortly: DoT - Apr 19, 2012
- Airtel to ring iPhone4's tune in September - Jul 19, 2010
- India reaps billions from BWA auction, biggies stay away (Lead) - Jun 11, 2010
- Telecom policy may be announced in May: Sibal - Apr 10, 2012
- Salient features of Indian telecom sector - Feb 02, 2012
- 4G, 3G to grow parallelly in India: Ericsson - Sep 01, 2011
- India's broadband airwaves auction to fetch $8.6 billion (Roundup) - Jun 11, 2010
- GSM players to contest TRAI theory of minor tariff hike - May 07, 2012
Tags: 3g services, bharti airtel, broadband wireless, crore, first telecom, high definition, high speed service, kapil sibal, karnataka, launch, liquidity, mobile tv, pune, punjab, smart phones, telecom circles, telecom equipment maker, telecom operator, video conferencing, wireless access


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Losing the steel trellis frame would mean losing its iconic look, but Ducati had to make a call keeping in mind the future.
The updated Kwacker gets a price hike of Rs. 30,000/- over its 2019 BS4 model.
The engine is likely to replace the Japanese bikemaker's 650cc V-twin motor.
The chances of seeing a streetfighter by Harley-Davidson seem slim as the Bronx has been scrubbed off the official website.
We bring you fresh updates about the 2021 Honda CBR600RR ahead of its official unveil.
The streetfighter gets a 765cc 3-cylinder heart that is tuned to produce less power than the RS.
Honda is making a return to the 600cc class with the new CBR600RR.


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Has patent fight run its course?
Following U.S. President Barack Obama’s unusual overruling of the International Trade Commission’s decision on Aug. 3 to ban imports of some Apple mobile devices for infringing on Samsung patents, the trade agency six days later partially pushed forward with its preliminary ruling to curb entry into the United States of a few outdated Samsung products violating Apple intellectual property patents.
The ITC left open the possibility for Samsung to continue to import and sell its devices - Galaxy S, Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 - if it posted a surety bond of 1.25 percent. Patent expert Florian Mueller wrote after the ruling on his blog FOSS Patents that Samsung has posted that bond, which will forestall bans on imports of infringing products until completion of a 60-day presidential review period.
With a little over a month left to the Oct. 8 deadline, questions and predictions are swirling over whether Obama will allow the Samsung device import ban, an action that would again favor the American tech giant, and possible implications of the decision.
Would Obama’s approval signal that the United States intends to step up protections of its own companies - as many Korean media outlets and patent experts predict? Or did Samsung simply happen to be an owner of so-called standard-essential patents (SEPs) at a time when the U.S. administration is cracking down on such companies that force others to pay up?
Specter of protectionism
The U.S. government’s Aug. 3 veto of its trade body’s ban on imports of Chinese-made Apple products was the first since 1987. The ITC, a quasi-judicial agency, in a preliminary ruling 60 days earlier, said sales of some older iPhones and iPads should be banned because Apple infringed on a Samsung patent.
The majority of patent attorneys and analysts in Korea, however, doubt the Obama administration will veto the trade agency’s ruling that bans imports of Samsung products in October.
“Given that the U.S. administration intervened in a legal wrangling between two companies [with different nationalities] and sided with an American one, the veto can be interpreted as trade protectionism,” said Lee Chang-hoon, a patent attorney with Aju Kim Chang and Lee Patent and Law Firm in Seoul, at a seminar last week.
Underlying his view is what Michael Froman, the U.S. trade representative to whom the White House has delegated the authority to veto ITC rulings, wrote in a four-page letter. “This decision is based on my review of the various policy considerations discussed above as they relate to the effect on competitive conditions in the U.S. economy and the effect on U.S. consumers,” the letter says.
“Any country can choose the level of protecting or opening its trade, depending on the pending interest. Free trade is not necessarily an absolute virtue,” says Jeon Jong-hag, a patent attorney and president of Kyongeun Patent and Law Office in Seoul.
However, it may be a little too early to conclude that the U.S. president’s decision was made simply to protect the American tech king, he says, given that the country still has more to lose than gain from overruling the ITC.
Kang went so far as to say Obama was “being penny-wise and pound foolish. His veto put a scratch on the integrity of the tremendous patent royalty fees that U.S. companies reap around the world.”
SEPs versus non-SEPs
The patents in question in the Samsung case are considered to be “fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND)” SEPs, which the Obama administration said deserve “special consideration.”
SEPs cover basic technologies that their holders have to support in their products to comply with industry standards. In Samsung’s case, it is a core 3G technology that all smartphones rely on to communicate over wireless networks and the affected Apple devices are 3G-running (pre-iPhone 4S) iPhones and iPads that don’t use Qualcomm chips. For Apple, on the other hand, the patents the ITC ruled it copied were related to design and technologies with no FRAND implications.
The U.S. administration’s decision over SEPs has split the technology industry inside the country. Companies that make money from licensing patents, including chipmaker Qualcomm, claim that courts and trade bodies should be allowed to impose sales or import bans, otherwise the value of patented inventions will be diminished. Companies such as Intel and Microsoft, on the other hand, have expressed fears that any injunction stemming from patents on features of their products could restrict their ability to come up with improved devices.
Even if Obama gives the green light to the ITC’s blocking entry of some outdated Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablet PCs following an investigation that began in August 2011, there won’t be a visible impact, experts say.
“No tangible damage - in terms of sales, in particular - is foreseen from the ITC import ban for Samsung because the products are mostly old or already off market shelves,” said Nho Geun-chang, an analyst with HMC Securities in Seoul. “Also, people are already getting sick of repeated trials and disputes over the same issues surrounding Samsung and Apple. Brokerages have also grown very insensitive to them.”
Kim Sung-in, a senior analyst with Kiwoom Securities, also said the U.S. administration’s upcoming decision would put a damper on neither the sales nor the brand image of Samsung.
Apple losing the upper hand
A silver lining for Samsung is the fact that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), under the Department of Commerce, earlier last week decided to re-examine the validity of the three design-related Apple patents that the American titan has used in the patent litigation against Samsung. The agency said the move was because of anonymous requests - most likely submitted by Samsung.
“Each of the three references include a rectangular front face having a rectangular screen, a border space around the screen and an oblong-shaped speaker opening above the screen,” the USPTO notice said. The patent office’s decision could influence the American company’s legal prospects against Samsung.
A San Jose federal court jury ruled last year that Samsung should pay Apple $1 billion in damages for infringing on Apple patents. But Judge Lucy Koh refused to impose an import ban on Samsung smartphones and later reduced the judgment by $450.5 million, saying jurors had miscalculated, and ordered a fresh trial, scheduled in November.
The USPTO re-examination is in line with the ITC’s final ruling on Aug. 9 to clear charges on four of the six Apple patents that it had found Samsung violated in an October preliminary ruling. The two patents in question are the ’949 patent, which deals with touch commands on touch-screen devices, and the ’501 patent, which is related to input and output detection for microphone and headphone jacks.
“Apple has been prevented from trying to use its overly broad design patents to achieve a monopoly on rectangles and rounded corners,” said Samsung in a statement on the ruling. “The proper focus for the smartphone industry is not a global war in the courts, but fair competition in the marketplace.”
Notable is the ’949 patent, a.k.a. the “Steve Jobs patent” because its key inventor was the late Apple co-founder, has been the subject of inconsistent rulings by different U.S. regulators. In December, the USPTO ruled the patent was invalid - reversing a declaration by an ITC judge in October.
“The Apple vs. Samsung case suggests that the legal system has not quite worked out what to make of the design patent,” writes Haydn Shaughnessy, a tech expert, on the Forbes Web site on Aug. 22.
Some experts complain about discrepancies among different policy organizations in the United States. “Once you get a patent, how do you know what it’s worth because your expectations are changing on a daily basis because of what the courts say, what the ITC says and now what the White House says?” Christal Sheppard, a former ITC attorney who is now an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska, was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal.
“Samsung initially garnered this image as an ‘Apple copycat’ mainly because of design factors,” said attorney Kang. “But design as a bargaining chip for Apple in the patent battle against Samsung is increasingly losing power as smartphones with similar shapes no longer serve as an ‘innovation icon’ as it did at the beginning.”
“ITC’s sales and import ban on Samsung may work unfavorably for the company in upcoming trials,” said patent attorney Jeon. “But as Samsung’s Apple design violation charges wane, the trials will center around technologies, a scenario that won’t be so bad for Samsung, which has strong technology fundamentals.”
What’s more, Shaughnessy of Forbes found that Samsung, not Apple, was the leading grantee of design patents by the USPTO last year. The world’s No.1 smartphone producer also topped the list in 2011.
According to the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) 2012 World Intellectual Property Indicators, Samsung was granted 378 design patents in 2012, whereas Apple, the No. 6 patent owner in 2012, acquired 147 in the same year. “If the South Korean giant was caught napping the first time round, it is now building a design patent war chest for the future,” he writes.
Against this backdrop, attorney Kang predicts the longtime business partners that became archrivals after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007 and Samsung followed suit with its first Galaxy have no choice but to eventually reconcile.
“More than anything else, both Samsung and Apple have gained more than enough brand recognition through the legal wrangling. People talk about no smartphone brands other than the two now and their fight no longer makes such huge headlines as before,” said Kang.
“As trials drag on, related expenditures would continue growing when gains from them won’t be as huge,” said an industry insider who is familiar with the matter. “The two top smartphone producers preparing for an exit plan would be desirable, from a business perspective.”
BY SEO JI-EUN [firstname.lastname@example.org]


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The PR tech company launched Author Intelligence, a database of journalists.
He will serve as EVP and MD in the WPP agency's brand solutions practice.
Measurement continues to be a challenge and an opportunity for marketing and comms pros, and many of us believe we should be doing a better job of proving our value. Going into 2019, here are six simple ways to evolve your thinking about measurement and start linking your results to real business impacts.
The firm established a foothold in Austin, Texas, last year via an acquisition.
...and 10 other brands that won Twitter in 2018.
PacLife pulls ads from 'Tucker;' Latest fallout from Ghosn arrest; Nike backs Raheem Sterling in Kaepernick-like campaign.
British Airways has whisked away four children to New York for the 'trip of a lifetime' - in a Christmas spot inspired by the exploits of Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) in Home Alone 2 and created by W Communications.
Footballer stars in social media post reminiscent of Colin Kaepernick work last year.
A dozen years, 480 honorees. A recent MWWPR-sponsored survey of those who have made the elite list offers insights into where PR is now - and where it must go.
The company wants an agency that will push them outside their comfort zone.
Gwilliam will help expand the firm's San Francisco presence.
Brands including Spin and Jump are being backed by investors with deep pockets.
Someone who takes part in Vitaminwater's #NoPhoneForaYear challenge will win $100,000.
When PR builds trust and human engagement, it becomes a core strategy, says Hudson Cutler & Co. partner David Herrick.


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Photo Gallery 2 Images
PORTLAND, Ore. — Two young patients of OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital will have their chance to design Nike shoes through the hospital's 2018 Doernbecher Freestyle program.
9-year-old Aiden Barber of Central Point and 10-year-old Donovon Dinneen of Riddle join four other young patients as this year's "patient designers."
According to OHSU, the Freestyle program draws on each patient-designer's personal story, medical history, and future hopes—combining them into an artistic style for Nike shoes and apparel. Those special designs are then auctioned off and sold to raise money for the Children's Hospital.
The six special collections will also be available for purchase on Nike's website and at some retail locations this year.
The Doernbecher Freestyle program started 15 years ago, and has raised nearly $20 million for the hospital.


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The International Telecommunications Union reported last week that there were 6 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide by the end of last year, with China and India accounting for about two billion of those subscriptions. The organization said there are now twice as many mobile-broadband subscriptions as fixed-broadband subscriptions worldwide.
The GSMA has updated the list of keynote speakers for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next year. The CEOs of NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone, Kaoru Kato and Vittorio Colao, are the latest executives added to the event’s roster of speakers. Other keynote speakers for the February 2013 event include the heads of Deutsche Telekom, Nokia and TeliaSonera.
Clariden Global’s Mobile Banking & Payments for Emerging Asia Summit wrapped up last week. The event highlighted the growth of mobile payments in emerging Asian markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines. “It was satisfying to note that mobile ecosystem stakeholders are stepping up efforts to work together positively and realize Asia’s potential,” Lo Bok Yan, managing director of Clariden, said in a statement.
Huawei has selected Spirent’s TestCenter to verify the performance of its newly launched CloudEngine 12800 series data center switches. Huawei launched the CloudEngine data center switches earlier this year with 48 Tbps of single-frame switching capacity and support for high-density, line-speed 1/10/40/100 G Ethernet ports. Huawei used Spirent solutions to test its data center switches’ capability to offer services to help customers build scalable, virtualized and converged networks.


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Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY: Quote) reported Thursday a 12 percent increase in first-quarter profit, above Street estimates, boosted by higher sales, even as its blockbuster drug Plavix recorded lower sales. The Biopharmaceutical firm also maintained its fiscal 2012 earnings forecast.
Type 2 diabetes drug Onglyza/Kombiglyze, Arthritis drug Orencia as well as two other cancer drugs posted significant sales in the quarter, while the sales of its flagship anti-clogging drug Plavix, for which the company will lose exclusivity in May 2012, declined 4 percent.
For its first quarter, net earnings attributable to the company rose 12 percent to $1.10 billion or $0.64 per share from last year's $986 million or $0.57 per share. The earnings growth would have been 10 percent on an adjusted basis.
On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.63 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Bristol-Myers' net sales grew 5 percent to $5.25 billion, but came in below Wall Street analysts' estimate of $5.26 billion. U.S. net sales increased 6 percent to $3.5 billion and international net sales grew 2 percent to $1.8 billion.
In the quarter, Plavix's sales dropped 4 percent to $1.69 billion, while the decline was 1 percent in the U.S. Sales of hypertension drugs Avapro/Avalide also declined 29 percent.
However, sales of Onglyza/Kombiglyze climbed 99 percent to $161 million and sales of cancer drug Sprycel improved 34 percent to $271 million. Orencia's sales grew 28 percent and that of chronic hepatitis B drug Baraclude improved 18 percent from a year ago. Cancer drug Yervoy, which was approved by the FDA in March 2011, had sales of $154 million in the quarter.
The company's gross margin was 75.2 percent in the quarter, higher than 73.2 percent in the same period a year ago.
In the quarter, marketing, selling and administrative expenses increased 8 percent, while advertising and product promotion spending and research and development expenses declined.
Chief Executive Officer Lamberto Andreotti said, "We reported good financial performance at both the top and bottom lines, a positive opinion in Europe on FORXIGA for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and the presentation of important new clinical data from the Company's HCV franchise."
In February, the company completed its $2.5 billion acquisition of Inhibitex, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. Bristol-Myers noted that Inhibitex's lead compound, INX-189, a nucleotide polymerase inhibitor in Phase II development, is part of a class of antivirals that may play a critical role as the backbone of future direct-acting antiviral-only combination approached to HCV treatment.
Looking ahead, Bristol-Myers continues to expect fiscal 2012 earnings per share between $1.90 and $2, while 21 analysts project full-year earnings of $1.97 per share.
The company previously had said that its worldwide sales for the year would be between $17.2 billion and $18.2 billion, assuming that worldwide sales of Plavix to be approximately $2.7 billion. Analysts currently expect sales of $18.02 billion for the year.
Bristol-Myers shares are currently trading at $33.75, down $0.54 or 1.57 percent.
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