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Phase One Of MLB 2K13's Perfect Game Challenge Concludes
on May 07, 2013 at 10:20 AM
The first part of 2K Sports' MLB 2K13's Perfect Game Challenge is over, and 30 winners for each MLB team have bagged $25,000 apiece. This is the fourth year of the contest, and this year's features a little different format, rewarding more players for pitching a perfect game than before....
MLB 2K13's Perfect Game Challenge Begins Today
on April 01, 2013 at 09:47 AM
MLB 2K13 's fourth annual Perfect Game Challenge officially kicks off at today at 9 AM PT, and runs through April 30. The rules are a little different this year. One player won't be walking away with a million dollars. Here's what 2K Sports has planned: "Contestants can compete to win...
2K Sports Outlines New Changes To MLB 2K13's Perfect Game Challenge
on February 11, 2013 at 05:13 PM
MLB 2K13's release is fast approaching, which means it's almost time for another Perfect Game Challenge. This year's challenge introduces some new changes that will provide gamers with extra opportunities to grab some cash. In previous years, the $1 million Perfect Game Challenge cash prize...
MLB 2K12’s Perfect Game Challenge Ends In Controversy
on May 04, 2012 at 08:59 PM
Everyone wants to be a millionaire. 2K Sports MLB 2K12 Perfect Game Challenge offered players just that. But was the contest fair? 2K’s contest stipulated that contestants of the $1 Million Perfect Game Challenge must use real-world matchups being played during the contest. Players were provided...
Meet MLB 2K11's Million-Dollar Man
on May 26, 2011 at 04:25 PM
Brian Kingrey, a 25-year-old high school music teacher in Louisiana has become the latest gamer to pitch a perfect game with 2K Sports' Major League Baseball series; claiming a million-dollar prize. Kingrey played Major League Baseball 2K11 for a few weeks in advance of the contest, which demanded...
2K Sports Finds its MLB 2K11 Perfect Game Winner
on May 18, 2011 at 09:24 AM
The deadline for 2K Sports Perfect Game Challenge just passed, and the company has verified the footage with the help of video game record scorekeepers Twin Galaxies and found a winner. Who is it? Well, the company isn't saying yet – we'll have to wait until May 26 to find out. But Jason...
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In one case, dubbed the "back screen of death" users reported instances where their 3DS screens grew black shortly before their consoles became unresponsive. Other owners documented errors involving a screen instructing them to restart their systems.
Nintendo has taken notice of the issues, and offered 3DS users a fix for the error. "If anyone is experiencing any problems with their Nintendo 3DS console, we recommend that in the first instance they download and install the latest system update, now available online," the company said in a statement.
Link to Original Source

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The UK government wants to improve the state of cyber-security in the country, by offering help for start-ups tackling the issue, it was announced on Wednesday.
The help comes in the form of the ‘Early Stage Accelerator Programme’, which will assist start-ups in development and market placement of their products and services.
Funded by the Government’s National Cyber Security Programme, the ‘Early Stage Accelerator Programme’ is worth £250,000, and it's run by in partnership by Cyber London and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University Belfast.
The goal of the programme is to increase the rate of new cyber-security start-up development in the country, help firms build and test their ideas, and transform them into viable businesses.
It will also help start-ups identify new business ideas, as well as provide a space for collaboration.
“The UK’s strong and growing digital economy is changing the way we live and work. As technologies continue to evolve there will be an increased demand for secure products and services, and this new programme will ensure the best ideas from our brightest minds can help keep the UK safe in cyberspace. I’m delighted to announce Cyber London and CSIT Belfast as partners in running this new programme,“ said John Whittingdale, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
“CSIT is delighted to partner with Cyber London on this programme. CSIT and Cyber London are at the heart of the UK’s cyber security start-up ecosystem and together we bring a strength of cyber capability, a track record of producing and nurturing start-ups, and an ability to leverage significant additional industry and innovation support partnerships from across the globe,“ said Stephen Wray, Commercial Director of CSIT.


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Nigerian, the Highest Social Media Users in the World.
Nigeria is reported to have the highest internet (social media) utilization in the world (4.07 hours per day- Statista). Is this good news especially in the light of the 4th industrial revolution (digital revolution)? The country does not have to wait for 100 years to achieve economic take off like it happened in 18th century Europe.
However, some are saying that these guys on the internet are yahoo boys and fraudsters. But as they say, you can’t always win but we think it is great news especially with intermittent power from the national grid. In addition to spending time on the internet, Nigerians (Lagosians) also spend an incredible amount of time in traffic. They spend approximately 1,080 hours a year in traffic, compared to 148 hours spent in London. Given that power supply is not constant, an average Nigerian will spend 17% of the day on social media. If this time is used unproductively or for dysfunctional activities, Nigeria will lose an average of N30 trillion per annum (2% of GDP).
Reopening of Land borders will Improve Trade
Finally, the Federal Government approved the reopening of four land borders points including Idiroko, Jibia, Kamba and Ikom respectively. This is expected to boost intra-regional trade within Africa. Wholesale and retail trade constitutes over 25.4% of GDP in Nigeria. There is a fine distinction between trading and smuggling but in the light of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement we expect open borders to act as a facilitator rather than an inhibitor of trade. Therefore this is likely to be a boom for traders and artisans in Nigeria, which employs no less than 80m people
Unity Bank Plc Releases Spectacular results for 2021
Unity Bank Plc is delighted to report a 52.09% increase in Profit after tax for the year ended December 31, 2021. This is a period when the economy was plagued by a recession and post covid restrictions. This spectacular performance was driven by a significant reduction in the company’s net trading loss, which fell by 65.71% to N1.31bn in 2021. The performance of the bank in the year suggests a positive outlook for 2022.
This edition of the Unity Bank Digest, as usual, provides you with intriguing recent economic news and interesting social stories.
Please enjoy your read!


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After a brief stint identifying itself as "IHOb", the International House of Pancakes announced on social media Monday that it has reverted back to its original name. "We'd never turn our back on pancakes (except for that time we faked it to promote our new burgers)". It's to celebrate the restaurant chain's 60th birthday.
Long known as the "International House of Pancakes", the chain teased the name change days before formally announcing it would be called "IHOb".
Pancakes and burgers coexist in harmony. "So, we went bold with the campaign".
The name-change move accomplished what appears to have been its core goal: It got people talking.
Thai rescuers race to drain water from cave before rain
Scribbled notes by the trapped boys and their coach were posted on the Thai Navy Seal Facebook page on Saturday (July 7) morning. Another approach was to use full-face oxygen masks and accompanying them out on a treacherous swim through pitch black tunnels.
Though the quick switch might have baffled people, the change actually helped IHOP boost sales numbers.
Prior to the IHOb campaign, 19% of United States adults said they had talked about the chain in the past two weeks. At the time, a branding expert told FOX Business that the name change was the "dumbest decision ever made in the world of branding".
The IHOb name change was never meant to be permanent.
"The pancakes haven't gone anywhere". They said it was a way to turn their focus away from breakfast and to its enhanced burger menu.


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What happens when food is contaminated? The results can be devastating, as demonstrated by the deadliest food-borne illness outbreaks in US history. Over time, thousands of Americans have been killed by improperly handled or tainted foods and many more have been exposed to infectious diseases. These outbreaks often lead to massive food recalls, new government regulations, and widespread public backlash. Each instance where recalled food killed people shaped the country in a new way.
Contaminated food deaths are rare in the modern United States, but they still occur on occasion. Nearly every state has experienced at least one outbreak, and the culprits can be anything from olives to oysters. The one consolation for such tragedies, however, is those who perished from food-borne illnesses were not forgotten by our nation's lawmakers. Some of the outbreaks below resulted in massive changes to food safety laws. These laws help keep citizens safer and healthier than ever before.
2011 Colorado Listeriosis Outbreak
The Outbreak: Listeria
The Source: Cantaloupes from Jensen Farms, Colorado.
Number of Casualties: 34 (including one miscarriage)
What Happened: During winter of 2011, 147 people across multiple states tested positive for listeria bacteria. The CDC reports that 28 states were affected. Eventually, investigations linked the outbreak to cantaloupes sold by Jensen Farms in Colorado.
2009 Salmonellosis Outbreak
The Outbreak: Salmonella
The Source: Peanuts and peanut butter
Number of Casualties: 9
What Happened: A Peanut Corporation of America plant located in Georgia was the subject of intense scrutiny after their products were linked to a salmonella outbreak. The plant had a slurry of issues including poor hygiene standards, rodent infestations, and improper roasting of peanuts. These factors all contributed to an outbreak that would eventually take the lives of nine people. The FDA claimed that the corporation knowingly shipped out peanut butter that had tested positive for salmonella.
2002 Pilgrim's Pride Listeria Outbreak
The Outbreak: Listeria
The Source: Pilgrim's Pride Foods deli turkey.
Number of Casualties: 10 (including stillbirths and miscarriages)
What Happened: An outbreak of listeria in nine states caused a food processing plant owned by Pilgrim's Pride to temporarily shut its doors. Roughly 27.4 million pounds of poultry meat was recalled. The outbreak was mostly limited to states on the Eastern seaboard.
1998 United States Listeriosis Outbreak
The Outbreak: Literia
The Source: Hot dogs and packaged meat from the Sara Lee Corporation.
Number of Casualties: 21 (including stillbirths)
What Happened: Listeria bacterium found in Ball Park hot dogs and deli meats led to a massive recall of 15 million pounds of packaged meats. The outbreak was a national crisis and affected 22 different states. Pregnant women and children were particularly affected, as were the elderly.


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On September 24, iPhone 13 series was available on Apple’s online and retail stores, worldwide. However, the delivery dates of the new flagship series have been extended by 30 days. NikkieAsia reports that the delivery dates are lengthened because COVID-19 related supply chain disruptions in Vietnam.
If iPhone 13 Pro models are ordered today in the United States, it has Nov 1-Nov 8 delivery time, iPhone 13 has Oct 20-25 and iPhone 13 mini has Oct 12-15 free delivery times.
Supply of iPhone 13 models camera module is affected by Vietnam’s new COVID-19 wave
Although Apple procures components in advance, the company’s decision to introduce sensor-shift image stabilization across iPhone 13 series is causing supply chain constraints because that has put pressure on suppliers to increase production while maintaining quality “against the backdrop of severe restrictions due to COVID.” However, the situation might improve by mid-October.
“Assemblers can still produce the new iPhones, but there’s a supply gap [in] that the inventories of the camera modules are running low,” one of the executives with direct knowledge told Nikkei Asia. “There’s nothing we can do but to monitor the situation in Vietnam every day and wait for them to ramp up the output.”
The situation may improve as soon as around mid-October as production at one of the key iPhone camera module manufacturing facilities in southern Vietnam has gradually resumed in recent days after several months of on-and-off disruption, another executive familiar with the situation told Nikkei.
Earlier it was reported that workers were sleeping in factors to avoid COVID-19 related production disruptions.
Authorities have worked with companies “to have them arrange for their workers to sleep in the factories and in dormitories while also having them tested every week,” said Nguyen Dai Luong, chairman of the People’s Council of Viet Yen district, where four of the province’s five operating industrial parks are located.”
In the wake of the US-China trade war, Apple, Samsung, and other manufacturers moved some of the production operations out to China to Vietnam which led to the country’s growth. However, an increase in COVID-19 Delta variant cases in the southern part of Vietnam has hit its tech hubs, Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong Province.


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Staying afloat: The Ethiopian venture determined to bring healthy water to all
SNAPSHOTS FROM ADDIS Ahead of the Social Enterprise World Forum in October, Pioneers Post travelled to this year’s host city Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to meet some of the entrepreneurs trying to use business as a force for good. In June we met the team behind Desert Rose Consultancy, who are taking on the challenge of the country’s 90 million people without access to safe drinking water at home
The day we visit the Desert Rose Consultancy office and assembly plant in Addis Ababa, the machinery is silent, and only a few manufacturing staff are around.
The company’s household water filters – which they claim are the only ones entirely manufactured in Ethiopia – have outer containers repurposed from the cylindrical packaging used by a pharmaceutical company. But that firm has just stopped selling them, meaning
Desert Rose may need to import similar pieces from overseas, incurring import tax along the way. Until that’s resolved, production has stalled. On top of that, the cost of some other materials has doubled since sales began in late 2017, according to co-owner Thomas Berger. “Business is really tough at the moment,” he says.
Berger, a Swiss anthropologist, and Andrew Smith, a British engineer, set up Desert Rose 11 years ago. The move was prompted, Berger tells us, by a disillusionment with the flourishing “NGO economy” they witnessed working in eastern Ethiopia and the “unhealthy patterns” created by dependency on aid. Today, he runs two companies employing more than 30 people in total: one that publishes local language materials, and Desert Rose, which alongside the filters, also does intercultural training and consulting, and designs educational games.
Minch, the water filter brand, targets low-income consumers – of which there are plenty: 60.5m Ethiopians don’t have access to safe drinking water, according to WaterAid. Desert Rose cites other research that finds 90m don't have access to low-risk drinking water in their homes – and that’s the issue they want to solve, with a product that can be used within any home.
Three years in development, the filter removes 99.9% of e.coli bacteria by a mechanical process, without using chemicals. Administrative manager Yared Abera (pictured, on the right) says the product is easy to use and maintain, lasting up to two years in rural areas, and up to five years in the towns. There are comparable products available, but none developed and manufactured in Ethiopia. Meanwhile domestically-produced household treatment and storage products tend to be either bulky or delicate, says Yared, and don’t perform as well as imported products.
To date the company has produced nearly 1,000 filters, half of which were bought by Oxfam – there are benefits of working within an NGO economy, Berger admits – with the rest sold to other charities, community and church groups, and salespeople.
But the future looks uncertain, at least for the Minch part of the business, which is not yet breaking even. Given the target customer, bringing the retail price down is essential (the aim is to sell at around US$25 per piece; currently it’s about $70), but it’s difficult to get round the rising cost of materials.
Given the target customer, bringing the retail price down is essential
And investment is needed, for example in new machinery. Minch has attracted some private investors in Europe, and in late 2018 got a grant from an international NGO partnership – but when they needed to redesign their product due to a flaw, the grant no longer covered this and payments were stopped.
There are other challenges. Ethiopia ranks 159 out of 190 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index, and some business owners struggle with lengthy delays and overcomplicated processes. Nor does the government yet recognise social enterprises as a specific form of business, which means they don’t benefit from the kind of support available in some other countries. That may change: the fledgling network Social Enterprise Ethiopia is pushing for better policies, and this month’s Social Enterprise World Forum will no doubt draw attention to potential of the movement.
All hands on deck
Catching up with Yared by phone in October, we hear that the container supply is still an issue, so the team have begun researching how they can design viable, homegrown alternatives themselves to the out-of-stock packaging.
That may take some time, but Yared is still upbeat. “We’ve almost sold all the filters we had in our stock,” he says. “We have lots of requests.” He still believes they can find ways to reduce costs and make the product affordable to those who most need it.
In the meantime, they’re sustaining the business in other ways.
‘We are passionate about people, and people reaching their potential’
The consultancy arm is going strong, with Desert Rose staff helping clients including international schools and embassies with things like cross-cultural communication, facilitation and moderation. (Their top tip when working with Ethiopians: greetings are extremely important.)
The team is also busy on the gamification strand of the business: the current project is a maths game for kids.
Such educational games are a potential growth area, says Yared. NGOs are one potential customer, but also families – particularly the parents keen to engage their kids in “family time” or something more constructive than watching TV or scrolling through smartphones.
Desert Rose Innovation sees a strong business opportunity in designing and producing educational games. Gabisa is a game for farmers; Endod promotes handwashing; Dr 50 and Dr 10 (pictured above) help children to learn maths. (Photo credit: Desert Rose Innovation)
How do staff members adapt to switching from one arm of the business to another? Yared says they continuously learn from each other, and that it’s like being “on a small boat”: “All of us have a task.” Aside from printing, every aspect of making the games is done in-house, and almost all the staff are involved in brainstorming and testing them.
Deploying the skills of the team members responsible for physically manufacturing the filters, three of whom are deaf, was a little more difficult.
“We needed to find other ways of making money,” says Yared. The team “brainstormed some ideas”, coming up with 12, and finally settling on woodwork. As we speak, Yared’s colleagues are building a table, and the team are working to find customers interested in handmade products.
“We’re not only a social enterprise,” says Yared. “We are passionate about people, and people reaching their potential, and being supported.”
Header photo and above: Some of the Desert Rose team pictured in front of Minch water filters including Abraham Getahun, production manager; Yeabsera Terege, laboratory head; Yared Abera, head of administration. Photo credits: Julie Pybus.


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Immelt expects the plastics business to be sold in the second half of this year. The business is expected to fetch at least $10 billion.
Analysts see private-equity buyers as well as chemicals giants such as BASF, Dow Chemical and Saudi Arabia's Saudi Basic Industries as likely buyers.
Although the business has faced challenges, "there are a lot of people for whom plastics is a good asset," Immelt said.
Some industry analysts were surprised by the quick pace of GE's recent deals.
"Do I like doing three deals this big, this quickly? I don't," Immelt said. "But they are all on strategy, and they all kind of happen as they happen....These were just additional steps along the way of making it a better company."
Earlier, GE reported higher fourth-quarter earnings in line with analyst estimates.
Imment also commented on several other topics.
On the GE stock price:
"We trade at an 18-times earnings," Immelt said, explaining that level is a "slight premium" to the market.
"There's nothing not to like about the stock today," he said. "When I got to GE five years ago, GE's (price-to-earnings ratio) was the same as Google's is today. That's probably not sustainable for GE, and probably not sustainable for a lot of companies during that time period."
On why someone should hold GE stock:
"The best days are ahead. This is a better company today than it was five years ago by far...The long-term growth rate has increased, the return of total capital is expanding, margin rates are expanding...We've doubled our organic growth within the company, and look, that's all ahead of investors in the future."
On future growth:
"The good news for a company like GE is: the developing markets are booming and that's going to continue."
On CEO compensation:
"Transparency is key," he said. "In my belief, and again it's just my belief, people shouldn't have contracts....I think you ought to be in the same position that every other person in the company is. You've got to bring it every day, and if you don't bring it, you shouldn't have a contract that defines how much you get if you fail. That's my own philosophy. You have to have a lot at risk."
Immelt said he wouldn't want compensation to be regulated. However, he said, it could happen if businesses don't reform the situation on their own.
As for himself, Immelt said: "I value my own reputation more than I value the money I make."


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Dead or Alive Festival is an annual festival held in Japan that occurs on the first week of August. As the name suggests, the festival celebrates all things related to the Dead or Alive franchise.
The 2015 festival featured a photoshoot contest as well as a cosplay event. In addition, Ai Nonaka and Mai Aizawa, the voice actresses for Honoka and Marie Rose, respectively, were special guests at the event. Those who attended also got a special code for a special costume for Marie Rose, which was later announced to be the Marie Rose Red Bull 5G Costume: R. The festival also announced the subject matter of the remaining DLC for the Season 2 Pass: August's DLC was revealed to be an all-girl costume set called Hot Summer Costume Pack, which also came with a new stage called Fireworks, and that it was going to be released on August 11; September's DLC was revealed to be a collaboration with Falcom games, the October DLC was the Halloween set, with three winners announced: Honoka, Tina, and Lisa, who were dressed up as a Mad Hatter, a Mermaid, and a Bat in her La Mariposa identity, respectively; and the December DLC featured costumes from the mobile game Schoolgirl Strikers; They also announced some DLC for 2016, namely a collaboration costume set with Tatsunoko Production due for Winter 2016; a new character in Spring 2016; and a new stage. Yosuke Hayashi also strongly implied in an announcement that they were developing Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, which was later confirmed on the official Facebook page, albeit only for Asia and Japan.
The 2016 festival was announced on April 15, 2016, with it being promised that there would be more announcements to come. Only thing known is that it will feature special announcements for both Dead or Alive 5 Last Round and Dead or Alive Xtreme 3. It was eventually announced that it will occur on July 9, 2016. Visitor awards include special costumes for Kasumi, Ayane, Honoka, and Marie Rose that reflect the then-current games (Kasumi and Marie Rose getting a black T-shirt with the DOA5 logo emblazoned on the front as well as blue daisydukes, and Ayane and Honoka wearing a white beach shirt with the DOAX3 logo emblazoned on the front and black bikini bottoms, respectively), as well as a lanyard, a paper fan, and a medal indicating the series' 20th anniversary. Of the costumes, only Kasumi and Marie Rose's costume set was confirmed to see a release outside Japan for obvious reasons.
- DOA Festival 2015 on the official Dead or Alive 5 Last Round website.
- DOA Festival 2016 on the official Dead or Alive 5 Last Round website.


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Worldwide IT spending is expected to grow 5.6% this year to $5.6trn, driven by demand for media tablets such as the iPad.
Worldwide media tablet spending is projected to reach $29.4bn in 2011, up from $9.6bn in 2010, according to the latest forecast from analyst house Gartner. Global spending on media tablets is forecast to increase at an annual average rate of 52% through 2015.
Richard Gordon, research vice-president at Gartner, said: "Absent of the addition of media tablets, the forecast would have slightly declined in constant-dollar terms; however, with their addition, there is virtually no change in underlying forecast growth at the level of overall IT."
Gartner estimates that spending on computer hardware will increase by 9.5%, while enterprise software spending is set to increase 7.6%. Spending on IT services will increase by 5% during 2011, according to Gartner.
As Computer Weekly has previously reported, the take-up of mobile devices such as the iPad is driving demand for mobile business-to-consumer applications.


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This article from Scientific American outlines a recent idea sweeping across much of East Africa, including several projects and start-up companies here in Tanzania.
The idea is quite simple, actually: Rural families who can’t afford the high costs in setting up a traditional solar electricity system are able to pre-pay for a certain amount of electricity generated by the solar kit. Once they’ve used the electricity paid for, the kit shuts off access until they make another payment – just like the scratch-off cards for mobile phone vouchers we use here in Dar es Salaam – and payments can be made via M-Pesa or similar services. When they have the cash, they buy more electricity, and once they’ve paid for the full kit, it continues to generate electricity for them for free!
Published on the same day was this article from Mary Ellen Harte at the Huffington Post, outlining current and future developments in the field of renewable energy. She focuses specifically on solar energy, with some discussion of wind, wave, and geothermal power as well.
Both of these articles fit nicely within our ESS Topic 3.3.3 – “Outline the factors that affect the choice of energy sources adopted by different societies.”
Infographic from screen capture, The Gates Notes
Follow the link below to read about Bill Gates’ take on future developments in food production, specifically concerning the global increase in meat consumption over the past couple of decades. Here’s what the illustrious Mr Gates has to say about the issue on his personal blog, The Gates Notes:
Meat consumption worldwide has doubled in the last 20 years, and it is expected to double again by 2050. This is happening in large part because economies are growing and people can afford more meat. That’s all good news. But raising meat takes a great deal of land and water and has a substantial environmental impact. Put simply, there’s no way to produce enough meat for 9 billion people. Yet we can’t ask everyone to become vegetarians. We need more options for producing meat without depleting our resources.
Mr Gates’ comments align perfectly with some of the issues that we’ll study in ESS Topic 3.5 – Food Resources. This issue is particularly relevant to us here in Tanzania as well, especially considering that, according to the UN, Dar es Salaam is one of the world’s fastest growing cities.
Click here to read the full article at The Gates Notes.


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Recently, tech companies have been taking major action to gain a foothold in the ripe market that is China, from Apple‘s public apology to Google‘s rumored censorship. The latest to make somewhat of a concession is Microsoft, though the implications are probably far less unprecedented or disruptive. The company has just announced one its latest major partnership in China, which will help it gain access to potentially hundreds of millions of users. But its deal with Baidu is coming at a small price, one that will see Bing out the door in the region.
Baidu can perhaps be likened to the Google of China in that it offers a wide variety of Internet services, primary among them being search. This would, of course, be in competition with Microsoft’s own homegrown search engine Bing. As part of its drive to push Windows 10 to more users, particularly in China, Microsoft is prepared to give way to Baidu as its blessed search engine, at least in China.
In practice, this will mean two changes that will happen automatically when Chinese users upgrade to Windows 10, with or without their consent. First, their default browser will be automatically switched to Microsoft Edge, regardless of what it was before the upgrade. Second, they will see Baidu as the default search engine for the OS. Two settings that are easy enough to change, but could still prove irksome to long time Windows users.
For its part, Baidu will be helping Microsoft distribute Windows 10 via its new “Windows 10 Express” channel. It will also help tide users over to the new OS by providing Universal Windows Application versions of its own Search, Video, and Cloud apps for Windows 10. Being universal apps, this means that those will also be available for Windows 10 Mobile when it launches later this year.
All of these to help Microsoft cement its standing in China, where Apple and Google are making headway with both iOS and Android. Microsoft is also seeing some threat from the Chinese government itself, which is trying to push for a Linux-based operating system in lieu of never-ending allegations of spying between the US and China. Like Google, Microsoft sees that the only way in would be through partnerships with local companies, and Redmond is definitely willing to make sacrifices to get there.


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Uber's Plan to Pump More Money Into Loss-making Eats Will Heat up the Foodtech space
The online food delivery market in India is expected to grow at over 16 per cent annually to over $17 billion by 2023, and the comments from Uber could mean more cut-throat competition
Uber, known for revolutionizing ride-hailing across the world, spooked investors after reporting a wider third-quarter loss but said it plans to invest heavily into the loss-making food delivery venture Uber Eats over the next couple of quarters.
“At least over the next couple of quarters we still see a lot of money flowing into (Uber Eats),” chief financial officer Nelson Chai said on a post-earnings call.
Adjusted net revenue from Eats, the food delivery business, more than doubled to $392 million from the year-ago quarter while adjusted loss from the segment was $316 million, compared with $189 million a year earlier.
In India, the food delivery space has seen a massive surge in demand over the last few years with homegrown Swiggy grabbing the largest share of the pie with Gurgaon-based Zomato, which started as a data aggregator on restaurants, becoming a major competitor as well.
The online food delivery market in India is expected to grow at over 16 per cent annually to over $17 billion by 2023, according to a report published by consultancy firm Market Research Future earlier this year.
Amid such growth, the comments from Uber could mean more cut-throat competition.
Deep-Pocketed, Focused Rivals
Even though Uber has a much larger valuation than its biggest competitor in the Indian food space, Swiggy holds the advantage of having to spend almost all of its funds on one area of focus.
With a $1 billion funding late last year, Swiggy’s valuation shot up to $3.3 billion. For a firm that was launched in 2014, the growth has been exponential.
As Uber’s bigger loss showed on Monday, the focus on diversifying into areas other than ride-hailing is going to result in more cash-burn, and as a publicly-listed company, that might not be a welcome move from investors’ standpoint in the near-term. Uber’s shares have lost more than 30 per cent since its high-profile IPO in May.
The likes of Swiggy, on the other hand, are shielded from stock market scrutiny.
Adding to the woes of an international company like Uber is the rise of Zomato. Despite facing the wrath of restaurants for its 1+1 offers on food and drinks to certain paying customers, the start-up has continued to pump it up in the delivery market.
Zomato is in talks to raise $600 million in a new round of funding led by existing investor Ant Financial, The Economic Times reported last month, citing two people familiar with the matter. Ant Financial is a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
If the new funding happens, Zomato’s valuation could cross $3 billion, the report said.
Can Uber Afford It?
As of September 30, Uber’s cash and cash equivalents stood at $12.65 billion.
The numbers might seem massive but one must also consider the scale of its multiple businesses and the company’s recent comments.
On Monday, the San Francisco-based company said it would post a positive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization by the end of 2021, as it attempted to soothe investor sentiment.
Uber’s net loss was $1.16 billion in the reported quarter compared with a loss of $986 million a year earlier.
Whether Uber’s focus on investing more in its food delivery unit would bear results is yet to be seen, but for the average consumer, tougher competition in the space is essentially the beginning of another season of deep discounting and compelling offers.


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Jamaica News: Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Hon Daryl Vaz, says the Government is looking to strengthen aspects of the law applicable where breaches of the ban on single-use plastics, which takes effect on January, 1, 2019, may be committed.
While noting fines ranging between $50,000 to over $1 million for breaches of stipulations under the Natural Resources Conservation Authority and Trade Acts, Mr. Vaz contended that, “too often [in several instances] we are using archaic outdated legislation and laws that are totally inadequate in terms of the consequences through fines and imprisonment, and whatever else”.
“We are looking at that… [and] I can assure the public that there will be teeth [in the law]”,” the Minister added.
He was speaking at the recent launch of the Integrated Water, Land and Ecosystems (IWEco) sub-national project to restore the hydrological and other features of the Negril Great Morass in Westmoreland.
Come January 1, the Government will commence imposition of the ban on the importation, manufacture, distribution and use of specific categories of plastic packaging material.
They include single-use plastic carrier/shopping bags; expanded polystyrene, commonly called Styrofoam; and plastic drinking straws, which are often improperly discarded, causing significant harm to the environment.


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To many who aren't familiar with Bitcoin, an electronic form of cash, stories like these can make the online currency seem like catnip for criminals. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) last year urged a ban on Bitcoin for precisely that reason, saying it helped people "transacting in illegal goods and services or speculative gambling."
But now, as part of a wider effort to change Bitcoin's image in the minds of regulators and lawmakers, advocates of the technology have begun working with a group whose background and expertise make them well-respected within the Beltway: Federal law enforcement.
The Justice Department, Secret Service and other agencies are beginning to understand how to use Bitcoin for forensics — tracking flows of digital money across borders and online wallets just as they do with government-backed dollars. And the companies that handle these online transactions want to help. So they've created a first-of-its-kind trade group, known as the Block Chain Alliance, to reach out to federal officials.
The organization is designed as a one-stop shop where authorities who need a hand navigating the complex world of Bitcoin transactions can get advice and a steer in the right direction. Jerry Brito is the executive director of the Coin Center, and he helped bring together the 20-odd Bitcoin companies trying to build a relationship with governments both here and abroad.
"Law enforcement is coming across your traditional kinds of crimes where Bitcoin is the medium of exchange being used," said Brito. Their goal? "Try to find the bad guys."
Brito has been approached before by police for assistance. Several weeks ago, he said, Spanish authorities came to him asking for help tracking a suspect wanted for child molestation who they thought was using Bitcoin.
"This is the kind of thing where I can't help them, but I put them in touch with a company that might be able to help them track down this person," said Brito.
That was a one-off encounter. But Bitcoin makes it possible for law enforcement agencies everywhere to wield the technology in powerful ways, and they're increasingly savvy about it. You see, every transaction with Bitcoin is a matter of public record — by design. Even though you can't see who is paying whom, every individual bitcoin can be tracked as it makes its way across the ecosystem from one owner to another.
Jason Weinstein, a Washington lawyer who previously worked in the Justice Department's criminal division, helped pull together the Block Chain Alliance as a way to turn Brito's interaction with the cops into a more systematic process. In so doing, he wants to teach law enforcement that Bitcoin isn't all bad. And he hopes they'll pass the message along to policymakers.
"What's good for public safety is also good for business, and the growth of the industry," he said.
Weinstein likens Bitcoin to the Internet itself, which is certainly used by criminals but also powers billions of people's e-mail, online shopping, research and education and entertainment. And Bitcoin is similar to the Web in another respect, he said. When the Internet first took off, lawbreakers were running amok on a platform law enforcement didn't understand. Eventually, police began reaching out to technologists to understand it and get up to speed.
Now, Weinstein and Brito don't want to have to wait for the police to come knocking; they say this is the Bitcoin industry's way of proactively sharing what they can with the authorities.
This raises natural questions about privacy: How forthcoming are Bitcoin-using companies going to be in sharing their customers' data?
"That's where a lot of the discussion is going to be," said Brito. "What you need to do is, on the ends where you have on-ramps and off-ramps — the exchanges that exchange dollars for bitcoins — you need those to identify the people [you're searching for]."
Because these exchanges have to interact with the rest of the global banking system, letting consumers deposit and withdraw real-world money on demand, the vast majority are subject to the same data retention and reporting rules as other financial institutions, Brito said. While some might try to escape that government oversight and evade judicial due process, that'll likely hinder their ability to tap into the world financial system.


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Expands fiber-optic network to 5 million homes and businesses
Frontier (NASDAQ: FYBR):
TL;DR – The Byte-Size Download:
- Happening: Frontier announced today that it has hit the halfway point to its initial target of building blazing-fast fiber internet to 10 million locations by the end of 2025. The company started its current fiber build program in late 2020 and now reaches 5 million total locations.
- Why it Matters: Rallied around its purpose of Building Gigabit America, Frontier is building the digital infrastructure that the country needs to compete and lead. As the second largest fiber builder in the U.S., Frontier is delivering access to high-speed, reliable fiber internet connectivity to millions of consumers and businesses.
- Get stoked: “We are halfway to our initial goal of 10 million fiber locations passed, which means more of our schools, neighbors and business owners now have access to high-speed fiber internet,” said Veronica Bloodworth, Frontier’s Chief Network Officer. “We are delivering our fiber-first strategy at a record pace knowing the critical role that we play in connecting communities. It’s impressive to see our teams and external partners come together to accelerate our fiber build despite the challenging environment.”
In 2021, Frontier’s new leadership team launched a fiber-first strategy driven by its purpose of Building Gigabit America. In August of that year, the company set a target to expand to 10 million fiber locations by the end of 2025.
Since then, Frontier has accelerated its fiber build in 8 consecutive quarters. Earlier this year, the company raised its target from 1 million to a range of 1.1 to 1.2 new fiber locations for 2022.
Today, the company announced that it reached the halfway mark and expanded its fiber-optic network to 5 million homes and businesses across the country.
Why does this matter?
Frontier’s fiber-first strategy is transforming its business and the lives of those in its fiber footprint. As the demand for high-speed broadband connectivity grows, Frontier is positioned to deliver the best possible internet connectivity to meet the needs of consumers and businesses.
With its fiber-optic technology, Frontier is giving people the reliable, high-speed service they need to discover the endless possibilities and benefits that come with being part of the digital society. This is the rationale behind Frontier’s new “Un-Cable Yourself” campaign, which highlights the advantages of fiber internet over legacy cable connections for consumers.
“Simply stated: Fiber does what cable can’t,” said John Harrobin, Frontier’s Consumer EVP. “Fiber is superior to cable by leaps and bounds and will be the internet standard for decades to come. This is a truth supported by troves of objective data and why we are positioning Frontier as the number one ‘un-cable’ option in the market.”
About Frontier Communications
Frontier is a leading communications provider offering gigabit speeds to empower and connect millions of consumers and businesses in 25 states. It is building critical digital infrastructure across the country with its fiber-optic network and cloud-based solutions, enabling connections today and future proofing for tomorrow. Rallied around a single purpose, Building Gigabit America™, the company is focused on supporting a digital society, closing the digital divide, and working toward a more sustainable environment. Frontier is preparing today for a better tomorrow. Visit frontier.com.
“We are halfway to our initial goal of 10 million fiber locations passed, which means more of our schools, neighbors and business owners now have access to high-speed fiber internet.”
VP, Corporate Communications


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Bloomberg report: Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in China will likely cost $5 billion
According to a Bloomberg report, the cost of construction of Tesla Gigafactory 3 in China is expected to be $5 billion. Tesla Motors has been burning cash but with better deliveries of Model 3, investor expectations are high from the electric vehicle maker. Tesla is already in discussion with Germany and the Netherlands regarding its next Gigafactory.
The Bloomberg report is based on the information shared by an unidentified source who has also disclosed that Tesla will apparently pay for the projected cost of its new Gigafactory in China with a possible investment from a local partner.
The source familiar with the matter has specifically revealed on the condition of anonymity that Tesla is “considering raising some of the $5 billion it intends to invest in the plant near Shanghai from local partners.” The source also said that Tesla’s partnership with the local partner will be purely with a financial interest.
The Bloomberg report has come against the backdrop of Tesla’s last-month confirmation of its plans to build a Gigafactory in China. Tesla had revealed that it had reached a preliminary deal for the Gigafactory with the authorities in Shanghai. However, the company had not shared any details with regard to the excepted cost of the Gigafactory and its plans to pay for it.
Nonetheless, in announcing its China Gigafactory plans, Tesla had said that it would likely commence construction of the Gigafactory “in the near future,” and will start production at the factory in “roughly two years.”
According to the latest official registration data released in Norway, the sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country touched a new record high in September 2018.
French automaker Groupe Renault has introduced an ‘affordable’ new all-electric vehicle --- the Renault K-ZE electric crossover. The new vehicle was unveiled recently by Groupe Renault Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn.
In a recent press release, Australia-based integrated lithium miner and refiner Kidman Resources Limited has announced an offtake agreement which the company has signed with US-based electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla Motors.
German automaker BMW has released a design sketch to tease the concept version of its iNext electric car.
At electric vehicle maker Tesla’s Q1 2018 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla Motors plans to build its next Gigafactory in China.
The Boring Company promoted by Elon Musk has received an order to setup transport system in Chicago.


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Speaking to The Grocer at a Labour Party Conference fringe event, Sir John said products that formed part of a balanced diet, such as dairy, could be shunned if labelled red or if they appeared unhealthy.
The comments came a week after The Grocer launched its Junk the Spin campaign by highlighting a selection of foods that could be demonised if the wrong approach to labelling were taken by government (The Grocer, September 25, p4).
Sir John stated that food signposting would play a key role in government plans to target obesity and that a number of systems would be tested over the coming year. The food industry fears that a single traffic light scheme is among these and that this would prove unworkable. “One of the tests of any system is that it has to be sensible,” said Sir John, “We will try out a number of different ideas and hopefully come up with something that is clear and understandable.”
Health secretary John Reid said that labelling, together with the reformulation of foods and education, was the starting point for tackling obesity.
This issue is one of the key planks of the government’s White Paper, Choosing Health, now expected no earlier than the end of the month. The Grocer is spearheading a campaign to ensure the industry’s voice is heard during these last crucial weeks. Whitehall insiders say Reid has not yet made up his mind on key issues.
The Junk the Spin campaign is aimed at counteracting the spin that has been put out by single-issue lobby groups over the past year and which has dominated media coverage of the food and health debate. There are indications that the industry’s message is beginning to get through.
Reid told The Grocer he recognised the industry’s efforts to improve food labelling, restrict product sizes and reduce salt and sugar content. “There are signs this is being taken seriously by retailers and wholesalers,” he said.
But on labelling he added: “We need to find a simple but comprehensive system.”
Industry voiced its concerns over the direction the government would take over labelling, reformulation and advertising to children after a meeting with ministers last month. This week it launched a manifesto showing how it could help in improving the nation’s health.
>>p28 Opinion; p30 Letters; p40 Junk the Spin


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Amazon provides front-line workers a trip bonus of $ 300
An Amazon warehouse
Amazon is offering front-line employees a one-time bonus to share their appreciation for their work on the way to "the high point of the holiday season," the company announced Thursday.
In a blog post, Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president of retail operations, said that full-time employees who joined the company December 1 through December 31 will receive a $ 300 bonus. Part-time workers who are employed within the same period will receive a bonus of $ 150.
"I've been on Amazon for 22 vacations and this one is definitely one of a kind, to say the least," said Clark. "I am grateful to our teams who continue to play an important role in serving their communities."
Amazon said it will spend more than $ 500 million on the one-time vacation payments. In June, Amazon also spent $ 500 million on "thank you" bonuses for frontline employees who kept coming to work amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The company has spent billions of dollars on coronavirus-related investments since March, including wage increases, safety equipment, and improved cleaning measures, as well as expanding testing capabilities. Amazon issued temporary wage increases and double overtime pay at the height of the pandemic, but both incentives ended in June.
Since then, warehouse workers have been frustrated that their dangerous wages have been lowered, despite the ongoing pandemic and still facing increased health and safety risks in the workplace. In October, Amazon announced that more than 19,000 of its frontline workers in the United States contracted the coronavirus between March 1 and September 19.
Amazon defended its decision to end wage increases and double overtime wages, saying these wage bonuses were announced to "meet increased demand," which has since stabilized.
Retailers like Walmart and Target also started giving their employees bonuses at the start of the holiday shopping season.


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The idea of goods and services tax (GST) was first mooted in India in the year 2000. It took nearly 17 years of herculean effort on the part of a number of political leaders, senior officers, tax experts and other stakeholders before GST was launched on 1 July 2017.
Implementation of GST has been full of challenges due to the federal structure enshrined in our Constitution. The Seventh Schedule of the Constitution delineates division of powers between the centre and the states through three lists —the Union list, the state list and the concurrent list. Click to read more
Even though there were promises made prior to the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the E Way Bill norm that things would change, transporters are yet to see an end to inspector raj, All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) informed.
Talking to KNN, Naveen Kumar Gupta, Secretary General of All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) said that ‘ease’ for transporters still seems a far-fetched reality. Click to read more
In what could come as a relief to some taxpayers, the indirect tax department on Wednesday said it would allow those who couldn’t file the TRAN-1 form on the GST Network portal for claiming transitional credit due to IT glitches to complete the process by the end of the month. However, this facility will be restricted to those who can demonstrate clear IT-related issues for not being able to comply. “GSTN shall identify such taxpayers who could not file TRAN-1 on the basis of electronic audit trail,” the circular issued by the department said. Click to read more
Telangana’s growth in tax collection is unstoppable and it is the highest in the country. The State collected Rs 904 crore State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) in March, 2018, a record of sorts after the implementation of GST from July, 2017.The State collected Rs 853 crore SGST in January, 2018. Surpassing this, in March 2018, the State collected Rs 904 crore. In fact, the SGST collections of neighbouring AP are falling, whereas SGST collections in Telangana are going up. Click to read more
In its first order on anti-profiteering under goods and services tax (GST), the National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA) has dismissed the complaint against Vrandavaneshwaree Automotive Pvt Ltd, a Bareilly-based Honda car dealer, by concluding that it did not contravene the anti-profiteering provisions of the Central GST Act. Click to read more
Cutting across party lines, Punjab MPs on Wednesday held a protest outside the Parliament over the refusal of the central government to grant GST exemption on goods required to prepare ‘langar’ at the Golden Temple.
Gurdaspur MP and Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar flayed the Centre for refusing to understand the sentiments of Punjabis. Click to read more
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday continued his attack on the RSS and the Narendra Modi government.
Rahul, while interacting with traders, small businesses and employees of the unorganised sector, as part of the ‘Jana Aashirwada Yatre’, at Davangere in central Karnataka, said Modi’s resistance to listening to the popular opinion on the economy and the tax regime (GST) led to various problems leading to bank scams. Click to read more
Heads of leading global hotel brands are expressing concerns about the 28% tax slab levied on luxury hotels in India with some saying it will impact their expansion plans in the coming years.
Global heads of chains like HiltonNSE -1.71 % and Radisson Hotel Group who congregated in Mumbai for the 14th Hotel Investment Conference-South Asia (HICSA) organised by consulting firm Hotelivate said the rates make India one of the highly taxed countries in the world. Click to read more
Despite facing initial hiccups in the tax collections after the introduction of single tax regime on July 1 last year, the State government registered 19.42 per cent growth in the revenues generated through sales taxes in 2017-18. The total revenues generated by the State was Rs 42,074 crore (including GST) as against Rs 35, 231 crore earned in 2016-17.
Revenue collected from liquor, petrol, and diesel was phenomenal and all thanks to the constant increase in the fuel prices and abnormal growing liquor consumption. Click to read more
The commerce ministry is working on several measures, including formulating an integrated plan and setting up of a digital platform, to promote growth of the logistics sector, a top government official said today.
Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said that the sector holds enormous opportunities to boost economic growth of the country and these measures would also help cut transaction costs and time of traders. Click to read more


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Bed Bath & Beyond, Walgreens and PetSmart are among the retailers selling through Google’s voice-activated devices.
Online auction site eBay Inc. has acquired World of Good Inc., which sells so-called “fair trade” products from the developing world.
Online auction eBay Inc. this week acquired World of Good Inc., a five-year-old company that sells products from the developing world.
Worldofgood.com sells products across 15 categories, including clothing, beauty products and furniture. Products on the site’s home page Friday included homemade jewelry, notebooks and wreaths, reusable water bottles, artwork and natural lotions. World of Good says it sells products based on the principles of fair trade, which generally aim to pay higher prices to producers in developing countries. The site also focuses on what it calls eco-friendly products. The online marketplace includes hundreds of sellers from 85 countries, World of Good says.
"We are excited about the opportunity to scale the World of Good mission to an unprecedented degree through eBay," said World of Good co-founder and CEO Priya Haji.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal likely will give eBay a stronger position against smaller but growing online sites that sells arts and crafts products, according to Lazard Capital Markets. “We believe the acquisition provides eBay with a competitive offering to emerging marketplaces such as Etsy,” the research firm said in a note Friday. Etsy enables artisans to sell their products directly to consumers, with Etsy taking a cut of the sale as well as charging a fee for listings.


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Pointing to a report from the New York Times, this week, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged President Joe Biden to have the U.S. Department of Labor investigate Amazon.
The New York Times report found that Amazon has had many HR issues and Rubio pointed to the company “shortchanging new parents, patients dealing with medical crises and other vulnerable workers on leave.”
On Tuesday, Rubio called for the White House to have the Labor Department investigate Amazon.
“There are plenty of American businesses that are loyal to our country, respect their employees and want the best for their communities, but Amazon is not one of them,” Rubio said. “The company has more than enough resources to be the country’s self-appointed woke censor — banning conservative books and blocking traditional charities from participating in its AmazonSmile program — but apparently not enough to properly administer benefits owed to its employees.
“Amazon does not deserve the benefit of the doubt, which is why I am calling on President Biden to investigate these claims,” Rubio continued. “For too long, massive companies headquartered in America have taken advantage of our laws to the detriment of working men and women. We cannot allow that to continue.”
Rubio has been increasingly focused on Amazon during 2021. Back in March, he threw his support behind Amazon warehouse employees in Alabama looking to unionize in Alabama, including penning an op-ed that ran at USA Today.
Back in February, Rubio teamed up with U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in sending a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, calling on him to detail the nature of his company’s dealings with Dahua Technology Co. Dahua Technology is a Chinese company that has reportedly developed facial recognition software to recognize and report the detection of Uyghur Muslims to Chinese authorities, facilitating the Chinese government’s ongoing genocide and other crimes against humanity against the Uyghur people.
Also in February, Rubio joined U.S. Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, is sending a letter to Bezos after the company removed the book “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” by conservative scholar Ryan Anderson from the Amazon website, Kindle, and Audible platforms.


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This is the Digitimes report folks have been talking about. Google the Subject line. A must read for Apple investors. Looks like Apple will be dropping Samsung all the way.
Who will replace them...now that information could be worth more.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacture Company ... read the story


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When DraftKings and FanDuel announced last month that they planned to merge, it spelled the end of a costly war for market share in the daily fantasy sports industry. FanDuel, founded in 2009, and DraftKings, which came on the scene three years later, had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising and ended in a virtual tie.
A major factor motivating them to team up came from the common threat of a crackdown by regulators seeking to brand their games as gambling. DraftKings and FanDuel have so far survived that challenge, but it's left them in no shape to keep battling each other. (According to Legal Sports Report, there are 10 states in which DraftKings does not offer games and 11 in which FanDuel doesn't, due to legal concerns.)
Before they can join forces, however, the companies will have to get past a new regulatory problem: After a merger, the combined company would control 90 percent of the daily fantasy market, a level of market power that could raise eyebrows at the Federal Trade Commission.
In the coming days, the companies are expected officially to notify the FTC and the Department of Justice of their plans to merge. The FTC, which will take the lead in the review process, can decide either to reject or approve the deal, possibly with conditions.
An agency spokesperson declined to comment, as did DraftKings and FanDuel. But while their conversations are being conducted behind closed doors, people who follow fantasy sports say the companies will avoid the strongest argument they could make - that a major competitor is the sports betting market.
The standard playbook for merging companies is to make expansive claims about how many companies are their competitors. "You can point to legal and illegal sports betting-for which daily fantasy sports is a substitute-or non-daily fantasy sports," said Thomas Brown, a partner at the law firm Paul Hastings who focuses on antitrust law.
Indeed, the untold hundreds of billions Americans spend every year on legal and illegal wagers dwarf the $290 million in revenue the daily fantasy industry made last year, according to a report from research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming. And there is some precedent for merging companies to point to black or grey markets as competition: When record labels Universal Music Group and EMI merged in 2012, for instance, they argued digital piracy limited their pricing power.
Unfortunately, DraftKings and FanDuel just spent tens of millions of dollars in lobbying and legal fees to label themselves games of skill and not sports betting. "DraftKings and FanDuel are not going to define themselves as an online gambling company, because they don't like that word," said Jeff Ifrah, an attorney who has represented companies in the fantasy sports industry.
Instead, DraftKings and FanDuel are expected to be eager to say they're up against traditional fantasy sports leagues, which are run by behemoths such as ESPN and Yahoo.
Yet there's not much evidence customers see the market this way. Of the 57.4 million people who play fantasy sports, just 17 percent play in both traditional and daily contests, down from 21 percent in 2015, according to a 2016 survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. (The FSTA says the data suggests most players don't have time for both, so they choose one or the other.)
David Kaplen, a 42-year-old living in San Antonio who spends tens of thousands of dollars per week on daily fantasy entry fees, says traditional leagues are no substitute. "It's more of a casual thing," he says of the traditional season-long contests.
Yahoo, whose traditional-league offerings count tens of millions of users, began offering daily fantasy games in July of 2015 with the premise that it could convert traditional fantasy players into daily players. But it has captured a small slice of the daily fantasy market. According to an analysis by Legal Sports Report, Yahoo's revenue from Week 12 of the NFL was only about 1 percent of what DraftKings and FanDuel together made in the same period.
The key question for regulators may be whether the combined company would be able to raise prices more than either DraftKings or FanDuel could on its own. In a statement on the proposed merger, the companies say they intend to keep fees and structure competitive "in order to offer consumers a compelling experience."
The truest measure of pricing in daily fantasy sports is the rake, or the percentage of entry fees paid by players that the operators keep from each contest. For players, there a handful of factors that go into measuring value for money: the rake, the quality of completion, the number of winners per contest, the size of the prizes, and so on. So even if the companies raised the rake, winning players might not see the service as more expensive if there were more players and bigger prize pools. Or rakes could stay flat, but competition could get stiffer.
In the end, the measure is how much money a player wins or loses. "I would never stop playing altogether," says Kaplen. "If it felt like I was beating my head against a wall and I wasn't profitable any more, I would drastically cut down my play to where it would just be a hobby."


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UPDATE 1-U.S. trade panel to probe devices of eight smartphone vendors
(Adds comments from ITC and companies)
* Eight handset makers are probed over alleged patent violation
* Creative Tech alleges infringement by Samsung and 7 others-ITC
* Infringement involves media file playing feature-ITC
HONG KONG, May 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) is launching an investigation into mobile devices made by eight smartphone vendors including Samsung Electronics Co over an alleged patent violation, the trade panel said on its website.
The probe follows a complaint filed by Singapore-based Creative Technology Ltd and U.S.-based Creative Labs Inc that several handset makers have infringed on their patent, the ITC said in a statement.
The accused vendors are ZTE Corp , Sony Corp, Samsung, LG Electronics Inc, Lenovo Group Ltd, Motorola Mobility, HTC Corp and Blackberry Ltd.
"The products at issue in the investigation are portable electronic devices, such as smartphones, with the capability of playing stored media files selected by a user from a hierarchical display," ITC wrote.
The trade panel said it has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case, and will decide a target date for completing investigation within 45 days after the institution of the investigation. Continued...


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D?WN’s new album Redemption is officially out today, and she’s released a virtual reality video to accompany the release. The seven-minute experience, made in collaboration with digital studio SNAKE Productions, uses a variety of futuristic images that’s soundtracked by album cuts like “Lazarus” and “Renegade.”
Dawn Richard has also offered a USB that comes with bonus material, including unreleased VR videos. Richard explained to the Creators Project (who premiered the video) why she is so drawn to virtual reality: “I love that VR becomes the narrator in this visual story. Redemption speaks to self-discovery… I thinks this visual draws that reference and takes you into the journey of self-appreciation and awareness.”
Watch the 360-degree video below. Give Redemption a listen, too.


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Victory Park is ramping up its restaurant and retail offerings, with a new restaurant, a café and retail emporium.
The development on the northwest edge of downtown has formed a venture with Dallas restaurateur Tristan Simon to create the new Victory Park venues.
Simon’s company – Rebees – has been hired to help with marketing and food and beverage services for all of Victory Park.
Rebees plans to develop and operate a 4,000-square-foot retail emporium in Victory Park that will feature locally made goods.
And Simon’s company will open and operate a 6,000-square-foot restaurant in the project.
Rebees will also set up 14,000-square-foot Victory Park co-working office center that will include a 3,500-square-foot café.
The new restaurant, retail and office developments will open next year on Victory Park Lane between Museum Way and High Market Street. The Rebees spaces will be located across the street from a new 750-seat movie theater operated by Cinépolis.
“Tristan is a master at creating concepts that resonate with customers and bring vibrancy and activity to the areas in which they are located,” Terry Montesi, CEO of Trademark Property Co., Victory Park’s retail partner, said in a statement. “We are thrilled that he has committed to invest in the neighborhood and are excited to see the concepts he has in store for Victory.”
The new retail and restaurant venues are on the way at the same time Victory Park is adding almost 2,000 high-end apartments and retail space in four high-rise projects now under construction.
“The timing for Victory is right,” Simon said in a statement. “Our concepts will be an important part of the new Victory story, but we also plan to recruit many of our talented friends in the Dallas restaurant and retail community to join the mission.”
Simon previously developed several popular Dallas-area restaurants including The Porch, Hibiscus, Victor Tangos, Fireside Pies and CBD Provisions.
He has been a key player in the redevelopment boom along East Dallas’ Henderson Avenue.


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Electronics makers rolled out their biggest, thinnest, sharpest new displays at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. But the biggest surprises might be under the hood: social connectivity and innovative new voice and gesture controls.
The IdeaTab S2 and IdeaTab K2, a pair of tablets showcased at CES 2012, are both set for 2012 release.
Chevy Volt batteries catch fire after government crash tests, but no reports of fires from any Chevy Volt in a highway crash.
Back in August, HP announced it was looking to spin off its faltering PC hardware business. Now the company has made a commitment to keep that division after all. How will HP compete with other manufacturers?
Tablet computers: Here's a list of all the tablets being talked about right now.
CES buzz suggests it'll be a big year for e-readers, 3-D TVs, and tablet computers. But which predictions hold water?
Within the next decade, China will become the world’s largest equities market.


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Bailian Group's registered capital
to a person who turns innovative ideas into creative products. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has pledged to cultivate a “maker culture” in the country by combining innovative technology with practical results.
But Bailian is not just planning on starting an online shopping platform. By leveraging the technology support from IBM, which creates over 7,000 patents every year, and taking advantage of the creativity of the makers, Bailian is hoping to build a virtual shopping world that will, for example,


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Thus users are increasing
According to data released by the company, Monetizable Daily Active Usage (mDAU) on Twitter reached 211 million, an increase of 5 million compared to the previous quarter. At the same time, the average number of international MDAUs on Twitter is 174 million, up from 169 million in Q3 last year. During the quarter, the company achieved $ 389 million in net cash content, up from $ 215 million in Q3 last year. The company says it is sticking to its goal of generating $ 7.5 billion in revenue in 2023.
Apple has had success even after the rigors
Let us tell you that Apple has made some changes in privacy this year. This caused a significant loss in Instagram and Facebook revenues, but Twitter reported the increase in questioning Apple’s privacy change policy.
The CEO of the company is excited
Its CEO Dorji Cuffy is excited about the company’s good performance. The company will continue to upgrade its machine learning system, he said. The product will be further improved.
Fino Payments Bank IPO: Another Earnings Opportunity Comes On, On October 29th, Apply Only 14000 Rupees, You Can Get The Best Profit!
Today’s gold-silver price: Learn how much gold is today’s retail price and what effect it has on silver luster


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This acquisition will open up wider opportunities in markets for CleverTap across North America, Europe, Latin America, India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, the company said. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.
Founded in 2012, Leanplum is a customer engagement company that helps brands personalise and optimise all customer touchpoints online. According to CleverTap cofounder and executive chairman Sunil Thomas, Leanplum is one-third of its size in terms of revenue. He said CleverTap's current annualised revenue run-rate (ARR) is nearing $100 million. Thomas started the company in 2013 with Anand Jain and Suresh Kondamudi.
"Leanplum will add significant synergies right from product overlap to diversifying into new geographies,” Thomas told ET.
The company works with brands such as Jio, Meesho, PharmEasy, Dream11,
It has around 450 employees across 11 countries, with a product and engineering hub in Mumbai. After the acquisition, the startup will have around 600 employees, with 1,200 customers across the globe. It has clients in over 100 countries.
“This acquisition will add 30-35% to CleverTap’s revenue line and [the company] aims to cross ARR of $100 million before the end of 2022. We are aiming to grow 10 times in terms of ARR in the next five years,” said Thomas. Last year, CleverTap acquired in-app communication firm Patch.
Backed by funds such as Tiger Global Management and
In October 2019, CleverTap raised $35 million led by existing investors Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital India, after which it was valued at $385 million. “Our India plans continue to remain on achieving high growth. Over time, especially post-pandemic, user retention has become significant. And India’s approach toward going digital augurs well for CleverTap ,” Thomas said.
- Front Page
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- Tata Motors to Buy Ford’s Guj Plant for ₹726cr
Tata Motors has signed a definitive agreement with Ford Motor Co to acquire its plant in Sanand, Gujarat, late Sunday evening. The homegrown carmaker will pay ₹725.7 crore for the plant and the workforce, they said.PM tells States to Reduce Imports, Step up Exports
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged states to focus on reducing imports and increasing exports, asking them to identify opportunities and encourage people to use locally made goods as much as possible.Sebi Mulls Stock Payment System Bypassing Brokers
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is considering an ambitious plan to alter the payment mechanism in stock market trades.
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Evolution of Phone Scams: Robotexts Take Center Stage
With the decline of bothersome automated telemarketing calls, a new adversary has emerged in the realm of phone scams: robotexts. However, their elusive nature makes it challenging to quantify their prevalence on mobile devices and identify their origins.
Damon McCoy, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at New York University, has observed a surge in text-based scams. He notes that while phones now offer features to screen unknown calls, texts persist as a more persistent method.
So, why the decline in robocalls?
According to the National Do Not Call Registry, there were around 56,000 fewer robocalls in June 2023 compared to June 2022. Efforts have been made to combat phone scams, including legislation proposed by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to enhance consumer protection.
Rajendran Murthy, an associate professor at Saunders College of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology, emphasizes that as robocalls diminish, phone scams continue to evolve.
Why are robotexts so challenging?
The complexity arises from the difficulty of tracking and regulating them. Unlike calls, consumers are less cautious about opening texts, creating distinct challenges for tackling text-based scams.
With the ability to send millions of texts in the time of a single call, managing and gathering data becomes overwhelming. Existing protections like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the National Do Not Call Registry struggle to keep up, especially against international scammers exploiting jurisdictional gaps.
Murthy highlights the challenge of enforcement when scammers operate overseas, limiting legal recourse. Moreover, regulations often apply only when a sale is involved, further complicating the issue.
The Cat-and-Mouse Game
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced rules in March to block texts from improbable numbers, aiming to curb robotexts. Yet, overseas operations pose a challenge to enforcement.
McCoy likens the situation to a cat-and-mouse game, where scammers adapt to evade measures. Solutions like Robokiller, TrueCaller, and phone companies’ scam identification help but can’t fully eradicate the problem due to its global nature.
Fighting Back Against Robocalls and Robotexts
Experts recommend staying calm and cautious. Avoid responding to potential robocalls, as that confirms your number’s validity. Applications like Robokiller and TrueCaller, along with phone companies’ scam filters, can help.
Services from credit card companies assist in removing personal information from public databases. Registering for the Do Not Call (DNC) registry and reporting suspicious calls and texts as spam are also advised.
To report texting scams, forward texts to 7726 or “SPAM,” and consider filing complaints with the FCC or Federal Trade Commission. Combat scams by blocking calls, hanging up on scammers, not sharing sensitive info via text, and scrutinizing misspellings or unusual addresses in texts.


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For years, Dacia is not just a car manufacturer, it become a business model. And that says Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn himself.
In a Monday interview for Automotive News Europe, asked why have none of Renault’s competitors been able to launch a serious rival to Dacia, French-Lebanese businessman said:
“You should ask the competitors who said they were going to replicate the Dacia business model why they could not do it. What I can say is that Dacia is not just a car range. It’s a whole system, implemented with integrity in order to get the results in product, manufacturing, supply chain, marketing and sales. This may be something that is difficult to reproduce. I’m very happy that no one has been able to reproduce it yet.”
He does not doubt that Dacias and Dacia-badged Renaults still are producing a double-digit operating margin. “Profitability in our industry is where people cannot copy you,” he stressed.
Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn is very confident that by 2018 his seven-brand alliance will rank as one of the world’s three largest automakers. He sees the alliance rising from No. 4 now despite big troubles in Russia and finishing about 1.4 million units behind No. 3 General Motors last year. Ghosn is confident because, he says: “A lot of things can happen in three years.”
Renault has increased its operating margin from 0.1 percent in 2012 to 1.3 percent in 2013 to 2.2 percent last year. “We need to be very prudent for a number of reasons, for example, Russia. We have the potential to deliver [an even higher operating margin], but the result will depend more on the external environment than on our performance,” Ghosn said. The outlook for Europe is not very good. In his opinion, the European market is still about 20 percent below its 2007 peak. “I think the current situation is healthy and this slow recovery will continue in the coming years,” one of the richest people in the world, according to Forbes magazine, concluded.


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photo via getty.
Good News for teachers!
For the first time ever Target is offering teachers 15% off school supplies. Target's corporate website posted a blog about the discount.
Teachers will get a discount on pens, pencils, crayons and markers. As well as classroom storage and organization, tissues, hand sanitizer and more!
The discount is available in stores and online from July 15-21. Starting July 15th visit Target.com/teacherprep to get some details and grab your coupon code!
See the Full blog here.


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| Aug 25, 2011
| 3:37 PM
The Carnival Pride cruise ship will arrive back at the Port of Baltimore on Saturday, a day earlier than scheduled, in an effort to avoid Hurricane Irene.
Passengers will begin debarkation from the ship at 7 a.m. Afterwards, the cruise ship will be...
| Sep 13, 2011
| 12:13 PM
Here's a sample of theme cruises, offered by cruise lines or tour operators, that will bring kindred spirits together on the high seas this fall:
Baseball fans — Perfect for rabid fans in postseason withdrawal are two Baseball Greats cruises to the...
| Feb 9, 2012
| 7:06 AM
The colors of German shipbuilder Meyer Werft were lowered and the Disney Cruise Line flag was raised over the world's newest cruise ship -- the Disney Fantasy.
The traditional maritime ceremony marks the final step of construction before the 4,000-...
| Feb 15, 2012
| 9:52 AM
The Ravens may not have cruised to the Super Bowl but the Baltimore team spirit is still afloat.
Fans can keep the "purple passion" alive right through the summer with the third annual AAA Ultimate Ravens Fan Cruise set for July.
The seven-day sailing ...
| Feb 27, 2012
| 8:51 AM
When Disney's newest cruise ship, the Fantasy, sails into New York Harbor on Tuesday, it will bear a strong resemblance to the Dream, its twin that debuted more than a year ago.
Although the two vessels share a common blueprint, the Fantasy has fresh...
| Feb 27, 2012
| 8:51 AM
Here are features exclusive to the Disney Fantasy cruise ship, which makes its maiden voyage out of Port Canaveral on March 31.
•AquaLab: Interactive water-play area doubles as a back story for the construction of the AquaDuck water coaster, as...
| Mar 1, 2012
| 6:40 PM
Singer Mariah Carey now has three children to care for. The Grammy Award winner and recent mother of twins who once sat atop the pop charts with her single, "Fantasy," is now the godmother of the Disney Fantasy.
Disney Cruise Line brought Carey,...
| Sep 26, 2011
| 9:04 AM
The Port of Baltimore ranks as the fifth-largest port for the number of cruise passengers on the East Coast, according to numbers released recently by the Cruise Lines International Association.
The ranking, based on data from 2010 when Baltimore...
| Sep 28, 2011
| 3:30 AM
Twenty-five packages of cocaine worth more than $1.25-million washed up onto a Port Canaveral inlet shore near launch pads used for Delta II rockets, reports Florida Today in Melbourne.
“We’re lucky it didn’t drift to the south”...
| Oct 11, 2011
| 12:19 PM
| Mar 27, 2013
| 4:25 AM
The woman who died onboard a cruise ship that originated out of Baltimore was 64 years old and from central Virginia, the FBI said Tuesday as the agency continued to investigate her death as "suspicious."
The passenger from Midlothian, Va., outside of...


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The Valve developers have shown their commitment for Linux gaming community by releasing an updated for the Half-Life SDK.
Valve is trying to make sure that its games run flawlessly, even 14 years later. The developers are also making sure that users will get the same experience on every platform, even if the game has been launched ages ago.
“We have released an update to our Half-Life 1 SDK. This update adds support for mods to allow them to build Linux and Mac OS X versions. You can get the tools via the "Half-Life SDK" tool in Steam, and the code is available via our GitHub page,” reads the announcement from Valve.
You have to keep in mind that this update only means that users can build Linux version of the mods, but the SDK only runs on Windows, for now.


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With under a week to go before launch, Post Arcade chats with lead game designer Daniel Drapeau about Ubisoft's upcoming team-based shooter
Post Arcade's senior writer travels to Chicago to see what Ubisoft Montreal got right and wrong in its recreation of one of North America's biggest metropolises.
Last month, the newly elected Quebec Liberal government announced plans to cut back on $500-million in subsidiary bonuses allocated to the video-game industry
The Quebec provincial government is cutting back on $500-million in subsidiary bonuses and many of these are related to the province's growing game industry
Ubisoft Montreal's hugely anticipated new game Watch Dogs is officially less than three months away, and we can confirm it's looking good
Taking a piece of add-on content and turning it into a standalone game is an interesting move for Ubisoft.
New open world action franchise exploits our modern paranoia around privacy, digital voyeurism, and even cyber terrorism
New original IP from Ubisoft Montreal will be on store shelves in time for the holidays and available on next generation consoles.
Latest instalment in Ubisoft Montreal's famed series appears to take to the high seas with a swashbuckling main character.
Post Arcade editor Matt Hartley speaks to Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat about the future of the newly acquired studio, its intellectual property and its employees
As it stands, the top tax rate (29%) matches the credit for donations over $200, but what happens to the donation credit when the top tax rate is boosted to 33% is anyone's guess
It's a David and Goliath moment for the CEO of G-Kup, who wants to replace the K-Cup completely with his environmentally friendly coffee pod
Fourth quarter earnings season for the banks kicks off Tuesday with Scotiabank and BMO, BlackBerry is closing in Pakistan because authorities want to monitor its server and email messages, plus more
Canadians are expected to donate about $5 billion to charities in December. And meet the entrepreneur who wants to make your morning brew compostable. These stories and more in your morning cheat sheet to the Financial Post


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AB Foods share price hurt by weakened sales from Primark
Retail trading giant Associated British Foods share price tumbled lower on the FTSE100 on Monday after the company said that it expected to a 2 percent decrease in like-for-like sales during the first half Q1, which was worse than most analysts had been expected. The bearish news came as Associated British Foods gave investors an update on their business activity from the twenty-four weeks to March 2nd.
The company said that the disappointing sales forecast was down to poor sales during the Black Friday period, where Primark had to compete with other brands slashing retail prices across the board and also Brexit uncertainty, which is currently hurting consumer sentiment and spending in the United Kingdom. Investors chose to shrug-off expectations that the company will see an expected four percent increase in sales from the same period last year when the companies full results are released on April 24th.
Associated British Foods made an adjusted operating profit of £648m during the first half of 2018, with adjusted earnings per share of some 61.3 pence. For the year 2018 to 2019, AB Foods outlook was unchanged, with the companies adjusted operating profit and adjusted earnings per share largely forecast to be in line with 2017 through to 2018.
Associated British Foods noted that it had seen first-half revenue growth in all of its businesses, other than sugar, helping it to deliver earnings per share that were similar to last year. The company reiterated to investors that profit in its sugar business would be significantly lower this year, which is due to lower European Union sugar prices for contracts negotiated at the end of the last financial year.
Primark, which accounts for about half of AB Foods’ revenue and profit, currently has over three hundred retail outlets in Europe and North America and is considered a bell-weather for the discount retail spending arena. Associated British Foods share price has lost close to fifteen percent over the past year and underperformed the broader FTSE100 Index, which is down just under one percent for the same period.
ABF.UK Daily Mount Chart | Source: ActivTrader
Looking at the technicals for Associated British Foods share price, the 50-day moving average is currently offering strong technical support, although pressure is currently building to the downside. Buyers have been unable to rally above the shares 200-day moving average, with this in mind, a break below the 50-day exposes further losses towards the current 2019 trading low.
Written by Nathan Batchelor, External Analyst
*The information provided does not constitute investment research. The material has not been prepared in accordance with the legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is to be considered to be a marketing communication.
All information has been prepared by ActivTrades PLC (“AT”). The information does not contain a record of AT’s prices or an offer of or solicitation for a transaction in any financial instrument. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Any material provided does not have regard to the specific investment objective and financial situation of any person who may receive it. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of futures performance. AT provides an execution-only service. Consequently, any person acting on the information provided does so at its own risk.


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Periphery seem to be taking of the world right now. If not the entire world, than at least the world that loves intense, shredworthy, crushingly heavy guitar! (You can check out my interview with Periphery’s Misha Mansoor here). They’re about to release a digital EP in Australia and New Zealand via Roadrunner.
PERIPHERY Announce details of Icarus Lives EP
There is no doubt that PERIPHERY are innovators and they continue to raise the bar of originality upon the release of their much anticipated new Icarus Lives digital EP, which is now officially set for an April 15th release via iTunes in Australia and New Zealand. This offering features unreleased tracks, remixes and video clips. For the official track listing and explanation as to how this EP came together read on.
Read More …


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Amazon won its first union vote in pretty spectacular fashion. Out of the 27 Amazon machinists who voted yesterday on whether to join a union, 21 of them voted no. That's 78 percent.
But Amazon would be wise to make some serious adjustments in the wake of this vote.
The tension that led to the unionization effort isn't going away; in fact, it's likely to increase.
(Read more: Amazon's secret weapon (no, it's not drones))
Amazon has grown from 20,700 employees at the beginning of 2009 to 88,400 at the beginning of last year, according to the company's regulatory filings. And as the company plots further expansion, it's looking to areas like grocery, where workers have historically have taken union representation. (Safeway says 80 percent of its workforce is unionized.)
That means Amazon is becoming an important blue-collar employer. The fact is, most of the workers at Amazon are not Jeff Bezos or his executive team. They're not inventing the next drone or Kindle. They're schlepping products around warehouses, haggling with suppliers, fixing robots and forklifts.
But that's probably not how you think of Amazon; the company has created a real gap between perception and reality here. Bezos has worked hard to make it seem like magic elves are fulfilling your one-click order you just placed on your iPhone.
(Read more: Amazon's drone 'head fake' is a distraction: Pro)
Of course, that's not the case. Amazon might have to think about marketing itself differently — a little more like Costco perhaps — to set people's expectations that Amazon really is a retailer, a lot like other retailers, but with higher pay, a commitment to benefits, etc.
Because even if you're a loyal and frequent Amazon user, you never get to see these people, to know if they like their job, to sense what kind of an employer Amazon is. If Amazon wants to sell us the food we eat, even fly drones in the air over our homes, they're going to have to let us know how those workers are treated.
(Read more: Here's Marissa Mayer's buh-bye memo to ousted CEO)
Because an unhappy worker boxing up my book is one thing. Preparing my baby food and flying it to my house? That's something else.
—By CNBC's Jon Fortt. Follow him on Twitter @jonfortt
(Predictions: Apple 2014—Don't call it a comeback)


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Hennessey Performance has claimed to have set a new world record for the fastest convertible production car, after its Venom GT reached a top speed of 265.6mph.
Hennessey’s record-setting car is an updated Venom GT that was previously announced at last year’s SEMA show. The improved 7.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 engine produces 1451bhp, which is a staggering 207bhp more than the previous version. Hennessey has also increased the boost pressure from 19psi to 26psi, helping the car hit 60mph in 2.4sec, with 100mph appearing in just 4.4sec.
The record is said to have been broken at the Kennedy Space Center, which is home to a 2.8-mile runway designed for landing space shuttles. It’s also where Hennessey set the last production car speed record in 2014.


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60% of HK-based Japanese companies eye expansion of RCEP operations
RCEP markets, including Japan, accounted for 71% of HK’ total merchandise trade in 2022.
More than half of Japan-affiliated companies based in Hong Kong plan to expand their Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)-related business in the next three years, data from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) showed.
Japanese companies based in HK particularly also plan to expand their RCEP operations with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) (40.4%) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (39.4%).
To date, there are about 1,400 Japanese companies with regional headquarters or offices in Hong Kong.
“The respondents are making use of Hong Kong's well-developed logistics and commercial networks, as well as its world-class business services to manage and expand their global business, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region,” the HKTDC commented.
RCEP, the world's largest free trade bloc, came into effect last year. The bloc consists 15 member countries, including China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 ASEAN economies.
It accounts for 71% of Hong Kong's total merchandise trade.
"Hong Kong has applied for accession to RCEP and once approved, the city will become the first new member of the bloc, enjoying a wide range of benefits, such as tariff concessions. It will also help Hong Kong further integrate into regional supply chains and strengthen trade and investment with other members in the bloc, especially Japan and Korea, which have yet to sign free trade agreements with the city," HKTDC Director of Research Ms Irina Fan said.


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UK domestics for income? Kames names two stocks shrugging off home-grown headwinds to deliver dividends
The UK’s embattled retail and leisure sectors are home to a number of attractive stocks for income-seekers, despite discretionary consumer spending coming under pressure, Kames Capital says.
While both areas may not be the most obvious port of call for investors seeking income, Kames’ Iain Wells, manager of the top-performing1 Kames UK Equity Income fund, says there are some outstanding income producers which, while reliant on UK consumer spending, have nonetheless been overlooked by the market.
“Like the wider market we have been wary on domestics because of challenges facing discretionary spend,” he says. “But there are a number of exceptions.”
Two such stocks the fund is invested in are specialist retailer Card Factory and Greene King, the pub retailer and brewer.
Card Factory, which has some 800 stores around the UK, continues to see sales growth while its store roll-out programme will see it add a further 50 sites in the current financial year.
Wells says the company is particularly attractive to income investors because of its approach to dividends.
“Card Factory is quite happy being a cash cow, and it pays back most of the cash it generates to shareholders,” he says. “It is not operating in a growth market, but its competitors have their own challenges, and it also offers a secure and high dividend which is attractive.”
Meanwhile Greene King has a track record for delivering dividend growth, and while it faces headwinds from weaker consumer spending and the cost increases caused by weaker sterling, the group recently reported record revenues and has a prospective yield of 4.9%.2
“With Greene King, the yield is compensation for the headwinds facing the sector,” Wells adds.
Kames’ fund focuses on delivering income and capital growth via an investment style which is low on turnover and high on conviction, using a bottom-up approach to find attractively-priced companies with strong fundamentals.
The fund has delivered a 32.97% return over the last three years versus the IA UK Equity Income sector average return of 23.5%.