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This year, has been tough for cannabis stocks, with the Cannabis ETF tanking more than 44%. Investors were pretty hopeful of a federal reform soon. However, President Biden, unfortunately, didn’t follow through with his campaign oath to decriminalize cannabis. In fact, lawmakers disapproved of a law that would permit marijuana companies to access the banking system in the country.
But things aren’t that gloomy for the cannabis industry heading into next year. Let’s admit that both parties have already wished for a legislation to legalize marijuana. In reality, almost two-thirds of Americans want marijuana to be legal, per a recent Gallup poll, citing a business insider article. Additionally, Pew Research Center’s study showed that a staggering 91% of adults in the United States favor legalizing cannabis, as mentioned in a route-fifty article.
Thus, investors can expect cannabis legalization to happen sooner than later. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, is already leading the reform efforts. He is determined to pass a comprehensive cannabis legalization bill, not a smaller bill like the SAFE Banking Act. What’s more, Canadians have also started to bet on U.S. cannabis legalization. Some of the major Canadian cannabis companies have decided to acquire a stake in their U.S. counterparts if, or when, marijuana gets legalized federally in the United States. In fact, these companies are now willing to venture into the U.S. market as their scope for growth in the Canadian market is limited, thanks to cannabis being already legal in their country.
In the United States, nonetheless, 18 states have already legalized the recreational use of marijuana, while 36 states have legalized it for medical purposes. In recent times, many lenders are also increasingly confident about the cannabis companies’ financial stability and are now willing to offer them better deals, a tell-tale sign that a banking reform on marijuana is in the cards. To top it, the broader cannabis industry is widely projected to expand in the near future. To put things into perspective, analysts from investment bank Cowen expect the marijuana industry to touch $100 billion in market value by 2030, quoting the business insider article.
Similarly, in the United States, cannabis consumers are likely to grow to 50 million by 2025, as mentioned in a statista article. But it’s just not in the United States, the global cannabis market is projected to see a CAGR of 26.19% to $128.92 billion by 2028, citing a globenewswire article.
With the cannabis industry positioned to expand and legalization of marijuana in the cards, stocks like Cronos Group (CRON – Free Report) , Canopy Growth (CGC – Free Report) , and Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (IIPR – Free Report) are sure to benefit.
Cronos engages in the investment in firms that are licensed to produce and sell medical marijuana. This Canadian company is expected to acquire a stake in PharmaCann once cannabis gets legalized in the United States. Cronos’ shares, by the way, are down this year but its expected earnings growth rate for the next year is a solid 38%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its next-year earnings has moved up 8.8% over the past 60 days.
Canopy Growth is a cannabis company in Canada, which is also expected to make in-roads in the U.S. market once marijuana is legalized. Canopy Growth offers dry cannabis and oil products, primarily under the Tweed brand. Canopy Growth’s expected earnings growth rate for the next quarter is a promising 71.2%. In fact, its projected earnings growth rate for the next five-year period is 44.1%.
Innovative Industrial Properties is a real estate investment trust. It is focused on the acquisition, ownership and management of specialized industrial properties leased to experienced, state-licensed operators for medical-use cannabis facilities. In this process, Innovative Industrial Properties is reaping rental income. Innovative Industrial Properties’ expected earnings growth rate for the next quarter and year is an encouraging 36.7% and 31.9%, respectively.
Currently, Cronos, Canopy Growth and Innovative Industrial Properties have a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.


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Croatia power consumption - Mar 31, 2023
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Bulgaria power consumption - Mar 31, 2023
Croatia's blue-chip indices end higher
Bosnia's Federation trade gap widens 7.7% in Jan-Feb
Jan 06, 2023 12:31 EEST
January 6 (SeeNews) - Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines will fly twice a week between Plovdiv, Bulgaria and Istanbul, Turkey starting February 18, the Bulgarian embassy in Ankara said.
The direct flights will run twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday, the embassy said in a social media post on Thursday.
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Some 800,000 Mercedes-Benz car owners have been warned that their cars could catch fire due to a technical defect, which cannot be fixed immediately.
The hundreds of thousands of cars will have to be called back for maintenance work due to a leak in the coolant pump, which could lead to dangerously high temperatures. But a shortage of the parts needed to fix the issue is hampering the repairs, according to a letter sent to affected car owners and published by the German newspaper Bild.
Belgian spokesperson for the company, Sebastien Van den Moortel, confirmed the technical defect to Belga News Agency but pointed out that fire would only occur in the most extreme case. "There is certainly no reason to panic," he said, adding that he has no knowledge of any vehicles that have caught fire.
- Brussels Government considers raising parking fees for residents
- Brussels wants to pay people to get rid of their cars
Van den Moortel did not give the exact figures of the number of vehicles that had been recalled in Belgium.
"Belgian owners will all receive a letter to inform them whether their car has been affected. Afterwards, they will receive an invitation to make an appointment to repair the problem," he stated.
"Until then, they need to be vigilant. If the dashboard indicates that the coolant has dropped, it is best to contact the garage immediately." The company recommended owners use the cars as little as possible and with great caution.
The warning concerns the SUV vehicles GLE, GLS, GLC and the G-Class as well as passenger car models of the C-, E- and S-Class. This equates to almost the entire model range, as the issue affects vehicles with four- and six-cylinder diesel engines.
The recall had reportedly already been published in November 2021.
The repair requires replacing a switching valve in the vicinity of the coolant pump and a software update. However, the parts shortage means that the process can only be started in the middle or end of January.


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Production by the nation’s electronics industry in 1998 is estimated to have fallen 6.2 percent from last year to 24.12 trillion yen, the first drop in five years, an industry association said Thursday.
The Electronic Industries Association of Japan meanwhile predicted that electronics makers’ output will grow 2 percent in 1999 to 24.61 trillion yen. The association blamed the poor performance this year on the nation’s economic slump and lower exports to other parts of Asia.
By segment, consumer electronics output on the year is estimated to have declined by 6.4 percent, industrial electronic equipment by 5.6 percent, and components and devices by 6.8 percent.
The association forecasts that economic recovery will push up production in the equipment sector by 1.4 percent in 1999, and in the components and devices sector by 3.2 percent.
Consumer electronics should see a slight increase of 0.6 percent in 1999, helped by continuing expansion of the digital electronics market for items such as minidisc players, digital video cameras and car navigation systems, the association said.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.


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The country’s formal trade with its peers in the East African community continued to register a trade deficit in the first half of 2015 as a result of an increase in import receipts and a decline in exports value.
In the first six months of 2015, the trade deficit widened by 16.2 percent to $188.85 million in the first half of 2015 from $ 162.46 in the same period in 2014.
The widening deficit according to Thomas Kigabo, Chief Economist at Central Bank is due imports increasing by 1.4 percent and export receipts declining by 26.8 percent in the first half of 2015.
“The appreciation of our currency against other regional currencies made goods from our neighbors in East Africa relatively cheaper,” he said while speaking to this website.
Accordingly, imports that include cement, refined and no refined palm oil and other cooking oils, sugar, vegetable fats, and clothing increased to $ 251.38 million in the first half of 2015 from $247.97 million in the same period 2014.
While exports that include tea sold at Mombasa commodity exchange, coffee, raw hides and skins of bovine, leguminous vegetables and beer declined to $62.57 million from $ 85.51 million recorded in the first half of 2014.
But tea recorded an increase in its exports which rose by 12.5 percent.
The decrease was mainly due to the fall in exports of beer from malt that declined by 18.3 percent, raw hides and skins 48.9 percent and electrical apparatuses for line telephones 77.6 percent,” a statement from Central Bank indicates.
In relation to the Rwanda’s total exports and imports, formal trade with East African countries contribute 23.0 percent of total exports and 22.2 percent of imports creating an impact in the country trade balance.


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Access your Pro+ Content below.
Audi fine-tunes its digital performance to boost online car sales
In this week’s Computer Weekly, the digital chief at Audi UK discusses how the carmaker is tackling the slump in new car sales. One of the largest global malware botnets has been taken down, but how much of a blow will it be for cyber criminals? And we hear how one county council made huge savings on its SAP installation. Read the issue now.
Features in this issue
The head of digital at Audi UK discusses how the luxury car company has revamped its online presence as it shifts gear to drive online sales
The takedown of Emotet is a huge event with repercussions that will reverberate across the cyber criminal world, but unfortunately that’s not to say there will be much of a long-term impact
The council was paying £100,000 a year just to keep ECC patches up to date and needed to find savings to support frontline services


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Nintendo Switch a commercial success. The Japanese company's commitment to a hybrid system and its proprietary titles has borne several fruits and there is now another robust piece of data that guarantees it a status of respect.
According to Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners, sales of this latest Nintendo console have already exceeded those of Microsoft's Xbox One.
The records show that 52.48 million units were sold until December 31, with the last few months taking the system to another level of popularity, largely due to the launch of the Pokmon Sword and Pokmon Shield games. Between the beginning of October and the end of December alone, consumers bought 10.81 million units. Also in gross terms, over 64 million games have been sold for the console.
It is important to underline that Switch needed only 34 months to overtake a console that has been on the market since 2013, so the future of the system looks bright.
The strategy of exploiting proprietary sagas has been essential for the success of the system. Currently, the 10 games with the most units sold are as follows:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 22.96 million
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 17.68 million
- Super Mario Odyssey 16.59 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 16.34 million
- Pokemon Sword / Pokemon Shield 16.06 million
- Pokemon: Lets Go, Pikachu! / Pokemon: Lets Go, Eevee! 11.76 million
- Splatoon 2 9.82 million
- Super Mario Party 9.12 million
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe 5.85 million
- Luigis Mansion 3 5.37 million


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Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) — Fashion trends come and go, but one trend has survived the test of time: preppy clothes. Whether they remind you of prep school or summers on Nantucket, there’s no denying the prep look is here to stay — and growing. Bloomberg visited some of today’s “preppiest” brands — Vineyard Vines, Barbour, Smathers & Branson — and and found out why the trend has so much staying power. (Source: Bloomberg)
Preppies Everywhere: Inside Three Top Preppy Labels
VV is not prep. It is a southern frat cash grab.
+BrandonBarton Vineyard Vines is as preppy as it gets for summer wear


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By Sarah Trefethen
Veteran broker Laura Pomerantz, formerly a principal and founding partner of PBS Real Estate, has struck out on her own.
Laura Pomerantz Real Estate officially launched Monday.
The new company’s founder started seriously considering the move in the fourth quarter OF last year, and made the final decision in January, she told Real Estate Weekly.
“Retailers are really back in expansion mode and focusing on both national opportunities and international opportunities,” Pomerantz said. “It’s a perfect time in terms of retail landscape.”
The company will offer leasing, acquisition and portfolio management services for whatever class of property a client needs, she said. “Even if your retail client starts as your retail client, over time as they grow, they need office space.”
Betty Ende and Ilyssa Rothfeld, Pomerantz’s team from PBS, are joining her in the new venture, and she said she is looking to add to her team with additional experienced retail brokers interested in taking a more entrepreneurial approach to their work.
Brokers with expertise that would complement Pomerantz’s focus on luxury and aspirational luxury retailers — such as big-box specialists — might be a particularly good fit, she said, but chemistry is also important.
“Anyone who, I would think, has the same level of integrity as we have here and experience and has a good book, I would want to talk to,” she said.
The new company is based in New York, with offices in 230 Park Ave., and is already working with several prominent national and international companies, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Levi’s, Joe Fresh, Ippolita, Ted Baker London, Gant, Vince Camuto, Hotel Chocolat, Jack Rogers and Scoop, as well as consulting services to the Bal Harbour Shops.
Pomerantz has successfully concluded over eight million s/f of office and retail transactions for clients including Bloomberg L.P., Tom Ford, Giorgio Armani, Stuart Weitzman, David Yurman, and Josie Natori, and serving as the exclusive and national representative for Ted Baker/London, Levi Strauss & Company, Mulberry and Vince Camuto, to name a few.
She has represented Abercrombie & Fitch for flagships in the United States and internationally, recently completing deals on their behalf in Milan, Paris, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, London and Madrid.
Prior to establishing PBS, Pomerantz was a senior managing director at Newmark & Company and previously held senior management positions at SL Green. She also served as an EVP at The Leslie Fay Companies, supervising its designer fashion division and serving on the company’s board of directors


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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TEAMING up with Singaporean EA Detailer, former home-based auto-detailing name OCDBN now turns its sight towards becoming one of the nation’s detailing powerhouses through its customer-centric approaches.
Operating under the name EAD X OCDBN (Exo Brunei), the detailing company began its conquest by offering affordable packages – with the cheapest being an entry-level ceramic coating set at $699.
Exo Brunei owners Hafiiz Ramle and Abdul Rashid Hj Zakaria said however that the price itself is not indicative of the level of detailing services customers get – but rather to give them space to custom fit the services to suit their needs.
On top of offering their service packs, both owners serve as consultants, making sure their customers get exactly what they want.
“So the price fitting and the packages were set accordingly to serve our branding, that is to bring up Exo Brunei as a name that serves a wider segment of the market,” said Hafiiz.
“We want to brand Exo Brunei as a detailing outlet that services not only high-end cars, but also the normal rides including family cars, which is reflected on their price and package adjustments,” he added.
Exo Brunei is an auto-detailing company that came out of a partnership agreement between Singaporean EA Detailer and local home-based OCDBN – opening up its first outlet in Kiulap earlier this year.
How Exo Brunei approached the detailing market is the result of the research by Hafiiz and Abdul Rashid, made throughout the two years they spent running their home-based detailing services.
“We were gauging the market movement, and we saw an uprising of ceramic coating services – and at the time, we were also experimenting on certain tools and products, to see which one worked and for what market,” said Hafiiz.
“So with that, we were very fortunate to have found a really good partner, EA detailer, who also made its name through its coating products,” he added.
OCDBN and EA Detailer are moving in the same direction, said Hafiiz, making the partnership a perfect fit to grow and become one of the major players in the market.


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Recall has cost Mattel more than just wads of cash
Consumer Product Safety Commission photo
It’s time to take matters into our own hands for our safety, and that of our children.
There’s been a spate of toy recalls recently, by such respected and established companies as Mattel, Fisher Price and RC2 Corp., the company behind Thomas and Friends Wooden Railway Toys.
And not long ago, exploding batteries, tainted toothpaste, other tainted medications, and tainted pet food made headline news.
China is apparently involved in all of these mishaps.
Toy companies, pharmaceutical companies and countless others lower their costs — and increase their profits, of course — by farming out production to countries such as China, where labour and production can be done on the cheap.
But at what cost to the consumer? How many children need to fall sick or even die, before we realize that cheap isn’t the healthiest goal?
From a business standpoint, these mistakes of lax standards endangering products have cost the companies involved a fortune in recalls and exchanges.
But that’s not what’s most important here, for them or for us.
Just a few of the known facts so far: One Chinese child is dead, and another severely brain-damaged as a result of tainted antibiotics; another child is seriously ill from ingestion of lead-based paint on a toy he was chewing, and three North American children hospitalized from swallowing magnets that fell off toys. If more than one is swallowed, they can attract each other, causing intestinal perforations, infections or blockage, which can be fatal.
What about these families who’ve suffered grievous losses as a result of these “mistakes?” Nothing can bring back their children, or assuage their pain.
Mattel’s toy recall was two-fold: Unpermitted use of lead paint, plus the risks associated with small, high-powered magnets. Bob Eckert, Mattel’s chairman and CEO, issued a personal apology, and stressed that changes are being implemented to ensure better safety in the future.
He promised a three-point check system to test for lead in the paint in production; testing again before the products are released, and implementing more safety checks.
Great plans, but it’s a little too late for consumers to trust companies — especially when it comes to the health and safety of their families.
Earlier this month, the Edmonton Journal reported that according to Health Canada data, Chinese-made consumer goods have been subject to more safety recalls than products from anywhere else: 431 products, including toys, household goods and baby products have been recalled in the past three years.
What can we do on an individual level? We can make a conscious effort not to buy anything made in China. That may mean spending a little more on items normally found in dollar stores, like batteries; and it may also mean not purchasing any Chinese-manufactured toys in the near future.
If that means going back to reliable, old-fashioned (still fun and creative) wooden blocks, then so be it.
Better to push your children’s imagination than compromise their safety.


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Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate has launched a range of coatings and fillings, including coconut oil sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms.
The new products can be used in ice cream, confectionery and bakery applications.
Cargill said the products were the first to use Rainforest Alliance Certified coconut oil, sourced through a mass balance model as an ingredient.
“The demand from consumers for sustainably sourced ingredients is well established,” said Inge Demeyere, managing director of Cargill’s chocolate activities in Europe.
“Cargill’s cocoa and chocolate business is already a leader in implementing standards for cocoa sustainability supporting farmers and their communities through training and expertise with the Cargill Cocoa Promise – so the move to offering coatings and fillings using sustainably sourced coconut oil was a good next step.”
The new coatings and fillings replace conventional coconut oil with the product sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. Cargill said the range provided the “same great sensory impression and quality”, while adding value to customers’ recipes.
“Ethical brand positioning is an increasingly important driver for our customers’ products and brand enhancement. By providing our customers with supply chain integrity and certified ingredients via products such as our coatings and fillings, including coconut oil sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms on a mass balance basis, they can position their products to appeal to the growing number of ethically aware consumers,” added Demeyere.


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Over the last decade Paradox Interactive has earned a mixed reputation. The Swedish developer is known primarily for its unique brand of deep historical simulation games that take a long time to master but allow players experiences that can’t be found elsewhere.
But it seems that for every well-reviewed epic strategy title, Paradox releases a buggy, broken mess. One step forward, two steps back. Take for instance a two month period from 2012.
In February of that year Paradox released Crusader Kings 2, perhaps its most successful in-house effort to date. It’s one of the company’s best-reviewed games, reaching beyond the strategy niche to be nominated as one of game site Kotaku’s best of the year.
Just a month later Paradox published a game called Gettysburg: Armored Warfare, a blend of real-time-strategy and first-person shooting. Programmed almost entirely by one person, the online game was released in an unplayable state. Its Metacritic average review rating currently is an abominable 22, the lowest of any Paradox title.
Heavy weighs the head of Fredrik Wester, the CEO who wears the crown at Paradox Interactive.
“Changing a games company is like turning ... a big battle cruiser,” Wester says. “What I think is that in  you’re going to see even better improvement than that. We’re on the right path, but we still have a very long way to go.”
Today’s Paradox Interactive is, to hear Wester tell it, a different company than the one founded more than a decade ago. It’s not enough for its games to be unique. They need to be able to find a broader audience.
And the games have to work.
Fredrik Wester’s first business came to a screeching halt when it almost landed his mother in a Swedish courtroom.
Wester has been playing games since he was 6, growing up with an Atari and later a ZX Spectrum. He eventually found the best games came from outside Europe and he and his brother, Daniel, started importing games when Wester was just 15.
The boys placed advertisements in several Swedish newspapers, and the main sales line was their home phone. Before long, more than half of the time that phone rang, there was someone on the other end wanting to place an order for Nintendo games.
Business was good, and even though their mother was annoyed by the phone calls, she had to admit that it was a decent income for two kids not yet out of high school.
There was only one problem with their endeavor: all of these games were pirated.
“I wasn’t of legal age,” Wester says, “so a letter was sent to my mother. It was this whole mess. She freaked out.”
The letter was a cease-and-desist order from the main legal agent of Nintendo in Sweden. If the boys didn’t shut down the business, their mother would be sued. Eventually there was a conversation between these lawyers and the Wester boys. Fredrik and Daniel had no idea that what they were doing was wrong, and stopped taking orders immediately. No legal action was taken, and they and Nintendo went their separate ways.
Wester went on to graduate from university in 1998 with a degree in business. He and a partner started a management consulting firm. The pair helped technology companies become more efficient, to optimize their growth during the later years of the dot com boom. Wester’s specialty was online customer service systems and processes.
“We made customer service super efficient,” he says. “We could cut the costs in half. ... It was very simple to make money back then. You could invoice almost anything to anyone. But in 2001 — after 9/11 — that market just collapsed. The whole IT bubble was over, and I started looking for new opportunities.”
It was in 2003, more than 15 years after his inauspicious start in video games that Wester returned to the industry. He took a consulting job writing a business plan for Paradox Entertainment, a media company that split its time between licensing intellectual property and making video games.
Executives there wanted to transform the computer games division into a triple-A studio, to have it compete with the biggest titles of the day. As Wester looked into the business he realized this was the type of thinking that doomed its last project, an ambitious free-to-play massively multiplayer first-person shooter.
Had the title been completed it could have been revolutionary, but in the end the project was canceled and more than 30 developers lost their jobs.
Wester told the executive team members that to try for another triple-A title was madness. His more modest plan for growth was to play to a core audience of strategy fans, and to expand into a publishing house that supported other companies in bringing their creative vision to gamers around the world.
But that wasn’t the solution executives wanted to hear. They saw more value in developing their licensing division. Paradox Entertainment chose to double down on a recent acquisition, the library of Robert E. Howard, and chose to dedicate itself to managing the Conan the Barbarian intellectual property for games and motion picture adaptations.
Instead of supporting Wester’s turnaround, Paradox Entertainment made the decision to close the computer games division and lay off the remaining seven staff members.
Wester saw an opportunity. Along with the former CEO of Paradox Entertainment, he bought out the computer games division and took those seven staff members, and rights to all their games, to form Paradox Interactive. While Paradox Entertainment got Conan, Paradox Interactive walked away with the rights to several successful grand strategy games.
It also acquired a veteran game developer named Johan Andersson.
Andersson was only 30 years old when Wester became his boss, but he was already an old hand in the games business. He had begun his career in the early ‘90s after dropping out of Stockholm University, despite the objections of his family.
“My grandfather was very suspicious,” Andersson says. “‘Why are you dropping out? I mean, you’re going to get a good education there. You’re smart!’ I just knew that there were some friends of friends who had started a company and made a success of themselves making computer games.”
Those friends of friends were the founders of developer DICE, now known for the Battlefield series, and word of their success lit a fire in his small group of college acquaintances. Already a decent self-taught programmer, he followed when his peers moved to Norway to work at a young company called Funcom, then barely more than 30 people. He was quickly hired, and set to work making 16-bit games for the Sega Genesis.
Little did he know he was walking into a trap.
In 1995, Andersson was part of a team making a bizarre beat-’em-up called Nightmare Circus for the Sega Genesis. The circus-themed game was severely delayed, and when the Funcom producer assigned to the project got pulled, Andersson was tapped to take his place. Sega was heavily invested in the game, and before long sent its own executive producer to Norway to take stock of the situation.
Two weeks into that visit, “Sega got pissed off,” Andersson says. He and his programmers were airlifted to California and sequestered to finish the game. Trapped in an apartment with his small development team, without a car or a valid driver’s license between them, they were at Sega’s mercy, crunching 14-hour days, six days a week for months.
The only upside was that they all were still covered by Norwegian labor laws, and received full benefits, including overtime, for the duration. Regardless, it took a heavy toll on the team.
“When we got back home [to Norway] it took three weeks and all the other programmers had resigned. They didn’t want to work there anymore.”
But Andersson stayed on for two more years. Instead of breaking him, the experience made him a better programmer, and fueled his interest in project management. He had work to do porting other games, and as he puts it, “you don’t quit projects while they’re not finished.” It was that dedication that would help him, just a few years later, when he came back home to Sweden and found work in the computer games division at Paradox Entertainment.
After all the action titles he had made for the consoles, he wanted to start making games more like the ones he enjoyed playing. The first game he worked on at Paradox Entertainment was Europa Universalis, published in 2000. Based on an obscure French board game by the same name, it allowed players to take control of various European powers starting in 1492 and lead them through 300 tumultuous years of history.
The closest comparison is to the Civilization series, but EU offered players more control over the political, religious and military aspects of their complex kingdoms than any title before or since. Andersson simply calls it, “Risk on crack.”
EU was a hit, and the sales of that game alone were all that was keeping the games division afloat. It was that title, and Andersson’s team, that Wester bet on when he spun the games division out into Paradox Interactive in 2003. But the team needed another game, another franchise to prop the company up and keep revenue rolling in.
While the group rode the long tail of sales for EU, Andersson and his team of seven had been busy making that new game. And it was up to Wester to sell it.
PUBLISH OR PERISH
Crusader Kings was built on top of the EUengine. It was an original grand strategy game that started in the year 1066, a period of time when Europe’s nations were not yet truly formed.
Instead of countries, players would take on the roles of individuals; kings, dukes, even minor lords would be allowed to fight against their neighbors, other lords, even the pope to gain power. Courtly intrigue would play a major part in the game, as would dynastic succession, giving each playthrough the potential to develop into an epic family story where players carved empires large and small of their own.
As the game neared completion morale at the company was high. There was just one problem.
In 2004, Paradox Interactive’s publisher, Strategy First, went out of business. Paradox Interactive’s main sales channel to the United States disappeared, and along with it went two months of revenue.
“They owed us a lot of money,” Wester says. “Almost 20 percent of our yearly revenue.”
Wester had experience in customer service. He knew that if CK pre-orders didn’t make it to customers on time, he could lose the trust of fans and torpedo the future hopes of the then year-old company.
And so began a crunch period unlike any that Johan Andersson had ever experienced. Wester spent three weeks setting up an online portal where customers could order games, and then started looking for partners for packaging and shipping. The best he could find was $2 per box, but it was still more than the company could afford.
“So we packed 4,000 boxes in a week,” Wester says. “We went after work to our warehouse and each packed boxes for three hours. ... I just told two people [each day], ‘You and you, you’re coming with me after work this week to pack boxes in our warehouse.’ And they were like, ‘You’re crazy.’
“But that’s what we did. ... We spent 15 hours each ... and walked with them ourselves in big bags to the post office.
“Funny thing is,” Wester says, “back in those days it was always the attitude — we still have that attitude — ‘We can do this!’ ... Every now and then, when there’s a company party and someone is complaining, ‘Oh, we don’t have the right beer,’ or something like that, I just take them aside and say, ‘You know what, when we released Crusader Kings ... ‘ and then I pull this whole anecdote out.”
But CK wasn’t the hit the team had hoped it would be. Anemic sales were blamed, in part, on bugs. Working from a shoestring budget, Andersson and his team had been forced to skimp on quality assurance.
It was the beginning of a long string of ambitious titles that would excite Paradox’s audience of strategy gamers, but would fail to break out into a wider audience as much due to complexity as to game-breaking flaws in the code.
SOLVING THE PARADOX
The solution to the company’s woes, as Wester saw it, was to execute his original turn-around plan and transform the developer into a publisher. Only by maintaining a solid cash flow could it continue to have enough money to support the development of its own brand of strategy games, or to afford luxuries like proper quality assurance (QA).
In 2005, on the heels of Valve’s successful Steam marketplace which had launched just a year previous, Wester ran an experiment. He sold an expansion to Paradox’s worst-selling title, Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun, via download only. He figured it would show him the baseline the company could expect from an online-only marketplace.
The experiment surprised him, and the expansion sold well. That encouraged the company to open Paradox On Demand, to which it slowly added other titles from its catalog. Before long they changed the name of the service to GamersGate. It became a European hub for titles that weren’t available at retail around the world, and the success gave Paradox the cash flow it had been so sorely lacking.
It was a chaotic period, and for a time the company seemed to be flailing.
“We started signing whatever we could sign [to publishing deals],” Wester says. “We signed some games that were just terribly bad. I don’t even remember the names of those games. And then we came across some really good titles, of which Mount and Blade was by far the best-selling series.” Those games, which featured an unconventional blend of grand strategy and first-person melee combat set in a fantasy feudal Europe, helped establish Paradox as a serious publisher. They were ambitious, addictive, and above all stable.
Eventually GamersGate broke off to be its own entity. Wester remains a minority shareholder in the company, and today his focus is on building Paradox Interactive into a company that can stand on its own as one of the great publishers in the gaming world. Andersson became head of Paradox Development Studio, with a responsibility to make great games worth publishing.
Paradox Interactive’s first game to sell a million units, Magicka, in fact, was a not a game that Andersson’s team designed, but instead one that Paradox published. The 2011 action adventure game was developed by a group of students who coalesced with Paradox’s help into Arrowhead Game Studios. A second hit arrived from a small developer called Fatshark the following year with War of the Roses, a multiplayer-only first-person melee game set during England’s bloody civil war.
But Wester is still hard at work changing the perception that Paradox is a company that publishes buggy games. The need for QA influences many of its business decisions today. The internal team has grown to eight. To test multiplayer games, like War of the Roses that require 64 simultaneous players, Paradox has contracted internationally, to countries like Poland and Canada. Wester admits it’s not the best solution, but it’s more effort than the company has made in the past for titles like Gettysburg.
Paradox has grown from seven employees in a basement to over 100. It’s doing it by making its model work, living off publishing revenue and the sales of its back catalog in order to make new games. CK2 sells more copies now, per month than it did a year ago. Wester says the money is helping Andersson make the company’s next title, Europa Universalis 4, its most polished yet.
THE TEST OF TIME
“The thing is, [Wester] is an entrepreneur,” Andersson explains. “He basically starts stuff and takes some risks at times, and comes up with these ideas. But he knows how to sell stuff. He’s a sales person that’s honest.”
Wester shoulders the blame for titles like Gettysburg himself. It’s clear now that his focus is on quality over quantity.
“If we start something now,” he says, “it’s going to take 18 months until you see the progression. So, I think what you’re seeing now is actually us getting better at making games.
“We still have a very long way to go, but so would most gaming companies I would say. Because there is ... more acceptance towards bugs if the game is fun. ... I come from the software world myself,” Wester says, referring to his days as a consultant. “There’s zero tolerance for bugs there. It’s a different issue though, because the software industry doesn’t have to worry about something being fun. Because it’s just function.”
Fun is Andersson’s problem, and with EU 4, he hopes to keep the complexity the team’s fans have come to admire, that gamers just can’t get anywhere else. But the secret is in lowering the level of complication, in bringing in gamers more familiar with simpler titles.
“If you look at Civilization,” Wester says, “it is probably what you can call our big brother, because they sell probably five or six times more [copies] than we do [with EU or CK]. But, we could sell that [many] as well because that target audience, the Civilization target audience, could just as well play Crusader Kings 2 if they got to know about it. So we’re step-by-step building up our audience and building up our recognition for the company and for our games. So that’s what excites me, to see that there is a lot of life in this genre still.”
“Complex, but not complicated is our goal,” Andersson says. “Never remove complexity, just make it less complicated to interact with it. And that’s a gradual process as you learn more and more about it. And there’s nobody else to consult or discuss it with, because nobody else makes these types of games.”
That rarity, as well as an openness to new business opportunities, has kept Paradox Interactive around while its competitors have struggled and fallen. When EU 4 is released later this month, gamers around the world will see if its efforts have paid off.


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European neobroker BUX has revealed it will introduce cryptocurrencies to its flagship investing app, BUX Zero. The expansion in the company’s offering will benefit clients in in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Ireland.
Over 20 cryptos will be available to BUX Zero clients including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.
Yorick Naeff, CEO, BUX, said:
Yorick Naeff Source: LinkedIn
We are proud to be able to offer a 360-degree investing solution for the modern investor. Cryptocurrencies are here to stay, and we believe that for investors to build balanced portfolios, we need to be able to offer a selection of assets that are valuable for all of our clients. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies offer innovative solutions that may prove to become a new way of hedging against a global economic crisis as well as disrupting old economic models that no longer serve the modern investor.
Crypto education and risk management
BUX will ensure consumers have access to the correct information about different asset classes by making available in-depth and informative content about cryptos. Its clients will also be able to access in-app daily news and market analysis to get a comprehensive overview of market trends and activity.
Through working with security platform Fireblocks, BUX Zero ensures its client investments are well-protected using cryptographic technology, specifically multi-party computation (MPC). Additionally, All communications with BUX Zero are encrypted.
Moreover, BUX closely monitors in real time all traffic patterns to keep out potential malicious parties.
Buying and selling of crypto assets will be zero commission at the release of cryptocurrencies on BUX Zero. The company noted that it plans to introduce cryptocurrencies to other markets in the coming year.
Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.


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Trump has again criticized Trudeau
The head of the United States, Donald trump has continued its tradition of Twitter diplomacy: he again criticized the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, And along with the EU And at the same time posted a photo with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte.
in his records, trump returned to the subject of trade taxes with Canada, which have caused the deterioration of relations between the two countries.
"Fair trade must now be called a stupid trade, if it is not mutual. According to the canadian release, they earn almost $ 100 billion in trade with the USA (I think they bragged And got caught!). At least 17 billion! The duty on dairy products for us (USA


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Happy Birthday Twitter (TWTR)! The social networking and microblogging site turned eight on Friday, but this company is showing no signs of aging. In fact, Twitter appears ready to post a profit soon.
From selfies to the Twitterati, Twitter has changed the way many people get news and share it with the world. Let's take a closer look at what we've learned from Twitter's rapid ascent from a basic microblogging platform to an international social network with more than 938 million registered users.
What have we learned from Twitter?
Never underestimate the power of 140 characters. There's a lot that a person can do with 140 characters, and Twitter has proven this time and again. Twitter has faced its fair share of controversy over the last eight years, but has watched sales rise significantly as its user base has grown.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, Twitter sales rose 116% to $243 million, and website officials expect sales between $230 million-$240 million in the first three months of this year. If more people sign up for Twitter, the company could boost sales and move closer to posting its first-ever profit.
Marketers can make the most of their ads with Twitter, as the company has transformed how marketers reach target audiences. Now more than ever before, companies of all sizes are using Twitter to promote their brands, products, and services, a trend that's likely to continue into the foreseeable future.
Twitter has helped many businesses launch localized campaigns, including Arizona-based Dunkin' Brands Group (DNKN) franchisee First Cup. Recently, First Cup was able to convince more than 2,000 consumers to take advantage of its free coffee offer by searching for relevant hashtags and responding to Twitter conversations related to its coffee products.
First Cup's marketing strategy illustrates just one of the many ways that marketers can use Twitter to interact with prospects and clients. As more companies consider innovative marketing strategies to connect with target audiences, Twitter can help. Meanwhile, Twitter will grow as its user base expands, which could help this company's sales (and, eventually, its profits) increase.
Of course, there's more than just one major social networking platform. In February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook (META -1.54%), and simultaneously gave millions of people around the globe a new reason to share photos, connect with past acquaintances, and much more. When Twitter was unveiled two years later, however, it proved to be a major competitor to Facebook.
While many people use both Facebook and Twitter, each social network has its own unique advantages. Facebook has grown into a multimedia platform, and people use it for everything from advertising to gaming. Also, Facebook continues to explore new ways to grow its brand. In fact, Facebook's ad revenue increased 76% in the most recent quarter year-over-year. The versatility of Facebook's platform makes it appealing to users of all ages and gives it a major competitive advantage.
Twitter's growth, however, comes from its simplicity. For many people, Twitter is the go-to source for breaking news, which gives users the ability to stay up to date in real-time. The microblogging site enables users to send and receive news updates, photos, and videos in seconds, and its simplicity is a major selling point for celebrities, marketers, and the general public.
The bottom line
If the next eight years are anything like the last eight for Twitter, its stock could be consistently profitable by the time the company reaches its sweet 16. Twitter's user base is unlikely to grow at the same rates it has in the past, but the microblogging site will continue to be a major draw for marketers, which will help improve its sales. In addition, Twitter could expand as new smartphones, smart watches, and tablets become available, making it easier for people to share instant news updates with family and friends around the world.


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Finding solutions to 'globesity'
rapidly and efficiently to avert the heavy price society might pay
as incidences of obesity linked diabetes and heart disease surge.
New research from Australia confirms the common sense approach.
Reporting in this month's issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition scientists at Deakin university advised that snack foods and biscuits take a back seat in favour of fruit and water.
Setting out to determine differences in the contribution of foods and beverages to energy consumed in and out of school, and to compare consumption patterns between school canteen users and noncanteen users, the study of 1656 children aged 5-15 years old who had weekday 24 hour dietary recall data.
The researchers found that an average of 37 per cent of total energy intake was consumed at school with a large part provided by 'energy-dense foods and beverages', such as fat spreads, packaged snacks, biscuits and fruit/cordial drinks. Fast foods and soft drinks contributed 11 per cent and 3 per cent of the total energy intake, but these food groups were mostly consumed out of school, said the researchers.
Fruit intake was low but, perhaps surprisingly, consumption was greater in school. In total, 14 per cent of children bought food from the canteen and they obtained more energy from fast food, packaged snacks, desserts, milk and confectionary than non-canteen users.
' Energy-dense foods and beverages are over-represented in the Australian school environment,' conclude the researchers, pushing for biscuits, snack bars and fruit/cordial drinks to be brought from home and an end to fast foods, packaged snacks, and confectionary from the school canteen.
Obesity is one of the main causes of non-communicable diseases. The economic and healthcare costs of NCDs are already high in many developed countries. In the US alone that cost has risen to more than $120 billion annually.
According to the UN-backed Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO), in developed countries, obesity, diabetes and other NCDs account for a heavy slice of healthcare costs.
The World Health Organization estimates that in 1995 there were 200 million obese adults worldwide and another 18 million under-five children classified as overweight. In 2000, this number lept up to over 300 million, with over 115 million people suffering from obesity-related problems in the developing countries.


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Potential Impacts of COVID-19 on the Ecommerce and Ecommerce Shipping Industry
Currently, COVID-19 is dominating the media and with good reason. Our generation hasn’t seen a crisis of this severity before. The illness has swept the globe and devastated everything it's touched; families, jobs, and even whole economies.
You’d think, however, that ecommerce would be the last thing to suffer at the hands of this sickness, but is that really the case though? How is the online market being affected by the current world situation? What are the business implications?
Let's take a look...
The most noticeable change is panic buying, with people flocking to the shops in large numbers leaving the shelves emptied by lunchtime.
This kind of mass purchasing has meant that a large percentage of people have been left with a shortage of food, toiletries, and other essential items.
The alternative is online shopping, so unsurprisingly, there's been a massive increase in digital sales since this situation began. In fact, it was predicted that ecommerce would increase by 50% throughout COVID-19’s run.
What's the Business Implications?
Online companies such as Amazon have been doing their part to make sure that people have the comforts and necessities that they are used to having to get them through this time.
Items like hand sanitizer, soap, vitamins, and cleaning products are the more popularly purchased products and are now being offered in higher quantities to the consumer.
Even streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, and Disney + have seen massive gains in their online usage with providers like YouTube and Amazon Prime offering all of their content as standard definition to accommodate for a higher volume of users.
How Are Consumer Habits Changing?
BigCommerce has commented on how each generation of customers is changing their buying habits in response to the crisis. It seems that the younger generations have been concerned about the effects on the economy and cutting back.
In contrast, the older generations are buying more products in bulk to get them through without too much concern for the economy.
How Does This Affect Your Customers?
The biggest question being asked by customers at the moment is ‘will my package still be delivered?’ The global lockdown has got people concerned that deliveries will take a hit.
Thus far, the delivery of parcels has, thankfully, not been affected by the COVID-19 restrictions.
The border restrictions, for example, are currently prohibiting the movement of tourists and non-essential travel. But, the distribution and flow of products haven't stopped.
Governments are closing the brick and mortar locations that carry goods such as clothes and gardening supplies.
The powers that be are promoting the use of online shops and home delivery. This is fantastic news for the ecommerce community and has encouraged more small businesses and even high street shops to boost their online presence and eve begin offering a delivery service.
Delivery drivers, however, are being protected against this outbreak. Delivery companies, such as DHL, are stopping the use of cash transactions at the door and encouraging their drivers, not only to leave the package on the doorstep but to ask the customer’s permission for the driver to sign for the receipt of the package.
Want to Find out More?
We hope having read this article; you now have a better idea of how coronavirus has affected online businesses and the ecommerce market. For more information on the business implications concerning COVID-19, contact us today.


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Samsung Galaxy S21+ design has been leaked by an advisor and it has been revealed on Twitter. The S21 series has laid open to its fair share of leaks and rumors in the previous few months. The camera housing module of the Galaxy S21 too surfaced distinctly, which has resulted in falling in line with the formerly leaked renders of the smartphone. While Samsung has not officially long-established the latest line-up till now, it desired to include Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra. The company is too reportedly scheduling to kick off production for the smartphones’ flagship in December, with a launch that is expected as early as January in 2021.
The yet to revealed smartphone is expected to have slim bezels all around it. Further, it is seen that the smartphone is sporting a hole-punch cut-out which is placed at the top center of the display screen. The volume rockers and power buttons are also available on the right edge.
Image from Samsung
There was also a shared picture of the upcoming smartphone where there was a RAW CAD render of the Galaxy S21+. It showed the smartphone’s designs from all corners. It is desired to come with a display screen of 6.7-inch and it measures around 161.5 × 75.6 × 7.85mm. As per the design, the smartphone will be very much alike to the vanilla version Galaxy S21.
According to another leak, there was an image of the rear camera module of the Galaxy S21 which was shared on Twitter. It showed a triple camera setup and it was seen wrapping around the corner. This falls in line with primarily leaked renders of the smartphone that shows the same triple rear camera setup and an innovative wrap-around structure. Not like the majority of other smartphones, the flash is placed outside the module and not inside it. Whereas, the Galaxy S21 is desired to have a flat display of 6.2-inch and it is marked by slim bezels all around it.
While the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is leaked next to the vanilla version of Galaxy S21. It is expected to come with a somewhat curved display. The screen measures between 6.7 to 6.9 inches. It is wished to arrive with support for S Pen, nevertheless, there might not be any slot inside the smartphone to sport the company’s signature stylus. The South Korean firm is reportedly preparing to present its next-gen flagship series at the starting of January 2021. Whereas, the production is going to start from this year’s December.


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Signature Travel Network has announced the launch of a new Luxury Sales Development program, as well as a change to the leadership of its Hotel & Resort Program. The new luxury sales program, spearheaded by Signature Executive Vice President Ignacio Maza, will aim to expand the network’s luxury business. Richard Lebowitz has been named the hotel program’s new leader.
“Luxury travel continues to be our fastest growing business segment,” said Alex Sharpe, Signature’s president and CEO, in a written release. “I also think that luxury travel is the area where our members can deliver the greatest value and the highest level of customer satisfaction. With Ignacio’s leadership, Signature will create the training programs, marketing, communications, and events that will accelerate our growth, help us get to the next level in the luxury travel space, and strengthen our base of luxury travel consultants.”
In other executive updates, Signature has announced that Richard Lebowitz will serve as the new senior vice president for the organization’s Hotel & Resort Program.
Lebowitz, a distinguished hotel industry professional with over 30 years of experience, will be based in Signature’s New York office, and will be a part of the company’s senior management team, reporting to Alex Sharpe.
"In my past roles with Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, I was privileged to develop relationships with Signature members and the Signature management team,” Lebowitz said in a written statement. “I have long respected Signature's commitment to strong partnerships and I am excited to help the network continue to grow."
Lebowitz will join Signature on Monday, January 15.


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BarkerBlue recently helped California Trout dress their new office space with big and bold graphics. A large logo sign, mission statement and historic timeline – greet employees and visitors when entering the new space.
BarkerBlue just completed design and installation of an elegant banner cable hanging system at new technology company. Using smart hardware system of brushed aluminum fixtures and aircraft cable – the banners ‘float’ off the wall. Designed for high-traffic area and..
Skin Food is opening its latest retail store and calls on BarkerBlue to help to wrap the barricade during construction. The large ‘curved’ wall created a bit of a challenge as the sightline changes as mall goers pass by. Some creative layout and imaging using Skin..
Union Square facing facade at Macy's Union Square is adorned with graphics for Macy's annual Flowershow.
he freight elevator gets wrapped with a huge photo mural from SFMOMA’s new exhibit “Photography in Mexico: Selected Works From the Collections of SFMOMA and Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser”
ReproMAX Partners award the 2012 Mike Duff Award to BarkerBlue’s Gene Klein
March 24, 2012. Gene Klein, President and CEO of BarkerBlue, was awarded the annual Mike Duff Award at the ReproMAX 2012 Spring Executive Conference in Orlando, FL. The Mike Duff Award is..
Huge wall murals, pedestals wraps, floor graphics and dimensional 'OM' - complete the exhibit at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum's Tateuchi Gallery.
With visually exciting ‘infographics’ and placement throughout high-traffic public areas around campus – BarkerBlue helped the Datacenter team at Cisco get the word out about ‘Unified Fabric’.
BarkerBlue helped the Cisco WAAS product team get the word out about new product launch with banners and posters. It took a 17 foot long panel to tell the story of the 3 year development of the product line. Small ‘giveaway’ posters were presented to the team at the..
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Hyundai seems ready to bring the 2018 version of the Hyundai Santro to India as the vehicle has been spotted while testing in Pune. The new 2018 Santro is expected take on the existing Maruti Alto K10, Maruti WagonR, Renault Kwid and other vehicles in this segment. The car is expected to be launched in August this year.
The car has been spied testing and images taken by PowerDrift suggest that the 2018 Santro will come with a spacious cabin. It also looks wider and bigger than the previous model. A report on IBTimes mentions that the new model of the Santro might replace the i10. There is no official confirmation as to whether the car will be called Santro.
The 2018 Hyundai Santro is expected to come with a semi-cabin display, driver-side airbag (standard) and a touchscreen infotainment system based on the Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design introduced by the company. Hyundai is expected to introduce a new cascading front grille, fog lamp, alloy wheels, reverse camera and LED tail lamps on the new 2018 Santro which can't be seen because of the cover on the car.
It is expected to be powered by the same 1,086 cc engine seen on the current Hyundai i10. The engine produces 70 bhp and 100 Nm torque. The 2018 Santro is expected to be priced around Rs 3.5 lakh in India.
The car was expected to be unveiled during Auto Expo 2018, but the company didn't showcased it at the event and is now expected to launch it during the festive season in India. The company announced its first electric vehicle, the Kona Electric in India at Auto Expo. The Kona Electric crossover is expected to be launched in 2019. That car is powered by a 39.5 kWh lithium-ion battery which provides a range of up to 300 kms.


text: McDonald's on Its Fries: Like a Walk 'on Fresh Snow' Picture that the next time you're chowing down ... complete with snow By Kate Seamons, Newser Staff Posted Apr 9, 2012 12:08 PM CDT 41 comments Comments McDonald's fries ... like a walk on a snowy day! (AP Photo/Rich Kareckas,File) (Newser) – The next time you find yourself shoveling McDonald's fries into your mouth, slow down: You're likely failing to recognize what a precious experience you are engaged in. Bloomberg tucks a fun tidbit into a piece on McDonald's suppliers—apparently, sinking your teeth into a fry should be like "walking on freshly fallen snow." Seriously. That's from the company's director of sensory science, who was leading a contest in which its suppliers were supposed to cook the ideal fry. For the record, a sample from Lamb Weston's American Falls, Idaho, plant won for the second year in a row.


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If you’re in the Steam client beta, you’ll now be able to hide any game you want with its new feature.
A new Shadow of Mordor video goes behind the scenes with actors Troy Baker and Alastair Duncan.
Ubisoft’s current gen Assassin’s Creed game will include RPG-like stat elements and allow for further clothing customisation, amongst other features.
CEO of Twitch, Emmett Shear, answered question during a Reddit AMA yesterday, confronting concerns from the website’s users
Frogwares’ award winning adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s super-detective continue from September 30th.
In an interview with executive producer Fredrik Rundqvist, he talks about the world, crafting, the smaller details of the game and more.
Casy Hudson leaves BioWare, and says the company’s new IP will ‘redefine interactive entertainment’.
Call of Duty Ghosts and Black Ops 2 will both be treated to a weekend-long bonus XP bonanza
The hugely popular sci-fi strategy video game is coming to the table top
A trailer teasing the return of Sierra has appeared online with more info to be revealed at Gamescom next week.
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are likely to be the last dedicated games consoles as we know them, according to the boss of Twitch TV.
Apple has been valued at more than $1tn – almost three times as much as Google, the US’s second most valuable company.
We are a week away from the biggest show in the wrestling calendar so let's look at the Wrestlemania card and who could come out on top.


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Connect with top gaming leaders in Los Angeles at GamesBeat Summit 2023 this May 22-23. Register here.
SoundCloud has started rolling out a new way for people to discover music and audio files on its service. Called Suggested Tracks, this feature analyzes your listening activity to surface the tracks and artists you may not have heard before. As the war among music services continues, this is SoundCloud’s answer to Spotify’s Discover Weekly offering.
With Suggested Tracks, SoundCloud said it uses machine learning to pass along “fresh new” music and audio suggestions from among its 125 million tracks in its library. Of course, the more you use the app, the better it can adapt to your listening preferences. This capability is available on both the web and on SoundCloud’s iOS and Android apps.
Existing users will already have suggestions waiting for them — these listings will be available under the Discover tab when using SoundCloud on the web or in the search bar when on mobile. The company said that new users will start seeing suggestions once more tracks have been listened to or liked.
The release of this feature comes more than a week after SoundCloud received a $70 million investment from Twitter. In the past year, it seems to be beefing up its offering to provide a better experience to users, especially because there’s no shortage of offerings, such as Apple Music, Pandora, Slacker, and Spotify, which recently announced it has 100 million users, 30 million of which are paying subscribers.
In March, SoundCloud began its new $9.99 monthly subscription music service in the hopes of generating more revenue. The idea was to offer a premium service that lets you listen to any song in the company’s catalog that you want, similar to what you’d get with Spotify’s premium service. It also made its service international-friendly, starting with customers in the U.K. and Ireland this year.
One thing that may differentiate SoundCloud from the others is the push toward independent artists and creators. The company launched a mobile app for these users last year that enables them to better manage their accounts and community. With the roll-out of a learning discovery feature, this could improve the odds of their work being found and listened to instead of music from someone with a larger brand who has more resources at their disposal.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings.


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The International Coffee Organization’s (ICO) January 2022 market report shows its Composite Indicator Price (I-CIP) lost 0.1 per cent from December 2022 to January 2023, averaging 156.95 US cents per pound for the latter, whilst posting a median value of 155.54 US cents per pound.
Average prices for all group indicators remained stable, with a slight decrease in January 2023.
Across the board, price differentials shrank, with the Colombian Milds-Other Milds and the Colombian Milds-Brazilian Naturals differentials leading the way by shrinking 12.5 per cent and 11.3 per cent to 12.15 and 48.88 US cents per pound, respectively.
The New York certified stocks increased by 4.3 per cent from the previous month, closing in at 0.91 million 60-kilogram bags, while certified stocks of Robusta coffee reached 1.03 million 60- kilogram bags, representing a decrease of 5.0 per cent.
Global green bean exports in December 2022 totalled 9.81 million bags, as compared with 10.64 million bags in the same month of the previous year, down 7.7 per cent. The cumulative total for 2022/23 to December is 27.26 million bags as compared with 27.67 million bags over the same period a year ago, down 1.5 per cent.
Green bean exports of the Brazilian Naturals declined in December 2022, falling by 10.3 per cent to 3.24 million bags, following a 15.2 per cent increase in November 2022.
Green bean exports of Robustas amounted to 4.25 million bags in December 2022, as compared with 4.21 million bags in December 2021.
In December, South America’s exports of all forms of coffee fell by 17.3 per cent to 4.64 million bags.
Exports of all forms of coffee from Asia & Oceania were up by 4.2 per cent to 4.59 million bags in December 2022.
In Africa, exports of all forms of coffee decreased by 9.0 per cent to 0.97 million bags in December 2022 from 1.13 million bags in December 2021.
In December 2022, exports of all forms of coffee from Mexico and Central America were down 15.2 per cent to 0.69 million bags as compared with 0.81 million in December 2021.
Exports of soluble coffee fell by 15.9 per cent in December 2022 to 0.98 million bags. Exports of roasted beans were up 4.7 per cent in December 2022 to 75,852 bags.
The latest provisional estimate for total production in coffee year 2021/22 remains unchanged at 167.2 million bags, a 2.1 per cent decrease as compared to 170.83 million bags in the previous coffee year.
World coffee consumption is projected to grow by 3.3 per cent to 170.3 million 60- kilogram bags in 2021/22 as compared to 164.9 million for coffee year 2020/21. In 2021/22, consumption is estimated to exceed production by 3.1 million bags.
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The Virtual Zippo Lighter app, a joint project between Zippo Manufacturing and Moderati, recently surpassed over 5 million downloads. In case you’re unfamiliar with a Zippo, it’s an iconic lighter that you’d probably recognize instantly if you saw it. And whadya know, there it is chillin’ to the right of this text!
Since its release in October of last year, the free app peaked at 18 on the most popular download chart on iTunes, but steady interest has kept the downloads coming in at a pretty astounding rate.
Speaking on the 5 million download milestone, Zippo Manufacturing noted, “The Zippo Lighter strikes a chord with the digital generation.. and the application has resonated with audiences across the world.” The emphasis is all theirs, and an obvious play on the popular use of lighters at concerts, be they virtual or real.
5 million eyeballs is no joke, and while the developers might not be making any money with their free app, the branding opportunity for a corporation on the iPhone is unparalleled in the mobile space.


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Somerfield sales down 8.2%
Struggling British food retailer Somerfield said like-for-like sales in the first 13 weeks of its second half were down 8.2%. 'Trading conditions have been competitive during the second half and are likely to remain so,' it said.
Like-for-like sales at the Kwik Save chain were down 15.6%, while sales at Somerfield branded stores were 2.3% lower. On January 26, Somerfield posted a first half slump in profits before tax and exceptional items, down 44 percent to 63.9 million pounds in the 28 weeks to November 6. It also announced the sale of 45 of its larger stores for 305 million pounds as part of a disposals programme.
Intense competition led to a fall in turnover to 2.98 billion pounds during the period from 3.21 billion pounds previously, a drop of 7.2 percent which underlined the store's declining market share. Somerfield's misfortunes began when the group bought discounter Kwik Save in 1998, taking on 850 stores.
At 1050 Somerfield's share price was 1.8% lower at 56p, just above the recent 12-month low at 52p, and only a fraction of the 460p high. © Reuters
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How Decking Out This Parking Lot Will Help Local Restaurants and Artists
Outdoor seating has become the saving grace for restaurants who want to serve customers during the pandemic while also ensuring their customers’ safety. However, the rush back to eating out and the limited seating has created longer waiting times and difficulty for customers to find somewhere to eat.
The East Side Business Improvement District (BID) is tackling this issue with its new initiative to create a space for restaurant patrons to go if outdoor seating is at capacity or simply if someone wants a quiet, outdoor space to relax. BID wrote a grant to AARP’s Small Dollar Big Impact fund and recently received $1,000 to purchase picnic tables.
This space is called the East Side Art Lot and will be located at 1915 E. North Ave., which has been an unused city-owned parking lot until now. The location is between two popular restaurants, Von Trier and Beans and Barley, and is also near over a dozen other restaurants.
Liz Brodek, executive director of BID, explained that this space is also a great opportunity to pay local artists to design and paint the tables located in the Art Lot. BID has put together a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to raise money to pay these artists. The campaign is asking for $6,000, $5,000 of which will pay local artists, $700 for garbage collection and sanitization, $650 for locally-bought art supplies and $150 to produce signage for the lot, according to a statement from BID. BID has also opened a call for artists that will remain open through August 6.
One local business owner, Steph Davies of The Waxwing, has been supporting the idea from the start. In a statement, Davies said, “It has been inspiring to see The East Side BID come up with innovative ways to drive traffic, support our customers and remind people that even though our business models are changing practically daily, we’re still here!”
Brodek wants this space to help restaurants, “an already low-margin business, get through the pandemic,” and ensure that customers feel safe. Additionally, she views the Art Lot as a space that will highlight the local artists, restaurants and shops and community “that makes the East Side so special.”


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Mail City team share tips: Ocado leads the way as star picks beat the footsie with a 16% rise
It's almost half-time in what is proving to be another ultra-difficult year for investors, but the Mail’s City team of top share tipsters have outperformed the market by a substantial margin.
Whilst the FTSE index of 100 leading blue-chip stocks has fallen 5.6 per cent, dragged lower by the seemingly never-ending and demoralising eurozone crisis, the Mail’s recommendations have risen by a commendable 16 per cent.
Only two of the nine tips failed to beat or match the overall market.
Delivering the best return: Ocado has jumped by 80 per cent since the beginning of the year
As one leading fund manager said in a recent note to clients: ’This is a market for stocks, not a stock market. Investors should not give up hope and buy into those stocks which offer good assets and value.’
That is where the Mail’s team have generally come up trumps. Ruth Sunderland’s tip Ocado has so far proved to be a master stroke, showing a spectacular 80 per cent gain since the beginning of the year though some analysts still would not touch it with a bargepole.
The online grocer was one of the dogs of 2011, trading a million miles below its 180p flotation price, touching an all-time low of 52p. But it has confounded critics with a 16 per cent leap in Christmas sales to £59million from 450,700 orders.
Ocado remains a possible takeover target for any bigger retailer wanting a ready-made online platform. On a strictly professional viewpoint though, anyone who bought Ocado in January at a bombed-out price of 54.4p should probably think about locking in some profit now.
AIM-listed Toumaz has proved to be an excellent tip and is up 33 per cent. The company specialises in low-power and low-cost microchips that transmit wireless signals. The sexiest of which is involved in the measurement of vital signs from sensors that can be installed in something as thin as a plaster.
With £11million of cash in the bank and great growth prospects, the shares do look as though they have much further to go. Broker Killik is a big fan.
It’s good to see a good old UK manufacturer also doing well.
Yorkshire-based plastics firm Carclo has jumped 24 per cent as investors switched on to its exciting touch sensor technology.
A big percentage of sales of its injection-moulded plastic components are in medical, optical and electronic products. It has also developed a robust plastic touchscreen for use in expensive mobile phones. Hold on.
Ubiquitous drinks giant Diageo is up 8 per cent. The Johnnie Walker whisky-to-Smirnoff Vodka group recently swallowed the leading premium cachaca brand in Brazil, Ypioca, for £300million cash, doubling its size in the booming Brazilian market.
Analyst Chris Wickham expects outperformance to continue as it still trades at a discount to peer Pernod Ricard.
Volatile: A fresh escalation of the eurozone debt crisis has hurt the stock market, which is now down on the start of the year
AIM-listed healthcare firm Futura Medical has held firm as a rock at 81.5p, following its 10-for-1 share split. The company is moving closer to the launch of CSD500, described as Viagra in a condom, along with its joint venture partner, Reckitt Benckiser.
Mobile giant Vodafone has dropped 3.4 per cent, dragged down with the rest of the market heavyweights on eurozone fears.
The mobile phone giant is a core holding in City portfolios, mostly because of its sumptuous 7.8 per cent yield. The group’s balance sheet is strong and whenever economies improve, Vodafone will grow at least in step because of mobile data. A definite hold.
Supermarket Sainsbury’s, another Footsie constituent, has lost 5.4 per cent in sympathy with the general trend. The shares still look good value after falling nearly 25 per cent last year. There is still a chance that Qatari investors, who still sit on a 26 per cent stake, could return with a knock-out cash offer.
Shares in Stobart, owner of Southend Airport, have reversed of late and are now a disappointing 7 per cent lower on the year.
The company is in a transformational phase and is trying to buy vehicle transportation firm Autologic in a £9million deal. Some investors might fear it could end up overpaying.
Broker Investec says this is not a stock for the faint-hearted, but long-term investors should be well rewarded. Hold on.
Easily the most speculative of our tips and definitely not for widows or orphans, TomCo Energy has lost a disappointing 14 per cent, but could still be a big winner. It is a play on Red Leaf’s EcoShale technology and has access to leases in the heart of the prospective Green River Formation in Utah.
Analyst Sanjeev Bahl at Numis Securities has a target price of 8p and believes Red Leaf’s EcoShale In-Capsule process has the potential to unlock the ‘low hanging fruit’ within this resource play.
When all said and done, the UK market has held up relatively well considering the constant stream of unsettling news.
May was the Footsie’s worst month for three years, but if Greece is able to remain in the eurozone and Spain’s banking problems are somehow rectified, albeit in the short term, a summer rally could yet ensue.
Keep all digits crossed.
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Jon Prosser, the noted Apple leakster revealed that Apple will be releasing its first set of augmented reality (AR) glasses in 2021. According to him, just like the first generation Apple Watch, the Apple Glass will very likely be slow as well.
It took almost two to three for the Apple Watch to actually turn into an useful independent gadget. Initially, it completely relied on the iPhone for data processing and running of the apps as well. According to Prosser, the first generation of Apple glasses will totally depend on the iPhone as well for the majority of the processing.
After the release of the Apple Watch, the company started opening up the smartwatch to developers, so that they could create apps that would run totally on the watch. At present, Apple Watch is the best smartwatch in the industry and there is no Android smartwatch that comes close to matching the Apple Watch.
Apple Glass will reportedly cost $499 – a sweet price point for the masses. However, it being the first generation product, there will be higher costs for research & development. Apple’s strategy with most of its products has been to improve it over the course of the time and in some cases, reduce the price as the tech becomes standard.
We expect the Apple Glass to offer very limited features. However, as developers start to develop new apps for it and in-turn Apple will also make money by charging a fee. We could also expect the product to turn more advanced in the future or it turn cheaper – depends on the route Apple will plan to take.
The famed leakster Prosser also added that after Apple reveals its augmented reality (AR) glasses, they will not ship for a year or so. Major tech companies take the same route: unveil the product, get developers to create experience for it, and then release it to the public.


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Tools 4 Teaching supply store marks 5th birthday
Published: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 5:29 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 5:29 p.m.
The Tools 4 Teaching store will turn 5 years old later this month, and on Wednesday people gathered to celebrate the upcoming birthday.
The Public Education Foundation of Marion County, which operates the store, handed out popcorn, snow cones and other goodies to guests in recognition of the anniversary.
Osceola Middle School reading teacher David Steffey partnered with then-School Board member Judi Zanetti to create the store. Zanetti is now the foundation director.
Steffey, the 2014 Golden Apple teacher of the year and life-long Marion County resident, said the idea came when he visited a similar store in Orange County called “A Gift For Teaching.”
Knowing the recession was hitting families hard, which in turn meant many teachers were having to pay for more classroom supplies, he felt a similar store was needed in Marion County.
He contacted Zanetti, who donated $8,600 in unused campaign contributions to get the store off the ground.
In five years, there have been 12,500 teacher visits. The store has handed out $530,000 worth of free school supplies. More than $565,000 worth of supplies have been donated to the store since it opened on March 25, 2009.
The store is located at the foundation headquarters in the Thelma Parker Center behind Madison Street Elementary School.
Tools 4 Teaching has been a lifesaver for many teachers, whose classroom funding has been cut during the recession.
Osceola Middle sixth-grade math teacher Shizuka Campagna said she has been coming to the store since it opened to stock up on free supplies. She has saved hundreds of dollars.
“This is so wonderful,” said Campagna, adding she usually gets pencils, markers, crayons and paper for her students. She said the donations help since there are students whose families can’t afford classroom supplies.
Tools 4 Teaching was recently selected as an affiliate of the Kids in Need Foundation, a national network that has given away $400 million in school supplies since 1995.
On Tuesday, Tools 4 Teaching received $24,000 worth of supplies from Office Max in Orlando as part of the Kids In Need Foundation. In just 10 weeks this year, Tools 4 Teaching has received $43,000 in supplies thanks to that foundation.
The biggest operational change since Tools 4 Teaching opened is that now officials are taking online orders from teachers at six schools located in the far reaches of Marion County.
A few weeks each semester, teachers at those schools are emailed an order form to fill out. After the store fills the orders, school district couriers deliver the supplies.
The schools are: Dunnellon Elementary, Dunnellon High, Dunnellon Middle, Fort McCoy School, Romeo Elementary and Stanton-Weirsdale Elementary.
Contact Joe Callahan at 867-4113 or at email@example.com. Follow him twitter @JoeOcalaNews.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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VR currently does a lot of different things well across a variety of devices. The Gear VR is a great mobile headset but it’s underpowered and lacks positional [...]
In many works of science fiction, from books to film, you’d be hard-pressed to not come across some sort of augmented reality. From glasses and goggles to cell phones [...]
E3 hype is already in full swing and companies are starting to share bits of information about their appearances at the expo this June, even though GDC still hasn’t [...]
Several weeks ago, we published a story about a company called Pimax. The scrappy startup was announcing its CES 2017 lineup and this year that included an 8K (4K per-eye) [...]
Hubblo is launching a new 360-degree camera to enable personal virtual reality broadcasting.
Hong Kong-based Hubblo is announcing the Hubblo VR camera — a 3D [...]


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numbers has led to several campaigns and initiatives to try and protect the species, and urban bee keeping that makes use of rooftop spaces has proven particularly popular in densely populated cities where green space is scarce. The recent drop in bee
We've seen green uses of city rooftops before for farming initiatives and, reminiscent of the way the Fairmont Royal York hotel installed a three-hive apiary 14 stories up above the streets of Toronto not long ago, so New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is now raising hundreds of thousands of honey bees on its own urban rooftop.
Roughly a quarter of a million bees now make their home atop the hotel, which stands to reap considerable benefit from the continuous supply of locally sourced honey – an ingredient that will be used throughout its restaurant’s menu. The bees were introduced in support of New York City’s green initiative, PlaNYC, which aims to plant one million trees over the next decade. Some of the flowering trees will require pollination, which is where the bees come in, flying over a three-mile radius to keep newly planted trees blooming across the city.
The proximity of the bees may also prove to have health benefits for any allergy-suffering hotel guests as local honey is said to be one of the most effective treatments for hayfever.
The Associated Press video below explains the project in more detail:
As bees continue to face an uncertain future, efforts like these offer the potential of a win-win-win for the bees, the hotels, and the planet. The hotel’s enterprising approach also means they are less reliant on outside suppliers for a key ingredient in many of their dishes.
Hospitality providers around the globe: time to get involved in something similar yourself?


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WinP.cn reports that the Chinese version of the Nokia Lumia 920, the 920T, has gained Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Telecom Equipment Certification for release on the China Mobile network on the 12th November, in time for sales to start on December 5th.
The handset supports Chinaâ€™s home-grown TD-SCDMA standard and also standard GSM GPRS.
The smartphone will be launched next week on November 22nd , and will be available in Cyan, Yellow, Black and White. It is rumoured to cost around 4,200 Yuan ($673)
The handset should hit Hong Kong streets slightly earlier, on November 28th, with the Nokia Lumia 820, where red and grey will also be available.
The device will only be launched on December 6th in Taiwan, and become available on shelves December 14th. The price there is also not known.


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Shares of Clorox Co., Oakland, Calif., opened more than 14% lower, falling to 88-15/16 early Thursday after the company issued an earnings report citing slower sales of several brands. Clorox said fourth-quarter earnings actually increased 11% over a year ago, to $390 million, but sales were down 2.6% to $1.1 billion, and earnings per share of 96 were 5 under analyst estimates. CEO Craig Sullivan blamed declining sales on results of unwinding heavy trade promotion by First Brands, acquired earlier this year, along with sales declines for Brita water filtration systems, Tilex Fresh Shower everyday shower cleaner and Combat insecticides caused by competitors' heavy promotional selling. Brita sales were down not only for the quarter but also for the entire fiscal year, Clorox said. The company last week announced it's moving Brita along with other brands handled by Y&R Advertising, San Francisco, to DDB
Worldwide effective Jan. 1. Brita was the largest of the Clorox accounts handled by Y&R.
Copyright August 1999, Crain Communications Inc.


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First lesson you learn at Trump University? The art of the con. The second? Hit ‘em in the pocket—in Trump’s case, it’s where he keeps his balls. E-commerce juggernaut Shopify is the latest to wait until the toupee-topped Titanic’s wheezing last gasp to jump ship; on Thursday, it announced it would be making the MAGA leader’s merch much harder to buy, as it “has deactivated at least two e-commerce sites offering merchandise in support of Trump, a day after he publicly egged on and supported thousands of his supporters breaking into the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.,” reports Women’s Wear Daily (WWD).
“Shopify does not tolerate actions that incite violence,” a company representative told WWD, citing “recent events” as a violation of the platform’s “acceptable use policy”.
“As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump,” the representative added.
As WWD notes, the e-commerce platform is the preferred online retail platform of “thousands of brands and companies.” While Shopify would not confirm the total number of sites closed, WWD reports:
The deactivated Shopify sites include Trumpstore.com, directly operated by the Trump Organization, and his official campaign merchandise site, Shopdonaldjtrump.com. Other sites associated with Trump or selling supportive merchandise seem to be closed as well.
Since as of Thursday afternoon, Trump’s access to his social media accounts—including Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat—has also been revoked in the wake of his incendiary and patently false (but not at all new) rhetoric, we have no idea how he feels about the censure of his merchandise arm. Frankly, we care about his feelings just about as much as he cares about Black lives. (Or any except his own, for that matter. What’s that phrase? “Fuck your feelings”?). We do wonder, though: What happens to a MAGA hat deferred? Does it dry up like the orange skin of its president in the sun?


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APPLE’S iPhone clawed back share of the smartphone market in the UK and Europe in the six weeks to the end of September, as sales of the iPhone 5 reversed a decline seen in recent months.
The latest data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel showed that Apple had 28 per cent of all UK smartphone sales in the period, up from 21 per cent in the preceding six weeks. The period counted just nine days of sales of the new iPhone 5.
However, despite being the world’s most profitable phone company, Apple’s market share still pales in comparison to Android, which had 58.2 per cent of sales. Android has long been the most-sold operating system, due to the large number of handsets at many different price points that run it.
The figures also illustrated the decline of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry. Sales of the ailing platform were just 8.8 per cent of the market.
A year ago they were 20.8 per cent.


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Xbox Corporate Vice President of Game Creator Experience & Ecosystem Sarah Bond made the unusual step of reaching out to Xbox fans who supported them throughout these past few months on the issue of the Microsoft Activision deal.
“The Xbox community support & advocacy for the ABK acquisition is epic. We may not always agree with outcomes – but we’re encouraged almost 40 countries have approved, and are continuing constructive dialog to move forward.
Staying positive & respectful of all involved is key to realizing our vision of bringing everyone who loves to play, together. Thank you.”
Let’s take a few minutes to analyze that message. The first sentence is really the only one where Sarah expresses her gratitude.
The second sentence may seem confusing, because Sarah is no longer referring to the fans, because they are not the one who ‘don’t always agree with outcomes’. Actually, it’s the countries and regions whom they have been convincing to accept the deal.
Sarah cites the now 40 countries and regions who have approved the Microsoft Activision deal, many of whom did so without even adding any conditions for that approval.
Much of the attention of the coverage has been the three major regulators that Microsoft saw as the biggest hurdles against their ability to get the deal to push through. That would be America’s FTC, the relatively newer UK CMA, and the European Commission on Competition.
However, there was a bit of confusion on how exactly these regulators were important to Microsoft’s deal and how much impact they can actually create.
As we now know, the FTC suing Microsoft to block the deal actually isn’t enough to really block it. On a procedural level, Microsoft and FTC can lock horns about it for years, but they don’t have to wait on that case’s outcome to finish their deal.
The European Commission, in contrast, was one of the 40 countries and regions that approved the deal. They also made that approval unconditional, indicating they agreed with Microsoft’s arguments and proposed remedies.
Finally, the CMA is the one in the spotlight. While there was also a point where people assumed the CMA could effectively block it because of the way their competition rules work, we now know that those rules aren’t the final word.
The CMA’s decision is now facing harsh scrutiny from MPs like Bim Afolami, and is already in the process of being appealed in the Competition Appeals Tribunal.
To be clear, the CMA did have independence to make their own decisions. This particular decision, however, is bound to harm the UK in real life, not only in the eyes of other companies, but other countries. Based on what we know, the CAT will be using their procedures to force CMA to come up with a decision that allows the deal to go through.
Sarah’s last message is what fans really need to listen to, though. In the end, Xbox don’t want their own fans to compromise the deal with the console war noise that has surrounded coverage of this story for the past few months. As Sarah says, stay positive and respectful, as Microsoft is more than capable of getting the deal through on their own volition.


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UK buy a first for Glen Dimplex
Glen Dimplex is making its first acquisition of a public company with a recommended £11.9 million sterling (€19.5 million) bid for the Stoves Group in Britain. Since the target is a public company, it is also the first time Glen Dimplex has disclosed how much it has paid for an acquisition.
Glen Dimplex already has shares, irrevocable acceptances and statements of intent to sell covering 54.6 per cent of Stoves stock and its bid seems assured of success unless a higher offer emerges.
It manufactures gas and electric cookers under the Stoves and New World brands and had sales of £101.9 million sterling in the year to last May. Pre-tax profits, however, were no more than £55,000 sterling - indicating the difficulties Stoves has had to endure, mainly due to sterling's strength. In the previous year, Stoves had pre-tax profits of £865,000 sterling on sales of £100.3 million sterling.
Glen Dimplex is offering 45p sterling a share to Stoves's shareholders, a 27 per cent premium on the previous price in the market and a long way above the 18p low earlier this year. The offer is also a 40 per cent premium on the three-month average to the end of November for Stoves's shares.
Glen Dimplex chairman Mr Martin Naughton said: "The combination of Stoves and Glen Dimplex further enhances our strategy of seeking leading positions in each of the key markets in which we operate." It is clear that Glen Dimplex plans a radical shake-up after the acquisition is completed. The Irish group plans a detailed review to see how Stoves's performance can be improved.
Glen Dimplex chief executive Mr Sean O'Driscoll said Glen Dimplex did not yet have a plan, having conducted a limited due diligence on the company. "We've satisfied ourselves that this a good business proposition . . . we believe that we can turn this company around."