Premise taps into hunger for real-time data

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

October 15, 2013 5:22 am

Premise taps into hunger for real-time data

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

The rise in US food prices accelerated in September and has continued into October, according to a detailed study of retail prices – though the US federal government shutdown has robbed financial markets of any official measures of the state of the economy. These unofficial inflation figures, from a US start-up called Premise, highlight the growing use of massive data collection and analysis – known as “big data” – to supplement and in some cases replace official economic statistics. Read more of this post

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Online work marketplace Freelancer.com has released its prospectus for its proposed float on the Australian Securities Exchange, giving the public the first real insight into the business

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Caitlin Fitzsimmons Online editor

Under the hood of Freelancer.com: a cheat sheet to the prospectus

Published 15 October 2013 11:50, Updated 15 October 2013 14:51

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Matt Barrie will retain plenty of skin in the game when Freelancer lists. Photo: Sasha Woolley

Online work marketplace Freelancer.com has released its prospectus for its proposed float on the Australian Securities Exchange, giving the public the first real insight into the business. Here are the five most interesting things in the prospectus.

1. Finances

This is the first time Freelancer has disclosed its revenue: $8.46 million for the half year ended June 30, 2013 and a forecast of $18.3 million for the full year. It is growing fast, considering revenue was $10.63 million for the entire 2012 calendar year. However, it is a lot less than the $1.2 billion figure that has regularly been mentioned in connection with company in recent years. That figure represented the value of projects listed on the site. While the company never claimed it represented revenue it did sound impressive. Profit after tax is expected to be $471,000 for the full-year 2013 and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation is forecast at $736,000.

2. Valuation

The company is offering shares at 50¢ each, implying a market capitalisation of $218 million. Read more of this post

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In IPO filings, Twitter restated revenue policy; Twitter uses estimates to determine some of its revenue

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

In IPO filings, Twitter restated revenue policy

By Stephen Gandel, senior editor October 14, 2013: 9:16 AM ET

The social media company uses estimates to determine some of its revenue.

FORTUNE — Twitter changed and expanded the description of how it tallies sales from some of its advertising deals in its IPO filings. The first version of its IPO filing, or S-1, which it confidentially filed to the SEC in July but did not initially release to the public, implied Twitter did not have a consistent policy to determine how much it stated on its financial statements it got from some deals. The company said its method was still evolving. In the deals involved, it wasn’t yet clear how much Twitter would be paid from advertisers. In these cases, Twitter said it would use its “best estimate of sales price,” when tallying up figures to compute its quarterly statements. And the way it calculates those estimates could change over time. Read more of this post

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Bike-sharing: Sharing two wheels is becoming ever more popular

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Bike-sharing: Sharing two wheels is becoming ever more popular

Oct 12th 2013 |From the print edition

IN MORE than 500 cities in 50 countries, shared bicycles have become a colourful addition to street life. Schemes have increased tenfold since 2004. Most work on the principle that a user hires a bicycle at one of a number of docking stations dotted around a city. The first 30 minutes are usually free for members (annual memberships range from a $35 deposit to a $145 fee), and charges rise the longer users hang on to the bikes. The two-wheelers vary from clanking, no-frills frames in Hangzhou, in China, to the luxury models with built-in GPS and smart tablets that will be launched in Copenhagen next month. Read more of this post

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Media bosses hope mobile devices will help, rather than hurt, television

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Media bosses hope mobile devices will help, rather than hurt, television

Oct 12th 2013 | CANNES AND SAN FRANCISCO |From the print edition

IN THE television business, as at buffets, people crave seconds. A series is deemed a success if it is renewed for another season. The industry is currently obsessed with the “second screen”—mobile phones and tablets that people play with while they watch TV. Around three-quarters of American internet users regularly fiddle with a mobile device while watching the gogglebox. Media executives are abuzz working out how to turn this distraction into profitable transactions. Read more of this post

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The hunt for the Hispanic dollar; Companies are trying to attract a US population that is becoming less and less homogenous

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

October 14, 2013 5:35 pm

The hunt for the Hispanic dollar

By Barney Jopson

A new approach: Huggies last year took popular products from Mexico to the US; the retailer Target stocks the Mexican beauty brand Tio Nacho in Los Angeles and a cornflour popular with Venezuelans and Colombians in Miami; and Pepsi included a shot of a Mexican wrestling mask in its Super Bowl ad his year

Add up the headcount at a baby shower, says Lizette Williams, and you will understand that new arrivals in Hispanic-American families are a big deal. A Puerto Rican mother from New York, her own party four years ago attracted so many well-wishers that the shower of clothes and nappies became a downpour. All told there were 100 guests. “Just think about that,” she says. “Think about the kind of the stature in which it’s held. This is a major life event. It’s almost like a second wedding.” Read more of this post

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Japan offers an unsettling glimpse of all of our futures

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Last updated: October 14, 2013 6:54 pm

Japan offers an unsettling glimpse of all of our futures

By Gideon Rachman

A determination to maintain social cohesion is admirable, but the country has paid a price

Afew years ago Wired, the technology magazine, ran a regular feature called “Japanese schoolgirl watch”. The concept was not as dubious as it sounds. The idea was simply that the schoolgirls of Japan are technological trendsetters and that the gadgets they adopt today will go global tomorrow. These days, however, Japan is also a global trendsetter in other, more troubling ways. If the policy makers of Europe and North America want a sense of the social, economic and strategic challenges they may face in the coming years, they should visit Japan, as I did last week.

Read more of this post

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‘End of the line for Japanese electricals’

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

‘End of the line for Japanese electricals’

Sony, Canon and other Japanese firms at centre of the Seventies and Eighties electronics revolution have ‘already lost in the global race’, according to a fund manager, who warned against funds that blindly follow these shares.

By Nicholas Weindlingm

8:00AM BST 15 Oct 2013

Stellar returns from Japan’s stock market after decades of malaise have got investors’ attention. This excitement is well founded. The aggressive economic reforms of ‘Abenomics’ – the economic policies implemented by Shinzō Abe, the current Prime Minister of Japan – are creating real structural change. Imagine if UK prices on everything from cars to clothes had gone down for years. You would always put off purchasing for a cheaper price tomorrow. That has been the Japanese reality until now. Under Abenomics, Japan is prompting consumers to buy today. This fuel for economic growth combined with what are still very low valuations translates to powerful opportunity in Japanese equities. Read more of this post

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Alaska Milk Corp. named Marketing Company of the Year in Philippines

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Alaska Milk Corp. named Marketing Company of the Year

(philstar.com) | Updated October 15, 2013 – 10:34am

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Officials of Alaska Milk Corp. accept their trophy at the Agora Awards 2013 last Oct. 9 at the Peninsula Manila in Makati City. L-R first row: Vicente Reyes (PMA President), Gwen Galvez (PMA Board Secretary), Arnold Abad (VP, Accounting & Controller), Joselito Sarmiento (Executive Vice President & CFO), Blen Fernando (VP, Marketing), Wilfred Uytengsu (President & CEO), Maureen Castaneda (PMA Chairman), Hildebrand Barcarse (PMA Director), Alex Flores (PMA Executive Director) L-R second row: Francisco Idian (AMC, Vice President, Sales), Andreas Mantis (Business Development Director) and Henk Pijffers (Operations Director) of Royal Friesland Campina.

MANILA, Philippines – In recognition of its innovative marketing programs that have resulted in its unprecedented growth from a family-owned company to a P15-billion corporation, the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA) named Alaska Milk Corporation the Marketing Company of the Year. Alaska Milk was cited as well for its good corporate citizenship and the high esteem it receives from peers in the industry as the PMA conferred its most prestigious accolade during the 34th Agora Awards held at The Peninsula Manila in Makati, recently. Read more of this post

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Currencies funds feel strain of US deadlock

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Last updated: October 14, 2013 8:21 pm

Currencies funds feel strain of US deadlock

By Delphine Strauss

Currencies traders do not know which way to turn. This was meant to be the year the dollar would come roaring back against other major currencies, as the US recovery picked up steam and the Federal Reserve began scaling back its vast stimulus programme. After years of near-zero interest rates in most developed economies, hedge fundswere hoping that divergent central bank policies would finally create clear-cut economic trends on which to trade. Read more of this post

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Norway orders review of $790 bln wealth fund, responding to concerns that the fund is unwieldy and its returns too low

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Norway orders review of $790 bln wealth fund

Mon, Oct 14 2013

* Review comes after criticism fund is too big, unresponsive

* Norway often bars sovereign wealth fund from investments

* Asks for greater scrutiny of Shell and Eni in Niger Delta

* Fund will also raise concerns with AngloGold

By Balazs Koranyi

OSLO, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Norway has ordered a review of its $790 billion wealth fund, one of the world’s biggest investors whose largesse helps underpin Norway’s generous social benefits, responding to concerns that the fund is unwieldy and its returns too low. The government also in a regular review of the fund’s investment ethics ordered it to sell stakes in several companies due to ethical issues and expressed concern over investments in oil companies Royal Dutch Shell and Eni. Read more of this post

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Oil processing: A refined model; The European refining industry is undergoing a shake-out as new entrants see opportunities

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

October 14, 2013 7:04 pm

Oil processing: A refined model

By Sylvia Pfeifer

The European refining industry is undergoing a shake-out as new entrants see opportunities

Gary Klesch likes trouble. The American financier made his name in the City of London in the 1980s by buying debt in struggling companies, taking on groups such as Eurotunnel, Euro Disney and Heron International, the property group. Today his €5bn Klesch Group empire is focused on industrial commodities but his appetite for businesses in trouble is unabated. Just as some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies are scrambling to get out of European refining, Mr Klesch is trying to get in. Read more of this post

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How Your Knees Can Predict the Weather; Granny was right: Scientists find link between achy joints and the forecast

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

October 14, 2013, 7:12 p.m. ET

How Your Knees Can Predict the Weather

Granny was right: Scientists find link between achy joints and the forecast

MELINDA BECK

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The Wolff family of Paramus, N.J., was eyeing the gathering clouds and debating whether to cancel a planned park trip when 6-year-old Leora piped up with an idea: “Let’s call Grandma. Her knees always know when it’s going to rain!” Leora’s grandmother, Esther Polatsek, says she started being sensitive to the weather in her 20s, when a fracture in her foot would ache whenever a snowstorm approached. Now 66 and plagued by rheumatoid arthritis, Mrs. Polatsek says she suffers flare-ups whenever the weather is about to change. “It’s just uncanny. Sometimes it’ll be gorgeous out, but I’ll have this awful pain. And sure enough, the next morning it rains,” she says. “It may be just a few drops, but it makes my body crazy.” Do weather conditions really aggravate physical pain? It is one of the longest running controversies in medicine. Read more of this post

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The Economics Nobel Highlights a Big Unanswered Question: We still don’t know nearly enough about why the prices of stocks, bonds and other assets move the way they do

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

The Economics Nobel Highlights a Big Unanswered Question

The awarding of a Nobel Prize to three economists with divergent views on the working of markets highlights a troubling truth about the state of the discipline: We still don’t know nearly enough about why the prices of stocks, bonds and other assets move the way they do. If the economics profession wants to help the world avert – – or at least better survive — financial crises, it will have to be more open to new ways of looking at this question. Read more of this post

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Nobel Prize Shows Both Wisdom and Madness of Crowds

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Nobel Prize Shows Both Wisdom and Madness of Crowds

Financial markets provide a useful reminder of just how humble we economists should be about our understanding of the world. The three winners of the 2013 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences neatly capture this tension. Eugene Fama is the intellectual godfather of the view that financial markets are efficient, while no one has done more than Robert Shiller to highlight their inefficiencies. Lars Peter Hansen developed statistical techniques that both sides have used to help resolve their differences. Read more of this post

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Fama’s Nobel Work Shows Active Managers Fated to Lose

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Fama’s Nobel Work Shows Active Managers Fated to Lose

The work that earned Eugene Fama the Nobel Prize in economics provided the intellectual foundation for index-tracking funds, which have upended stock picking as investors abandon active money managers. Fama, 74, has argued that financial markets are efficient and that stock-price movements are unpredictable, making it impossible for even professional money managers to gain an advantage. His conclusion that investors would be better off in low-cost funds that track the market’s performance helps explain the success of Vanguard Group Inc., the biggest U.S. mutual-fund company, as well as the rise of passive investments, which had more than $2.6 trillion in U.S. assets between exchange-traded funds and mutual funds at the end of 2012. Read more of this post

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Bristol-Myers, Merck and Roche Develop Drugs to Zap Tumors Via Immune System

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Bristol-Myers, Merck and Roche Develop Drugs to Zap Tumors Via Immune System

RON WINSLOW and PETER LOFTUS

Oct. 14, 2013 7:25 p.m. ET

As genetically targeted therapies gain ground against cancer, another treatment strategy called immunotherapy is emerging as a potentially powerful new partner against malignancies. At least five major drug companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. BMY -0.02% ,Merck MRK -1.14% & Co. and Roche Holding AG ROG.VX +0.42% , are developing drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors that work by unleashing the body’s immune system to enable it to recognize and attack tumor cells. Small biotechnology companies are also embracing the approach. Read more of this post

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When The New-York Daily Times began publication in 1851, China was ruled by a weak and stagnating Qing dynasty

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

OCTOBER 14, 2013, 10:31 AM

“Interesting From China.”

By AUSTIN RAMZY and PHILIP P. PAN

When The New-York Daily Times began publication in 1851, China was ruled by a weak and stagnating Qing dynasty. Hong Kong was a young British colony, ceded to Queen Victoria at the end of the first Opium War only nine years earlier. And the devastating Taiping Rebellion, which would leave at least 20 million dead, more than almost any other military conflict in history, had just begun in a corner of what is now the southern region of Guangxi. Read more of this post

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Nobels and National Greatness; Anyone who thinks America’s best days are behind it should take a close look at the latest Nobel haul

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

October 14, 2013, 7:35 p.m. ET

Stephens: Nobels and National Greatness

Anyone who thinks America’s best days are behind it should take a close look at the latest Nobel haul.

BRET STEPHENS

In its proud and storied history, Hungary has produced a dozen winners of the Nobel Prize: four for chemistry; three for physics; three for medicine; one for economics; and one for literature. Not bad for a little country of not quite 10 million people. But one curious fact: All of Hungary’s laureates ultimately left, or fled, the country. If you are brilliant, ambitious and Hungarian, better get out while you can. Read more of this post

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Blood found in 46-million-year-old mosquito

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Blood found in 46-million-year-old mosquito

October 15, 2013 – 9:48AM

Nicky Phillips

Mozzies have been annoying humans for centuries, but they’ve been sucking blood from other creatures for far longer, close to 50 million years, say scientists, who have ancient blood to prove it. Researchers have found components of red blood cells in a 46-million-year-old fossilised mosquito. While the discovery sounds like the plot of the popular sci-fi novel Jurassic Park – where scientists use DNA extracted from an amber-encased mosquito to revive dinosaurs – the female specimen represents the world’s first fossil of a blood-engorged mosquito. Read more of this post

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Need a book? Call a drone. Australia may soon be the first country in the world to see commercial courier deliveries by drone, if a launch by a textbook rental service and an Australian tech start-up goes according to plan.

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Push for lift-off on drone deliveries in Australia

October 15, 2013 – 12:01AM

Ben Grubb

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Couriers in the sky: The Flirtey drone will be used by textbook delivery service Zookal. Zookal textbook rental service founder Ahmed Haider, 27, and founder of drone service Flirtey Matthew Sweeny, 26. The app for the Flirtey drone service is seen in this screenshot. Photo: Supplied

Need a book? Call a drone

The world’s first unmanned aerial drone controlled by GPS for deliveries is set to launch next year and will reduce costs by flying rental textbooks directly to users. Australia may soon be the first country in the world to see commercial courier deliveries by drone, if a launch by a textbook rental service and an Australian tech start-up goes according to plan. From March next year and pending regulatory approval, students will be able to order books from Zookal via an Android smartphone app and have one of six Flirtey drones deliver them to their door in Sydney. As the drone arrives, students will be able to track it in real-time on a Google map. Read more of this post

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NuOrder, an e-commerce platform for the wholesale fashion industry to sell to shops and for retailers to buy from suppliers around the world

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

A NuOrder for the global fashion industry

October 15, 2013 – 3:00AM

Matthew Hall

On the surface, everything should have been against them: Aussies Olivia Skuza and husband Heath Wells, founders of US-based technology disrupter NuOrder. Photo: Supplied

An Australian company that turned start-up rules upside down is poised to turn the fashion industry inside out. That, at least, is the plan for Heath Wells and wife Olivia Skuza and their technology disrupter, NuOrder. Wells and Skuza’s idea is simple – an e-commerce platform for the wholesale fashion industry to sell to shops and for retailers to buy from suppliers around the world. Though cutting edge on the runway, fashion’s business methods are often stuck in the 1980s. Read more of this post

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New app being tested to spot California whales so ships can avoid them

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

New app being tested to spot California whales so ships can avoid them

Tue, Oct 1 2013

By Ronnie Cohen

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Marine biologists have begun testing a smartphone application that would allow boaters and conservationists to identify whales outside San Francisco Bay so ships can avoid striking the endangered mammals. Whale Spotter, the app developed by Conserve.IO, will be used to map the feeding grounds of the enormous creatures, which large ships too frequently strike as they migrate along the California coast. Read more of this post

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HTC Turns to China in Turnaround Push

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

HTC Turns to China in Turnaround Push

Taiwan Maker to Launch Flagship Smartphone in China Before U.S.

EVA DOU

Updated Oct. 14, 2013 2:47 p.m. ET

TAIPEI—After falling out of favor among U.S. consumers, struggling handset maker HTCCorp. 2498.TW +1.19% is pinning its hopes for survival on China’s gigantic but fiercely competitive smartphone market. For the first time, the Taiwanese company has chosen China, rather than the U.S., as the first market to launch its new flagship model, an indication of its changing priorities. The HTC One Max, which comes with a 5.9-inch screen and a fingerprint sensor, will make its debut in Beijing on Tuesday, three days ahead of its U.S. launch. Read more of this post

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Chinese scientist may have discovered the future of batteries

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Chinese scientist may have discovered the future of batteries

Tuesday, October 15, 2013 – 10:17

Chris Davis

China Daily/Asia News Network

Ford Motor Co and the University of Michigan just announced they would open a new $88 million battery research and manufacturing lab that they hope will accelerate a much-needed breakthrough for the stalling electric auto non-boom (electric cars accounted for less than 1 per cent of US auto sales last year; hybrids 3 per cent, according to the AP). And batteries are getting the blame. Read more of this post

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A Truce in the Videogame Wars; Sony, Microsoft Court Developers of Free-to-Play Titles for Its Consoles

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

A Truce in the Videogame Wars

Sony, Microsoft Court Developers of Free-to-Play Titles for Its Consoles

MAYUMI NEGISHI

Oct. 14, 2013 7:12 p.m. ET

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Once seen as warring factions within the $66 billion videogame industry, advocates of the traditional console and free-to-play games are striking an unlikely alliance to reach out to new players in each other’s camps. Both sides see opportunities to bridge the divide with a new generation of videogame machines from Sony Corp.6758.TO +2.14% and Microsoft Corp.MSFT +0.94% launching next month. Read more of this post

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Chinese Regulators Crack Down on Cartoons to address violent programming content

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

October 14, 2013, 9:24 PM

Chinese Regulators Crack Down on Cartoons

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Chinese cartoon “Pleasant Goat and the Big Big Wolf” hasn’t been so pleasant as of late, according to the country’s TV regulators. China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television called out the popular cartoon, which made headlines earlier this year for episodes containing violent scenes, and the regulator said Saturday in a statement that it plans to outline new content standards for TV animation to address violent programming content. Read more of this post

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Why the World’s Cheapest Car Flopped; No-Frills Tata Minicar Gets Chrome, Sound System, Higher Price to Boost Appeal

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Why the World’s Cheapest Car Flopped

No-Frills Minicar Gets Chrome, Sound System, Higher Price to Boost Appeal

SEAN MCLAIN

Oct. 14, 2013 1:55 p.m. ET

MUMBAI—When the Tata Nano, a stripped-down minicar priced at around $2,000, was introduced in 2009, it was marketed as a car that would transform the way aspiring consumers in India and other developing countries got around. But the low-cost automotive revolution fizzled. Selling poorly at home and with exports drying up, the Nano has become a cautionary tale of misplaced ambitions and a drag on sales and profit at Tata MotorsLtd. 500570.BY +1.34% , India’s fourth-largest auto maker and the owner of Jaguar and Land Rover luxury vehicles. Read more of this post

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Soap Opera: Amazon Moves in With P&G; E-Commerce Giant Sets Up Shop Inside Warehouses of Suppliers

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Soap Opera: Amazon Moves in With P&G

E-Commerce Giant Sets Up Shop Inside Warehouses of Suppliers

SERENA NG

Oct. 14, 2013 7:36 p.m. ET

TUNKHANNOCK, Pa.—Atop a hill at the end of a road called P&G Warehouse Way sits a warehouse stocked with Pampers diapers, Bounty paper towels and other items made byProcter & Gamble Co. PG +0.33% It also houses an ambitious experiment byAmazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.06% Each day, P&G loads products onto pallets and passes them over to Amazon inside a small, fenced-off area. Amazon employees then package, label and ship the items directly to the people who ordered them. Read more of this post

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Sony Pictures Television will become the first big Hollywood studio to produce a new TV show for Netflix, underscoring how the TV industry’s elite are starting to view the streaming video service as a launch pad for original series

October 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Sony Strikes Production Deal With Netflix

Streaming-Video Service Is Becoming a Launch Pad for Original Series

AMOL SHARMA

Updated Oct. 14, 2013 5:36 p.m. ET

Sony SNE -0.15% Pictures Television will become the first big Hollywood studio to produce a new TV show for Netflix Inc., NFLX +7.82% underscoring how the TV industry’s elite are starting to view the streaming-video service as a launch pad for original series. Sony Corp.’s TV studio, maker of hit shows such as AMC’s “Breaking Bad” and this year’s new NBC drama “The Blacklist,” said Monday it will begin production early next year on a psychological thriller for Netflix from the creators of the FX legal drama “Damages.” Read more of this post

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