Category: News

Until the mid-20th century, a banker’s decision to lend money was based in large part on intuition and relationships. This changed dramatically with the creation of the FICO score — a single metric to decide if anyone was worthy of credit or not.

Today, the FICO score is starting to show its age. This is apparent from a new breed of financier who is capable of tapping thousands of  data sources to make more personal decisions, and who can offer credit in ways that traditional lenders do not. One example is ZestFinance, a new style of underwriting company that uses 70,000 data signals and ten parallel machine learning algorithms to assess personal loans.

Speaking at GigaOM’s Structure Data conference in New York, CEO Douglas Merrill explained that ZestFinance employs a host of untraditional signals — such as whether or not a would-be borrower has read a letter on its website — to determine if someone is credit-worthy.

The company’s tools have also allowed it to make a lively business from “dead” people. These are borrowers who banks believe are deceased on the basis of their FICO score. According to Merrill, these dead make up 10% of ZestFinance’s customer base and their rate of repayment is better than that of the living.

Small business lenders are also making use of non-traditional credit signals. The lending firm Kabbage, for instance, taps into data like a company’s UPS activity to assess their financial health — everything from the volume of shipping to the size of the parcels provide signals about how a firm is doing.

CEO Robert Frohwein, who also spoke at the GigaOM event,  said traditional banks simply do not seek out such signals in the first place, meaning they must rely on a much cruder set of metrics when they evaluate loans.

The extra data signals lead to more successful lending rates and are also making credit more affordable and available than it was before. ZestFinance, for instance, provides the 60 million American who use payday loan companies an alternative to high balloon payment fees. Meanwhile, Kabbage is offering more loans than banks to internet-based businesses and to companies whose executives do not match corporate stereotypes.

Check out the rest of our Structure:Data 2013 live coverage here, and a video embed of the entire session follows below:

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Are you tired of bloated disc burning suites? You’re not alone. Modern burning programs are mostly very overweight, packed with unnecessary functions which you’ll probably never use.

If your needs are very simple, though, there are some effective freeware burning apps around, and Folder SimpBurn is a particularly straightforward example.

The program arrives as a small download (560KB). And it’s portable, so easy to use just about anywhere: just unzip it and launch Folder_SimpBurn.exe.

Folder SimpBurn has all its options on a single dialog, and this makes it very straightforward to use. At a minimum all you need to do is choose your optical drive, select a folder which you’d like to burn, click Burn Option > Start Burn, and then watch as your disc is created (CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays are supported, as both single and multisession discs).

If you need more control, then it’s also possible to set the maximum burning speed and the disc name, as well as choosing the file system (your options are ISO9660, Joliet, UDF, or Joliet/ UDF).

There’s some ISO support, too. Click “Burn Option” and you’ll find tools to save your selected folder as an ISO file, or burn an existing ISO file to disc.

And other small touches include a “verify” option, some disc erase tools, and an “Info” box which displays your disc burner’s capabilities.

It’s not all good news. The interface is a little unconventional, with buttons which open menus; it really needs a little documentation (even the German language-only manual doesn’t tell you much); and the “Add to context” menu, which supposedly lets you create discs directly from Explorer, didn’t work for us.

Folder SimpBurn does well at its core tasks, though, reliably burning folders to disc and creating ISO images with ease. And if you’d like to be able to do this from just about any PC, without having to install anything, then the program should serve you very well.

Photo Credit: Kachan Eduard/Shutterstock

Apple quietly rolled out iOS 6.1.3 yesterday, which touts “improvements to Maps in Japan” and the fix of a bug “that could allow someone to bypass the passcode and access the Phone app”. Nothing out of the ordinary, really. But buried deep down in the more extensive changelog, almost hidden, the fruit company credits evad3rs — the team of developers that jailbroke iOS 6 — for a number of found bugs.

The extensive changelog is available in Apple’s mailing list and lists evad3rs as responsible for four bug findings related to the iOS dyld (dynamic link editor), kernel, lockdown and USB. The said bugs affect the way the operating system handles local user requests to “execute unsigned code”, “determine the address of structures in kernel”, “change permissions on arbitrary files” and “execute arbitrary code in the kernel”.

Even though it took Apple quite some time to wrap its head around the jailbreak, fixing these bugs — which closes the loophole exploited by evad3rs — means that iOS 6 is more secure from unwanted exploits. At the same time it also means that jailbreakers should steer clear from iOS 6.1.3 in case they still wish to have Cydia and adjacent unofficial apps and tweaks up and running. That is until evad3rs finds a way to update its evasi0n jailbreak for iOS 6.1.3.

Photo Credit: val lawless/Shutterstock

What goes into making a supercomputer? For Blue Waters, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) project at the University of Illinois, there will be more than 235 Cray XE6 cabinets, each with 24 blade assemblies. In this video, Cray’s Director of Manufacture Logistics Group Steve Samse demonstrates the assembly of the board and components that make up each blade. The work is being performed at the Cray facility in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The video runs 2:49 minutes.

For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.

Singer Michelle Shocked cleared the house on Sunday after going on an on-stage rant against homosexuality in a San Francisco nightclub.

According to a report in the The Bay Area Reporter, Shocked played two sets at Yoshi’s nightclub in the Fillmore section of San Francisco on March 17. Though the first set went fine, after which she tweeted the following:

During the second set, Shocked reportedly began to rant against homosexuality and predicting the return of Jesus. The Bay Area Reporter story quotes her as saying, “When they stop Prop 8 and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilization and Jesus will come back.” When asked for specifics on what she was trying to say, Shocked is quoted to have said, “You are going to leave here and tell people ‘Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots.”

The club began to empty and the club’s manager came on-stage to announce that the show had ended. Shocked continued to sing, even when her microphone was cut and the stage lights were turned off.

Shocked became a member of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ choir in the mid-90s. In 2008 the singer told the Dalls Voice that she believes homosexuality is a sin.

Shocked found indie acclaim in the late 80s and early 90s with her albums Short Sharp Shocked, Captain Swing, and Arkansas Traveler. She has been nominated for two Grammy awards, one for Best Contemporary Folk Album for Arkansas Traveler and one for Best Contemporary Folk Recording.

(Image courtesy Sigmund/Wikimedia Commons)

Yesterday President Obama continued what's become a March tradition: For the fifth time, he sat down to fill out his brackets for the NCAA men and women's basketball tournaments — and shared his picks with ESPN.

The President has Louisville, Ohio State, Florida, and Indiana headed to Atlanta for the Final Four.

He picked the Hoosiers to top the Cardinals in the National Championship game on April 8.

Download the full predictions here.

We’ll share the President’s pick for the women’s tournament on Friday. Be sure to check back!

For women who may be “leaning out,” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg’s urging to “lean in” requires some behavioral changes and deviations from how many women are expected to or accustomed to behaving. Fortunately, we have the power to do this for ourselves, through tiny tweaks that actually reconfigure our brains in ways that may make us more assertive, confident, relaxed, risk tolerant, and fearless.

Recent experimental psychology from Dana Carney, Pranjal Mehta, Robert Josephs, Jennifer Lerner, Gary Sherman, and our lab at Harvard suggests that the best leaders — both male and female — seem to have relatively high testosterone, which is linked to decreased fear and increased tolerance for risk and desire to compete, and low cortisol, which is linked to decreased anxiety. Effective leadership is associated with hormone levels, and with this hormone profile, leaders are confident and willing to take risks, but not overly threatened or reactive to stressors. Who wouldn’t want to work for this kind of leader?

This is not an argument for masculinizing leadership; it is an argument for providing people with the tools that will allow them to bring their strongest, most resilient and confident selves to stressful or uncomfortable situations, like being the only woman in the board room, pitching a new idea, or negotiating for a raise or promotion — the tasks that Sandberg refers to as “sitting at the table” and “speaking your truth.”

It turns out these two hormones, testosterone and cortisol, are very touchy, sensitive to social and physical cues and fluctuating a great deal over the course of a single day. As Sandberg mentioned in her book, our research shows that people can change their own hormone levels and behaviors, by “faking it” — by “power posing,” or adopting expansive, open nonverbal postures that are strongly associated with power and dominance across the animal kingdom (imagine standing with hands on hips and feet spread, like Wonder Woman). By holding these postures for just two minutes before entering a high-stress situation, people (both men and women) can increase their testosterone by about 20% and decrease their cortisol by about 25% (Want to do the opposite to your hormones? Adopt a low-power pose — wrap your arms around your torso, cross your ankles, lower your chin). Power posing also increases people’s tolerance for risk and pain, and their ability to think abstractly. This isn’t about what your body language is communicating to others; it’s about what your body language is communicating to you: your body language is changing your mind, which changes your behavior, which changes your outcomes.

This simple life hack — standing in a bathroom stall like Wonder Woman before a stressful meeting — has the potential to substantially improve women’s ability to lean in – to take risks, face fears and barriers, and to endure the stressors inherent to the kinds of changes Sandberg recommends.

According to a study from the University of Portsmouth, using Facebook as a gateway for a trip down memory lane may be the most positive thing you can do with the service.

For starters, the study’s makeup looks like this: 54% male, 80% of which own a smartphone and 94% who always carry that phone on them. 86% of the participants said they check Facebook more than once a day.

Researchers found that the Facebook activity that generated improved mood in the most people was looking back on old wall posts, followed closely by looking back at photos posted users’ walls (76% and 73%, respectively). 71% had improved mood from looking back at old photos they posted.

Compare this with the only 32% who said they had improved mood from playing games and the 58% who did from simply updating their status.

“[T]he results of the study do indicate that activities involving reminiscing have a positive impact upon wellbeing. Moreover, looking back on photos and wall posts was seen to provide a greater self soothing effect, when participants were feeling low in mood, than other Facebook activities. This is further supported in that a significant number of participants were not able to easily access “favorite‟ wall posts and photos, and yet would like to be able to do so. In addition, the activity of looking back on photos and wall posts was carried out more frequently by participants than other activities, such as playing games, updating status and using messenger. This suggests that the activity of looking back upon photos and wall posts is a popular activity, as well as having a positive impact upon emotional wellbeing,” said the researchers.

The study also looked at what users want from Facebook in terms of mechanisms for accessing their old photos and posts. 88% said that they would like to be able to access old photos, but 84% said it is not easy to do so. Graph Search should help with that, once Facebook completes its slow rollout.

[Looking back at Facebook content and the positive impact upon wellbeing via AllFacebook]

Google has a new March Madness feature for basketball fans. When you search “NCAA Bracket” in Google, the search engine will return a bracket on the actual page, so you can see where all the teams are at in the tournament.

Google’s Dan Vanderkam announced the feature in a tweet (via Search Engine Land):

Here’s what it looks like:

Google has offered March Madness tools in the past. Here’s what they did last year. And the year before that.

When it comes to creating a successful app, human interface designers and lead engineers have to work closely together from the beginning, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Michael Abbott said at the Structure Data conference Wednesday. That can mean thinking about apps in a new way.

“More and more products are being built by having great pairings of those two players,” Abbott, the former VP of engineering at Twitter, told GigaOM founder Om Malik. Engineers need to understand a user’s experience with the app, Abbott said, but designers also have to “understand the limitations of the environment they’re building. It shouldn’t just be a great experience in one small segment,” but an app should work “whether you’re offline or have a bad connection.”

Abbott often sees a “lack of real empathy” between designers and engineers. “The tension on the design side is that it’s never good enough,” he said, “and on the engineering side he or she wants to ship…How do you get that balance? Because you still need to ship.”

Malik raised other issues about apps and empathy: “Uber managed to piss off people every single time they did something interesting — surge pricing, or charging more at the time of Hurricane Sandy…I keep saying, if we are going to build this future driven by data, how do we bring this empathy and humanity into the data?”

“We might be forced into it by some of the reactions we’re seeing to Uber,” Abbott answered. But he pointed out that, when it comes to services like Uber, the way that a user rates a driver is also unique to that user — and that brings up empathy on the user’s end. For example, Uber could infer from data on what a driver’s rating should be, based perhaps on the start and end times of a trip. “Your rating of that driver,” he said, “also ends up building an implicit rating on you, and your ability to rate.”

Check out the rest of our Structure:Data 2013 coverage here, and a video embed of the entire session follows below:

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Bridge Bank, a San Jose, Calif., subsidiary of Bridge Capital Holdings, has provided $13 million in funding for several solar installations located in New Jersey, Rhode Island and North Carolina.

PRESS RELEASE
SAN JOSE, CA, Mar 20, 2013 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Bridge Bank, a subsidiary of Bridge Capital Holdings BBNK +2.93% , a full service professional business bank headquartered in Silicon Valley and with offices located nationwide, announced today it recently closed $13 million in funding for several major solar installations located in New Jersey, Rhode Island and North Carolina.

“As a private equity investor in the distributed solar generation space we needed to project finance several commercial roof-top solar installations in one facility,” said Panos Ninios, partner and CEO at True Green Capital Management. “Bridge understood this concept and was able to structure, conduct due diligence and close multiple facilities under one loan agreement in an efficient, cost effective and client friendly manner.” Bridge Bank’s Energy and Infrastructure Group (EIG) provided $7.2 million in funding to True Green Capital Management for the construction of a series of solar facility installations located in New Jersey, and for a solar installation project in Rhode Island that will supply energy to a major international utility that provides power to the consumer and commercial markets in the Northeast.

Bridge Bank also recently provided over $6 million in funding to MP2 Capital for the development and construction of solar power plants located in North Carolina that provide energy to a large investor-owned utility in the U.S. “Bridge Bank’s Energy and Infrastructure Group has been a great partner,” said Jeff Glavan, managing director of MP2 Capital. “The group’s ability to listen, understand, commit and get to financial close differentiates them from other banks. Their willingness to consider and create solutions based on customer needs is what makes them a great partner,” he added.

“We were very pleased to partner with True Green Capital Management and MP2 Capital on their recent projects — both are experienced solar developers who challenged the bank with a complex set of issues,” said Scott Reising, senior vice president in the bank’s Energy and Infrastructure Group. “This recent issuance of credit reinforces the bank’s commitment to providing flexible and creative solutions to businesses across a wide variety of sectors.”

EIG was formed in 2011 to provide funding to solar developers whose projects typically fall within the one to ten megawatt range. Since its founding, EIG has issued over $75 million in loan commitments to developers with projects throughout the U.S. Over the past seven years, Bridge Bank has built a presence in the alternative energy sector. In that time, over $150 million in loans and credit commitments has been extended by the bank to firms engaging in renewable energy and solar projects. Scott Reising, head of EIG, will be speaking at the upcoming Solar Power Finance and Investment Summit on March 20, 2013 in San Diego. For more information, visit http://infocastinc.com/events/solar13.

About Bridge Bank, National Association

Bridge Bank is a full-service professional business bank founded in the highly competitive climate of Silicon Valley in 2001. From the very beginning, our goal has been to offer small-market and middle-market businesses from across many industries a better way to bank. A less bank-like way to bank. We provide a surprisingly broad range of financial solutions, enabling us to meet our clients’ varied needs across all stages — from inception to IPO and beyond. It’s how we go about doing so that differentiates us from our competition.

Learn more at the new www.bridgebank.com. Follow us @BridgeBank.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain matters discussed in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are subject to the safe harbors created by that Act. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They often include the words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “estimate,” or words of similar meaning, or future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” or “may.” Forward-looking statements describe future plans, strategies and expectations. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information, expectations, assumptions, projections, and management’s judgment about the Company, the banking industry and general economic conditions. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, nor should they be relied upon as representing management’s views as of any subsequent date. Future events are difficult to predict, and the expectations described above are necessarily subject to risk and uncertainty that may cause actual results to differ materially and adversely. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those presented, either expressed or implied, in this press release. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the Company’s ability to successfully execute its business plans and achieve its objectives; changes in general economic, real estate and financial market conditions, either nationally or locally in areas in which the Company conducts its operations; changes in interest rates; new litigation or changes in existing litigation; future credit loss experience; increased competitive challenges and expanding product and pricing pressures among financial institutions; legislation or regulatory changes which adversely affect the Company’s operations or business; loss of key personnel; changes in accounting policies or procedures as may be required by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or other regulatory agencies; and the ability to satisfy requirements related to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other regulation on internal control.

The reader should refer to the more complete discussion of such risks in Bridge Capital Holdings’ annual reports on Forms 10-K and quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

The post Bridge Bank Provides Funding for Solar Installations appeared first on peHUB.

Buyout shop Paine & Partners has made an investment in SGF Produce Holdings the parent entity of Sunrise Growers~Frozsun Foods. As part of the deal, Paine & Partners is taking the stake previously held by Sun Capital Partners, according to a press release. Terms of the deal were not released.

PRESS RELEASE
Paine & Partners, LLC (“Paine & Partners”), a global private equity investment firm focused on investing in food and agribusiness, today announced that it has made an investment in SGF Produce Holdings, LLC (“Sunrise” or the “Company”), the parent entity of Sunrise Growers~Frozsun Foods, which was an affiliated portfolio company of Sun Capital Partners, Inc. (“Sun Capital”). Following the closing, Sunrise will no longer be an affiliated portfolio company of Sun Capital.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Sunrise is a leading value-added frozen fruit processor and marketer. The Company, headquartered in Placentia, California, was founded in 1977 and operates high quality processing facilities in Oxnard and Santa Maria, California, which are strategically located in the leading strawberry producing regions of the United States. Sunrise’s products include frozen strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, peaches and fruit blends in multiple product specifications and packaging configurations. The Company is a leader in the growing markets for retail frozen fruit and foodservice frozen strawberries, and it also markets fresh strawberries to leading retailers throughout the U.S. Sunrise’s consumer products are sold primarily under customers’ private label brands and also under the Sunrise Growers brand name.

Edward Haft will continue to lead Sunrise as President and Chief Executive Officer, along with the rest of Sunrise’s senior management team.

Kevin Schwartz, a founding Partner at Paine & Partners, said, “We are excited about our investment in Sunrise, a leader in the retail and foodservice frozen fruit markets that is well positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for healthy food options and quality frozen fruit products. We have been impressed by the Company’s capabilities and the strong strategic relationships it has with its grower and customer partners. Together with the Sunrise management team, we have identified opportunities to enhance the Company’s product offerings, including expansion into new fruit categories and markets. We look forward to continuing to work with Ed Haft and the rest of the Sunrise management team to execute on these exciting growth opportunities.”

Edward Haft, President and CEO of Sunrise, said, “With Paine & Partners, we will continue to build on our diverse portfolio of quality products, state-of-the-art processing facilities and industry leading food safety practices. Our strong relationships with our leading retail and foodservice customers and grower partners are due to our product capabilities and quality, supply certainty and flexibility, and we will look to continue to expand those capabilities in the future. We look forward to working with the Paine & Partners team, whose experience investing across the food and agribusiness value chain and resources will help us achieve our long-term potential as we continue to develop and expand our business.”

About SGF Produce Holdings, LLCSunrise Growers~Frozsun Foods is the leading strawberry processor in the U.S. and one of the top marketers of frozen fruit and fresh strawberries. Recognized for their award-winning private label retail and foodservice programs, the Company is vertically integrated allowing control of product throughout the supply chain. From specialty toppings to beverage bases and smoothies and a full line of innovative frozen fruit products, Sunrise Growers~Frozsun Foods services a wide range of retail, industrial and foodservice customers.

About Paine & Partners, LLCPaine & Partners provides equity capital for management buyouts, going private transactions, and company expansion and growth programs. Paine & Partners engages exclusively in friendly transactions developed in cooperation with a company’s management, board of directors and shareholders. The firm currently makes investments through its $1.2 billion fund, Paine & Partners Capital Fund III, L. P. and related entities.

Paine & Partners focuses on the food and agribusiness industry globally, and its principals, through a predecessor fund, have made successful strategic investments in Seminis, then the world’s leading global developer, producer and marketer of vegetable and fruit seeds; and Advanta Netherlands Holdings BV, at the time, the largest independent agronomic seed company in the world. Paine & Partners also invested in Icicle Seafoods, a leading producer, harvester and processer of salmon, pollock, halibut, cod, crab and other seafood products with operations in North and South America and sales globally. Paine & Partners’ most recent investments include Eurodrip, a global manufacturer and supplier of drip irrigation solutions; Verdesian Life Sciences, a U.S.-based plant health and nutrition investment platform; Scanbio Marine Group, a leading Norwegian producer of fish protein concentrate, fish meal, and fish oil; and Costa Group, Australia’s largest integrated grower, packer and marketer of fresh fruits and vegetables. The complex investment opportunities in today’s rapidly evolving agribusiness environment play to the strengths of Paine & Partners’ differentiated approach.

The post Paine & Partners Backs SGF Produce Holdings appeared first on peHUB.

Back in January, before we introduced BlackBerry 10 to the world, I wrote a blog post about Five Reasons to Tune in for BlackBerry 10. I had been writing so much about BlackBerry 10 that I wanted to show you that I wasn’t alone, and that tech bloggers and media were already posting positive BlackBerry 10 reviews. Well, it’s time for an update. Now that more tech bloggers and media have a BlackBerry 10 device in their hands, I wanted to recap some of their great feedback on our new device and updated OS.

Here are some snippets from the tech blogosphere on BlackBerry 10 features:

1. “There’s no question here that BlackBerry knows just how important app selection is the future of its company, and as such, has been working overtime to make developers a key focus, with a hundred or so members of its evangelist team.” – Engadget.com

2. “I spend much of my time on my smartphone and tablet devices writing emails, IMs and texts, which means as accurate as I try to be when I’m typing, I probably make more mistakes than I would like to admit. The keyboard on the BlackBerry Z10 is one of the major highlights of the device as the more I typed with the keyboard, the better it was at predicting text that I was in the process of writing.” – Ubergizmo.com

3. “I am really excited by the message hub in (BlackBerry) 10, I think there are some serious innovations there that any power smartphone user would find really beneficial.” – Blogs.CIO.com

4. “BlackBerry, the company formerly known as Research in Motion, has made [a] reinvention, resurrecting the …BlackBerry platform in its new BlackBerry 10 OS and the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone that runs it. Now shipping in the United States, the BlackBerry Z10 is a good smartphone, one worthy of consideration for both personal and business use.” – Reviews.Techworld.com

5. “The BlackBerry Z10 is an otherworldly treat, a combination of blood, sweat and gears combined into a user-friendly smartphone that is fast, accessible and brimming with a heady catalyst of ideas. Here’s a BlackBerry you can finally be proud to own…This phone is more than specs, it evokes a feeling of joy.” – Gearburn.com

6. “The benefit of the [Time Shift Camera] is to eliminate group photos that are spoiled because one person blinked or had a goofy expression. Just zoom in on [someone’s] face, rewind a second to where his eyes are open and his tongue isn’t hanging out, and you have the perfect family photo. In my review of the Z10 , I found the feature, made possible by the phone’s dual-core processor and BlackBerry 10 software, to work as promised.” – Mashable.com

The reviews keep coming. Tell us what you think of the BlackBerry Z10 in the comments below.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the popular video site Dailymotion, based on information from “people familiar with the talks.” The report says Yahoo’s in for as much as 75% of the company.

Neither company is commenting on the alleged talks.

Last year, Yahoo and Dailymotion struck a content syndication deal. At the time, Dailymotion VP, International Content, Daniel Adams, said that the site was getting 120 million unique monthly visitors.

According to the Journal, citing comScore numbers, it’s the 12th-largest video site in the world by unique users, with 116 million in January.

France Telecom currently has a 100% stake in Dailymotion.

Is it really possible to recreate a legend? Some people out there may say yes, but I think the majority would agree that legends are born, not created. When asked to come up with a successor to the iconic 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300SL, designer Paul Bracq had a decision to make. He could try to improve upon a design that was, in the eyes of many enthusiasts, flawless. Or he could craft his own shape and thus, create a new legend. Bracqs’ vision was the Mercedes-Benz W113 SL, a car that made its debut in 1963 and continued production until 1971. More than 48,000 cars where produced and in that time a new audience was found to take up the reigns and help write the next chapter of the Mercedes-Benz roadster.

Source: Source: crankandpiston.com

BlackBerry 10 is a stark departure from BlackBerry 7 and other aging versions of the BlackBerry (BBRY) operating system, which is a very good thing in most regards. But in one key area, the company may have strayed too far from its roots. The U.K.’s Communications-Electronics Security Group, which evaluates IT solutions and determines whether or not they may be used by the U.K. government, has decided that BlackBerry 10 is not safe for essential government work, The Guardian reported. Earlier versions of BlackBerry’s OS had received security clearance. The report claims this rejection could cost BlackBerry millions in lost revenue, even if rival devices don’t fill the void — with tens of thousands of handsets currently deployed, the U.K. government is one of BlackBerry’s biggest customers in the U.K.

Continue reading…

With more than 75 companies now offering tools under the wide umbrella of DCIM, it isn’t easy for a new player to make a splash. Unless that new player is global electronics and electrical engineering powerhouse Siemens, which has focused its ambitions on the data center and heading into DCIM in a big way.

Datacenter Clarity LC is the company’s foray into the world of DCIM (data center infrastructure management), a suite that combines management and facilities management functions. The company has thrown its muscle into this effort, boosted by a broad existing portfolio of data center solutions, a history in efficiency, as well as a global talent pool of engineers in support.

Meeting point between IT and Facilities

The DCIM solution unveiled last month, Datacenter Clarity LC, consists of engineering and lifecycle management software tools that ensure uptime while optimizing energy and operational efficiencies to accommodate the rapidly changing needs of today’s data centers.  It integrates information from both IT and facility assets, workflows and work orders, and conducts “what if” analyses.

“Datacenter Clarity LC can help you optimize capacity planning while driving operation and energy efficiencies,” said John Kovach, Siemens’ new Global Head of Data Centers.

Datacenter Clarity has an open API architecture facilitates interoperability with other systems. “Our vendor neutral solution supports more than 400 protocols from both the IT and facility perspective, giving customers total visibility of their data centers,” said Kovach.

Siemens Ripe for DCIM Play

Siemens’ DCIM power play wasn’t out of the blue. Siemens has an established track record in facility/enterprise infrastructure development, separately providing different aspects of data center infrastructure to customers over the years. The list of what the company provides isn’t short:

• Medium Voltage gear that connects the building to the utility grid.
• Low Voltage gear that distributes the power throughout the building.
• All the interconnecting controls to enable the Emergency Generators and UPS equipment.
• Complete Power Monitoring system that provides detail on the usage, power balance and consumption of the entire facility.
• Building Automation and temperature controls for the cooling of the facility.
• Fire and Life Safety systems to protect the people and equipment within in the building.
• Perimeter and physical security of the building to control access to the building, CCTV systems to provide visual images of the critical locations within the facility

The company sees a formal DCIM play as the logical evolution of its data center strategy, and is setting out to bridge the divide of IT and facilities management.

“The exponential growth and importance of data centers was leading to a need to bridge the growing “silos” of IT and facilities’ management of data centers,” said Kovach. “Having the two areas collaborate and work together was a constant challenge requiring a central system that would eliminate the inefficiencies that were developing from those separate silos.  This is the purpose of DCIM – and Siemens’ existing expertise in the different infrastructure areas, coupled with our established leadership in energy and operational efficiency, seemed a perfect fit.”

Erickson Air-Crane Inc., a publicly traded helicopter operator and manufacturer backed by Centre Lane Partners, has announced that it will acquire Evergreen Helicopters Inc. from Evergreen International Aviation Inc. Evergreen Helicopters is baced in McMinnville, Oregon. Evergreen Helicopters is being acquired for $250 million, consisting of $185 million in cash, $17.5 million in unsecured promissory notes issued by Erickson Air-Crane, and approximately four million convertible preferred shares of Erickson Air-Crane valued at $47.5 million.

PRESS RELEASE
Erickson Air-Crane Incorporated (NASDAQ: EAC) (“Erickson Air-Crane”, the “Company”, “we”, “us” and “our”), a leading operator and the manufacturer of the powerful Erickson S-64 Aircrane heavy-lift helicopter, today announced that it has executed a stock purchase agreement for the purchase of Evergreen Helicopters, Inc. (“EHI”) from Evergreen International Aviation, Inc. (“EIA”).

EHI, based in McMinnville, Oregon, is a diversified global provider of air transport services for cargo and personnel to government and commercial customers. EHI was founded by aviation pioneer Mr. Delford Smith. At closing, this transaction would provide Erickson Air-Crane with an incremental fleet of 64 aircraft, consisting of both helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes. This diverse fleet serves a wide range of customers, including significant passenger transport and airlift services for the US military. EHI’s operations span the globe, including a presence in North America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.

In calendar year 2012 EHI’s unaudited revenue was $196.0 million and Adjusted EBITDA was $56.2 million, representing an Adjusted EBITDA margin of over 25%. The Company noted that when calculating EBITDA, EHI, in line with certain other aviation companies, adds back the amortization of certain capitalized overhaul costs. We are conforming our Adjusted EBITDA presentation, and adding back amortization of certain capitalized overhaul costs. For purposes of comparability, our 2012 Adjusted EBITDA, which was reported as $44.5 million, is $57.2 million under the new presentation. There is no change to the Company’s reported 2012 income statement or net cash flows due to this change in non-GAAP presentation. For a reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial measure, see “Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” in this press release.

Udo Rieder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Erickson Air-Crane, said, “We are very excited to be on the cusp of truly transforming our business. We are successfully transcending our market position as a leader in heavy-lift operations to build a diverse, global aviation services provider. Our combined company will offer a comprehensive set of capabilities, a world-class customer base, a diverse portfolio of aircraft, and the ability to service nearly every corner of the globe.”

Under the terms of the purchase agreement, EHI is being acquired from EIA for $250.0 million, consisting of $185.0 million in cash, $17.5 million in unsecured promissory notes issued by Erickson Air-Crane, and approximately four million mandatorily convertible preferred shares of Erickson Air-Crane valued at $47.5 million (based on an agreed value of $11.85 per share). The preferred shares are convertible, at the option of the Company, into an equal number of common shares, subject to shareholder approval under NASDAQ marketplace rules, which the Company intends to seek following the closing of the EHI acquisition. In addition, up to $26.3 million in contingent consideration may be payable by Erickson Air-Crane (in cash or promissory notes) to EIA based on certain revenue targets for the calendar years 2013, 2014 and 2015. Successful completion of the acquisition is contingent upon the Company obtaining financing, and subject to other customary closing conditions.

Rieder remarked, “At a purchase price multiple of less than 5.0x EHI’s 2012 Adjusted EBITDA, the acquisition of EHI is expected to be immediately accretive to EAC’s earnings per share.”

The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2013. For further information regarding all terms and conditions contained in the stock purchase agreement, please see Erickson Air-Crane’s current report on Form 8-K, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with this transaction.

The combination of Erickson Air-Crane’s stand-alone business with the planned acquisitions of Air Amazonia and EHI would, if both transactions close, create a business with pro forma 2012 revenues of approximately $430 million and EBITDA margins of approximately 25%. The combined business would operate a diverse fleet of 100 aircraft.

Rieder commented, “We believe that there are significant opportunities for incremental growth and efficiency embedded within the global operational platform we are assembling. We view these acquisitions as complementary and highly synergistic, and we are looking forward to taking the necessary steps to close the transactions during the second quarter of 2013. The combination of these three businesses would diversify our end-markets, regions serviced, mission capabilities and aircraft types. In addition to significant growth, we believe the combinations carry significant hard cost synergies that could be leveraged throughout the system to increase efficiency, fleet and MRO capacity utilization, and overall economies of scale.”

Rieder concluded, “As we look to the future of our company it is clear that we have begun a new chapter. Never has our vision been broader, our opportunities greater, or our missions more important. Together, our combined companies will leverage our exceptional talent, existing infrastructure, and proven track record of operational efficiency and fleet utilization to better serve our customers and create greater opportunities for our collective vendors and employees. We look forward to welcoming the employees and partners of Air Amazonia and EHI to the Erickson Air-Crane team and we are both grateful and pleased for the ongoing support we receive from our employees, customers, partners and shareholders. We believe our strategy positions us to continue to create value for each of these important constituencies both immediately and over the long-term.”

Conference Call
Management will host a conference call on Wednesday March 20, at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the acquisition of Evergreen Helicopters, Inc. To access the call, please dial into the conference at least 10 minutes prior to the beginning of the call at 888-503-8169. International callers should dial 719-785-1765. The access code is 6498798. A live webcast with slides will also be available at investors.ericksonaircrane.com.

The audio webcast replay will be available afterward on our investor relations site, and a telephone replay of the call will be available by dialing 877-870-5176 and entering access code 6498798. International callers can listen to the replay by dialing 858-384-5517 using the same access code above. The conference call replay will be available for five business days, beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, March 20.

About Erickson Air-Crane Incorporated
Erickson Air-Crane specializes in the operation and manufacture of the Erickson S-64 Aircrane (the “Aircrane”), a versatile and powerful heavy-lift helicopter. The Aircrane has a lift capacity of up to 25,000 pounds and is the only commercial aircraft built specifically as a flying crane without a fuselage for internal loads. The Aircrane is also the only commercial heavy-lift helicopter with a rear load-facing cockpit, combining an unobstructed view and complete aircraft control for precision lift and load placement capabilities. Erickson Air-Crane owns and operates a fleet of 18 Aircranes, which are used to support a wide variety of government and commercial customers worldwide across a broad range of aerial services, including firefighting, timber harvesting, infrastructure construction, and crewing. Erickson Air-Crane also manufactures Aircranes and related components for sale to government and commercial customers and provides aftermarket support and maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for the Aircrane and other aircraft. Founded in 1971, Erickson Air-Crane is headquartered in Portland, Oregon with its principal manufacturing facility based in Central Point, Oregon. For more information, please visit http://www.ericksonaircrane.com.

About Evergreen International Aviation, Inc.
Evergreen International Aviation, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides air freight and aviation services to air carriers, aviation companies, and governmental agencies worldwide. With international operating authority and a network of global offices and affiliates, Evergreen consists of an international cargo airline that owns and operates a fleet of Boeing 747s, an unlimited aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility, an aircraft ground handling company, and an aircraft sales and leasing company. In addition to these endeavors, Evergreen owns and operates Evergreen Agricultural Enterprises and is headquartered near the not-for-profit Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of the Spruce Goose. The company was founded by Delford M. Smith and is based in McMinnville, Oregon. For more information, please visit http://www.evergreenaviation.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. You can identify forward-looking statements by words such as “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “expect,” “predict,” “potential,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations but they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties, which include the possibility that we do not complete the acquisition of the Air Amazonia business or EHI, or realize the benefits of these acquisitions, on a timely basis or at all, the ability to integrate these businesses successfully or in a timely and cost-efficient manner, the ability to successfully enter new markets and manage international expansion, failure to obtain any required financing on favorable terms, including the possibility that the commitment letter from Wells Fargo Bank expires, our safety record, the hazards associated with operating Aircranes, compliance with debt obligations, cancellations, reductions or delays in customer orders, ability to collect on customer receivables, weather and seasonal fluctuations that impact Aircrane activities, competition, reliance on a small number of large customers, the impact of short-term contracts, the availability and size of the Aircrane fleet, the ability to implement production rate changes, the impact of government spending, the impact of product liability and product warranties, the ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, the impact of environmental regulations, the ability to accurately forecast financial guidance, convert backlog into revenues, and appropriately plan expenses, worldwide economic conditions (including conditions in Greece and Italy), government regulation, ability to attract and retain key personnel, reliance on a small number of manufacturers, the necessity to provide components or services to owners and operators of aircraft, effectively manage growth, keep pace with changes in technology, adequately protect our intellectual property, successfully enter new markets, manage international expansion, expand and diversify its customer base, expand and market manufacturing and maintenance, repair and overhaul services, the potential unionization of employees, the fluctuation in the price of fuel, the ability to access public or private debt markets, the obligations of being a new public company, the impact of equipment failures or other events impacting the operation of our factories, and successfully manage any future acquisitions, and other risks and uncertainties more fully described under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K as well as the other reports Erickson Air-Crane has filed with the SEC.

You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Erickson Air-Crane assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions, or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable laws.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The Company uses adjusted EBITDA (“Adjusted EBITDA”) in managing our business. We define EBITDA as net income (loss) before interest expense, net, provision for (benefit from) income taxes, and depreciation and amortization and the adjustments to EBITDA to be non-cash unrealized mark-to-market foreign exchange gains (losses), specified litigation expenses, certain management fees, gains from sale of equipment, non-cash charges arising from awards to employees relating to equity interests, non-cash charges relating to financings, initial public offering-related non-capitalized expenses, acquisition due diligence and transaction related expenses, and other unusual, extraordinary, non-recurring non-cash costs. This is a financial measure not prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”). We have provided a reconciliation below of EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. We are also providing a reconciliation of our Adjusted EBITDA which is defined as EBITDA plus adding back the amortization of certain capitalized overhaul costs. In addition, we are presenting a reconciliation below of the EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA of EHI, to its net income as reported in its unaudited management accounts for 2012. Neither EBITDA nor Adjusted EBITDA should be considered an alternative to revenue or net income (loss) as a measure of operating performance, to cash flows from operating activities as a measure of liquidity, or to any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP. We present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because we believe they are important measures of our operating performance and provide more comparability between our historical results and the unaudited management accounts of EHI’s historical results by taking into account our capital structure including (i) changes in our asset base (depreciation and amortization) from acquisitions and from capital expenditures, and (ii) changes in interest expense and amortization of financing costs. Because not all companies use identical calculations, our presentation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

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A popular nude beach located on a river in Wisconsin will now be closed to the public on weekdays.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) stated the new policy has been put in place to stop beachgoers from enjoying sex and drugs in the area.

On Tuesday the DNR announced that the beach, the islands off the beach, and the woods surrounding the beach will be closed on weekdays. The new rules take effect immediately and last from now until September 15. The closure will last from March 1 to September 15 in future years. The beach area will be opened on Saturday and Sunday, from 6 am to 8 pm.

“The goal of this closure is to make Mazomanie Beach a safe and enjoyable environment for everyone who visits or floats past the area.” said Nate Kroeplin, DNR conservation warden. ” It is clear from our records that the majority of illicit activity is taking place on weekdays. Along with the closure we will add extra law enforcement presence.”