Blog

A company that operates huge data centers around the world is probably not the thing that springs to mind when you think ‘green’. But that is exactly the case in the latest Green Power Partnership Top 50 List released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA rankings of usage figures are based on annualized partner contract amounts (kilowatt-hours). Microsoft’s Josh Henretig announces “According to the EPA, Microsoft is purchasing nearly 1.9 billion kWh of green power, which is enough energy to meet 80 percent of Microsoft’s electricity use in the US”.

The number is a 70 percent increase over the previous year when Microsoft used 1.1 billion kWh of green energy. The company puts it in perspective as being the equivalent of avoiding the carbon dioxide emissions of nearly 285,000 passenger vehicles.

Henretig goes on to boast that “our green energy use also qualifies Microsoft for EPA’s Green Power Leadership Club, a distinction given to organizations that have significantly exceeded EPA’s minimum purchase requirements”.

This is the second consecutive year in which Microsoft has made the EPA top 50 list, but moving up to number two was a major accomplishment for the software giant. The company also ranked second on the Top 20 Tech & Telecom list, behind Intel. A big portion of this success is down to the company’s move to “smart buildings“.

Photo credit: Jannoon028/Shutterstock

Chrysler, the perennial bottom feeder on quality awards and reports, is planning on embarking on an Ad campaign highlighting their quality. Apparently, they think they can compete directly with Toyota’s known reputation for quality. Seriously.

This shocking news comes from a Forbes story where Chrysler’s Group’s head of marketing, Olivier Francois reportedly said that he “wants to attract import owners to Chrysler vehicles by focusing on quality, technology, fuel economy and style,” but to “take back the lead in these four things.”

Apparently, the plan is to alter the “Imported from Detroit” campaign to just be “Imported” as a way to position Chrysler as a genuine competitor for imports makers like Toyota or Audit.

While it is true that the “Imported from Detroit” campaign has been great marketing for Chrysler as a reminder to the American public that they survived the bailout and haven’t closed, attacking Toyota’s quality reputation as a next step seems like a stretch. As has been reported on this site several, several times, Chrysler products are rarely known for quality. Rather they are known for quality lapses and poor ratings.

In fact, there have been many comments on forums that point to the Ram 1500 – Truck of the Year – being delayed due to “constrained” parts supplies. These parts shortages are linked to the new truck features like the air suspension and eight-speed transmissions. The fact is that other truck makers have considered using these “innovations,” but decided against them with quality concerns (like Toyota).

Chalk this story up to another interesting (stupid) move by the twice-bailed out Italian owned car maker.

When you think of Chrysler, do you think “quality?”

Related Posts:

• Chrysler Workers Deliberately Sabotage Ram Production – Quality Issues?
• 2012 Ram 1500 Undeniably The Least Reliable Half-Ton Truck On The Road
• American’s Most Dangerous Pickup – Dodge Ram 1500

The post Chrysler Touts Quality in New Ad Campaign, Attacking Toyota’s Brand – Seriously? appeared first on Tundra Headquarters Blog.

A few months ago, Microsoft announced the release of Windows 8 in a language that many tech analysts found to be a surprising choice — Cherokee. Just a decade ago, this Native American language had no speakers under the age of 40 with conversational fluency. Today, it has a speaker base of around 16,000 people.

In a similar vein, Google announced last year that it was supporting the Endangered Languages Project, an initiative to allow people to share resources and information about languages on the verge of extinction. Of around 6,500 languages spoken today, approximately 3,000 are considered to be endangered. Google has a history of launching products in languages that fall outside of the mainstream. Its flagship search product has been available in Irish Gaelic for many years, even though the language has only about 133,000 native speakers, all of whom also speak English.

Why do organizations like Microsoft and Google care about languages with so few speakers? Without a doubt, providing members of linguistic minority groups with access to technology in their native tongues is very important. It empowers these communities, enabling their languages to survive and thrive in the digital age. However, before we jump to the conclusion that Microsoft and Google’s efforts are solely altruistic, let’s consider some important facts.

Back in 2003, Mark Davies carried out an important analysis of gross domestic product (GDP) by language use. He found that speakers of English and Chinese had the most purchasing power, followed by other languages used within major world economies, such as Japanese, Spanish, and Russian. However, the amount of spending power represented by the remaining thousands of languages was significant — accounting for 12.5% of the world’s GDP. In other words, according to his analysis, $12.5 out of every $100 corresponds to someone who does not speak a major world language.

More recent data from Internet World Stats displays a similar trend. Of nearly 2 billion internet users estimated in 2010, 82% spoke one of 10 macro-languages — English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Arabic, French, Russian, and Korean. And the remaining 18%? They speak one of the world’s remaining 6,500 micro-languages.

Less common languages might not seem that important individually, but when you take them collectively, they pack a powerful economic punch. What’s more, their force only stands to grow stronger as time goes on. Meanwhile, the relative importance of English in the world is set to decline. According to research from Brookings Institution scholar Homi Kharas, the global middle class will double in size, from 2 billion people today to 4.9 billion in 2030. The European and American middle classes currently account for 50 percent of the global total, but by 2030, will account for 22 percent. Asia, where more than 2,000 languages are spoken, will account for 64% of the global middle class.

Much of that growth will come from people living in China and India. China has 292 living languages, many of which have millions of native speakers. You might never have heard of Uyghur, for example, but it has 10 million speakers, or about three times the number of residents of Chicago. In India, where 415 different languages are spoken, there are 30 languages that each has more than a million native speakers, such as Kannada, with 38 million speakers (or 12 Chicago’s).

It might seem baffling for us to consider that English may no longer dominate in commercial and online worlds. Yet, a prominent British linguist, Nicholas Ostler, highlights the same trend. In his book, “The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel,” Ostler examines the conditions that led other languages, like Latin, to fall out of widespread use, arguing that English and its global dominance are currently in decline.

This phenomenon also echoes the findings of the business writer and entrepreneur Chris Anderson, who wrote about the growing importance of niche markets in his book, “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.” Eric Schmidt commented that Anderson’s insights “influence Google’s strategic thinking in a profound way.” That influence apparently extends into Google’s view on the long tail of languages and targeting niche linguistic markets, especially as more people around the world come online.

Companies like Microsoft and Google care about less common languages, but not out of charity alone. If you want to maintain your status as a market leader and secure it for the future, one of the savviest options is to develop the market itself. This involves not just taking your product or service into a new market with known demand, but creating conditions that will enable demand to emerge in the first place. One of those conditions? The ability to offer your products and services to people directly, and in a language they call their own.

The USGS makes finding the locations (and more) of U.S. species a lot easier with the new digital resource – BISON

Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation or BISON is the only system of its kind; a unique, web-based Federal resource for finding species in the U. S. and territories.  Its size is unprecedented, offering more than 100 million mapped records of nearly every living species nationwide and growing. And the vast majority of the records are specific locations, not just county or state records.

What’s more, BISON provides an “Area of Interest” search capability in which users can query by drawing the exact boundary around their area of interest, down to and including towns, villages, or even much smaller areas such as parks. For instance, New York City’s Central Park has more than 100,000 “species occurrences” recorded in BISON, with each species noted in detail. Other BISON search options include querying the species by scientific or common name, year range, state, county, basis of record, or provider institution.  

As for the results, BISON displays them in both an interactive map and a list format. Users can click on each species occurrence point to retrieve more information, such as the institution providing the data, the collector, the date collected, and whether it was from a collection or an observation.  Further, occurrences can be dynamically visualized with more than 50 other layers of environmental information in the system. Extensive web services are also available for direct connections to other systems.

“The USGS is proud to announce this monumental resource”, said Kevin Gallagher, Associate Director, Core Science Systems,” and this is a testament to the power of combining the efforts of  hundreds of thousands of professional and citizen scientists into a resource that uses Big Data and Open Data principles to deliver biodiversity information for sustaining the Nation’s environmental capital”.

“BISON is destined to become an indispensable toolkit to manage species occurrence data to support scientific, educational, and policy-making activities in the US”, Dr. Erick Mata, Executive Director of the Encyclopedia of Life explained.  “This is highly complementary and synergistic with EOL’s efforts to raise awareness and understanding of living nature.”

“With BISON, the USGS takes a big step toward making biodiversity data held within Federal agencies easier to find and use”, added Mary Klein, President & CEO of NatureServe. “I am enthusiastic about future opportunities to work with USGS to increase collaboration among Federal, state and private data holders.”

USGS Core Science Systems Mission Area, which developed the resource, expects that BISON users will be broad-based and include land managers, researchers, refuge managers, citizen scientists, agriculture professionals, fisheries managers, water resource managers, educators, and more.

Land managers, for instance, might be looking for a piece of land to purchase for conservation—but first they want to know what species have been documented for that parcel. BISON will tell them after only a few mouse clicks.

BISON serves as the U.S. Node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and will form an integral part of EcoINFORMA, the information delivery strategy in “Sustaining Environmental Capital: Protecting Society and the Economy,” a recent report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

“BISON responds directly to a key need PCAST pointed out in ‘Sustaining Environmental Capital’ – to make Federal environmental data available, inter-operable, and usable to the public,” said PCAST member Rosina Bierbaum, “We look forward to this ‘biodiversity’ hub being supplemented by complementary ecological data hubs by other Federal partners, to further the goal of helping communities across the Nation make increasingly wise planning and management decisions.”

BISON already includes millions of points from the Federal investment in biodiversity research. It is formally cooperating with other Federal agencies to greatly expand the delivery of federally funded biodiversity data for the greatest possible good. Hundreds of thousands of citizen and professional scientists have collected the data in BISON. Non-governmental organizations, state and local governments, universities, and many others are also participating in this enormous undertaking.

The USGS has built and maintains BISON, which is hosted on the massive Federal computing infrastructure at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

To learn more, visit: http://bison.usgs.ornl.gov or contact the USGS BISON Team at [email protected].

The USGS Core Science Analytics and Synthesis program within Core Science Systems is home to BISON and focuses on innovative ways to manage and deliver scientific data and information. The program implements and promotes standards and best practices to enable efficient, data-driven science for decision-making that supports a rapid response to emerging natural resource issues. One of the ways this is accomplished is by developing national data products that increase our understanding of the Earth’s natural systems.

Nokia on Thursday reported its earnings results for the first quarter, during which it narrowed its losses but saw revenue and handset volumes plummet. The Finnish cell phone vendor posted a loss of -$0.03 per share, beating the Street’s EPS expectations of -$0.05, but revenue fell 20% from the year-ago quarter to $7.6 billion. Wall Street was expecting $8.61 billion in Q1 revenue. Where handset sales are concerned, Nokia’s Lumia Windows Phone shipment volume climbed to 5.6 million units from 4.4 million in the prior quarter, but overall handset volume dove 30% to 61.9 million units. In North America, Nokia shipped just 400,000 phones, down from 700,000 in the holiday quarter. Nokia shares slid more than 12% on the news.

Parenting is tough. Not only are babies incapable of listening to your rationale pleas for sleep, but they are tiny, fragile things that require your constant vigilance and protection. Or at least that’s the messaging around parenting in the U.S. To support new parents an entire industry of products from baby monitors to sensors placed under the mattress have emerged. So of course someone decided to connect them.

In the latest podcast, I speak with Chris Bruce, the CEO of Sproutling, a company building connected devices that aim to help people be better parents. The first product is a sensor-packed ankle bracelet that tells parents how their baby is while it sleeps. It’s like the next generation of baby monitor without the static or murky video. In the interview we discuss how the internet of things could change parenting and when to give up surveillance of your kids. I also admit to keeping my newborn in my closet while I tried to get some sleep.

(Download this episode)

Subscribe to the GigaOM Podcast RSS

iTunes

Stitcher Radio

Show notes:
Host: Stacey Higginbotham

• The basics on Sproutling’s connected baby monitor
• What happens when the quantified self meets parenting?
• How data from connected devices could change our understanding of babies.
• This makes helicopter parenting looks positively neglectful. When do we take the sensors off our kids?

PREVIOUS IoT PODCASTS:

Podcast: Shark Week for the internet of things

What the Internet of Things can learn from Minecraft and Lemmings

Podcast: How IBM uses chaos theory, data and the internet of things to fix traffic

Electric Imp aims to make the Internet of Things devilishly simple

IoT podcast: When devices can talk, will they conspire against you?

What the internet of things can learn from Minecraft and Lemmings

Podcast: Why the internet of things is cool and how Mobiplug is helping make it happen

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013
• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• The Internet of things: creating tomorrow’s health care

Imran Akram has joined DN Capital as a principal. Previously, Imran was part of the founding team that started Fidelity Growth Partners Europe.

PRESS RELEASE

DN Capital, a leading media and technology growth capital and early stage investor, today announced that Imran Akram has joined the firm as a Principal.

Prior to DN Capital, Imran was part of the founding team that started Fidelity Growth Partners Europe. His investments there included Innogames (browser based online gaming), GoodData (hosted business intelligence software/SaaS), Seatwave (event ticketing marketplace) and Wahanda (health, beauty and wellness marketplace). He started his investment career with General Atlantic where he was part of the team that invested in GlobalCollect (online payments). Before that he worked at Bain & Company and in Citigroup’s securitisation team, after graduating with a First in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University. At DN Capital, Imran’s focus is on software and digital media opportunities, primarily targeting growth equity deals in these segments. His arrival continues the expansion of the DN Capital investment team. Imran commented: “I am excited to join the DN Capital team and to support the firm’s growth equity expansion.”
Nenad Marovac, Founding Partner at DN Capital, commented:
“We are delighted that Imran has joined us at DN Capital. He has built an outstanding record of delivering excellent results through strong leadership, innovative thinking and sound investment judgement. Imran will continue to build our growth equity investing and brings a strong network across Europe.”
“DN’s team continues to grow in strength to the benefit of both our portfolio companies and investors.”

ABOUT DN CAPITAL
DN Capital is a global early stage and growth capital investor in software, mobile applications, digital media and e-commerce companies with offices in London and Palo Alto. DN Capital’s objective is to identify, invest in and actively support its portfolio companies to become global leaders. Portfolio companies include Shazam Entertainment, Apsmart (sold to Thomson Reuters), Endeca Technologies (sold to Oracle), Datanomic (sold to Oracle), Eyeka, Performance Horizon, JacobsRimell (sold to Amdocs), Lagan (sold to Kana) Mister Spex, OLX (sold to Naspers), Airsense Wireless, MPME, Apsalar, Tbricks and windeln.de. The professionals at DN Capital bring over 50 years of private equity experience to their investments, and actively work with portfolio companies to steward their growth through the various stages of development. Additional information about the firm and its portfolio companies can be found at www.dncapital.com.

The post Akram Joins DN Capital appeared first on peHUB.

Figuring out what was driving pretty violent market moves this week was trickier than usual – and that says something about how much the herd has scattered this year, with ‘risk on-risk off’ correlations having weakened sharply. Just as everyone puzzled over a potential “wall of money” from Japan after the BOJ’s aggressive reflation efforts, the bottom seemed to fall out of gold, energy and broader commodity markets – dragging both equity markets and, unusually, peripheral euro zone bond yields lower in the process.  As dangerous as it may be to seek an overriding narrative these days, you could possibly tie all up these moves under the BOJ banner – something along these lines: the threat of a further yen losses pushes an already pumped-up US dollar ever higher across the board and undermines dollar-denominated  commodities, which have already been hampered by what looks like yet another lull in global demand. Developed market equities, whose Q1 surge had been reined in by several weeks of disappointing economic data and an iffy start to the Q1 earnings season, were then hit further by a lunge in heavy cap mining and energy stocks. The commodities hit may also help explain the persistent underperformance of emerging markets this year. What’s more the lift to Italian and Spanish government bonds comes partly from an assumption any Japanese money exit will seek U.S. and European government bonds and relatively higher-yielding euro government paper may be favoured by some over the paltry returns in the core ‘safe havens’ of Treasuries or bunds. The confidence to reach for yield has clearly risen over the past six months as wider systemic fears have receded – something underlined in dramatic style this week by a huge lunge in gold,  now lost almost 20 percent in the year to date.

While all that logic may be plausible, there have been dozens of other reasons floating around for the seemingly erratic twists and turns of the week.

The only truth so far is that everyone is still just guessing about the likely extent of a Japanese outflow and confidence about global growth has received another setback.

It’s possible the BOJ focus may be a distraction from what looks likes the yet another Spring slowdown in the world economy – a worrying portent for Europe in particular where much of the continent is still in recession or semi-recession since late last year. Most forecasters and asset managers seem to retaining faith in the gradual recovery thesis, but they are nervous as economic surprises turn negative everywhere. Next week’s flash readings for April business surveys, or PMIs, may well be the number of the week as a result – with Q1 GDP from the US and UK also topping list of data releases too. Any fallout from this Friday’s G20 meeting in Washington could also set the tone early next week as yen moves may be discussed alongside growing doubts about the wisdom of austerity in recessions. Otherwise, it’s a big week for Q1 earnings on both sides of the pond.

Final day of IMF Spring Meeting Sun

Israel rate decision Mon

EZ April consumer confidence Mon

US March existing home sales Mon

Europe Q1 earnings Mon: Suez, STMicro

US Q1 earnings Mon: Halliburton, Texas

OECD Japan survey Tues

Global April flash PMIs Tues

Italy April consumer confidence Tues

UK March govt borrowing data Tues

US March new home sales Tues

Hungary rate decision Tues

US Treasury 2-yr auction Tues

Europe Q1 earnings Tues: Scania, SEB, Swedbank, Stora Enso

US Q1 earnings Tues: Amgen, DuPont, Xerox

NZ rate decision Weds

German April Ifo Weds

German 30-yr bond auction Weds

US March durable goods orders Weds

US Treasury 7-yr bond auction Weds

Europe Q1 earnings Weds: ABB, Credit Suisse, Barclays, Daimler, Ericsson, France Tel, GSK, Iberdrola, Nordea, Peugeot, Standard Life, Svenska Handelsbanken

US Q1 earnings Weds: Boeing, T Rowe Price, Qualcomm

UK Q1 GDP Thurs

Euro group’s Dijsselbloem at European Parliament Thurs

Europe Q1 earnings Thurs: Unilever, Astrazeneca, BAT, Bayer, Santander, Saab, Saint Gobain, Areva, Pernod Ricard, Volvo

US Q1 earnings Thurs: Exxon, Colgate-Palmolive, Coca Cola, Dow Chemical, Time Warner, UPS,

Japan March, Tokyo April inflation Fri

France’s Hollande in Beijing Fri

BOJ decision and presser Fri

French April consumer confidence Fri

EZ March credit/M3 Fri

SNB AGM Fri

US Q1 GDP Fri

US Q1 earnings Fri: Tyco

Malaysia/Iceland parliamentary elections Sat

It’s still hard to tell how much Nokia’s fortunes have turned around. Following a surprise return to profitability around the end of last year, the Finnish handset maker’s latest interim quarterly report show a continuation of underlying profitability – but its shareholders are still losing money.

The company’s devices and services division managed to eke out a profit of €4 million ($5.2 million) in the first quarter of 2013, if you ignore “special items” during the quarter (namely, a €72 million restructuring charge, a €27 million boost from a cartel claim settlement and a €1 million hit associated with the purchases of Novarra, MetaCarta and Motally). That’s up from a €126 million loss in the same quarter of 2012, based on the same non-IFRS terms.

However, earnings per share were still -€0.02 for the quarter. That’s a loss of $0.03 per share, slightly better than analysts’ predictions of a $0.05 per-share loss, and significantly better than the $0.10 per-share loss in Q1 2012.

But let’s look at handset sales.

Nokia sold 11.1 million smartphones in the quarter — that’s 5.6 million Lumias (up from 4.4 million in the previous quarter), 0.5 million Symbian smartphones (down from 2.2 million in the previous quarter) and 5 million Series 40-based Asha full-touch devices (down from 9.3 million in Q4 2012, which is probably a combination of seasonality and the rise of cheap Androids in the emerging markets).

The average selling price of a Nokia “smart device” is up 34 percent year-on-year, from €143 to €191. This has helped the devices and services division hit underlying profitability for the second quarter in a row – overall, the group has now been profitable for an extra quarter on top of that.

Here’s what CEO Stephen Elop said:

“At the highest level, we are pleased that Nokia Group achieved underlying operating profitability for the third quarter in a row. While operating in a highly competitive environment, Nokia is executing our strategy with urgency and managing our costs very well.”

For the second quarter of this year, Nokia predicted a slight worsening of its devices and services operating margin from -1.5 percent to -2 percent, citing the reason as “competitive industry dynamics continuing to negatively affect the Mobile Phones and Smart Devices business units”.

In short, the turnaround remains far from complete, and Nokia still has to prove itself with the Lumia range. Perhaps the large-screen Lumia smartphone rumored by the FT on Wednesday might help. I imagine the lower-priced Lumias announced in February will also provide a boost.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The big theme of MWC: How to live in a connected world
• What to watch in mobile in 2013
• Forecast: the converged mobile messaging market

India’s finance minister P Chidambaram can be forgiven for feeling cheerful. After all, prices for oil and gold, the two biggest constituents of his country’s import bill, have tumbled sharply this week. If sustained, these developments might significantly ease India’s current account deficit headache — possibly to the tune of $20 billion a year.

Chidambaram said yesterday he expects the deficit to halve in a year or two from last year’s 5 percent level. Markets are celebrating too — the Indian rupee, stocks and bonds have all rallied this week.

But are markets getting ahead of themselves?  Jahangiz Aziz and Sajjid Chinoy, India analysts at JP Morgan think so.

Chinoy and Aziz acknowledge that India could shave up to $25 billion off its annual import bill  if commodity prices do continue falling.  They warn however:

Relying on falling global commodity prices – over which policymakers have absolutely no control — to alleviate India’s external imbalances is tantamount to living on a wing and a prayer. Falling commodities will undoubtedly help this year’s current account deficit but cannot be a “plan” or “strategy” for sustained reduction.

Further:

Even if the price correction sustains, this is unlikely to translate into an equivalent reduction of the deficit.

Why not? A closer look at some of the factors that are troubling JPM.

First,  coal imports are on course to double from two years back as domestic output lags  electricity generation, they note, adding that imports could rise another $3-4 billion over the coming year. Second, iron ore production and exports have collapsed due to mining bans in some Indian states  — exports are estimated at $1.5 billion this year from $6 billion 3 years ago. Meanwhile, with no iron ore production at home, imports of scrap metal have almost doubled over 3 years.

Finally, JPM say there has been little attention paid to the rate at which foreign investors are repatriating profits from India. (see their graphic)

In itself this is not a sinister phenomenon — examples elsewhere show that as the FDI stock grows,  repatriation of returns tends to weigh on the current account.   What is worrying in India is the scale and pace of repatriation  — Chinoy and Aziz point out that net profit repatriation from India has tripled from $4 billion in 2010 to $12 billion in 2012 and the deterioration in net investment income outflows has been almost 1 percent of GDP over the last 5 years. They add:

The non-linear manner in which (repatriation) has accelerated during the very years in which the investment climate has weakened, macroeconomic uncertainty has risen, and concerns about currency depreciation have renewed, suggests that it is related to the policy and investment climate in India…what’s more things could get worse before they get better.

In sum, they expect all these phenomena to widen the current account deficit by $14 billion, more than offsetting the savings made on oil and gold.

Chidambaram will be aware of all this.  He told Reuters yesterday that his main aim now is to deal with the “last mile” bottlenecks — fuel supply, environment clearance, forest clearance, land acquisition — some of the factors plaguing the economy and FDI outlook.  India-watchers will be praying he succeeds.

Two days after AT&T started taking pre-orders for Samsung’s Android flagship,  US mobile operator Sprint has made the Galaxy S4 available for purchasers who wish to get their hands on the smartphone before the official sales day.

If you pre-order a Galaxy S4 from Sprint, America’s third-largest carrier says that it will do its “best to get it to you by Saturday, April 27”. That’s three days before shipments start on AT&T. But what’s the damage on your credit card? On a two-year contract the Sprint-branded 16 GB Galaxy S4 — available in both Black Mist and White Frost — runs for $249.99, which is $50 more compared to what AT&T asks for the smartphone in the same 16GB storage trim.

If $249.99 for the 16GB Galaxy S4 is too steep for your taste, the mobile operator offers a solution — albeit one that won’t appeal to everyone. You can “save $100 on this phone when you bring your number to Sprint on a new line of service”.

“Galaxy S4 is packed with incredible new features that will benefit from unlimited data plans on the Sprint 4G LTE network”, says Fared Adib, Sprint’s senior vice president at Product Development. “Sprint encourages our customers to really use their smartphone to its full potential – from surfing the Web to listening to streaming music or watching YouTube videos – without worry about data caps, throttling or silly overage charges on their monthly bill. I know our customers will enjoy this device as much as I do”.

According to the results of our BetaNews poll, 20.78 percent of respondents answer they will pre-order the Galaxy S4. A significant 56.36 percent of the voters in the poll say that they will also purchase the smartphone once official sales start, a number not including those who will pre-order the Galaxy S4.

Only a mere 14.7 percent of respondents answered that they will not purchase the Galaxy S4 and even fewer still, 8.15 percent, are undecided on buying Samsung’s Android flagship.

Clairvest Group, Clairvest Equity Partners IV Limited Partnership and Clairvest Equity Partners IV-A Limited Partnership have announced a combined US$15 million investment in County Waste of Virginia. County Waste is a private regional solid waste management company based in West Point, Virginia.

PRESS RELEASE

Clairvest Group Inc. (TSX:CVG) (“Clairvest”), Clairvest Equity Partners IV Limited Partnership and Clairvest Equity Partners IV-A Limited Partnership (collectively, “CEP IV”) today announced a combined US$15 million investment in County Waste of Virginia LLC (“County Waste” or, the “Company”). County Waste is a private regional solid waste management company based in West Point, Virginia. The Company provides residential, commercial, and industrial waste collection, processing and transfer services in central and parts of south eastern Virginia. Clairvest’s portion of the investment is US$4 million.

Scott Earl, CEO of County Waste, is Clairvest’s former partner at Hudson Valley Waste Holding, Inc.; a successful investment Clairvest exited in 2011 that generated a 2.0x multiple of capital and an IRR of 88%. County Waste is Clairvest’s third investment in the solid waste management industry, a core domain for Clairvest since 2005.

“We look forward to our partnership with Scott who is an experienced and successful entrepreneur. Scott is a best-in-class operator and proven business builder who sees significant opportunities for County Waste. Our equity investment will support County Waste in pursuing growth opportunities and building a regionally dominant solid waste company,” said Michael Castellarin, Managing Director of Clairvest.

County Waste is Clairvest’s 39th platform investment and the eighth investment by CEP IV. The Clairvest/CEP IV co-investment pool is capitalized at $467 million and focuses on equity investments in growth companies.

About Clairvest

Clairvest Group Inc. is a private equity management firm which invests its own capital, and that of third parties through the Clairvest Equity Partners limited partnerships, in businesses that have the potential to generate superior returns. In addition to providing financing, Clairvest contributes strategic expertise and execution ability to support the growth and development of its investee partners. Clairvest realizes value through investment returns and the eventual disposition of its investments.

Contact Information

Clairvest Group Inc.
Maria Klyuev
Director, Investor Relations and Marketing
(416) 925-9270
(416) 925-5753 (FAX)

The post Clairvest Backs County Waste appeared first on peHUB.

For the many who go with the flow, there are the few who seek the better alternative. Like the Verne Global data center. It’s why we are the first to provide our forward-thinking clients with a genuine zero carbon footprint solution to their HPC data center requirements. It’s why we enable companies worldwide to actually deliver the environmental responsibility they’ve been striving for. And it’s why we believe that a zero carbon footprint solution should come without the expected cost premium. Register now for the Verne Global webinar on Tuesday, April 23 at 11 am EST, to learn how we can address your company’s power and cooling concerns, to learn more about current and future HPC trends, and to discover the most favorable location for your power and cooling requirements.

PowerbyProxi has raised $5 million from investors including TE Connectivity in Germany to develop applications for wireless power technology, according to VentureBeat, writes Reuters. Existing investor New Zealand venture capital firm Movac also participated in the third round of funding for the company.

Reuters – PowerbyProxi has raised $5 million from investors including TE Connectivity in Germany to develop applications for wireless power technology.

Powering devices without cables has been the stuff of science fiction. But its practical benefits have been longed for, since wireless power can get rid of cables in the same way that Wi-Fi disposes of networking wires. That’s still not possible under the laws of physics, but PowerbyProxi has developed cool chargers that you can use to charge a smartphone or other devices simply by placing it in a box rather than plugging it into a wired charger. The device charges regardless of the position you place it in the box. Such devices have a short range, but they’re often more convenient than today’s methods.

Darmstadt, Germany-based TE, a $13 billion revenue industrial company with 90,000 employees, is taking an equity stake in Auckland, N.Z.-based PowerbyProxi, and existing investor New Zealand venture capital firm Movac also participated in the third round of funding for the company.

The technology for “contactless” wireless power has been gaining momentum in recent years as users tire of chargers and industrial companies find more users for the technology. The company was started in 2007 by Fady Mishriki and Greg Cross, who decided to commercialize technology developed by University of Auckland researchers John Boys and Patrick Hu. The university, which is also an investor, and PowerbyProxi have a total of 122 patents between them on loosely coupled wireless power.

Cross, PowerbyProxi’s executive chairman, said that the investment showed faith in the sector’s growth and the milestones the company has hit. He said PowerbyProxi will use it to expand international sales. TE and PowerbyProxi are making a miniature contactless charging system, the Ariso Contactless Connectivity Platform, for industrial machinery and equipment. TE is selling and marketing this line of “noncontact couplers” with PowerbyProxi’s Proxi-Wave technology.

In industrial applications, wireless charging is helpful because wired charging is can be hard on equipment, as it’s easy for wired devices to be damaged if a cord is pulled abruptly. The company’s dynamic harmonization control system is also designed to reduce overheating that plagues most wireless charging alternatives. Those other solutions often have to dial back the amount of power supplied to the devices. That means that battery charging takes longer. But PowerbyProxi can supply 5 watts of power, the same as a cable, and do so without overheating, the company says. On top of that, it doesn’t cost a lot of money and it allows for free positioning of the device being charged relative to the charger.

TE is making evaluation kits for customers to test the hardware. The companies say the system is 70 percent smaller than currently available wireless power systems. The TE work is one of 50 different projects that PowerbyProxi is working on with customers. To date, PowerbyProxi has raised $10 million.

Ulrich Wallenhorst, the chief technology officer of TE Industrial, said that the investment shows his company is committed to wireless power, and that PowerbyProxi’s technology complements his own company’s offerings. Rivals include Qualcomm and Qi Stanard. PowerbyProxi’s technology is different in that it can be miniaturized to the point where its receiver can fit inside a AA battery, making all sorts of devices wirelessly rechargeable.

The post PowerbyProxi Raises $5m appeared first on peHUB.

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners has led the 5 million euro ($6.5 million) Series A financing of Allecra Therapeutics with its new fund BioDiscovery 4.

PRESS RELEASE

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners announces the first investment of BioDiscovery 4, its fourth fund dedicated to Life Sciences, through its participation in the Series A financing round of Allecra Therapeutics, which it co-leads with Forbion Capital Partners. EMBL Ventures is also part of the syndicate.
Allecra was formed in 2013 in France and Germany, as a strategic partnership between Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Limited (Chennai, India), the founders – including Allecra’s CEO Nicholas Benedict – and the two lead investors. This Series A financing of €15 million euros will support early clinical development of two new antibiotic treatments designed to combat multi drug-resistant gram-negative bacteria.
Olivier Litzka, Partner at Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners and Board Director at Allecra commented: “Allecra’s strategic partnership with Orchid is an innovative collaboration bringing together Allecra’s strong development capability with Orchid’s track record in antibiotic research and manufacturing. Allecra is supported by a Scientific Advisory Board consisting of world-renowned experts and Allecra’s Board of Directors comprises key appointments of entrepreneurs and industrialists with records of success in this area.”
Olivier Litzka also added: “We are glad to see Allecra become the first investment of our fund Biodiscovery 4. After our successful experience in the anti-infectives space through the investment of the BioDiscovery funds in Novexel, we are convinced that Allecra has all the major ingredients for success.”
Nicholas Benedict, Co-Founder and CEO of Allecra added: “The formation of Allecra comes at a time when governments, non-governmental agencies and the medical community are crying out for urgent and decisive action to tackle “the epidemic of antibiotic resistance. Our mission at Allecra is to develop new treatments which overcome selected bacterial resistance and which can be used to treat patients whose infections may otherwise have disastrous consequences.”
About Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners
Paris-based Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners is the private equity affiliate of the Edmond de Rothschild Group which is specialized in asset management and private banking (EUR 130bn under management, 2,900 employees and 30 offices throughout the world). Founded in 1953, the Group has been chaired since 1997 by the founder’s son, Baron Benjamin de Rothschild.
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners is dedicated to minority investments into privately-owned companies. It has currently close to €1 billion under management which is being invested primarily as life sciences venture capital and growth capital.
Its Life Sciences Team of eight professionals brings together over 60 years of experience in the Life Science industry and more than 100 years of private equity and venture capital experience. The team has €355 million under management through its Biodiscovery franchise.
BioDiscovery Funds, including BioDiscovery 4, are venture capital funds registered via the fast-track procedure. These funds are not authorized by the Autorité des marchés financiers and may adopt special investment rules. BioDiscovery 4, a Capital Venture Funds registered via the fast-track procedure, invests mainly in private companies, which involves specific risks such as a risk of capital loss, a discretionary management risk and a liquidity risk.
For more information please visit: www.edrip.fr.
About Allecra Therapeutics
Allecra, established in 2013, is a biotechnology company focused on the development of novel treatments to combat multi drug-resistant bacterial infections. It is based on a strategic partnership between its founders, Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Chennai, India) and its lead investors, Forbion Capital Partners and Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners. ALLECRA’s mission is to contribute towards the global effort to combat antibiotic resistance by developing new treatments which overcome emerging resistance mechanisms, thereby saving lives of patients whose infections may otherwise be inadequately treated. ALLECRA is located in the European BioValley Life Sciences cluster, located in the Upper Rhein valley, encompassing northwest Switzerland, southeastern Germany and the Alsace Region of France.

Contacts

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners
Olivier Litzka
[email protected]
+33 1 40 17 27 46 or +33 1 40 17 27 69

Allecra Therapeutics GmbH
Nicholas Benedict, Founder & CEO
+41 79 592 2005
[email protected]

The post Allecra Therapeutics Raises Funds appeared first on peHUB.

The Riverside Company has added Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based TerraSim to its Bohemia Interactive Simulations platform. Bohemia develops and provides games for training technology and interactive simulation systems for defense, emergency and mission-critical customers.

PRESS RELEASE

Add-on Expands Military Simulation and Virtual Training Specialist Bohemia Interactive

The Riverside Company has added Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based TerraSim, Inc. to its Bohemia Interactive Simulations s.r.o. (Bohemia) platform. Bohemia develops and provides games for training technology and interactive simulation systems for defense, emergency and mission-critical customers.

TerraSim delivers to Bohemia its elite capabilities in automated terrain generation software, which is a highly specialized niche. Bohemia customers will benefit immediately from this infusion of new technology, while the company will gain a platform for expanding both in its current defense markets and in new markets.

“TerraSim builds the world’s best terrain generation software,” said Riverside Partner Dr. Martin Scott, who leads Riverside’s Software and IT specialization in Europe. “This acquisition accelerates Bohemia’s technical capabilities and should open new opportunities for the company.”

Bohemia plans to retain operations at TerraSim’s Pittsburgh office, using existing software and database engineers and leadership while integrating the companies and capitalizing on the enhanced software capabilities for Bohemia’s products and services.

Bohemia makes fully interactive, three-dimensional training and simulation systems for military or commercial training and experimentation purposes, particularly for tactical training and mission rehearsal scenarios.

Bohemia was founded in 2001 in Australia, and has a central sales office in the U.S., part of the Team Orlando area of excellence for military simulation technology. In addition, Bohemia has major sales and operations offices in the UK, Australia, Czech Republic, and Poland, with plans for further international expansion.

Riverside has completed more than 20 software investments, and has a dedicated team of experts in the technology field.

“We were considering acquiring TerraSim even before the Riverside acquisition,” said Bohemia CEO Pete Morrison.“ They’re an exceptional company that brings outstanding technical knowhow. This immediately makes Bohemia a stronger and more capable company.”

Working with Scott on the transaction for Riverside were Principal Adam Pietruszkiewicz, Vice President Ludek Palata and Vice President Marcin Goszyk.

Lape Mansfield & Nakasian, LLC along with McGladrey, LLP advised Riverside on the investment.

The Riverside Company
The Riverside Company is a global private equity firm focused on acquiring growing businesses valued at up to $250 million (€200 million in Europe). Since its founding in 1988, Riverside has invested in more than 300 transactions. The firm’s international portfolio includes more than 75 companies.

Media enquiries:

CitySavvy
Soraya Atmani
+00 44 (0)20 7936 9161
[email protected]

The post Riverside Acquires TerraSim appeared first on peHUB.

Popular business-oriented social network LinkedIn has unveiled new mobile apps for Android and iOS, touting a “brand new mobile phone experience, completely revamped with the general professional and everyday use case in mind”. This comes a day after LinkedIn updated its Windows Phone 8 app, with major new features.

However, unlike the Windows Phone 8 app which offers a similar user experience as before, LinkedIn for Android and iOS sports an overhauled UI (User Interface) that is both more modern as well as better looking. Gone are the darker colors of before as lighter ones take their place instead.

“We want to make it easier for our members to quickly discover and engage with the rich professional insights being shared across LinkedIn to help them make smarter decisions from wherever they may be working”, says LinkedIn’s Tomer Cohen. “We’ve designed the new LinkedIn mobile phone app for every professional, with a richer and more engaging stream and more personalization features”.

LinkedIn for Android and iOS is designed to provide users with “more relevant and timely professional insights” in the stream, which the social network hopes will lead to a higher level of engagement. Users can now directly comment and like on a post on LinkedIn straight from the “vibrant and visual” stream.

The mobile apps promise a higher level of personalization through the new navigation page which can be triggered by swiping the main homepage to the right. It preloads a number of features which are “handiest on-the-go”.

LinkedIn has also provided an interesting insight concerning its users’ locations. According to the social network, 64 percent of users reside outside of the US. That is a very important number which explains the expanded language support. LinkedIn for Android now supports Dutch, Norwegian and Turkish while its iOS counterpart also works in Dutch and Norwegian.

LinkedIn promises that further improvements will be made to personalization options and search further down the road this year. Hopefully, LinkedIn is aware that the best move right now is to also update its apps on BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8 to reflect the aforementioned changes and features.

LinkedIn for Android is available to download from Google Play.

LinkedIn 6.0 for iOS is available to download from Apple’s App Store.

HitecVision has acquired Deep Sea Mooring. Deep Sea Mooring was established by Odfjell Drilling in 2008.

PRESS RELEASE

HitecVision is pleased to announce the acquisition of 100% of Deep Sea Mooring.
Deep Sea Mooring (DSM) was established by Odfjell Drilling in 2008. DSM has been
developed from an in-house mooring service provider to one of three providers of
mooring services to E&P companies and rig owners in Norway. The company offers
rental equipment, pre-lay mooring solutions and ancillary services and serves the
market through its locations in Mongstad and Kristiansund.
Simen Lieungh, CEO of Odfjell Drilling states: For 40 years Odfjell Drilling has been a
pioneer in the offshore drilling industry with a proven track record of establishing
and developing new businesses. We are proud of having developed Deep Sea
mooring to a stage where it has a strong potential on a stand-alone basis. We
believe in the future of the company, product and service portfolio and its competent
and dedicated team of people. Under HitecVision’s ownership, Deep Sea Mooring can
certainly become a potent player in the international mooring industry. We believe
HitecVision are the right owner to develop Deep Sea Mooring in the international
mooring industry.
Gunnar Halvorsen, Senior Partner of HitecVision, comments: “We are impressed by
the development of Deep Sea Mooring under Odfjell’s ownership, and are pleased to
have been entrusted by Odfjell to become the new owners of the company.”
Deep Sea Mooring, being a niche supplier of critical services to the oil and gas
companies, is a typical investment for HitecVision. We have followed and invested
in this segment before, and believe Deep Sea Mooring has great future potential. We
look forward to working with the company’s management to develop it further.
Åge Straume, Vice President of Deep Sea Mooring, adds: “We have had a great cooperation
with Odfjell as owner and customer, and look forward to a continued close
relationship. HitecVision as a new owner is welcomed by both Deep Sea Mooring
management and employees. We know HitecVision as a leading investor for our type
of company, with a strong track record in this segment, and we have noted the
success of previous investments. With this strong investor backing, we will be able
to grow Deep Sea Mooring further as the preferred supplier of high quality mooring
equipment, pre-lay mooring solutions and services to the oil and gas industry.
The transaction is subject to approval from relevant competition authorities
Contact persons:
Gunnar Halvorsen, Senior Partner HitecVision, mobile +47 91 83 39 06
Kjell Erik Endresen, Senior Partner HitecVision, mobile +47 98 20 66 53
About HitecVision
HitecVision is a leading investor in the international oil and gas industry with offices
in Stavanger, Oslo and Houston. The investment focus is on middle market
investments in oilfield services and technology companies, and exploration and
production (“E&P”) companies across the oil and gas value chain. HitecVision
manages four funds with more than $ 3 billion in assets under management.
About Odfjell Drilling
Odfjell Drilling is a privately owned international drilling, well service and
engineering company. We have been in involved in international drilling operations
since the early seventies. The company has 3000 employees and operates in 20
countries worldwide.

The post HitecVision Acquires Deep Sea Mooring appeared first on peHUB.

UK-based Fits.me has announced total Series A investment in the company of close to 5 million pounds ($8 million). Series A investment has been subscribed by existing investor SmartCap, with new participation from Conor Venture Partners, Fostergate Holdings Limited and The Entrepreneur’s Fund.

PRESS RELEASE

Fits.me today announced total Series A investment in the company of close to £5 million. Series A investment has been subscribed by existing investor SmartCap, with new participation from Conor Venture Partners, Fostergate Holdings Limited and The Entrepreneur’s Fund.
Previously, in May 2009 and August 2010, the company received total seed and early-stage investment of just under £1.75m from Smartcap and angel investors, and £0.5m in grants.
Fits.me develops, markets and operates virtual fitting room solutions on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis for online clothing retailers, helping them to overcome the problems of low online conversion rates and high garment returns rates caused by doubt over fit and poor fit respectively.
The company counts many well-known retailers among its clients, including Adidas, Avenue32, Barbour By Mail, Boden, Ermenegildo Zegna, Hawes & Curtis, Henri Lloyd, Hugo Boss, John Smedley, L.K.Bennett, Mexx, Nicole Farhi, Otto, Pretty Green, Superdry and Thomas Pink.
Fits.me will use the new funding to support accelerated Sales and Marketing programmes – including international expansion into the France, Germany, other EU countries and the USA – and to continue to scale up its Operations to meet predicted demand.
Conor Venture Partners’ Manu Mäkelä said: “While large swathes of retailing already takes place online, there are sectors for which the real online growth has yet to come. Apparel is chief among those sectors, primarily because buying clothes is such a subjective process – most obviously when it comes to ‘fit’. Fits.me has a sophisticated solution that works, delivers provable results, is easy for retailers to deploy and has been signed up by a growing band of respected retailers and brands, on an international basis. From an investor’s point of view, there is tremendous growth potential.”
In February 2013 the company launched Fit Advisor, a complementary version of the company’s flagship Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room solution which delivers fit information and recommendations without the need for photography.
Heikki Haldre, co-founder and chief executive at Fits.me, said: “We are in a market that has started to move very quickly as retailers look to overcome their high street difficulties by focusing on online performance. It should be clear to everyone that we mean to do very good business by helping online clothing retailers to solve one of their most pressing problems.”
[ends]
About Fits.me
Fits.me’s virtual fitting room solutions helps boost the revenues and the profitability of online clothing retailers by enabling them to overcome the online fit problem, increasing conversions and reducing garment returns.
The subjective nature of “fit” as it applies to clothing and fashion has inhibited online apparel sales for years – in 2012 the overall proportion of garment sales from online channels was still only 14-15%. The essential problem is the inability of shoppers to try on clothes to check the fit before they choose their size, while ‘fit’ is a matter of personal preference rather than mathematics. According to Mintel, widespread inconsistencies in sizing between different brands and retailers make online clothes shopping a challenge for six in ten shoppers.
At the heart of Fits.me’s software-as-a-service solution are sophisticated robotic mannequins, both male and female, with artificial muscles that enable it to mimic any size or shape of body. To populate the database of any given brand or retailer, these mannequins are dressed in representative items from the retailer’s range, in each available size. Each permutation of garment/size is then photographed while the robotic mannequin morphs through thousands of body shapes, whether for a dress or a shirt. The output of this process is a comprehensive image database – and, for each image, the precise dimensions of the mannequin are recorded.
On a retailer’s site, Fits.me displays the photograph from the database that shows exactly how the garment the shopper is looking at will fit their body size and shape, simply by asking that shopper for a few common measurements.
With further clicks, the shopper may check how they will look wearing other sizes, before choosing the size that fits them the way they like it. The Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room will even alert the shopper to where the fit of the chosen garment may be wrong – for example, in arm length or collar size – just as a shop assistant would do in a bricks-and-mortar store.
Data from online clothing retailers using Fits.me shows an improvement in conversion rates of up to 62% compared to shoppers using a traditional size chart and a reduction in returns for reasons of fit of up to 77%.
# # #

The post Fits.me Secures Series A Funds appeared first on peHUB.