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EE, the UK joint venture of France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, has just released its full-year results for 2012. The financials show a fourth-quarter slowdown in new contract customers joining the network, but the big buzz today is about a detail EE left out: the number of 4G subscribers it now has.

Remember that EE is the only major carrier to be offering LTE services in the UK right now. It can do this because it was allowed before anyone else to ‘refarm’ its existing 2G spectrum for 4G – rivals will soon be able to do the same, and an upcoming auction will introduce fresh spectrum for fast mobile broadband. Remember, too, that EE is charging a premium for such services, above what it charges for 3G data.

EE’s 4G network went live at the end of October, so it’s easy to look at the “net adds” for Q4 – the number of people who signed up for an EE contract minus the number that jumped ship – and smell trouble. Net adds were 201,000 for the quarter, down from 313,000 a year previously.

Here’s how Ovum analyst Steven Hartley saw things, as per a statement the analyst house issued this morning:

“EE has everything in its favour for LTE to be a success: a market of high smart phone adoption and data usage but starved of high-speed mobile broadband; an LTE monopoly; rapid LTE coverage deployment; and a wider range of compatible handsets at launch than any other LTE operator. Therefore, unspectacular LTE uptake will be due to brand and pricing.”

Hartley certainly has a point. EE’s branding is… an issue. Everyone was used to the old T-Mobile and Orange brands, then the merger happened in 2010 and they were faced with Everything Everywhere, a disaster in terms of SEO and, may I add as a journalist, headlines. Little more than two years later, it was suddenly EE – an arguable improvement, but not by much.

Similarly, pricing is a problem. It’s a tricky proposition to charge more for 4G when your 4G network is still far from ubiquitous – according to EE’s results, coverage now stands at 43 percent. U.S. carriers have generally been better about this, steering clear of premium pricing at this point, and UK operator Three has already jumped in to say it will do the same.

However, as Matthew Howett, another Ovum analyst, pointed out on Twitter:

Not too surprised EE aren’t yet disclosing 4G sub numbers. Either good or bad it could give critical info to competitors during the auction

— Matthew Howett (@howett) February 19, 2013

As Howett went on to explain, high subscription numbers could overheat the bidding – EE may already have 4G-friendly spectrum, but it wants to buy more and it wants to get away with paying as little as possible. As for reporting low numbers — well, no-one wants to do that.

It may be that EE’s 4G numbers are disappointing, and that would probably have to do with pricing. But, at this point, with only two months’ worth of LTE provision being included in the financials, it’s probably unwise to read too much into the operator’s silence.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• LTE-Advanced: what it is and isn’t
• LTE changes everything; LTE changes nothing
• Updated: Forecast: global mobile subscribers, 2010-2015

Debbie Ford, who authored several books in the self-help genre, has died of complications from cancer. She was 57 years old.

Ford began her writing career with “The Dark Side Of The Light Chasers”, which aimed to help heal people confront their “dark side” rather than block it out. From the book’s description on Amazon:

Debbie Ford believes that we each hold within us a trace of every human characteristic that exists, the capacity for every human emotion. We are born with the ability to express this entire spectrum of characteristics. But, Ford points out, our families and our society send us strong messages about which ones are good and bad. So when certain impulses arise, we deny them instead of confronting them, giving them a healthy voice, then letting them go. It is to these feelings that Ford turns our attention, these parts of our selves that don’t fit the personae we have created for the rest of the world. She shows us the effects of living in the dark, of keeping all our supposedly unsavory impulses under wraps. We find ourselves disproportionately frustrated and angry at the selfishness of friends, the laziness of colleagues, the arrogance of siblings. When we are unable to reconcile similar impulses in ourselves, Ford explains, we waste our own energy judging others instead of empathizing. But most important, we deny ourselves the power and freedom of living authentically. Through the stories and exercises in The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, Debbie Ford shows us not only how to recognize our hidden emotions, but also how to find the gifts they offer us. The very impulses we most fear may be the key to what is lacking in our lives.

Ford wrote eight more books and was reportedly working on a tenth at the time of her passing, but there has been no word yet on whether it was close to being finished. Because she made it her life’s work to help people, her fans thought it extremely important that she was so open with them about her own past, which included drug abuse and a divorce.

“From the time she was a little girl, Debbie was one of those people who had a strong mind of her own, and did things on her own terms and that is how she lived,” her sister Arielle said. “And she was always so funny! Even up to the end, she had us laughing. She leaves us with such an impressive body of work. We know that her contributions will live on through the millions of people she has touched with her books and teachings, and the thousands she has trained in her work.”

Last week, as astronomers around the world turned their attention toward the passing asteroid 2012 DA14, a meteorite entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke up over Chelyabinsk, Russia. The blast shattered windows and injured hundreds in the small town.

The European Space Agency (ESA) today announced that it is studying the event, which isn’t quite as rare as humans might hope. Astronomers predict an event of this sort may happen every “several of tens to 100 years.”

This particular meteorite was around 17 meters wide when it entered Earth’s atmosphere, traveling at around 18 kilometers per second (around 40,000 miles per hour). It exploded around 15 to 20 kilometers above the planets surface with the force of a 500 kiloton bomb. That’s around 30 times the energy released by the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima.

In a statement, Detlef Koschny, head of the Near-Earth Object activity division of the ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program, said that the meteorite was unrelated to the passing of 2012 DA14. This was determined due to the trajectory of the meteorite and the time of its impact in relation to the passing asteroid.

“The terminal part of the explosion probably likely occurred almost directly over Chelyabinsk. This was perhaps the single greatest contributor to the blast damage,” said Koschny. “As the explosion and fireball progressed along a shallow trajectory, the cylindrical blast wave would have propagated directly to the ground and would have been intense.”

Koschny stated that the airburst was the likely cause of most of the damage seen, and that window damage is expected starting at air pressures of 10 to 20 times normal air pressure.

(Image courtesy Eumetsat/ESA)

I never intended to disrupt my career over and again, eventually becoming a free agent. And yet it turns out that the odds were pretty good that I would disrupt myself out of corporate life — and that you might, too.

My decision to go independent was set in motion over a decade ago. When my husband was on the hunt for an academic job after completing his PhD, his choices were Boston and San Antonio, both of which had the potential to cut my Wall Street career short. Because of my Institutional Investor ranking, and advances in technology that made virtual co-location possible, I was able to persuade Merrill Lynch to let me work out of my home in Boston. When I left Merrill in 2005, most people didn’t know I had been working remotely for four years; my standing as an analyst had actually improved during that time.

The recent global downturn has accelerated the growing trend toward some type of independent work. Of course, this state of ‘independence’ isn’t always of our own accord. Layoffs are rife. Productivity gains are not necessarily leading to job creation. Even so, approximately 43 million people, or roughly 35%-40% of the private workforce in the U.S., are currently doing some type of contingent work; this number is expected to grow to 65-70 million within the decade, well ahead of the 1% rate at which the labor force is growing.

Drilling down further, according to MBO Partners’ State of Independence in America report, there is a rapidly growing subset of “independents” in the U.S., which MBO defines as an individual working 15+ hours per week whether as a freelancer, contractor, or owner of a micro-business. Stripping out the c. 25 million people who are working part-time and are potentially under-employed, MBO calculates there are currently about 17 million independents. This number is expected to increase to 23 million by 2017, based on a 6.3% per year growth rate, 6x the rate of growth of the workforce. And that could easily swell to over 30+ million in the next decade as large and small corporations, as well as the government, continue to migrate to contingent labor, and account for 50% of the workforce, up from 35-40% currently.

Where it gets interesting, though, is that independence isn’t necessarily being foisted on people. Of those who went independent in 2012, 57% chose to. Even more telling, whether these independents pursued this path of their own accord or not, only 13% intend to go back to traditional employment. Certainly that has been the case for me. After leaving Merrill Lynch, I co-founded Rose Park Advisors with Clay Christensen, veering ever closer to independence. A start-up environment may be grueling, but you are more your own woman — or man.

This trend cuts across all demographics. Millennials (Gen Y), ages 21-32, for example, 40% say they’re likely to choose independence of their own accord. 58% of Boomers (ages 50-66), are choosing independence. And Gen X (33-49) is the most likely to choose independence — 68% of those who have gone indie are there by choice rather than the result of job scarcity or loss. You can see this growing appetite for autonomy reflected in the burgeoning number of books and blogs looking at the meaning of work and life, from Umair Haque to Cali Yost to Gretchen Rubin to James Altucher.

The allure of “the company man” has all but faded, a quaint relic. Gone are the days when many of my friends’ parents worked at IBM’s famed Almaden IBM Labs. The job security, pension, the health benefits that a company lifer of my parents’ generation could expect simply do not exist. Meanwhile, the stigma of working on one’s own has all but vanished. Is it really any surprise that when I left Rose Park in 2012, I didn’t run back into the arms of a large corporation, instead moving even further toward a totally independent and flexible role?

Don’t mistake me. As I have moved into the role of a fully-fledged independent — writing, speaking, and advising — I am frequently terrified. A more abstract identity, rollercoaster cash flow, punctuated by entrepreneurial missteps: the P/E (puke to excitement) ratio, as Isis CEO Heather Coughlin, and fellow disruptor describes it, can become uncomfortably high, even for an adrenaline junkie like me. But alas, disruptor valuations are sometimes tough to stomach. The growth opportunity isn’t easily quantified, making valuation appear demanding for a time.

Note too, that with personal disruption, success is self-reported satisfaction, however you may define it. According to MBO, 65% of respondents reporting being highly satisfied versus 47% for those in traditional employment. I’m finding that to be the case for me. Notwithstanding the fear I occasionally feel, most days I have to pinch myself I am so happy: I get to work where I want, on what I want and with whom. I’m still working just as hard to get the brass ring, but truly I am having fun doing it. Getting paid depends almost wholly on my merits, not politics. And now more than ever, I know my family.

The disruptions that are changing the landscape of American working life have been a minefield for so many. But they are also making a new level of work-life flexibility possible that didn’t exist previously. Perhaps you’ll choose the course of independent employment. Maybe your hand will be forced. Either way, letting work freedom ring is changing the American dream, hinting at the expanse of a frontier on the other side of the industrial revolution. One where disruption isn’t just about financial returns, but the glee of harnessing a new learning curve. Where people not only put food on the table, but also have a life.

Great news for Android enthusiasts rocking an HTC One S, One XL or DROID DNA! A team of developers has revealed an S-Off hack that fully unleashes the modding potential of the three smartphones by allowing users to flash a custom recovery or distribution straight from hboot.

In order to achieve S-Off nirvana, One S, One XL and DROID DNA users must enable root and have superCID, the latter of which allows for the installation of custom distributions independent of the country identifier (CID). Afterwards, the process is fairly simple to carry out with users only needing to download a patcher file and input a number of commands inside a terminal.

Users have to extract the patcher in the working directory, find the model ID in adb mode, download the zip file that matches the One S, One XL or DROID DNA model ID, reboot the bootloader in adb mode, reboot the RUU in fastboot mode, flash the corresponding zip file in fastboot mode, boot in fastboot mode, insert three commands via adb mode and finally reboot the bootloader, again in adb mode.

Afterwards “Facepalm” S-Off is enabled on the One S, One XL and DROID DNA. The method has been confirmed to work by a number of users, on all three HTC-made devices.

There are no shortage of weather apps for Android devices, but many of us are already familiar with the Weather Channel, making it a fairly easy choice — I switched to that app a couple of years ago after leaving Weather Bug. Now the TV network has issued a major overhaul of its mobile app for Android.

The first thing you will notice in the update, which began rolling out late yesterday, is a completely revamped user interface. The Now screen, which opens by default, still shows the temperature and current conditions, but comes with an ad background — which is a bit annoying. Still the additional information is useful. For instance, my Now screen is currently telling me: “Rain likely Tuesday at 11:15 am EST”.

The menu has moved from the bottom of the screen to the top and now has fewer options. Social, for instance, has gone, replaced by four simple choices — Map, Now, Videos, and Forecast. Above these are icons for Search, Share and Settings.

Share is a new and much welcome addition because it has been an inclusion in the aforementioned Weather Bug for some time and allows users to share their local conditions, forecast or maps via a number of options, including Facebook, Twitter, cloud services, and a lot more.

In addition, the forecasts now offer more detail, the app has been optimized for tablets, there is a refresh button, and users can set up favorite locations to take full advantage of weather widgets and notifications.

All of the updates, with the exception of the ad background on the Now screen, are very welcome in my opinion. New users get walked through a series of tutorial-type screens when the app first launches and you will also need to reset your home location, but after completing these minor tasks I think most will find the updates very rewarding.

Photo credit: Ralf Juergen Kraft/Shutterstock

In theory Windows should be able to shut down a PC when it’s been idle for a while, and even if that doesn’t work for you, there are plenty of tools around which promise to do something similar. In practice, though, the difficulty of detecting idle time accurately means that these tools aren’t always reliable, which is why many people take the safer approach of leaving their system running all the time.

AllOff is a little different, though. This free (for personal use) tool doesn’t just shut down your PC after some fixed period of time, or when your keyboard or mouse haven’t been used for a while. It also monitors CPU usage, even download speeds, and provides a host of configuration options to ensure everything works just as you require.

After a slightly more complex installation than usual (you have to register the program with your email address), AllOff presents its default console. It’s not exactly going to win any interface design awards, but this does provide all the key details you need. So you’ll see that by default your system will close if there’s no activity for 10 minutes; an “idle” counter will show you how close you are to that figure; and a couple of figures for your CPU usage and download rate highlight any current background activity.

Click Config, though, and you’ll find the program’s settings, which is where life gets much more interesting.

By default AllOff will calculate your average CPU usage over 5 seconds, for instance, which makes it less likely that the idle count will be reset by a brief spike in activity. But you can adjust that averaging time to anything from 1 to 30 seconds, as well as setting a minimum CPU usage figure which you’d consider as idle, to make the program even more accurate.

You can set the minimum download rate, which again aims to prevent the idle count being reset unnecessarily (when some update checker briefly connects to its website, for instance).

AllOff will also leap into action if your mouse and keyboard have been inactive for your preferred period of time.

And there’s plenty more. You could enable only some of these idle detection methods, say, perhaps ignoring the CPU check and using only download rate, keyboard and mouse monitoring. You’re able to have the program control a remote PC. There are multiple logging and console display options (minimize to the system tray, set the AllOff window to be “always on top”). And of course you can choose your preferred action when the program does finally activate (Hibernate, Log off, Power off, Reboot, Shutdown, Standby).

Even at this final point, though, AllOff still gives you choices. So you can have your system power down in a couple of seconds. But if you’d prefer to be cautious then you can have the program display a warning alert for up to 10 minutes, giving you time to cancel the shutdown, while clearing the “Force” checkbox means open applications won’t be forced to close.

You don’t have to get into any of this complexity at first, of course — in our experience the default settings worked very well. But, if you do have any problems, AllOff’s extensive configuration options should help you fine tune its performance, and it certainly earns a thumbs up from us.

Photo Credit: Sashkin/Shutterstock

Shank 2 is a beat ’em up 2D platformer that aims to combine modern technology and concepts with a genre that populated the arcade more than 20 years ago.

This type of gameplay was really big, back in the nineties, but when 3D really kicked in, games such as Streets of Rage and Final Fight lost their appeal.

There wasn’t anything wrong wi… (read more)

What makes a person good at — and comfortable with — persuading others?

Yesterday, I had lunch with a friend, a brilliant and hard-working VP. I had just finished Dan Pink’s excellent new book, To Sell Is Human, and was eager for my friend’s take on it. In a nutshell, Pink argues that moving people (i.e., selling, but also persuading or influencing) has become an essential component of nearly everyone’s job in the modern workplace. Everyone is in sales. Like a lot of people, I found Pink’s argument to be radical, surprising, and undeniably true.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone likes this argument. I thought my friend would find it interesting, but instead he seemed profoundly uncomfortable. “That’s crap,” he said, more to himself than to me. “I’m not a salesman. My job is strategy, not manipulating suckers.”

On the surface, it seemed like the salesmen-are-slimy stereotype was at work here (something Pink’s book tackles head on and does an admirable job dispelling).There might also have been a touch of aversion to the idea of selling — many of us wonder if it’s right, ethically-speaking, to persuade someone to buy or believe something. We’re uneasy with the power that effective persuasion gives us. But, as Pink points out, it’s impossible for human beings to avoid influencing, and being influenced by, other people’s words and deeds. People are going to be moved — the trick is to make sure that the ideas and products with genuine merit do the moving.

In my friend’s visible discomfort, however, I sensed something more. Something like what happens when you give an unsuspecting person a set of algebra problems and they literally back away from you stuttering, “Um… I’m not a math person.” (Believe it or not, in my job I actually do things like that.)

I spend a lot of time writing and speaking about the pervasive — and false — belief that our success depends upon the possession of innate, immutable abilities. I drown my readers and listeners in data, showing beyond a reasonable doubt that reaching goals and mastering skills is about strategy, effort, and persistence, and that these things are learned. The abilities I have usually focused on are intelligence, creativity, self-control, and, of course, mathematical skill.

But until I read Pink’s latest book and witnessed my friend’s reaction to the idea that the ability to move people is essential to success, it really hadn’t occurred to me that a lot of people might think that’s innate too. Oh no.

To find out more, I turned to Google. I searched the internet for the expression “natural born salesman.” Over half a million hits. To be fair, many of these were attempts to dispel the myth of the naturally-gifted mover, but the need to dispel the myth speaks volumes about its ubiquity.

Selling, moving, persuading, influencing… many of us may resist the idea that this is part of our job description (or avoid taking positions for which it would be) because we believe we lack that ability, just as we avoided calculus in college like the plague because we weren’t “math people.” My friend doesn’t want to believe that sales is a part of his job because he doesn’t believe he is good at sales, and more importantly, because he doesn’t believe he can be.

(A quick aside: There is research suggesting that successful salespeople have particular personality traits, including conscientiousness, humility, and as Pink points out “ambiversion” — being neither an extreme introvert nor extrovert. But it’s important to not assume that personality traits = innate ability. Personalities can and do change as a result of our efforts and experiences. You aren’t “stuck” as you are.)

If you want to become good at influencing others, then you simply need to learn how. It’s not magic, and it’s certainly not innate. It may sometimes feel innate, but that’s because people are often able to pick up on effective strategies implicitly — without conscious awareness — through experience and observation. Not realizing you are learning makes your abilities feel innate, even when they aren’t.

Do you want to be a people mover? Pick up one (or more) of the many excellent, data-driven books on the subject. To Sell Is Human is a good place to start. Robert Cialdini’s Influence and Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational are also filled with strategies of effective persuasion. (My forthcoming book with Tory Higgins, Focus, offers a few useful pointers as well.)

Then, armed with the knowledge of what works, practice. Everything gets easier, more automatic, more “natural” with practice. You don’t need to be afraid of this brave new people-moving world — you have what it takes, you just need to learn to use it.

With Sony’s efforts to support the Android modding and developer community, it really should come as no surprise that the recently-unveiled Xperia Z smartphone is now bestowed with root. The noteworthy achievement is facilitated by the CF-Auto-Root solution available for the LG-made Google Nexus 4, a device which shares most of the underpinnings of the Xperia Z.

The two devices share the same 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset and because of it the developer has only slightly modified the Nexus 4 ramdisk from CF-Auto-Root to unleash elevated privileges on the Xperia Z. The app chosen to manage rooting requests is the traditional SuperSU.

The Xperia Z must sport an unlocked bootloder in order to enable root, as well as firmware version 10.1.A.1.350. The fastboot tool is also needed as to upload files onto the device. Users have to reboot into bootloader mode, flash a modded kernel, reboot, disconnect the USB cable and perform a hard shut down, before reconnecting the Xperia Z in fastboot mode, flashing the stock kernel and rebooting the device.

In order to fully take advantage of apps that require root it is also recommended to install a BusyBox from Google Play. BusyBox by Stephen (Stericson) comes highly recommended by members of the modding community. The app installs a number of files (the recommended path to install them is /system/xbin/) which can be used by apps that require elevated privileges to run certain commands.

The root method has been tested on an Xperia Z model C6603, but according to the developer it should work on the C6602 variant as well.

Anaplan, a maker of cloud-based modelling and planning technology for sales, operations, and finance, has acquired Vue Analytics. The acquisition allows the company to expand in Europe. Terms of the deal were not released. Anaplan is funded by Granite Ventures and Shasta Ventures.

PRESS RELEASE
Anaplan, a provider of cloud-based modelling and planning solutions for sales, operations, and finance, today announced its expansion into Europe through the acquisition of Vue Analytics, its Master Reseller in the UK & Ireland, and the opening of its European headquarters in Paris. The company has appointed Laurent Lefouet, former Chief Operating Officer at SAP, as Anaplan’s General Manager of EMEA. With offices now established in the UK and France, Anaplan aims to expand into additional European markets throughout the year.

“Successful businesses across the globe are already embracing our powerful cloud-based planning tools to set operational targets, track performance of key indicators, and make better, faster decisions about how to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions,” said Anaplan CEO Fred Laluyaux. “Our acquisition of Vue Analytics, the opening of our new EMEA headquarters in France, and the addition of Laurent Lefouet to our management team will allow us to meet growing demand for our solutions and better serve our expanding customer base in the EMEA region.”

Anaplan has seen demand for its innovative cloud software grow rapidly, as new customers continue to take advantage of its solutions to model and plan their businesses. In 2012, the company grew its customer base by 500% percent and revenues by 800% across the globe. In the last twelve months, large UK firms like Taylor Wimpey plc and Premier Farnell plc and other European firms in Russia, Czech Republic and France were added to an impressive list of North American customers including McAfee, Pandora, and HealthTrust.

Laurent Lefouet brings over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and international sales executive to his new role at Anaplan. Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Large Enterprise Sales for SAP France and SAP North Africa. Previously, he held international management roles within Business Objects Global and SAP EMEA.

“I’m thrilled to join the leadership team at Anaplan as the company embarks on its next stage of growth,” Lefouet explains. “Anaplan is redefining how companies model and plan by providing a cloud-based, in-memory technology that connects the right data with the right people across an organisation. I have worked in this space for many years, and I truly believe Anaplan’s combination of simplicity, flexibility and power is unique. This is what customers in Europe and around the world are finding so game-changing. It is now our responsibility as a team to make sure every single manager on this continent knows about Anaplan!”

As the winner of a Gartner Cool Vendor Award in 2012, Anaplan has already been recognised for its innovative cloud software and its role in reshaping how business users within large enterprises can model and plan their businesses. Anaplan is focused on keeping its solutions intuitive so that business users can get started easily, make changes to models immediately, and maximise agility of their planning and decision-making. Anaplan’s patented in-memory processing capabilities also support extremely large and complex enterprise models, capable of connecting people and data across enterprise functions.

About Anaplan
Anaplan provides cloud-based modeling and planning solutions for sales, operations and finance. The platform enables people to intuitively model their business, derive insights, collaborate for better decisions, align operations, and execute processes in a single platform. Whether objectives are to reduce expenses, improve margins, accelerate growth, or other, results are immediate and impactful.

In 2012, Anaplan introduced a complete suite of sales applications, including quota management, territory management, commissions management, and real-time quote and price optimisation, to create a holistic sales performance management solution.

Anaplan is funded by Granite Ventures and Shasta Ventures

The post Anaplan Snaps Up Vue Analytics appeared first on peHUB.

The Philippine unit of Macau casino company Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. said on Tuesday it plans to sell up to 1 billion shares as it prepares to develop a $1 billion casino-resort project with local partner Belle Corp., Reuters wrote. Shareholders of Manchester International Holdings Unlimited Corp., which will be renamed Melco Crown (Philippines) Resorts Corp, approved the equity offering on Tuesday, but terms and conditions and the timing of the offer have yet to be set, the company said in a filing to the stock exchange.

(Reuters) – The Philippine unit of Macau casino company Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (6883.HK) said on Tuesday it plans to sell up to 1 billion shares as it prepares to develop a $1 billion casino-resort project with local partner Belle Corp. (BEL.PS)

Shareholders of Manchester International Holdings Unlimited Corp (MIH.PS), which will be renamed Melco Crown (Philippines) Resorts Corp, approved the equity offering on Tuesday, but terms and conditions and the timing of the offer have yet to be set, the company said in a filing to the stock exchange.

At Manchester’s current market price, the sale of 1 billion shares may raise as much as 15 billion pesos ($370 million).

Manchester’s A shares open to local investors climbed as much as 10 percent after the disclosure on the equity sale. Its class B shares, traded by both local and foreign investors, were up as much as 7 percent.

The broader share index .PSI rose nearly 0.6 percent to hit another record high. The index has broken through 18 new peaks this year.

Melco, run by Australian billionaire James Packer and the son of Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, bought a 93 percent stake in Manchester, a formerly illiquid stock with investments in pharmaceutical and real estate businesses. Melco paid Manchester shareholders 1.3 billion pesos for the backdoor listing.

Melco and Belle, controlled by the Philippines’ richest man, Henry Sy, formalized their partnership in October.

Belle plans to build an integrated entertainment resort complex called Belle Grande Manila Bay, which features a 30,000-square-metre casino in a sprawling gaming complex being developed near Manila Bay. Melco will operate the casino.

Three other groups hold casino licenses to operate in the area. Bloomberry Resorts Corp (BLOOM.PS) is set to open its $1.2 billion Solair Manila Resorts and Casino complex on March 16, while Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp (6425.OS), and the joint venture between Genting Hong Kong Ltd (0678.HK) and Alliance Global Group (AGI.PS) are currently constructing their casino projects.

(Reporting by Erik dela Cruz; Editing by Rosemarie Francisco and Matt Driskill)

The post Reuters – Melco Crown Plans Share Sale appeared first on peHUB.

Stormpath, maker of a secure user management and authentication service for developers, has closed on $8.2 million in Series A financing. New Enterprise Associates and Pelion Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Flybridge Capital Partners.

PRESS RELEASE
Stormpath, the first easy, secure user management and authentication service for developers, today announced it closed $8.2 million in Series A financing. New Enterprise Associates and Pelion Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Flybridge Capital Partners. Today, Stormpath formally exited its beta period with more than 1,000 users onboard and launched general availability of its service.

CLICK TO TWEET: $8.2M Series A for @goStormpath – Easy, Secure User Management and Authentication for Developers #cloudsecurity #security

Founded in 2011, Stormpath set out to overcome a key security hurdle for cloud-based companies: authentication and management of a large user base. CEO Alex Salazar and CTO Les Hazlewood built a fast, straightforward way for developers to safely store user data and manage access control to the application. With a simple API integration, developers can reduce development and operations costs, while protecting their users with best-in-class security. Offloading common work like authentication, account management, and password reset workflows allows development teams to focus on core business features.

“Stormpath has built an impressive team and is at the heart of cloud infrastructure and developer-driven IT,” said Peter Sonsini, general partner at NEA. “We’re excited by the wave of developer services, and because user management is necessary for every application, every developer can use the service.”

Stormpath is targeting a large and fast-growing market at the intersection of identity and cloud development. According to Forrester Research, the IDM (Identity Management) market will grow to $12 billion in 2014, with cloud adoption growing at 24 percent annually according to 451 Research. Almost half of applications built in the cloud are externally facing, and require robust user management and security infrastructure. Stormpath fills that gap with a secure service that is simple for development teams to deploy and maintain.

“We’re entering the age of plug-and-play architecture, where developers can easily and securely offload commodity infrastructure – like user management, billing, and logging – to API services,” said Alex Salazar, CEO of Stormpath. “Developers don’t want to waste time rebuilding user login for every new app – it’s critical to the business, but not core to their product, and getting it wrong is expensive. Sony got caught on a totally preventable mistake, and it cost them $171 million.”

“Just as developers can use APIs to automate their payment processing with PayPal or messaging with SendGrid and Twilio, they can securely manage and authenticate users with Stormpath,” said Les Hazlewood, Stormpath CTO and PMC Chair of Apache Shiro. “The Stormpath API was painstakingly built from the ground up to cater to developers and simplify their lives. The more they can offload to APIs like Stormpath, the faster they can build their applications.”

“We chose to go with Stormpath because we wanted to avoid account security issues and get PublicAlerter to market quickly,” said Brian Retterer, CEO of PublicAlerter, a service that aggregates data from APIs such as NOAA, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and local law enforcement. “It was much faster than building a user management backend ourselves.”

The Series A round was preceded by a seed round from NEA and Flybridge, and an angel round led by Andy Rachleff, co-founder of Benchmark Capital and CEO at WealthFront.

Stormpath’s user management service is free for developers, with premium features offered in a subscription-based pricing model.

About Stormpath

Stormpath is the first easy, secure user management and authentication service for developers. Fast and intuitive to use, Stormpath enables plug-and-play security and accelerates application development on any platform.

Built for developers, it offers an easy API, open source SDKs, and an active community. The flexible cloud service can manage millions of users with a scalable pricing model that is ideal for projects of any size. By using Stormpath user management and authentication, developers can bring new applications to market faster, reduce development and operations costs, and protect their users with best-in-class security.

About New Enterprise Associates

NEA is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With about $11 billion in committed capital, the firm invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. NEA’s long track record of successful investing includes more than 175 portfolio company IPOs and more than 290 acquisitions. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

About Flybridge Capital Partners

Flybridge Capital Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm whose mission is to assist entrepreneurs in growing innovative, global companies. With $560 million under management, the firm is focused on seed and early-stage investing in technology markets and is led by a team with domain expertise and more than half a century of combined experience in venture capital. The firm has invested in over 60 companies including 10gen (the MongoDB Company), Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M), Cartera Commerce, Crashlytics (acquired by Twitter) DataXu, Digital Lumens, Open English, Reveal Imaging (acquired by SAIC) and ZING (acquired by Dell). For more information, visit www.flybridge.com or follow us on Twitter @flybridgecap.

About Pelion Venture Partners

Pelion Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs turn early-stage concepts into tomorrow’s industry-leading companies. During the last 25 years, Pelion has backed over 95 companies, resulting in 14 IPOs and 34 acquisitions. In addition to Stormpath, the firm has invested in companies such as Carefx, Cloudflare, Conviva, Fusion-io, Mojiva, MXLogic, Riverbed Technologies, Red Hat, Soasta, and Venafi.

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PolyActiva has raised AUD $9.2 million ($9.5 million) in Series B financing. Investors including the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund, Brandon Biosciences Fund 1, Yuuwa Capital and angel investors. The Australian company will use the infusion to continue preclinical and clinical development programs, which are aimed at treating eye infections.

PRESS RELEASE
PolyActiva announced today that it has raised AUD $9.2 Million in a Series B financing round from a consortium of investors including the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) and Brandon Biosciences Fund 1 (BBF1) (both managed by Brandon Capital), Yuuwa Capital and additional participation from angel investors.

PolyActiva said the funds will be used to further the preclinical and clinical development programs of its products under development, including an intra-ocular implant to treat glaucoma, an intra-ocular implant to treat severe infections of the eye and an intra-articular product to treat osteoarthritis.

Dr Russell Tait, CEO of PolyActiva, commented:

“The funding significantly transforms our business by providing sufficient funds to take each of our planned development programmes to clinical proof of concept. The investment reflects the confidence our investors have in our capacity to deliver. Once we have demonstrated significant clinical outcomes, we will seek commercial partners for these products. We are also open to any companies looking to adopt our technology for the delivery of their own drugs.”

Dr Chris Nave, managing director of Brandon Capital, and Chairman of the Company said:

“It is a significant achievement in the current financial environment for an early stage company to have attracted this level of funding from new investors and it reflects the confidence the investors have in the quality of PolyActiva’s technology and the commercial potential of its products.”

PolyActiva’s proprietary drug-polymer conjugate technology enables sustained release, site-specific drug delivery from products with different physical forms, including rods, films, fibers and gels, substantially broadening its potential applications. The drug-polymer conjugates are able to carry high drug loads, which allow therapeutic quantities of drug to be delivered over extended periods of time from a very small implant. At the end of therapy, the polymer is designed to erode completely leaving no residue, which facilitates its chronic use and repeat administration and obviates the need for removal of the implant at the end of therapy. PolyActiva has proven the technology in validated animal models for delivery of drugs to the posterior region of the eye.

Polyactiva’s development portfolio includes both low risk products that deliver established drugs to a proven site of action, which abbreviates the product registration process, and also high value products that deliver novel drugs to treat clinically unmet needs.

This funding follows PolyActiva’s Series A round, which was completed in 2011.

– ends –

About PolyActiva Pty Ltd

PolyActiva is a pioneering biotechnology company developing drug-polymer conjugates that allow for site specific drug delivery from medical device components such as ocular implants, intra-articular gel implants, and drug-eluting fibers. The Company has developed a novel and scalable manufacturing process that can easily be adapted to existing device component production processes, providing greater flexibility over the composition of the final material. Using this process, PolyActiva has built drug-polymer conjugates from a number of drug candidates with different chemical structures and linkage points and has also developed a number of functional co-monomers and polymer segments. The Company has completed proof of concept studies on these and is working towards developing first products. PolyActiva is interested in hearing from medical technology companies interested in incorporating PolyActiva’s drug eluting components in their devices. PolyActiva was founded in 2011 as a joint venture between CSIRO and the Bionic Ear Institute and is located in Melbourne, Australia. For more information, please visit: www.polyactiva.com

Notes for editors:

About Brandon Capital Partners

Brandon Capital Partners was established in 2007 and makes seed and venture capital investments into emerging businesses in the life science industry. Brandon Capital Partners is passionate about turning good science into improved medical outcomes. The Brandon team works with entrepreneurs to build businesses, creating value for the entrepreneurs, their teams and Brandon’s investors. The $50 million Brandon Biosciences Fund 1 (BBF1) is supported by the Australian Government’s IIF program, a venture capital initiative that supports innovation funds and fund managers with expertise in early-stage venture capital investing to commercialise the outcomes of Australia’s strong research capability.

www.brandoncapital.com.au

About Yuuwa Capital LP

Yuuwa Capital is a $40M early-stage venture capital firm based in Perth, Western Australia. Yuuwa invests in outstanding opportunities where Yuuwa can provide both capital and expertise to help founders, management and early investors build great companies. Yuuwa invests in early stage companies principally in the areas of Life Sciences and Information and Communications Technology. Yuuwa Capital’s formation in 2009 was supported by private investors who work with Candor Financial Management and also by the Australian Federal Government’s Innovation Investment Fund program.

www.yuuwa.com.au

About The Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF)

The $51 million Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) Collaboration is an innovative investment collaboration established in 2007 and managed by Brandon Capital Partners (www.brandoncapital.com.au). The MRCF invests in early stage development and commercialisation opportunities emanating from its membership of 32 Australian medical research institutes and allied research hospitals. The MRCF IIF, LP fund is supported by AustralianSuper, StatewideSuper and the Australian Government under its IIF program. The MRCF also acknowledges the support of the State Governments of Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland.

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The Carlyle Group has raised $308 million for its new fund, Carlyle Peru Fund, L.P. The Fund will be invested by Carlyle in consultation with Credicorp, Peru’s largest bank. It will invest across industries including healthcare, retail and consumer, services to mining, construction and infrastructure businesses, and education. Carlyle opened its Lima office last year.

PRESS RELEASE
Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today announced it has raised $308 million for Carlyle Peru Fund, L.P. and its parallel vehicles, extending the South America investment presence the firm established five years ago.

The Fund will be invested by Carlyle in consultation with Credicorp, Peru’s largest bank, across industries including healthcare, retail and consumer, services to mining, construction and infrastructure businesses, and education. Carlyle opened its Lima office last year and now has four full-time investment advisory professionals based there.

Juan Carlos Felix, Carlyle Managing Director and Co-head of the South America Buyout team, said, “We see many long-term investment opportunities for our new Peru Fund in this vibrant market. South America is undergoing a transformational change toward more developed economies, with a new middle class being created, and we believe Peru is at the leading edge of that trend. We have the right team in place on the ground in Lima to partner with entrepreneurs and family business owners to create lasting value.”

Marco Peschiera, Principal and Head of Carlyle’s Peru team, said, “We believe the Peruvian private equity market remains underdeveloped, with a large percentage of medium-size family controlled businesses providing ample room for growth. Our team is well positioned to assess risks and rewards in Peru and we have a great local partner in Credicorp with its unmatched Peruvian platform. We will also benefit from Carlyle’s strong global presence and network in helping our local partners and founders take their companies to the next level of regional and global success.”

The $308 million Peru fund joins the nearly $1 billion raised by Carlyle for two investment funds dedicated to buyouts in South America and Brazil, which have invested in six companies under the direction of a team based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

* * * * *

About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $157 billion of assets under management across 101 funds and 64 fund of fund vehicles as of September 30, 2012. Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of our investors, many of whom are public pensions. Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Market Strategies and Fund of Funds Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs 1,300 people in 32 offices across six continents.

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Vodafone‘s interest in Germany’s biggest cable company Kabel Deutschland could foreshadow more fixed network acquisitions, notably in Spain, as it tries to keep up with tightening competition in Europe, Reuters reported. The reason: Vodafone is facing a squeeze between low-cost mobile challengers and telecom and cable rivals increasingly pushing discounted, all-included mobile and fixed bundles to keep customers. It paid $2.2 billion last year for Cable and Wireless Worldwide in Britain and Telstra in New Zealand and also looked at buying Kabel Deutschland before it went public in 2010.

(Reuters) – Vodafone’s interest in Germany’s biggest cable company Kabel Deutschland could foreshadow more fixed network acquisitions, notably in Spain, as it tries to keep up with tightening competition in Europe.

The reason: Vodafone is facing a squeeze between low-cost mobile challengers and telecom and cable rivals increasingly pushing discounted, all-included mobile and fixed bundles to keep customers.

The trends are playing out at different speeds in Vodafone’s operations in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, and over time are expected to push down profits in its core mobile business and force it to offer bundles of its own by renting capacity on rivals’ broadband networks.

Buying its own fixed assets such as local cable operators or alternative telecom providers would help it keep up with competitors’ offers and cut fees paid for fixed access.

To date, Vodafone, which unlike its main rivals has largely mobile operations in continental Europe, has pursued a modest, country-by-country approach to buying fixed assets and otherwise rented access to reach consumers’ homes and businesses.

It paid $2.2 billion last year for Cable and Wireless Worldwide in Britain and Telstra in New Zealand and also looked at buying Kabel Deutschland before it went public in 2010.

But Vodafone may be forced into bolder action if results start to suffer from what Goldman Sachs analysts have called a “structural squeeze on mobile-only operators”.

Liberty Global’s surprise move into Britain with a $15.75 billion bid for Virgin Media on Feb. 6 also shows the perils of waiting; with limited assets up for grabs and deal financing easier to get since the beginning of the year, others might beat Vodafone to the punch.

With a stronger balance sheet than rivals and stable credit ratings, it can afford acquisitions, though shareholders are wary of a return to its free-spending past.

Analysts have also speculated that Vodafone could sell part of its 45 percent stake in U.S. market leader Verizon Wireless, worth roughly £57 billion after taxes, to fund cable deals in Europe that Goldman Sachs says could deliver synergies with a net present value of £10-16 billion.

Vodafone declined to comment on its interest in Kabel Deutschland. Sources familiar with the matter say Vodafone is talking to banks to hire advisers but has made no firm decision on a bid. It has worked with Goldman Sachs and UBS in the past.

The deal would add Kabel Deutschland’s 8 million households to Vodafone’s 12 percent broadband market share in Germany and reduce the fees it pays to rent access on Deutsche Telekom lines – perhaps 200 million euros a year, according to one analyst. With a price tag analysts put at 10 billion euros, it would be Vodafone’s biggest buy since entering India in 2007.

Vodafone’s Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said on Feb. 7 that the group would consider acquisitions to keep up with bundled offers from competitors, while lobbying for regulators to create fairer terms to rent access on fixed networks.

“We will have dual strategies in most places. Clearly M&A, as in the case of Telstra or Cable & Wireless, is on the cards,” said Colao, referring to 2012 acquisitions. “We keep all possible alternatives open.”

A sector banker who has worked with the company in the past said the market-by-market approach made sense: “The strategic question is whether as a mobile operator you need to have fixed broadband strategy and access to the customer, and the answer really depends on the competitive and regulatory dynamics in each market.”

Robin Bienenstock of Bernstein Research thinks Vodafone should be more aggressive on acquisitions in Spain and Germany in particular because it was becoming harder there to position itself against competitors.

In Spain, Telefonica is pushing all-included fixed and mobile offers dubbed ‘Fusion’ that Vodafone can’t replicate.

While in Germany Deutsche Telekom hasn’t moved to “quad-play” yet (broadband, fixed-line, TV and mobile), a mobile price war is brewing after third-place mobile operator KPN announced heavy discounts last week to gain share.

With Liberty Global and Kabel Deutschland winning more broadband clients with faster and cheaper services, analysts say Deutsche Telekom may soon have to offer all-included bundles to differentiate itself. All of which would put Vodafone in a squeeze in its biggest market in Europe.

Buying Kabel Deutschland would also blunt any move by Germany’s cable operators to move deeper into mobile services as Belgium’s Telenet has done.

“I think Vittorio Colao is damned if he does these deals, and damned if he doesn’t,” said Bienenstock. “If he does, he’ll get slammed for buying at high prices; if he doesn’t, he faces structural risk and living in fear that Liberty or someone else will buy up the targets he wants.”

In Spain, where Vodafone is the second-largest mobile operator behind Telefonica and ahead of France Telecom’s Orange, it could buy cable operator Ono or broadband specialist Jazztel.

It has 7.3 percent broadband market share, fifth spot, and mostly rents access to the copper lines into people’s homes from Telefonica, but it has long complained to regulators that its rival drags its feet on such connections.

Neither Ono or Jazztel are ideal targets, say analysts and bankers. Private-equity backed Ono holds 14 percent market share in broadband but its network, which reaches 80 percent of households, needs big investment to boost speeds.

Jazztel also relies on Telefonica line rentals, so it might not confer much benefit on Vodafone. A Jazztel spokeswoman wasn’t available for comment.

Private equity firms CCMP Capital Advisors, Providence Equity Partners, and Thomas H. Lee Partners, each own 15 percent of Ono. A spokeswoman for Ono declined to comment.

“I think no strategic decision has been made by Vodafone on whether to invest in countries like Spain,” said another banker.

“Buying the likes of Jazztel or Ono are possible options, but they all have their own challenges and in the short term there is no need to force a decision on this.”

Vodafone is less likely to pursue deals in the Netherlands and Italy, bankers said. In Italy, the incumbent Telecom Italia is in talks with a state-owned investment fund to spin off its own fixed network, leaving much in flux, and the main target broadband provider Fastweb is now owned by Swisscom.

A move for Dutch cable operator Ziggo is unlikely given its rich valuation and ongoing brutal competition in a market that accounts for only 4 percent of Vodafone operating profit. (By Leila Abboud and Paul Sandle)

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VJ, an engineer in India working on a development project, is trying to resolve technical issues within a software application. Since the global consulting firm where he works employs thousands of other developers he can only assume there must be others who have faced this challenge, but doesn’t know where to start in reaching them. Meanwhile, Olivia, a technical lead working in Boston, Massachusetts, recently solved a similar technical issue. What divides these two colleagues and prevents them from sharing this and hundreds of similar solutions? Eight thousand miles and a clear communication method.

In today’s one-click-away world, employees often rely on well-intentioned yet complicated communication tools and platforms to reach distant colleagues. In the case of Olivia and VJ, a logical solution would be to create an enterprise portal where employees can collaborate, share ideas, and build relationships regardless of location.

To solve a set of similar problems, our company launched such a collaboration environment, called Socially, in 2010. Socially had all of the bells and whistles that portal vendors assured us would get our thousands of globally dispersed colleagues immediately connecting. In the first month of roll-out to our 7,000 person division, only 20 employees signed up. Over the next five months, after much cajoling and advertising, we recruited only an additional 400 employees. Not quite the results we were hoping for, so we attempted a new approach — we made the portal a game.

In the spirit of true online game design, we incorporated challenges, rules, points, badges, leaderboards, social media and, most importantly, incentives. By offering the employee (the “player”) a sense of purpose and aspiration to an otherwise mundane and boring task, now Socially delivered an alternative setting within the workplace for people to meet, collaborate, mentor and learn new skills. Within six months of adding game dynamics to our collaboration platform, our active players jumped from 400 to 4,000. The first set of prizes were iPods, and over the last 18 months we have been rewarding players with exclusive meetings with company executives and public recognition as thought leaders. Now, a majority of the corporation is using this portal as their primary means for knowledge sharing and building relationships across our ever-expanding global company.

For decades companies like ours have tried and failed to solve collaboration problems using technology or policy changes to mandate behavior. But true collaboration can only happen if a person wants to change her behavior. Making some aspect of the job a game can be more effective in getting employees to collaborate, because it is a change effort designed around human nature — rather than enforcing a corporate appeal. The gamification approach is especially beneficial for global organizations that have a large, diverse customer base and employees dispersed all over the world. It can, and has for us, brought widely differing departments and functions together that otherwise would not have any reason to communicate. As an added bonus, it has become an incubator for thousands of talented minds to create, innovate, and engage in new initiatives that include future product and service development.

VJ and Olivia are a perfect example of this. Both became active users of Socially. VJ developed excellent relationships with his Boston colleagues and is now leading a high profile corporate project. Olivia’s thought leadership was noticed on Socially and she is now a team leader within our gamification practice. Before the game, VJ, Olivia, and another 7,000 app developers did not know each other — they had joined our company from half a dozen companies that had recently merged and were located across 35 countries. Now, the social network has 258 groups, close to 200,000 pieces of content, and more than 4,370 users collaborating across the world.

Standard Chartered‘s private equity arm is looking for more deals in Zimbabwe, writes Reuters. The British bank, whose private equity business has assets under management of about $4.5 billion, made an investment in Zimbabwean agri-business Ariston Holdings through one of its portfolio companies, Afrifresh Group, last year.

Reuters – Standard Chartered’s private equity arm is looking for more deals in Zimbabwe, a senior executive told Reuters on Monday, betting on a rise in consumer spending after years of hyperinflation.

The British bank, whose private equity business has assets under management of about $4.5 billion, made an investment in Zimbabwean agri-business Ariston Holdings through one of its portfolio companies, Afrifresh Group, last year.

The transaction was worth around $20 million. Ariston was previously listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

Despite concerns about political risk ahead of general elections later this year, the bank sees potential for high returns in a country that is “starved for growth capital” after being weakened by hyperinflation, said Peter Baird, Standard Chartered’s head of private equity for Africa.

“Standard Chartered Bank loves Zimbabwe and our appetite for equity risk in Zimbabwe is high,” he said, listing real estate, consumer goods and retail as the most attractive sectors.

Zimbabwe’s long-serving president Robert Mugabe, who formed a power-sharing government with rival Morgan Tsvangirai after a disputed 2008 vote, has set March 16 as the date for a referendum on a proposed new constitution.

A general election is expected later in the year.

Baird acknowledged there could be risks attached to the election, but said so far Standard Chartered’s dealings with the government, for example over Ariston, had been relatively smooth.

“They were very reasonable about the indigenisation plan (to increase local ownership of businesses) that we filed … they were very reasonable about the perception of commercial agriculture being in foreign hands,” he said.

The private equity team also wants to be an early mover in a country that boasts a well-educated, English-speaking population, as well as a functioning banking system and capital markets, Baird added.

“Given the right policy framework and the right set of circumstances Zimbabwe will do just great,” he said.

Standard Chartered Private Equity has invested around $550 million in Africa since 2008, with about half last year alone.

It was also a co-investor with Carlyle Group LP and South African private equity fund Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund in pan-African agribusiness Export Trading Group, a deal announced in November.

Baird was less bullish about the private equity team’s investment prospects for Africa as a whole in 2013 given the difficulty of finding companies of the right size and the reluctance of some family-owned businesses to sell equity.

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