BlackBerry Acquires Encription For An Undisclosed Amount

BlackBerry is shifting the attention in an area which has huge business growth potential.

BlackBerry has lost its strong position of smartphone powerhouse which it had held for so many years. However, the company has been working efficiently to attract the customers in this highly secure environment. Therefore, BlackBerry has recently unveiled its acquisition of a cyber security consultancy; Encription Ltd. whose services are being delivered worldwide but it operates in the UK “from a secure location in Worchestershire.”

Through the acquisition, the Canadian firm will get the help it needed to commence its consulting business, dubbed as “Professional Cybersecurity Services”. Through the proposed service, it intends to have a platform from where it can work on more general IT. The firm did not disclose the terms of the deal. It informed that the deal was closed on February 19.

There are two pivotal reasons for the organization regarding the startup of Cybersecurity Services. The chief reason is the strong customer lineup of the highly secured organizations belonging to oil industry, financial services, and healthcare. Although the Waterloo Canada firm has not been able to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Knox, it still has the hold of the segment, including high regulatory compliant organizations and the government. 

BlackBerry is probably the only mobile phone vendor that has 70 government approvals and certifications. The firm holds the contract with 16 of the G20 governments, all G7 governments, and 10 of the largest law firms and global banks. In addition to the strong portfolio of contracts, it also has contract with top five biggest managed healthcare, oil and gas companies, and investment services.

As of now, contracts only linked to BlackBerry’s own handsets but by working on its services, company can offer such facilities, which expand to other devices as well. This means that the organizations may go for BlackBerry services irrespective of the fact that which handset do they adopt. Moreover, Encription also has a large number of organizations running in secured markets as customers.

A statement given by CEO and Executive Chairman of BlackBerry had the following words: “BlackBerry is the gold standard when it comes to security and we’re always evolving to maintain this high standard as the complexity of enterprise mobility and security increases.”

Another reason for the company to start its proposed services is that the Canadian firm wants to shift the focus on the consultancy, which is a huge business area. It needs to explore such areas to start the businesses.

A fair breach of security can land the individuals, businesses, and organization to bear the cost of more than $400 billion annually. Concerned people look for the opportunities that can help them to circumvent these threats.

Up till now, the mobile phone maker has undergone almost 29 acquisitions. Several acquisitions relate to security space, including Secusmart for voice encryption, Good Technology, and a $150 million worth acquisition of Watchdox in 2015. This acquisition of the UK based firm ‘Encription’ is the first one that will have large focus on service team that offers larger solutions.

Amazon Likely To Dominate Clothing Industry

Amazon has finally entered the clothing line through its own private labels launching its brands.

Amazon Inc. is looking to enter the clothing line domain in the coming times. The firm already dominates the e-commerce sector and is the biggest online retailer of the world. Now it wants to make an impact in the clothing industry as well which will not only create a new revenue stream but will also contribute in improving its clothing category on its online marketplace. Amazon has launched its own clothing brands; this way, customers get more options and the company generates more profits.

Ever since its inception, Amazon is competing with the conventional brick and mortar model. It also has completely changed the books landscape and contemporary programming. The paradigm is expected to change now since the e-commerce giant has finally paved its way to fashion. The online retailer is geared up to explore new horizons in the fashion fraternity.

According to sources, the company has launched nearly 1,800 products, ranging from children’s clothing to women’s clothing, and men’s bags and clothing. The products belong to seven private labels that are working under the watch of Amazon. It owns and runs seven labels.

Amazon officials claim that they will be filling in the ‘gaps’ which are currently left by other fashion brands in the industry. So far, the online retail company has not confirmed the launch of its own clothing brands but Amazon Fashion’s Vice President of clothing, Jeff Yurcisin, suggested this move at the WWD CEO summit last year. He stated, “When we see gaps — when certain brands have actually decided for their own reasons not to sell with us — our customer still wants a product like that.”

The firm believes that it has what it gets to become the top clothing seller in the United States. Amazon would be working with its fashion arm in the similar way it is running Amazon Basics – a program where company sells home brand electronics to consumers through privately owned labels.

At this moment, the US’s accessories and clothing industry is a $250 billion industry, which surely is one of the places where the company wants to do business. Experts expect that the online retailer will overtake Macy’s to become the top clothing seller in the domestic market. Cowen & Company also agreed with this expectation. As it will be working through seven privately owned labels, it will enjoy higher profits and higher margins. The big name brands in the sector such as Calvin Klein and Levi’s also enjoy such success with similar private labels.

Amazon’s focus is to ramp up the hiring process of its private label team in the coming weeks. 

Tesla Motors Miffed At Proposed Bill From GM

Tesla wants its customers to support the company to continue "direct vehicle sales".

The Palo Alto Calif. firm has recently disbursed a letter to Indiana’s “Tesla Owners and Enthusiasts” and urged them to oppose a probable fragment of legislation, which is likely to put the bar on “direct vehicle sales” for the company.

The luxury electric carmaker has purported that the implementation of the new bill will rescind its permission of selling vehicles directly to customers in Indianapolis storefront. This is not the first time that the Californian firm is facing a bit of hindrance in its business model, as it has already witnessed resistance in states like Arizona, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia.

In compliance with the bill, December 31, 2017, manufacturers will not be able to possess a “dealer license.” Tesla, in the said letter, has compelled its customers to contact with the senators and representatives for the hearing on Thursday, February 25, 2016, on Commerce and Technology Committee and record their discontentment at the new bill.

In the letter, Tesla Motors bluntly blamed the Michigan-based General Motors for coaxing the Senate Committee to bar Tesla’s lawful activities. The letter says that the rival has forced the senate to introduce such restriction even though the automobile giant has contributed over $42 million to the state through the purchases from Indiana suppliers of components.

The company also had a plan to develop a 26,000 sq. ft. Tesla Service facility in Indiana, which would employ Indiana residents to serve its customers. However, the $25 billion organization has no hardcore evidence against GM.

Will Nicholas, a Tesla spokesman, expressed that since December 2013, the electric carmaker had been running its Fashion Mall storefront. He added that it hasn’t yet started the Tesla Service Facility but the legislations like these may bring doubts for the company to further invest or not. The future of the proposed projects may dangle in the middle.

The main author of the legislation, Rep. Kevin Mahan, was not able to comment on the matter whereas the following response was received from GM on the matter, “GM supports HB 1254. GM believes that all industry participants should operate under the same rules and requirements on fundamental issues that govern how we sell, service and market our products.”

GM also said that one of the advantages of network, comprising thousands of dealerships, is that the customers of General Motors would not possibly have to take the toll of driving to states to buy their vehicles.

It also stated that Tesla could have reacted to the law by opening a franchised dealership in Indiana, which could have an independent operator but the Silicon Valley business reacted by asking the state to treat it with special exceptions and rules. GM also pressed that the automobile behemoth, in Virginia, was keen on agreeing to a dealership model; therefore, no special exemption should be created in Indiana.

Last month, at the panel hosted by Federal Trade Commission, Tesla had its lawyer to support the company’s current practice of direct vehicle sales. The conflict of interests between the company seeking for license to sell directly to the customers and the dealership supporters is likely to continue for a while.  

Google Will Not Feature Ads On The Right Side Of Search Bar

Google has decided to tweak its ads layout of the search bar.

Alphabet Inc. is one of those companies that are always making changes to its structure and outlook. The company recently reported that it will alter the mechanism of its advertisements and will change the way ads are displayed on the searches done via desktop.

The search engine giant has decided that it will remove the ads from right hand side of the search results and will now put them on the bottom and top layer of the page. The news was initially revealed by The SEM Post however, it got weightage when the tech giant itself confirmed about the move.

It is a common observation that all ads present on Google surface all over the page. This means they are scattered on the bottom, top, right hand side depending upon the nature of the query. By coming up with this change the company will assure that the sidebar remains devoted for the Product Listing Ads.

The initiative taken by the company seems to be strategic since distribution of ads all over the page caused distraction amongst Google users. Following a designated pattern that will remain unanimous throughout will actually help to create uniformity on the platform which symbolizes consistency.

However, the ads present on the right hand side are now being removed for all the relevant queries but a fourth ad (which will be additional) will now be placed on top of the page. It needs to be noted here that the condition only implies on the lucrative searches such as insurance of hotels and cars etc.

The company gave a statement to The Verge according to which, "We’ve been testing this layout for a long time so some people might see it on a very small number of commercial queries.” They further added, "We’ll continue to make tweaks, but this is designed for highly commercial queries where the layout is able to provide more relevant results for people searching and better performance for advertisers."

Another important thing that needs to be noted is that the change made by the company is global and will be implemented on all the languages.

GOOG governs its major revenue stream via advertisements, thus ads play an important in the company’s operation. Making changes to the way it operates creates more room for the company to experiment and come up with the best possible offering for its diversified clientele. By removing the ads from the right side will add another layer of depth in the outlook of the searches which will be attractive.

Another thing that the company has rightfully done is place a fourth ad on the top. Moreover, tey have also mentioned that this particular ad will be lucrative which clearly indicates that the purpose of this advertisement is to intrigue the user. The strategy deployed by Google is quite intriguing and will help them in making the page look cleaner. However, if this doesn’t work out then they can always improvise in the times to come.

Intel Makes Internet of Things Simple For Developers

To ease the development of the IoT services and devices, the chipmaker has brought down the complexity.

The future holds great opportunities for Internet of Things (IoT). To ease the development of such, Intel Corporation has announced its plan of sharing software tools, developer kits and few modules, which could diminish the complexity faced by the developers while creating the devices and services of Internet of Things (IoT). 

The said tools will be beneficial in cutting down the long hours taken to bring the tech products into the markets. Reported in a blog post, Ken Caviasca, the Mountain View, Calif. firm’s VP for Internet of Things (IoT) Group opined that the IoT holds colossal potential to cultivate social change and economic growth. “With 85% of technology still unconnected, and security threats pervasive, it is still very much the Wild West with vast new territory to explore,” Caviasca said. 

The Vice President envisions that if the developing tools are easier to work with then the developers can easily work on improving the devices and services. He added that once the developers have cut down the barriers due to complexity. They can easily shift their focus of attention on imagining, exploring, and innovation of the potential and substantial possibilities that IoT has had to offer to the users.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a crucial segment of business for the $132 billion organization. Ever since Brian Krzanich had taken up the responsibilities and duties as the company’s CEP for over three years ago, the chipmaker has been given immense importance to the IoT business.

Intel Corp. is looking forward to introduce some of its new products, which have been made with the intention of having an aggressive push in IoT’s business segment. The chipmaker has been geared up to display its products during Embedded World, which has been scheduled from Feb. 23-25 in Germany. For Intel, who had strong share in PC market, ought to maintain the aggressive approach for the new segment of business that has crucial role in the growth and success of the Californian based company.

Krzanich, along with other executives, had been quite vocal about the significance of the IoT for the tech company, during last month’s earnings call. Krzanich expressed that divisions like data centers, IoT, and memory technology had accumulated 40% of Intel’s overall revenue. The revenue generated from these sectors circumvented the significant revenue decline the company faced due to slumping market of PC, globally and the macroeconomic pressures.

The CEO told during the earnings call that the abovementioned areas had made a contribution of more than 60% in Intel’s operating margin. Moreover, such areas also contributed $2.2 billion in company’s last year’s profitable revenue growth. In addition, the IoT business division itself had an increase in revenue by 7% to $2.3 billion.

Yahoo Plans To Close Down Its Digital Magazine

Yahoo will be shutting down its digital magazine operations and further lay off 300 jobs in the coming month.

Yahoo Inc. is dealing with immense pressure in the tech fraternity. The company has several issues to be concerned about recently. The US tech giant has been in the limelight since quite some time now where all news regarding it seems to be quite pessimistic. Yahoo has finally decided to go for the cost cutting strategies. In previous weeks, it announced to lay off as many as 1,500 jobs globally as well as shut down several operations and projects that were not too beneficial.

YHOO also said that it would streamline its business and restructure in order to revive the company. On Wednesday, it announced to shut down the digital magazines as a part of its previously announced plan i.e. to simplify business. Yahoo was not generating any revenue at all and in order save itself it had to take actions. Cost cutting and simplified business was two of them that might at least get the firm on the right track. The US internet giant also pulled chords on Yahoo Labs a couple of days ago.

It is official that the digital magazines of Yahoo will be discontinued which covered food, health, parenting, real estate, and travel. The firm confirmed the closing down through its blog post and added that its simplification of business indicates that it will now entirely focus on finance, lifestyle, news, and sports.

The search engine giant also said that it will be bidding farewell to more than 300 employees by April 18. This layoff round is a part of its 1,500 job cuts which was previously announced. According to Yahoo’s note to the state officials, “The layoffs cover 128 employees at Yahoo's headquarters in Sunnyvale, California; 46 employees in San Francisco and 60 in Los Angeles.”

Furthermore, Yahoo already closed down its offices in Buenos Aires, Dubai, and Mexico. Now it has plans to shut down its Burbank office which will also affect nearly 90 jobs, as reported by San Francisco Chronicle.

Yahoo was not immediately available to comment on this issue. For that matter, it has not responded on any previous news as well which included the sale of Alibaba stakes as well as the sale of its core internet business. The investors are pressurizing Yahoo to its core so that it decides it future once and for all. At one point the board is considering the sale of its business. But the CEO Marissa Mayer is happy to keep on going with this vowing that the tables will turn with the new strategic plan. 

Walmart Changes Workers Schedules

The hourly workforce of Walmart are receiving a drastic change in their schedules as the retailer hopes to improve the treatment of worker in the United States.

Walmart has been conducting tests for two years and has finally announced its decision on Wednesday to change the schedule of hourly workers in order to make their experiences and lives better.

From now on, Walmart Stores Inc. will be keeping a fix shift for its workers and making huge changes to their schedule in order to improve their daily lives and experience at work. The retail chain made the decision to increase its worker wages in 2015 with the hope of getting better output from them and get better customer experience. However, this was not the only reason for the retailer to raise wages of its employees; it was being pressurized by different labor right agencies and strikes form workers to give them benefits and increase their wages.

Walmart Stores previously had the policy of open shift which is no longer going to be the case, where the managers made the schedules for the employees in their time slots ensuring who was available and when. Now the workers will get two choices, one where they will be given a fixed shift which will give the guarantee of them receiving the same amount of time each day and week. The second choice will be, flexible shifts, where employees will have the chance of creating their own schedule, planning them almost three weeks before.

The retailer is not taking the scheduling change lightly and has decided to even make an application for the workers which will help them to choose and create their schedules according to what they choose from the comfort of their smartphones. Walmart Wholesale is making these changes so that workers have more control over their work hours and feel free, which the labor activists had been seeking for a very long time.

At this moment, managers handle to work schedule of all the workers, which thankfully for the employees is not going to be the case. The retail chain promised to do this last year in efforts to make the treatment and lives of their employees better. The company has already tested the recent change which it announced in 11 of its stores, and now all of its 4600 stores will have this feature by the end of this year. The business has a workforce of 1.3 billion workers, and it has to take care of them to ensure the work is done as efficiently as possible.

Walmart works for the employees of the retailers and helps them to get their rights and benefits that they deserve. The labor group sees this recent change as a victory, but also believes that workers still should get more pay and work hours for better lives. 

McDonald Introduces Beer In South Korea

The popular combo of burger and beer is likely to hit South Korea.

Ever since McDonald’s Corporation has trod on the path of success, nothing seems to go wrong for it. From introducing All Day Breakfast Menu to improving the quality of the burgers, the world’s largest chain of fast food has made sure to bolster the sales. The new addition in its “turnaround” mission is its plan to introduce beers in its South Korean franchise.

On Sunday, the $109 billion organization stated that, outside of Seoul, it intends to serve hamburgers and “draft beer” in Seongnam situated in Gyeonggi Province. The draft beer has already been running popularly in France and Germany. If the proposed venture turned out to be successful then the most popular hamburger chain will move its business of serving beers in its outlets to the areas of Gangnam and Sinchon which are likely to attract a lot of young consumers to the outlet as for the young people in Seoul the abovementioned areas are quite popular.

Just when “limited breakfast hours” barred the sales of the organization, the multinational restaurant chain introduced the “All Day Breakfast Menu” to retain its consumers. Similarly, when the percentage of Korean teenage shoppers significantly declined the company decided to bring up an addition in the menu which might lure the teenage –in the legal age –consumers. 

This new step of the organization raises a lot of questions including whether the beer is likely to be introduced in the Golden Arches U.S. outlets? Over the passage of last two years, a larger number of changes have been introduced by the company in the franchisees across the America and the innovations have been proved to be beneficial for the company as recently the company has declared substantial increase in its sales.   

In the U.S., the largest fast food restaurant organization doesn’t provide alcohol. Many people have commented that if the organization adds beer in the menu at the U.S. outlets it will attract a lot of customers and the sales will soars. Few McDonald rivals including, Burger King Whopper Bar, Chipotle, Sonic, and Taco Bell serve alcohols in their selective outlets.

The chief deterrent for the Golden Arches regarding the introduction of beer is the drinking age limit of the country. In U.S., the minimum drinking age is 21 and the working staff at the outlets is under the age limit. Moreover, some laws allow the consumption of alcohol at the age of 18 but not all forms of it. Therefore, getting the license for the sale of alcohol will not be convenient.  

The combination of burgers and beers is very popular. But for now, the European and Asian McDonald’s consumers may satisfy their taste buds with the combo!

At the market which closed on Friday, McDonald’s Corporation stock stood at a price of $117.6. The 52 week range of the stock is $87.5 to $124.83.

Samsung Users Can Finally Download And Use Ad Blockers

Samsung now gives the chance to its smartphone customers to download ad blockers and use them without hassle.

Samsung Electronics is following the footsteps of its biggest rival in the market, Apple, which has given a chance to iPhone users for long to avoid unwanted ads through blocking applications. The South Korean tech business has now given the same opportunity to the android smartphone users by providing them with pre-installed ad blockers on browsers, which was done just this weekend.

The Galaxy maker is now giving the choice to customers to block unnecessary ads; but iPhone users already had this facility. It is never too late for Android users, Samsung browser was updated, and users can download the browser on their smartphones and extensions from the Google Play Store. After downloading the necessary extensions, users will no longer see unwanted advertisements and even witness better speeds of loading content.

For many android users, including Samsung mobile phone users, there is a very limited option on the store for ad blockers. Lucky for these individuals, Samsung has made an agreement with Adblock Fast in order to launch the famous open source iOS, Opera and Chrome ad blockers once it is launched. Software creators claim that almost 200,000 customers use Adblock Fast through numerous platforms and devices. This ad blocking facility makes internet browsing for users faster by 51%, which helps to save time and even mobile data.

Apple introduced the ad blocking facility last year in its iOS 9, which was present in the company’s own browser, Safari, but android users did not get this facility until Sunday. Already being installed on many devices, it will already be present on Android latest OS, Lollipop.

This recent ad blocker will enable other developers to create more ad blocking applications and rip off unwanted content from websites, making the internet work better and more efficiently. Samsung users will now have to use the company’s own browser for now to avoid advertisements, instead of using Chrome, Opera, Firefox and other browsers. This is great news for android users, the organization is the first android phone maker to make and launch an ad blocking facility.

Samsung seeks to provide its customers with every option and facilities possible out there in the market. It is known for the creation of best smartphones around the world, such as its Galaxy series and the upcoming Galaxy S7. Lucky for these customers, they will get the pre-installed browser making their browsing experience faster and ad free without any external extensions.