Raising a baby is expensive. First-time parents could easily get lost navigating across tedious budgeting task for their baby. Huffington Post reported that the US Department of Agriculture found out that the middle-income family spends an average of $13,000 during the first year of a baby.
North America
Ace Limited Offers Cyber Security Protection Worth up to $100 million
Swiss multinational insurance company, ACE Limited announced that the company will start offering cyber protection insurance up to $100 million. With the rising numbers of cyber security attacks particularly in the United States, the company is planning to lead the way for cyber insurance. According to PricewaterhouseCooper, the cyber insurance sector will increase to $7.5 billion by 2020.
Sprint is offering iPhone 6S at $1 per Month
Sprint's CEO, Marcelo Claure keeps the iPhone price war between its company and T-Mobile continue with its latest $1 per month plan. The new deal offered is another attempt by Claure to help Sprint recover from its 7 years losing streak. Sprint offer $1 per month for the new 16 GB iPhone 6S and $5 per month for 16 GB iPhone 6S Plus.
Goldman Sachs leaves rivals far behind in M&A race
Goldman Sachs is racing ahead of its rivals in the global investment banking segment by revenues and fees in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) activity. Goldman Sachs' performance in 2015 so far exceeded while its competitors are not even close to it. With a market share of 12.3 percent, Goldman Sachs recorded $2billion revenues till date, while JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are left with less than nine percent market share in the M&A space. The mergers and acquisitions activity this year so far was a robust period for Goldman Sachs.
US Fed Chair Janet Yellen hints at rate hike in 2015
Giving much wider scope of speculation on possible interest rate hike in next October meeting, the US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has indicated that there would be interest rate hike this year. Yellen further opined that it's necessary to increase short-term rates in a gradual manner as the improvement in labor market further continues and inflation rate reaches to the government target of two percent. The US Central Bank has been sending feelers about the possible rate hike this year for some time. The job market growth is the major factor that puts the US Fed in a comfortable position to take a decision on interest rate hike.
Latest News
Donation-based and rewards-based crowdfunding are the most popular ways for entrepreneurs to bring their startups and projects to life. Entrepreneur reports that 2015 is considered as "the year of crowdfunding" with all the significant growth and rapid changes in the market. In 2012, a total of $16.2 billion was raised by companies and individuals all over the world.
With gross margins decreasing, Motorola Solutions Inc, a US provider of data communications and telecommunications equipment, has taken up cost-cutting measures to boost its profit growth. The cost optimizing and restructuring exercise have been helping the company significantly in cost control. The sluggish sales, cut-throat market competition and adverse sales tax are putting more pressure on Motorola. The gross margins fell from 51 percent in 2012 to 48 percent in 2014. In a similar way, operating margins also down from 14.8 percent to 16.4 percent during the period.
Leonardo DiCaprio along with 2,000 other individuals and 400 institutions plans to pull out their investments from fossil fuels in a move to fight global warming, activist group Wallace Global Fund announced Tuesday.
What once was a vision of the future of health care in science fiction is now becoming a reality as Google's Alphabet sets its eyes on solving health care issues. Doctors' function in treating and maintaining peoples' health will be done efficiently and cheaply by machines run by technological algorithms in the near future. These advances require a disruption in the status quo, which will definitely not come from the government or other current healthcare providers, but from entrepreneurs, like Google's Alphabet.
Starbucks Corp announced on September 22 that its successful Mobile Order & Pay service is now offered in all its almost 7,500 US shops. According to Reuters, this goal is achieved three months earlier than expected. Some additional 3,400 cafes will get the new online service. These cafes are located in notable cities such as San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Boston.
Zscaler, a California-based cloud security firm, has mobilized $25million from Google Capital, an equity investment arm of Google. Adding to the oversubscribed round, the total amount raised by Zscaler reaches $110mn. The cyber security firm raised $85million in August. Zscaler was waiting for a strategic partner to close the round. Google Capital is engaged in late-stage financing activity.
Facebook's new Messenger app has made it easier for businesses to have an organic connection with their customers, which could yet be another way for the giant social media platform to earn money.
"Good guys finish last" is a common saying, but is not necessarily true when it comes to handling business, or so as others would like to believe. To some, a firm hand and a cold resolve would make for a fine CEO, whether that CEO is a man or a woman. However, kindness is beneficial to the businesses' customers and employees.
German automaker Volkswagen Group is under scrutiny after it was found by the U.S Clean Air Group that some of its cars did not pass the standard emission test. The test conducted by Peter Mock and John German revealed another scandal - the use of "defeat device" software in its cars.
