Archives

Canadian imports turn costlier as oil price drops

The falling oil price below $30 per barrel is impacting Canadian economy, which mostly depends upon commodities. Along with oil price, Canadian currency Loonie too declined against the US dollar. The weaker Loonie has eroded the purchasing power of Canada and is making imports costlier. Canada imports vegetables from the US. The surging US dollar made vegetables prices expensive by three folds for Canadian consumers.


Royal Dutch Shell to slash 10,000 jobs to trim costs

Royal Dutch Shell is slashing the headcount as part of the cost cutting exercise. Anglo-Dutch company has decided to cut down 10,000 jobs in the wake of continuous drop in oil prices. The global energy major aims at reduction of costs by $3 billion in 2016 and it already reduced operating costs by $4 billion in 2015. Shell is also banking on synergy advantages from the BG Group Plc merger, which is expected to be completed in few weeks.

JP Morgan’s CEO’s pay package reach $27 million, a 35% increase, but with less cash bonus and more performance-based stock grants

JP Morgan’s CEO James Dimon received $27 million in total compensation, of which the majority was in performance-based restricted stock and the rest as cash bonus and salary. This structure has been mainly designed to appease the shareholders who had frowned upon the fact that the CEO’s pay does not depend on his performance.

Prevalent Networks Raised $8 Million in Series B Funding

Leading risk management software developer, Prevalent Inc. received its first Series B funding last week. Led by Spring Mountain Capital Invest, joined by its existing investor, Fulcrum Equity Partners.


Latest News

The subprime online lender company Elevate Credit delays its IPO scheduled on Thursday. Teetering market has been the main reason of the postponement and high risk of online subprime lending service.
Austin-based tech company, Waldo Photos closes its $5 million seed funding on Thursday. The seed funding round was led by California's venture capital firm Upfront Ventures.
Biotech companies in last 5 years were enjoying easy access to capital. That scenario started to change after stocks started to slide in July 2015 and have not stopped with Nasdaq Biotechnology Index reading 2933 Wednesday which is the lowest level since November 2014. This means biotech startups would be expected to brace for harsher investment climate although experts are assuring that market fundaments are still strong.
The latest food scandal emanating from China revolves on the usage of poppy powder is a banned item by the Food and Drug Administration of China. Five restaurants have been prosecuted and another 30 more are under probe for using ingredients like morphine and heroine in restaurant food. This latest scandal is one in the many high-profile food scandals that has been hitting China in the recent years.
This year's winter in Delhi, India has been particularly cold with temperatures hitting 14 degrees Celcius affecting thousands of homeless who live on pavements under the open skies. NGOs have come to their rescue providing temporary shelters made of materials like bamboo, reinforcing rods, canvas, and net to keep away disease borne mosquitoes. At least 7 bodies have been found in several areas in Delhi of homeless people having died of winter cold. The government has also provided services to rescue homeless in distress.
Sprint - the 4th biggest Telco in US - has been taking steps to cut its costs since it first revealed its costs cutting plan in November 2015 to as much as $2.5bil. The latest move saw Sprint's product head leaving after 25 years of service. The reason for his leaving whether it was related to costs cutting measure or something else is still unclear. Sprint praised Owen for his contribution that helped Sprint succeed and evolve into the wireless company it is today. Sprint extended gratitude for all that he has done and wished him best of luck and continued success in future endeavors. CEO Marcelo Claure has indicated more layoffs are in the offing in the coming months. CFO Tarek Robbiate made statement to effect that no one was safe where costs was concerned.
Two of Fiat 500L used by Pope Francis during his visit in U.S. will be auctioned next week in Philadelphia Auto Show. Pope used the car during his historic visit to U.S. last September.
GM with its main Chinese partner have opened a Cadillac plant in Shanghai on Thursday, 21 Jan 2016 to take advantage of the potential growth in the overcrowded luxury market of China. Cadillac plant has capacity to produce 160,000 vehicles annually. Cadillac believe the luxury car market offer a lot margin opportunity notwithstanding pressure in pricing. Shares of GM have been reported trading on NYSE higher by more than 1 percent on Thursday.
Windows and Dropbox, bonded with a partnership, have announced updating of Dropbox through integrating with Windows 10. The Windows 10 compatible app offers some new extraordinary features. But mobile compatibility of the app is widely desired since it will allow to open synced files from the account storage cloud at any moment.
Schlumberger Ltd, on Thursday, reported a net loss of $1 billion for the fourth quarter and also said that it has axed 10,000 additional employees, as an effort to adjust its resource and cost base.