Hey friends, it's been a while, but we're live once again. Tim and Brian are back in the studio and are joined this week for the first time by our very own Barb Dybwad. Join us after the break!
Continue reading The Engadget Podcast is live today at 1PM!
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/29/the-engadget-podcast/
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MIAMI (AP) ? Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown will not face criminal charges for snatching a woman's cellphone when she tried to snap a photo of him outside a Miami Beach club, prosecutors said Friday.
A memo released Friday by Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle concludes there is no evidence that Brown intended to steal the phone in February or that he deleted any photos. One or the other is necessary for him to be charged with robbery or theft.
Prosecutors said that Brown tossed the phone from his limo and that it was picked up by Devon Blanche, head of security for rapper Tyga, who had performed with Brown at the Cameo club that night. According to the memo, Blanche tried to find out if someone had lost the phone, ultimately took it with him to Atlanta during the rapper's tour and said he intended to find its owner.
A felony charge against Brown, 24, might have triggered a violation of his probation for his 2009 assault on singer Rihanna, who was his girlfriend at the time. The two have recently collaborated on a new duet, "Nobody's Business," and have been spotted out together in recent weeks.
Rundle said the investigation's findings would be forwarded to probation officials in Los Angeles for review.
"We are grateful for the decision and the thorough investigation," Brown's attorney Mark Geragos said in an email.
According to the memo, after Brown and Tyga ? real name Michael Stevenson ? finished their performances, both got into separate limos to head for their hotels. Witnesses told prosecutors about 30 female fans gathered outside Brown's vehicle, at least one of whom reached inside to take a photo. Brown was accompanied by at least two women in the limo.
Stevenson told prosecutors that he saw Brown throw a white cellphone out of the limo. The phone's owner, Christal Spann, said Brown used a derogatory term for women and said "this will not run the website" when he grabbed the phone. Spann began beating on the limo's windows, according to the memo, until someone in a front seat told her the phone had been tossed out. She could not find it, however.
"She used to be a fan of Brown's, but no longer," the memo notes of Spann.
Blanche, the security man, told investigators he thought Brown was upset because "if photographs of himself with two females got out, it might cause him problems with Rihanna."
___
Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-charges-against-chris-brown-fla-phone-grab-191545785.html
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We've known an Android 4.1 update has been in the works for the Droid RAZR HD (and its beefcake "MAXX" cousin) -- that leaked out at the beginning of the month. Looks like things are cranking up, though, as the update documentation just went live. It's a hefty update -- about 276 megabytes -- but you'll get the early Jelly Bean features (such as Google Now) along with it.
Plus, Verizon's promising better voice and data connectivity, along with some other bugfixes. Also of note is that it's removed the preloaded Color application (which recently was bought by Apple), along with Verizon video, and it's added in the Amazon suite of apps, same as what we've seen on the Droid DNA.
No word on exactly when we can expect the update, so keep an eye out. Update: Verizon now says the update will start next week.
Source: Verizon 1, 2; more: Droid RAZR HD (and MAXX) forums
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/wBjZohYPZJQ/story01.htm
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Umpqua Bank?continues the expansion of its commercial real estate presence in the Pacific Northwest with the addition of a new homebuilder finance group. The new group will provide Oregon- and Washington-based residential regional homebuilders and developers with access to construction and development loans.
To lead the venture, Umpqua has hired Kelly Warter as senior vice president and homebuilder finance manager. Based in Seattle, Warter will oversee the bank?s homebuilder finance operations, including the expansion of products and portfolios. Warter brings more than 30 years of homebuilder finance and commercial real estate lending experience and will report to John Swanson, senior vice president and head of Umpqua Bank?s commercial real estate division.
?We are very pleased to welcome Kelly to the Umpqua Bank team,? said John Swanson. ?Her extensive experience in construction and residential development lending make Kelly a tremendous asset as we expand our commercial real estate offerings throughout the Pacific Northwest.?
Also joining Umpqua?s homebuilder finance division are Lisa Woodruff, senior assistant relationship manager, and Sheneil Kliewer, senior loan administrator. Collectively, the team has more than 50 years of experience in homebuilder and developer financing.
For more information about Umpqua Bank, its homebuilder and commercial real estate offerings, visit umpquabank.com.
About Umpqua Bank
Umpqua Bank, headquartered in Roseburg, Ore., is a subsidiary of Umpqua Holdings Corporation with locations between San Francisco and Seattle, along the Oregon and Northern California Coast, and in Central Oregon and Northern Nevada. Umpqua Bank has been recognized for its innovative customer experience and banking strategy by national publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Fast Company and CNBC. The company has been recognized for the past six years in a row on FORTUNE magazine?s list of the country?s ?100 Best Companies to Work For.? Umpqua Holdings also owns a retail brokerage subsidiary, Umpqua Investments, Inc., which offers services through Umpqua Bank stores and in dedicated offices throughout Oregon. Umpqua?s Wealth Management Division serves high net worth individuals and nonprofits by providing customized financial solutions and offerings. Umpqua Holdings Corporation is headquartered in Portland, Ore. For more information, visit http://www.umpquabank.com.
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Amidst continuing mixed news about Windows 8, Microsoft may be getting ready to become more involved in its mobile 
destiny. New reports suggest the technology giant is readying a branded phone that will share the Surface name with its recently released tablet .
On Tuesday, Microsoft announced on its Windows blog that it had sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the first month of the new operating system's general availability. The figure does not distinguish between upgrades, new sales, or sales of PCs with Windows 8 pre-installed.
1.19 Percent
Microsoft also reported that the Windows App Store, which it said launched with more apps when its doors opened than any other app store at that point, has doubled the number of available apps in this first month.
Previous reports from the field and industry analysts have indicated sluggish sales. Forrester Research, for example, found that only half as many enterprises have expressed interest in Windows 8 as did for Windows 7, over the same period of time.
In addition, Web analytics firm Net Applications has said that its data through Nov. 18, three weeks from the launch, showed Windows 8 penetration at only 1.19 percent -- behind Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, the three most recent versions of Mac OS X, and even Linux. Windows 7, for instance, has 46 percent, while XP, facing the end of its supported lifecycle, still maintains 39 percent market share. Windows 7 had nearly twice 8's market share at this point in its lifespan.
But that good news comes following a steady drumbeat of less-than-good news for the new and dramatically different OS. The sudden departure of Windows chief Stephen Sinofsky, a lukewarm reception to the Windows 8-specific apps in the Windows Store, a scathingly bad review of the new tile-based interface by usability expert Jakob Nielsen, and reports of hesitation among business adopters and confusion among consumer buyers are only the top headlines.
A Surface Phone?
Windows 8 has been built around touch-based computing, which has been slow to come to laptops and desktops but has become common in mobile devices. While Windows 8 has been getting mixed reviews at best, the company's Surface tablet, either using Windows 8 or Windows RT for ARM-based tablets, has been getting a more positive reception. (continued...)
Source: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=85834
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The Internet has completely changed the way that we live. Millions of people go online each and everyday just to connect with friends and even to go shopping, do research; a lot more things than you can imagine. The Internet has not affected only how our personal and private lives flow, it has also affected business. Many are now getting into Internet marketing, and more each day. So the question for marketers is? what has happened to lead generation telemarketing?
Lead generation is a marketing term which that is used to describe the generation of interest into the products/services that a business has to offer. Back then, it seemed that B2B telemarketing was the preferred method to use in performing lead generation. And it still is today. However, it faces a new challenge as the Internet has become bigger and is only getting larger as more and more methods to market online are being discovered.
So what is to become of lead generation through telemarketing? Has the Internet rendered this timeless approach useless and about to be thrown into the metaphorical trash bin? So now let us explore the question of who wins in the Internet vs. lead generation telemarketing!
To help us out we have decided to quote business2community.com contributor Matt Ford, taking from his article Has the Internet Made Telemarketing for B2B Leads Obsolete?
?With b2b telemarketing, speed and precision targeting are the names of the game. The World Wide Web has little methods that are fast enough when it comes to getting in touch with targeted prospects. Things like doing web chat may be fast and direct, but there are times that Internet connections are so unreliable. There are lags, and even disconnection issues that can come from time to time,? Says Ford.
It?s true that when it comes to communicating with prospects that you need to have a stable connection. Phone lines have been in place for decades and technology at its best to make it work as well as it should. The Internet however, no matter how big it has grown, is still just a baby; it still needs to grow and be perfected. As such, we may find that the time it takes for your message to reach your prospect via online means has some lag time, or if your Internet suddenly dies then you have no further ways to reconnect in a small amount of time.
Communication through the phone is easy. It is also very stable and disconnections can be fixed with a single hit on the redial button. It?s safe to say that telemarketing has a one-up on the Internet here when it comes to lead generation.
?The beauty of telemarketing for b2b leads generation is the pace that you get when contacting targeted prospects. On average, a cold call will last at around three to five minutes at a time. If one plans to call prospects on an eight-hour work day, then they can call at an average of 150 businesspeople on that day,? Says Ford.
The Internet has an advantage in that it is accessible 24/7. So to speak, your online marketing campaign is capable of generating leads anytime. Telemarketing, however, is limited to how many hours we spend at work as well as the current timezones our prospects are in; we can?t just make a phone call and disturb someone who may be quite busy or even asleep.
When it comes to the number of people we can reach with our lead generation campaigns, telemarketing is limited due to the number of staff we have that call our prospects as well as our work hours. The Internet is up 24/7 and anybody could just leave an inquiry even as you?re reading this article. It?s easy to see here that the Internet wins this question.
The key to success in lead generation, however, is not to side with a single method. Rather, lead generation companies should now start learning the right marketing mix when it comes to generating leads for their clients. The Internet and telemarketing are not lead generation methods which should be apart, rather they should blend together to become a more powerful marketing approach to prospects.
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A meeting of like minds at the Combined Logistics Networks annual meeting in Bangkok from May 25-30, 2010, aims to be a good start to rebounding quickly from the impacts of the Global Financial Crisis.
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ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2012) ? Pound for pound, spider silk is one of the strongest materials known: Research by MIT's Markus Buehler has helped explain that this strength arises from silk's unusual hierarchical arrangement of protein building blocks.
Now Buehler -- together with David Kaplan of Tufts University and Joyce Wong of Boston University -- has synthesized new variants on silk's natural structure, and found a method for making further improvements in the synthetic material.
And an ear for music, it turns out, might be a key to making those structural improvements.
The work stems from a collaboration of civil and environmental engineers, mathematicians, biomedical engineers and musical composers.?
"We're trying to approach making materials in a different way," Buehler explains, "starting from the building blocks" -- in this case, the protein molecules that form the structure of silk. "It's very hard to do this; proteins are very complex."
Other groups have tried to construct such protein-based fibers using a trial-and-error approach, Buehler says. But this team has approached the problem systematically, starting with computer modeling of the underlying structures that give the natural silk its unusual combination of strength, flexibility and stretchiness.
Buehler's previous research has determined that fibers with a particular structure -- highly ordered, layered protein structures alternating with densely packed, tangled clumps of proteins (ABABAB) -- help to give silk its exceptional properties. For this initial attempt at synthesizing a new material, the team chose to look instead at patterns in which one of the structures occurred in triplets (AAAB and BBBA).
Making such structures is no simple task. Kaplan, a chemical and biomedical engineer, modified silk-producing genes to produce these new sequences of proteins. Then Wong, a bioengineer and materials scientist, created a microfluidic device that mimicked the spider's silk-spinning organ, which is called a spinneret.
Even after the detailed computer modeling that went into it, the outcome came as a bit of a surprise, Buehler says. One of the new materials produced very strong protein molecules -- but these did not stick together as a thread. The other produced weaker protein molecules that adhered well and formed a good thread. "This taught us that it's not sufficient to consider the properties of the protein molecules alone," he says. "Rather, [one must] think about how they can combine to form a well-connected network at a larger scale."
The results are reported in a paper published in the journal Nano Today.
The team is now producing several more variants of the material to further improve and test its properties. But one wrinkle in their process may provide a significant advantage in figuring out which materials will be useful and which ones won't -- and perhaps even which might be more advantageous for specific uses. That new and highly unusual wrinkle is music.
The different levels of silk's structure, Buehler says, are analogous to the hierarchical elements that make up a musical composition -- including pitch, range, dynamics and tempo. The team enlisted the help of composer John McDonald, a professor of music at Tufts, and MIT postdoc David Spivak, a mathematician who specializes in a field called category theory. Together, using analytical tools derived from category theory to describe the protein structures, the team figured out how to translate the details of the artificial silk's structure into musical compositions.
The differences were quite distinct: The strong but useless protein molecules translated into music that was aggressive and harsh, Buehler says, while the ones that formed usable fibers sound much softer and more fluid.
Buehler hopes this can be taken a step further, using the musical compositions to predict how well new variations of the material might perform. "We're looking for radically new ways of designing materials," he says.
Combining materials modeling with mathematical and musical tools, Buehler says, could provide a much faster way of designing new biosynthesized materials, replacing the trial-and-error approach that prevails today. Genetically engineering organisms to produce materials is a long, painstaking process, he says, but this work "has taught us a new approach, a fundamental lesson" in combining experiment, theory and simulation to speed up the discovery process.
Materials produced this way -- which can be done under environmentally benign, room-temperature conditions -- could lead to new building blocks for tissue engineering or other uses, Buehler says: scaffolds for replacement organs, skin, blood vessels, or even new materials for use in civil engineering.
Elliott Schwartz, professor emeritus of music at Bowdoin College, says: "For centuries, mathematics, logic and science have provided important models for musical structures, processes, and our understanding of sonic materials. The present research may well lead to one more important chapter in this ongoing story of mutual interaction."
It may be that the complex structures of music can reveal the underlying complex structures of biomaterials found in nature, Buehler says. "There might be an underlying structural expression in music that tells us more about the proteins that make up our bodies. After all, our organs -- including the brain -- are made from these building blocks, and humans' expression of music may inadvertently include more information that we are aware of."
"Nobody has tapped into this," he says, adding that with the breadth of his multidisciplinary team, "We could do this -- making better bio-inspired materials by using music, and using music to better understand biology."
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/JH39QKo8_v8/121128112157.htm
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BRUSSELS ? Within minutes of eurozone finance ministers reaching a deal to cut Greece?s debt late on Monday, commentators on Twitter were dismissing it as another exercise in ?kicking the can down the road?.
To an extent that is true. Under the agreement, the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund will give Greece two more years to reach its budget goals and will find another 44-billion euros (US$57-billion) to keep the country afloat in the meantime.
But while a degree of can-kicking may be going on, there was a critical element in Monday night?s deal that goes a lot further than any other step taken so far in the debt crisis to get Greece back on its feet.
Implicit was an understanding that Greece will undergo some form of official-sector debt restructuring ? with eurozone countries forgiving a portion of Greece?s debt ? at some point in the future, the sort of last-ditch measure usually reserved for impoverished states in Africa and Latin America.
[More]
See Also:
Greek recession to drag on until 2015:?OECD
Crisis: Spain, EU Commission opens to banks? aid
European debt crisis a bigger global threat than US fiscal cliff, says OECD
Poverty and wealth report slammed for deletions
German media lament ?never-ending story? of Greek bailouts
Afternoon Update:
12:02 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ??European Commission lays out eurozone blueprint
12:03 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ??US government bans BP from new contracts
12:04 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ??Athens to borrow 10-14 bln to fund scheme which ?must succeed?
12:05 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ??Moody?s: Greek debt unsustainable
12:06 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ??Bankers set to oppose buyback plan
12:07 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ??Housing market contracting at alarming rate
12:08 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ??EU rejects French report linking GM corn to cancer
12:09 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ??Spain banks cut thousands of jobs in shakeup
12:10 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ??Hopes high of a start to EU-Japan free trade talks
12:11 pm EST, November 29th, 2012 ???Europe Hasn?t Learned Lessons from Greece Crisis?
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LONDON (Reuters) - A British elite special forces sniper, whose 18-month jail sentence for possessing a pistol had caused public outrage, walked free on Thursday after winning a legal appeal.
SAS Sergeant Danny Nightingale, 37, had admitted illegal possession of a Glock 9 mm pistol and ammunition at a court martial earlier this month.
But he maintained he was given the gun as a present in Iraq and, because of a brain injury, forgot about it.
An appeal against the sentence, led by his wife Sally, had attracted over 100,000 signatures and was backed by several newspapers and Prime Minister David Cameron.
"Thank you to the great British public," Sergeant Nightingale told reporters outside the Royal Courts of Justice after his release. "It's been an extremely humbling experience."
His tearful wife Sally added she had not dared "dream this would be the outcome."
"We got justice today," she said.
Lord Igor Judge ruled that while Nightingale had been found guilty of very serious offences, he was satisfied the special circumstances surrounding his military and medical history called for a lesser sentence.
His court martial was told the gun had been packed up and returned to Nightingale by colleagues after he had to leave Iraq in a hurry for the funeral of two friends killed in action, the Press Association reported.
The Court of Appeal heard how Nightingale had served in extremely testing conditions in Iraq, fighting the enemy every night and losing several colleagues in combat.
During his time in the SAS, he also put his medical and explosives training to good effect by pioneering a new field dressing based on an adhesive used to stick explosives to surfaces.
"He has, in my opinion, saved many lives," his former commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Williams, said in court.
The Appeal Court judges ruled Nightingale's sentence should be cut from 18 to 12 months and suspended. His conviction has not been not quashed, but his wife Sally said they intend to "fight it all the way."
(Reporting by Peter Schwartzstein; Editing by Sophie Hares)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sas-sniper-walks-free-gun-sentence-suspended-194917595.html
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BOULDER, Colo.--()--Energy efficiency retrofits to existing commercial and public buildings represent a rapidly growing market that will benefit building owners, tenants, communities, and the environment. While most energy efficiency retrofits take place because the building owner is looking to reduce energy costs, government policy is a growing influence. States, cities, municipalities, and the federal government are providing incentives to those who may not previously have considered retrofitting their commercial properties for increased energy efficiency. According to a recent report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant?s Energy Practice, the combination of financial benefits and government policies will drive rapid growth in the market for energy efficiency retrofits over the remainder of the decade.
?Energy Efficiency Retrofits for Commercial and Public Buildings?
This global market for energy efficiency retrofits in the commercial building sector will expand from $80.3 billion in 2011 to $151.8 billion by 2020, the study concludes.
?While some players in the commercial housing market have found their way to energy efficient buildings through benevolent motivations and the promise of global benefits, many more require policy and regulatory requirements or incentives to inspire them to enter the energy efficient retrofit market,? says senior research analyst Eric Bloom. ?Sometimes these retrofits are encouraged through incentives or ratings programs that reward the most efficient buildings. More often, government agencies encourage higher efficiency buildings by educating the companies buying and selling buildings about the effect that the buildings will have on the environment and, more importantly, on their utility costs.?
The products and services offered to address energy efficiency retrofits can be grouped into several categories: heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, commissioning, control, solar, water management, and building envelope, as well as offerings from energy service companies (ESCOs). These products are being supplied by an ever-increasing number of companies that wish to establish a place in this growing industry. ESCOs currently make up the largest portion of the energy efficiency retrofit market, but the fastest growing segments over the next eight years will be solar power and water management, according to the report.
The report, ?Energy Efficiency Retrofits for Commercial and Public Buildings?, examines the global market landscape for energy efficiency retrofits in commercial and public buildings, including analysis and forecasts for eight different building types as well as eight product and service categories. The report covers key industry drivers by world region including regulatory and policy factors as well as market-based factors and economic considerations. More than 50 industry players are profiled in depth and energy efficiency retrofit revenue forecasts, segmented by world region and key countries, extend through 2020. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the Pike Research website.
About Pike Research
Pike Research, which joined Navigant?s global Energy Practice on July 1, 2012, provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets. The team?s research methodology combines supply-side industry analysis, end-user primary research and demand assessment, and deep examination of technology trends to provide a comprehensive view of the Smart Energy, Smart Grid, Smart Transportation, Smart Industry, and Smart Buildings sectors. Additional information about Pike Research can be found at www.navigant.com/pikeresearch.
About Navigant
Navigant (NYSE: NCI) is a specialized, global expert services firm dedicated to assisting clients in creating and protecting value in the face of critical business risks and opportunities. Through senior level engagement with clients, Navigant professionals combine technical expertise in Disputes and Investigations, Economics, Financial Advisory and Management Consulting, with business pragmatism in the highly regulated Construction, Energy, Financial Services and Healthcare industries to support clients in addressing their most critical business needs. More information about Navigant can be found at www.navigant.com.
* The information contained in this press release concerning the report, ?Energy Efficiency Retrofits for Commercial and Public Buildings,? is a summary and reflects Pike Research?s current expectations based on market data and trend analysis. Market predictions and expectations are inherently uncertain and actual results may differ materially from those contained in this press release or the report. Please refer to the full report for a complete understanding of the assumptions underlying the report?s conclusions and the methodologies used to create the report. Neither Pike Research nor Navigant undertakes any obligation to update any of the information contained in this press release or the report.
Source: http://feeds.businesswire.com/click.phdo?i=fbec704789af24711c4cb82eee1d9a36
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Public release date: 28-Nov-2012
Share ] Contact: David Gilbert
degilbert@lbl.gov
925-296-5643
DOE/Joint Genome Institute
One of the first chemical reactions children learn is the recipe for photosynthesis, combining carbon dioxide, water and solar energy to produce organic compounds. Many of the world's most important photosynthetic eukaryotes such as plants did not develop the ability to combine these ingredients themselves. Rather, they got their light-harnessing organelles -- chloroplasts -- indirectly by stealing them from other organisms. In some instances, this has resulted in algae with multiple, distinct genomes, the evolutionary equivalent of a "turducken*."
Chloroplasts originally evolved from photosynthetic bacteria by primary endosymbiosis, in which a bacterium or other prokaryote is engulfed by a eukaryotic host. The chloroplasts of red and green algae have subsequently come to reside within other, previously non-photosynthetic eukaryotes by secondary endosymbiosis. Such events have contributed to the global diversity of photosynthetic organisms that play a crucial role in regulating and maintaining the global carbon cycle. In most organisms that acquired photosynthesis by this mechanism, the nucleus from the ingested algal cell has disappeared, but in some cases it persists as a residual organelle known as a nucleomorph. Such organisms have four distinct genomes.
To better understand the process of secondary endosymbiosis and why nucleomorphs persist in some organisms, an international team composed of 73 researchers at 27 institutions, including the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), collaborated to sequence and analyze the genomes and transcriptomes (the expressed genes) of two tiny algae. The team led by John Archibald of Canada's Dalhousie University published their findings on the algae Bigelowellia natans and Guillardia theta online November 29, 2012 in Nature.
Archibald compared these algae to Russian nesting dolls with "sophisticated sub-cellular protein-targeting machinery" and four genomes derived from the two eukaryotes that merged over time. Approximately 50 percent of the genes in both genomes are 'unique' with no obvious counterpart in other organisms," he added. "This indicates just how different they are from characterized species."
DOE JGI Fungal Genomics Program head Igor Grigoriev called B. natans and G. theta "living fossils" because of the remnant nucleomorph. He added that algae are relevant to the Department of Energy Office of Science research portfolio for their potential applications in the fields of bioenergy and environment, noting that the DOE JGI has published over 75 percent of the publicly available algal genomes. "Iterations of endosymbiosis have led to a global diversity of these primary producers. Sequencing these two algae, the first cryptophyte and the first chlorarachniophyte sequenced, helped us to fill in the gaps in the Eukaryotic Tree of Life, and obtain additional references for better understanding of eukaryotic evolution."
Archibald said that "G. theta and B. natans both possess a surprisingly complex suite of enzymes involved in carbon metabolism, and thus represent a useful resource for scientists engaged in both basic and applied research, including photosynthesis, sub-cellular trafficking and biofuels development."
The DOE JGI sequenced the genomes of B. natans (95 million nucleotides or bases: Mb) and G. theta (87 Mb) from single cell isolates provided by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences as part of the 2007 Community Sequencing Program portfolio. In addition, the transcriptomes were sequenced separately by the National Center for Genome Resources in New Mexico. Among the team's findings is an answer to the question of why nucleomorphs still exist.
"The reason for the persistence of nucleomorphs in both organisms appears to be surprisingly simple: they are no longer able to transfer their DNA to the host cell nucleus by the process of endosymbiotic gene transfer," said Archibald. Unlike most other secondarily photosynthetic eukaryotes in which the endosymbiont's genetic matter has completely migrated over to the host, in cryptophytes and chlorarachniophytes the nucleus and chloroplast from the engulfed algae remain partitioned off from the host cell. "As a consequence," he added," genetic and biochemical mosaicism is rampant in G. theta and B. natans."
Both researchers highlighted the unexpected finding of alternative splicing in B. natans. Grigoriev noted that the phenomenon is one typical for higher eukaryotes, and Archibald added that the levels "greatly exceed that seen in the model plant Arabidopsis and on par with the human cerebral cortex, unprecedented and truly remarkable for a unicellular organism. This challenges the paradigm that complex alternative splicing is a phenomenon limited to sophisticated multicellular organisms."
"The evolution of chloroplasts, the photosynthetic compartments of plants and algal cells, is complex but has had a profound effect on our planet," said Chris Howe, Professor of Plant and Microbial Biochemistry at Cambridge University in England. "This paper gives us fascinating insights into how host and nucleomorph genomes have been remodeled during evolution. As well as providing a goldmine of information on the general biology of these organisms, the paper shows us that the nucleomorph genomes have probably persisted simply because the mechanism for transfer of genes to the nucleus was closed off, rather than because nucleomorphs had to be retained as separate entities. The paper also shows us that the evolutionary history of the nucleomorph-containing organisms was even more complex than we thought, with evidence for genes from many different sources in their nuclei. Overall, it has provided important insights into the fundamental processes of cell symbiosis and genome reshaping that have produced some of the most important organisms we see today."
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*a seasonal dish that consists of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, which itself is stuffed into a deboned turkey.
The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, supported by the DOE Office of Science, is committed to advancing genomics in support of DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup. DOE JGI, headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., provides integrated high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis that enable systems-based scientific approaches to these challenges. Follow @doe_jgi on Twitter.
DOE's Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
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Public release date: 28-Nov-2012 Share ] Contact: David Gilbert
degilbert@lbl.gov
925-296-5643
DOE/Joint Genome Institute
One of the first chemical reactions children learn is the recipe for photosynthesis, combining carbon dioxide, water and solar energy to produce organic compounds. Many of the world's most important photosynthetic eukaryotes such as plants did not develop the ability to combine these ingredients themselves. Rather, they got their light-harnessing organelles -- chloroplasts -- indirectly by stealing them from other organisms. In some instances, this has resulted in algae with multiple, distinct genomes, the evolutionary equivalent of a "turducken*."
Chloroplasts originally evolved from photosynthetic bacteria by primary endosymbiosis, in which a bacterium or other prokaryote is engulfed by a eukaryotic host. The chloroplasts of red and green algae have subsequently come to reside within other, previously non-photosynthetic eukaryotes by secondary endosymbiosis. Such events have contributed to the global diversity of photosynthetic organisms that play a crucial role in regulating and maintaining the global carbon cycle. In most organisms that acquired photosynthesis by this mechanism, the nucleus from the ingested algal cell has disappeared, but in some cases it persists as a residual organelle known as a nucleomorph. Such organisms have four distinct genomes.
To better understand the process of secondary endosymbiosis and why nucleomorphs persist in some organisms, an international team composed of 73 researchers at 27 institutions, including the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), collaborated to sequence and analyze the genomes and transcriptomes (the expressed genes) of two tiny algae. The team led by John Archibald of Canada's Dalhousie University published their findings on the algae Bigelowellia natans and Guillardia theta online November 29, 2012 in Nature.
Archibald compared these algae to Russian nesting dolls with "sophisticated sub-cellular protein-targeting machinery" and four genomes derived from the two eukaryotes that merged over time. Approximately 50 percent of the genes in both genomes are 'unique' with no obvious counterpart in other organisms," he added. "This indicates just how different they are from characterized species."
DOE JGI Fungal Genomics Program head Igor Grigoriev called B. natans and G. theta "living fossils" because of the remnant nucleomorph. He added that algae are relevant to the Department of Energy Office of Science research portfolio for their potential applications in the fields of bioenergy and environment, noting that the DOE JGI has published over 75 percent of the publicly available algal genomes. "Iterations of endosymbiosis have led to a global diversity of these primary producers. Sequencing these two algae, the first cryptophyte and the first chlorarachniophyte sequenced, helped us to fill in the gaps in the Eukaryotic Tree of Life, and obtain additional references for better understanding of eukaryotic evolution."
Archibald said that "G. theta and B. natans both possess a surprisingly complex suite of enzymes involved in carbon metabolism, and thus represent a useful resource for scientists engaged in both basic and applied research, including photosynthesis, sub-cellular trafficking and biofuels development."
The DOE JGI sequenced the genomes of B. natans (95 million nucleotides or bases: Mb) and G. theta (87 Mb) from single cell isolates provided by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences as part of the 2007 Community Sequencing Program portfolio. In addition, the transcriptomes were sequenced separately by the National Center for Genome Resources in New Mexico. Among the team's findings is an answer to the question of why nucleomorphs still exist.
"The reason for the persistence of nucleomorphs in both organisms appears to be surprisingly simple: they are no longer able to transfer their DNA to the host cell nucleus by the process of endosymbiotic gene transfer," said Archibald. Unlike most other secondarily photosynthetic eukaryotes in which the endosymbiont's genetic matter has completely migrated over to the host, in cryptophytes and chlorarachniophytes the nucleus and chloroplast from the engulfed algae remain partitioned off from the host cell. "As a consequence," he added," genetic and biochemical mosaicism is rampant in G. theta and B. natans."
Both researchers highlighted the unexpected finding of alternative splicing in B. natans. Grigoriev noted that the phenomenon is one typical for higher eukaryotes, and Archibald added that the levels "greatly exceed that seen in the model plant Arabidopsis and on par with the human cerebral cortex, unprecedented and truly remarkable for a unicellular organism. This challenges the paradigm that complex alternative splicing is a phenomenon limited to sophisticated multicellular organisms."
"The evolution of chloroplasts, the photosynthetic compartments of plants and algal cells, is complex but has had a profound effect on our planet," said Chris Howe, Professor of Plant and Microbial Biochemistry at Cambridge University in England. "This paper gives us fascinating insights into how host and nucleomorph genomes have been remodeled during evolution. As well as providing a goldmine of information on the general biology of these organisms, the paper shows us that the nucleomorph genomes have probably persisted simply because the mechanism for transfer of genes to the nucleus was closed off, rather than because nucleomorphs had to be retained as separate entities. The paper also shows us that the evolutionary history of the nucleomorph-containing organisms was even more complex than we thought, with evidence for genes from many different sources in their nuclei. Overall, it has provided important insights into the fundamental processes of cell symbiosis and genome reshaping that have produced some of the most important organisms we see today."
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*a seasonal dish that consists of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, which itself is stuffed into a deboned turkey.
The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, supported by the DOE Office of Science, is committed to advancing genomics in support of DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup. DOE JGI, headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., provides integrated high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis that enable systems-based scientific approaches to these challenges. Follow @doe_jgi on Twitter.
DOE's Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-11/dgi-tas112012.php
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ISSY-LES-MOULINEAUX, France--()--Regulatory News:
Sodexo (PARIS:SW) (OTCBB:SDXAY) and the French post office, La Poste, announced the creation of a consortium to provide postal services (collection, transport and distribution of mail and parcels) for the 19,000 men and women serving on French military bases abroad. Both organizations expressed great pride in having been entrusted with providing vital support to France?s soldiers and the Ministry of Defense.
The four-year contract awarded to La Poste ? Sodexo consortium resulted from a competitive process launched by the Ministry in 2010 for the provision of customized postal services for the armed forces.
The contract represents a new and unique approach for both partners, based on their complementary expertise: La Poste?s mail and package handling capabilities and Sodexo?s long experience in delivering high quality on-site services to clients operating in extreme environments, including support for military bases, temporary detachments and peacekeeping missions. The consortium?s offer thus represents a customized response, covering transport to distribution of parcels and letters, training for mail clerks and Sodexo teams on postal operations and setting up post offices from scratch in hostile operating theaters.
Salvator Erba, La Poste?s Director for Public Sector Market Large Accounts, said: "La Poste is proud to confirm its role as a natural partner to the Ministry of Defense and delighted to support the French armed forces in their various theaters of operations and at French Naval facilities; we look forward to ensuring the link between French troops and their families through a totally innovative approach, leveraging the expertise of La Poste and its teams.?
Sodexo Vice President for Defense, Continental Europe, Veronika Roux, said: "It is an honor for Sodexo to help support postal service for French military bases abroad. For military service personnel, the mail and parcels they exchange with their loved ones has a major influence on the quality of their daily lives. Through its expertise and understanding of the demands of military life gained through years of experience, Sodexo is able to offer integrated services that improve quality of life for armed forces women and men around the world."
About Sodexo
Sodexo is the global leader in services that improve Quality of Life, an essential factor in individual and organizational performance. Operating in 80 countries, Sodexo serves 75 million consumers each day through its unique combination of On-site Services, Benefits and Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services. Through its more than 100 services, Sodexo provides clients an integrated offering developed over more than 45 years of experience: from reception, safety, maintenance and cleaning, to foodservices and facilities and equipment management; from Meal Pass, Gift Pass and Mobility Pass benefits for employees to in-home assistance and concierge services. Sodexo?s success and performance are founded on its independence, its sustainable business model and its ability to continuously develop and engage its 420,000 employees throughout the world.
Key Figures (as of August 31, 2012)
Sodexo in the world
18.2 billion euro consolidated revenue
420,000 employees
20th largest employer worldwide
80 countries
34,300 sites
75 million consumers served daily
9.5 billion euro market capitalization (as of November 7, 2012)
About La Poste
A 100% publicly funded corporation since March 1, 2010, La Poste SA is an original model of a multi-business group structured around four core business areas: Courrier (Mail), Colis/Express (Parcel/Express), La Banque Postale (banking) and Enseigne La Poste (Post branches). Every year, the 170,000 La Poste branches welcome 45 million individual clients and 3.5 million business clients. La Poste has decided to make mail its core business in the customer relationship, offering the best paper, digital and proximity to all its clients. They place an emphasis on their high-performing industrial tools, advanced technologies, innovative services and their network of postmen, readily available professionals and trusted third parties. In 2011, the La Poste Group published a turnover of 21.3 million Euros and has more than 268,000 employees. Looking to 2015, the La Poste Group aims to become the European leader in postal and financial services. Aiming constantly towards innovation, the La Poste Group puts a daily focus on developing services and products, which will make the lives of clients and employees easier. Faithful to its values and its public service missions, strengthening the relationships with the postmen, the La Poste Group strives to be the example of a modern public service.
www.sodexo.com / www.laposte.fr
Source: http://feeds.businesswire.com/click.phdo?i=741b0d19fd08c65dc084292ddc470b54
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DHAKA/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bangladesh said a fire that killed 111 textile workers was sabotage, as protesters took to the streets for a second day on Tuesday and garment factories across the world's second-biggest clothes exporter stopped work to mourn.
Meanwhile two other incidents this week, neither of which caused injuries, had local manufacturing leaders scrambling to assess whether their industry was under attack.
Saturday's fire has put a spotlight on global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh, where the cost of labour is low - as little as $37 a month for some workers - and rights groups have called on firms to sign up to a fire safety program.
U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp said its clothing was not meant to be made in that textile factory, and was investigating reports that one of its brands had been found in the charred debris. Other brands, such as Esprit Holdings Ltd, continued to deny any connection and distanced themselves from the disaster.
The country's worst-ever industrial blaze consumed a multi-story building of a Taren Fashions factory. More than 150 workers were injured.
The interior minister, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, said that, according to a preliminary inquiry, the fire was the result of arson. He promised to bring the culprits to justice.
"We have come to the conclusion that it was an act of sabotage. We are finding out as of now who exactly the saboteurs are and all culprits will be brought to book," Alamgir said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she suspected the fire was an act of sabotage, but she did not identify any suspect or say why she thought the cause might have been arson.
Dhaka district police chief Habibur Rahman told Reuters his men were investigating complaints from some survivors that factory managers stopped workers from running out of the building when a fire alarm went off.
In addition to Saturday's blaze, two other incidents outside Dhaka -- a fire at a factory Monday morning and an explosion and fire at a facility Tuesday evening -- had the country's manufacturing leaders scared something bigger was at play.
"If you ask me as to what happened at the factory, today I'm a little confused because having such incidents all around naturally raises questions in the mind," said Annisul Huq, former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, in an interview.
"The government today says they are smelling sabotage. We don't yet know what they mean by that, we will know in a few days. I don't know what information they have but we don't like this link," he said, adding that association members would meet Wednesday to discuss the recent events.
RECORD OF POOR CONDITIONS
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, said one of its suppliers subcontracted work to the burned factory without authorization and would no longer be used. The company declined additional comment Tuesday on the details of its factory audit program.
Sears also suggested something illicit may have taken place.
"Any merchandise found at that factory should NOT have been manufactured there and we are currently investigating further," the company said in a statement.
The International Labor Rights Forum, in a statement on Sunday, said evidence discovered in the factory suggested Sears' True Desire line may have been manufactured there, as well as other prominent brands.
As of Tuesday afternoon, a petition on Change.org calling on major retailers to join an industry fire safety program for suppliers had more than 22,000 supporters, having roughly doubled in just a few hours.
Representatives of the Tazreen Fashions factory, including the owner, were not available for comment.
Bangladesh has about 4,500 garment factories and is the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China, with garments making up 80 percent of its $24 billion annual exports.
Working conditions at Bangladeshi factories are notoriously poor, with little enforcement of safety laws. Overcrowding and locked fire doors are common.
"There are sometimes very basic issues ? having an emergency exit, not being locked in and being able to take bathroom breaks," said Erica Smiley, campaigns director for Jobs with Justice, which works with workers' rights groups in Bangladesh.
"We've known for a long time about conditions in these plants in Bangladesh ... The organizations we work with in Bangladesh had a track of these factories including the (Tazreen) factory," she said.
More than 300 factories near the capital were shut for almost a week earlier this year as workers demanded higher wages and better conditions. At least 500 people have died in garment factory accidents in Bangladesh since 2006, according to fire brigade officials.
More than 1,000 workers, some carrying black flags, demonstrated Tuesday in the Ashulia industrial belt on the outskirts of the capital where the factory is located. They blocked traffic moving on a highway and vowed to avenge the deaths of their colleagues, witnesses said.
"Never shall we give up demands for punishment for those responsible for the tragedy," one worker said.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul and Anis Ahmed in Dhaka and Jessica Wohl and Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago; Additional reporting by Anne Marie Roantree in Hong Kong and Dhanya Skariachan in New York; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Robert Birsel, Gunna Dickson, Tim Dobbyn and Andrew Hay)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-mourns-calls-factory-fire-act-sabotage-165143016--finance.html
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Sales and marketing professionals need to be wise and act quicker than before to make the most of their opportunities. With the economy showing signs of improvement, it is very essential for them to gear up and be prepared for new opportunities. With stiff competition all around, success depends a lot on how quickly you reach your prospect /customer and how well you convince them to buy your product or service before your competitor does.
Reaching your prospective customers is not as easy as it sounds. You need to first identify your targeted prospects and build a list of contacts / prospects with complete and accurate contact information. Only then you will be able to reach your prospective customers and convey that ?all important? message about your unique product or service. Although buying or renting prospect lists is an option, it is quite expensive and experts always recommend sales and marketing professionals to build their own lists.
Generally sales and marketing professionals look for contacts from various sources. The Internet is one of the major sources of contacts that they often look for. Sources such as online directories, association websites, membership directories and MLS Listings help you to build targeted contact list / prospect list / mailing list for free. You can also capture fresh leads from these sources. But the challenge is, how to capture these leads and quickly build business lists from these sources.
Typically, search results on the Internet and online directories run across multiple pages. So, it becomes a tiresome and time-consuming task to manually copy-paste the contact information from various web pages and build a list of contacts. When you copy-paste contact information from multiple web pages, there is every chance that it might end up in typos which can prove very costly.
This is where successful sales and marketing professionals rely on technology. Technology helps a great deal in capturing contacts and building prospect lists. List building tools are available in the market that helps you to quickly and easily build contact list / prospect list / mailing list from almost any source. Industry experts say that the best way to quickly build business lists from any Internet source is to use a list building software.
List building software helps you to quickly build targeted prospect lists in a single click and helps you speed up sales lead generation. It intelligently captures the name, address, phone numbers, email IDs and other contact details and helps you automatically transfer the contact information to your database.
With list building software, you can avoid spending countless hours on the Internet, visiting hundreds of web pages and online directory results, copy-pasting contact information into your database to build your contact list or prospect list, and it helps you save a lot of time and resources. The list building tool helps you build business lists in a few minutes which would otherwise take hours if it is done manually.
List building software enables you to quickly capture multiple contacts, check for duplicates, extract email addresses and transfer the contacts to popular databases like ACT, GoldMine, Outlook, Excel, etc.
For More Info Visit http://www.egrabber.com/listgrabberstandard/
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Disclosure: I am long SMTP.OB. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
At Spruce Point Capital Management, we were recently screening for attractive microcaps with relatively low risk business models, experiencing above market growth, having solid, debt-free balance sheets offering downside protection, high insider ownership, and potential catalysts that could result in significant upside potential. The one company that fit our criteria perfectly is SMTP, Inc. We believe the investment opportunity offers an attractive risk/reward, and we recently became a shareholder.
SMTP (SMTP.OB) is a provider of cloud-based services to facilitate email deliverability that includes bulk and transactional sending, reputation management, compliance auditing, abuse processing and issue resolution. The services provide customers with the ability to increase the deliverability of email with less time, cost and complexity than handling it themselves.
Key Investment Highlights for Potential Investors to Consider are the Following:
Large and Growing Market Opportunity
Attractive Business and Financial Profile
Shareholder Friendly Policies and Strong Insider Ownership
Potential Takeover Target Offering Upside
SMTP's Value Proposition and Differentiation Points
SMTP provides services to enable small, medium and large businesses to outsource the sending of outbound emails. Senders of email use their services to help maintain their online email reputation so that their email is not blocked and is delivered to the intended recipients. The services are differentiated by level of computer, software and customer support resources provided, which is largely based on the volume of emails sent by customers:
SMTP's solution delivers both a technical and customer service aspect. From the technical side, emails outsourced to SMTP go through "reputable" IP addresses to ensure delivery to the inbox and monitor delivery issues. SMTP actively educates clients on how to maintain proper email lists and how to send emails, while working with ISPs and email providers to address resolutions to non-delivery issues.
Competition is Intense but Fragmented
SMTP faces competition from three principal categories 1) in-house, do-it-yourself operators, 2) integrated solutions from email marketing companies and, 3) direct competition from infrastructure providers. Integrated solutions companies range from companies like ConstantContact (CTCT), ExactTarget (ET), MailChimp, and VerticalResponse. These are mostly one size fits all models, and have all customers on one IP address. For enterprise customers with large needs, even Amazon (AMZN) has entered the market with their "Simple Email Service" which allows customers to leverage their infrastructure at low cost, but with limited service, support, or add-on features. SendGrid.com is another example of an infrastructure provider. Some of SMTP's closer competitors are AuthSmtp.com, SMTP2Go.com, TurboSMTP.com, SocketLabs.com, and iContact.com.
(click to enlarge)
SMTP is Focused on Low Risk, Profitable Growth, and Will Reward Patient Shareholders
With an experienced management team and laser focus on growing the business, revenues have jumped from just $1.5 million in FY 2009 to $5.2 million as of LTM 9/30/12. All of the growth has been organic, and primarily from inbound lead generation. Given the company's simple, SaaS-like model, Gross and EBITDA margins are 77% and 35%, respectively as of LTM 9/30/12. The company's high EBITDA margins are a function of their extreme focus on cost discipline, while retaining a small entrepreneurial environment. SMTP has 25 - 35 contractors in the Ukraine that handle technical support, engineering, R&D, and other administrative functions. The core management team is based in Cambridge, MA.
The company is extremely capital efficient and has generated $900,000 of net income on average equity of $850,000 in the last twelve months. This translates into a Return on Equity of 106%. Free cash flow per share has historically approximated earnings per share. The company is managed in a conservative manner, and the management has articulated that they will not pursue acquisitions or unprofitable growth opportunities. Instead, the company will return excess cash to shareholders through regular and special dividends. Shareholders are currently being rewarded with a 6.3% dividend yield, while the business continues to grow organically, and the strategic evaluation occurs.
(click to enlarge)
M&A Activity is Robust in the Marketing Services Space and Offers Upside Potential
In October 2012, SMTP announced that it retained Bowen Advisors to help it evaluate strategic alternatives for maximizing shareholder value. We believe this is a strong signal from the management and its Board that they believe their share price to be undervalued. It is easy to understand why this would be the case with the torrid pace of M&A activity in their markets, and modest valuation they are currently receiving. In addition to the various direct and adjacent competitors we discussed earlier that would be interested in evaluating SMTP as a target, there are a variety of other companies that have been acquisitive in the email marketing space. In just the past few months, Twitter acquired RestEngine, Rackspace acquired Mailgun, and Vocus acquired iContact. We believe these deals underscore the priority that companies are placing in using email services to connect and engage with customers in an increasingly competitive and slowing growth business environment. The table below summarizes recent transactions in the email marketing software and services sector.
(click to enlarge)
Current Valuation Leaves Room for Appreciation Even Without a Strategic Transaction
While there is no exact comparable company to SMTP, we have benchmarked their valuation against a broad range of marketing and digital software service companies such as Valueclick (VCLK) and Acxiom (ACXM), although closer comparables are likely ExactTarget, J2 Global (JCOM), ConstantContact (CTCT), Responsys (MKTG), ReachLocal (RLOC), and Zix Corp (ZIXI). In the table below, we have provided a full valuation comparison.
(click to enlarge)
The key financial metrics and valuation comparison are best illustrated in the charts below. As can be seen, SMTP has above average margins and growth, yet trades at a valuation discount to peers, primarily as a result of its microcap discount and limited awareness of its investment merits and opportunities.
(click to enlarge)
Key Risk Factors to Consider
As a small company and microcap, there are numerous risks that investors should consider when evaluating SMTP. We've listed a few possible concerns, but for a complete list, potential investors should read the company's Risk Factor section in SMTP's annual report.
? Technology risk: As a technology company, the market for their services is competitive and rapidly changing, and has low barriers to entry. New technologies and new entrants to the market, could increase competition and harm their ability to increase sales, through lower customer additions, or lower product pricing.
? Contract risk: Customer contracts are short-term in nature (1 month to 1 year). The company must continually renew existing customers, and attract new ones to continue its historical growth.
? Search engine risk: SMTP relies heavily on search engines to attract customers, so changes in search algorithms and advertising prices could increase their costs and/or reduce their customer growth rate going forward.
? Shareholder concentration and microcap illiquidity: A majority of SMTP's shares are held by its Board and management team. Potential investors must get comfortable owning the company through periods of reduced liquidity, and comfortable with the management team that exercises control over the company's strategy.
Summary
For investors that can get comfortable owning shares in a small technology company in a large and fragmented industry, we believe that SMTP represents an attractive/risk reward at the current share price. The company's email marketing and delivery solutions address a large and fundamentally growing need for organizations to effectively deliver their email needs, at a cost-effective price, with minimal bounce rates. SMTP's base of over 8,500 customers, extremely low cost structure, and debt-free balance sheet help to mitigate some business and financial risk. Furthermore, investors are currently being rewarded with an attractive 6.3% dividend yield. At the current share price, the company is valued modestly at just 2.5x, 12.8x, and 7.1x 2013E sales, EPS and EBITDA, respectively. Our research suggests that M&A activity is accelerating in the email marketing solutions sector, with a broad range of large and small companies scrambling to broaden their offerings to customers. As a result, we believe SMTP could be attractive to a number of acquirers, and that investors are currently receiving a free call option on a value-enhancing transaction.
Disclaimer
Use of the research produced by Spruce Point Capital Management, LLC is at your own risk. The author of this report holds a long position in the security of SMTP, Inc. that will benefit from a rise in the price of the common stock. Following publication of the report, the author (including members, partners, affiliates, employees, consultants, or other shareholders) may transact in the securities of the companies covered herein. The author of this report has obtained all information contained herein from sources believed to be accurate and reliable and has included references where available and practical. However, such information is presented "as is," without warranty of any kind- whether express or implied. The author of this report makes no representation, express or implied, as to the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any such information or with regard to the results to be obtained from its use. Forward looking statement and projections are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and involve many risks (known and unknown) that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results. All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice, and the author does not undertake to update or supplement this report or any of the information contained herein. Spruce Point Capital Management, LLC has not accepted compensation from SMTP, Inc. to produce this report, is not a broker/dealer or financial advisor and nothing contained herein should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment or security mentioned in this report. You should do your own research and due diligence before making any investment decision with respect to securities covered herein, including, but not limited to, the suitability of any transaction to your risk tolerance and investment objectives and consult your own tax, financial and legal experts as warranted
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