Technology in Business

WWE and Blockchain Resourceful Labs, the new non-fungible token (NFT) company and inventive studio shaped by Fox Entertainment and Bento Box Entertainment, right now announced an special multi-12 months settlement to start an NFT market for certified electronic WWE tokens and collectibles. The partnership marks Blockchain Inventive Labs’ very first-at any time material alliance with an external residence beyond Fox.

“Blockchain Innovative Labs has promptly grow to be a chief in the place with an extraordinary govt group that truly understands the NFT arena and its tremendous likely,” claims Scott Zanghellini, WWE Senior Vice President, Earnings Approach & Enhancement. “This new partnership permits us to deepen our romantic relationship with Fox, as we continue on to discover new and imaginative means to engage our passionate fanbase.”

In collaboration with Blockchain Artistic Labs, WWE will produce authentic NFTs that celebrate the company’s full catalog of electronic belongings, together with its most legendary moments, previous and existing WWE Superstars and leading situations, this kind of as WrestleMania and SummerSlam. Powered by Eluvio’s eco-helpful blockchain technological know-how, the marketplace will provide as a hub for customers to order, trade, provide and retail store digital tokens that will be authenticated through Eluvio’s blockchain and will be interoperable across Ethereum and other blockchains. The marketplace’s identify and launch date will be introduced in the coming weeks.

“Blockchain Imaginative Labs is excited to spouse with WWE in launching its formal NFT ecosystem. We know WWE’s passionate admirer local community will love possessing genuine electronic goods across the organization’s resourceful universe — from earlier and existing stars to basic, tradition-defining moments,” claims Scott Greenberg, CEO of Blockchain Inventive Labs and Co-Founder/CEO of Bento Box Entertainment. “Our NFT studio is all about enabling supporters to own NFTs and tokens that carry utility and social clout instantly from the creators and brands they are passionate about, spanning animation, sporting activities, shows and movies to tunes, guides, art, pop lifestyle and each and every other Net3-run media asset you can quite possibly think about.”

To take part in the WWE NFT market, fans create a secure and quick-to-use WWE digital wallet via Eluvio that acts as a vault and enables shoppers to obtain collectibles working with traditional currency or cryptocurrency.

Before this year, Fox Enjoyment and Bento Box Amusement entered the NFT small business with the development of Blockchain Innovative Labs and a $100 million creator fund to determine development possibilities in the room.

A grant from Truist Money Corp. will fund scholarships and teaching at the University of South Carolina Columbia Know-how Incubator.

The $200,000 grant goes by the Truist Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund at The Winston-Salem Foundation. It is intended to help the potential data engineering workforce in South Carolina, according to a news release.

The USC Columbia Technological know-how Incubator’s mission is to help revolutionary persons and organizations grow as a result of instruction, mentoring and an recognized sense of local community in the downtown incubation facility that serves business owners in the Midlands.

“We are grateful for Truist’s generous contribution and determination to supporting workforce advancement in South Carolina,” Chad Hardaway, the USC Columbia Know-how Incubator govt director, mentioned in the launch. “This grant will participate in a vital job in bolstering the state’s personnel workforce by giving more South Carolinians the option to further their education and ultimately turn out to be certified to fill the in-demand from customers work opportunities throughout the point out.”

The grant is supposed to provide alternatives for career development and have a ripple impact — helping men and women grow their skillsets, giving balance for families, and enriching communities, Mike Brenan, S.C. regional president for Truist, mentioned in the release.

The objective is to distribute 300 scholarships of $500 that will guide to a coaching certification or credential for South Carolina residents, with a specific emphasis on minority applicants.

“The board and I are happy of the USC Columbia Know-how Incubator’s record of normally stepping in to provide the most pressing requirements of our region,” USC Columbia Technological know-how Incubator board chairman Monthly bill Kirkland said in the release. “Thank you to our mates at Truist for their generous help. This grant improvements the incubator’s leadership purpose in acquiring a increased-proficient workforce of the long term as perfectly as continuing to serve the entrepreneurial group.”

The USC Columbia Know-how Incubator will promote the availability of Future Workforce Scholarships for these intrigued in getting into or advancing in IT or other similar job paths, the release stated. The grants will give essential reskilling or upskilling for people today affected by shifts in employment owing to COVID-19 or other financial instances, the release mentioned.

The USC Columbia Technologies Incubator will use the funding to enhance or increase to present scholarship programs as a result of the S.C. Section of Work and Workforce, the S.C. Technological Faculty Technique and other neighborhood associates.

“This grant provides chances for occupation improvement and has a ripple effect – it aids people today expand their skillsets, gives balance for family members, and enriches communities,” Brenan said in the launch. “At Truist, our function is to encourage and establish much better lives and communities, and we’re very pleased to guidance the USC Columbia Know-how Incubator and the options it will enable build for South Carolinians in the course of the Midlands.”

The USC Columbia Know-how Incubator is a nonprofit company sponsored by USC, city of

SHENZHEN, China, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Revenue of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (HWT.UL) plummeted 38% in the third quarter compared to the same period a year earlier, with U.S. sanctions having hobbled its smartphone business and new potential growth areas still in their infancy.

The Chinese telecoms giant posted revenue of 455.8 billion yuan ($71.32 billion) for the first three quarters on Friday, down by almost a third on the same period a year earlier, with a profit margin of 10.2%.

Revenue for the third quarter alone came to 135.4 billion yuan, based on Reuters calculations.

Performance was “in line with forecast”, said rotating Chairman Guo Ping.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump put Huawei on an export blacklist in 2019 and barred it from accessing critical U.S.-origin technology, impeding its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors.

The restrictions have badly hurt Huawei’s handset business, with rotating Chairman Eric Xu saying in September that revenue from smartphones would dip by around $30 billion to $40 billion this year. read more

While Huawei did not break down its third quarter figures by business segment, the company said that the decline is mainly attributable to its consumer business.

Huawei occupied 8% of China’s smartphone market share in the third quarter, down from 30% a year earlier when it was the market leader, according to Counterpoint Research.

On the other hand, Honor, formerly a sub-brand which Huawei sold to keep it alive last November, sold 96% more phones in the same quarter compared to a year earlier, grabbing a 15% share of the China market, Counterpoint said.

Huawei is looking to develop new growth revenue streams outside of base station infrastructure and handsets, with a cloud business, and smart ports, mining and smart electric vehicles businesses.

In June it launched its Harmony operating system on smartphones, and is looking to supply software to autos companies.

But these new lines will take some time to bear fruit, executives said.

The company, however, has received a boost from the return of its chief financial officer and daughter of its founder Ren Zhengfei. Meng Wanzhou returned to work at its headquarters on Monday after almost three years fighting extradition to the U.S. in Canada, with Chinese officials signalling the case against her had been dropped to help to end a diplomatic stalemate. read more

($1 = 6.3910 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Reporting by David Kirton; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Like many companies in trouble before it, Facebook is changing its name and logo.

Facebook Inc. is now called Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, to reflect what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday is its commitment to developing the new surround-yourself technology known as the “ metaverse.” But the social network itself will still be called Facebook.

Also unchanged, at least for now, are its chief executive and senior leadership, its corporate structure and the crisis that has enveloped the company.

Skeptics immediately accused the company of trying to change the subject from the Facebook Papers, the trove of leaked documents that have plunged it into the biggest crisis since it was founded in Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room 17 years ago. The documents portray Facebook as putting profits ahead of ridding its platform of hate, political strife and misinformation around the world.

The move reminded marketing consultant Laura Ries of when energy company BP rebranded itself to “Beyond Petroleum” to escape criticism that the oil giant harmed the environment.

“Facebook is the world’s social media platform, and they are being accused of creating something that is harmful to people and society,” she said. “They can’t walk away from the social network with a new corporate name and talk of a future metaverse.”

Facebook the app is not changing its name. Nor are Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. The company’s corporate structure also won’t change. But on Dec. 1, its stock will start trading under a new ticker symbol, MVRS.

The metaverse is sort of the internet brought to life, or at least rendered in 3D. Zuckerberg has described it as a “virtual environment” you can go inside of, instead of just looking at on a screen. People can meet, work and play, using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps or other devices.

It also will incorporate other aspects of online life such as shopping and social media, according to Victoria Petrock, an analyst who follows emerging technologies.

Zuckerberg’s foray into virtual reality has drawn some comparisons to fellow tech billionaires’ outer space adventures and jokes that perhaps it’s understandable he would want to escape his current reality amid calls for his resignation and increasing scrutiny of the company.

On Monday, Zuckerberg announced a new segment for Facebook that will begin reporting its financial results separately from the company’s Family of Apps segment starting in the final quarter of this year. The entity, Reality Labs, will reduce Facebook’s overall operating profit by about $10 billion this year, the company said.

Other tech companies such as Microsoft, chipmaker Nvidia and Fortnite maker Epic Games have all been outlining their own visions of how the metaverse will work.

Zuckerberg said that he expects the metaverse to reach a billion people within the next decade and that he hopes the new technology will creates millions of jobs for creators.

The announcement comes amid heightened legislative and regulatory scrutiny of Facebook in many parts of the world because

U.S. federal investigators raided the Florida offices of a Chinese point-of-sale device provider that reportedly facilitated cyberattacks on American and European entities. 

This week FBI agents descended on the Jacksonville offices of Shenzhen, China-based PAX Technology, which provides point of sale (POS) hardware and software to companies worldwide. 

POS systems are used everywhere from big box retailers to gas stations to coffee shops for processing customer payments.   

US RELIES ON CHINA FOR TOO MANY THINGS: REP. WENSTRUP 

The news was originally reported by WOKV, a local Jacksonville news outlet.  

Cybersecurity news site KrebsOnSecurity said the raid is tied to reports that PAX’s systems may have been involved in cyberattacks on U.S. and EU organizations. 

The FBI began investigating PAX “after a major U.S. payment processor started asking questions about unusual network packets originating from the company’s payment terminals,” KrebsOnSecurity said, based on information from a “trusted source.” 

“The payment processor found that the PAX terminals were being used both as a malware ‘dropper’ — a repository for malicious files — and as ‘command-and-control’ locations for staging attacks and collecting information,” the cybersecurity news site said. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS 

The FBI Jacksonville office provided the following statement to FOX Business: “The FBI Jacksonville Division, in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Commerce, and Naval Criminal Investigative Services, and with the support of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, executed a court-authorized search in furtherance of a federal investigation (Tuesday, 10/26). The investigation remains active and ongoing and no additional information can be confirmed at this time.”

The FBI is providing no more information other than saying it conducted searches of three facilities in Jacksonville, according to Amanda Videll, public affairs officer at FBI Jacksonville. 

“On Tuesday, October 26, 2021, PAX Technology, Inc. in the United States was subject to an unexpected visit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other government agencies relating to an apparent investigation,” a PAX Technology spokesperson told FOX Business. 

“PAX Technology is not aware of any illegal conduct by it or its employees and is in the process of engaging counsel to assist in learning more about the events that led to the investigation,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company is “aware of media reports regarding the security of PAX Technology’s devices and services [and] PAX Technology

How many times in the past six months have you heard that “customer behavior is changing rapidly”? According to Michele Fitzpatrick, Retail Industry Strategist with Acxiom, 89% of shoppers changed “how” they shop over the past 18 months, and they are not likely to return to pre-pandemic behaviors, ever. To keep up with these changes, Brand and retail marketers must seek to meet customers “where they are” in their purchasing journey, and the solutions to this challenge will be found in a new generation of marketing technology.

The question looms, how should you go about selecting the optimal technology partner to support the needs of your customer marketing efforts? In this article, we’ll share a solid list of considerations to identifying the right partner for any technology you are considering and suggest changes to your decision-making process that may surprise you.

Digital Transformation is here and now. The pandemic accelerated retailer development of all things digital, and they are continuing to devote resources and further investment to maintain momentum. It should be a path that your key stakeholders are walking with confidence. After all, if your customers have gone digital, why aren’t you moving quickly in the same direction?

A similar transformational change in the MarTech sector also occurred. Only a few years ago, a survey of one-hundred RFP’s seeking a loyalty management system would have centered on the same 5-6 providers, all of which offered end to end bundled solutions. Today, there are a more diverse set of options available to marketers, in many cases highly focused, best in class marketing technology solutions to address a specific part of the customer experience tech stack.

Modular loyalty technology solutions provide options

Through this transformation, the approach of seeking a loyalty management system to meet all needs has been disrupted by the concept of modular technology. This has made the end-to-end provider model just one option, not THE option.

There are now multiple groups of solution providers organized around individual components of the MarTech stack. The good news for brands is they can breathe easy that full replacement of enterprise platforms is not needed just to add new capability. Instead, there is opportunity to append nimble, lightweight technologies to meet specific needs without burdening either your budget or your IT resources.

Personalized loyalty solution provider Exchange Solutions is one such company to watch. Retailers can now accelerate the opportunity to grow their loyalty program performance by adopting modular loyalty solutions, such as Exchange Solutions’ new offering called Promo Enhance, powered by their ES Loyalty product. This SaaS based solution is an optimal fit for retailers that need to maximize their promotion personalization efforts but lack the resources and hefty budget required to completely replace their existing platform, including those offered by their competitors, according to their recent launch announcement.

The procurement process of the future should seek to match the nuanced needs of customers with the specific benefits of built-for-purpose software. It is more important than ever for marketing leadership