Pinterest seeks $11 billion valuation with new funding

Pinterest Inc, a photo pin-up site, is in talks to raise $500 million in a round of funding that would more than double its valuation to $11 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The company plans to raise the funds in the coming weeks, but it is not clear if any new investor would join the round, the Journal reported. Pinterest, which allows users to create online bulletin boards based on various themes such as travel, decorating, or sports, was unavailable for comment outside regular U.S. business hours. The new funding would value the company at more than twice the $5 billion valuation last May when it raised $200 million. Pinterest has raised a total of $764 million so far from existing investors SV Angel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Fidelity, Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital, and Valiant Capital Partners.

Sokoto earmarks N438.8m to build int'l conference centre

The Sokoto State Government has earmarked N434.8million for the construction of an international conference centre in the state. Dr. Muhammad Jabbi, the Commissioner for Environment, announced this after the State Executive Council Meeting in Sokoto on Wednesday. Jabbi said the council made the approval in order to host international and national conferences conveniently in the state. He also said the council approved N84.9 million for the construction of two sets of solar-powered pumps in rural areas of the state. "This is to enable us to use solar pumps for boreholes in the rural areas'', he added. Also read: Sokoto governor assures end to terrorism Similarly, Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Bello Yusuf, said the council approved N95.8 million for the expansion and rehabilitation of Government Secondary School, Illela. Yusuf added that the council also approved N146.6million for the expansion of Government Secondary School, Sanyinna, and the establishment of secondary school for girls in the area. "This is to further boost education standard in the state", he said.

Manchester City FC have not won a Premier League game without Yaya Touré this season. Are their title hopes over?

The champions haven’t earned three points from any of the six games Toure has missed in the top flight this season, with the 1-1 draw at home to Hull the fifth time they’ve been forced to share the points in the absence of their talismanic midfielder. City will be thankful to have taken anything from their encounter with Steve Bruce’s struggling side, after a late James Milner free-kick rescued a point for the hosts - but Chelsea’s 2-1 win at Aston Villa strengthens the Blues’ position at the top of the table. Manuel Pellegrini has described it as “impossible” for Toure and new signing Wilfried Bony – who will both play in Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final for Ivory Coast – to return in time for Wednesday’s trip to Stoke. Milner's free-kick rescued a point against Hull City haven’t won away against their midweek opponents since a 1999 Division Two meeting and will need to find a way to reverse their recent trend without Toure to end that run. They have managed Champions League wins over Bayern Munich and Roma this term without Toure but the stats show that, in the Premier League, without the midfielder in their side, City score less often and concede more frequently. Manchester City with and without Toure this season in the Premier League: Played:18-6 Won:14-0 Drawn:2-5 Lost:2-1 Scored per game:2.2-1.2 Conceded per game:0.8-1.5 Points per game:2.4-0.8

Egyptian Man Gets 25 Years In U.S. Prison In Embassy Bombing Case

An Egyptian man has been sentenced on Friday in New York to 25 years in U.S. prison in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. Reutersreport: Adel Abdul Bary, 54, pleaded guilty in September to three counts, including conspiring to murder U.S. citizens abroad, as part of a deal that limited his maximum sentence to 25 years. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who in September briefly considered rejecting the agreement as too lenient, said Bary could be released in approximately eight years after receiving credit for more than 15 years already spent in U.K. and U.S. custody. “You, unlike victims of the embassy bombings, can look forward to rejoining your family and living out your life in freedom,” Kaplan said. Prosecutors said at the time of the plea that Bary, who had initially faced 224 counts of murder and scores of other charges, was not as culpable for the bombings as other members of the al Qaeda conspiracy. His primary role, they said, was that of a “communications facilitator” who disseminated messages from al Qaeda leaders to the public, including claims of responsibility for the embassy bombings. He was not accused of planning the attacks.

Afcon Semi-Final Crowd Trouble Exaggerated- Blatter

Afcon Semi-Final Crowd Trouble Exaggerated- Blatter Fifa President Sepp Blatter has claimed the crowd trouble during the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) semi-final match between hosts Equatorial Guinea and Ghana was blown out of proportion by the media. Play was suspended for more than 30 minutes as bottles were hauled at players and supporters. Ghana supporters sought safety behind a goal. Riot police used tear gas and helicopter hovered over the stadium to scare off trouble makers. “I don’t see the negative side of African football that the media presents,” Blatter said. Equatorial Guinea were fined £65,000 for the violence that overshadowed the match at the Malabo Stadium. President of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), Issa Hayatou, said: “The press always dramatise, particularly the western press.” Hayatou added: “When something bad happens in Europe, they say it’s an error. When something happens in Africa, they begin talking about corruption. “The western media are simply here to perpetuate colonization.” Ghana claimed victory courtesy of goals by Jordan Ayew, Mubarak Wakasso and Andre Ayew. The Black Stars will face Cote d’Ivoire in Sunday’s final in Bata. Equatorial Guinea only stepped in as replacement hosts in November after Morocco had called for postponement of the tournament over fears of the Ebola outbreak in some part of the continent. There were many concerns about preparation and security before the start of the 30th edition of Africa’s biggest football competition. The police eventually restored order at the stadium and, once the pitch was cleared of objects, play resumed and lasted for just three minutes. Equatorial Guinea president Teodoro Obiang blamed the “childish behaviours” of fans for the crowd disturbance, saying it was caused by “enemies of progress and peace” who had organised violent demonstrations in the stadium. Blatter added: “The media can play a role, must play a role, but they must play a role where the notions of respect and fair play are basics. “Today the world opens the newspaper, watches television and sees only murder and killing. We never talk about princesses marrying anymore.”

Shocking! Police Discover 19 Bombs In Yola

The Adamawa State Commissioner of Police, Gabriel Adaji, on Friday said the command has discovered 19 high calibre bombs with which the Boko Haram insurgents were planning to launch attacks on the troubled Northeastern state. Adaji told journalists during a news briefing that the bombs were discovered in Hong Local Government Area of the state. He noted that the bombs were ready to be used when they were detected, stressing that they were at 90 per cent completion and only needed to be connected to batteries to detonate. The commissioner who suspected that the terror group wanted to use the bombs to disrupt the forthcoming elections, revealed that the police in the state worked on a hint in the media last week that some suspected suicide bombers were apprehended by soldiers in Yola, and that some of the insurgents were still at large within the town. “This made us to beam our searchlight on some of the spots,” he said. “Something that would have caused a sorrow to the state was averted. One of the bombs is capable of bringing down a 10-storey building.” Adaji said many people would have been killed and several properties destroyed had the terrorists succeeded in their attempt. He said the insurgents wanted to blow up strategic structures including the over one kilometre River Benue Bridge linking the state capital with Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola and Mubi area. “The bombs have been detonated by the anti-bomb squad of the state police command, the feat has averted a major calamity because some of the bombs were capable of destroying a ten-storey building” he said He noted that the bombs were on the verge of being transported to various parts of Yola before they were discovered, adding that the smallest among them can completely destroy structures within 200 metre radius.

Is this the biggest trend in technology today?

Technology has flourished as an industry by creating continuous substitutes for human processes and, lately, even for itself.
However, I believe that the biggest trend in technology today is cross-pollination, or the transformation of traditional industries by the convergence and application of technology to find real solutions to customer problems. It is the use of technology to solve long-standing problems in a fundamentally different way.
Historically, increasing compute power, storage, bandwidth, and the Internet itself, have helped us automate and connect ever faster, displacing many manual, human processes. One example of this is the evolution of communications, where phones and email cut down on in-person meetings and letters, before they in turn were disrupted by mobile, video conferencing and mobile messaging. Another example from retail was the displacement of bricks and mortar stores by ecommerce sites like Amazon and eBay.
When digital gets physical
However, as I noted in Online vs In Store, it is not necessarily a digital disruptor take-all proposition. Success may lie in a hybrid approach. Just as Wal-Mart and Macy’s scramble to gain relevance online, Amazon and Google are busy connecting physical groceries and drugstores to users through innovative but very real-world logistics.
If in recent years we have seen the “star wars” of digital disruption – with companies like Twitter, Uber, AirBnB and Gilt upsetting the incumbents – the future will see traditional “empires strike back”, as multinationals better learn how to use technology to reinvent themselves and potentially regain the competitive advantage.
Companies like Disney, Nike, and Tesco, who have vast resources, enormous scale, powerful brands and operational discipline are leapfrogging tech upstarts by adopting and integrating technology in their experiences and workflows. They’re able to show that building a long-term, sustainable business model takes more than hot valuations and high priced engineering talent. And “first-generation” Internet giants like Google and Amazon are trying to show that they can disrupt themselves as much as they disrupted their competitors a decade ago. The winners of the future will be “master orchestrators” able to achieve huge scale as they capitalize on technology to rapidly advance and innovate with their systems and strategies.
Four themes of cross-pollination
I have observed that the cross-pollination of technology into other industries tends to have four components:

1. Applying technology originally envisioned for one application to a new large industry or market opportunity.
2. Developing new business models aided by the tech innovation.
3. Forming unlikely alliances between tech and traditional players to reach users.
4. Creating new competitive advantage and leadership in an industry.

Cross-pollination tends to be driven by individual leaders, at first, who have the ability to do the following:

1. See the very big picture while understanding the details of feasibility.
2. Recognize patterns across seemingly disparate industries and use cases.
3. Display the courage and patience to start from scratch, experiment, iterate and eventually reinvent themselves.
4. Exhibit the conviction to inspire and convince reluctant stakeholders.
5. Build and trust a team of experts from both the “old” and “new” markets to transform products and culture.

The evidence?
The very existence of segments like HealthTech, Retail Tech, FashTech, FinTech, AgTech, and FoodTech say a lot about cross-pollination. In fact, when asked which industry would be most impacted by technology in the next three years, “global technology leaders” surveyed by KPMG pointed to Automotives, Consumer industries and Healthcare pretty quickly after Technology itself.

Source: KPMG
The flow of private equity investment dollars also show moves into these segments at a faster growth rate than traditional tech. While the data is not all in, expect to see 2014 follow the same trend as 2013 in a higher rate of growth of funding for tech businesses classified in “other” sectors …

Source: Parthenon Group
… as well as bigger investment flows into vertical software sectors, traditionally thought to be unattractive for venture investment:

Source: Parthenon Group
Finally, as we look to today’s top businesspeople and the companies they are leading, we see many of the success stories coming from the realization that technology is the best source of growth and competitive advantage for every sector in the modern era. For example, Fortune’s 2014 Businesspeople of the Year is full of individuals who achieved their ranking in some part by cross-pollinating technology into another industry.

• Larry Page (ranked #1) could have stopped after building Google into the Internet’s most profitable business. But he is pushing ther company to explore and innovate by extending the internet to wearables, homes and cars. Most extraordinary are Google’s efforts to upend medicine by releasing glucose-monitoring contact lenses and building ingestible nanoparticles that would monitor people for diseases shows not only ambition, but the radically different way of thinking about traditional problems that can come through cross-pollination. And while not everything works the first time, Google innovates while still producing over 100% returns for shareholders over the last 5 years.
• Bob Iger (ranked #6) has revitalized Disney as CEO in many ways, but his $1 billion technology investment to improve Disney’s theme parks and maintain the Most Magical Place on Earth is “a complete game changer.” A combination of mobile apps, in-park wearables and massive data collection and processing, not only make reservations and in park payments for consumers easier, but also allow Disney to determine when to add more staff at rides, what restaurants should serve, which souvenirs should be stocked, etc, all making “a more immersive, more seamless, and more personal experience.” Iger is also a big fan of accelerating digital distribution and enhancing animated films like Frozen and Toy Story. Shareholders in turn are a big fan of the 300% return Iger has delivered since he became CEO.
• Jack Ma (ranked #10) has spent his entire career disrupting commerce in China through technology, and Alibaba’s IPO in September, the largest IPO ever, proved that he has been successful on a global scale. At roughly $240bn, Alibaba has a market cap almost as big as Wal-Mart. While Ma has used mainly technology from the West, it is the essence of cross-pollination, this time to a new market context (China).  For example, when Chinese users failed to adopt ecommerce due to concerns about credit card fraud, Ma developed a new secure payments system, Alipay, and a different returns policy suited to local practice, whereas eBay abandoned China, defeated.
• Elon Musk (ranked #18, ranked #1 in 2013) was not content to just disrupt the payments industry with PayPal. Instead, he continues to try and transform three completely different industries – space exploration, clean energy and automobiles. He has approached the latter, considered by many to be a dying sector in the US, with a holistic technology, business model and ecosystem view (see his 2006 Secret Master Plan for Tesla). His initial technology innovation was to apply lithium ion cells from mobile phones to electric cars, where battery issues were key impediments to distance and design. Because this was initially expensive, Musk created a product and go-to-market strategy around sports cars that targeted high end users, changing consumer perception of electric cars from boring to desirable. The result? Tesla is the first successful new automobile manufacturer in the U.S. in 50 years, and the stock is up over 450% since its IPO in 2011.

The fact is, we are entering a truly magical era, where “technology” changes are based not on just technical iteration and advances, but rather on the true marriage of engineering excellence with business model innovation and real life applications. This will go beyond doing things faster. People will be able to think differently and more creatively. They will solve bigger problems that encompass business, political and social change. With the widespread accessibility of technology innovation and talent, the quest for relevance, let alone growth, is limited now only by an individual’s or enterprise’s creativity and openness to change. We should all seize this opportunity to transform, evolve and redefine the way we live.

Rigging Is Not Possible In The Forthcoming Elections - INEC

The Administrative Secretary, Independent National Electoral Commission, Ogun State, Dickson Atiba, has said rigging will not possible in the forthcoming elections.

 

He said this at the stakeholders’ forum organised by the state INEC for politicians and civil society groups at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta on Thursday.

 

He said different ballot papers and boxes would be used in different polling units. So, it would be difficult to rig in such a situation.

 

He said, “Rigging is not possible in the forthcoming elections, because different ballot papers and boxes will be used in different polling units.

 

“So, if someone goes to stuff a ballot box from somewhere and thinks he or she will use it in some other place, that person is deceiving himself or herself.”

 

Atiba, who urged the politicians to play by the rules of the game, said it was too late to conduct a fresh registration and transfer.

 

He explained that whoever had not registered by now, must wait till another voter registration.

 

However, the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, disagreed with Atiba, on the number of the residents that had collected their Permanent Voter Cards.

 

The governor had argued that the state had the least percentage of those who had collected their PVCs in the country till date. He put the figure at 36 per cent.

 

But the INEC boss said 60 per cent of the residents had collected their PVCs.

 

Amosun said, “In Nigeria, Ogun State has the least of the distribution of PVCs. Only about 36 per cent have been distributed in the state, the least in all of the 36 states.

 

“The REC had earlier said that people are not coming out to collect their PVCs, I want to disagree with that because the people of Ogun State have been going out daily to get their PVCs.”

 

Atiba said the percentage quoted by the governor was not correct, arguing that 60 per cent of the residents had collected their PVCs.

 

He said, “The 36 per cent the governor mentioned was not correct. As of today, 60 per cent of those who registered with the INEC in the state had collected their PVCs.”

 

Amosun, however, said he was happy to hear that the PVCs would arrive the state from Abuja in few days time, adding that if need be, he would declare a public holiday to ensure everyone who registered collected their PVCs.

How can we stop illicit flows of money?

One of the goals of the World Economic Forum’s Global Meta-Council on the Illicit Economy is to bring illegal flows of money out of the shadows, and to deal with them in a constructive and responsible manner.
We are not here to lecture governments or private sector partners about their shortcomings, real or otherwise. We do not want to slow unnecessarily the global supply chain or financial flows.
However, we do wish to create a safe space to have complicated conversations so that we can identify and enlist the help of key stakeholders in this effort – though we are under no illusions that this will be easy.
The only serious way to tackle such a complex global problem is to unpack its three component parts; product & industry groups; the people involved; and the infrastructure that keeps it flowing.

1. Product & industry groups

Let’s take counterfeiting, which is projected by the International Criminal Court to reach 1.7 trillion dollars, or close to 10% of total global trade, this year. It is relatively straightforward to identify the intellectual property owners and products that are most at risk. We know that counterfeit alcohol, for example, not only represents business and tax revenue lost, but also a serious health risk.
Just recently, according to the BBC, nearly 100 people were killed after consuming counterfeit alcohol in two separate incidents in India and Mozambique. Counterfeit pharmaceuticals, estimated to be a 200 billion dollar a year business, kills more than 1 million people annually, according to Interpol. The counterfeiting of high-value consumer products, while not mired with the same health and safety issues, is also a major tax loss for countries and revenue loss for businesses. All these contribute in one way or another to the strengthening of the shadow or illicit economy, and impede the competitiveness of the formal one.

2. Actors involved

While there is no doubt that corrupt customs inspectors or distributors are involved, the bigger problem is the direct involvement of transnational organized crime. It is wrong to assume that these criminal organizations are only interested in narcotics; actually, they will move anything that brings them lucrative profits from trading in counterfeit or fake goods, or by trading legitimate goods through illicit channels. Consequently, each of us should understand that any counterfeit product, some as innocuous as a handbag or a watch, contributes to criminal enterprises. They then use the profits to fund other criminal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, and illegal mining.

3. Enabling infrastructure

In terms of enabling infrastructure, criminal networks exploit new technology, differences among national regulatory regimes, and links between the global economic, financial and transportation systems for their gain. But one of the most important and perhaps least obvious is the financial system on which this 1.7 trillion dollar enterprise operates.
We may be inclined to think that illicit financial flows only run through the dark web using Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, which does play a part, albeit small. Instead, most of this illicit economy travels on the same global systems as the regular economy. For this reason, greater transparency in the global financial system is fundamental. The challenge is to get ahead of this movement and to try and shape the outcomes in a constructive manner.
Steps in the right direction are being taken. For example:
1) Automatic exchange of tax information across borders, led by U.S. FACTA legislation, is emerging and requires foreign financial institutions to report earnings on foreign accounts by U.S. persons.
2) Knowledge of the beneficial ownership of corporations is moving forward, with the UK taking a lead role, striking a blow at shadow enterprises.
3) Payments by resource companies to foreign governments is required under Dodd-Frank, affecting many non-U.S. companies.
4) Country-by-country reporting is advancing, particularly in the European Union, with efforts under way to require all corporations to report their financial results in each taxing jurisdiction where they conduct business.
Further movement in these areas and steps toward greater financial transparency is inevitable. So, how do we work with the primary stakeholders to influence this change? Hold a special event drawing attention to the issues? Produce, from our Meta-Council, a brief on these matters? Assemble a small group of progressive companies to champion greater financial transparency?

How the mobile market is changing China

China’s internet population (of 649 million) and mobile market are growing fast, according to a 2014 report by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Most notably, the growth of mobile internet users by 57 million was faster than that of the entire internet population (31 million), as the world’s biggest internet market continues its shift to mobile.
China also has the biggest smartphone population, with 557 million people using their handsets to go online. CNNIC reported that the number of people in China who surf the internet via mobile devices had, for the first time, exceeded the number of people doing so via their computers. This means the mobile phone has become China’s primary internet device.
CNNIC found that 90.6% of mobile owners use a messaging app to manage their money, order taxis and even invest money. Altogether, this smartphone ecosystem has driven a rapid rise in innovation that interlinks e-commerce, instant messaging and entertainment applications.
For instance, recent innovations in mobile payment and mobile banking have challenged China’s traditional banking and money management models. In 2014, use of mobile payment apps grew 73.2%, while mobile banking apps grew 69.2%. The new financing activities of internet companies may see further breakthroughs, making China’s financial system more efficient.
There has been an unprecedentedly large flow of capital into start-up projects. According to Dow Jones VentureSource, investors poured $15.5 billion into deals in 2014 – more than twice the previous record of $7.3 billion set in 2011, and the largest amount since VentureSource began collecting data on China in 2006.
As would be expected, businesses focused on mobile consumers have dominated capital-raising in 2014. Among the top few was Xiaomi, the fast-rising Chinese smartphone-maker, which received a new $1.1 billion investment in its latest round of fundraising. Xiaomi’s business model is inherently mobile, and its success largely due to marketing through social network fans and mobile messaging, selling online, and avoiding traditional marketing and advertising expenditures.
The latest round of fundraising valued Xiaomi at $45 billion, making it the most highly valued start-up in the world, even ahead of $41 billion achieved by car-sharing service Uberin the United States.
For sure, this mobile transformation is also disrupting traditional industries in China. Online retail poses a threat to traditional retail, despite the large number of shopping malls built during China’s recent urbanization drive. While shopping outlets could possibly differentiate themselves by offering special services, creating grand design or, better yet, joining the mobile market by integrating into online-to-offline (O2O) plays, there is every sign that the shift to mobile is accelerating and irreversible.

Why you need to understand risk to succeed

Launching a new business is often all about will and vision. But there is another element that should be present in those early days – one that is often overlooked: managing risk.
“Risk” is a word that is almost always partnered with “avoidance.” It often seems that the entire world is obsessed with avoiding risk. I believe in facing risk head on.
When launching Rakuten Ichiba, we were risk-takers. The idea of an Internet shopping mall was already one with a recognized history of failure in Japan. Common sense told us that there was a high chance we would not succeed. But that was a risk we were willing to take.
Some people would probably call taking a risk in this way, or rather, betting against such risk, a kind of gamble. I cannot deny that business contains within it certain elements of gambling, but I believe firmly that gambling and business are basically different.
It is true that I bet against a risk, but I did so only after completely understanding the magnitude and type of the risk that I faced, reducing it as much as I could and then preparing a plan to deal with the worst-case scenario.
The biggest risk that I faced at that time was the possibility that the Internet would not spread as fast as I had predicted. The speed of proliferation that we saw in 1997 was not sufficient to attract enough customers to Rakuten Ichiba, no matter how appealing we made our site. The initial business model depended on the Internet spreading throughout the world at a rapid pace.
To deal with this risk, the fee for opening up a shop on Rakuten Ichiba was set at a very low price at the time, and store owners were asked to pay for half-a-year’s service up-front. This meant that even if Internet shopping did not grow as fast as expected, we would still be able to maintain a minimum cash flow. It wasn’t easy convincing store owners this was the best approach, but those store owners who believed in Rakuten Ichiba have seen years of success.
We did not just take a risk, we worked to fully understand the magnitude and type of the risk we faced, and then developed a plan to deal with it even if the worst-case scenario occurred. By understanding the risk we were able to face it head on.
Understand precisely the type and magnitude of the risk you face and come up with concrete plans to deal with it. If you can accomplish this, your greatest risks will become your greatest opportunities.