10:1 Bonus Issue, Huge Rs 150/ Sh Dividend YTD; Time To Invest In This Tobacco Stock Below Rs 350?Replica enables Fortune 100 financial, business and healthcare institutions and Federal agencies such as the US Army and Defense Innovation Unit to securely engage in high risk cyber activities without compromising productivity. FALLS CHURCH, Va. , Nov. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Grey Market Labs (dba Replica Cyber ), a pioneering leader in cybersecurity solutions, proudly announces it has secured $8M in Series A funding led by Capri Ventures, with participation from Blu Ventures and AFG to accelerate adoption of its groundbreaking platform - Replica. This strategic investment will enable the company to advance its mission of delivering Secure Environments-as-a-Service, bringing unparalleled privacy and security in an increasingly vulnerable digital landscape. With this round, Andy Brown , CEO of SandHill East , former CTO of UBS, and current board member of ZScaler and PureStorage, will be joining the Board of Directors as will Dennis Shaya , Partner at Capri Ventures. In addition, Don Duet , Former Head of Technology at Goldman Sachs, and Tim Estes , founder of Angel Kids AI and former CEO at Digital Reasoning, will be joining the advisory board, complementing an already strong team including: Christopher Caine (CEO – Mercator XXI), Gary Cubbage (fmr. EVP – Booz Allen Hamilton ), Nick Donofrio (fmr. EVP Innovation – IBM), Todd Helfrich (VP Federal – Censys). The Replica platform offers Secure Environments-as-a-Service, revolutionizing how organizations protect and enable high risk activities. This includes targeting Russian misinformation campaigns in Ukraine , safe testing of new tech with proprietary data, disrupting financial scams and fraud aimed at seniors, and identifying and mitigating insider threats within organizations, among other scenarios. By integrating patented technology, intelligence tradecraft, and Zero Trust architecture, Replica quickly creates realistic IT environments that encompass hardware, operating systems, applications, networks, and data layers. This innovative solution not only protects user and organizational privacy but also delivers the data, tools and workflows needed for users to be productive in their most sensitive work. Kristopher Schroeder , CEO of Grey Market Labs, emphasized the significance of this funding round: "Replica is the culmination of over 20 years of experience in embedded tradecraft, intelligence operations, and cutting edge software. Our engineering team, with extensive backgrounds in offensive and defensive cyber warfare, has developed a product that is comprehensive with the protection and efficiency needed for today's enterprises and their users." Schroeder goes on to say, "This funding will allow Grey Marketing Labs to accelerate our vision to deliver even more impactful solutions for our customers." Capri Ventures, the lead investor in this funding round, expressed their excitement about partnering with Replica. "We are thrilled to support Grey Market Labs in their mission to redefine cybersecurity with the Replica platform," said Dennis Shaya , Partner with Capri Ventures. "Their innovative approach and deep expertise position them as a frontrunner in the industry, especially financial services, and we believe this partnership will drive significant advancements in digital privacy and security." Available as both a SaaS product and a hosted service, Replica enables secure work even in a global ecosystem, while reducing burden on the IT organization. The platform's flexible architecture supports rapid deployments (noted as some of the fastest in Financial Services), continuous updates, and seamless integration with existing enterprise services, including single-sign-on, proxies, and data governance. Additionally, Replica offers rich audit and reporting functionalities to ensure compliance with regulatory standards and provide the critical observability needed for leadership. Replica has solved critical problems for major Banks, Health Systems, Global Consulting, and Governments with use cases like: Protected Research (deep/dark web, social, automated collects, OSINT), Isolating Acquired (M&A) tech and activities, Advanced Sandboxing for Malware/ Unknown Files , Complex Training Environments, Enabling Fraud /Cyber Investigations, Secure DevOps with Data Controls, Intellectual Property Sharing and Protection, and more. With this new round of funding, Replica is poised to expand its value to customers, enhance its offerings, and further solidify its position as a leader redefining how to protect and enable high-risk activities. For more information about Replica, please visit ReplicaCyber.com . About Grey Market Labs Founded as Grey Market Labs® (dba Replica Cyber ), a Certified B-Corp with the mission to protect life online. Our work protecting the United States from foreign intelligence evolved to the creation of ReplicaTM, the world's first Secure Environments-as-a-Service platform. This patented SaaS platform simplifies creation of comprehensive hybrid-computing systems, delivering privacy and security while giving control to business users and reducing the burden on IT by 99.73%. We have solved critical problems for major Banks, Health Systems, Global Consulting, and Governments with use cases like: Protected Research (deep/dark web, social, automated collects, OSINT), Isolating Acquired (M&A) tech and activities, Advanced Sandboxing for Malware/ Unknown Files , Complex Training Environments, Enabling Fraud /Cyber Investigations, Secure DevOps with Data Controls, and more. For anyone that has tried to build complex, secure systems and platforms - Replica replaces this expensive work with the automation of secure environments. About Capri Ventures Capri Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm focused on Enterprise Technology. The team is composed of former software executives and leaders from Fortune 500 enterprises, bringing significant resources early in a company's lifecycle to help drive commercialization and market adoption. About AFG Partners AFG Partners < https://www.afgvc.com/ > is an Asian-based VC fund investing in B2B fintech and enabling tech startups addressing the critical needs of financial institutions and corporates globally, particularly in Asia . A core part of the strategy is to invest and help companies in Europe and the US who are interested in expanding across Asia via our network of LPs and ecosystem partners. Previous investments of the principals include N26, Unit, Blockdaemon, Airbnb, Transferwise, Gocardless and Wefox amongst others. About Blu Ventures Blu Ventures, a venture capital firmed based in Washington, DC , provides strategic funding and expert guidance in Seed to Series A companies in cybersecurity, healthtech, and B2B software startups. Blu leverages the deep domain expertise of its partners—all former operators with extensive industry experience—to empower visionary entrepreneurs. Learn more at www.bluventureinvestors.com View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/grey-market-labs-announces-8m-series-a-funding-led-by-capri-ventures-to-accelerate-growth-of-its-replica-platform---first-of-its-kind-secure-environment-as-a-service-302313584.html SOURCE Grey Market Labs
MADRID (AP) — Kylian Mbappé admitted he is going through a difficult moment as he missed another penalty kick and Real Madrid lost ground to Barcelona in the Spanish league after a 2-1 loss at Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday. Mbappé had his penalty saved by Athletic goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala in the 68th minute, and later Federico Valverde gifted a late goal by losing possession on defense to allow an easy winner by Gorka Guruzeta in the 80th. “Bad result,” Mbappé posted on Instagram. “A big mistake in a match where every detail counts. I take full responsibility for it. A difficult moment but it's the best time to change this situation and show who I am.” Mbappé sent the penalty shot to his right and Agirrezabala dived that way to make the stop. “We knew that he is a good penalty taker,” Agirrezabala said. “He missed the last one and I believed that he was going to choose the same side and luckily that’s what happened.” Mbappé, who had a goal disallowed for offside in the 13th, had also missed a penalty in Madrid’s 2-0 loss at Liverpool in the Champions League last week. He didn’t take the one for the club in a Spanish league match on Sunday, but he scored in the 2-0 win over Getafe to ease some of the pressure on him and the club. But it was another lackluster outing for the France star, who continues to struggle in his first season since finally joining the Spanish powerhouse. “I won’t evaluate the performance of a player because of a missed penalty. Obviously he is sad and disappointed, but you have to move on,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said about Mbappé. “He is not at his best level, but you have to give him time to adapt. You have to give him time to be able to do better.” Ancelotti also downplayed the bad play by Valverde, saying that mistakes can happen to anyone. Valverde had control of the ball but gave it away while trying to get past a couple of Athletic players instead of passing it to a teammate, leaving Guruzeta with an easy run into the area for his goal. Álex Berenguer had put the hosts ahead in the 53td and Jude Bellingham equalized for Madrid in the 78th. The defeat left Madrid four points behind Barcelona, which on Tuesday ended a three-match winless streak in the league with a 5-1 rout at Mallorca. Madrid, which has a game in hand, had won three consecutive league games since a 4-0 loss at home in the “clasico” against Barcelona. Madrid has lost five of its last 11 matches in all competitions. Athletic moved to fourth place with the victory, its fourth consecutive across all competitions. Both matches on Tuesday and Wednesday were moved forward in the schedule because the clubs will be playing in the Spanish Super Cup in January. In the Copa del Rey, first-division clubs Rayo Vallecano, Valencia and Real Betis all advanced over lower-division teams in the second round, but Villarreal lost 1-0 to fourth-division club Pontevedra and Girona fell on penalties to fourth-tier team Logrones. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Callum O’Hare and Tyrese Campbell gave the Blades a two-goal advantage at half-time, while Jesurun Rak-Sakyi ensured the final half an hour was played with far less intensity when he grabbed the Blades third. The victory sent the Blades to the top of the Sky Bet Championship table, but left the U’s suffering three defeats on the bounce. United head coach Buckingham said: “It’s a tough place to come, a team that are top of the table. “I thought we gave a good account of ourselves across, until we gave away a throw-in goal. “When you come to a place where teams haven’t scored in nine hours here, they don’t give up goals lightly. “We then had to go chase the game, but we’ve reverted back to the shape that we’re comfortable in, and we’ve done as much as we can to prevent them, but their ambition I’m sure as a club this year is to go up. Ours is to make sure we stay up. “We need to make sure we bring players back and we revert back to what we’re good at, and that we get ourselves right for what’s coming in the next month. “We spoke about how important this squad has been. The reality is we haven’t had this squad available to us for the last six to eight weeks. “We have to utilise the squad, whether it’s to get minutes into them and prepare for what’s coming, and it’s difficult to do because you’re coming up against very good players. “There were three of their players on the pitch that cost the entire amount of our team, so that’s the reality of what it is. “We’ve spoken about how important every player is going to be for us to achieve our goals this year, which are very different to their goals. “It’s about making sure we put ourselves in the best place for what’s to come. “We’ve got Millwall now on Saturday, we’ve got players back, and we’ve got a good run of games coming up where we can really go back to where we were at the start of the season.” Buckingham added: “I’ll take responsibility for results. This level is very different to what we’ve been used to. “We’re probably going to get more results against us than we’ve had in many a season, but I’ll accept that as long as players continue to try to showcase what they can do within the formation and the set-up we have. “It won’t work every time, but whether it’s belief or confidence within the group, as long as we continue to see that, we’ll always own the result and own the performance. “Players know their roles. It’s now about doing them as well as we can. If they do that, they’ll put themselves in the best place.”A dealing room at Hana Bank in central Seoul is seen in this Dec. 3 photo. Yonhap A surprise declaration of martial law in Korea that had sent the won plummeting and gave U.S. Treasuries a brief safe-haven boost was lifted on Tuesday, removing one source of geopolitical jitters for world markets to contend with. The move gave a modest boost to U.S. stocks, which were otherwise muted and range-bound for much of the session. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq managed to reach new record closing highs. "These developments, combined with those in France and the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, all are creating uncertainty as investors think about how to position themselves moving into 2025," said Greg Bassuk, CEO at AXS Investments in New York. Korea's won had tumbled to a two-year low against the dollar after Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in what he said was an effort to block efforts by opposition parties to hijack the parliamentary process. He later reversed the decision, honoring a parliamentary vote against the measure. Crude prices gained amid supply concerns related to OPEC+ output cuts and simmering tensions in the Middle East. The Labor Department released its closely monitored Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which showed job openings on the rise and layoffs on the wane, supporting the notion that the labor market continues its gradual cooldown. On Friday, the Labor Department is due to unveil its much-anticipated November employment report, which will be parsed for clues regarding the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy decisions in December and beyond. "There’s a host of economic data on this week’s calendar, so investors are taking a wait-and-see as this week’s data will likely impact the Fed’s December rate decision," Bassuk added. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 76.59 points, or 0.17 percent, to 44,705.41; the S&P 500 rose 2.73 points, or 0.05 percent, to 6,049.88; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 76.96 points, or 0.40 percent, to 19,480.91. European shares nabbed a one-month high even as political turmoil in France, which has pushed the French government to the verge of collapsing, kept investors on edge. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 3.16 points, or 0.37 percent, to 867.80. The STOXX 600 index rose 0.37 percent, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 8.89 points, or 0.44 percent. Emerging market stocks rose 9.83 points, or 0.90 percent, to 1,096.22. Wednesday's stock markets to open as usual 2024-12-04 07:47 | Finance The dollar closed nominally lower against a basket of world currencies as financial markets cemented expectations that the Fed will make another interest rate cut at this month's policy meeting. But its losses were held in check by France's unfolding political crisis, and lingering tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump. Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, U.S., Dec. 2. Reuters-Yonhap China's onshore yuan touched its weakest level since the 2008 financial crisis in the face of tariff worries. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.03 percent to 106.34, with the euro up 0.1 percent at $1.0508. The Korean won weakened 0.97 percent against the dollar to 1,418.35 per dollar. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.08 percent to 149.47. Bitcoin was uncharacteristically subdued, prolonging its flirtation with the elusive and closely watched $100,000 mark. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin gained 0.29 percent to $95,686.00. Ethereum declined 0.17 percent to $3,608.46. Yields on 10-year Treasuries edged higher in the wake of the JOLTS report as investors cement their expectations for a 25 basis point rate cut at the conclusion of the Fed's Dec. 17-18 policy meeting. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 4 basis points to 4.234 percent, from 4.194 percent late on Monday. The 30-year bond yield rose 5.5 basis points to 4.4129 percent from 4.358 percent late on Monday. The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with rate expectations for the Fed, fell 2.3 basis points to 4.175 percent, from 4.198 percent late on Monday. Crude oil prices gained ground ahead of an expected decision by OPEC+ to approve continued output cuts. Oil's advance was also supported by a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. U.S. crude rose 2.70 percent to $69.94 per barrel, while Brent rose to $73.62 per barrel, up 2.49 percent on the day. Gold held firm amid firming expectations for a December rate cut from the Federal Reserve. Spot gold rose 0.13 percent to $2,642.25 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.26 percent to $2,641.70 an ounce. (Reuters)
The decision to cut P12 billion from the Department of Education’s (DepEd) budget for 2025 has sparked a heated debate, with various perspectives coming out on the effects and justifications of this fiscal adjustment. Despite the cuts, the DepEd’s annual budget for 2025 has actually increased by P20 billion compared to the 2024 budget. According to Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate finance committee, this overall increase demonstrates the government’s continued commitment to prioritizing education. Additionally, the budget for teaching supplies allowance has more than doubled from P4.825 billion in 2024 to P9.948 billion in 2025, highlighting the government’s emphasis on directly supporting teachers and students. While this increase is a positive step, we have to note that further measures are definitely necessary to support teachers who are often overworked, underpaid, and forced to cover classroom expenses out of their own pockets. The reduction in specific programs, particularly the P10 billion cut from the DepEd Computerization Program, has raised significant concerns. Education Secretary Sonny Angara expressed disappointment, noting that this program was intended to bridge the digital divide, an issue that became glaringly evident during the Covid-19 pandemic. Critics argue that deprioritizing this initiative could worsen existing inequalities and leave millions of students unprepared to meet the demands of a technology-driven world, especially as AI technology continues to transform the modern landscape. This digital divide, while a significant issue, can actually be addressed through other initiatives such as public-private partnerships, community-based programs, and collaborations with technology companies. These alternative solutions may even be more cost-effective and sustainable in the long run. Moreover, reducing government funding for certain programs can actually create opportunities for private sector participation and investments in education, leading to more innovative and efficient solutions. Private entities often bring in new technologies, management practices, and funding models that can complement public efforts, enhancing the overall educational landscape. The decision to cut P12 billion from the DepEd budget for 2025 is a multifaceted issue involving various factors. Although the overall DepEd budget for 2025 has increased, the reductions in specific programs highlight the need for fiscal prudence and efficiency. By addressing systemic problems, balancing national priorities, and exploring alternative solutions, the government can strive to create a more sustainable and effective education system. Ultimately, we must remember that education is a right, not a privilege, and that investing in it is both a constitutional obligation and a moral imperative. The government must continue to prioritize education while ensuring that resources are used efficiently and effectively. The ultimate goal should be to establish a comprehensive education system that supports both teachers and learners, whileequipping them to face the many challenges of the modern world. Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II received his Law degree from Ateneo de Manila University in 1994. He is currently engaged in the General Practice of Law through the firm he established, Jose M. Rojas Law Office. Prior to getting his Law degree, Atty. Rojas graduated Cum Laude in Economics and Political Science from the University of Massachusetts. He used to chair the Philippine Racing Commission (Philracom) and, more recently, used to sit as Vice-Chairman and General Manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). Atty. Rojas is an opinion columnist for the Business Mirror and Pilipino Mirror, and 2014 awardee of People Asia’s “Men Who Matter.” He is a member of the Saturday Group of artists and is married to Atty. Patricia A.O. Bunye.None