Cemtrex Announces 1-For-35 Reverse Stock SplitShopping on Shein and Temu for holiday gifts? You're not the only oneSonia Bompastor praises ‘brave’ Chelsea display as WSL leaders extend winning run with defeat of Brighton
Daily Post Nigeria EPL: His level is frightening – Redknapp hails Arsenal player after West Ham win Home News Politics Metro Entertainment Sport Sport EPL: His level is frightening – Redknapp hails Arsenal player after West Ham win Published on November 30, 2024 By Ifreke Inyang Sky Sports pundit, Jamie Redknapp, has hailed the “frightening” levels of Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka. Saka scored one and provided two assists, as the Gunners thrashed West Ham 5-2 on Saturday. The England winger also won a penalty that Martin Odegaard converted at the London Stadium. After the game, Redknapp was full of praise for the 23-year-old. He said: “Saka is an incredible role model, so intelligent, knows the game inside out. “The job he is doing, the improvements he is making and the level he can get to are frightening – because he can score goals, make goals and has great desire, he runs in behind and is so difficult to defend against.” Related Topics: arsenal EPL redknapp West Ham Don't Miss NPFL: Lobi Stars celebrate win over Kwara United You may like EPL: ‘0-0 will be good result’ – Man City boss Guardiola fears 4 Liverpool stars EPL table: Arsenal go second with 5-2 win over West Ham EPL: Nottingham Forest boss backs Awoniyi to hit top form again EPL: I’ll adopt Maresca’s methods – Van Nistelrooy EPL: The’re overhyped, I feel sorry for their manager – Sutton predicts Man United vs Everton EPL: It’s not good time to play them – Sutton predicts Arsenal vs West Ham Advertise About Us Contact Us Privacy-Policy Terms Copyright © Daily Post Media Ltd
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has directed oil marketers to halt petrol imports, counting on the Dangote Refinery to meet the country’s fuel demands. According to BusinessDay, this mandate was disclosed at a high-level meeting in Abuja, attended by NNPC Group CEO Mele Kyari, representatives of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), and other key stakeholders. NNPC declared that all petrol supplies would now hinge on clearance from the Dangote Refinery, which reportedly has the capacity to cater to Nigeria’s fuel needs. This refinery, operational since January 2024, has produced diesel, jet fuel, and other products mainly for international markets. Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025 ) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts. Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here. Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and i nvest in Africa’s finest startups here . Recently, it began supplying petrol domestically, adhering to premium quality standards of 10ppm sulfur content, a significant improvement over the 50ppm standard previously dominant in Nigeria. While the refinery’s capacity is significant, oil marketers have questioned its ability to handle Nigeria’s fluctuating fuel demand reliably. Additionally, marketers raised concerns about the refinery’s payment structure, which requires advance payment—unlike the traditional post-delivery settlement model. This shift could strain the liquidity of smaller players in the downstream sector. BusinessDay quoted one marketer as saying, “Paying upfront significantly increases financial pressure, especially for businesses with limited capital.” The quality of Dangote’s fuel has introduced a price differential compared to imported alternatives, which typically have a higher sulfur content (50 ppm). While Dangote’s product aligns with global standards, some marketers have reportedly undercut its prices by sourcing cheaper, lower-quality imports, exacerbating market challenges. Dangote Refinery has accused these activities of distorting the market and even threatened legal action against NNPC for continued fuel imports. Mele Kyari recently stated that the NNPC had ceased fuel imports and was sourcing products exclusively from domestic refineries. However, this claim faced scrutiny as documents revealed significant fuel importation volumes between October and November 2024. The NNPC clarified that Kyari’s statement was taken out of context, explaining that while it prioritizes local refineries, importation remains an option when economically viable. However, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), announced earlier this week that it has reached an agreement with Dangote Refinery for fuel supply. As part of this significant agreement, the refinery will supply 60 million liters of petrol each week to IPMAN. This partnership could see the association receiving up to 240 million liters of petrol monthly. While the directive underscores the government’s reliance on the Dangote Refinery to stabilize Nigeria’s fuel supply, a giant obstacle stands in the way. Challenges surrounding crude oil supply to the refinery have cast doubt on the viability of this initiative. The success of this policy hinges on uninterrupted crude oil supply to the Dangote Refinery. However, The NNPC has struggled to meet its obligations under its stock agreement with the refinery. Dangote Refinery recently disclosed that the NNPC is failing to fulfill its crude oil supply commitments, especially under the much-publicized naira-for-crude agreement. This arrangement was designed to ensure that the NNPC supplies crude oil to the refinery in exchange for naira payments, a system projected to save Nigeria up to $8 trillion annually. Unfortunately, these supply disruptions have forced the Dangote Refinery to procure crude oil from international markets, including the United States, paying in dollars—a practice that undermines the purpose of the agreement. The decision to prioritize Dangote Refinery is expected to bolster the naira in the foreign exchange market by reducing the demand for dollars typically needed by importers. Curbing the dollar demand associated with petrol importation was touted as a way the naira’s performance in the FX market could stabilize. Analysts project that this directive could significantly lower Nigeria’s annual dollar outflows, allowing more resources to be channeled toward other economic priorities. Stakeholders are expressing concern about the sustainability of the directive, given the refinery’s operational challenges. Market experts worry that inconsistent crude oil supply and the refinery’s financial pressures could disrupt the envisioned stability in Nigeria’s fuel market. The failure of the naira-for-crude agreement not only threatens Nigeria’s FX goals but also risks destabilizing the refinery’s pricing and distribution plans. If crude oil procurement costs remain high, it may lead to higher petrol prices, further straining consumers already grappling with economic hardship.Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Dec. 1, 2024
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NoneColorado State reveals stance on playing conference final against SJSU and trans player Blaire Fleming By ISABEL BALDWIN and ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: 20:23 GMT, 30 November 2024 | Updated: 20:26 GMT, 30 November 2024 e-mail View comments Colorado State coach Emily Kohan said her team will take the floor rather than become the latest team to forfeit against San Jose State, despite the ongoing controversy around Spartans player Blaire Fleming. The top-seeded Rams advanced to the Mountain West volleyball tournament final on Friday after beating fifth-seeded San Diego State 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-23. And Kohan insisted her players were prepared to take on SJSU in the final Saturday evening with an automatic bid to the 64-team NCAA Tournament on the line. The coach's defiant insistence on playing out the final showdown comes after several steams have forfeited matches against SJSU due to supposed safety concerns surrounding Fleming, who is believed to be a biological male. Boise State, which twice boycotted regular-season matches with San Jose State, pulled out of the conference tournament on Wednesday night, hours after it defeated Utah State to secure a spot against the Spartans in Friday ́s semifinals. While the Broncos didn ́t announce explicitly why they withdrew, a lawsuit was recently filed in Colorado by players from various schools against the conference and San Jose State officials calling for a Spartans player to be blocked from participating in the tournament. They cited unspecified reports asserting there was a transgender player on the San Jose State volleyball team, even naming her. Colorado State will face San Jose State University and Blaire Fleming in the conference final A judge denied a last-minute attempt to ban Fleming from the conference championship US Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews in Denver ruled Monday that the player was allowed to play, and a federal appeals court upheld the decision the following day. 'It's been a really complex and emotional situation for us this season,' Colorado State's Kohan said. 'Unless you're in those rooms having those hard conversations and making those hard decisions, I don't think you truly know how this feels. I also think regardless of your opinion on it, there's some room here to acknowledge that there's been a lot of young people showing courage all season long. 'This can stop with us. We're not going to pass these difficult conversations on to the NCAA committee or any other team to have those crying conversations in the hotel.' San Jose State, which received six forfeit victories because of boycotts from opponents during the regular season, is seeded second in the conference tournament and received a first-round bye. Boise State was the latest school to forfeit. The Broncos ́ athletic department released a statement Wednesday night saying their team 'should not have to forgo this opportunity while waiting for a more thoughtful and better system that serves all athletes.' In addition to Boise State, Mountain West members Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada as well as Southern Utah canceled matches this season against the Spartans. Nevada ́s players said they 'refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes,' without providing further details. While some media have reported those and other details, San Jose State has not confirmed the school has a trans women ́s volleyball player . The Associated Press is withholding the player ́s name because she has not publicly commented on her gender identity and through school officials has declined an interview request. Participation of transgender women in women ́s sports became a hot political topic ahead of the recent election. Two protestors from Davis, California, stood outside Cox Pavilion before and during the Colorado State-San Diego State semifinal match on Friday. They supported those teams that forfeited matches against San Jose State, arguing the Spartans had an unfair athletic advantage. Share or comment on this article: Colorado State reveals stance on playing conference final against SJSU and trans player Blaire Fleming e-mail Add comment
Jane Moore spills beans on I’m A Celeb secrets as she tells of close friendship with ‘the Queen of Clean’ Coleen RooneyBelleville 5-star QB, nation’s top recruit, flips commitment from LSU to MichiganShopping on Temu can feel like playing an arcade game. Instead of using a joystick-controlled claw to grab a toy, visitors to the online marketplace maneuver their computer mouses or cellphone screens to browse colorful gadgets, accessories and trinkets with prices that look too good to refuse. A pop-up spinning wheel offers the chance to win a coupon. Rotating captions warn that a less than $2 camouflage print balaclava and a $1.23 skeleton hand back scratcher are “Almost sold out.” A flame symbol indicates a $9.69 plush cat print hoodie is selling fast. A timed-down selection of discounted items adds to the sense of urgency. Pages from the Shein website, left, and from the Temu site, right. Welcome to the new online world of impulse buying, a place of guilty pleasures where the selection is vast, every day is Cyber Monday, and an instant dopamine hit is always just a click away. By all accounts, we’re living in an accelerating age for consumerism, one that Temu, which is owned by the Chinese e-commerce company PDD Holdings, and Shein, its fierce rival , supercharged with social media savvy and an interminable assortment of cheap goods, most shipped directly from merchants in China based on real-time demand. The business models of the two platforms, coupled with avalanches of digital or influencer advertising, have enabled them to give Western retailers a run for their money this holiday shopping season. A Christmas tree ornament purchased on Temu. Software company Salesforce said it expects roughly one in five online purchases in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada to be made through four online marketplaces based or founded in Asia: Shein, Temu, TikTok Shop — the e-commerce arm of video-sharing platform TikTok — and AliExpress. Analysts with Salesforce said they are expected to pull in roughly $160 billion in global sales outside of China. Most of the sales will go to Temu and Shein, a privately held company which is thought to lead the worldwide fast fashion market in revenue. Lisa Xiaoli Neville, a nonprofit manager who lives in Los Angeles, is sold on Shein. The bedroom of her home is stocked with jeans, shoes, press-on nails and other items from the ultra-fast fashion retailer, all of which she amassed after getting on the platform to buy a $2 pair of earrings she saw in a Facebook ad. Neville, 46, estimates she spends at least $75 a month on products from Shein. A $2 eggshell opener, a portable apple peeler and an apple corer, both costing less than $5, are among the quirky, single-use kitchen tools taking up drawer space. She acknowledges she doesn’t need them because she “doesn’t even cook like that.” Plus, she’s allergic to apples. “I won’t eat apples. It will kill me,” Neville said, laughing. “But I still want the coring thing.” Shein, now based in Singapore, uses some of the same web design features as Temu’s, such as pop-up coupons and ads, to persuade shoppers to keep clicking, but it appears a bit more restrained in its approach. Shein primarily targets young women through partnerships with social media influencers. Searching the company's name on video platforms turns up creators promoting Shein's Black Friday sales event and displaying the dozens of of trendy clothes and accessories they got for comparatively little money. But the Shein-focused content also includes videos of TikTokers saying they're embarrassed to admit they shopped there and critics lashing out at fans for not taking into account the environmental harms or potential labor abuses associated with products that are churned out and shipped worldwide at a speedy pace. Neville has already picked out holiday gifts for family and friends from the site. Most of the products in her online cart cost under $10, including graphic T-shirts she intends to buy for her son and jeans and loafers for her daughter. All told, she plans to spend about $200 on gifts, significantly less than $500 she used to shell out at other stores in prior years. “The visuals just make you want to spend more money,” she said, referring to the clothes on Shein's site. “They're very cheap and everything is just so cute.” Unlike Shein, Temu's appeal cuts across age groups and gender. The platform is the world’s second most-visited online shopping site, software company Similarweb reported in September. Customers go there looking for practical items like doormats and silly products like a whiskey flask shaped like a vintage cellphone from the 1990s. Temu advertised Black Friday bargains for some items at upwards of 70% off the recommended retail price. Making a purchase can quickly result in receiving dozens of emails offering free giveaways. The caveat: customers have to buy more products. Despite their rise, Temu and Shein have proven particularly ripe for pushback. Last year, a coalition of unnamed brands and organizations launched a campaign to oppose Shein in Washington. U.S. lawmakers also have raised the possibility that Temu is allowing goods made with forced labor to enter the country. More recently, the Biden administration put forward rules that would crack down on a trade rule known as the de minimis exception, which has allowed a lot of cheap products to come into the U.S. duty-free. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to slap high tariffs on goods from China, a move that would likely raise prices across the retail world. Both Shein and Temu have set up warehouses in the U.S. to speed up delivery times and help them better compete with Amazon, which is trying to erode their price advantage through a new storefront that also ships products directly from China. Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.
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Shopping on Shein and Temu for holiday gifts? You're not the only oneAMD recently put the Ryzen 7 9800X3D desktop processor on the shelves, claiming it to be the "ultimate solution for the PC gaming market." In the gaming community, the X3D class processors have stirred quite some buzz , and over the past couple of years, gaming and benchmark tests have also solidified that reputation . The key here is the AMD 3D V-Cache technology , which appeared in its second-generation avatar in 2024. Take for example the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, which features an impressive 96MB of L3 cache. Now, the cache capacity is important for computing but plays a key role for playing games, too. Technically, it's a chunk of memory packed with the processor that is shared between the core components. Simply put, it acts like a quick access library for pulling up data that the processor requires frequently, or in a gaming context, refreshing and loading game assets. The more information a CPU can store locally, the less time it has to spend retrieving it from another place. To that end, the bigger the L3 cache, the higher the amount of data it can store. This is important from a performance perspective when it comes to demanding tasks like gaming, where the speed of data retrieval plays a key role. The benefits, ultimately, would be reduced loading times and an overall smoother gameplay experience at high visual fidelity. On AMD's X3D processors, L3 cache is what you get plenty of, thanks to the unique 3D V-Cache architecture. When users go out shopping for their next desktop processor to play games, the L3 cache is usually not at the top of the priority list. What usually takes precedence is the number of cores, the process node, raw power draw, and the frequency figures. However, when you finally land at a point where your options seem almost evenly matched, either within AMD's ecosystem or across the Intel lineup , the amount of L3 cache should be one of the key deciders. With the X3D series processors, AMD initially deployed a vertically-mounted 3D L3 cache. On older iterations, like the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, the company used an asymmetric chiplet design for the processor where each Core Chiplet Die (CCD) had a different configuration. Specifically, one of them offers an extra 64MB of L3 3D V-Cache. In this configuration, one of the CCDs focused on cache benefits, while the other one emphasized more raw clock speed, thereby achieving a hybrid flexible design. With the introduction of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, AMD put the 64MB 3D cache module right under the processor so that it is in closer proximity to the cooling solution which also keeps the new Zen 5 cores chill under stress. Doing so solves the thermal constraints that blocked overclocking on the first-gen X3D processors. AMD claims this design delivers an 8% improvement in gaming performance and that it was 20% faster than what the competition (read: Intel) can muster. AMD attributes the 3D-V Cache technology aboard the latest X3D processor to roughly an 8% gain in FPS numbers and "double-digit percentage improvements" on a generation-over-generation basis. The company also assures smoother gameplay, fewer stutters, and overall higher frame rate output in certain games. In case all those assertions have already swayed your opinion, the octa-core (120W TDP, 5.2GHz boost clock speed) Ryzen 7 9800X3D has another perk waiting for you. This one is the first fully unlocked X3D processor, so if you need to squeeze that extra ounce of processing mojo, you can take the overclocking route. On the older generation and lower-tier X3D processors, AMD didn't allow overclocking, even though they delivered the usual set of technical benefits touted for the 3D V-Cache tech, especially for video games. The limitation primarily has to do with thermal and power headroom limitations due to the new frequency and voltage scaling infrastructure implemented on the X3D processors. AMD's Robert Hallock explained in an interview at the 45:45 mark that the voltage limit for X3D processors was set to a lower threshold, closer to the 1.3-1.35V range. He also mentioned that the 3D stacking technology simply wasn't simply scalable in its early iterations, and that's why the company decided not to enable overclocking and hoped that it would mature in the near future. With the flagship Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, at least, AMD has apparently figured it out. The general consensus with the L3 cache situation is that it is good for games as well as demanding workloads. It's not an inaccurate assumption, but needs a bit of clarity, especially in the context of AMD's 3D V-cache tech on the X3D processors. "3D V-Cache delivers real performance improvements in games and certain multimedia encoding workloads, but not every application benefits from the additional cache. Some apps care more about higher clock rates or are designed to scale well across many cores," AMD says in its press material. The benefits, however, depend on multiple factors, such as the kind of games you are playing. If you are playing older games that are more reliant on the processor's raw frequency, cache won't make much of a difference, but for modern titles like " Far Cry 6 ," they would see the benefits of higher capacity. In the case of newer games, if they are more reliant on the latency numbers as well as graphics and processing firepower, the 3D V-Cache won't offer benefits like a higher FPS count. Even the application programming interface (API) deployed by the game developer matters, explained Hallock in an interview with Digital Trends . What about the benefits of AMD 3D V-cache for non-gaming tasks? Well, you may not see them. "I know, the extra cache capacity, it actually doesn't help outside of gaming," Hallock explained at the 50-minute mark in an interview, giving the example of content creation apps and reasoning that their memory interaction (or data fetching) is less frequent compared to those of games.NoneUS President Joe Biden on Sunday said deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad should be "held accountable" but called the nation's political upheaval a "historic opportunity" for Syrians to rebuild their country. In the first full US reaction to Assad's overthrow by an Islamist-led coalition of rebel factions, Biden also warned that Washington will "remain vigilant" against the emergence of terrorist groups, announcing that US forces had just conducted fresh strikes against militants from the Islamic State organization. "The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice," Biden said, speaking from the White House. "It's a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria." Asked by reporters what should happen to the deposed president, who reportedly has fled to Moscow, Biden said that "Assad should be held accountable." Biden -- set to step down in January and make way for Republican Donald Trump's return to power -- said Washington will assist Syrians in rebuilding. "We will engage with all Syrian groups, including within the process led by the United Nations, to establish a transition away from the Assad regime toward independent, sovereign" Syria "with a new constitution," he said. However, Biden cautioned that hardline Islamist groups within the victorious rebel alliance will be under scrutiny. "Some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses," Biden said. The United States had "taken note" of recent statements by rebels suggesting they had since moderated, he said, but cautioned: "We will assess not just their words, but their actions." Biden said Washington is "clear eyed" that the Islamic State extremist group, often known as ISIS, "will try to take advantage of any vacuum to reestablish" itself in Syria. "We will not let that happen," he said, adding that on Sunday alone, US forces had conducted strikes against ISIS inside Syria. The US military said the strikes were conducted by warplanes against Islamic State operatives and camps. Strikes were carried out against "over 75 targets using multiple US Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s," the US Central Command said on social media. Earlier, Biden met with his national security team at the White House to discuss the crisis. - Missing US journalist - Assad's reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group challenged more than five decades of Assad family rule with a lightning rebel offensive that broke long-frozen frontlines in Syria's civil war. They announced Sunday they had taken the capital Damascus and that Assad had fled, prompting celebrations nationwide and a ransacking of Assad's luxurious home. A Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that the deposed leader was now in Moscow, along with his family. The US military has around 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of the international coalition established in 2014 to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group. It has regularly struck targets in the country including those linked to Iranian-backed militias. Tehran was a major backer of Assad's government. Biden also confirmed US authorities believe the American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, still lives. "We believe he's alive," Biden said, but the US has yet "to identify where he is." bur-sms/mlm
Calgary 4, Minnesota 3
ISLAMABAD: Celebrated academician Dr Muhammad Zahid Latif assumed the office of Rector National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST). Holding a Doctorate from the prestigious Peking University, China, an MPhil degree with distinction, and four master’s degrees, Dr Zahid brings with him extensive experience of research & development and has been on the faculty of some of the leading higher education institutions at home and abroad. He is also a retired three-star general and erstwhile Federal Secretary Defence Production with hands-on experience in cutting-edge technologies and domestic as well as international defence industries. Dr Zahid also holds the honour of delivering lectures at the universities and think tanks across USA, UK, and China. Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
That’s the rent, take it or leave itAT&T Investor Day: Doubling Down On The Right Things
LOS ANGELES -- If you've hunted for apartments recently and felt like all the rents were equally high, you're not crazy: Many landlords now use a single company's software - which uses an algorithm based on proprietary lease information - to help set rent prices. Federal prosecutors say the practice amounts to "an unlawful information-sharing scheme" and some lawmakers throughout California are moving to curb it. San Diego's city council president is the latest to do so, proposing to prevent local apartment owners from using the pricing software, which he maintains is driving up housing costs. Note: The video in the media player above is from related coverage. San Diego's proposed ordinance, now being drafted by the city attorney, comes after San Francisco supervisors in July enacted a similar, first-in-the-nation ban on "the sale or use of algorithmic devices to set rents or manage occupancy levels" for residences. San Jose is considering a similar approach. And California and seven other states have also joined the federal prosecutors' antitrust suit, which targets the leading rental pricing platform, Texas-based RealPage. The complaint alleges that "RealPage is an algorithmic intermediary that collects, combines, and exploits landlords' competitively sensitive information. And in so doing, it enriches itself and compliant landlords at the expense of renters who pay inflated prices..." But state lawmakers this year failed to advance legislation by Bakersfield Democratic Sen. Melissa Hurtado that would have banned the use of any pricing algorithms based on nonpublic data provided by competing companies. She said she plans to bring the bill back during the next legislative session because of what she described as ongoing harms from such algorithms. "We've got to make sure the economy is fair and ... that every individual who wants a shot at creating a business has a shot without being destroyed along the way, and that we're also protecting consumers because it is hurting the pocketbooks of everybody in one way or another," said Hurtado. RealPage has been a major impetus for all of the actions. The company counts as its customers landlords with thousands of apartment units across California. Some officials accuse the company of thwarting competition that would otherwise drive rents down, exacerbating the state's housing shortage and driving up rents in the process. "Every day, millions of Californians worry about keeping a roof over their head and RealPage has directly made it more difficult to do so," said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a written statement. A RealPage spokesperson, Jennifer Bowcock, told CalMatters that a lack of housing supply, not the company's technology, is the real problem - and that its technology benefits residents, property managers, and others associated with the rental market. The spokesperson later wrote that a " misplaced focus on nonpublic information is a distraction... that will only make San Francisco and San Diego's historical problems worse." As for the federal lawsuit, the company called the claims in it "devoid of merit" and said it plans to "vigorously defend ourselves against these accusations." "We are disappointed that, after multiple years of education and cooperation on the antitrust matters concerning RealPage, the (Justice Department) has chosen this moment to pursue a lawsuit that seeks to scapegoat pro-competitive technology that has been used responsibly for years," the company's statement read in part. "RealPage's revenue management software is purposely built to be legally compliant, and we have a long history of working constructively with the (department) to show that." The company's challenges will only grow if pricing software becomes another instance in which California lawmakers lead the nation. Following San Francisco's ban, the Philadelphia City Council passed a ban on algorithmic rental price-fixing with a veto-proof vote last month. New Jersey has been considering its own ban. According to federal prosecutors, RealPage controls 80% of the market for commercial revenue management software. Its product is called YieldStar, and its successor is AI Revenue Management, which uses much of the same codebase as YieldStar, but has more precise forecasting. RealPage told CalMatters it serves only 10% of the rental markets in both San Francisco and San Diego, across its three revenue management software products. Here's how it works: In order to use YieldStar and AIRM, landlords have historically provided RealPage with their own private data from their rental applications, rent prices, executed new leases, renewal offers and acceptances, and estimates of future occupancy, although a recent change allows landlords to choose to share only public data. This information from all participating landlords in an area is then pooled and run through mathematical forecasting to generate pricing recommendations for the landlords and for their competitors. The San Diego council president, Sean Elo-Rivera, explained it like this: "In the simplest terms, what this platform is doing is providing what we think of as that dark, smoky room for big companies to get together and set prices," he said. "The technology is being used as a way of keeping an arm's length from one big company to the other. But that's an illusion." In the company's own words, from company documents included in the lawsuit, RealPage "ensures that (landlords) are driving every possible opportunity to increase price even in the most downward trending or unexpected conditions." The company also said in the documents that it "helps curb (landlords') instincts to respond to down-market conditions by either dramatically lowering price or by holding price." Providing rent guidance isn't the only service RealPage has offered landlords. In 2020, a Markup and New York Times investigation found that RealPage, alongside other companies, used faulty computer algorithms to do automated background checks on tenants. As a result, tenants were associated with criminal charges they never faced, and denied homes. Thirty-one-year-old Navy veteran Alan Pickens and his wife move nearly every year "because the rent goes up, it gets unaffordable, so we look for a new place to stay," he said. The northeastern San Diego apartment complex where they just relocated has two-bedroom apartments advertised for between $2,995 and $3,215. They live in an area of San Diego where the U.S. Justice Department says information-sharing agreements between landlords and RealPage have harmed or are likely to harm renters. The department in August filed its antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, alleging the company, through its legacy YieldStar software, engaged in an " unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing ". The complaint names specific areas where rents are artificially high. Beyond the part of San Diego where Pickens lives, those areas include South Orange County, Rancho Cucamonga, Temecula, and Murrieta and northeastern San Diego. In the second quarter of 2020, the average rent in San Diego County was $1,926, reflecting a 26% increase over three years, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Rents have since risen even more in the city of San Diego, to $2,336 per month as of November 2024 - up 21% from 2020, according to RentCafe and the Tribune. That's 50% higher than the national average rent. The attorneys general of eight states, including California, joined the Justice Department's antitrust suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. The California Justice Department contends RealPage artificially inflated prices to keep them above a certain minimum level, said department spokesperson Elissa Perez. This was particularly harmful given the high cost of housing in the state, she added. "The illegally maintained profits that result from these price alignment schemes come out of the pockets of the people that can least afford it." Renters make up a larger share of households in California than in the rest of the country - 44% here compared to 35% nationwide. The Golden State also has a higher percentage of renters than any state other than New York, according to the latest U.S. Census data. San Diego has the fourth-highest percentage of renters of any major city in the nation. The recent ranks of California legislators, however, have included few renters: As of 2019, CalMatters could find only one state lawmaker who did not own a home - and found that more than a quarter of legislators at the time were landlords. Studies show that low-income residents are more heavily impacted by rising rents. Nationally between 2000 and 2017, Americans without a college degree spent a higher percentage of their income on rent. That percentage ballooned from 30% to 42%. For college graduates, that percentage increased from 26% to 34%. "In my estimation, the only winners in this situation are the richest companies who are either using this technology or creating this technology," said Elo-Rivera. "There couldn't be a more clear example of the rich getting richer while the rest of us are struggling to get by." Private equity giant Thoma Bravo acquired RealPage in January 2021 through two funds that have hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from California public pension funds, including the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, the Regents of the University of California and the Los Angeles police and fire pension funds, according to Private Equity Stakeholder Project. "They're invested in things that are directly hurting their pensioners," said K Agbebiyi, a senior housing campaign coordinator with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit private equity watchdog that produced a report about corporate landlords ' impact on rental hikes in San Diego. RealPage argues that landlords are free to reject the price recommendations generated by its software. But the U.S. Justice Department alleges that trying to do so requires a series of steps, including a conversation with a RealPage pricing adviser. The advisers try to "stop property managers from acting on emotions," according to the department's lawsuit. If a property manager disagrees with the price the algorithm suggests and wants to decrease rent rather than increase it, a pricing advisor will "escalate the dispute to the manager's superior," prosecutors allege in the suit. In San Diego, the Pickenses, who are expecting their first child, have given up their gym memberships and downsized their cars to remain in the area. They've considered moving to Denver. "All the extras pretty much have to go," said Pickens. "I mean, we love San Diego, but it's getting hard to live here." "My wife is an attorney and I served in the Navy for 10 years and now work at Qualcomm," he said. "Why are we struggling? Why are we struggling?" ___ This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.