
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks tiptoed to more records amid a mixed Tuesday of trading, tacking a touch more onto what’s already been a stellar year so far. The S&P 500 edged up by 2 points, or less than 0.1%, to set an all-time high for the 55th time this year. It’s climbed in 10 of the last 11 days and is on track for one of its best years since the turn of the millennium. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
Finally, a ThinkPad model that checks all the boxes for me as a working professionalA Virginia zoo is celebrating the arrival of an adorable newborn pygmy hippo who made her debut just before Christmas. The baby hippo, a girl who has not yet been named, was born to parents Iris and Corwin at Metro Richmond Zoo on Dec. 9. She's their third female calf in under five years. The zoo said Iris was all smiles on Christmas morning. "Most people don't get a hippopotamus for Christmas at all, so we feel lucky to have received two over the years," the zoo said. Iris and Corwin's previous calf was born on Dec. 6, 2022. Iris delivered her latest newborn after a seven-month gestation, zoo officials said. She gave birth in an indoor pool. "The baby's natural instincts kicked in and she started moving around in the water immediately," the zoo said on its website. The mom and newborn are currently being kept in an enclosure that is not on exhibit to give them privacy while they bond. "Iris is an experienced mother and very protective of her calf," the zoo said. "The calf is nursing and growing quickly." The new pygmy hippo was weighed when she was 5 days old and came in at a healthy 15 pounds, the zoo said. She could grow to weigh up to 600 pounds. Her birth will help preserve the species, which is endangered. Fewer than 2,500 mature pygmy hippos remain in the wild, according to the zoo. The species is native to the swamps and rivers of West Africa, where it's threatened by poaching and loss of habitat. Pygmy hippos do not live in groups, so after they grew up, Iris' two previous calves were moved to other zoological facilities "to live with future mates and continue contributing to the conservation of their species," the zoo said. The species is nocturnal, and the zoo says they can live up to 55 years. Earlier this year, a newborn baby hippo in Thailand named Moo Deng became a global sensation when a zookeeper started sharing her cutest moments on social media. Aliza Chasan is a Digital Content Producer for "60 Minutes" and CBSNews.com. She has previously written for outlets including PIX11 News, The New York Daily News, Inside Edition and DNAinfo. Aliza covers trending news, often focusing on crime and politics.Rookie Bucky Irving relishes opportunity to help Buccaneers any way he can against skidding RaidersMapmyIndia informed the bourses on Friday that its CEO Rohan Verma would be parting ways from the executive duties to fully focus on building a B2C business However, investors have slammed the move, saying that the terms of the separation agreement aren’t fair to MapmyIndia’s minority stakeholders Despite the backlash, Rohan Verma remains adamant and plans to use his own funds to fund and run the new B2C venture Share price of geotech company MapmyIndia’s parent CE Info Systems plunged to a new 52-week low of INR 1,535 during the intraday trading on Tuesday (December 3), marking an about 12.5% decline from its closing price of INR 1,753.80 on Friday (November 29). The company’s market capitalisation fell to INR 8,370.79 Cr (about $988.34 Mn) at the end of Tuesday’s trading session. Behind this fall in stock price was a series of events, beginning Friday. The company informed the bourses on Friday, after market hours, that its CEO and executive director Rohan Verma will be parting ways from the executive duties to fully focus on building a B2C business as a “a dedicated separate” company. CEO Verma will be transitioning from CE Info Systems to take up an executive position in the new company from April 1, 2025. However, he will remain a non-executive director on the board of the geotech company. Moving forth, MapmyIndia said that its CMD Rakesh Kumar Verma will continue to provide leadership to the company. In a subsequent press release issued on December 1, MapmyIndia, without exactly saying it, made it clear that it will hive off its B2C business after the incorporation of the new startup. In the press release titled, “MapmyIndia to continue focusing on its core B2B and B2B2C businesses”, the company said that the new venture will use MapmyIndia’s consumer facing map product Mappls. However, MapmyIndia will continue to have access to Mappls for its B2B2C and B2G2C offering. The new company will operate as an independent entity and bear all expenses related to its business, be it people cost, marketing cost or cloud cost. MapmyIndia will acquire a 10% stake in the new entity with an investment of INR 10 Lakh. Further, it will also be subscribing to INR 35 Cr worth of compulsorily convertible debentures (CCDs) of the new company, which will convert to equity either after 10 years or at a 25% discount to any third party valuation of the new company, whichever is earlier. “The future capital requirement will be taken up by the MapmyIndia board at appropriate time,” it said. MapMyIndia’s departing CEO Rohan Verma will hold the remaining 90% stake in the new venture. MapmyIndia held an investor meeting on Monday (December 2) to discuss the latest developments. However, it laid bare the dissatisfaction of investors and analysts with the company’s decisions, with one of the investors going as far as saying that the terms of the separation agreement aren’t fair to MapmyIndia’s minority stakeholders. During the call, the CMD said that MapmyIndia consulted many “serious investors, not retail traders” before taking the decision. “All of them said that the company’s quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) performance is what ultimately matters,” he added. When asked if the move would actually translate to a better financial performance on a QoQ level, he refrained from making a direct comment on the impact on the company’s immediate future. Instead, he said that the company has been facing investor scrutiny over its weak financial performance in the last quarter. In the quarter ending September 2024 (Q2 FY25), MapmyIndia’s profit after tax (PAT) declined 15% on a sequential basis to INR 33.09 Cr from INR 35.86 Cr. In Q1 FY25, the decline in PAT was about 6% QoQ. Explaining the rationale behind the decision to hive off the B2C business after two consecutive quarters of less-than-satisfactory performances, the departing CEO said that MapmyIndia is a B2B company at its core and it lacks the DNA of a B2C business. Thus, while the company spent a significant amount on incubating its B2C arm, it made a dent in its bottom line. In its investor presentation for Q2 FY25, MapmyIndia said, “Marketing expenses went up by an incremental INR 2.3 Cr and cloud infrastructure costs increased by INR 1.3 Cr QoQ to support consumer brand Mappls reach, resulting in increased downloads to 25 Mn+ Mappls app users at the end of Q2 FY25.” During the call, the company’s management said that the increase in its marketing expenses was solely to support the growth of the consumer facing business. However, proxy advisory firm InGovern Research Services pointed out that MapmyIndia would still invest in the separate new B2C venture while focusing on its core B2B and B2B2C operations. “The potential diversion of capital towards the new venture may impact the company’s operational efficiency and profitability in its primary business areas,” it said. Further, InGovern also pointed out the significant investment that MapmyIndia would be making in the new entity through CCDs. It questioned the company’s financial risk management plans in case the new entity failed to perform. Later on Tuesday, MapmyIndia apparently decided to not subscribe to the CCDs. “MapmyIndia’s board approved investment of INR 35 Cr through CCDs... but after hearing the concerns of minority investors, I have decided not to take the investment, and I’ll use my own funds to run this venture,” Rohan Verma told ET. However, MapmyIndia had not informed the bourses about the development till the time of publishing this story. The new entity will also inherit Mappls Mall and Travel, which MapmyIndia said is in the incubation stage, and Mappls Gadgets for consumers, marketed through D2C or ecommerce channels. The company’s Mappls app, which provides maps, real-time updates with ETA, voice navigation, safety alerts for disturbances like speed breakers, potholes, accident prone areas and 3D photo realistic viewability option, has seen over 10 Mn downloads on the Google Playstore. In its investor presentation for Q2 FY25, MapmyIndia said that Mappls became the “No. 1 on App Store in India across all categories” in FY24. The separation of Mappls into a different entity is perhaps the biggest concern that investors have. During an over hour-long investor call, the primary question that was repeatedly asked to MapmyIndia’s management was the impact the separation would have on the company. The company’s management said that the ownership of Mappls will be with the new entity. Hence, while the new company will earn its revenue from Mappls’ products, CE Infosystem will only have access to anonymised data collected by it. This irked many investors and analysts who sought to know the reasoning behind this move. Addressing the concerns, Rakesh Verma said that Mappls as a brand itself is not the consumer business of the company today. The app is free to use and will continue to be free in the near foreseeable future, he asserted. “MapmyIndia has created 25 Mn downloads for Mappls as of today. It is going to them, but MapmyIndia is keeping the full brand usage for five years. I can’t answer what will happen after five years,” he said. The outgoing CEO justified the separation by saying that the purpose of Mappls was to showcase and complement MapmyIndia’s core business. Hence, when it is spread out to more customers, it is likely to translate in more revenue for MapmyIndia as the brand gets to showcase its tech to a greater audience. He said that this showcase as well as the extra data MapmyIndia will get can actually be seen as the “royalty” for it. Some investors and a number of people on the internet posed questions on the related party transaction (RPT) and the terms of the deal. In a post on X, portfolio management service provider Capitalmind’s CEO Deepak Shenoy said, “Regardless of who’s putting in money to fund a “B2C” business, it’s not good corporate governance to offer a brand, past goodwill and potential future growth of a consumer business to a related party, while taking only 10% stake.” In its report, InGovern marked the RPT as the biggest red flag. It said that Rohan Verma’s continued presence on the board could influence decisions related to the new B2C entity. It added that his dual role could blur the “lines of governance and accountability” at MapmyIndia. However, MapmyIndia, in its statement, said that the RTP was considered “carefully” by the board and it is as per the compliance requirement. “MapmyIndia founders (Rakesh Verma and Rashmi Verma) will have no part in the new entity. They will be completely focused on building MapmyIndia and have no other interests beyond MapmyIndia and will continue guiding the company towards new growth trajectories without any distractions. While Rohan can concentrate his energies on building the B2C business,” it said. Step up your startup journey with BHASKAR! From resources to networking, BHASKAR connects Indian innovators with everything they need to succeed. Join today to access a platform built for innovation, growth, and community.
Olivia Hussey, star of the 1968 film 'Romeo and Juliet,' dies at 73Speakers started out with rather boxy designs that were meant to be more efficient than elegant. This situation has changed over the years, thanks to developments in technology and manufacturing that left a bit of wiggle room for the critical components that make up these pieces of audio equipment. Some home speakers even come in the form of art objects that inject a bit of elegance and sophistication into the room. That’s not to say that angular, geometric shapes are unappealing, especially if they can be tweaked and embellished with a few details that take them beyond their polygonal appearance. This set of speakers, for example, mash together nature and architecture in a design that makes them look like imposing yet striking rocks. If rocks came from outer space, that is. Designer: Although a monolith technically refers to a geological feature, the word has also taken a different meaning throughout history and culture. On the one hand, you have monolithic man-made structures like obelisks dating as far back as Ancient Egypt. On the other hand, you also have fictional objects like the iconic black monolith from Arthur C. Clarke’s Space Odyssey science fiction series. It is a word that inspires both awe and creativity, combining both natural formations and artificial creations in a single thought. Those are the kinds of emotions that this Monolith speaker concept design tries to convey. On the one hand, they resemble large boulders naturally rising from the floor of your living room. On the other hand, their sharp angles and clean lines clearly convey an artificial nature, keeping their technological roots clear and unambiguous. The dark motif, paired with a few discreet light indicators, also gives it a sci-fi vibe, as if the speakers were miniature spacecraft from an advanced alien civilization. There are also a few subtle details that give the Monolith speakers some added charm. The front and the back of the speakers use triangular grilles to visually set themselves apart from typical perforations, but the front also utilizes a transparent fabric to make that pattern less conspicuous and distracting. Physical buttons lie on top of the speakers to control volume and power, while the rest of the connectors and switches are conveniently hidden on their backs. It’s possible to connect all three speakers of the set using cables, creating the semblance of a starship fleet ready for take-off, or they can be distributed across the area and communicate over Bluetooth instead. The Monolith speaker concept doesn’t drastically change the design formula but combines inspiration from nature with technical sensibilities to deliver a more striking aesthetic that doesn’t compromise on space efficiency for the components inside.
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