Brendan Rodgers praises Celtic and Cameron Carter-Vickers’ mentalityTOKYO, Dec. 11, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MEDIROM Healthcare Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MRM), "MEDIROM”, a holistic healthcare company that operates over 300 wellness salons across Japan and provides healthcare services, today announced the closing of its public offering of 2,860,000 American Depositary Shares at a public offering price of $1.75 per share, for gross proceeds of approximately $5,000,000 before deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses. In addition, MEDIROM has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 429,000 American Depositary Shares to cover over-allotments at the public offering price, less the underwriting discount. MEDIROM intends to use the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes, which may include investments, acquisitions, or strategic collaborations to expand its customer base, as well as marketing of new services. ThinkEquity is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. A registration statement on Form F-1 (File No. 333-281771) relating to the shares was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC”) and became effective on December 9, 2024. This offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus may be obtained from ThinkEquity, 17 State Street, 41 st Floor, New York, New York 10004. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About MEDIROM Healthcare Technologies Inc. MEDIROM, a holistic healthcare company, operates over 300 wellness salons across Japan, Re.Ra.Ku® being its leading brand, and provides healthcare services. In 2015, MEDIROM entered the health tech business and launched new healthcare programs using an on-demand training app called "Lav®”, which is developed by MEDIROM. MEDIROM also entered the device business in 2020 and has developed a smart tracker "MOTHER Bracelet®”. In 2023, MEDIROM launched REMONY, a remote monitoring system for corporate clients, and has received orders from a broad range of industries, including nursing care, transportation, construction, and manufacturing, among others. MEDIROM hopes that its diverse health-related product and service offerings will help it collect and manage healthcare data from users and customers and enable it to become a leader in big data in the healthcare industry. For more information, visit https://medirom.co.jp/en . Forward-Looking Statements Regarding MEDIROM Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may include estimates or expectations about MEDIROM's possible or assumed operational results, financial condition, business strategies and plans, market opportunities, competitive position, industry environment, and potential growth opportunities. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as "may,” "will,” "should,” "design,” "target,” "aim,” "hope,” "expect,” "could,” "intend,” "plan,” "anticipate,” "estimate,” "believe,” "continue,” "predict,” "project,” "potential,” "goal,” or other words that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes. These statements relate to future events or to MEDIROM's future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause MEDIROM's actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond MEDIROM's control and which could, and likely will, affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects MEDIROM's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to MEDIROM's operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. Contact: Investor Relations Team E-mail: [email protected]US job growth rebounds in November; unemployment rate ticks up
A suspected Chinese spy with business ties to Prince Andrew is barred from UK
Trump offers a public show of support for Pete Hegseth, his embattled nominee to lead the Pentagon
Jets and Jaguars, two of the NFL's most disappointing teams, meet amid uncertain futuresEurope has the introduction of its biometric-based traveler registration scheme, the Entry-Exit System (EES) but it continues working on tools that will help biometric identification at border crossings. EU border agency Frontex presented its EES pre-enrollment mobile app this week, showcasing how non-EU travelers will be able to register their biometric and biographic data before arriving in Europe. Frontex is calling the new app Quick Border. After checking their eligibility, travelers can scan their passport containing a chip and then take a live selfie, used to confirm that the person is the same as in the document. The last steps include a questionnaire which can be customized, according to the country’s specific requirements, explains Frontex’s Senior Research Officer Ricardo Neisse. The app was presented during a conference on ID fraud organized by iMars, the European Commission-funded project dedicated to uncovering document fraud. Led by and a consortium of 24 partners, the project also focuses on the development of mobile tools for European border guards that verify the authenticity of identity documents and detect manipulated face images. The EES will require non-EU citizens to submit fingerprint and face biometrics on their first crossing of Schengen borders. One thing that the Quick Border app will not be able to do, however, is scan travelers’ fingerprints. While companies such as have been working on , it comes with its own challenges. For now, travelers will have to visit self-service kiosks or border guards to enroll their fingerprints. “Some countries also foresee having border guards walking in the airport and enroll in the fingerprints as well,” says Neisse. Sensitive operations such as certificate checks, presentation attack detection and verification are not performed on the device but on the backend of the app. The raw data is sent to the destination countries which can double-check any data. Frontex has already conducted two tests of the app, including one in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport which tested the app’s usability. The second test was held at Stockholm Arlanda Airport as a fully fledged operational EES pilot which recruited almost 1700 people from 37 countries, mainly from the UK, U.S. and Australia. The pilot was completed at the end of August. “This project was rather quick, a little over 10 months,” says Neisse. “We are still evaluating findings, and we are working on a couple of research publications so we are going to have a paper on this.” Frontex is still working on improving chip reading and facial verification. Around 80 percent of facial images have passed the quality test while the remaining 20 percent mostly faced issues with lighting. The images are checked through eu-LISA, the European agency dedicated to large-scale IT systems, responsible for developing and managing the EES. Some questions about the Quick Border app still remain, including whether it will be separate from the which was recently announced by the European Commission. The platform allows both EU and non-EU citizens to create a digital passport. “I think this is not yet decided. But the goal of the European Commission is to have one app for all,” says Neisse. iMARS’ research does not just focus on tools that verify the authenticity of identity documents and detect counterfeits. The Horizon 2020 project is also exploring how biometric-based tools used by border authorities interact with European regulation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the AI Act as well as other privacy, data and border rules. To shed light on this issue, iMars is developing guidelines and best practices with the help of independent advisors exploring the legal, ethical and societal part of biometric border tools. Regulation is dependent on public opinion and iMars has found that the public has solid support for digital identity tools. In 2022, the project an analysis of societal acceptability of checking and proving identity which covered 3,000 respondents across European countries. “One thing was important to mention that the purpose and intended use of technology, technology, plus the personal data collection, should be clearly and carefully explained to citizens,” says Abdullah Elbi, a legal researcher at KU Leuven Center for IT & IP Law (CiTiP) in Belgium. Another important part is the accuracy and performance of systems. Even slight false negative rates, even below 1 percent, might affect settings such as border control which see hundreds of thousands of individuals monthly or even weekly. “Performance is very important, otherwise, the risk would be a violation of fundamental rights” says Elbi, who is also involved in iMars. Accuracy issues are not only a problem for citizens. If tools cannot catch morphed images, then border control may let some bad people into the country, he adds. On a positive note, more people are familiar with AI-fueled threats to identification such as deepfake thanks to the media attention to this topic in recent years. “One of the lessons learned from this work was that the social acceptability and public perception also changed by time, with new technologies, with new laws, with some bad news,” says Elbi. In April, iMars held a where it presented the latest findings on face morphing. Morphing involves combining images of two individuals to create a hybrid image that resembles both original faces. Aside from developing (MAD) solutions for enrollment, forensic investigation and border crossing, the project is also focusing on vulnerabilities in biometric systems and training people involved with ID checks. | | | | |None
LAKE FOREST, Calif, Dec. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATIF Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: ATIF , the "Company" or "ATIF") announced today that the Company plans on changing its Nasdaq ticker symbol from “ATIF” to “ZBAI”. The Company plans to announce the date and detailed plans for the official stock ticker symbol change by the end of December 2024. No actions will be required by existing shareholders with respect to the planned ticker symbol change. The Company’s Ordinary Shares will continue to be listed on Nasdaq and the CUSIP will remain unchanged. About ATIF ATIF Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: ATIF ) is a Lake Forest-based business consulting company that specializes in providing professional IPO, M&A advisory and post-IPO compliance services to small and medium-sized companies seeking to go public on a stock exchange in the United States. The company has a proven track record in successfully delivering comprehensive U.S. IPO consulting services to clients primarily in the United States but also internationally. The mission of ATIF is to provide one-stop, comprehensive consulting services that guide clients through the complex and often challenging process of going public. ATIF recognizes the complexity and challenges associated with the process of going public, and endeavors to simplify it while ensuring optimal outcomes for its clients through its comprehensive consulting services. ATIF has been awarded the "Golden Bauhinia Award", the highest award in the financial and securities industry in Hong Kong, for "Top 10 Best Listed Companies". Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe Harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, "estimated," "projected," Words such as "expect", "anticipate", "predict", "plan", "intend", "believe", "seek", "may", "will", "should", "future", "propose" and variations of these words or similar expressions (or the opposite of such words or expressions) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance, conditions or results and involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside the Company's control and may cause actual results or achievements to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Important factors include future financial and operating results, including revenues, income, expenses, cash balances and other financial items; Ability to manage growth and expansion; Current and future economic and political conditions; The ability to compete in industries with low barriers to entry; The ability to obtain additional financing to fund capital expenditure in the future. Ability to attract new customers and further enhance brand awareness; Ability to hire and retain qualified management and key staff; Trends and competition in the financial advisory services industry; Pandemic or epidemic disease; Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions you that actual results may differ materially from the expected results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make. You should not interpret forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Forward-looking statements represent only the beliefs and assumptions of our management as of the date such statements are made. The above forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release. Contact Information Kenny@atifchina.com ctan@htflawyers.com jwu@htflawyers.com
Donald Trump picks lockdown critic Jay Bhattacharya to run National Institutes of HealthGetting smart about car insurance can provide cost savings and peace of mindLouisville scores 52 second-half points to race past No. 14 Indiana 89-61 in the Battle 4 Atlantis