Published
- 09:00 am
Today Systemax Inc. unveiled it has executed a definitive agreement with a management team backed by Hilco Capital Limited ("Hilco") to sell all of its unprofitable European Technology Products Group businesses. Systemax will retain its highly profitable operations in France. This step focuses the Company's ongoing operations on its profitable Industrial Products Group ("IPG") and France businesses.
With the completion of this transaction, Systemax operates two highly successful, growing and profitable businesses: IPG, its North American MRO business operating primarily under the Global Industrial brand, and its France technology Value Added Reseller business operating primarily under the Inmac Wstore brand. During 2016 these ongoing businesses, inclusive of corporate charges, generated revenue of $1.1 billion and over $38 million in operating income. In 2016, IPG generated revenue of $715.6 million and operating income of $34.3 million, and the France business generated revenue of $417.2 million and operating income of $19.2 million.
Larry Reinhold, Chief Executive Officer, said, "In the past year we have significantly streamlined our Company by exiting non-strategic and underperforming operations, positioning us to focus on our profitable and growing business segments. IPG is a strong and growing business that has outperformed its industry sector in revenue growth for a number of years and has invested in substantial infrastructure to support future expansion. Our France business, which was our largest operation in Europe, is highly successful and has historically operated largely autonomously from our other European operations. It is a well-managed and valuable asset with leading market share, double digit revenue growth and strong bottom-line performance. We believe that we have found a good home for our former colleagues in Europe. We thank them for their efforts and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors. With a simplified and focused operating footprint and a strong cash position, we are well positioned to continue executing on our strategic plan and drive the performance and value of our businesses for our shareholders."
The businesses were sold on a cash-free, debt-free basis; proceeds were nominal. Systemax retained a small residual equity position in the sold operations and will provide transition services to Hilco for a limited period of time.
- 09:00 am
APrivacy is pleased to announce a new partnership with Lamivoie Capital Partners to deploy APrivacy's secure and seamless communication solutions. Founded by 3 prominent European families, Lamivoie Capital Partners is a privately owned multifamily office based out of Hong Kong focusing on the next generation based in Asia. Lamivoie becomes the first multifamily office to adopt APrivacy technology originally developed to meet the strict requirements of the largest financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies.
APrivacy combines data security with a seamless and multi-channel user experience. "We are delighted to team up with Lamivoie Capital Partners and help them communicate confidently with their members. It is an exciting development for our company and we are glad to play a leading role in keeping Lamivoie and its clients' information secure," stated Dr. Cédric Jeannot, Founder and CEO of APrivacy.
The FinTech firm based in Waterloo, Canada and Hong Kong has developed its client portfolio in APAC by empowering financial institutions to securely conduct business over their client's favourite channels, such as email, Dropbox, WhatsApp or WeChat. Its unique data-centric approach to security allows financial players to drive new revenues while meeting the strictest regulatory requirements.
With the spirit of entrepreneurship and opportunity that Asia and Hong Kong bring, Lamivoie Capital Partner is rejuvenating the image and asset allocation of the old family office thanks to a dynamic team, eager to adopt and invest in new technologies that can shift the status quo of many major industries. Amedee Maingard, Managing Partner at Lamivoie Capital Partners said: "For our families and partners to be protected by APrivacy and its military-grade security brings us great comfort in the current world of unsecured communication mediums. When it comes to family information, security and confidentiality is one of our primary concerns and this partnership puts that to rest and allows us to have open and fluid communications with our families, service providers and partners. We are delighted to be the first in our industry to partner with APrivacy."
- 03:00 am
WorldRemit, the major online money transfer entreprise, has set up in Japan.
Customers in Japan will now be able to send money to family and friends worldwide, using a mobile phone, tablet or computer – cutting out the need to travel to agent locations or bank branches during business hours.
Bringing the offline remittance industry to mobile, WorldRemit's arrival in Japan underlines its status as a major player in the global FinTech revolution.
Japan is the third largest economy in the world by GDP and has a supportive regulatory environment for financial services. The number of foreign workers living in Japan exceeded 1 million for the first time in 2016. According to the WorldBank, these migrants sent $4 billion in remittances to family and friends abroad in 2015 alone.
With WorldRemit, people in more than 50 countries can send instant and secure transfers to more than 140 destinations. Known as the ‘WhatsApp of money’, WorldRemit makes sending money as easy as sending an instant message.
Ismail Ahmed, CEO at WorldRemit, comments: "Japan and the broader Asia Pacific region are important parts of our global growth strategy. Remittances are crucial to many people living in this region, and we are very pleased to be able to offer our digital services to customers in Japan. This adds to our current send markets in this region, which provides a very solid base for further expansion into neighbouring countries.”
Tsuyoshi Ijichi, Country Director for Japan, comments: “Japan represents a key market for WorldRemit. We are here to serve the many migrant communities in Japan who send money, offering them more choice and a safer, faster and lower cost service than legacy competitors”. WorldRemit customers currently send over 580,000 transfers every month.
- 05:00 am
Global-IP Cayman, advanced satellite communications company, comissioned to bring affordable Internet and related value-added services to Sub-Saharan Africa, is delighted to announce its outstanding sales team brought on board to develop channel partners and offer new types of communications services in the area.
The sales team is headed by Senior Group Vice President, Yaron Tchwella, a seasoned executive who previously served in various president and CEO roles and brings many years of leadership and experience in Africa.
The sales team has deep experience working in African markets with a keen awareness of the industry trends and market conditions. Its leaders include:
- Jean-Pierre Kabanda, Vice President Sales & Business Development, former VP Marketing and Sales for SES S.A., responsible for Africa and Middle East, with over 15 years in the communications industry.
- Alex Petropouliadis, Vice President Sales, former VP Sales for Gilat Satcom, Xerox Business Services, and an ISP in Africa focusing on innovative value-added services, with over 15 years in the communications industry.
- Albert Khayat, Director Sales, former VP Sales for Alvarion/Telrad, covering Africa, and sales executive for Motorola in West Africa with over 30 years in the communications industry.
Umar Javed, co-founder and COO of Global-IP, said, “We are pleased to have such a powerful team getting our message and offering out to our target markets. At the core of our mission, we are committed to assisting our customers with sustainable profitable growth, by putting plans in place to increase their overall performances as we progress through our network deployment.”
Mr. Tchwella said, “Global-IP is a fast-moving company, with ambitious plans to be the leading provider of high-speed satellite connectivity in Africa and I am proud to be a part of this journey. Our commitment to Africa is unparalleled and our first satellite, GiSAT-1, will bring superior but affordable internet connectivity into Sub-Saharan African market and its 800 million inhabitants.”
Jeff Anderson
Compliance and Product Manager at Fidessa
A week before President Trump’s inauguration the CFTC approved a proposal to amend the record keeping requirements contained in R see more
- 06:00 am
Today Huawei showed the availability of the Infosys Finacle core banking solution on Huawei KunLun.
Transformation and innovation are the hot topics of today's financial world. The ideal ICT architecture is to help banks fully harness open-source technologies such as big data and cloud computing. By doing so, financial organizations are empowered with efficiency in applications, enabling them to maximize advantages of innovation for their business. Core banking systems historically run on enclosed architectures, where infrastructures are costly and the return on investment (ROI) can be low. Enclosed systems can hold back innovation and become barriers to the banks as they evolve and migrate to the open-source, innovative ecosystem. KunLun perfectly brings together the advantages of the x86 ecosystem and the high reliability, performance, and scalability required by mission-critical environments. Enhanced by Huawei's state-of-the-art NC interconnect chip and reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS 2.0) technologies, KunLun unlocks reliability of the highest level for open computing platforms. KunLun and the Finacle application layer combine to form a superior high-availability solution, maximizing service uptime and delivering high levels of service efficiency and customer experience for banks.
Wang Zhen, Vice President, IT Server Product Line, Huawei, said, "Infosys Finacle is a leading banking software provider globally. Huawei, as a globally distinguished ICT infrastructure provider, provides products and solutions that have been vastly used across various industries. This extended offering combines the best expertise and deep knowledge of the two companies, and is set to enable more choice and better cost-benefits for the financial industry."
"Huawei and Infosys have made significant achievements since the establishment of a strategic partnership in 2014. The joint innovation with Finacle core banking solutions has been recognized by the industry," said Diana Yuan, President of Enterprise BG Marketing and Solution Sales, Huawei. "We will continue to cooperate in cloud computing, big data, information and communication areas to provide customers with more differentiated innovative solutions to help customers in their digital transformation."
- 06:00 am
Today BillingTree revealed that Worldpay US, the world's leader in payments processing technology and solutions, will extend its omni-channel payment solutions to their growing customer base with the Payrazr Marketplace. Available immediately are robust myPayrazr payment acceptance technologies including myPayrazr IVR.
myPayrazr IVR is a PCI/DSS and HIPAA compliant fully automated voice responsive system designed around customers who want to offer a simple-to-use omni-channel solution for expanding payment acceptance. myPayrazr IVR enables Worldpay customers to manage billing accounts and make real-time payments through a frictionless self-service IVR experience.
The integration with Payrazr Marketplace expands Worldpay's payment processing solutions and, as new Payrazr technologies are added, will be seamlessly available to Worldpay US customers.
"Today's consumer is highly connected. So, increasingly, our partners need to accept payments the way their customers want to pay," said Mike Frank, Senior Vice President and Head of Sales for the Worldpay US Corporate Business Unit. "Adding myPayrazr solutions to Worldpay's growing omni-channel payments offerings provides even more options for customers to accept payments over the phone and online."
"Teaming with Worldpay to offer BillingTree's myPayrazr solutions benefits everyone involved, it exposes more clients (and their customers) to cutting edge technology previously available only to our merchants, and in turn fuels continued enhancements and development to the suite," said Chad Probst, VP of Sales and Business Development at BillingTree.
- 02:00 am
Today, Mari T. Vullo, financial Services Superintendent, reported that the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has approved the application of Coinbase, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Coinbase Global, Inc., to offer Ethereum and Litecoin for New York customers.
DFS has also approved Coinbase to offer users in New York to access “Shift Card”, a Coinbase linked debit card service.
“New York continues to lead the nation in fostering financial technology by responsibly promoting innovation and protecting consumers,” said Superintendent Vullo. “DFS has proven that the state regulatory system is the best way to supervise and cultivate a thriving fintech industry, like virtual currency. New York will remain steadfast in pushing back against federal encroachment efforts like the OCC’s proposal to impose a one-size-fits-all national bank charter that increases risk and seeks to usurp state sovereignty.”
DFS has rapidly responded to innovations by licensing technology based money transmitters under New York’s money transmitter law; online lenders under New York’s banking law; and virtual currency exchanges under New York’s financial services law. DFS issued a virtual currency and money transmitter license to Coinbase in January 2017 to offer services for buying, selling, sending, receiving, and storing bitcoin. Today, DFS authorized Coinbase to expand its service offering to include Ethereum and Litecoin.
The Ethereum network, which receives significant development contributions from Brooklyn-based ConsenSys, is a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform. Ether is the digital cryptography-based asset of the Ethereum network, similar to how bitcoin is the digital cryptography-based asset of the Bitcoin network. The Shift Card is a VISA debit card that allows Coinbase users in New York and other select states and territories in the U.S. to spend bitcoin anywhere VISA is accepted. Litecoin, developed as a modification of the Bitcoin protocol, is a well-known and long standing virtual currency that is nearly identical to Bitcoin. Litecoin was the first alternative virtual currency to bitcoin to launch and gain acceptance.
Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO and Co-founder said, “At Coinbase, our first priority is to ensure that we operate the most secure and compliant digital currency exchange in the world. New York is an important market and we look forward to expanding our services for New York customers as swiftly as possible.”
After rigorous review, DFS has approved five firms for virtual currency charters or licenses, while denying those applications that did not meet DFS’s standards. In addition to Coinbase, DFS has granted licenses to XRP II and Circle Internet Financial, and charters to Gemini Trust Company and itBit Trust Company. The companies that have received application denial letters ordering them to stop any New York operations are Disruptor Labs, LLC, ChangeCoin Inc., Ovo Cosmico Inc., Snapcard Inc. and OKLink PTE. LTD.
- 07:00 am
PaySimple, the major service commerce platform for businesses, has reinforced point-of-sale software for service businesses with their new release of Service Point of Sale (sPOS) platform.
Small- and medium-sized service business owners are looking for ways to simplify management tools and have a more comprehensive view of their businesses. PaySimple's new sPOS is a virtual terminal that provides customers the simplicity of point of sale with the power of a complete billing, payment, and customer management solution. The platform was designed to allow service-based businesses to sell their products and services through one easy-to-use interface, supporting omni-channel billing and payment collection.
"We continue to develop new and improved features to help our customers grow their businesses in the most efficient way," says Jim Olson, VP of Product Development at PaySimple. "We are excited about our new Service Point of Sale platform that was designed for service-based businesses to have their go-to, access-anywhere virtual cash register that supports all sales types, and integrates with their customer database."
The features are an expansion from what traditional point-of-sale systems have to offer. sPOS keeps credit card and ACH information on file, allowing customers to easily access their accounts for fast, easy checkout – and making it easy to do repeat business. It also allows businesses to easily record cash or check transactions, supporting multiple payment methods and integrating those payments with business reporting.
One of the most anticipated sPOS features integrates built-in CRM functionality and in-depth custom reporting to provide greater insight into revenue by customer, service, or payment type. These insights mean not only a more streamlined business operation and better customer experience, but also cost savings.
"PaySimple has done an awesome job at consolidating e-commerce, merchant services, and point-of-sale, most of which have been separate apps for us in the past," says Dan Hine, CEO of Crimson Fly, Inc. "The e-commerce piece of PaySimple has played an integral role for us as we roll out new products each quarter and need a simple solution for customers to pay online."
- 07:00 am
Swiss watchmakers Winwatch and Montfort have each developed mechanical wristwatches with an embedded CCP element for payments. Meanwhile, other wearable and accessory manufacturers are set to follow suit and a Swiss fintech company will soon roll out dedicated CCP-enabled smartcards in several Eastern European countries.
