Japan is currently considering the introduction of a new gambling bill as the decision which should be made today may make casino gambling legal.

The Rising Sun nation has mixed relation with casino practices. Although its financial merits are recognized, some consider them to be against their cultural habits.

A new gambling bill was presented this earlier this week, on Tuesday. Put for the by a committee of the House of Councilors, it is expected to face full chamber on Wednesday.

According to public reports, the bill has the backing of the government. Shinzo Abe, the Japan Prime Minister, and his cabinet have reportedly expressed their agreement of the new bill.

They see as a way of increasing tourists and tourism values, in general. Such a new tourism area could come to help the country’s economy, as it is flagging.

Even the mere presentation of the potential new bill was quick to produce a response. Following its announcement, equity trading gambling shares registered a higher value on Tuesday.

Amongst the most probable and already proposed casino constructions areas are a number of important cities. As such, up to 4 casinos may be built in either greater Tokyo, Osaka, or Yokohama areas.

This is not the first gambling bill submission. Back in 2013, and later in 2015, the first such proposals were advanced. They targeted the larger scale development of casino venues.

The envisioned plans saw a combination between hotels and casinos. Such venues would have also hosted conference and shopping facilities. If the bill would have passed, its regulators would have also started developing industry licensing plans.

However, previous and current gambling bills have been met with both political and population mixed reviews.

Renho, the head of Democratic Party opposition, expressed his opposition to the new bill. According to him, legal gambling should not be considered a growth industry for their nation. He feels that such practices would come in conflict with the Japanese dignity.

According to an NHK broadcaster survey, the questioned population is not happier. Whilst only 12 percent were in favor of lifting the casino ban, around 44 percent opposed it. The remaining questioned population percentage showed their indecisiveness.

However, following yesterday’s vote, the gambling bill passed by a key parliamentary section. Although it has faced fierce opposition, the bill is expected to most likely be approved.

As it gained the Cabinet Affair’s panel approval, it will potentially and probably be enacted into laws. An enacting of the gambling bill could create a high-stakes such environment.

The high values gaming areas could as such enter the world’s third biggest economy.

One of the major concerns raised by the opposition pointed out addiction problems. The country is already encountering some gambling addiction issues over its similar such legal activities.

Still, by having the Prime Minister’s approval, the bill is expected to pass. Abe’s coalition government has a strong majority in the country’s upper house.

As such, the gambling bill will reportedly most likely be approved this Wednesday. December 14 also marks the last day of the respective National Diet session.

Although the bill’s fate remains to be seen, a fact is almost certain. Estimates show that such potential casino venues will most likely not be operational during the Olympics. In 2020, Tokyo will host the Olympic Games.

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Equinix has announced its intention of acquiring 29 data centers currently controlled by Verizon as the two companies have entered into a definitive purchase agreement.

Equinix Inc. is a California-based colocation provider and IBX data center. As one if not the largest such services provider, the company has expanded and has a worldwide outreach.

Verizon Commmunications Inc, more commonly known as Verizon, is a Delaware-based broadband telecommunications company. It is also considered as being the largest United States service provider of wireless communications.

The purchase agreement between the two companies, which has been declared as being definitive, will target 24 data centers.

Details about the acquisition have been offered and state as follows. Equinix is seeking to buy a 29 data centers portfolio which will include the respective sites and also all their operations.

The acquisition price was set at a $3.6 billion sum and is expected to be an all cash transaction.

The 24 sites are spread out throughout 15 metro areas and include 29 such center buildings. As the details of the acquisitions and its definitive status have been confirmed, the sale is expected to bring benefits to Equinix.

Through the data centers acquisition, the company is expected to strengthen its existing global platform. As such, the centers are expected to increase its United States and also Latin America interconnections.

It should also contribute to the opening of three new market areas in Houston, Culpeper, Virginia and Columbia’s capital, Bogota.

The sale may also contribute to the company’s accelerated access into the strategic and enterprise market areas. Such areas also include the energy and government sectors.

Equinix will be adding an estimated number of 900 new customers to its platform. This value also includes a significant number of enterprise customers which will be new to their platform.

It will also be expanding the company’s gross square feet global footprint with an additional 2.4 million footage. As such, Equinix will reach an approximated total 17 million gross global square footage.

The value is calculated based on its 175 data centers which span across 43 market areas in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific zones.

The equinox-Verizon transaction is expected to close sometime in 2017, by the mid of the year, after it satisfied the customary closing conditions.

Amongst the 29 new data centers, one will include the following locations. Culpeper, Bogota, Houston, Los Angeles (Torrance), Miami (Miami and Doral), and New York (Carteret, Piscataway, and Elmsford).

These are just a few of the new data centers to be acquired by Equinix from Verizon. Besides being beneficial for the company’s development, the sale will also advantage customers.

As such, existing and future Equinix customers will beneficiate from a larger coverage. The acquisition will come to translate as the access to new partners, locations, and ecosystems.

Karl Strohmeyer, Equinix’s Americas President, also pointed out the advantage that the acquisition will bring to partner companies.

New or existing companies will be able to leverage the company’s global footprint and also it interconnection services.

As such, companies will be able to construct and base globally consistent platform from within their local metro area.

Steve Smith, the Equinix CEO and President, also presented the company’s market expectations. As such, the acquisition is expected to also advantage shareholders.

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An interesting lawsuit will take place as the Iceland versus Iceland trial is the country’s try to take back the rights for its name from the food store which already owns them.

Iceland is a Northern European country famous for its lush, green environment and great natural beauty.

Iceland Foods Ltd. is a United Kingdom-based grocery and frozen-food products retailer company which was founded in 1970.

The food products company is the second biggest retailer in Britain, just behind the giant grocery company Tesco PLC.

Back in 2002, Iceland Foods requested and applied to the European Union for the trademark ownership over the name “Iceland”. As of 2014, the trademark request was approved.

The effects of this trademark grant are stated as being amongst the causes behind the Iceland versus Iceland lawsuit.

According to declarations, the Icelandic country government feels that the Iceland Food Store is using this new right in an aggressive manner.

The country’s government declared that the grocer is trying to stop authentic Icelandic companies from using the name of their birthplace.

Reykjavik, as the country’s capital, maintains that Iceland Foods has been filing quite aggressive lawsuits against any company that uses “Iceland” in its trademark.

The company states that these lawsuits are targeting real Icelandic companies that are trying to use their origin as part of their marketing methods.

According to the same statement, as all previous discussion failed to garner a result, the country decided to sue the store. As such, the Iceland versus Iceland trial was born.

Iceland Foods representatives responded to the claims by saying that no recent discussion attempts have been made.

The company declared that it too would have also preferred an amicable resolution to the problem. It also maintained that it has been trading under the same name for the past 46 years.

As such, it finds it hard to believe that anyone could mistake the country for the food products company.

Iceland Foods has a total number of approximately 800 stores which amount to about 25,000 people, or about 10 percent of Iceland’s total population numbers.

The frozen foods supermarket has had a mixed history as it has passed through both successful periods in the 1980’s and rather unprofitable times in the early 2000’s.

As of 2005, the company has been registering an increase is now considered to be the second biggest United Kingdom food retailer.

Their stores are estimated to process an approximated number of 5.5 million daily transactions.

With Iceland’s total population amounting to about 323,000 people, the company finds it unlikely that anyone could have mixed the two entities.

Still, the European Union Intellectual Property Office or EUIOP website shows that the Iceland trademark owned by Iceland Foods Ltd. is currently being disputed.

If the Iceland versus Iceland charges are approved, the trademark could be removed from the registry and the food company will lose its rights over it.

This could potentially bring losses to the company’s profits, but perhaps more importantly, it could generate a precedence.

If the country’s claim is approved, it could potentially lead to other such cases for companies such as Canada Dry or maybe the Chicago Town pizzas.

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NBCUniversal revealed on Monday that it will continue to invest in BuzzFeed as it will now be doubling the original sum and investing another $200 million.

BuzzFeed is an internet media company which is based in New York and was founded in 2006. The company has managed to build itself up into a famous online entertainment and media website.

Its partnership with the NBCUniversal has led to an advertising sales relationship as the two companies have partnered up for several initiatives.

Amongst them, one can include their Snapchat and 2016 Rio Olympics coverage and also selling advertising.

The partnership was initiated last year and featured an initial value of $200 million. With the doubling of the original sum, the two companies declared their intentions of expanding their strategic partnership.

Just as in the case of the original investment, the current one will be funded by Comcast. Comcast is the United States cable colossus company which owns NBCUniversal.

NBCUniversal which is also known as NBCU is based in New York and was initially founded in 2004. The multinational media conglomerate is an important media and entertainment player.

It owns one of the United States “Big Three” televisions, the NBC, and also Universal Studios, one of the largest and best-known film studios.

During the investment announcement Maggie Suniewick, the NBCUniversal President of Digital Experiences, released a few statements about the partnership.

According to Suniewick, the BuzzFeed collaboration helps the media conglomerate get in touch with the millennial audience. As such, the Internet media readers are presented with the NBCU content.

The collaboration also gives NBCU the chance to attract and expand its client’s campaigns and their reach across the media.

Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed chief executive and founder also went to release declarations. According to him, this further investment will help further maintain the website’s independent operations.

At the same time, just as with NBCU, the collaboration will help it grow due. BuzzFeed will beneficiate from a further access to the NBCUniversal resources.

The two companies have stated that they will be working and producing new short-form videos for its advertisers.

The advertiser short-form video content will then be distributed and shared across social networks.

Another beneficiary of the investment and its money infusion will also be the shared ad products area and Tasty. Tasty is a media network that is focused on food and which is owned and was developed by BuzzFeed.

Following its growth, BuzzFeed now has a global distribution and area of reach. As such, the company declares to have around 1,300 employees distributed across the 18 it owns around the world.

BuzzFeed has been praised by market analysts for its ability to capture the attention and attract the younger generations.

Most millennial readers and the generations coming after them are not big consumers and are mostly turning away from cable television and reading newspapers.

As such, an association between an Internet famous website that attracts such readers and the resources of a media colossus should be beneficial for both parties involved.

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LifeLock will be changing owners as the identity theft protection services company will be acquired by the Norton developer, Symantec.

Symantec is best known for its security software, namely the Norton Antivirus program. As most of the Norton antivirus software is included in the personal computer market, the rise of mobile devices seems to have affected it as well.

Although the company is still profitable, its numbers seem to be falling as more users are turning towards the smartphone and tablets market.

Greg Clark, the Symantec Chief Executive, stated in an interview that the LifeLock acquisition is expected to return Symantec to a longer sustainable growth.

Symantec will be buying LifeLock for a $2.3 billion sum as the company hopes to increase its Norton cyber security division.

The US-based identity theft protection services company sale is expected to bring in about $660 million in revenue for Symantec in the consumer business.

The LifeLock buy should also help diversify the Symantec range of products as the company has been recently acquiring different software programs.

In August, this year, the Norton developer also bought Blue Coat Inc. The $4.65 billion deal saw the acquisition of a software which helps firms preserve and keep their Internet security.

LifeLock will be an import acquisition as according to Fran Rosch, the Norton Business Unit Executive Vice President, they have quite an important user number.

According to Rosch Symantec did not reach LifeLock’s 4.4 million members numbers in the identity security area.

LifeLock is a United States company which offers quite a range of identity theft protection services. Amongst them, one can beneficiate from a monitoring of the new account openings.

Users can also receive alerts when unauthorized credit-related applications try to use their identity.

Symantec was advised in the sale by JP Morgan and Citigroup, and also Barclays Plc, Wells Fargo, and the Bank of America.

The company will probably be financing the buy with cash on balance sheet transactions. It will also probably make use of a new debt coming up to $750 million.

Symantec, which is based in Mountain View, California, has recently been detaching itself from what are believed to be more commoditized services.

The moving away process was initiated by their selling, back in January, of Veritas. The data storage business was then acquired by the Carlyle Group LP. The private equity firm acquired the Symantec Veritas business for $7.4 billion.

Symantec has also beneficiated from Silver Lake Partners investments. The technology-focused company invested a $1 billion sum in the company this year, which was sent in two parts.

The new LifeLock acquisition will bring a number of changes, mostly to the user numbers, but is not estimated to have an immediate material impact.

According to the company, the recent buy will not impact their 2017 financial results. Symantec also went ahead and reaffirmed its fiscal year guidance for both 2017 and 2018.

As Elliot Management Corp, the activist hedge fund has been pushing LifeLock towards exploring its options, the company was also advised in the sale by Goldman Sachs.

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Estee Lauder announced earlier this week that it will be acquiring the Too Faced cosmetics company in a move that is believed to consolidate its market leadership and ensure the latter’s growth.

Too Faced is a cosmetics company launched back in 1998 by Jeremy Johnson and Jerrod Blandino, which are also currently leading the company alongside Eric Hohl, Too Faced CEO.

Too Faced offers face, eye, and lips cosmetics and is recognized for its innovative and high-quality formulas, its product names and also the products’ distinctive packaging.

The cosmetics company is currently placed amongst the top 8 makeup brands of the United States specialty-multi channel.

It ca also boast with quite an Instagram following, with more than 7.3 million subscribers, ass its main market target is also believed to be formed from millennials.

Too Faced has seen an increasing rise over the past few years, as it has registered a 70 percent growth per year, and has 60 percent annual compound over the last three years. The company is expected to surpass the $270 million sum in its 2016 net sales value.

The General Atlantic equity firm has been featuring Too Faced in its portfolio ever since 2015. As part of the sales offer, Estee Lauder has agreed to also buy the other entities to own the brand.

December 2016 was designated as the expected acquisition month and the estimated total sales value is believed to come to about $1.45 billion.

The Estee Lauder Chief Executive and President, Fabrizio Freda, stated that the acquisition could come to mark a tremendous opportunity for the company he represents.

Too Faced has been registering a tremendous growth as it has been targeting the online and specialty-multi domains. These areas are becoming more important and already are fast-growing strategic channels.

According to the aforementioned Freda, the Too Faced buy will account for the opportunity to create additional value by expanding in both new and existing markets.

The expansion will also target both the United States, as well as the international cosmetics market and the travel retail.

Freda also pointed out the company’s growth and applauded its founders and CEO as he declared that Estee Lauder is looking forward to working and expanding the company.

The Too Faced co-founders also expressed their delight over the sale as the two companies will be joining forces. According to their statement, Estee Lauder will continue to build on the same spirit and beliefs which currently characterizes their company.

They also went to state that the mixing up of the Estee Lauder resources with their company commitment will ensure the future success and growth of the brand they created.

Estee Lauder announced that on Tuesday, November 15, it will be hosting a conference call so as to discuss the details of the Too Faced transaction.

Various factors such as acquisition benefits, integration risks, current and future economic status on the international market, consumer, retailer and supplier demands and other such factors will be put in discussion.

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It seems that karma was not on their side as GoPro is issuing a recall of its Karma Drone which should have made an impact on the market but instead might face direct impact due to power loss.

GoPro’s hopes for the Karma Drone were high as the company was counting on them and their fellow new products to help move along the company.

Following the quarter year reports, the company revealed lower than expected numbers as their revenue and total profit numbers were lowered.

With the release of its new drone and camera products earlier in October and late in the third quarter, GoPro was counting in the new products so as to boost the company’s figures for the fourth quarter.

Still, it would seem that the Karma drone will not be contributing towards higher numbers as the company was forced to issue a recall amidst the various product rumors.

The new product was already facing a tough competition, as the drone market is already mostly dominated by DJI, when rumors started appearing about the drone’s abilities.

Amongst them, most seemed to address the product’s apparent drifting, the possible stability issues, and also Karma’s power drainage.

As of November 8, GoPro officially announced that it would be recalling almost 2,500 of the devices which have been sold since October 23, or as most estimates tend to show, all of the Karma drone units.

The company motivated the decision by stating that a very number of such devices were registered to have faced random power loss whilst operating.

Although no property damages or injuries have as yet been reported, GoPro decided to delay further shipments of the product until the power issue is fully resolved.

Following the statement, GoPro also announced that it would be offering full refunds in exchange for the $799 Karma drone.

The recalled products can be either directly returned to the GoPro company, or they can be sent to the retailer from which they were purchased.

As for the moment, the company will not be offering exchanges of the recalled drone for another, fixed model, the company CEO declared that they are working towards ensuring an easy refund and return process.

Nick Woodman, the GoPro CEO, also stated during the Karma recall press release that the company is in close collaboration relations with the Federal Aviation Administration and the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The aforementioned Woodman also proceeded to apologize in the name of the company for any possible inconveniences caused to its customers and to ensure them that all steps are being followed towards a better, safer product.

As GoPro has decided to recall the Karma drone, the decision will most probably be a setback in the company’s attempts to enter and conquer the drone market.

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The U.S. car market reported a decrease in numbers as the initial reports mark a drop when compared to the 2015 same time period.

As analysists await the monthly reports for October, initial estimates show that the U.S. car market is expected to register a 6 to 8 percent drop in numbers.

According to initial reports, General Motors (GM) registered the best sale percentages amongst the large automaker zone. The company saw a decrease of just 107 percent as compared to the same month last year.

The list of carmakers to have released their monthly results and which have also marked an increase is relatively small. It includes the likes of Tesla, Hyundai-Kia, Jaguar Land Rover, Subaru, and Mitsubishi.

As nearly all carmakers were expected and have marked a decrease, the race seems to have been won by GM as it registered the smallest drop.

The company exceeded previous expectations and estimates as it set an all-time brand high in their average transaction price. The company also marked and improvement in their retail market shares, which coupled with the rise in average transactions would point towards a strengthening in an industry with an increasingly smaller number of sales.

As the company’s sale numbers of SUV trucks and crossovers helped balanced the fall of its sedan area, they also seemed to consolidate the trend.

The U.S. car maker industry has noted a difference in the numbers of sedan versus SUV sales as most consumers seem to be forgoing the former and choosing the latter.

Based on most market analysis, trucks and SUV’s have been turning increasingly higher numbers and have proven to be more profitable than the sedan models.

Still, even with the percentage drop, analysts do not consider the situation to be that dire as they take into consideration a number of factors.

One of them is the fact that last year’s month of October was considered to be one of the highest sale months ever registered in the auto industry. When compared to it, most were already expecting to see a drop in sales.

The number of sale days would also have to be taken into account as the hurricane that washed over the East Coast is also thought to have affected the sales count.

Taking these and other such factors into consideration, the 17.7 million number of sold vehicles is not necessarily bad or a cause for worry, according to Cox Media’s Karl Bauer.

As Ford is the only company not to have released its October numbers following a fire which affected the company’s Dearborn, Michigan headquarters, analyst Tom Libby considers that 2016 will still be one of the U.S. car market industry’s best years.

The HIS Markit stated that although the month marked a decrease as compared to last year’s same period, the industry as a whole will still have a good year as most companies are most profitable, especially when comparing recent year number with the 2009 – 2011 recession period.

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IBM will be enlarging its artificial intelligence technology Watson domain as it revealed a new collaboration with Slack Technologies Inc.

The Big Blue will be introducing new enterprise tools in the commerce, marketing, human resource, and supply chain areas, all thanks to the new collaboration.

Through the help of the new collaboration with Slack and its technology, IBM has already released a cloud database hybrid solution, developer services, and iOS App cognitive capabilities.

The new collaboration was announced this week during the World of Watson IBM event which took place in Las Vegas. Its target is to promote and further advance the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology domain.

The two companies, IBM and Slack Technologies, will reveal a developer toolkit which will feature the former’s Watson technology and which can be integrated and used with Slack.

IBM, or International Business Machines Corp., also announced in the same statement released on Wednesday that it will be entering the chatbot domain.

The respective AI conversation-based application area has been steadily enlarging, as it is now used in both mobile systems and also in educational and medical purposes.

The IBM-built chatbot will introduce a new usage area for the technology through its future use. As it will allow the IT departments of a company to both better identify and fix an issue, the respective users will no longer have to leave the Slack platform whilst fixing possible problems.

The current Watson Conversation system already includes natural-language processes and speech-to-text conversions. It also features the computer’s ability to register a person’s messages, as it understands what they are saying.

The existing system will receive a boost as the Slack start-up will be incorporating its own, already existing, customer-service bot. The current Slackbot is a little lacking as it does not feature an AI technology and as such is unable to decode messages.

The new collaboration between the two systems will lead to an improvement in both areas and will offer the chance for new advances in the chatbot area that are sure to please both the companies and the customers.

Both companies see the collaboration and the chatbot domain as an initial step or stage in the intelligent use of information as the new technology is set to facilitate the access and use of large databases.

As the AI-powered chatbots will offer quicker insights into data, as their processes allow for a faster processing of the analyzed information, the technology will benefit people as they seek the answer to a problem or an inquiry of any type.

The new collaboration will also come as a boost in the AI software used by companies so as to facilitate their processes.

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A group of social networks and other media outlets has committed to improving news quality. They joined technology companies to design a platform and a code of conduct against fake news.

Jenni Sargent is the managing director of First Draft news. There are more than 30 organizations which are enlisted in the First Draft Coalition, and their mission is to boost confidence in reporting information that goes online.

Sargent declared that we are now at a place where achieving trustworthy, truthful news is a challenge for newsrooms and social platforms alike. She cited the Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian UK-based newspaper, in saying that the “news feed on your phone” makes “all the stories look the same”, even if their source Is not credited with trust.

Some of the members of the First Draft Coalition are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, The Telegraph, Amnesty International European Journalism Centre and many others.

Partners have a goal of sharing knowledge and nurturing policies and training for journalists to correctly source and report the news.

The platform was formed in June 2015, supported by the Google News Lab. It aims to spread awareness about information that should make the news and media sourced from social networks – according to Sargent. On the official website of the First Draft Coalition, there is a catalog of articles and case studies which point to best practices and guide journalists on how to convey the news.

Because there is a large community of news specialists who have good skills, Sargent wants the First Draft Platform to have a feedback database, where social media representatives and journalists can gather and share ideas for ways of improving news quality. Sargent also wants the platform to enable social media users to critique news and increase their news literacy.

The First Draft Coalition has formed a year ago, in June, but the platform is going to be launched in October. The platform will also include a code of conduct for journalists to voluntarily follow.

Facebook wants to modify the “trending” section so as to reduce human partisanship (or bias).

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