Categories
Business

Dun & Bradstreet announces second quarter 2020 earnings release and conference call; participating in an upcoming investor conference

SHORT HILLS, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (“Dun & Bradstreet”) (NYSE:DNB), a leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics, today announced the date for the release of its second quarter 2020 earnings and its participation in an upcoming investor conference.

Second Quarter 2020 Earnings

Dun & Bradstreet will release second quarter 2020 earnings before the market opens on August 6, 2020. A conference call to discuss its results will follow at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time that same day.

Those wishing to participate via the webcast should access the call through Dun & Bradstreet’s Investor Relations website at https://investor.dnb.com. Those wishing to participate via the telephone may dial in at 833-350-1376 (USA) or 647-689-6655 (International) and enter the conference ID: 7189713. The conference call replay will be available via webcast through Dun & Bradstreet’s Investor Relations website. The telephone replay will be available from 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time on August 6, 2020, through August 13, 2020, by dialing 800-585-8367 (USA) or 416-621-4642 (International). The replay passcode will be 7189713.

Upcoming Investor Conference

Anthony Jabbour, Dun & Bradstreet’s chief executive officer, and Bryan Hipsher, Dun & Bradstreet’s chief financial officer, will participate in the Wells Fargo Virtual Technology Services Conference on Monday, August 10, 2020.

About Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet, a leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics, enables companies around the world to improve their business performance. Dun & Bradstreet’s Data Cloud fuels solutions and delivers insights that empower customers to accelerate revenue, lower cost, mitigate risk, and transform their businesses. Since 1841, companies of every size have relied on Dun & Bradstreet to help them manage risk and reveal opportunity.

Contacts

Investor Contact:
Debra McCann

973-921-6008

IR@dnb.com

Media Contact:
Lisette Kwong

973-921-6263

KwongL@dnb.com

Categories
Business

Justin Bieber announces rescheduled world tour dates and adds new shows in 2021

Justin Bieber World Tour 2021— Pesented by T-Mobile— Hits the Road in North America Next Summer

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Grammy Award®-winning global superstar Justin Bieber, announced his rescheduled world tour dates today. The tour was to kick off in May but was postponed this Spring for the safety and health concerns of the fans and crew. The 45-date tour has been rerouted and the tour production has been redesigned and will no longer be stopping in stadiums or all markets. 19 new arena dates have been added to the Justin Bieber World Tour. Kehlani and Jaden Smith who were originally scheduled to support the tour will not be appearing on the new dates as new support will be added at a later date.

The tour, promoted by AEG Presents, kicks off in San Diego at Pechanga Arena on June 2, 2021 and includes new arena stops in New York City, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago and more.

“I can’t wait to get out there and connect with my fans on this tour,” said Justin. “We’ve been through so much this year. More than ever, we’ve come to understand how much we need each other, and how meaningful these moments can really be.”

Tickets for new shows go on sale to the general public starting Thursday, August 6th.

As the official wireless partner for the Justin Bieber World Tour, T-Mobile and Justin Bieber continue their successful partnership, forged in 2017 with their #UnlimitedMoves Super Bowl campaign. T-Mobile customers can get access to stage-front tickets at every U.S. tour stop, even the sold-out shows! Un-carrier customers can snag their Reserved Tickets starting 30 days prior to each show at first day prices – just another way T-Mobile thanks its customers simply for being customers.

A limited number of exclusive VIP Packages are also available. These exceptional offers can include an amazing selection of reserved seated tickets, custom merchandise and much more.

Additionally, $1.00 from each ticket purchased will be donated to the Bieber Foundation which is committed to supporting mental health wellness.

JUSTIN BIEBER WORLD TOUR DATES:

NEW 2021 SHOWS – ON SALE THURSDAY, AUGUST 6th at 10am local time.

Date

City

Venue

June

7

San Jose, CA

SAP Center at San Jose

8

San Jose, CA

SAP Center at San Jose

11

Tacoma, WA

Tacoma Dome

22

Chicago, IL

United Center

23

Chicago, IL

United Center

July

3

Toronto, ON

Scotiabank Arena

8

Boston, MA

TD Garden

9

Newark, NJ

Prudential Center

11

Philadelphia, PA

Wells Fargo Center

13

New York, NY

Madison Square Garden

14

New York, NY

Madison Square Garden

16

Toronto, ON

Scotiabank Arena

17

Toronto, ON

Scotiabank Arena

20

Brooklyn, NY

Barclays Center

22

Atlanta, GA

State Farm Arena

23

Atlanta, GA

State Farm Arena

Aug

11

Los Angeles, CA

Staples Center

12

Los Angeles, CA

Staples Center

14

Inglewood, CA

The Forum

RESCHEDULED 2021 DATES ON SALE NOW

June

2

San Diego, CA

Pechanga Arena San Diego

4

Las Vegas, NV

T-Mobile Arena

5

Glendale, AZ

Gila River Arena

10

Portland, OR

Moda Center

13

Salt Lake City, UT

Vivint Smart Home Arena

16

Kansas City, MO

T-Mobile Center

17

Tulsa, OK

BOK Center

19

Minneapolis, MN

Target Center

25

Grand Rapids, MI

Van Andel Arena

26

Milwaukee, WI

Summerfest, AmFam Amp

28

Detroit, MI

Little Caesars Arena

29

Columbus, OH

Schottenstein Center

July

1

Pittsburgh, PA

PPG Paints Arena

5

Ottawa, ON

Canadian Tire Centre

6

Montreal, QC

Bell Centre

19

Buffalo, NY

KeyBank Center

25

St. Louis, MO

Enterprise Center

26

Nashville, TN

Bridgestone Arena

28

Washington, DC

Capital One Arena

29

Greensboro, NC

Greensboro Coliseum

31

Miami, FL

American Airlines Arena

Aug

2

Tampa, FL

Amalie Arena

5

Houston, TX

Toyota Center

6

Dallas, TX

American Airlines Center

8

Denver, CO

Pepsi Center

15

Sacramento, CA

Golden 1 Center

All tickets will be honored for the rescheduled dates. All previous ticketholders will receive an email from their ticket provider with event updates and options if they cannot make the 2021 date.

For further information, visit Ticketmaster.com or justinbiebermusic.com.

Contacts

Media Contacts
For Justin Bieber: Gabe Tesoriero G.T@umusic.com
For the Tour: Kristen Foster kristen.foster@fullcov.com

Categories
Business

American Water’s 2020 second quarter conference call scheduled for August 6, 2020

CAMDEN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK) announced today that it intends to release its 2020 second quarter financial results after the market closes on Wednesday, August 5, 2020.

Walter Lynch, president and chief executive officer, and Susan Hardwick, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will host the 2020 second quarter earnings conference call and webcast with investors, analysts and other interested parties on Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 9 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. There will be a question and answer session as part of the call.

Interested parties may listen to an audio webcast of the conference call through a link on the Investor Relations homepage at ir.amwater.com. Presentation slides that will be used in conjunction with the earnings conference call will also be made available online in advance. The company recognizes its website as a key channel of distribution to reach public investors and as a means of disclosing material non-public information to comply with its obligations under SEC Regulation FD.

Following the earnings conference call, an audio archive of the call will be available through August 13, 2020. U.S. callers may access the audio archive toll-free by dialing 1-877-344-7529. International callers may listen by dialing 1-412-317-0088. The access code for replay is 10146461. The audio webcast archive will be available for one year on American Water’s investor relations website at ir.amwater.com/events.

About American Water

With a history dating back to 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. The company employs more than 6,800 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to 15 million people in 46 states. American Water provides safe, clean, affordable and reliable water services to our customers to make sure we keep their lives flowing. For more information, visit amwater.com and follow American Water on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Contacts

Media:
Edward Vallejo

Vice President, Investor Relations

(856) 955-4445

edward.vallejo@amwater.com

Maureen Duffy

Senior Vice President, Communications and External Affairs

(856) 955-4163

maureen.duffy@amwater.com

Categories
Business

NICE Satmetrix Benchmark finds 57% of contact center employees working from home due to COVID-19 are now more likely to recommend employer

However, 71% of contact center managers say the shift to work at home has had a significant impact on customers

HOBOKEN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NICE (Nasdaq: NICE) today announced that the NICE Satmetrix Agent Experience at Home Benchmark found that 57% of contact center employees working from home due to COVID-19 are now more likely to recommend their employers to friends, family, or peers than they were before the transition to working remotely. However, in contrast to this positive impact on employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), 71% of contact center managers say that their organization’s shift to work at home has had a significant impact on customers.

With the transition to remote work environments, today’s customer service managers and their teams are dealing with multiple challenges all at once, including increased interaction volume across all channels; longer handle times, as service interactions become the first line of support for distressed consumers; more demanding customer needs, as agents are dealing with new, unusual requests that are more complex and sometimes outside their direct control; and a new remote work methodology.

NICE Satmetrix co-founded NPS and is a trusted source for data and insights used to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy, and reduce customer churn. The NICE Satmetrix Agent Experience at Home Benchmark identified three key drivers that improved eNPS that organizations can apply to increase employee engagement:

  • Providing the Right Tools and Technology
  • Communicating Effectively
  • Taking Quick Action for Employees

To address these challenges, NICE has recently introduced CXone@home to enable the safe transition of contact center agents to work from home within hours, for organizations of all sizes and verticals. It is powered by the market-leading CXone cloud contact center platform and is offered at no charge for 60 days for new customers. Purpose-built for remote workforces, CXone@home also includes a complete suite of workforce engagement and optimization (WFO) capabilities – including quality and coaching with analytics, performance management, and workforce forecasting and scheduling – to ensure agents and managers are productive while working from home. The demand for CXone@home has been unprecedented by organizations of all sizes with legacy on-premises infrastructures. NICE also recently launched WEM@home and NEVA@home to drive immediate impact on service excellence for work at home employees.

“NICE is pleased to make possible the quick transition to work at home for thousands of contact center agents and managers,” said Barry Cooper, NICE Enterprise Group President. “Many organizations that have shifted to work from home now face challenges of engaging and ensuring performance of their newly remote and dispersed workforce, while at the same time the nature and volume of the work are rapidly changing. These same organizations have requested CXone@home to help them deal with these challenges.”

Mr. Cooper added, “COVID-19 is changing how people work and organizations operate. Companies are adapting in order to ensure business continuity, employee engagement, and performance. NICE is dedicated to empowering exceptional customer service in times of change.”

As the leading cloud platform for contact centers, CXone has a global, geographically redundant cloud infrastructure with built-in elasticity to dynamically scale up or down based on demand. NICE inContact proactively monitors and continuously forecasts demand with reserves for immediate spikes in volume and the ability to add data and storage capacity immediately. Customers can rely on the 99.99% guaranteed availability on carrier-grade network with global data centers and points of presence (POPs) as well as 24/7/365 network operations monitoring. Contact center agents using NICE inContact CXone are operating in over 100 countries.

About the NICE Satmetrix Agent Experience at Home Benchmark

In response to COVID-19, thousands of contact center agents are now working from home, helping meet customer needs across the globe. NICE Satmetrix fielded a groundbreaking benchmark to help organizations better understand agent experience at home and learn how to proactively improve that experience while powering exceptional customer experience. Organizations interested in fielding the survey at no cost to their teams, in order to compare themselves to the benchmark, may register here.

NICE Satmetrix gives enterprises the power to unlock the value of CX data and insights – across the holistic customer journey from the contact center and beyond – to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy and reduce customer churn. A holistic, unified, and integrated Customer Experience Management (CEM) solution, NICE Satmetrix delivers actionable customer experience insights to roles across the organization that are dynamic, predictive, and prescriptive. NICE Satmetrix co-founded NPS and built its complete solution from the ground up to operationalize customer feedback insights all along the customer journey.

About NICE

NICE (Nasdaq: NICE) is the world’s leading provider of both cloud and on-premises enterprise software solutions that empower organizations to make smarter decisions based on advanced analytics of structured and unstructured data. NICE helps organizations of all sizes deliver better customer service, ensure compliance, combat fraud and safeguard citizens. Over 25,000 organizations in more than 150 countries, including over 85 of the Fortune 100 companies, are using NICE solutions. www.nice.com.

Trademark Note: NICE and the NICE logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of NICE Ltd. All other marks are trademarks of their respective owners. For a full list of NICE’s marks, please see: www.nice.com/nice-trademarks.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, including the statements by Mr. Cooper, are based on the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of NICE Ltd. (the “Company”). In some cases, such forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as “believe,” “expect,” “seek,” “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “project,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “estimate,” or similar words. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those described herein, including but not limited to the impact of changes in economic and business conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; competition; successful execution of the Company’s growth strategy; success and growth of the Company’s cloud Software-as-a-Service business; changes in technology and market requirements; decline in demand for the Company’s products; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; difficulties or delays in absorbing and integrating acquired operations, products, technologies and personnel; loss of market share; an inability to maintain certain marketing and distribution arrangements; the Company’s dependency on third-party cloud computing platform providers, hosting facilities and service partners;, cyber security attacks or other security breaches against the Company; the effect of newly enacted or modified laws, regulation or standards on the Company and our products and various other factors and uncertainties discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the company, refer to the Company’s reports filed from time to time with the SEC, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise them, except as required by law.

Contacts

Corporate Media
Christopher Irwin-Dudek, 201-561-4442, chris.irwin-dudek@nice.com

Investors
Marty Cohen, +1 551 256 5354, ET, ir@nice.com
Yisca Erez +972 9 775 3798, CET, ir@nice.com

Categories
Local News

Cloud-native routing at unprecedented scale

Te RtBrick software surpasses the capabilities of traditional routers

PRINCETON, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–RtBrick’s pioneering routing software has increased the performance of disaggregated IP networks to new levels, so now they even surpass the capabilities of traditional chassis-based routers. The company has achieved this step-change in performance by programming the underlying off-the-shelf hardware to run multiple parallel processing threads. These high-performance switches are being adopted by carriers because they are a fraction of the cost of traditional routers, and because they enable a more ‘cloud-native’ approach to their operations, giving them the flexibility to run software from any vendor.

Scaling to these levels is hard because you need performance in three different dimensions at the same time,” said Hannes Gredler, founder and chief technology officer at RtBrick. “You need to support networks with thousands of nodes, terminate millions of subscribers and manage huge routing tables. And in the event of a hardware failure, you need to be able to reinstate all of this in seconds.”

RtBrick’s routing software can now support networks with more than a thousand nodes, terminate up to one hundred thousand subscribers on a single control plane, and support ten million BGP paths, which is more than ten times the size of the current Internet.

With multithreading we can surpass anything that traditional routing systems can achieve,” added Gredler. “And it speeds up convergence across all three dimensions. A network with thousands of nodes can be remapped in a couple of milliseconds and a full view of the entire Internet can be learnt in tens of seconds.”

At the same time, RtBrick’s vBNG (virtual Broadband Network Gateway) software can bring one thousand new subscribers online in a second – usually referred to as one thousand CPS (Calls Per Second). This is faster than any traditional BNG on the market.

The RtBrick developments, part of its RtBrick FullStack software (RBFS), also allow deeper packet look-ups than have previously been possible, with up to eight levels of inspection, which will allow operators to offer more complex IP services across their off-the-shelf hardware.

Our customers have seen what the hyper-scalers have done with their IT operations,” Gredler concludes. “Now they can scale their IP networks in the same cloud-native way.”

The RBFS scale enhancements are available now. You can find out more information at rtbrick.com

About RtBrick

RtBrick provides carrier routing software that runs on off-the-shelf hardware. It has applied the same approach to networks that the huge ‘cloud-natives’ have used to build and operate their web-scale IT services. RtBrick is a privately held company, with staff located in India, Europe and the USA.

Contacts

Lauren Johnson

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

rtbrick@rlyl.com

Categories
Business

Vonage launches Vonage Voyagers developer champions program

HOLMDEL, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vonage (Nasdaq: VG), a global leader in cloud communications helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation, has launched a new developer champions program, Vonage Voyagers, to assemble a team of developers passionate about building connected applications and inspiring their communities. The program has been designed to drive high-quality product feedback from a diverse pool of users; promote the creation of useful content; and increase the frequency and quality of support provided by and for the developer community.

The Vonage Communications Services Platform brings both power and flexibility to businesses through the integration of multiple channels − Video, Voice, Conversations, Messaging and Verification − into their applications, products, and workflows to create new paradigms in their industries. With an ever-growing network of more than one million registered developers, the platform makes it easy for businesses to use APIs to build the personalised, immediate, and intuitive communication experiences that today’s customers expect. And, Vonage’s developer community tears down the barriers to entry so that any developer can reach a global audience from day one.

With the new Vonage Voyagers program, we are inviting developers to work closely with us, gaining exclusive access to pre-release APIs, as well as mentorship and learning opportunities with Vonage Developer Advocates, Product Managers and Engineers. Voyagers will also receive training to improve their content creation skills and expand their reach, limited edition swag, and more perks.

Participation in the voluntary program will be based on self-submissions and nominations. Those interested must meet a number of requirements, which can be seen in full on the application site. Once chosen, official Voyagers will join a group of community leaders to help other developers build powerful applications by participating in product feedback sessions and online hack days, contributing to Open Source projects, and creating content to showcase innovative ways to leverage Vonage APIs together with other technologies.

“We designed the Vonage Voyagers program to create deeper connections between the Vonage Platform and our amazing community of more than one million developers,” said Myrsini Koukiasa, Senior Community Programs Manager, Vonage. “We’re excited to work with inspirational, enthusiastic, and dedicated Voyagers, giving us a chance to reward and recognise their work and contributions to our community.”

To learn more or apply to become a Vonage Voyager, visit this link.

About Vonage

Vonage (Nasdaq:VG), a global cloud communications leader, helps businesses accelerate their digital transformation. Vonage’s Communications Services Platform is fully programmable and allows for the integration of Video, Voice, Chat, Messaging and Verification into existing products, workflows and systems. Vonage’s fully programmable unified communications and contact center applications are built from the Vonage platform and enable companies to transform how they communicate and operate from the office or anywhere, providing enormous flexibility and ensuring business continuity.

Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in New Jersey, with offices throughout the United States, Europe, Israel, Australia and Asia. To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/vonage. To become a fan on Facebook, go to facebook.com/vonage. To subscribe on YouTube, visit youtube.com/vonage.

Contacts

Vonage Media Contact
Elise Leonard

+1 732-837-3801

elise.leonard@vonage.com

Vonage Investor Contact
Hunter Blankenbaker

+1 732-444-4926

hunter.blankenbaker@vonage.com

Categories
Business

COVID-19 crushes construction starts in most metro areas during first-half 2020

New York and Washington DC top the list despite sizable declines in construction

HAMILTON, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession have wreaked havoc on U.S. building markets. According to Dodge Data & Analytics, commercial and multifamily starts were quite healthy during January and February but stalled as the pandemic hit the nation in March. For the first three months of 2020, U.S. multifamily and commercial building starts inched up 1% from the same period of 2019. The commercial and multifamily group is comprised of office buildings, stores, hotels, warehouses, commercial garages, and multifamily housing. Not included in this ranking are institutional building projects (such as educational facilities, hospitals, convention centers, casinos, transportation terminals), manufacturing buildings, single family housing, public works, and electric utilities/gas plants.


The full force of the pandemic bore down on U.S. construction starts in April as economic activity virtually shut down and local restrictions on construction took effect. Construction resumed in some areas in May allowing starts to post a mild gain over the month. Advances continued in June. However, the damage to commercial and multifamily construction during the first half of the year was palpable. Starts plunged 22% below the first half of 2019, with only warehouse construction posting a very small gain. Commercial and multifamily construction starts in the top 20 metropolitan areas posted a similar drop of 22% through the first six months of 2020.

In the top 10 metro areas, commercial and multifamily starts slid 21% and only one metro area posted an increase. The New York metro area held on to its top spot, despite falling 24% below year-ago levels to $11.5 billion. Washington DC held to second place even though commercial and multifamily construction starts fell 42% to $4.2 billion. The Dallas TX metro area rounded out the top three, with commercial and multifamily activity dropping just 2% to $3.8 billion. The remaining markets in the top 10 were Los Angeles CA (-18% to $3.3 billion), Chicago IL (-9% to $3.0 billion), Boston MA (-31% to $3.0 billion), Miami FL (-16% to $2.8 billion), Phoenix AZ (+82% to $2.8 billion), Austin TX (-12% to $2.4 billion), and Houston TX (-38% to $2.4 billion).

Among the second-tier (ranked 11-20) metro areas, commercial and multifamily starts plummeted 25% with just one metro area posting an increase. The second tier metros include Atlanta GA (-32% to $2.4 billion), Philadelphia PA (-25% to $2.1 billion), Seattle WA (-26% to $1.6 billion), Orlando FL (-28% to $1.3 billion), Nashville TN (-45% to $1.3 billion), Portland OR (-33% to $1.1 billion), Denver CO (-15% to $1.1 billion), Kansas City MO (-20% to $1.1 billion), Tampa FL (-19% to $941 million), and Detroit MI (+96% to $929 million).

“The COVID-19 pandemic and recession have devastated most local construction markets,” stated Richard Branch, Chief Economist for Dodge Data & Analytics. “Across the board, building projects have been halted or delayed with virtually no sector immune from damage. Construction starts have begun to increase from their April lows and there is cautious optimism that as the year progresses construction markets around the country will begin a modest recovery. However, the recent acceleration of COVID-19 cases in the South and West as well as the upcoming expiration of expanded unemployment insurance benefits (from the CARES Act) puts the recovery at significant risk and could undermine the construction sector’s ability to grow.”

During the first half of 2020, commercial and multifamily starts in New York NY fell 24% to $11.5 billion relative to the first six months of 2019. Commercial starts were 18% lower, a relatively sanguine decline given the almost two-month ban on nonessential construction in the city. However, the modest impact on construction was due to the start of two very large office projects that broke ground in February — the $1.3 billion Two Manhattan West office building and the $760 million Disney/ABC Headquarters. Removing those two buildings would have resulted in a 50% decline in commercial starts during the first half of the year. Multifamily starts dropped 29% in the first six months of the year. The largest multifamily projects to get underway were the $420 million Hunter’s Point South mixed-use project in Long Island City NY and the $260 million 451 10th Ave. apartment building.

In Washington DC, commercial and multifamily starts fell 42% to $4.2 billion during the first half of 2020 relative to the same period of 2019. Multifamily starts lost 27% over this year’s first six months. The largest multifamily projects were the $150 million Ripley II–Solaire Apartments in Silver Spring MD and the $150 million Storey Park mixed-use building in Washington DC. Commercial starts fell 50% during the first half of the year, with the only gain coming from the hotel sector, which posted a $67 million gain (38%) over 2019. The largest commercial project to break ground in the Washington DC metro was the $306 million Aligned Energy Data Center (Building II) in Ashburn VA. Amazon Inc. also broke ground on two buildings associated with the HQ2 project in Arlington VA, each totaling $240 million.

Commercial and multifamily starts in the Dallas TX metro area hit $3.8 billion in the first six months of the year, a decline of just 2% from 2019’s first half. Multifamily starts gained 8%, one of the few top metros to post a gain in this market. The largest multifamily projects to get started in the first six months were the $75 million Novel Turtle Creek residential tower in Dallas TX and the $65 million Shannon Creek apartments in Burleson TX. Commercial starts fell 6% in this year’s first six months, with declines in hotel, office, and parking structures partly offset by gains in retail and warehouse starts. The largest commercial projects were the $136 million Epic Deep Ellum (building II) in Dallas TX and the $100 million American Airlines flight kitchen (food service is considered part of the retail sector).

Los Angeles CA commercial and multifamily starts dropped 18% during the first six months of 2020 to $3.3 billion. Commercial starts fell 9% on a year-to-date basis, with strength coming from the office market which posted a large gain. That gain, however, was not enough to offset declines elsewhere in the commercial space. The largest commercial projects to break ground during the first half of 2020 were the $355 million Fig + Pico AC Marriott/Hilton hotel in Los Angeles and the $240 million first phase of the Iceberg Tower office project in Burbank. Multifamily starts were down 26% over the same time period. The largest multifamily projects to start during the first half of the year were the $95 million 3535 W 8th St. mixed-use project in Los Angeles and the $93 million First Point residential building in Santa Ana CA.

Commercial and multifamily starts in Chicago IL were 9% lower on a year-to-date basis through June, reaching $3.0 billion. Commercial starts increased 24% on the strength of a near-doubling in office starts as well as an increase in hotel construction that more than offset steep declines in retail, warehouses, and parking structures. The two largest commercial projects to get underway in the first six months of 2020 were the $476 million BMO Office Tower and the $360 million Wolf Point South Tower B, both in Chicago. Multifamily starts in 2020 were 44% lower than in the first half of 2019. The largest multifamily structures to get started were the $150 million 354 N Union apartments in Chicago and the $100 million Maple Street Lofts in Mount Prospect.

During the first half of 2020, commercial and multifamily starts in Boston MA declined by 30% to $3.0 billion. Multifamily starts dropped 10% on a year-to-date basis. The largest multifamily projects to get underway were the $150 million Cambridge Crossing (Parcel I) complex in Cambridge MA and the $115 million Woburn Avalon Bay project in Woburn MA. Starts on the commercial side fell 43% with all commercial sectors except warehouses posting a decline. The largest commercial projects were the $450 million first phase of the South Station Office Tower and the $250 million Seaport Square/400 Summer Street office building, both in Boston.

Miami FL commercial and multifamily starts fell 16% year-to-date through June to $2.8 billion. Multifamily construction was 11% lower over the same time period. The largest multifamily projects to break ground in the first six months were the $249 million Downtown 5th Luxury Apartments in Miami and the $115 million Miami Urban Village apartments in Homestead. On the commercial side, starts were 22% lower, with warehouse starts the only sector to post a gain year-to-date. The largest commercial projects were the $80 million Pier Sixty-Six Hotel and a $67 million Home Depot distribution center.

Commercial and multifamily construction starts in Phoenix AZ bucked the national trend posting a sizeable 82% increase to $2.8 billion during the first half of 2020 relative to the same time frame in 2019. The increase was fueled by the start of some sizeable projects. Multifamily starts rose sharply, jumping 85%. The largest multifamily projects to get started were the $300 million Pier 202 mixed-use building and the $125 million Adeline Residences at Collier Center, both in Tempe. Commercial starts meanwhile rose 79%. The largest commercial projects were the $200 million 100 Mill Ave office development and the $115 million Park 303 warehouse building.

Year-to-date commercial and multifamily construction starts in Austin TX fell 12% through June to $2.4 billion. Multifamily starts increased 21% in the first half of 2020, boosted by the $150 million 44 East Condo Tower and the $120 million Hanover Republic Square apartment building. Commercial starts fell 28% during the first six months despite sizeable gains in warehouse and hotel starts. The largest commercial projects were the $300 million Project Charm Amazon distribution center and the $89 million Capitol Complex Office Building.

Completing the top 10 for commercial and multifamily construction starts was Houston TX where starts were 38% lower at $2.4 billion through the first six months of 2020. Multifamily starts posted a 38% decline through June. The largest multifamily projects to break ground were the $217 million Hanover Square & Bayou Apartments as well as the $70 million Boone Manor Apartments. Commercial starts also fell 38% during the first six months of the year, with only parking structures posting a gain. The largest commercial projects to start were the $100 million Hewlett Packard Enterprises Campus @ Cityplace and the $58 million Empire West Business Park.

About Dodge Data & Analytics: Dodge Data & Analytics is North America’s leading provider of commercial construction project data, market forecasting & analytics services and workflow integration solutions for the construction industry. Building product manufacturers, architects, engineers, contractors, and service providers leverage Dodge to identify and pursue unseen growth opportunities that help them grow their business. On a local, regional or national level, Dodge empowers its customers to better understand their markets, uncover key relationships, size growth opportunities, and pursue specific sales opportunities with success. The company’s construction project information is the most comprehensive and verified in the industry. Dodge is leveraging its more than 125-year-old legacy of continuous innovation to help the industry meet the building challenges of the future. Learn more at www.construction.com.

Contacts

Media: Nicole Sullivan | AFFECT Public Relations & Social Media | +1-212-398-9680, nsullivan@affectstrategies.com

Categories
Healthcare

LabVantage COVID-19 LIMS solution implemented for onsite workplace health and safety

—Leading Consumer Goods Company Offers Employee Health Testing at In-House Test Centers—

SOMERSET, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#COVID–LabVantage Solutions, Inc., the leading provider of laboratory informatics solutions and services including purpose-built LIMS solutions that allow labs to go live faster and at a lower total cost, today announced that a Fortune 100 global consumer packaged goods (CPG) company has deployed the LabVantage COVID-19 LIMS solution to ensure employee health and safety in the workplace.

The U.S.-based CPG company opened an in-house COVID-19 testing center where employees can quickly and safely be tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID illnesses. In-house health and laboratory professionals, using LabVantage’s purpose-built COVID-19 laboratory information management system (LIMS), can quickly schedule, collect samples, test, track, and report results.

The CPG company already uses the LabVantage enterprise LIMS across areas of its organization. When LabVantage announced its new purpose-built solution specific to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company was able to implement it in under six weeks for onsite employee testing that supports a safer workplace.

“LabVantage COVID-19 LIMS is a full-featured, pre-configured solution for companies, colleges, and universities looking for a way to keep their employees and students safe in the workplace or on campus with the confidence that comes with accurate and comprehensive testing,” said LabVantage CEO, John Heiser. “It’s illustrative of our ability to transform scientific data into knowledge that drives better outcomes for our business partners.”

Having the testing process onsite saves time and gives the employees the convenience of not having to go to a hospital or doctor’s office for a test. Employees displaying symptoms, or those who request a test, can be scheduled quickly for an appointment. LabVantage COVID-19 LIMS prepares the sample request, labels sample specimens, tracks all patient and sample data following privacy and security protocols such as HIPAA and GDPR, and handles results and reporting in a single easy-to-use interface.

Dr. Heiser pointed out that the LabVantage COVID-19 LIMS solution is ideal for companies that are equipped to conduct all testing-related work in-house, as well as for organizations that do not have their own testing facilities who work with third-party laboratories. In addition, LabVantage’s ISO-27001 certification, existing validation practices, and Certificate of Release allows companies to focus their validation efforts on critical functions while still being able to confidently point to a reliable solution.

The COVID-specific LIMS solution incorporates LabVantage’s deep knowledge of laboratory workflows, along with numerous features designed to make it easy for laboratories to perform coronavirus testing using RT-PCR, isothermal nucleic acid amplification, and serology methods. LabVantage COVID-19 LIMS can be hosted on the cloud or offered as SaaS and is highly scalable, which are important attributes as testing volumes escalate.

The LabVantage COVID-19 LIMS is available immediately. For more information on LIMS for coronavirus testing, visit here.

About LabVantage Solutions

A recognized leader in enterprise laboratory software solutions, LabVantage Solutions dedicates itself to improving customer outcomes by transforming data into knowledge. The LabVantage informatics platform is highly configurable, integrated across a common architecture, and 100% browser-based to support hundreds of concurrent users. Deployed on-premise, via the cloud, or SaaS, it seamlessly interfaces with instruments and other enterprise systems – enabling true digital transformation. The platform consists of the most modern laboratory information management system (LIMS) available, integrated electronic laboratory notebook (ELN), laboratory execution system (LES), and scientific data management system (SDMS); and, for healthcare settings, a laboratory information system (LIS). We support more than 1500 global customer sites in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, medical device, biobank, food & beverage, consumer packaged goods, oil & gas, genetics/diagnostics, and healthcare industries. Headquartered in Somerset, NJ, with global offices, LabVantage has, for four decades, offered its comprehensive portfolio of products and services to enable customers to innovate faster in the R&D cycle, improve manufactured product quality, achieve accurate record-keeping, and comply with regulatory requirements. For more information, visit labvantage.com.

Contacts

Media Contact:
Brandwidth Solutions LLC

Debra Harrsch

Phone: 215-997-8575

Email: dharrsch@BWSmarketing.com

Categories
Business

Retail investing continues its upward trend in Q2 as DriveWealth sees record retail investing activity

CHATHAM, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DriveWealth’s retail investing hit new highs in Q2 amid the ongoing global economic uncertainty due to the pandemic, with fractional share trades increasing 87% from Q1, according to new data released today by DriveWealth, a leader in global digital trading technology. Data from the DriveWealth platform indicates this surge in retail activity is evidence of a larger paradigm shift in retail investing.

Some of the key Q2 findings from DriveWealth’s proprietary data, which monitors investment activity by individual investors from across its network of global partners including Revolut, Stake and Hatch into the U.S. equities market, include:

  • A 214% increase in Q2 trading volumes compared to Q1
  • Trading activity doubled (100% increase) in Q2 compared to Q1
  • The number of trades placed per account increased by 33%

“In common with other brokers, we’ve seen record levels of retail account openings and trading activity following March’s market correction,” said DriveWealth Founder and CEO Bob Cortright. “While the correction has no doubt attracted many new entrants into the market, we believe that the pandemic and social distancing measures have also served to accelerate the move into digital financial services. Interestingly, account openings among investors aged 60-plus outpaced other age groups, highlighting the move towards digital is far from a millennial-only phenomenon.”

DriveWealth’s data also found a few notable trends regarding trading behavior. Around 70% of all trades on the DriveWealth platform were to buy shares versus sell and the average trade size was $211, up 56% compared to Q1.

Fractional share trades – where less than one share is purchased – also increased in Q2, with a 208% increase in fractional purchases by investors in Latin America compared to Q1. This compares to a 129% quarter-on-quarter increase in fractional trades in the U.S., a 108% increase in EMEA and 65% uptick in APAC.

“Given that single shares of frequently traded stocks such as Tesla and Amazon trade are priced in the thousands of dollars, it’s no surprise that fractional share purchases are proving popular among investors,” said DriveWealth President Julie Coin.

Most traded tickers

The report found that the most traded symbols traded in Q2 continued to be large, recognizable global brands and technology companies, while in the U.S. specifically, Vanguard ETFs proved popular.

Many of the most frequently traded stock symbols are those expected to benefit from trends associated with the global COVID-19 pandemic, including services facilitating the mass shift to working from home (such as Google and Zoom), home entertainment (Netflix and Disney), digital payments (Apple and Google) and online retail (Amazon and Walmart).

In addition to the big-name brands, non-U.S. investors were also investing in more volatile stocks that were featured in the News including Hertz, American Airlines and petroleum companies such as Callon and Oasis.

The top 10 traded symbols on DriveWealth’s platform in Q2 were:

U.S. investors

Non-U.S. investors

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

Tesla

Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond ETF

Hertz

Amazon

American Airlines

Vanguard Extended Market ETF

Apple

iShares Short-Term National Muni Bond ETF

Callon Petroleum

Apple

Oasis Petroleum

Whiting Petroleum

Amazon

Hertz

Boeing

Tesla

Whiting Petroleum

Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF

Delta Airlines

The full report can be accessed on the DriveWealth website.

About DriveWealth

DriveWealth Holdings, Inc., wholly owns DriveWealth, LLC, a member of FINRA and SIPC. DriveWealth, LLC is a licensed carrying and self-clearing broker offering digital brokerage solutions to broker-dealers, advisors and online partners worldwide through its proprietary investment platform. DriveWealth, LLC delivers access to the U.S. securities markets along with an array of digital products that power both emerging and established financial companies. For more information, please visit DriveWealth.com.

Contacts

Media:
DriveWealth
Will Hernandez

drivewealth@backbaycommunications.com

Categories
Business

Bayer takes steps to make carbon sequestration a farmer’s newest crop opportunity

• Bayer to reward growers to generate carbon credits by adopting climate-smart practices and creating a new revenue stream on-farm

• The initiative makes Bayer the first company to develop a transparent, science-based and collaborative approach to a carbon market in agriculture

MONHEIM, Germany–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Agriculture may now have another solution to positively impact climate change thanks to a new initiative launched by Bayer. Beginning this month, Bayer will start rewarding farmers in Brazil and the U.S. for generating carbon credits by adopting climate-smart practices – such as no-till farming and the use of cover crops – designed to help agriculture reduce its carbon footprint and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Bayer’s industry-leading Carbon Initiative is the result of years of work validating a science-based approach and methodology to make this happen. It recognizes the pivotal role growers and their land can play in helping to create lasting, positive environmental impacts and is the latest in the company’s sustainability commitments specifically aimed at reducing field GHG emission by 30% in 2030.

Farmers are passionate environmentalists and stewards of the lands they farm,” said Brett Begemann, Chief Operating Officer of Bayer’s Crop Science division. “Their lives and livelihoods depend on the weather, and they are some of the first to be affected by drought, flooding and extreme conditions. If anyone has a vested interest in battling climate change, it’s farmers and we are committed to developing new business models like this unique Carbon Initiative to help them in that fight.”

Soil is one of the most effective ways of sequestering carbon. Incentivizing farmers to embrace no-till, precision nitrogen use or cover crops helps further sequester carbon into the soil, reduce fossil fuel usage and reduce greenhouse gases. While today farmers get rewarded solely for their food, feed and fiber production, those participating in the Bayer Carbon Initiative will have the opportunity to be rewarded for their best farm management practices and other sustainability efforts as well.

The program’s 2020/2021 season will include approximately 1,200 farmers in Brazil and the U.S. In both countries, farmers will receive assistance in implementing climate-smart agricultural practices and Bayer will acquire the carbon removals created by those practices at transparent prices. The company is also collaborating with partners such as Embrapa in Brazil to build a viable carbon market for farmers.

Bayer plans to expand the program in the U.S. and Brazil to other farmers and then later into other world regions with tailored approaches that will allow growers to choose what climate-smart practices and implementation works best for them. In Europe, we are exploring how this innovative approach could be adapted as part of the European Green Deal. In Asia-Pacific, our goal is to help increase productivity for smallholder farmers as well as reduce methane emissions from rice farming.

We know that growers in the U.S. are not only good stewards of their land, but also shrewd businessmen, too,” said Lisa Safarian, President of Bayer Crop Science, North America. “That’s why this initiative is so exciting – enabling farmers to realize additional financial benefit from carbon-smart farming practices such as the use of cover crops or no-till agriculture.”

We are excited to partner with farmers through this new Bayer Carbon Initiative,” Begemann added. “We’re honored to take this major step with farmers to create a carbon-zero future for agriculture, an important legacy that we can create with farmers to leave to the next generation.”

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to benefit people by supporting efforts to overcome the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development, and the Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2019, the Group employed around 104,000 people and had sales of 43.5 billion euros. Capital expenditures amounted to 2.9 billion euros, R&D expenses to 5.3 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

Find more information at www.bayer.com.

Contacts

Charla Lord, +1 314-343-7196
Email: charla.lord@bayer.com

Brian Leake, +1 314-370-3285
Email: brian.leake@bayer.com