All Article articles – Page 54
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ArticleAnt Group debuts cross-border trade platform
Chinese fintech company Ant Group, part of e-commerce giant Alibaba, launched an international trade and financial service platform powered by its blockchain-based technology solution AntChain to facilitate the cross-border sale of products and services by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to reduce costs for financial institutions serving these companies. ...
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ArticleKlarna grows in the pandemic
One clear sign of the boom in the “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) model is the latest fundraising round of Klarna, which saw the Swedish online payments group set a new record for the valuation of a European private fintech company at $10.65 billion, nearly double the $5.5 billion valuation ...
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ArticleKKR buys 1-800 Contacts
The investment firm KKR has agreed to buy 1-800 Contacts, the American online retailer of contact lenses, from AEA Investors, which acquired the company in January 2016. No financial details were disclosed but the news agency Reuters cited an unnamed source indicating that the deal was worth more than $3 ...
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ArticleInspecs posts H1 loss but sees better second half
Inspecs swung to an interim loss in its first results as a public company, but forecast a better second half despite the impact of Covid-19. The British company, which joined the London Alternative Investment Market in February, reported a pretax loss of $8.3 million in the first six months of ...
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ArticleFrench optical expenses up 5.6% in 2019
In its annual report published last week, the French ministry of health calculated that the overall health expenses in the country reached a total of €208 billion last year, an increase of 2.1 percent from 2018. The ministry also announced that the average “reste à charge” - the share of ...
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ArticleU.S. delays TikTok ban to Sept. 27 as Trump gives blessing to deal with Oracle, Walmart
The U.S. Department of Commerce said that it has delayed until Sept. 27 the prohibition of the Chinese mobile application TikTok. The department had previously announced that the ban would start today. The decision comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had given his “blessing” to a proposed deal ...
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ArticleEssilorLuxottica, Facebook plan to launch Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2021
EssilorLuxottica and Facebook plan to launch a pair of Ray-Ban branded smart glasses in 2021. The two companies have entered a multiyear collaboration to develop the next generation of smart glasses. The announcement was made by Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of the online social media group, during ...
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ArticleSafilo secures €108.0 million government-backed financing
Safilo signed of a new term loan facility totaling €108.0 million which provides it with additional liquidity to finance its working capital and investment needs for activities located in Italy. The financing is guaranteed at 90 percent by the Italian export credit agency Sace. On April 8, the Italian government ...
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ArticleMarcolin signs on Max Mara
Unsurprisingly, Marcolin has signed a licensing agreement for the design, production and worldwide distribution of Max Mara sunglasses and eyeglasses. The partnership with the Italian fashion house has a five-year duration starting from Nov. 1, and enlarges Marcolin’s product offer for the womenswear market. It follows last year’s license agreements ...
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ArticleAmazon: The Janus-faced company
The current Covid-19 crisis has accelerated Amazon’s consumer goods business exponentially. The Silicon Valley giant doubled its profits in the second quarter of this year and increased its turnover to nearly $89 billion. The share value has also nearly doubled since the middle of March. On Sept. 1, Amazon announced ...
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ArticleLGBTQ collections become mainstream for the fashion, sportswear industry
The LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and queer) fashion market has been growing over the last decade. In recent years, an unprecedented number of mainstream brands have begun to release LGBTQ collections.
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Novartis, Roche, Genentech fined €444.85 million in France in AMD treatment case
The French competition authority, Autorité de la concurrence, has fined the pharmaceutical groups Novartis, Roche and Genentech, a combined €444.85 million for abuse of dominant position to impose the use of the drug Lucentis over its cheaper alternative Avastin in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Genentech, which is ...
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ArticleLuxottica produces anti-Covid masks for Italian government
Luxottica, the Italian unit of the Franco-Italian eyewear company EssilorLuxottica, said that it has started the large scale production of face masks to help prevent the propagation of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company has already delivered a first batch of 3.5 million items as part of a government-sponsored initiative. The ...
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ArticleCooperVision Q3 sales down by 12%
CooperVision (CVI) saw a 12 percent drop in sales to $449.3 million in the third quarter of CooperCompanies’ financial year, which ended on July 31, and the division’s gross margin narrowed to 61 percent from 65 percent a year earlier owing to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. At constant ...
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ArticleEssilux to appeal Dutch court ruling on GrandVision
EssilorLuxottica has decided to file an appeal against a judgment dismissing its request for disclosure of information from GrandVision. The company repeated that it is concerned about GrandVision’s behavior in “continuing to deny access to important information” related to its handling of the Covid-19 outbreak. “Legal proceedings, including the appeal, ...
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ArticleExecutive Survey: Optical industry braces up for a difficult spring/summer 2021 season
The optical industry is expecting a significant decline in demand for spring/summer 2021 collections as the world economy still reels from the blow of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, many are maintaining comprehensive collections and relying on digital tools to defend or develop their businesses, according to an executive survey carried ...
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ArticleTokyo IOFT confirmed, reaches out to international brands
Encouraged by the local industry’s support, a return to a normal level of retail activity and the fact that trade shows in other sectors have recently taken place in Japan, the organizers of the Tokyo IOFT eyewear show have confirmed that this year’s edition would take place as scheduled from ...
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ArticleEssilorLuxottica ready to pursue lawsuit against GrandVision after losing first round
Yesterday, a Dutch district court rejected EssilorLuxottica’s request to obtain information from GrandVision to determine whether the Dutch retailer had breached the terms an agreement in view of its takeover by Essilux. The court said that the large volume of corporate information that Essilux is seeking to obtain without specific ...
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ArticleSelfridges launches Project Earth
Selfridges has launched Project Earth, an initiative which explores “more sustainable ways to shop” by setting new sourcing standards and creating repair, resale and rental businesses. Under the scheme, the British department store pledges that by 2025 it will only stock products that respect its new sourcing standards on cotton, ...
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ArticleGerman optics industry calls for stripped-down free trade deal between U.K., EU
Spectaris, the German industry association for optics, photonics, analysis and medical technology based in Berlin, called for a “stripped-down” free trade agreement between the U.K. and the European Union to avoid the parties failing to strike a deal, which would lead to a so-called hard Brexit. “Better a stripped-down free ...
