B-to-b publisher Source Media has acquired London-based CB.Net, a reference data provider for the global banking community. Source said CB.net will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of its Accuity business, a database provider of payment routing data and anti-money laundering screening software.Financial terms were not disclosed.According to Accuity president Hugh M. Jones, the acquisition bolsters the company’s existing client base. “As one company, Accuity and CB.Net offer the best single source of payments data, more solutions and greater flexibility to the marketplace,” he said.Owned by Investcorp, Source Media publishes magazines that serve the banking, capital markets, technology and professional services sectors. Its magazines include American Banker, the Bond Buyer and Origination News.
Ford on Friday announced plans to invest $1 billion over the next five years in the artificial intelligence startup Argo AI.The automaker has acquired majority ownership of Pittsburgh, Penn.-based Argo AI, which was founded by Google and Uber self-driving car veterans Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander. Going forward, the startup will work to develop a new software platform for Ford’s fully autonomous vehicle, which is expected to arrive in 2021.Salesky, Argo’s CEO, formerly served as director of hardware development for self-driving cars at Google. Rander, the company’s COO, was previously Uber’s engineering lead. Both are alumni of Carnegie Mellon National Robotics Engineering Center.Ford said this investment puts it in a better place to bring self-driving cards to market in the near term. The Argo AI team will initially focus on supporting Ford’s autonomous vehicle development and production efforts, but may in the future look to license this technology to other companies.Argo’s roboticists and engineers will work alongside the team developing Ford’s virtual driver system, described as “the machine-learning software that acts as the brain of autonomous vehicles.” By the end of this year, Argo expects to employ more than 200 people at the company’s Pittsburgh headquarters and at sites near Detroit and Silicon Valley.”The next decade will be defined by the automation of the automobile, and autonomous vehicles will have as significant an impact on society as Ford’s moving assembly line did 100 years ago,” Ford President and CEO Mark Fields said in a statement. “As Ford expands to be an auto and a mobility company, we believe that investing in Argo AI will create significant value for our shareholders by strengthening Ford’s leadership in bringing self-driving vehicles to market in the near term and by creating technology that could be licensed to others in the future.”Last year, Ford was among a group that invested $6.6 million in Civil Maps, a California start-up working on AI-powered mapping software for self-driving cars. Enroll Now for Free 2 min read February 13, 2017 Free Workshop | August 28: Get Better Engagement and Build Trust With Customers Now This hands-on workshop will give you the tools to authentically connect with an increasingly skeptical online audience. This story originally appeared on PCMag
Travelweek Group Thursday, May 31, 2018 MONTREAL — Today is International Flight Attendant Day, and to show just how much it values its frontline employees, Air Transat has unveiled a series of short videos that not only highlight both its flight crew and preferred Sun destinations.In these videos, select employees share their passion and expertise for specific destinations. This past winter, three employees, including two flight attendants, talked about their top Sun destinations, while more recently, two vacation ‘enthusiasts’ (one of whom is a flight attendant) take viewers to their favourite spots in London and Lisbon.These videos are part of Air Transat’s latest advertising campaigns, which highlight the expertise of its employees who its says are “passionate about travel and love sharing their favourite destinations and discoveries with their customers.”On the role of flight attendants, Air Transat President Jean-François Lemay said: “Being a flight attendant means not only seeing to customers’ comfort and establishing a special and reassuring contact with them, it’s first and foremost about ensuring their safety. I feel very strongly about emphasizing that flight attendants are safety professionals, trained to react in any situation, normal or otherwise. And so on this very special day, I want to recognize their valuable contribution to the Air Transat inflight experience and to thank them for accompanying our passengers as they start or end their holidays.” << Previous PostNext Post >> Posted by Tags: Air Transat, International Flight Attendant Day, Lisbon, London Air Transat says a big “thank you” on International Flight Attendant Day