Monthly Archives: July 2022

Retail Theft a National Crisis: What Must be Done to Help Businesses and Consumers – ABC Action News Tampa Bay

Posted: July 25, 2022 at 2:12 am

Retailers that were already struggling to rebuild their businesses and attract customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic are now faced with large-scale theft and looting, much of it stemming from organized crime.

The problem is so bad that54% of small business owners experienced an increase in shopliftingin 2021 andthe average large retailer lost $700,000 per $1 billion in sales as of 2020 an increase of more than 50% over a five-year period, according to the National Retail Federation.

These crimes are not victimless. In addition to the growing number of thefts that turn violent, innocent consumers, employees, local communities, and business owners and shareholders bear the costs of rising retail theft.

What can be done,how big of an issue is retail theft, andwhat role can Congress play?

For more information visit uschamber.com/retailtheft

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Sex offender caught with vile image hoard avoids prison term – The Dumbarton and Vale of Leven Reporter

Posted: at 2:12 am

A DUMBARTON man was caught with a stash of indecent images of children at his former home in Cardross.

Declan Deeney, of Old Academy Way, admitted to a charge of taking, or permitting to be taken, indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children at a property in Barrs Terrace between December 28, 2020 and February 23 the following year.

He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a second charge of being in possession of indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children from December 28, 2020 and March 25, 2021.

Appearing for sentencing at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on July 12 the 20-year-old was placed on the sex offenders register for three years after pleading guilty to the two charges.

Phil Lafferty, defending, said: Clearly these are worrying offences. The background history is of some concern. I have to accept that he is aware of the matters and aware of the wrongfulness of his behaviour, and therefore responsible to that extent.

Sheriff Maxwell Hendry said: Reading this report there must be some concern as to how Mr Deeney can be managed by the social work department given the difficulties that he has although I dont think he assists his difficulties by smoking cannabis.

Addressing the young man, Sheriff Hendry said: The offences which you committed are serious. Some people think these are offences where effectively there are no victims. I do not take that view at all.

It is difficult to tell what lifelong damage may be done to those children. This is not a victimless crime. I take onboard this is your first conviction and you have done some things already to help yourself, although I think there is a distance to go before there can be any positive expectation that you will continue to commit these crimes. I could have sent you to prison, but I am not doing that.

The sheriff placed Deeney on a community payback order for three years under social work supervision where he will be required to follow 10 requirements as part of the order which were disclosed to Deeney by his solicitor in a private discussion.

He was also made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order for three years, barring him from any contact with any person under 16, and from entering any public parks, play areas, schools, nurseries or any other setting where children are expected to gather.

Deeney must remain in his home address from 7pm-7am for six months.

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Top Sheffield judge highlights sickening treatment of children who are sexually abused for content shared online – The Star

Posted: at 2:12 am

This follows a recent spate of cases at Sheffield Crown Court, in which numerous defendants have been brought to justice for downloading images and videos showing children and babies being raped and sexually abused.

Judge Peter Kelson QC has suggested that those who commit such crimes may believe that because they are not the ones who carry out and physically facilitate the abuse, that their involvement is limited to simply downloading images and videos.

However, Judge Kelson says they are the very individuals the despicable content is created for, and the demand they create fuels the illegal and vile trade of indecent images and videos of children.

Individuals who look at such material must understand that this is not a victimless crime. These videos they watch, and images they view, are of real children, of real children being raped, he said.

That is the gravity of this sort of crime is that offenders further the trade by viewing the images and videos.

Other defendants recently sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court for viewing child abuse content online include: Michael Stuart, aged 38, of Mill Road, Ecclesfield; Matthew Theaker, aged 24, of Thorpe House Avenue, Norton Lees and Benjamin Grant, aged 26, now of Sighthill Terrace, Edinburgh.

Police tactics to snare offenders who view such deplorable content are becoming more and more sophisticated, and they also act upon intelligence provided by concerned members of the public.

The spate of cases have also laid bare the consequences facing those who commit, and are convicted of, crimes involving the viewing, downloading and distributing of child abuse material.

The related offences include making, downloading and viewing indecent images of children, broken down by legal category of image, with the most severe of the categories involving the rape of children being Category A, followed by Category B and C.

The offences fall under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and anyone convicted of a sex offence will be required to sign on to the Sex Offenders Register or face being convicted of another crime and are likely to be subject to rigorous and invasive monitoring, which includes visiting a police station once a week, and informing the force of any changes of address or any foreign travel.

For those who have children or grandchildren, registering as a sex offender is likely to result in intervention from social services and could mean offenders are forced to move out of the family home and may be required to have supervision during all visits with loved ones under the age of 18.

Many offenders convicted of making, viewing or downloading indecent images of children are also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order, which severely restricts a defendants access to the internet, and among other things, could also result in them being banned from places where children spend time.

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Resident Evil: Netflix’s eight-part adaptation’s very different from the movies – Stuff

Posted: at 2:12 am

Listen to the Stuff To Watch podcast by hitting the "play" button below, or find it on podcast apps such as Apple or Spotify. Resident Evil

This franchise has been living among us for a quarter of a century now.

From its origins as a cult-smash video game in 1996 still regarded as one of the best and most influential games ever made the Resident Evil universe now embraces seven live-action films and countless other spin-offs and products.

Resident Evil was largely responsible for reintroducing zombies to popular culture and proving that ideas such as 28 Days Later (2002) would find an audience.

And now, the series has made it to television, via an eight-part adaptation that appears to get many things right, even while it is disappointing and disenfranchising a lot of the game and film series fans.

Resident Evil revisits the origin story of the games, but also changes pretty much everything around. Our main characters here are two young women played by Ella Balinska and Adeline Rudolph, as the daughters of Albert Wesker (The Wires Lance Reddick). Tamara Smart and Siena Agudong play the sisters as teenagers, in flashbacks set in 2022 the year that the world first went all to hell.

Critics of the show point to the lack of action and how different the storylines are from anything that the feature films have explored. While fans will say the writing is exploring plot points that are in the game play and that the focus on character and storytelling rather than action and bloodshed makes for a compelling, engaging show that achieves far more than the films ever attempted. I think both sides have a point.

Me? I kind of like it, although I was never a huge fan of the films or the games, so I don't have any real investment here.

NETFLIX

Resident Evil is now available to stream on Netflix.

READ MORE:* The Gray Man: Netflix's spectacular, pointless, witless, repetitive action movie* Girl in the Picture: Compassion, insight makes this one of Netflix's best true-crime docos* I May Destroy You: Why this Neon series is modern TV at its finest* Pirate Gold of Adak Island: Netflix treasure show looks like a hoax - but I'm all for it

NETFLIX

D.B. Cooper: Where Are You? is now available to stream on Netflix.

The D.B. or Dan Cooper case is the Big Foot of unsolved recent crimes.

All that is known for sure is that in November, 1971, a man bought a ticket for a Northwest Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle. A few minutes into the flight, he handed an attendant a note, demanding $200,000 and four parachutes be brought on board when the plane landed and claiming that he had a bomb in his luggage.

The money and parachutes were delivered, the plane took off and a short while later the rear stairs were lowered. Dan Cooper whoever he was, had parachuted into the night, thousands of feet above forests and lakes, on a freezing cold and stormy night.

In the 50 years since, there have been dozens of books, movies, theories and documentaries about the D.B. Cooper case. He has featured in Loki and 30 Rock and the film Without A Paddle aka "that time Burt Reynolds came to Lower Hutt".

The documentary series D.B. Cooper: Where Are You? takes a near-exhaustive look at the case, profiles several of the main suspects and visits the various players who still investigate the case today. Although who Cooper was will probably never be conclusively proven, the name is still a drawcard and, like Jack The Ripper, can still get a book or a film deal off the ground, if you have a compelling story to tell.

D.B. Cooper: Where Are You? has interesting things to say about popular culture, internet-based society and the entertainment industry. The mystery of Cooper will endure, as long as there is money to be made from it. And, since his crime was essentially victimless, I guess that's fine.

NETFLIX

How to Change Your Mind is now available to stream on Netflix.

Years ago, I heard author Michael Pollan on a podcast, talking about his research and his rediscovery of earlier research, into the potential therapeutic and beneficial effects of LSD. The series How to Change Your Mind is based on Pollan's book of the same name.

This is a fascinating, serious and determinedly non-sensational look at how four popular party drugs LSD, MDMA, mescaline and psilocybin (magic mushrooms) all have therapeutic uses, that often pre-date their counter-culture and recreational use.

The first episode, on LSD, opens up the history of the drug pre-1965, when it was being widely researched for its potential in psychiatry and counselling. But, with LSD let out into society in the 1960s and being seized on as a symbol of rebellion by the hippies and the anti-war movement, LSD became the subject of a hysterical conservative backlash that led to LSD being demonised for decades.

In fact, it is a potentially incredibly useful tool. And, in the right environment, with people who understand what they are doing, one of the most benign and enjoyable of all the recreational drugs.

How to Change Your Mind is a well-made show with some real things to say. Very recommended.

ROADSHOW FILMS

Tenet is now available to stream on Netflix.

And lastly, Christopher Nolan's long-delayed sci-fi actioner has made it to Netflix.

Tenet was the first trip back to the big screen for many of us, in August 2020 and I was underwhelmed at the time. Tenet is an undeniably spectacular film and an astonishingly ambitious one too. But it is also a film so in love with its own cleverness and paradoxes, that it misses the essential emotional resonance that every film needs, to engage an audience at any sort of level that really means anything.

John David Washington (son of Denzel) is fine as a secret agent-type looking into the affairs of a brutal Russian oligarch (Kenneth Branagh) and Robert Pattinson is even better as his shadowy counterpart who may just have the answers. But the promising James-Bond-but-by-Nolan build up comes badly unstuck trying to explain who the villains are and what they are up to.

The idea SPOILER of reversing the flow of time through objects, so that they may be sent from the future to attack us is hard to film convincingly and even harder to make into an entertaining movie.

Tenet spends so much time trying to prove how clever it is, that by the time the big set-pieces arrive, you'll have forgotten why you are supposed to care.

Tenet is a massively conceived and structured film, but it lacks a heart.

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It’s the end of ‘fantasyland’ for Big Tech and its workers – MarketWatch

Posted: July 23, 2022 at 1:21 pm

After Big Tech grew in unprecedented and unchecked fashion for a decade, building ostentatious palaces to house growing workforces while plying them luxuriant freebies to keep them from defecting to rivals, is the wild ride over?

Techs largest companies, as well as their smaller competitors, are looking to cut back as they face a litany of headaches: Billions of dollars in unused commercial real estate; supply-chain and cost issues; evaporating funding; a 21% drop in global M&A activity in the first half of the year to $2.2 trillion, according to new data from Refinitiv; an all-but-shut window on IPOs; wage inflation; talent retention.

The chief executives of Meta Platforms Inc. META, -7.59% and Alphabet Inc.s GOOGL, -5.63% GOOG, -5.81% Google have warned employees of tough times ahead with Mark Zuckerberg telling employees on the last day of the second quarter that the company faced one of the worst downturns that weve seen in recent history and Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -1.69% is slowing hiring in some groups and eliminating a few jobs. Even the worlds most valuable company, Apple Inc., AAPL, -0.81% reportedly plans to scale back hiring and spending, after profligate spender Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.77% signaled cutbacks earlier this year. Other high-flying tech players in recent years, such as Netflix Inc. NFLX, -1.54%, Snap Inc. SNAP, -39.08% and Lyft Inc. LYFT, -4.45% are making similar or more drastic moves, and many startups are in much worse shape.

See also: Tech companies are shifting to layoffs after a huge ramp up in hiring

All of these are signs of vexing changes coming to the industry after a boom during the first two years of the pandemic, when tech companies indulged in a frenzy of hiring and spending and allowed some employees cushy work-from-home schedules. But inflation, supply-chain woes, the war in Ukraine and the prospects of recession could impede what venture-capital legend Bill Gurley called a Disney-esqueset of experiences/expectations in high tech companies.

The perfect storm of economic calamity has led one legendary executive to predict nothing short of a bloodbath in the tech market for the next one to three years that could dramatically change the culture and business structure of companies in Silicon Valley and beyond for the foreseeable future.

Its going to be a lot of pain, and a lot of people will get hurt, C3.ai Inc. AI, -13.79% CEO Tom Siebel told MarketWatch. We had this SPAC, NFT, crypto craziness. The days of everyone making lots of money, working at home in pajamas, being paid in bitcoin, thats over.

Before this is over, there will be lots of empty commercial real-estate buildings like we saw in 2000-01 in Silicon Valley, Siebel added. Not as many, but a lot.

Employees are especially feeling the pinch. A recent LinkedIn poll revealed 60% of respondents were either worried or very worried about their careers because of economic uncertainty.

Read: The Great Renegotiation Millions of employees quit old jobs for better ones

Camelot is over for them. Its over, Hilary Kramer, a nationally-renowned investment analyst and portfolio manager, told MarketWatch. This growth was not sustainable, and COVID undoubtedly helped prolong strong results for Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Microsoft and all the videogame makers.

Tech giants flush with billions in cash arent crying poor, but with a possible recession on the horizon, even those with the deepest pockets have a strong motivation to watch their bills. Imagine, then, the quandary for smaller companies dependent on funding with little chance of going public anytime soon, or those stuck in the middle.

Qualtrics International Inc. XM, -5.92% CEO Zig Serafin picked up on a depressing vibe after speaking with about 100 CEOs in Europe over the past 90 days. Their concerns over interest rates, inflation, supply-chain constraints, talent retention and geographical uncertainty has prompted a healthy level of caution going forward for the experience-management platform company. Though demand for Qualtrics software remains strong, he said some deal cycles are going through more approval among cost-conscious customers.

Remember this whole Roaring 20s thing? The feeling was, Hey, we have to go big, and some companies overspent and over-hired, Vijay Chattha, CEO of VSC, said.

Fledgling enterprise-software companies dependent on funding to grow operations face especially tough sledding, said Appian Corp. APPN, -5.40% CEO Matt Calkins, who agreed with Gurley that Silicon Valley workers lived in a fantasyland of higher pay and perks for the past few years.

One likely consequence, Calkins said, is a forced return to dazzling business parks like Apple Park and the Googleplex, where we are wasting a lot of money on commercial real estate.

CEOs believe in-person work is more productive, he said.

As the companies look to cut costs in the form of layoffs, reduced travel and fewer hires, another tactic is to require workers to return to the office and say goodbye to those who will not. A vast majority of tech employees have been loath to return to the office despite efforts by the largest tech giants.

For more: How to handle the dreaded return-to-work Zoom call with your boss

It was a remarkable, anomalous era for work: To be paid so much and to work in ideal conditions, Calkins said. But to paraphrase Bill Gurley, the days of fantasyland are over.

Google and Meta have brought employees back to the office at least twice a week. Metas offices were opened at full capacity on March 28, though anyone who can do their job remotely can apply for full-time remote work. The company offers a flexible hybrid schedule where Individual teams determine how often to gather in the office.

Apple was ready to make the move this summer but postponed in May after more than 1,000 current and former employees signed an open letter calling the plan inefficient, inflexible and a waste of time. Microsoft does not mandate employees return to the office, but considers it standard to drop in 50% of the time. Employees can request more flexibility to their schedules.

In January, about half of leaders said their company required or planned to require employees to return to in-person work full-time in the next year, according to research fromMicrosoft, which surveyed 31,102 workers around the world between January and February. Yet just 4% of employers said they require all employees to return to the workplace full-time, based on a survey of employers from the Conference Board.

Many companies are making the hybrid experience a permanent reality, with more productivity tools such as digital white boards, smart galleries, and workspace reservation areas, Zoom Chief Operating Officer Aparna Bawa told MarketWatch. There are more tools at your disposal, she said.

Those that do not walk that path, though, could take the departures of workers who do not want to return with a sigh of relief, as it means they can avoid another layoff and the severance that would come with it. The dynamic feels like a complete turnaround from a year ago, when many tech workers were considering walking away, especially if companies required them to return to the office.

Feeding the general paranoia and caution are notes from financial analysts, such as one predicting an appocolypse, or the bursting of the mobile-app bubble.

We define this tech bear market as an era when expenses require greater justification with regard to [return on invested capital] and [customer lifetime value to customer acquisition cost], money is no longer free flowing, and nearer-term fundamentals matter more than the long-term dream, Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik said in an ominous July 13 note.

The problem with this approach is that the companies get stuck in a lower growth environment in order to keep margins in check, leading investors to question the growth story a vicious flywheel, Shmulik cautioned.

Dont miss: The cloud boom is coming back to earth, and that could be scary for tech stocks

But Rob LoCascio, the longtime CEO of LivePerson who went through the dot-bomb bust in the early 2000s, sees the current slowdown as a pale imitation of what happened then, and as more of a correctional era.

Back in the early 2000s, we had to restructure the company in 2001 after laying off most of our staff, 140 of 180, because we were losing customers by the hour, LoCascio told MarketWatch. Half of our customers were dot-coms. The situation isnt as dire this time around. We are trimming rather than slashing. There is an overreaction this time by the stock market.

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Russian tech giants in talks to create a national game engine – GamesIndustry.biz

Posted: at 1:21 pm

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This month Russia's major tech firms have been in conversation with the government to develop a national game engine.

As reported by PC Gamer, these talks for an alternative engine follow after game companies halted their businesses in the country -- in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

The proposed game development resource may require billions of Russian Rubles to fund.

PC Gamer adds that the project is being supported by the country's most prominent digital and internet services providers.

As of March, firms that have pulled out of the Russian games market include Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, CD Projekt and Bloober Team.

Nintendo suspended all Russian eshop payments or Switch users and Sony stopped the launch of Gran Turismo 7 at the last minute.

IDG Consulting estimated that the Russian games market alone generated around $3.4 billion last year.

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Tech giants to invest in Nigeria’s digital space FG The Sun Nigeria – Daily Sun

Posted: at 1:21 pm

The Federal Government says major tech giants including Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube have shown interest in investing and exploring business opportunities in Nigerias digital space.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said this on Saturday in Epe, Lagos state at the 49th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN).

He said that the giant tech and primary digital media platforms which had been exploring the countrys digital media space had been holding meetings with relevant government agencies.

Mohammed said the Federal Government was committed to exploring all the opportunities offered by the techies for the benefit of the people.

The minister said the theme of the AGM, The New World Order: Technology as a Game Changer, was apt.

According to him, the realisation of the power of technology in brand communication necessitated the setting up of the Ministerial Task Team on Audience Measurement System.

He said audience measurement in broadcasting would give accountable and data-driven understanding of the impact of communication on consumer behaviour.

The minister charged relevant parties in the ministerial task team to complete the tasks in order to initiate the legislative processes necessary for the implementation of the audience measurement before the end of the present administration.

Besides audience measurement, the minister said government had given approval for the implementation of other reform initiatives of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON).

He said the reform would strengthen the advertising ecosystem, encourage inclusive growth as well as attract investment to the industry.

In his address of welcome, the President of AAAN, Mr Steve Babaeko, commended the minister for his untiring efforts toward repositioning the advertising ecosystem in Nigeria.

The minister was accompanied to the event by the Registrar/Chief Executive of APCON, Dr Olalekan Fadolapo, and the Director-General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Mr Falorunso Coker. (NAN)

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Will the tech giants help turn the market around? – Fidelity International

Posted: at 1:21 pm

Tech companies have taken a massive hit this year due to the changing interest rate environment. As rates rise, the future earnings of tech companies are worth less in the eyes of investors, leading to downward pressure on their valuations.

Several US tech companies have announced hiring freezes and reduced budgets to tighten things up - a signal that next quarters performance may bring some disappointment1.

As well as Netflix and Tesla, the coming weeks bring results from Meta (formerly Facebook), Alphabet (formerly Google) and Twitter which may add to market jitters.

Netflix hopes to steady the ship

Netflix has had a tumultuous year, with the worlds largest streaming service reporting its first subscriber loss since 2011, losing nearly 1 million subscribers between April and July. The US, Canada and Europe saw the highest number of cancellations.

Between April and June total revenue was $7.9bn, up 8.6% year-on-year but, such is the expectations of todays tech giants, this figure still disappointed the market.

There has been intense competition in the streaming sector with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ all battling for viewers.

Netflixs plan to boost profits includes the introduction of an ad-supported service that will be launched in 2023 with Microsoft as well as a crackdown on password sharing, which one survey estimates costs Netflix a whopping $6 billion.

Tesla revenue boost despite supply chain issues

Like Netflix, Tesla has also experienced a downturn. The electric vehicle makers global deliveries fell 18% in the second quarter, compared to the first period2. Tesla said the fall stems from Covid-19 lockdowns at the companys Gigafactory in Shanghai.

However, its latest quarter brings some optimism. Tesla reported a 57% increase in adjusted earnings per share in its latest quarter3.

Analysts expected the company to report second-quarter revenues of $17.23 billion, an 8% decline compared to the previous quarter, according to Refinitiv data. Earnings per share were expected to reach $1.86 per share, a 42% fall from a year ago.

Teslas second quarter revenue reached $16.9bn, up 42% compared to the year before.

In April, Elon Musk said Tesla could raise deliveries by 60% this year, equivalent to nearly 1.5 million vehicles4.

Tesla is the fourth largest holding in the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, along with other tech firms including Amazon and Alibaba.

Results from both Tesla and Netflix demonstrate how specific factors can affect individual companies - a supply chain disrupted by lockdown in the case of Tesla and fierce competition in streaming for Netflix.

The market will now be watching the rest of the tech earnings season for any sign that companies are also being affected by a more general economic slowdown.

If they can defy the current negative mood with strong numbers, the market may begin to see beyond the current turbulence. Any disappointments are likely to lead to yet further volatility.

Source:

1The Guardian, 17 July 20222Tech Crunch. 2 July 20223Financial Times, 20 July 20224Yahoo News, 19 July 2022

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Microsoft Will Cut Back Open Jobs in Azure, Other Units – Dice Insights

Posted: at 1:21 pm

Microsoft plans on cutting back on its open jobs, according to a new report.

That new Bloomberg report suggests those cutbacks will impact multiple units within Microsoft, including cybersecurity and Azure. However, the company will honor current job offers to candidates, and continue to hire for critical roles.

In May, Microsoft announced a hiring slowdown for its Office and Windows divisions. In doing so, it followed other tech giants (including Meta, Salesforce, and Google) in curbing hiring. But even as Microsoft trims its hiring, its intensely focused on retention: CEO Satya Nadellaannounced in an internal emailthat he would double the budget for merit-based salary increases, while the range for annual stock-based compensation would also rise. The most meaningful increases will be focused where the market demands and on early to mid-career levels, he wrote. We are also increasing Annual Stock ranges by at least 25 percent for all levels 67 and below.

Its an odd time for some of the biggest companies in tech. While they still earn sizable profits, executives are curbing spending in the face of uncertain economic conditions. And yet they must also effectively grow and maintain their talent pools. The end result: hiring slowdowns, but bigger salaries for employees. For example, Amazon announced earlier this year that it would boost its maximum base pay for corporate and technology employeesfrom $160,000 to $350,000. And despite hiring slowdowns at their respective companies, Meta (formerly Facebook), Google and Apple have spent the past few monthslocked in a salary-boosting poaching war,especially in the white-hot arenas of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), anddata science.

In other words, these tech giants will continue to pay notably high salaries well into the future, no matter what the economic conditions. But in the meantime, it seems that cautious executives are engaging in a bit of belt-tighteningeven as they continue pouring cash into certain key projects.

Membership has its benefits. Sign up for a free Dice profile, add your resume, discover great career insights and set your tech career in motion. Register now

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None of the 3 Rising Growth Stocks Are Tech Giants – The Motley Fool Canada

Posted: at 1:21 pm

Image source: Getty Images.

The TSX would be lower than 19,000 to start this week if not for the 6.57% advance of tech stocks in the last five trading days. While the sector is still deep in the red (-35.86% year to date), some of its constituents have positive gains already. However, tech giants like Shopify, Lightspeed Commerce, and Nuvei arent the rising growth stocks.

Absolute Software (TSX:ABST)(NASDAQ:ABST) and Softchoice (TSX:SFTC) are up more than 5% year to date, while Evertz Technologies (TSX:ET) is likely to turn green very soon. It seems their slump is over, and they could be the tech winners in 2022.

Absolute Software trades higher at $12.30 per share on account of a 10.81% advance in 10 days. While the trailing one-year price return is -28.15%, the year-to-date gain is now 5.33%. The $627.77 million dividend-paying company (2.64%) provides self-healing endpoint and secure access solutions to help customers strengthen their cyber resilience.

After three quarters in fiscal 2022 (nine months ended March 31, 2022), total revenue is US$144.8 million or 63% higher than in the same period in fiscal 2021. However, net loss reached US$19.1 million compared to the net income of US$6.7 million a year ago.

Christy Wyatt, Absolute Softwares president and CEO, said, We continued to deliver strong financial results in Q3, achieving record Enterprise and Government ARR growth and breaking the $200 million ARR mark. She added that Absolute is strongly positioned to address the challenges of endpoint-centric security posture in this next chapter of hybrid work.

Softchoice is an obscure name in the tech sector, but its a winner thus far in 2022. At $22.79 per share, current investors enjoy a 7.55% gain on top of a 1.58% dividend. The $1.35 billion company provides software-focused IT solutions that equips and trains customers to be agile and innovative.

In Q1 2022, management reported a 7.3% sales growth versus Q1 2021. Net income reached US$3.7 million compared to the $2 million net loss in the same quarter last year. Softchoices president & CEO Vince De Palma said, We experienced a solid first quarter of organic growth including double-digit growth in our Software & Cloud solutions.

For the full year 2022, Softchoice projects an 11% growth in gross profit to US$320 million. The margin of the adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of gross profit should be around 30%.

Evertz Technologies impressed investors with its earnings results for fiscal 2022. In the year ended April 30, 2022, revenue and net earnings increased 29% and 73% versus fiscal 2021. This $968.88 million company designs, manufactures and markets video and audio infrastructure solutions for the television, telecommunications and new-media industries.

Broadcasters, content creators, specialty channels and television service providers form the customer base of Evertz. This tech stock pays dividends like Softchoice, although the payout is more generous (5.66% dividend yield). Market analysts recommend a buy rating. They forecast the current share price of $12.71 (-0.83% year to date) to climb 28.5% to $16.33 in 12 months.

Absolute Software, Softchoice, and Evertz Technologies are proving more resilient than TSXs non-dividend paying tech giants. Would-be investors can earn from price appreciation and receive recurring income streams.

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