The IMF reports that banks in the #UAE generally have significant capital and liquidity reserves. Moreover, their overall asset quality has improved and credit growth has remained resilient despite rising domestic interest rates.
The #UAE is an inspiration for progress, unity and prosperity and their forward-looking #leadership is shaping a brighter future for all.

Newell Brands' first quarter 2024 revenue came in at $1.7 billion, representing a net sales decline of 8% year-over-year. However, core sales performance improved sequentially, with a decline of 4.7% compared to a 9.3% decline in the previous quarter. The company saw green shoots with three businesses - Baby, Writing, and Commercial - returning to core sales growth. CEO Chris Peterson highlighted the progress made on the new business development front, which contributed to distribution gains and ultimately positively impacted the core sales performance.
Normalized gross margin and operating margin saw significant improvement, expanding by 410 basis points and 220 basis points versus the prior year, reaching 31.2% and 4.6%, respectively. This marked the third consecutive quarter of normalized gross margin improvement and the second straight quarter of normalized operating margin expansion. The company attributed this positive margin performance to savings from productivity initiatives, favorable mix and pricing, as well as the impact of organizational realignment and Project Phoenix.
The Writing business unit exhibited strong potential for market share gains with an improved innovation pipeline and strategic marketing efforts. The Baby business showed signs of stability and growth potential, while the Commercial segment continued its upward trajectory. These improvements were driven by strategic shifts in focus, such as pivoting towards outdoor activities in the Coleman business and enhancing the leadership team in the Outdoor and Recreation division. International markets also played a significant role, with pricing actions offsetting inflation and currency movements to contribute to core sales performance.
For the second quarter, Newell Brands expects core sales to decline by 4% to 6%, with net sales anticipated to decrease by 7% to 9%. The company forecasts normalized operating margin of 9.1% to 9.6% for Q2, reflecting a flat to up 50 basis points versus the previous year. CEO Chris Peterson emphasized the commitment to putting more advertising and promotion dollars behind consumer-led product innovations, indicating a slight uptick in A&P spending and an increase in interest expense. The full-year outlook remains consistent, with projected core sales decline of 3% to 6% and normalized operating margin of 7.8% to 8.2%.
The call also highlighted several risks, including:
1/ Consumer Discretionary Spending Pressures: The company notes that categories in which it competes remain under pressure due to consumers managing their discretionary spend more carefully. This cautious consumer spending behavior is attributed to the cumulative impact of inflation on essentials like food, energy, and housing costs, outpacing wage growth.
2/ Supply Chain Inflation and Foreign Exchange Headwinds: While Newell Brands has made progress in gross margin improvement by focusing on more profitable parts of the portfolio, they face ongoing challenges with input cost inflation (notably labor, overhead, and resin) and significant foreign exchange headwinds. The company expects a two- to three-point impact on core sales from FX issues, and although they have managed to offset much of this with pricing strategies, particularly in international markets, continued volatility in commodity prices and currency rates poses risks to margins and profitability.
3/ Dependency on Successful New Product Launches: A considerable part of the company’s strategy for growth involves launching new top-tier innovations and engaging in robust marketing campaigns. While initial launches such as Sharpie Creative Markers and Paper Mate InkJoy Gel Bright Pens have been successful, there is an inherent risk in relying heavily on future product innovations to drive growth.
Want to learn more about 1Q Earnings? See us at https://www.earningsdigest.ai/stock/analyze/NWL-2024-Q1

For those of you who have fibroids and took Omnitrope during stims, did it cause your fibroids to grow?
It has been added as part of my stim protocol for my third retrieval but I'm very hesitant to take it due to my history of fibroid tumors. One of the side effects listed is potential growth of tumors. I had a myomectomy last year to remove 14 fibroids, the largest was the size of a cantaloupe. I'm lucky that my surgeon was able to save my uterus. My uterus probably wouldn't survive another myomectomy though.
About me: almost 41, AMH 2.37, mini protocol (200 follistim, 20 units low dose hcg, ganirelix, dual trigger with 10,000hcg and Lupron)
Round 1 - (only one ovary accessible because of a fibroid) 9 eggs retrieved, 2 mature - both fertilized and frozen day 3
Round 2 - after myomectomy - 16 eggs retrieved, 3 mature - all 3 fertilized and frozen day 3.
I believe the low maturity rate is a trigger timing issue. My clinic tends to trigger patients on the early side. I will push them to wait until follicles are at least 18mm for upcoming round.
Would omni help with maturity? Is the potential benefit of omnitrope worth the risk if you're prone to fibroids?

I came across this Quora answer for "Why does Kerala Government impose an economically worthless Malayalam in Kerala schools instead of making it as an optional language because a Malayali cannot get lucrative employment by learning Malayalam?" from this post.

This question reminds me of a story of the Roman emperor Vespasian. One day, an inventor visited the emperor and showed him the blueprint of a mechanism that could transport columns and beams to a construction site quickly and without any manual labor. This brilliant machine could've kickstarted industrial revolution 1700 years before it actually happened. But much to the inventor's shock, Vespasian turned him down, saying “my people need jobs, our slaves need jobs. If the machine does all the work, our people will be jobless. Our slaves would get free time to organize themselves and would start revolts”.
Vespasian feared that the new technology was ‘economically worthless', as it would make people and slaves jobless and send the country into total chaos. In short, he was technologically shortsighted. The inability to foresee what technology could bring to his people in the long run pulled him down. He was deluded by the fragile nature of the economy and had no idea how to rebuild it if this revolutionary mechanism would be allowed to operate.
This was the reason why ancient Rome was never industrialized, despite having a lot of excellent inventors and engineers. Those in power were worried about the unemployment a sudden revolutionary idea would create and failed to accept how beneficial this would be for the people in the long run.
The reason for narrating this story is that it is remarkably similar to the dilemma mentioned in the question. Vespasian thought, “allocating resources to inventive technology instead of manual labor is economically worthless since people and slaves won't get lucrative jobs”.
Replace ‘manual labor' by ‘English' and ‘inventive technology' by ‘Malayalam', and you get our question.
“Allocating resources to English instead of Malayalam is economically worthless since people and slaves won't get lucrative jobs”.
Likewise, English persists as the language of official usage for most jobs not because Malayalam is incompetent or inefficient, but because the current ‘system' revolves around English. That makes Malayalam seem like a burden on students, with no economic worth. An engineer who does all his learning from foreign textbooks and uses English terminology has no lucrative use of Malayalam. A software developer who needs to know all computer-related terms in English has no use of Malayalam. The same goes for an accountant, a doctor, a clerk, and pretty much all ‘white collar' jobs you can think of. Even those who might benefit from learning Malayalam like historians or linguists might consider English infinitely more useful since most of the written books and research work on those fields are in English. There is enough reason for people to think that spending government resources for teaching Malayalam is worthless like how Vespasian thought that appreciating technology was worthless.
But time proved Vespasian wrong, although by sheer luck. Christianity replaced Paganism as the dominant religion in Europe. Since slavery is forbidden in Christianity, European kingdoms started banning it. Feudalism and class based labor also started declining as the plague wiped out significant fractions of each class and as the military shifted from armies to professional fighters, thereby weakening the nobility’s hold on power. With the lack of a powerful ruling class to impose and manage heavy manual labor, the stage was finally set for a technological revolution and the industrial revolution finally began in Europe, 1700 years after Vespasian.
Some of you might be doubtful of comparing the case of English vs Malayalam with manual labor vs automated machines. Are they even comparable in the first place?
Industrial revolution made life easier for people because it freed people from the heavy manual labor and made it possible for them to spend more time for their personal development. Likewise, teaching in Malayalam instead of English would make people engage more with their personal and cultural lives. Teaching lessons of science and history in English forbids Malayalis from using them in their lives. This is because these two languages are different at a fundamental level since they belong to two different language families. If you are a Malayalam speaker and you learn science and history in English, it'll be impossible for you to use them in your daily lives because you conceptualize the world around you in completely different ways while you speak or think in these two languages. In linguistics, this changing of cognitive metaphors while using different languages is known as code-switching.
Let me share my own experience. I studied in Malayalam medium in primary and high school. Hence my way of understanding science and history is through Malayalam's (or Dravidian) cognitive metaphors. Those who study in English or other related languages like German, Persian or Hindi would use the Indo-European cognitive metaphors. Once I started reading books in English, I started to realize how different these are.
Let us take time for example.
How an English speaker views time
Speakers of Indo-European languages like English and Hindi conceptualize time as a long line through which you move at a steady rate. Your past is the segment behind you and your future lies in front of you. Time is a one-dimensional straight line in Indo-European languages (the only exceptions are Italic and Hellenic branches. They see time as a growing volume instead of a long line).
This is why these languages describe the duration of events as either “long” or “short”, which represent the length of a line segment.
Consider the statement “I've been waiting for a long time”.
The italicised part, translated into different Indo-European languages would be:
English (Germanic) : “ long time”
Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan) : “dīrghakāla”
Hindi (Indo-Aryan) : “lambi der”
Persian (Iranian) : “moddat zamân tulâni”
Lithuanian (Baltic) : “ilgas laikas”
Irish (Celtic) : “tamall fada”
All those words indicated with bold letters are synonym for “long”. The same could be observed for events with less duration. All these languages use the adjective “short”, just as what you might expect from their way of perceiving time as a horizontal line.
Hence many words describing events associated with time like emotions in these languages are derived from roots that mean “long” or “short”. The English words “longing” (from ‘long') and “hope” (ultimately from Greek ‘kúptō' (to bend forward) ) are examples.
(By the way, there are two slightly different variants of the Indo-European concept of time. This video explains it beautifully with a riddle)
.
How a Malayalam speaker views time
Speakers of Dravidian languages like Malayalam have a much more sophisticated three-dimensional view of time. For Malayalis, the passage of time is vertically upwards, not to the front. Also, time isn't a single line here. Multiple vertical lines of progression of time arise from the two dimensional patches of land. In Malayalam, this two-dimensional ‘area' or patch of time is known as “pāḍu” (പാട്) which literally means “a bounded area” (hence the adjectives like “orupāḍu” and “appāḍe”). Related events that take place at a particular location are visualized as multiple vertical lines growing from that patch. A different place or a different person would be visualized as a different patch with its own vertical growths.
You have to be a Dravidian speaker to fully understand this. Imagine a set of events.
If it is the same event occurring over and over again, it is perceived as looping around a small vertical segment over and over again. In Malayalam language, this corresponds to the adjective ഒത്തിരി (ottiri) - literally “many turns/loops” (root ‘tiru' - turn/spin).
If that set of events represent a growing process or emotion, it is perceived as a line that grows vertically. In Malayalam, the adjective in this case is ഏറെ (ēṟe) - literally “climbing up/ascending” or വളരെ (vaḷare) -literally “growing upwards”.
If those events are concurrent yet different, they are perceived as multiple vertical growths originating from the same patch on the plane. In Malayalam, the adjective is ഒരുപാടു (orupāḍu) - literally “an area of” (‘pāḍu' - a bounded area).
If those events are completely independent, then they exist in different patches and the adjective പല (pala) is used.
In short, a Malayalam speaker has four different ways of translating something like “a long time”, depending on how the person spent that time. If they spent that time by counting sea waves, they might say “ottiri nēram”. If the time was spent, say, by building a sand castle, they might say “ēṟe nēram”, and if they were doing many different things, they might say “orupāḍu nēram”.
This is true in the case of other Dravidian languages as well. For example, in Kannada, the word ಪಿರಿ (piri) - heightened/advanced - (now mostly displaced by the loanword ಬಹಳ (bahaḷa)) would correspond to Malayalam “ēṟe” and ತುಂಬಾ (tumbā) - literally, a crowd of/amassed - would correspond to Malayalam “orupāḍu”. A Kannada speaker would say “bahaḷa samaya” for the time spent for building a sand castle and “tumbā samaya” for the time spent for doing multiple things
(However, in some Dravidian languages, this way of visualizing time has been replaced by the Indo-European linear time because of Sanskrit imperialism. But that is a different story.)
In short, as a Malayalam speaker, I conceptualize my entire life in front of me. My brain visualizes all the places I've been to and the people I've interacted with as different patches (pāḍu), each one having multiple vertical segments that grow or add a new one each time I visit again. However, when I speak or learn in English or Hindi, it is completely changed and I'm forced to visualize time and events to be part of a long line with my past behind me and my future in front of me. This switching of conceptual metaphors is known as code-switching in cognitive linguistics.
This means that I as a bilingual describe an event that happened the day before yesterday as “two days back” in English and “raṇḍụ nāḷ munpu” in Malayalam. Here, “munpu” means “frontside” and back means, backside. For an English speaker, the past lies as the line segment behind them (back), and for a Malayalam speaker, the past is a patch that is much further to the front than the one they are in at present. Notice how the concept of past flips completely with the change of language.
Think of English's concept of time as a long railway track with a train (representing the person) passing through it and Malayalam’s concept of time as a sugarcane field with multiple patches of land having a bunch of upwards growing stems.
The reason for describing all this is to highlight how different the perception of events are in these two languages. And remember that we have considered only time. Nearly all abstract concepts are visualized differently in unrelated languages. A Dravidian’s world is completely different from that of an Indo-European.
Now let us come back to the original question. What happens if a Malayalam speaker is given education only in English? The result is, they could never use the science and history they learn in their personal and cultural lives. Personal and cultural aspects would be pictured in one way and things that they learn at school would be visualized in the other way. This means that all those things would be useful only for earning money or doing research and they would be useless for their personal growth and the cultural development of the society.
In fact, this is exactly what is happening in Kerala now. All those highly educated people conceptualize the world in the Indo-European way thanks to being educated in English or sanskrit-imposed Malayalam while the common people view the world with the classic Dravidian metaphors. This stunts the growth in cultural, political, religious and scientific fileds in Kerala.
Not to mention that English's concept of time is much too simple and inefficient for describing things and when it comes to fields intricately connected to time like history or biological evolution, it often fails miserably. I recently wrote an an answer on how the public perception of evolution is incorrect and horribly misleading. In fact, the visualization of time as a simple long line is one of the reasons for this. This metaphor is much too simple to handle a complex probabilistic theory like evolution.
However, for someone who learned evolution in Malayalam, it would be a much more sophisticated process and it would be easier to visualize it without being misguided. Learning in Malayalam is much more efficient and productive in this case. I consider myself lucky for having had most of my schooling in Malayalam medium thanks to which I routinely apply the things I've learned in all aspects of my life.
So, to summarize,
Malayalam being economically worthless is a reality of the present, but it is not so because Malayalam is inefficient or unproductive in usage. As we saw here, educating in Malayalam is actually necessary for the learned things to be put into practice in life and society. It is just that the current system uses English and a total change would require nothing less than a revolution. Nevertheless, the cost of not educating kids in Malayalam is huge, as it leads to a stagnation in cultural, religious, political, and scientific aspects of Kerala.

--END OF THE ANSWER--
I wanted to share this answer here too and wanted to discuss about its points (specifically how different people view time).
How Telugu language and Telugus view time? Does it differ by dialects? Did Sanskrit influence this part of Telugu? What other things does Telugu perceive in a different manner compared to other languages?

This means that I as a bilingual describe an event that happened the day before yesterday as “two days back” in English and “raṇḍụ nāḷ munpu” in Malayalam. Here, “munpu” means “frontside” and back means, backside.

The only aspect I recognised which I use in Telugu like "rendu dinalu mundu" (Two days ago).

Let’s imagine this story. Build an awesome store, start your marketing campaigns and waiting the sales. Then you saw people are adding products to their cart but leaving their cart without buying anything. This is what we call cart abandonment. When you turn these abandoners to customer, it’s what we call abandoned cart recoveryLet’s imagine this story. Build an awesome store, start your marketing campaigns and waiting the sales. Then you saw people are adding products to their cart but leaving their cart without buying anything. This is what we call cart abandonment. When you turn these abandoners to customer, it’s what we call abandoned cart recovery.

Common Solutions for Cart Recovery

First I want to mention most common strategies for Shopify cart recovery.

1. Cart Recovery Emails

You can send emails to people who leave their cart without completing their order. Best part is Shopify offer a native way for it. Even some third party apps like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, offer this solution most of the time we continue with Shopify’s own native solution.
Choose how much time you wait before sending cart recovery emails and send them an email to complete their order right away.
Most common practice is putting a discount in these emails for coming back and completing the order. We don’t recommend that, you’ll see the why later.

2. Re-marketing Campaigns

Create custom audiences based on events on Meta and Google. Most of the time we use events for creating these audiences.
Create segments for visitors that has performed “checkout begin” event but not “purchase”.

3. Text Campaigns

If you’re collecting number of your visitors, you can use these data for cart recovery, too. You can start text messages like emails to bring back your visitors to store and complete their orders.

What is Missing

First you need to understand what makes your visitors to leave the checkout process. This is why it’s important to understand your funnel data.
Sending emails, texts and re-marketing for checkout abandoners help you to focus on visitors who started checkout but not completed.
However there are a greater potential in people who adds at least one product to their cart but leave the store.
After working with 300+ Shopify stores, one of the most common reason behind this behavior is POSTPONING buying decision.
People like your products, want to buy it someday but just not today. When you think yourself, it’s quite natural, right?
If you’re not looking for something urgent to you, you can postpone it easily.
This is why we built Growth Suite. Growth Suite gives your visitors a reason to complete their order right away.
This is how Growth Suite helps you to get more conversions.

1. Growth Suite analyze your visitors behavior in real-time.
2. Thanks to AI driven engine it measures visitor’s buying intention in real time and find when your visitors most interested. Not when they’re leaving.
3. It makes a real time-limited offer. Timer will appear on all pages. Like a native element on your store.
4. Product pages, cart-drawer and cart-page updated with conversion messages.
5. Growth Suite creates unique, one-time limited discount codes for each offer.
6. When timer is done, discount is automatically deleted from Shopify and visitor’s cart.
7. Same visitor can’t see any offer again for a while.

Give it a try now.
Looking for more detailed resource? Checkout our Growth Guide and Conversion Guide.
Shopify Abandoned Cart Report
Why People are Leaving Without Buying Anything
Shopify Abandoned Cart Automation
Shopify Abandoned Cart Email Templates
Shopify Cart Abandonment Email Not Send
Shopify Abandoned Cart Discount
Shopify Abandoned Cart GDPR
This article first published at MarketingLib.
Don't forget to check Growth Suite on Shopify App Store.

Mobile app analytics services and mobile app analysis provide businesses with critical insights into user behavior, app performance, and engagement metrics. These services help track user interactions, identify popular features, and pinpoint areas for improvement, enabling businesses to enhance the user experience and boost retention rates. Mobile app analysis can also reveal issues such as bugs or crashes, ensuring quick resolution and a smoother user experience. By leveraging detailed data and comprehensive reports, businesses can make informed decisions on app updates, marketing strategies, and user acquisition efforts. Overall, mobile app analytics services and mobile app analysis are essential for optimizing app performance, driving user engagement, and achieving business growth in the competitive mobile market.

- May 20, 2024

The Good

• Revenue Growth: Total revenue grew 15% year-over-year, driven by 20% growth in service revenue.
• Next-Generation Security ARR: Showed a robust 47% growth.
• Operating Margin: Expanded by 200 basis points, driving 25% growth in operating income.
• EPS Growth: Non-GAAP EPS grew by 20%, reaching $1.32.
• Innovation: Launched several new products and AI security offerings, positioning the company at the forefront of AI security.
• Customer Engagement: Significant increase in customer meetings and platformization conversations, with a 30% increase in meetings.
• Large Deals: Closed several significant transactions, including the largest in the company's history at nearly $150 million TCV.
• Partnerships: Announced a significant partnership with IBM, enhancing the company's capabilities and market reach.
• Geographical Growth: Revenue growth across all regions, with EMEA leading at 20%.

The Bad

• Billing Metrics: Billings grew only 3%, which is significantly lower compared to revenue growth and other metrics.
• JPAC Growth: Lower growth in the JPAC region, driven by lower product bookings offset by higher subscription bookings.
• Deferred Payments: Increased volume of deferred payments impacting immediate financial metrics.
• Platformization Impact: The accelerated platformization strategy will continue to impact billings and revenue growth through fiscal year 2025.

The Ugly

• Market Reaction: Despite strong financial performance and innovation, market reaction has been surprisingly negative.
• Customer Transition: Complexity in transitioning customers to platformized models, including free use periods and ramp contracts, which can delay revenue recognition.
• Interest Rate Environment: Higher cost of money impacting customer payment terms and the company's financial planning.
• Visibility on Metrics: Difficulty in tracking and interpreting traditional metrics like billings due to changes in payment terms and deferred billing.

Earnings Breakdown:

Financial Metrics

• Total Revenue: $1.98 billion, representing 15% year-over-year growth.
• Product Revenue: Grew 1%.
• Service Revenue: Grew 20%.
  • Subscription Revenue: Grew 25%.
  • Support Revenue: Grew 11%.
• Geographical Revenue Growth:
  • Americas: Grew 15%.
  • EMEA: Grew 20%.
  • JPAC: Grew 8%.
• Billings: Grew 3%.
• Next-Generation Security Annual Recurring Revenue (NGS ARR): Grew 47%.
• Remaining Performance Obligation (RPO): Grew 23%, reaching $11.3 billion.
  • Current RPO: $5.4 billion.
• Operating Margin: Expanded by 200 basis points, driving 25% growth in operating income.
• Non-GAAP EPS: Grew 20% to $1.32.
• Cash Generation: Strong, with GAAP net income growing substantially year-over-year.
• Debt Reduction: Paid down debt by $659 million.
• Share Repurchase: Spent $500 million to repurchase 1.7 million shares.
• Finance Receivables: Up 34% sequentially.

Product Metrics

• New Product Launches:
  • AI Security Suite:
    • AI Access Security
    • AI SPM
    • AI Runtime Security
  • SASE 3.0:
    • Secure enterprise browser integrated into SASE.
    • AI-powered data security with LLM-powered data classification.
    • Application acceleration improving performance up to 5 times.
  • Prisma Cloud:
    • Data Security Posture Management
    • Support for 100+ new APIs
    • Cloud Discovery and Exposure Management
    • Cloud Detection and Response (CDR)
  • Cortex:
    • XSIAM with $400 million in cumulative bookings.
• Customer Engagement:
  • 30% increase in customer meetings.
  • 65 incremental platformization sales in Q3, up 40% from Q2.
• Significant Transactions:
  • Largest transaction in company history at nearly $150 million TCV.
  • Seven-figure deals with U.S. county agency and large U.S. financial services company.
  • Eight-figure deal with global data services provider.

Source: Upgraded AI Assistant (Release date: May 27, 2024)

The market potential for wide format printing is substantial and growing, with significant opportunities for expansion and innovation across various industries. According to Kings Research, the global wide format printers market is expected to reach USD 15.02 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.39% from 2023 to 2030​

- May 20, 2024

The Good

• Revenue Growth: Total revenue in Q1 was $1.141 billion, up 3% year-over-year, exceeding guidance by approximately $16 million.
• Emerging Products Traction: Significant growth in Zoom Contact Center with 90 customers over $100,000 in ARR, representing 246% year-over-year growth.
• Strong Financials: Non-GAAP income from operations grew by 8% year-over-year to $457 million, translating to a 40% non-GAAP operating margin for Q1.
• AI Integration: Continuous integration of AI across the platform, with new features like AI-powered portrait lighting and Ask AI Companion.
• Customer Wins: Notable new customers and expansions, including Expedia, Major League Baseball, and Centerstone.
• Cash Flow: Operating cash flow grew 41% year-over-year to $588 million, and free cash flow grew 44% year-over-year to $570 million.
• Share Buy-Back: $150 million worth of stock purchased, representing 2.4 million shares.
• Guidance Increase: Raised top-line and profitability outlook for the full fiscal year 2025.

The Bad

• Churn Rate: Online Average Monthly Churn increased slightly to 3.2% compared to 3.1% in Q1 of FY24.
• Deferred Revenue: Deferred revenue at the end of the period was 1.35 billion, down approximately 1% from Q1 of last year.
• Geographical Revenue: APAC revenue declined by 2% due to FX headwinds in Japan and Australia.
• Gross Margin Dip: Non-GAAP gross margin for Q1 was 79.3%, down from 80.5% in Q1 of last year, with an expected further dip to 78% in Q2 due to one-time investments in upgrading the data center backbone.

The Ugly

• Minimal Impact of Customer Transition: Transition of 26,800 Enterprise customers to Online had an associated revenue shift of approximately $4 million, which was de-minimis.
• Guidance for Q2: Revenue guidance for Q2 is relatively flat at $1.145 to $1.15 billion, representing only 1% year-over-year growth.
• Free Cash Flow Forecast: Expectation of a significant decrease in free cash flow by approximately 50% to 60% quarter-over-quarter in Q2 due to timing of tax payments and AI-related CapEx.
• Enterprise Customer Strategy: The number of Enterprise customers did not grow at the same rate as historically, attributed to the focus on selling emerging products into the existing installed base rather than acquiring new enterprise customers.

Earnings Breakdown:

Financial Metrics

• Total Revenue: $1.141 billion, up 3% year-over-year, exceeding guidance by approximately $16 million.
• Enterprise Revenue: Grew 5% year-over-year, representing 58% of total revenue.
• Online Average Monthly Churn: 3.2%, slightly up from 3.1% in Q1 of FY24.
• Number of Customers Contributing >$100,000 in TTM Revenue: 3,883, representing 30% of revenue, up from 29% in Q1 of FY24.
• Deferred Revenue: $1.35 billion, down approximately 1% from Q1 of last year.
• RPO (Remaining Performance Obligation): Increased 5% year-over-year to approximately $3.67 billion.
• Operating Cash Flow: Grew 41% year-over-year to $588 million.
• Free Cash Flow: Grew 44% year-over-year to $570 million.
• Non-GAAP Gross Margin: 79.3%, down from 80.5% in Q1 of last year.
• Non-GAAP Income from Operations: $457 million, up 8% year-over-year.
• Non-GAAP Operating Margin: 40% for Q1, up from 38.2% in Q1 of last year.
• Non-GAAP Diluted Net Income per Share: $1.35, on approximately 315 million non-GAAP diluted weighted average shares outstanding.
• Share Buy-Back: $150 million worth of stock purchased, representing 2.4 million shares.
• Full-Year FY’25 Revenue Guidance: Raised to $4.61 billion to $4.62 billion, approximately 2% year-over-year growth.
• Full-Year FY’25 Non-GAAP Operating Income Guidance: $1.74 billion to $1.75 billion.
• Full-Year FY’25 Non-GAAP EPS Guidance: $4.99 to $5.02, based on approximately 319 million shares outstanding.
• Q2 Revenue Guidance: $1.145 to $1.15 billion, representing approximately 1% year-over-year growth.
• Q2 Non-GAAP Operating Income Guidance: $415 million to $420 million.
• Q2 Non-GAAP EPS Guidance: $1.20 to $1.21.

Product Metrics

• Zoom Contact Center: 90 customers with over $100,000 in ARR, representing 246% year-over-year growth.
• Zoom Phone: Five customers with 100,000 or more Zoom Phone seats.
• Zoom AI Companion: Over 700,000 customer accounts enabled.
• Zoom Rooms Licenses: Over 2 million cumulative licenses purchased.
• Workspace Reservations: Over 100,000 desks provisioned in the last 12 months.
• Notable Customer Wins:
  • Expedia: Lighthouse Zoom Revenue Accelerator customer.
  • Major League Baseball (MLB): Expanded partnership with Zoom Quality Management.
  • Centerstone: Expanded Zoom Phone and added Zoom Contact Center.
  • Leading Global Financial Services Firm: Doubled Zoom Phone seats to over 100,000.
• Zoom Workplace Launch: Introduced enhancements like multi-speaker view, document collaboration, AI-powered portrait lighting, and upcoming features like Ask AI Companion.
• Workvivo Integration: Landed a major telecom customer with approximately 100,000 seats and named Meta’s only preferred migration partner.
• Fedramp Moderate Authorization: Received for Essentials and Premium SKUs for Zoom Contact Center.
• PCI Compliance Support: Added for Zoom Contact Center customers with payment processing workflows.
• Channel Partnerships: Strengthened, leading to a significant increase in Channel wins and ability to compete for larger deals.

Source: Upgraded AI Assistant (Release date: May 27, 2024)

Howdy Folks,
I come bearing good news!
We're excited to announce the release of a new experimental branch for Manor Lords, version 0.7.965. This experimental update brings significant gameplay changes and numerous improvements.
Important Notice: Before you switch to the new beta version of the game, it's absolutely crucial that you back up your save files. Failing to do so could result in the potential loss of your progress. The new strings are not localized yet and stability hasn't yet been thoroughly tested. Some balancing changes are still experimental.
To access your saves on Steam for Manor Lords.

1. Press Win + E
2. Paste %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ManorLords\Saved\SaveGames into the search bar.

To discuss this build, please join the official Discord server https://discord.gg/manorlords. You'll find a channel for discussing the ongoing pre_release branch.
You can read Slavic Magic's full Steam announcement here.

How to Access the Experimental Branch:

1. Open Steam
2. Right-click on Manor Lords in your library
3. Select Properties
4. Navigate to the BETAS tab
5. Enter the password: veryNiceBasket
6. Select "pre_release" from the "Beta participation" dropdown
7. Wait for the game to update (restart Steam if needed)
8. Launch the game

Full Changelog for Version 0.7.960 -> 0.7.965

What's inside:
This update focuses primarily on balancing and bugfixes. Key changes include:

• Militia Squads: You can now hire 6 militia squads even if you already have a retinue and mercenaries employed. Future builds will connect this cap to the Lord's rank.
• Sheep Breeding: The sheepbreeding development branch has been capped, and sheep no longer spawn exponentially.
• Fields, Harvests, and Fertility: Significant improvements have been made to field overlays, crop prediction, and ox and worker behavior for enhanced accuracy and optimization.
• Barter and Trading: Numerous fixes implemented; on-foot traders can now carry 5 items per trip.
• King's Tax and Trade Route Costs: These have been toned down from the levels introduced in version 0.7.960.
• Loserville Bug: Fixed the "Loserville" mercenary bug.
• Marketplace Distribution: Improvements made to the distribution within the marketplace.
• Experimental Feature: Added a "Allow market stall setup" toggle to prevent workers/inhabitants of certain buildings from setting up market stalls.
• Construction Reserve: You can now set a construction reserve for buildings using planks for crafting, like the Joiner's shop.

Gameplay & Balance:

• Capped sheep breeding to 1 new lamb every 10 days max.
• [Experimental] Villagers are only allowed to fetch water from the well nearest their home, except in case of a fire.
• [Experimental] Yield will never increase past 100% growth to keep gameplay intuitive.
• [Experimental] Even at 0% fertility, a tiny yield is still possible.
• [Experimental] Max yield per plant increased from 2 to 4, although the Hunting Grounds policy still reduces it by half.
• [Experimental] Plant yield rate reduced by half to encourage early harvest in emergency modes.
• The militia squad limit is now 6, regardless of retinue or mercenaries employed; future connection to the Lord's rank planned.
• [Experimental] Doubled the fertility regeneration rate on fallow fields and from fertilization.
• [Experimental] Slowed all plant growth by around 30% for balanced gameplay between field and vegetable crops.
• [Experimental] Tree growth rate slowed by around 30% upon player requests for more impactful forest management.
• [Experimental] Archer range increased by 1.5x with damage also increased from 12 to 15.
• [Experimental] Cost of opening new trade routes returned to linear scaling.
• [Experimental] Carrying capacity of on-foot trading post workers increased from 1 to 5.
• [Experimental] Royal tax restructured: No tax for the first 5 years, then 1 Treasury per citizen after 5 years, 2 Treasury per citizen after 10 years, 3 Treasury per citizen after 15 years.
• [Experimental] Adjusted granary and storehouse worker slots to unify to 3 families for lv1 and 6 families for lv2.

Minor Changes:

• Removed optimization where only every nth plant affected the fertility values due to display errors.
• Improved accuracy of fertility overlay colors and crop yield predictions.
• Added missing tooltips to minomajor trades.
• Enabled setting "trade rule" for advanced trades without an established route; items not available will show as NA.
• Reworked the construction reserve system to include various goods like planks.
• Optimized inventory array functions.
• Enabled disallowing certain families or workplaces from setting up market stalls.
• Tuned how "current region" is calculated in the UI for more comfortable building on the edge between two player-owned regions.
• Ensured iron and clay deposits do not generate on steep terrains.
• "MODDED" may now display after the version number to aid bug reporting.

Crash Fixes:

• Fixed a crash related to deleting a building when pathfinding obstacles are being verified.

Bug Fixes:

• Addressed issues with employed traders going to trade points without an open trade route.
• Corrected early movement of farm workers to transport tasks despite available crops.
• Resolved inaccurate predicted yield displays.
• Fixed rotation issues in villagers after dismounting.
• Addressed respect of work area limits by farming oxen.
• Fixed blurry appearance of gilded aventail houndskull helmets in the retinue editor.
• Corrected non-drawing of the forest mask.
• Fixed bandit camps respawning on loading due to unsaved "lastBanditCampSpawnedDay."
• Ensured villagers set up market stalls to sell their produce like vegetables.
• Corrected the wrong apple basket carry animation.
• Fixed wealth transfer issues during barter.
• Ensured bartering traders return the correct number of items based on barter value and carrying capacity.
• Addressed overpacking by bartering traders in their origin region.
• Resolved trading post exports not proceeding after the trader reaches the destination.
• Corrected the distribution of multiple instances of the same good type to a single plot, which left outlying houses undersupplied.
• Fixed crop rotation to fallow causing farmers to harvest invisible itemID_0, which stopped supply dumps from being cleared.
• Addressed issues with villagers staying at homes indefinitely if a bandit camp is spawned, thinking the region is under attack.
• Ensured proper saving of mercenary company arrival regions.
• Stopped granary workers from stealing ale from the tavern.
• Fixed interrupted livestock exports due to sheep herd behavior.
• Ensured livestock trader jobs trigger import tasks when buying livestock from another region.
• Corrected the missing "hunger" popup artwork.
• Fixed a typo in the credits list.

Cosmetics:

• Tuned field dirt UV wiggle to make the huge vegetable gardens less wavy.
• Improved the precision for snapping terraforming meshes like mines or sawpits to the ground.
• Made leaf clumps smaller and disabled the parallax mapping to reduce distortions.
• [WIP] Updated the visit mode character model for the green lady portrait to be female, still in progress.
• Cleaned up combat animations.

Thank you for playing!
Greg Styczeń, Lead Developer, Slavic Magic

Good morning everyone. Going to call the mayor of the small town about 10AM. First time I ever watched a meeting from the town. It was 7PM last night. They covered many topics but when it came to the piece of land I would like… the members of the committee, 9 people did not want to sell it… They spoke about turning it into a brand new police station. At the moment in the police station is in a basement, shared with a town building. It is a good idea actually…however, that property has sat empty since it was a bank in 2016!! The town has no money to fix that old building and restore it into a brand new police station… 5 million????
So I will call with some ideas. The town needs money badly after I watched the meeting. I no longer will ask or a tax abatement, I will ask a capped tax for 20-30 years. If the town wants more money they need more residents. Most of the towns money comes from property taxes, my new building will raise values all over. New people will need to go shopping and will liven the area…. I would like to build something with 80-100 units. LFG!

Some earnings since yesterday’s close:
AZO 60 M 70 [3% decrease in sales] EXP 55 LOW 75TCOM 65 ZIM 75 [Initially expected to lose 83 cents, analysts expected to much!] TUYA 75 YALA 65 NDSN 60 DJT 20 [Net Loss 327 million, Revenue 770k!] TRNS 70 PANW 75 [Valuation, 60x PE about 10-12% growth expected] KEYS 65
ZM 70

Nothing is wrong with the PANW earnings. They will make close to 5 dollars a share and are trading at 60x earnings. With a growth of near 10-12% expected, maybe you can no longer give it a multiple it once had when growth was 30%? I may buy the dip on ZM if 60. They will make near 5 dollars as well! The PE would be near 12! The growth is slow as well, 5-10% but they are far cheaper! It is not a bad business but no longer a growing business. For similar reasons I had traded MTCH after disappointing earnings, and will look again as it dips below 30. ACMR and YOU smashed earnings, had growth and the stocks are down so I am trading those. CAR has been my work horse since February. SOFI has growth of 30-40% and is about to be profitable…
If you check back to early January analysts had ZIM losing 83 cents a share. I have pics all over Twitter, even wanted to bet they would crush that! They did! They came in at 75 cent profit. They actually revised for the full year. They are actually paying a dividend… I am disappointed the average freight rate was 1,452! WOW I had checked daily and I saw rates 2,000+…I checked yesterday and they were back to 3,000! So they must have locked in some contracts…
The good news is.. that I expected ZIM needed 1,600 avg to break even, so if they made 75 cents a share on 1,452 it means they cut costs drastically.. More good news is that the rates are above 3,000!!! I wouldn’t buy or sell it at the moment, but the coast is much more clearer now. I have sold all my shares near 12… I was trading it a lot from 9 to 12…. I do not know if it goes back there but I am watching… With rates higher on container, the cost cuts, 14% growth in sales dollars, 10% more actually cargo, it seems good for ZIM…

The market should be watching and will be decided on NVDA ?! NVDA I believe should crush earnings…. The company may even announce a dividend… that is speculation but can be bullish…
I can tell you I rather give NVDA SMCI a 60x PE than NOW or PANW . NVDA may have sales growth near 100% and earnings 200-300% so that should tell you the valuation issue with PANW.
Please check ACMR YOU numbers and you will understand why to buy PANW is crazy! Only touching the topic because about 5 people were asking me why PANW is falling after earnings.. Nothing is wrong with PANW .. The growth is slowing, it is a great company… but why would someone pay 60x earnings when growth is slowing near 10%? Where is the value then? Perfection is priced in… so ZM and PYPL grow 5-10% and earnings grow 5% and have a PE near 12? PANW grows slightly more and has a PE near 60?

Keep in mind historically, the SP500 has a PE near 18-19….For this the SP500 returns to you near 9% a year.
On a good year earnings growth is 5% and sales are 10%... 18-19x PE!
Use that as a reference!

5 Trade Ideas:
ACMR – I did try and bid 22.50. I also have 500 shares at 25.45, sadly it went up to 26.25 and I wanted 1 dollar or 26.45, but that is ok!

CAR – I did bid 116 yesterday. I trade 100 shares normally for 2.50-4 dollars each trade. I did make 1 trade recently for 11 dollars, right after earnings

MTCH ZM – So So earnings, but valuations near 12x? MTCH my last trade was 28 to 29 on 500. ZM I am looking for 60

SOFI – I had abused this a lot last year, a few times this year. They are coming closer and closer to making money and still have 30-40% growth, even as they grow larger… HIMS hit 2! They were losing money but growth was 80-100%.. Even years later HIMS growth is still near 50%, big news on Ozempic rival yesterday

CVNA RDDT DJT – Put ideas, if any of these rally near 5-10%, they are already high but you want to dump the pumps! I will look for puts with 60-90 days

The contents of this post are for information and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. ... By choosing to make a trade you are responsible for your own actions. Please do some due diligence. These are trades I am making and you can follow along. If you make a winning trade, I do not even expect a bravo or thanks but that’s fine, if you lose on a trade the same difference.. I do not even expect an upvote or reward… The Elite team is aware of the risks and volatility in the market.

Good luck everyone let’s make money. Share trades, ideas here during trading hours. Our main goal here is to make money so I hope we can help eachother. I will be in and out of here as well.

As reported by Bloomberg in a revealing statement during JPMorgan’s recent investor day, CEO Jamie Dimon announced that his tenure might conclude sooner than the previously humorously stated "five years."
Highlighting the progress in succession planning, Dimon’s departure timing remains uncertain but indicates a nearing change in leadership. The bank's top management saw strategic shifts earlier this year, preparing for this transition.
Notably, Jenn Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh now head an expanded commercial and investment bank, while Marianne Lake has taken sole control of the consumer and community banking segment, managing more business lines. Financially, JPMorgan adjusted its net interest income forecast for the year to $91 billion, a $1 billion increase over previous estimates, driven by fewer than anticipated interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and stable customer account behaviour.
The bank also projected a strong return on tangible common equity of 17% over the medium term, supporting cautious share buybacks, especially when stock prices drop. Amid regulatory changes, particularly the Basel III Endgame proposals, which may increase capital requirements for large banks, Dimon critiqued the potential impact on lower-income consumers and broader economic health.
The bank also highlighted that these regulations could force two-thirds of consumers to pay a monthly service fee for checking accounts, a scenario not currently planned for by JPMorgan but indicative of possible broader market shifts.
As for corporate performance, JPMorgan anticipates a significant rise in investment-banking fees and a moderate increase in the markets business for the upcoming quarters, signalling potential growth and resilience in operations.
Finally, from the markets, the big question in the next few days is whether Nvda is going to beat forecasts or not. The market is starting to prepare for it already!

https://preview.redd.it/d6seuio01s1d1.jpg?width=780&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ce2ca4248e68ce5a3c6cfe7d9c18b120c503cc1
Amazon Web Services (AWS) stand as a formidable giant in the dynamic landscape of cloud computing, where agility and scalability are supreme. Organizations worldwide have embraced AWS to power their digital infrastructure, leveraging its vast array of services to drive innovation, enhance customer experiences, and accelerate growth. However, amidst this technological marvel lies a critical challenge- cost management.
As businesses scale up their AWS usage, the associated expenses can spiral out of control, impacting profitability and hindering strategic initiatives. Let’s explore some insights on AWS cost optimization and how to transform your cloud expenditure into a strategic advantage. Whether you’re a startup, a mid-sized enterprise, or a global corporation, these insights will empower you to make informed decisions, streamline operations, and propel your business forward.

AWS cost optimization: Top tips and best practices to reduce your bill
Optimize your AWS cloud investments with cost optimization services & tools. Learn AWS cost optimization best practices & tools to reduce costs, improve performance & avoid unexpected bills.
Read More

​

Here are some key cloud statistics:

• According to the Flexera State of the Cloud report, 82% of 750 cloud decision makers consider managing cloud spend as their primary challenge, ranking security second at 79% and lack of resources/expertise third at 78%.
• Migrating your business to the public cloud can lead to a reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) of up to 40%, according to Accenture.

Moreover, organizations adopting AWS report significant advantages:

• 27.4% reduction in cost per user
• 67.7% increase in terabytes managed per administrator
• 56.7% decrease in application downtime
• 37.1% reduction in time-to-market for new products and services

5 Common mistakes that increase cloud bill and how to avoid them

1. Unmonitored AWS Instances

Failure to monitor unused AWS instances can lead to unnecessary costs in cloud infrastructure. Neglecting to track idle, aging, or inactive AWS instances results in poor resource utilization, known as cloud sprawl. Organizations face inflated AWS bills due to uncontrolled instances from development testing or shadow IT projects.
How to tackle: To tackle this, a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) can manually track AWS instances or use automated cloud management software, such as AWS Config or AWS Trusted Advisor, to identify and decommission unused instances regularly, optimizing resource utilization and reducing unnecessary expenses.

2. Lack of instance size management

The challenge of improper instance sizing in cloud computing disrupts budgets and performance. Over-provisioning wastes resources and costs, while under-provisioning leads to performance issues. Efficient instance size management involves analyzing workloads, automated scaling, and continuous optimization to align resources with actual needs, ensuring cost-effectiveness and optimal performance.
How to tackle: To tackle instance size management challenges, IT teams or CCoEs customize AWS instance configurations, implement scheduling using AWS Auto Scaling, monitor performance metrics with Amazon CloudWatch for continuous optimization, and leverage AWS offerings like AWS Reserved Instances for cost-effective scaling and predictable billing.

3. Failure to implement a multi-cloud strategy

Failing to implement a multi-cloud strategy means missing out on opportunities to optimize costs, performance, and resilience across various cloud platforms. It limits the ability to compare services and pricing models from different providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP. Without a multi-cloud approach, organizations may face vendor lock-in, higher costs, and reduced flexibility in adapting to changing business needs.
How to tackle: To address the challenge of not implementing a multi-cloud strategy, organizations should prioritize evaluating services and pricing from various providers. Embracing a multi-cloud approach allows for cost optimization, improved performance, and reduced dependency on a single vendor, ensuring flexibility and resilience in cloud deployments.

Suggested: Cloud migration guide: Your strategic path to AWS migration

4. Neglecting orphaned snapshots

Neglecting orphaned snapshots, which are created when instances are terminated without properly managing associated volumes and snapshots, can lead to unnecessary charges in cloud environments. These orphaned volumes and snapshots continue to incur costs even though they are no longer actively used, contributing to wasteful spending and inflated bills. It’s crucial to regularly review and clean up orphaned resources to avoid unnecessary charges and optimize cost management in cloud infrastructures.
How to tackle: To tackle the issue of neglecting orphaned snapshots, implementing backup strategies is crucial. This includes taking snapshots before deleting volumes, which reduces costs by billing only for snapshots at lower rates rather than full volume charges. Additionally, it’s essential to monitor orphaned snapshots regularly and manage them efficiently to avoid unexpected cost surges. This proactive approach, coupled with leveraging AWS services like Amazon EBS Snapshot Lifecycle Manager, ensures optimal cost management and prevents unnecessary expenses in cloud environments.

5. Lack of automation

Not embracing automation for tracking cloud resources hinders efficiency, especially at scale. Manual methods are time-consuming, prone to errors, and often lack real-time insights. Automation streamlines resource management by automatically monitoring, provisioning, and optimizing cloud assets. It reduces human intervention, ensures accuracy, and enables quicker responses to changing workload demands, leading to improved operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness in cloud environments.
How to tackle: Tackling the issue of not embracing automation involves leveraging automated tools and workflows to streamline processes and improve efficiency in cloud operations. Automation enforces best practices, maintains consistent performance standards, and reduces the burden on operations teams by handling repetitive tasks and ensuring accuracy. This enables teams to focus on critical aspects of cloud management, such as optimizing costs, enhancing security, and supporting business innovation, with the assistance of AWS services like AWS Lambda and AWS CloudFormation.
​
https://preview.redd.it/thidd7171s1d1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=973477644943c87ea1476d780dfb8742da69f08c

Explore the best strategies to migrate to the AWS cloud

The cloud serves as a tool, not a destination. For insights on leveraging AWS services and cloud migration strategies, explore the whitepaper on migrating to AWS cloud.
Download

The strategic benefits of AWS cost optimization

It is imperative for modern organizations to leverage, cost optimization in AWS since it isn’t merely a tactical exercise – it’s a strategic imperative. As businesses harness the power of Amazon Web Services to drive innovation, enhance customer experiences, and scale their operations, understanding the profound impact of cost optimization becomes paramount.

Let’s delve into the benefits of cost optimization that resonate across organizations, from startups to multinational corporations:

1. Enhanced profitability
At its core, cost optimization is about maximizing value. By meticulously managing AWS expenses, organizations free up capital that can be reinvested strategically. Whether it’s funding R&D initiatives, expanding market reach, or fortifying the balance sheet, every dollar saved contributes to the bottom line. In a competitive business landscape, profitability isn’t a luxury – it’s survival.
2. Agility and scalability
Cost-optimized architectures are inherently agile. They allow businesses to scale up or down seamlessly based on demand fluctuations. Whether it’s handling a sudden surge in user traffic or accommodating seasonal spikes, optimized AWS resources ensure operational flexibility. Agility isn’t just about speed; it’s about adaptability – the ability to pivot swiftly in response to market dynamics.
3. Strategic resource allocation
Cost optimization forces organizations to scrutinize their resource allocation. It prompts questions like: Which workloads are mission-critical? Where can we consolidate? What’s the optimal mix of reserved instances and on-demand capacity? By aligning resources with business priorities, organizations optimize performance, reduce waste, and drive efficiency.
4. Competitive edge
In a digital economy, time-to-market is a critical differentiator. Cost-optimized AWS environments expedite development cycles. Whether it’s launching a new product, rolling out features, or responding to market shifts, streamlined costs translate to faster execution. Organizations that move swiftly gain a competitive edge – edge that can make or break success.
5. Sustainability and corporate responsibility
Cost optimization isn’t just about financial gains; it’s about responsible stewardship. By minimizing resource consumption, organizations contribute to environmental sustainability. Efficiently managed AWS workloads reduce energy consumption, carbon footprint, and e-waste. In an era where conscious consumers and investors prioritize eco-friendly practices, cost optimization aligns with corporate social responsibility.
6. Empowering innovation
Lastly, cost optimization liberates resources for innovation. It fuels experimentation, encourages risk-taking, and fosters a culture of continuous improvement. When teams aren’t bogged down by unnecessary costs, they can focus on ideation, prototyping, and disruptive solutions. Innovation isn’t a luxury – it’s the lifeblood of progress.

AWS cost optimization best practices

• Use the right-sized resources
• Use Spot Instances
• Use Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans
• Use Auto Scaling
• Use AWS cost management tools

How Softweb Solutions can help organizations with AWS consulting services

Softweb Solutions specializes in crafting personalized AWS cost optimization strategies tailored to your business needs. Our expert team analyzes your AWS environment, identifies cost-saving opportunities, and implements efficient resource management practices, ensuring maximum ROI and performance optimization for your cloud infrastructure.

Ready to optimize your AWS costs? Reach out for personalized cost optimization assistance today!

Talk To Our AWS Experts

Navigating the cloud cost horizon

Optimizing cloud costs is crucial, especially with AWS dominance. This blog highlighted common mistakes and provided solutions like addressing unused instances, improper sizing, and lack of automation. The strategic benefits include enhanced profitability, agility, competitive edge, and innovation empowerment. By following best practices like using right-sized resources and AWS tools, organizations can drive long-term success.
So, let’s reduce AWS costs and optimize not just for today, but for the tomorrows we envision. Together, we’ll sculpt a future where innovation thrives, sustainability blooms, and your business yields exponential returns.
Originally published at softwebsolutions.com on April 12, 2024.

Standard Fabrication Processes on 200mm Silicon Wafers Using Lightwave Logic's Proprietary Slot Modulator Design Achieved Record Breaking sub-1V Drive at 200Gbps PAM4 – Ideal for 800Gbps and 1.6T Pluggable Transceivers.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., May 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Lightwave Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWLG) a technology platform company leveraging its proprietary electro-optic (EO) polymers to transmit data at higher speeds with less power in a small form factor today announced a collaboration with Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), a leading Silicon Photonics volume foundry – to develop state-of art polymer slot modulators utilizing AMF's silicon photonics platform.
These modulators have been shown to achieve a record low drive voltage below 1V and data rates of 200Gbps PAM4. This performance will enable a new generation of 800 Gb/s and 1.6T Gb/s pluggable transceivers to address fast growing requirements for optical connectivity for large generative AI computing clusters.
Lightwave Logic and AMF have collaborated over the past year to develop the electro optic polymer slot modulators utilizing AMF's standard manufacturing process flow on 200-mm wafers. This successful demonstration marks a significant milestone in integrated photonics, blending Silicon photonics with polymer materials. Building on this demonstration, both parties are aiming to enhance the modulators to ensure these advanced components are readily accessible to product companies on a manufacturing scale.
Dr. Michael Lebby, Chairman and CEO of Lightwave Logic, commented: "AMF is truly a world class facility with their silicon photonics maturity, and capacity for volume manufacturing. Working with AMF, we not only increased our wafer size to 200-mm, but we also turbo-boosted silicon photonics with our polymer slot modulators to achieve world class performance. Engineers from both sides have worked hard to achieve a silicon photonics design that integrates smoothly with polymer – a process that would have been much more challenging if other next-generation modulator materials had been utilized. This accomplishment puts our company in a very strong position to ramp volume both for our polymers as well as 200-mm silicon wafer volume with AMF."
Mr Jagadish C.V, CEO of AMF, stated: "Lightwave Logic's EO polymer modulators have been demonstrated to support higher baud rates, low power consumption, all while preserving their compact size. These features, integrated with AMF Silicon Photonics platform, make them cost effective options for 4X200 Gb/s (800Gb/s) and next-generation 1.6Tb/s pluggable transceivers applications. This demonstration opens exciting opportunities to develop novel solutions for commercial-grade-compatible EO polymer modulators seamlessly integrated with AMF's standard processes. We are keen to continue to explore the synergies between EO polymer modulation on our foundry processes, to provide innovative and manufacturable technology solutions for data communication."
About Advanced Micro Foundry Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), Singapore is the world's first specialty Silicon Photonics foundry. AMF offers a full spectrum of manufacturing, prototyping, and testing services, all supported by proprietary technology platforms. These platforms are enhanced by continuously evolving Process Design Kits (PDKs), which are designed in-house for applications in sectors like Telecom, Data Centers, LiDAR, and Sensors. AMF's commitment to device innovation and excellence in delivery has been pivotal in the rapid growth of Silicon Photonics products globally.
About Lightwave Logic, Inc. Lightwave Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWLG) develops a platform leveraging its proprietary engineered electro-optic (EO) polymers to transmit data at higher speeds with less power in a small form factor. The company's high-activity and high-stability organic polymers allow Lightwave Logic to create next-generation photonic EO devices, which convert data from electrical signals into optical signals, for applications in data communications and telecommunications markets. For more information, please visit the company's website at lightwavelogic.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
The information posted in this release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "plans," "explores," "expects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "project," "intend," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, lack of available funding; general economic and business conditions; competition from third parties; intellectual property rights of third parties; regulatory constraints; changes in technology and methods of marketing; delays in completing various engineering and manufacturing programs; changes in customer order patterns; changes in product mix; success in technological advances and delivering technological innovations; shortages in components; production delays due to performance quality issues with outsourced components; those events and factors described by us in Item 1.A "Risk Factors" in our most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q; other risks to which our company is subject; other factors beyond the company's control.
Investor Relations Contact: Lucas A. Zimmerman MZ Group - MZ North America 949-259-4987 LWLG@mzgroup.us www.mzgroup.us
SOURCE Lightwave Logic, Inc.

~CHANNEL & CONTENT:~
SEEKER TO SEEKER (S2S) is a unique English-language YouTube channel exploring insights from psychology, religion, and philosophy. The channel is nearing 80 000 subscribers.
The S2S video essays aim to not only inform the viewer, but also inspire them. The goal is to produce evocative pieces of film that connect with the viewer on an emotional level. The video essays employ an ‘old film’ look through the use of old etchings/prints/drawings and archival footage as B-roll. The content is almost entirely black and white. Music plays a central role in the atmosphere and pacing.

~JOB DESCRIPTION:~
I am looking for a craft-oriented video editor to partner with on a long-term basis.
As S2S video editor, you will be working closely with me on producing evocative, well-crafted video essays. Initially, your task will be to adapt to the already established style of the content. (Please see reference videos below.) As someone passionate about editing, I will be going over the final edits in Adobe Premiere Pro for final adjustments. I will be giving you thorough feedback and I am looking forward to receiving fresh ideas from you. We will be communicating remotely through video calls once or twice a week. I am based in Sofia, Bulgaria, working within the Central European Time Zone (CET).
Once you master the existing style (which I expect will happen by the time you’ve edited 3-5 videos), you will gradually have more creative freedom to improve on the format with your own stylistic contributions. My hope is that you enjoy the work and be proud with what you produce for the channel. You will be credited in the description of every video you work on (unless you prefer otherwise).
The video essays on S2S do not require expert skills or knowledge, but they do require attention to detail and a keen sense for tone/atmosphere. I am looking for a creative partner passionate about creating meaningful work that inspires people.
As of now:

• I will be providing you with audio (voiceover + music) and you will work on the B-roll, titles, and sound effects
• the edits you will be working on will be between 20 and 40 minutes in length
• you will have between 1 and 2 weeks to finish your edits, depending on the length
• you will be editing 1 video per month for the first 3 months; we will be striving for 2 videos per month after that

The above are subject to change and negotiation as our work together moves forward.

~REFERENCE VIDEOS:~
https://youtu.be/HF9Ye5cwYV4?si=YrOD7BdcXkwhUIkV
https://youtu.be/V3MtVoPUUYE?si=6DcA0D8Fd6IWWxLQ
https://youtu.be/uNnd6VXHTEo?si=UBOyJs8-PlNA0P33

~RESPONSIBILITIES~~:~

• Edit English-language video essays using Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Edit video B-roll, titles, and sound effects after being provided with the voiceover and music tracks for every video.
• You will have access to my extensive library of previously used images and footage, but you will need to also find/generate some amount of new B-roll for every video. (I will provide you with access to Adobe Firefly and Kaiber for AI image/video generation.)
• Work closely with me to develop and refine the video style.

~REQUIREMENTS:~

• Proficiency in Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Written and spoken fluency in English.
• Grasp of video editing for YouTube retention.
• Craft-oriented approach to editing. (S2S videos must be not only informative, but also aesthetic pieces in their own right.)
• Ability to adapt to the existing style and expand on it with original ideas.
• Openness to communication, feedback, and mutual constructive criticism.
• Interest in long-term partnership, potentially leading to full-time work as channel video editor (with significant increase in compensation).

~COMPENSATION:~

• As of now, I can offer $11 per minute of final video edit (e.g., $220 to $440 per video for videos ranging between 20 and 40 minutes). The rate is subject to increase with the growth of the channel.

~BONUSES:~
20% bonus to the original payment for a video when it passes 100k views
50% bonus to the original payment for a video when it passes 300k views
75% bonus to the original payment for a video when it passes 500k views
100% bonus to the original payment for a video when it passes 1 million views
~(Valid within one year of video publish date.)~

~HOW TO APPLY:~
Please send your application to [editorial@seekertoseeker.com](mailto:editorial@seekertoseeker.com) with the subject line "Video Editor Application - [Your Name]". Please write a paragraph or two about your interest in working with me on SEEKER TO SEEKER and include links to your 3 favourite videos you’ve edited. I look forward to reviewing your application and discussing the possibility of working together via online video call.
($220-$440 per video + bonuses)