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Westport Fuel Systems Inks Agreement To Increase Production Capacity In China.
source
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/westport-fuel-systems-inks-agreement-134344279.html
Fri, March 19, 2021, 2:43 PM
Westport Fuel Systems, announced a co-investment with its manufacturing partner in China to increase production capacity at their Yantai facility. The investment will be used to develop and supply proprietary High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI) fuel injectors to a growing global market. Shares of Westport rose about 2% in Thursday’s extended market trading session.
Westport Fuel (WPRT) CEO David M. Johnson said, “We have shared a critical engineering and manufacturing partnership with one of the world’s leading tier 1 injector manufacturers and its predecessor company for HPDI fuel injectors since our first-generation HPDI product and are pleased to jointly invest in continued growth.”
Johnson further added, “Investment in the Yantai facility to expand manufacturing capacity responds to the growing global demand for clean, cost-effective heavy duty trucks powered by HPDI 2.0, particularly in Europe and China. The investment also allows the state-of-the-art facility to be further scaled relatively easily to meet future growth in Europe, in China and then in rest of the world.”
Global demand for HPDI 2.0 is growing. It utilizes renewable gas and offers a cost effective way for achieving carbon neutrality in heavy-duty, long haul trucking.
According to the company, fleet operators are investing in net-zero carbon commitments by purchasing HPDI 2.0 powered trucks fueled with renewable gas while also saving on operating costs. (See Westport Fuel stock analysis on TipRanks)
https://www.tipranks.com/stocks/wprt/stock-analysis
On March 17, H. C. Wainwright & Co analyst Amit Dayal reiterated a Buy rating on the stock and increased its price target to $16 (79.6% upside potential) from $5. Dayal said, “We believe the company is ramping its efforts to participate in the adoption of hydrogen fuel opportunity. Management believes hydrogen use in an internal combustion engine with an HPDI 2.0 fuel system, can be a very competitive option to reduce CO2 emissions in long haul transportation.”
Turning to rest of the Street, Westport Fuel has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 4 unanimous Buys alongside an average price target of $13.33.
https://www.tipranks.com/stocks/wprt/forecast
This implies potential upside of around 49.6% from current levels. Shares of the company have risen a massive 717.8% over the past year.
Verimatrix Scores a Double: Announces Latest Two Esports Sponsorships.
source
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/5010883
Mar 18, 2021 16:45 UTC
Verimatrix,
https://www.verimatrix.com/
(Paris:VMX) (Euronext Paris: VMX), the leader in powering the modern connected world with people-centered security, today announced sponsorship of Team 7 AM
https://team7am.com/
as well as The Goose House,
https://thegoose.house/
one of the fastest growing esports and gaming communities in the UK. The announcement follows the company’s recent news it was named an official partner of ESL Premiership, one of the most anticipated tournament competitions from the world’s largest esports company. The engagement also builds upon Verimatrix’s strategy to be a key player in securing live sports revenue and support new direct-to-consumer OTT models.
Jerseys for Team 7AM and The Goose House will prominently feature the Verimatrix logo while the organizations will also include Verimatrix branding on Twitch/Discord streaming events, websites, social media posts, as well as various in-tournament promotions. Verimatrix plans to offer webinar and other events that feature both organizations and serve as a venue for creating awareness around integrity in gameplay as well as cybersecurity’s role in protecting the industry’s ever-growing revenue streams.
"We are excited to announce Verimatrix as an official Team 7AM sponsor for 2021," said John 'WundA' Smith-Howell, Managing Director at Team 7AM. "Corporate sponsorships are one of the most authentic ways a brand can support local esports players. We're excited to welcome them to the team."
"The Goose House is a huge proponent of protecting the esports ecosystem," said David “data” Taylor, Co-Owner at The Goose House. "We look forward to helping Verimatrix become an active member-participant in our tournaments and in our community."
“Understanding esports from the athlete, team, community and tournament point of view is critical to developing security solutions that effectively safeguard esports revenue streams," said Jon Samsel, Vice President of Global Marketing at Verimatrix. "Not unlike the early days of the traditional sports industry, esports faces growing threats from bad actors looking to disrupt, steal and profit off the hard work of others. Stream ripping, application hacks and game cheats can impact the integrity of gameplay and destabilize the esports ecosystem. Verimatrix is excited to extend our secure delivery expertise into this fast-growing market."
About Team 7 AM
Founded in 2019, Team 7AM is a European esports organization with the goal of competing at the highest level with a roster of some of the hottest up-in-coming talent competing professionally in games such as League of Legends and Valoran.
About The Goose House
The Goose House started as a Counter Strike: Global Offensive team in 2014. Today, it’s one of the fastest growing UK esports & Valorant gaming communities.
About Verimatrix
Verimatrix (Euronext Paris: VMX) helps power the modern connected world with security made for people. We protect digital content, applications, and devices with intuitive, people-centered and frictionless security. Leading brands turn to Verimatrix to secure everything from premium movies and live streaming sports, to sensitive financial and healthcare data, to mission-critical mobile applications. We enable the trusted connections our customers depend on to deliver compelling content and experiences to millions of consumers around the world. Verimatrix helps partners get to market faster, scale easily, protect valuable revenue streams, and win new business.
Investor Relations Contact:
Richard Vacher Detournière
General Manager & Chief Financial Officer
+33 (0)4 42 905 905
finance@verimatrix.com
Media Contact:
Matthew Zintel
+1 281 444 1590
matthew.zintel@zintelpr.com
Corporate History and Structure
We commenced our commercial operations in May 2015 through Beijing WiMi Hologram Cloud Software Co., Ltd. (previously under the name “WiMi Lightspeed Capital Investment Management (Beijing) Co., Ltd.”), or Beijing WiMi. In February 2016, Beijing WiMi formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, Micro Beauty Lightspeed Investment Management HK Limited in Hong Kong. In addition, Beijing WiMi acquired 100% equity interest in Shenzhen Yidian Internet Technology Co., Ltd, or Shenzhen Yidian, on October 21, 2015, Shenzhen Yitian Hulian Internet Technology Co., Ltd., or Shenzhen Yitian, on August 20, 2015 and Shenzhen Kuxuanyou Technology Co., Ltd., or Shenzhen Kuxuanyou on August 26, 2015.
We incorporated WiMi Cayman under the laws of the Cayman Islands as our offshore holding company in August 2018 to facilitate offshore financing. In September 2018, we established WiMi Hologram Cloud Limited, or WiMi HK, our wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary, and WiMi HK established a wholly-owned PRC subsidiary, Beijing Hologram WiMi Cloud Internet Technology Co., Ltd., or Hologram WiMi, which is also referred to as WiMi WFOE in this prospectus. WiMi HK set up joint venture companies, Icinit Limited and VIDA Semicon Co., Limited in June and August 2020, respectively. In August 2020, we established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Lixin Technology, in Hainan Province, China. In September 2020, we established a subsidiary, VIYI Technology, in Cayman Islands. On September 27, 2020, VIYI Technology, FE-DA and its original shareholder entered into an acquisition framework agreement, which was subsequently amended and supplemented on September 28, 2020, pursuant to which VIYI Technology acquired the entire equity interests of FE-DA.
On November 15, 2020, we entered into an equity transfer agreement with Bofeng Investment Limited and Bravo Great Enterprises Limited, pursuant to which we transferred 4.0% and 6.0% of the issued share capital of VIYI Technology to Bofeng Investment Limited and Bravo Great Enterprises Limited, respectively, for a total consideration of US$10,000,000. On December 7, 2020, we entered into an equity transfer agreement with Universal Winnings Holding Limited, pursuant to which we transferred 3.5% of the issued share capital of VIYI Technology Inc. to Universal Winnings Holding Limited for a consideration of US$3,500,000.
Due to restrictions imposed by PRC laws and regulations on foreign ownership of companies that engage in internet and other related business, Hologram WiMi and Shenzhen Weiyixin later entered into a series of contractual arrangements with Beijing WiMi and Shenzhen Yitian, or our VIEs, and their respective shareholders, respectively. We depend on these contractual arrangements with our VIEs, in which we have no ownership interests, and their shareholders to conduct most aspects of our operations. We have relied and expect to continue to rely on these contractual arrangements to conduct our business in China. For more details, see “—Contractual Arrangements with Our VIEs and Their Respective Shareholders.” The shareholders of our VIEs may have potential conflicts of interest with us. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—Our shareholders or the shareholders of our VIEs may have potential conflicts of interest with us, which may materially and adversely affect our business.”
Under PRC laws and regulations, our PRC subsidiaries may pay cash dividends to us out of their respective accumulated profits. However, the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to make such distribution to us is subject to various PRC laws and regulations, including the requirement to fund certain statutory funds, as well as potential restriction on currency exchange and capital controls imposed by the PRC government. For more details, see “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Our PRC subsidiaries and VIEs are subject to restrictions on paying dividends or making other payments to us, which may restrict our ability to satisfy our liquidity requirements, conduct our business and to pay dividends to holders of the ADSs and our ordinary shares” and “PRC Regulation—Regulation on Dividend Distributions.”
As a result of our direct ownership in WiMi WFOE and Shenzhen Weiyixin and the variable interest entity contractual arrangements, we are regarded as the primary beneficiary of each of our VIEs. We treat each of them and their respective subsidiaries as our consolidated affiliated entities under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”), and have consolidated the financial results of these entities in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Facebook's new AI model realizes picture monitoring, WiMi holographic light field vision AI modular splicing algorithm is excellent.
source
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/relnews/us/2021-03-19/doc-ikknscsi8664099.shtml
March 19, 2021 15:27 Tencent Watchlist
With the breakthrough of deep learning technology, artificial intelligence has begun to develop rapidly on a global scale at an unprecedented speed. China's artificial intelligence technology and practical applications have walked in the forefront of the world, and have achieved results in various fields of industry. That is, the AI ??algorithm is the code, a new paradigm of AI programming based on the native expression of mathematics, to create an easy-to-use, efficient, and easy-to-debug micro-programming architecture, lower the development threshold, and allow algorithm experts to focus on AI innovation and exploration.
At present, computer vision is one of the most popular research fields in deep learning. It is located at the intersection of many academic subjects, such as computer science (graphics, algorithms, theory, systems, architecture), mathematics (information retrieval, machine learning), engineering, robots, voice, Natural language processing, image processing), physics (optics), biology (neuroscience) and psychology (cognitive science). Because computer vision represents a relative understanding of the visual environment and its background, many scientists believe that this field paves the way for artificial intelligence because of its cross-domain mastery.
Currently AI computer vision applications are everywhere, including autonomous vehicles, smart phones, surveillance cameras, consumer cameras, AR/VR, robotics and industrial applications, etc. Although all walks of life are accelerating the layout and development of artificial intelligence products, possessing the core technology of artificial intelligence is the key to achieving high-quality product application development.
Obtaining training data is one of the biggest competitive advantages in the field of artificial intelligence. By collecting this resource of millions and tens of millions of users, technology giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have been able to achieve leading advantages in various fields.
The company wrote in its official blog:
"By learning global public video streams spanning hundreds of languages ??across multiple countries, our artificial intelligence system will not only improve accuracy, but will also adapt to our fast-moving world and recognize The nuances and visual cues of different cultures and regions".
Facebook said that the resulting machine learning model will be used to create new content recommendation systems and control tools, but more can be done in the future. Of course, Facebook can already obtain such information through the current advertising targeting business, but if it can parse the video through artificial intelligence, it will add an incredibly rich (and intrusive) data source to its store.
Recently, Facebook shared the details of two internal artificial intelligence projects, namely Learning from video and TimeSformer. These two projects aim to promote the development of more powerful machine learning models.
One of the first projects, "Learning from video" (Learning from video), Facebook will use the videos uploaded by users to train the machine learning system that drives its social network.
Facebook is using a "self-supervised learning" method to better use user video training models, this method does not need to tag the training data.
The model is called SEER (SElf-SupERvised) and is fed with 1 billion publicly available Instagram images that have not been manually tagged. However, even without the labels and annotations that are usually used in AI algorithm training, seeder can still train the data set autonomously, continue to learn, and finally achieve the highest accuracy on tasks such as object detection.
This method, called self-supervised learning, is already very mature in the AI ??field: it consists of systems that can learn directly from given information, without having to rely on carefully labeled data sets to teach them how Perform tasks such as recognizing objects in photos or translating text.
Self-supervised learning has attracted a lot of attention recently, because it means that there is less work that requires manual labeling of data, which is time-consuming and laborious work for most researchers. Without the need to manage data sets, the self-supervised model can handle larger and more diverse data sets.
In some fields, especially natural language processing, this method has made breakthroughs. Training algorithms on an increasing amount of unlabeled text has led to progress in applications such as question answering, machine translation, and natural language inference.
At present, artificial intelligence, as a strategic technology leading the future, has become a new high ground for global competition. Artificial intelligence has become the primary focus of my country's scientific and technological development. To speed up its development process, it is necessary to obtain sufficient AI computing power support behind it.
In recent years, China's investment in artificial intelligence has shown a rapid growth trend.Led by ultra-large-scale Internet companies and large industry users, companies have increased their investment in artificial intelligence to meet the increasing demand for computing power in AI innovation. And seek for the digital transformation of enterprises and the overall industrial transformation and upgrading of China.
WiMi Hologram represented by computer AI vision, WiMi's computer vision holographic cloud service, and its commercial application scenarios are mainly concentrated in five professional fields such as home entertainment, light field theater, performing arts system, commercial publishing system and advertising display system, and have been deployed to Corresponding areas of smart cities. WIMI focuses on holographic cloud services, mainly focusing on automotive AR holographic HUD, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR, head-mounted light field holographic equipment, holographic semiconductor, holographic cloud software, holographic car navigation and other professional fields, covering from holographic car navigation AR technology, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR technology, holographic vision semiconductor technology, holographic software development, holographic AR advertising technology, holographic AR entertainment technology, holographic ARSDK payment, interactive holographic communication and other holographic AR technologies. It is a holographic cloud integrated technology Solution provider.
WiMi Hologram has the mission of "the horizon is the horizon". The company has established the world's top, self-developed deep learning platform and supercomputing center,
and has developed a series of AI technologies, including:
Face recognition, image recognition, text recognition, medical care Image recognition, video analysis, unmanned driving and remote sensing, etc. The development of holographic 3D face recognition software is based on WiMi's holographic imaging feature imaging detection and recognition technology, template matching holographic imaging detection technology, and video processing and recognition technology based on deep learning and training. Traditional 2D facial recognition technology is a recognition technology based on facial features, which captures information from facial images or facial video streams, and automatically detects and tracks the target face; WiMi's holographic 3D facial recognition technology is holographic imaging capture and 3D portrait The combined recognition technology.
The holographic face change technology is based on the holographic 3D layer replacement technology, including AI-based image recognition and dynamic fusion processing technology, real-time tracking of images and replacing faces with other faces. This technology replaces the human face in the video frame, synthesizes the video and adds the original audio. WiMi has verified these technical modules in the holographic AR plug-in advertising application, and will continue to develop and upgrade these technical modules. WiMi believes that this technology will bring new business growth to applications such as celebrity advertising, movie distribution and live video streaming.
WiMi’s leading holographic AR content production function is built around image acquisition, object recognition, automatic image processing and computer vision technology. WiMi’s software engineering team and visualization design team work closely to advance these visualization-related technologies and use them to design and produce innovative holographic AR content. Through real-time computer vision algorithms that provide accurate pose estimation, scene recognition and tracking can be performed in a few seconds. This cutting-edge algorithm also allows WiMi to perform photorealistic high-resolution rendering visualizations on a pixel-based basis. Frost & Sullivan said that although most peer companies may identify and capture 40 to 50 pieces of image data in a specific space unit, the number of data pieces that WiMi can collect reaches 500 to 550; WiMi’s image processing speed is 80% higher than the industry average. %, thereby improving operational efficiency. In the scene reconstruction process, WiMi’s automatic image processing tools can perform noise removal and feature enhancement on the originally captured image, thereby creating a best-in-class holographic AR design with industry-leading simulation.
In 2020, China's artificial intelligence server will account for about one-third of the global artificial intelligence server market, becoming the backbone of the global artificial intelligence industry.
In 2020, facing the ever-increasing wave of computing power demand, we will forwardly propose the "intelligent computing center", through the new public computing power infrastructure to provide computing power services, data services and algorithm services required for artificial intelligence applications to carry AI technology innovation. Promote the open sharing of data, accelerate the construction of smart ecology, and drive the convergence of smart industries.
Recently, International Data Corporation released the 2020H1 ``Global Artificial Intelligence Market Semi-Annual Tracking Report''.The report shows that the global artificial intelligence server market reached 5.59 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2020, accounting for more than 84.2% of the artificial intelligence infrastructure market, becoming an AI infrastructure The main body of demand.
In the past year, the application of artificial intelligence in the industry has developed rapidly, and general-purpose application scenarios have achieved considerable maturity. Driven by business needs, fragmented applications with high industry attributes have also begun to be widely used and radiated to Media and entertainment, modern agriculture, smart home, smart power and many other fields.
At present, the computing power required for artificial intelligence doubles every two months, and the supply level of new computing power infrastructure that carries AI will directly affect AI innovation iterations and industrial AI applications.
WIMI.US Announces Public Offering of 7.825 million Securities.
source
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/hkstock/ggscyd/2021-03-19/doc-ikknscsi8648513.shtml
At 14:52 on March 19, 2021 Zhitong Financial Network
WiMi Hologram (WIMI.US) announced the public offering of 7.825 million securities, each of which contains 1 ADS and 0.5 warrants (1 ADS can be subscribed). Assuming that the public offering price is US$8.96 per share, WiMi Hologram will issue at most 7.825 million securities. 1 ADS represents 2 shares of Class B common stock.
SEC REPORT Form F-1 Wimi Hologram Cloud Inc.
Registration statement for certain foreign private issuers
source
https://sec.report/Document/0001213900-21-016398/
2021-03-18 17:12:26
More than 158 pages long
Westport Fuel Systems Announces Co-Investment Agreement with Tier One Injector Manufacturing Partner to Expand Manufacturing Footprint for HPDI 2.0 Injectors in China.
source
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/westport-fuel-systems-announces-co-210000987.html
Thu, March 18, 2021, 10:00 PM
High-volume production facility to be added to the long-standing partnership to supply injectors for global market.
Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (TSX:WPRT / Nasdaq:WPRT) today announced co-investment with its Tier 1 global injector manufacturing partner to expand their production facility in Yantai, China to supply jointly developed and proprietary fuel injectors to the growing global market for HPDI 2.0™.
“We have shared a critical engineering and manufacturing partnership with one of the world’s leading tier 1 injector manufacturers and its predecessor company for HPDI fuel injectors since our first-generation HPDI product and are pleased to jointly invest in continued growth," said David M. Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Westport Fuel Systems. “Investment in the Yantai facility to expand manufacturing capacity responds to the growing global demand for clean, cost-effective heavy-duty trucks powered by HPDI 2.0, particularly in Europe and China. The investment also allows the state-of-the-art facility to be further scaled relatively easily to meet future growth in Europe, in China and then in the rest of the world.”
The demand for Westport’s HPDI 2.0 fuel system is growing in Europe as is the availability of bioLNG, with many European countries now producing renewable gas. The transition to net-zero carbon solutions for the transport sector is well underway in Europe, where renewable gas accounts for about 17% of all gas fuel consumed by road transportation. Fleet operators are making investments to support net-zero carbon commitments through the purchase of HPDI 2.0 powered trucks fueled with renewable gas and at the same time realizing ongoing operating cost savings from a product capable of meeting a fleet’s most demanding performance requirements.
According to Natural Gas Vehicle Association of Europe there are more than 11,000 LNG fueled trucks on the road in Europe. The LNG fueling network has more than doubled since 2017 and there are now almost 400 LNG refueling stations across Europe.
Europe aims to be a carbon neutral continent by 2050 and China has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2060. HPDI 2.0 is fully capable of using renewal gas and thereby provides a cost-effective pathway to achieving carbon neutrality in heavy-duty, long haul trucking.
About Westport Fuel Systems
Westport Fuel Systems is driving innovation to power a cleaner tomorrow. The company is a leading supplier of advanced fuel delivery components and systems for clean, low-carbon fuels such as natural gas, renewable natural gas, propane, and hydrogen to the global automotive industry. Westport’s technology delivers the performance and fuel efficiency required by transportation applications and the environmental benefits that address climate change and urban air quality challenges. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with operations in Europe, Asia, North America and South America, the company serves customers in more than 70 countries with leading global transportation brands.
For more information, visit
https://wfsinc.com/
Investor Inquiries:
Christine Marks
Investor Relations
T: +1 604-718-2046
E: invest@wfsinc.com
Facts of the conference call
source
https://sec.report/Document/0000939802-21-000018/
Capstone Companies Inc.
First Strategic Update of 2021
March 18, 2021
C O R P O R A T E P A R T I C I P A N T S
Aimee Brown, Corporate Secretary
Stewart Wallach, President, Chief Executive Officer
P R E S E N T A T I O N
Operator
Greetings and welcome to Capstone Companies’ First Strategic Update of 2021.
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ms. Aimee Brown, Corporate Secretary for Capstone Companies. Thank you, you may begin.
Aimee Brown
Thank you, Melissa, and good morning to everyone. On the call today is Capstone’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Stewart Wallach.
During today’s call, Mr. Wallach will be providing a strategic update for 2021. If you do not have the release that was distributed on Tuesday, March 9th, it is available on our corporate website at www.capstonecompaniesinc.com.
As you are aware, we may make forward-looking statements during today’s presentation. These statements apply to future events, which are subject to risks and uncertainties as well as other factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from where we are today. These factors have been documented by the Company in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be found on our website or at sec.report.
With that, I’ll turn it over to you, Stewart.
2 ViaVid has made considerable efforts to provide an accurate transcription. There may be material errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the reporting of the substance of the conference call. This transcript is being made available for information purposes only. 1-888-562-0262 1-604-929-1352 www.viavid.com
Capstone Companies Inc. – First Strategic Update of 2021, March 18, 2021
Stewart Wallach
Thank you, Aimee, and good morning. I would like to thank everyone for their time today.
It is hard to believe that a year has passed since our last webcast. Needless to say, the world has changed dramatically over that time. We are all wondering what normal will look like in the months and years ahead. For me, personally reaching out to you today is a first step towards re-establishing communications with the business community, and I am hopeful will serve to build momentum in the future.
While our annual year-end report will be filed later in the month, we have received numerous inquiries from our shareholders regarding the progress of Capstone’s Connected Surfaces Smart Mirror program. With respect to these inquiries, this discussion will serve to provide insight into the program’s status. The investment community has demonstrated its enthusiasm for the new product line over the past couple of months and are eager to see the program available to the public. I share in that enthusiasm. I can assure you; we have been doing everything possible to bring the program to market in spite of the unprecedented delays caused by the COVID pandemic.
For those that have only recently invested in the Company, it is important to know that investments in the Company are made with an understanding of the actual developments and progress the Company is making. Toward that end, we will strive to communicate openly and honestly so that expectations are substantive, and our shareholders are properly informed.
Let’s get started with a bit of history.
Over the course of the past two years, many companies, ourselves included, have been faced with remarkable challenges ranging from tariff penalties resulting from the U.S./ China trade war and of course the global shutdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Companies across the globe have been forced to cease operations as a result of these devastating times, and I am proud to say that we have not only survived but, in many ways, flourished during this time as we focused our efforts on product development and market research activities to prepare for Capstone’s exciting next chapter. In many ways, we are like a start-up company but, unlike a start-up, we are backed by a decade of strong business performance.
While we first introduced our Connected Surfaces prototypes at the Consumer Electronics Show in January of 2020, within weeks of that introduction the supply chains across the globe and retail activities came to an unprecedented halt. Fortunately, Capstone had been performing well up until 2018 and our cash position was strong, enabling us to sustain our operations without incurring additional debt.
The pandemic, of course, has lasted far longer than most had forecasted, and we depleted much of our cash reserves during this extended timeframe. In January of 2021, recognizing that our limited cash position and losses realized in 2020 could potentially handicap our new product launch planned for Q2 and Q3 of 2021, myself and a long-time director and supporter, Dr. Jeff Postal, agreed to provide a working capital line of credit to the Company. The credit line, totaling $750,000, would allow the Company to continue its daily activities without further disruption to the launch. We remain bullish on the Company, its management, and most importantly its core product portfolio, Connected Surfaces.
3 ViaVid has made considerable efforts to provide an accurate transcription. There may be material errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the reporting of the substance of the conference call. This transcript is being made available for information purposes only. 1-888-562-0262 1-604-929-1352 www.viavid.com
Capstone Companies Inc. – First Strategic Update of 2021, March 18, 2021
We are excited about the prospects that lie before us as our Connected Surfaces Smart Mirror program nears delivery to the market. As is the case with Capstone’s previous product launches, we followed a disciplined and structured strategy to gauge the market interest in the Connected Surfaces campaign. The strategy is data driven and targets both the smart home growth and the digital evolution that is imminent. Over the course of the last several years, technology companies have been working and investing to expand the integration of computing platforms into our daily lives. This is generally known as “Ambient Computing.” Because of the advancements in processors, sensors, affordable cloud services, and the increasing speed of broadband, the physical home environment is rapidly changing. It is this phenomenon that supports our entry into this computer platform expansion.
Technology companies across the globe recognize the importance of being able to access content and services from any locale: work, home, and on the go. Capstone’s Smart Mirror marks its entry into this digital landscape as mirrors are considered an important and essential item in living spaces. A natural progression of the basic mirror addresses demand of customized capabilities embedded into the traditional mirror. Like the mobile phone, the Capstone Thin ClientTM, which is the first Connected Surfaces product, provides the commonplace experience of a tablet device, allowing internet access and the ability to run downloadable applications. We are not reinventing technology nor is our business model reliant on the development and distribution of relevant content like that of fitness mirror companies. We are simply connecting the world of content that is commonly accessed every day by users across the globe through a new and innovative platform.
I can go on and on about the platform and its potential, but my hope today is to provide you with just a basic perspective relative to the launching of the Company’s new core product segment and what this can translate to for the Company’s future.
Let’s for a moment talk about the timelines.
I do not know that I’ve ever been more frustrated in my business career by all the false starts that were caused by these aforementioned supply chain disruptions. To say this has been a challenge is truly an understatement, but the Management of your Company has never lost sight of the strategy and its underlying potential.
At this point, we are planning production immediately following the varying certification processes and testing required for North American products, which are currently underway. These are not unfamiliar steps to management, as all our products are subject to most of the same approval processes; however, we do not control the speed at which the testing companies advance. There is a backlog at the testing laboratories as so many companies were dormant for the past 12 months but are now resuming normal business activities.
As of this discussion, we are planning production to commence in April. It is important to point out we will air-freight initial inventories so that we may activate our Amazon program, which requires that inventory be available for immediate delivery in their facilities. Depending on availability of containers, which are now facing shortages in the region, we may have to compromise our margins on the early shipments and ship more product by air than planned. Our primary goal at this point is to deliver mirrors to our customers that have been patiently waiting for the mirrors.
4 ViaVid has made considerable efforts to provide an accurate transcription. There may be material errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the reporting of the substance of the conference call. This transcript is being made available for information purposes only. 1-888-562-0262 1-604-929-1352 www.viavid.com
Capstone Companies Inc. – First Strategic Update of 2021, March 18, 2021
Let’s continue with a brief overview on what make Capstone’s Smart Mirror program unique.
Over the past year, as mentioned earlier, you have probably seen fitness mirrors in the market as gyms and fitness studios closed during the pandemic. The success of these products has been well documented and has served to introduce mainstream America to the concept of smart technology being embedded into a mirror. These fitness mirrors, while enjoyed by many, are essentially an interactive platform designed to deliver a fitness experience in the home through subscription content.
As a point of differentiation, our platform, like a smartphone and tablet, is designed to deliver content of all types in a new and unique form factor. As the digital smart home becomes more mainstream, Capstone believes it is in a timely position to reach this market with the launch of its affordable Smart Mirror portfolio. I specifically mention affordable because our Company’s strength, which have been proven over the past decade, is its ability to deliver great innovative products priced for the masses. With a market entry price of $699, we will reach mainstream America with this technology-rich mirror at prices commonly found in smartphones and tablets.
Let’s talk about projections…
I completely understand your expressed interest in the potential revenues to be realized from our Connected Surfaces campaign. Particularly, in light of the fact that this is essentially a new business for Capstone that has yet to deliver revenues for all the reasons that I mentioned earlier. Projections would not be based on history or substantive modeling at this juncture. Surface computing is beginning to find its way into the home (i.e., refrigerators, furniture, etc.) It is hard to imagine a home five years from now that will not have numerous computing platforms operating seamlessly throughout. The mirror as a tech device is a logical addition to this emerging digital home environment.
As we commence shipping and the market research analytics are validated, we will be in a better position to approach this topic. For now, consider the following data points that are the core of our marketing strategy and have served to motivate your entire Management Team over the past year even while the Company’s revenue performance was stalled.
Smart Home Market Growth
Revenue in the smart home segment amounts to be an estimated $85 billion in 2020. Revenue in the smart home segment is expected to show an annual growth rate from 2018 to 2022 of 18%, resulting in a market volume of an estimated $140 billion in 2023. Household penetration was 7.5% in 2018. It’s expected to hit 19.5% by 2022.
Smartphones
Smartphone users in the U.S. exceed 269 million. It’s projected at 290 million in 2024. This clearly confirms the expansion of technology into our daily lives.
A very important data point, fixed broadband subscriptions.
5 ViaVid has made considerable efforts to provide an accurate transcription. There may be material errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the reporting of the substance of the conference call. This transcript is being made available for information purposes only. 1-888-562-0262 1-604-929-1352 www.viavid.com
Capstone Companies Inc. – First Strategic Update of 2021, March 18, 2021
Fixed Broadband
Fixed broadband subscriptions in the U.S. exceed $110 million and represents the size of the market and relative potential for smart mirrors. There is no certainty, but simple math would you tell you that 1% of that market is over a million mirrors.
In closing, I genuinely hope you have found this presentation helpful. I plan on communicating with the shareholder community often as material and relevant updates and progress are available to share. If you review my position on investor communications which I have shared over the years, you will find that I have always been consistent in sharing only real information that is meaningful and substantive. I will be governed by this same mindset as our Company embarks on this new and exciting direction.
Thank you once again for your time. I look forward to speaking to you again in the not-too-distant future. Stay healthy.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our conference today. Thank you for your interest and participation. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful afternoon.
6 ViaVid has made considerable efforts to provide an accurate transcription. There may be material errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the reporting of the substance of the conference call. This transcript is being made available for information purposes only. 1-888-562-0262 1-604-929-1352 www.viavid.com
CloudMD Announces Rapid Growth of Enterprise Health Solutions Division.
source
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/5010255
March 18, 2021
- Driving strong organic growth through cross-selling and integrated product offerings
- Identified over $500,000 in near-term operational synergies through the initial phase of integration
- Secured large corporate customer contract for new integrated health and wellness platform launching in April 2021
- CloudMD is one of a few companies in North America to provide one, centralized, whole-person solution for employers to better manage the health and wellness of employees
- Anticipated annual pro forma revenue growth rate of over 20% with healthy gross margins exceeding 50%.
CloudMD Software & Services Inc. (TSXV: DOC, OTCQB: DOCRF, Frankfurt: 6PH), a healthcare technology company revolutionizing the delivery of care, is pleased to provide an update on its Enterprise Health Solutions (“EHS”) Division. Since launching the EHS Division, CloudMD has seen significant organic growth and integration synergies across the platform.
Organic Growth
The EHS Division offers one of the first centralized and connected platforms of health and wellness solutions for employers as part of their benefits programs. These solutions include employee assistance programs, mental health support, physician/allied health services, professional referrals, personalized healthcare navigation, speciality drug consultation, health literacy and education and other services aimed at prevention and early intervention of health concerns.
CloudMD closed the majority of its EHS business acquisitions in January 2021 and since then, the Company has secured $5 million in new, multi-year customer contracts for mental and physical health solutions. These recurring revenue contracts include organizations of all sizes including large corporate clients like Medavie Blue Cross. Additionally, the EHS Division has identified operational synergies by centralizing marketing, technology and finance functions, enabling a shared services approach with annual cost savings exceeding $500,000. The EHS Division is executing on market share growth, margin expansion, cross-selling and integration of capabilities. The Company expects to continue driving additional profitable, organic growth across the entire division. CloudMD anticipates the continued growth of the EHS Division, with annual pro forma revenue growth rate of over 20% and healthy gross margins exceeding 50%.
Integrated Health Services Platform
In April 2021, the Company will be launching its EHS fully-integrated, proprietary health services platform with a large corporate customer, serving over 10,000 employees across Canada. Employees will be triaged and assessed using CloudMD clinical tools followed by appropriate service activation with navigation assistance to ensure the individual has the optimal outcome and continuity of care. Employers will have aggregate data to ensure the right benefit plans are being used for the right health issues. This transformational platform is revolutionizing the way employees access healthcare by providing one seamless patient experience, including personalized care plans, triage and navigation, and full support through their treatment journey. Organizations can use this platform to ensure inclusivity and diversity for mental and physical health issues. This approach provides better access to care, improved patient outcomes, faster access to treatment and improved return to work outcomes.
Scalability and Growth
CloudMD’s network includes over 7,000 psychiatrists, approximately 4,500 therapists and counsellors, over 4,000 psychologists, over 22,000 family physicians, approximately 34,000 medical specialists, over 1,500 allied health professionals and a dedicated research team across North America. The size of this network, leveraged by technology, provides the foundation for scalability and growth across North America and globally.
Rising global health concerns surrounding mental and physical issues have created new needs for providing more efficient, integrated and accessible care options. Employers, insurers and advisors can entrust CloudMD’s integrated health services platform to provide employees with whole-person, personalized care through a complete portfolio of healthcare services that are required in supporting improved health and wellness. The omni-channel approach to navigation and activation of services can be accessed virtually through the web, mobile and telephone, ensuring appropriate care and optimized value.
Karen Adams, Global Head, EHS Division commented, “We are very excited with the performance and growth of the EHS Division since we launched in January 2021. The biggest challenge for payors is having to find multiple, siloed solutions to service their employee’s needs. Our EHS mission is to help businesses and individuals thrive by reducing the need of multiple employer benefits products, and instead create one seamless, connected platform. We have built one of the industry’s first employee benefits platforms that integrates assessment, triage, navigation, care advocacy, educational content, payments and provider connectivity. This solution supports all paths to physical and mental healthcare prevention and treatment while using social and environmental needs currently supported through traditional EAP as the anchor. We feel strongly that this centralized platform will enable deeper member engagement, support inclusivity and diversity and provide for more positive healthcare outcomes.”
In addition, CloudMD announces it has engaged Native Ads, Inc. to provide strategic digital media services, marketing, and data analytics services. The Company has agreed to pay Native Ads $300,000 in consideration for the Services to be provided. Native Ads will not receive any securities of the Company as compensation for the Services.
About CloudMD Software & Services
CloudMD is digitizing the delivery of healthcare by providing a patient centric approach, with an emphasis on continuity of care. The Company offers SAAS based health technology solutions to healthcare providers across North America and has developed proprietary technology that delivers quality healthcare through a holistic offering including hybrid primary care clinics, specialist care, telemedicine, mental health support, educational resources and artificial intelligence (AI). CloudMD currently services a combined ecosystem of over 7,000 psychiatrists, approximately 4,500 therapists and counsellors, approximately 4,000 psychologists, over 22,000 family physicians, over 34,000 medical specialists, over 1,500 allied health professionals, over 500 clinics, and 8 million patient charts across North America. CloudMD’s Enterprise Health Solutions Division includes one of the top 4 Employee Assistance Programs in Canada and offers one comprehensive, digitally connected platform for corporations, insurers and advisors to better manage the health and wellness of their employees and customers.
For more information visit:
https://cloudmd.ca/
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
“Dr. Essam Hamza, MD" Chief Executive Officer
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:
Julia Becker
VP, Investor Relations
julia@cloudmd.ca
Holographic technology realizes future world shape, WiMi Hologram leads 5G remote communication AI+AR application.
source
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/relnews/us/2021-03-18/doc-ikknscsi7796439.shtml
At 11:03 on March 18, 2021 firewood network
This year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala, many viewers were deeply impressed by the fashion show "Landscape and Neon Clothes". On the stage, 18 Li Yuchun changed into 18 sets of costumes and stood in a row, which was amazing. The Hong Kong film and television superstar Andy Lau will perform with Wang Yibo and Guan Xiaotong at the 2021 Chinese New Year Gala, "Null Up", which is believed to have left a lot of impression on the audience. Behind this, rely on the technology of holographic projection. At the same time, recently, various virtual concerts, holographic projection restaurants, and virtual studios have appeared frequently. With the help of holographic projection technology, various interesting and fun virtual scenes are becoming a new trend.
In "Star Wars" released in 1997, Princess Leia sent a three-dimensional version of a distress video to Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan. It is necessary to record the projected "shadow" before projection, and then use the principle of diffraction to reproduce the light wave information of the object to complete the imaging process to display it.
This is holographic projection technology, but holographic projection technology is more than that! Theme parks, science and technology museums, entertainment halls and the nearest cinema all have holographic projection technology.
Before 1947, after some scientists solved the technical problems required by holographic projection technology, holographic projection technology was born. At the beginning of its birth, this technology has been dedicated to electronic microscopy, so it is also called electronic holographic projection technology (in the field of electronic microscopy). It was not until the emergence of laser technology in 1960 that holographic projection technology made substantial progress.
The reporter observed that in recent times, large technology companies have begun to pay attention to the holographic AR business, intending to seize the market in the subdivision of the track.In the holographic AR field currently in China, the performance of the Nasdaq-listed company WiMi Hologram is particularly bright eye.
WiMi Hologram is a holographic AR technology provider. Its commercial application scenarios are mainly concentrated in five professional fields, including home entertainment, light field theater, performing arts system, commercial publishing system and advertising display system. The core of WiMi's holographic business is holographic AR technology, which is used in software engineering, content production, cloud and big data to provide customers with AR-based holographic services and products.
According to reports, WiMi Hologram was established in 2015, Nasdaq stock code: WiMi. WiMi Hologram focuses on holographic cloud services, mainly focusing on automotive AR holographic HUD, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR, head-mounted light field holographic equipment, holographic semiconductor, holographic cloud software, holographic car navigation and other professional fields, covering from holographic car AR technology, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR technology, holographic vision semiconductor technology, holographic software development, holographic AR advertising technology, holographic AR entertainment technology, holographic ARSDK payment, interactive holographic communication and other holographic AR technologies. It is a holographic cloud integrated technology solution provider .
The reporter learned that the principle of holographic projection technology is mainly divided into two steps:
1. Use the principle of light interference to record the light wave information of the object, that is, to shoot. The subject is irradiated by the laser to form a diffusely reflected object beam, and the other part of the laser is used as a reference beam to irradiate the holographic film, and the object beam is superimposed and interfered with each other, converting the amplitude and phase of each point on the object light wave into space In this way, the space and contrast between the interference fringes can be used to record all the information of the object space. After the negative film with interference fringes is processed by developing and fixing procedures, it becomes a Nolid hologram, or hologram for short. Simply put, it is the shooting process.
2. The second step is to use the principle of diffraction to reproduce the light wave information of the object, that is, imaging. The hologram formed in the first step is like a complex grating. Under the irradiation of coherent laser, the diffracted light wave of a linearly recorded sinusoidal hologram can generally give two images, namely the original image and the conjugate image, and the two images are superimposed. After having a real visual effect. Simply put, it is the imaging process.
Last year, affected by the epidemic, the field of holographic projection received considerable attention. Public data shows that in the second half of 2020, the number and amount of investment and financing events in the AR/VR field has picked up significantly compared with the first half of the year, showing a significant growth trend. Holographic AR's first share of WiMi Hologram also received investment of US$61.58 million from investment institutions such as Weibo, which once again proved that Holographic AR is deeply favored by capital.
As the bandwidth conditions of 5G holographic communication networks change, the 5G holographic application market will usher in an explosion. High-end applications such as holographic interactive entertainment, holographic conferences, and holographic conferences will gradually become popular in holographic social, holographic communication, holographic navigation, and holographic home applications. The WiMi Hologram Cloud plan is based on holographic AI face recognition technology and holographic AI face-changing technology as its core technologies, and uses multiple technologically innovative systems to support holographic cloud platform services and 5G communication holographic applications.
The holographic cloud service will be deeply integrated with 5G. With the cooperation of 5G's high speed and low latency, remote communication and data transmission, the average transmission delay from the system terminal to the business server is about 6ms, which is much lower than the 4G network transmission delay. It guarantees the richness and diversity of long-distance communication and data transmission of holographic AR without jams and low delay, as well as multi-terminal remote coordination and time interaction. Makes the collaboration of end + cloud collaboration more efficient. Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications have enabled WiMi Hologram Cloud's holographic AR advertising business and holographic AR entertainment business, as well as holographic interactive entertainment, holographic conferences, holographic social, holographic communication, holographic home hologram, etc. The core technologies based on 5G+AI face recognition technology and holographic AI face-changing technology will gain effective growth.
Industry research reports show that holographic projection is still in the early stages of development. In recent years, the investment of investment institutions in the field of holographic projection has begun to increase substantially, and the number of enterprises has also continued to increase. Apple's layout in the AR field has a long history. According to foreign media reports, Apple confirmed that it has acquired British visual effects company IKinema. Today, Apple may use this acquisition to improve its AR (augmented reality) products and strengthen Animoji/Memoji.
Different from VR technology, AR technology focuses on the combination of reality and virtual world, and its application scenarios are wider and its development potential is greater. Early AR technology is based on existing electronic information equipment technology for advertising and marketing, education and training, medical and health and other auxiliary scenarios. In the future, with the full independence of AR technology in game scenes and consumption scenes, it will serve as the main carrier of the scene to open up the market for incremental demand. At present, technology giants including Microsoft, Google and Apple are constantly expanding their AR teams. According to the latest research report released by the American market research company GrandView Research (GVR), the AR market revenue is expected to reach 120 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, which is higher than the 30 billion U.S. dollar VR market.
At present, in the application scenario of virtual concerts, some companies pay attention to the switching of concert backgrounds and the interaction between singers and audiences in order to bring a brand new experience to the audience.
5G has many innovations such as high speed, large traffic, low latency, and multiple connections. In the 5G era, the transmission characteristics of high speed and low latency are expected to significantly enhance the user experience of VR/AR products. 5G+cloud rendering greatly improves application display effects, reduces hardware costs, and helps popularize VR/AR. Continuous breakthroughs in technological innovation, continuous promotion of product upgrades, and further clearing away obstacles to the popularization of VR/AR.
From the effect that holographic projection can achieve, it is still in the "baby" stage, and there is still a lot of room for development in the future. With the development of technology and the full popularity of 5G commercial use, holographic projection will be closer to life in the future, and holographic communication will not be far from the lives of the people.
Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (WPRT) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript.
source
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/03/16/westport-fuel-systems-inc-wprt-q4-2020-earnings-ca/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article
Mar 16, 2021 at 6:30PM
WPRT earnings call for the period ending December 31, 2020.
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Westport Fuel Systems fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2020 conference call. [Operator instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Christine Marks, Westport's investor relations representative.
Please go ahead.
Christine Marks -- Investor Relations
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Westport Fuel Systems fourth-quarter and year-end 2020 conference call, which is being held to coincide with the press release containing Westport Fuel Systems financial results that was distributed yesterday. On today's call, speaking on behalf of Westport Fuel Systems is Chief Executive Officer David Johnson, and Chief Financial Officer Richard Orazietti. Attendance at this call is open to the public and to media, but questions will be restricted to the investment community.
You are reminded that certain statements made in this conference call and our responses to various questions may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. and applicable Canadian securities laws. And as such, forward-looking statements are made based on our current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
So you're cautioned not to place undue reliance on those statements. Information contained in this conference call is subject to and qualified in its entirety by information contained in the company's public filings. I'll now turn the call over to David.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our conference call to review Westport Fuel Systems 2020 results for the fourth quarter and the full year. This is David Johnson speaking. With me on the line today is Richard Orazietti.
Clearly, 2020 was a year filled with challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the global economy and created headwinds for our business. But there were also unexpected opportunities, and our global team demonstrated outstanding resilience in responding to both the challenges and the opportunities. In spite of the unprecedented events of 2020, it's gratifying to see that the world's demand for clean, low carbon, cost-effective transportation hasn't wavered.
That continuing demand helps us to finish the year strong. Looking back on the past year, the impact of the pandemic was most severe in Q2 when we and our customers had to pause production due to the crisis. Q3 saw some recovery and the strengthening continued in Q4, lifting us to a record quarterly revenue. For the year, revenue was down 17% from our record 2019 full-year revenue.
Overall, nearly 90% of that decline was attributed to the COVID-related shutdowns in the second quarter. However, our Q4 record revenue was a 13% increase versus the same quarter in 2019, driven by a 32% increase in OEM revenue. Looking forward, we're poised for continued positive momentum in 2021, albeit somewhat tempered in the near term by the lingering effects of the ongoing pandemic and by the global supply chain challenges the automotive industry is facing right now. Aside from the COVID-19 challenges, I'm pleased to report that we advanced each one of our 2020 business objectives, including especially sales growth in key market segments and geographies.
And overall, we've strengthened the business with balance sheet improvements and cost reductions. In November, we announced new product development work with our current OEM partner to apply HPDI 2.0 to an updated base engine platform designed to meet Euro VI Step E regulation that take effect in 2024. We read this as our launch customers' confidence in our HPDI systems and the increasing demand of their fleet customers who are realizing the benefits of our HPDI solutions. Our targets for 2020 and for future growth include progress in China, where our joint venture with Weichai Power secured certification for the WP12 natural gas engine powered by HPDI 2.0.
As one of the largest suppliers of natural gas engines in China, our JV currently supplies spark-ignited natural gas engines to leading Chinese commercial vehicle OEMs, and they in turn serve the largest natural gas trucking market in the world. The WP12 HPDI engine certification sets us up to serve that large and growing market as vehicle OEMs complete certifications for their vehicle offerings with our engines. We've also seen growth in India. In 2020, we combined our business with our JV with †UNO MINDA to better serve the market and to realize cost efficiencies.
We can now offer a broader range of products to this growing CNG market. And also in 2020, we commenced work on developing hydrogen with HPDI. I'll cover that later in more detail. As I said earlier, Q4 sales volumes rebounded very strongly, came to nearly $84 million.
In particular, our heavy-duty market segment saw very encouraging new sales growth as fleets in the European trucking industry continue to gain confidence as they realize significant operational cost savings, as well as carbon reduction benefits made possible with natural gas filled HPDI solutions. We finished the year with an HPDI sales rate almost double compared to 2019, and we're on pace for continued growth in 2021. Net income grew to $4.1 million versus $3.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. The work we did earlier in the year to shore up our balance sheet, working with our lenders to secure lower cost of capital and access government subsidies positioned us well to navigate 2020, and we finished the quarter with $64 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Some growth trends in transportation underpin our confidence in the coming growth opportunities. And perhaps the easiest to understand is the heavy-duty trucking business, where investment decisions are pure business decisions and where fuel price differentials at the pump are driving sales and market share gains today. For heavy-duty long-haul trucks, weight is absolutely a constraint. The other big constraint is cost.
Both weight and costs are big disadvantages for the adoption of battery-elective technology in heavy-duty trucking. Based on physics and economics, it's perfectly clear that the lightest weight vehicles that go the fewest miles and return to home have the potential to transition to battery electric, particularly as global infrastructure and development improves. In contrast, heavy-duty long-haul trucks are least likely or hardest to power with batteries. In general, about half of all trucks sold around the world are heavy-duty long-haul trucks.
As populations grow and economic development continues, we'll need to move more freight. The number of trucks will grow and the performance and cost effectiveness of lower carbon solutions will become increasingly critical. In Europe, the market share of alternative fuel trucks increased nearly 40% in 2020, a stark contrast to the overall commercial vehicle market, which declined markedly due to COVID-19. Governments have a critical role to respond to the challenges of climate change and urban air quality, and at the same time, it sees the opportunity to start a green path to reach their economic development goals.
We already see strong regulatory support for transportation, carbon production in Europe, India, China and in parts of the U.S. Governments that properly set the table with economic and regulatory structures, focused on goal achievement, can unleash and harness market forces to lead our industry on a green path that can scale. I believe the inability of electric technologies to deliver affordable, effective solutions for heavy-duty long-haul trucking in markets around the world, combined with the urgent need to decarbonize, will drive the growth of HPDI systems. HPDI is ready, in production, for sale and proven right now, no waiting.
The growth in our revenues demonstrates the word has gotten out. HPDI with natural gas and renewable natural gas works and it works well. It's available now, and it's generating operating cost savings and helping fleet to achieve their carbon reduction targets. Fleets vote with their dollars.
Take note of what's happening in Europe right now with natural gas and specifically HPDI. China is next. Light-duty OEM sales and our independent aftermarket revenue were slower to rebound, with revenue for the independent aftermarket segment falling 15% relative to the same period last year. In particular, customer demand in Western Europe was impacted due to COVID-19.
At this time, we expect to return to 2019 levels with modest growth, thanks to regulatory support in places like Egypt and India and other cost-sensitive markets like Turkey, Russia and China. I'll use India as an example. India's regulatory commitment to emissions reductions from transportation has not wavered through the COVID-19 pandemic. The stringent Bharat Stage VI emission standards came into effect in April 2020 during the lockdown.
At the same time, the government has committed to building 1,000 LNG stations in the next three years and is doubling its commitment to natural gas as part of its energy mix. Our largest customer in India, Maruti Suzuki, responded by discontinuing their diesel product lines, which was 30% of their business, a significant commitment to embrace alternative fuels, specifically natural gas. We have seen an uptick for natural gas products across the full suite of offerings in India from the ubiquitous three-wheelers up to the heaviest commercial vehicles. Combined with growth in infrastructure and highly cost-conscious consumers who can access a 30% to 50% price savings at the pump for natural gas versus petrol, all of these are excellent market conditions for the success of our products.
And in heavy-duty trucking, where fleets replace trucks every three to five years, there simply is no other viable cost-competitive alternative that can deliver all of the benefits that HPDI does today. Natural gas and renewable natural gas infrastructure continue to grow also in Europe, now with nearly 400 LNG stations and 4,000 CNG stations. And now we also see investments being made to create a hydrogen refueling infrastructure. Hydrogen use with HPDI is extremely compelling with near zero greenhouse gas emissions and much lower cost of fuel cell or battery electric trucks, particularly in heavy-duty applications.
This provides a pathway from fossil LNG to bio LNG to green hydrogen. So before I turn the call over to Richard to review financial results, a few highlights of our progress with hydrogen. Although it's rather modest today in the scope of our total revenue, our existing GFI-branded hydrogen business, supplying components to Plug Power, Ballard and others, grew by 75% in 2020. According to the Hydrogen Council, the total addressable market for hydrogen is about $150 billion, while costs of producing green hydrogen have fallen 50% between 2015 and 2020.
So far, hydrogen is produced close to where it's used, and there is limited dedicated transportation infrastructure today. There were only about 5,000 kilometers of hydrogen pipelines around the world in 2016, compare this with over 3 million kilometers for natural gas. In 2020, worldwide, there were less than 500 hydrogen refueling stations, a good start. Compare this with existing and growth plans for natural gas infrastructure in Europe, India and China, as I mentioned earlier.
There is work to be done with hydrogen. But support for hydrogen infrastructure development is growing, with commitments announced in China, Japan and Germany. Hydrogen appears to be well suited for heavy-duty trucking applications where ranges over 400 kilometers are common and fast filling is important for the operator. A few weeks ago, we published a white paper with ABL, sharing our initial modeling for thermal efficiency and total cost of ownership.
We are confident that the high-efficiency hydrogen internal combustion engines have the potential to financially outperform fuel cell EVs in terms of total cost of ownership and also lowers the cost of CO2 avoidance, which is especially relevant in jurisdictions with carbon taxes and other penalties for high emissions. Earlier we announced successful first trials of a hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine with HPDI. Our test cell in Vancouver ran an engine at peak torque and rated power. Combustion was stable and controllable.
Initial test results are highly encouraging and confirmed that HPDI with hydrogen in an internal combustion engine is comparable in efficiency to fuel cells in heavy-duty applications. With this early success of fueling our enthusiasm, we'll continue to collect more data. Technical results will be shared and reviewed by independent experts at the upcoming Vienna Motor Symposium late next month. We also announced a project with Scania to commence development work on their internal combustion engine fueled by hydrogen.
We're designing and preparing for that testing program, which we expect to commence in the fourth quarter. According to a recent research report by Morgan Stanley, if hydrogen truck sales account for just 10% of global sales by 2030, that would equate to per annum growth of 30% in the next five years alone and provide a significant runway of growth over the next decade. Capturing just a fraction of this growth is meaningful for Westport Fuel Systems. The potential for OEMs and others to avoid new and significant investments required to develop and manufacture fuel cells, electric motors and batteries is incredibly exciting and compelling.
Other high-load applications like mining, green and rail have come to rely on the efficiency, power, durability and reliability of diesel engines. And there is no other alternative that offers the same potential to leverage established supply chains, manufacturing investment and infrastructure and economies of scale. Now let me turn it over to Richard to review a few of our financial results.
Richard Orazietti -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, David. As David mentioned, our record revenues were higher, 13% year over year due to strong sales volumes from HPDI systems and a 7% increase in the euro to U.S. dollar exchange rate. We also saw a strong recovery in our light-duty OEM revenues during the quarter, an increase of 44% over the third quarter of 2020 due to sales in India and Russia.
The strength in sales activity in the quarter was partially offset by a large onetime contractual price reductions in our contract with our initial launch partner in the fourth quarter of 2019. And lower year-over-year independent aftermarket revenues still recovering from the impact of COVID-19 on sales volumes. Gross margin decreased mainly due to lower margins realized year over year on HPDI systems. Lower HPDI engineering services and lower independent aftermarket sales, partially offset by the large increase in HPDI sales volumes.
Net income benefited from $2.7 million in higher income from a strong quarter in our CWI joint venture due to lower operating expenses. And also a $5.3 million unrealized foreign exchange gain, compared to $2.6 million in the prior year. We generated higher year-over-year adjusted EBITDA of $8.1 million, bolstered by strong quarterly performance from CWI and lower operating expenses. Our adjusted operating cash flow, which includes the dividends received from CWI, decreased year over year due to increased working capital resulting from a buildup of receivables on higher sales volumes and inventory for our heavy-duty OEM business.
Revenues were lower year over year due to the pandemic's impact on independent aftermarket light-duty OEM and delayed OEM since the pandemic's outbreak. This was partially offset by strong sales growth in the second half of 2020 in our heavy-duty OEM business unit selling the HPDI systems to our initial launch partner. This is net of price concessions and lower engineering services work, which all had a direct impact on gross margins. There was a further impact to gross margins of a $3.2 million charge taken on two pressure release device field service actions as well.
Equity income from CWI decreased slightly in 2020, mainly due to the impact of COVID-19 and the related OEM shutdowns in the first half of the year. Despite a challenging year, a net loss of $7.4 million was mitigated from government subsidies of $6.1 million, cost reductions from austerity measures and a $4.3 million unrealized foreign exchange gain. Net income in 2019 included a $3.3 million onetime gain and a $2.5 million unrealized foreign exchange gain. Operating cash flow and adjusted operating cash flow were significantly below 2019 year over year due to the impact of COVID-19.
Multiple financing efforts, government support and austerity measures mitigated this impact to secure the liquidity of Westport Fuel Systems. Overall, EBITDA continues to be positive. Notwithstanding the many challenges we faced in the first half of 2020, the positive trend in our EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA reflects the commitment of management to deliver sustainable growth. Our product portfolio and the performance of our team continues to strengthen, and I'm encouraged by our progress on the pathway to sustainable profitability.
Now turning to our business segments. OEM revenue for the three months and year ended December 31, 2020, was $58.8 million and $149.6 million, compared to $44.7 million and $164.7 million for the same periods in 2019. Revenue growth in the current quarter largely reflected an increase in sales volumes in the heavy-duty OEM business from our initial launch partner, combined with a 7% increase in the euro to U.S. dollar exchange rate that I mentioned.
This was partially offset by the price reductions of our HPDI product. The year-over-year decrease in OEM revenue for the full-year 2020 is mainly due to the impact of planned shutdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of the year, combined with lower light-duty OEM sales to our German and Russian OEM partners. OEM gross margin increased by $1.3 million to $6.6 million or 11% of revenue for the fourth-quarter 2020, which compared to $5.3 million or 12% of revenue for the fourth-quarter 2019. The current quarter benefited from volume discounts from HPDI component suppliers achieved at the end of the year and recognized during the quarter.
Turning to our independent aftermarket business. Independent aftermarket revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $25.1 million and $102.9 million for the full-year 2020 compared with $29.6 million and $140.6 million for the same prior-year periods. The year-over-year decline in revenue for the IAM business segment are primarily due to the continuing impact of COVID-19 on customer demand in Western Europe and the related shutdowns in the second quarter of 2020, partially offset by the stronger euro to U.S. dollar exchange rate.
Independent aftermarket gross margin decreased by $2.1 million to $6.4 million or 25% of revenue for the current quarter, compared to $8.5 million or 29% of revenue for the same period in 2019. The decrease in gross margin and gross margin percentage was due to lower sales caused by the impact of COVID-19 on customer demand in the higher-margin markets of Western Europe. Now turning to our CWI joint venture. Revenue from our CWI joint venture for the fourth quarter decreased by $6.5 million to $96 million or 6% versus the same period last year due to lower engine sales during the quarter.
Unit sales were lower for full-year 2020 compared to the prior year, reflecting the impact of OEM factory shutdowns in April and May in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the lower revenues, gross margin for the fourth-quarter 2020 was slightly higher year over year at $28.5 million or 30% of revenue. The increase in gross margin and gross margin percentage resulted primarily from product mix, which more than offset lower revenues in the current-year quarter. Net income for the fourth-quarter 2020 increased by $5.3 million to $18.8 million or 39% higher over the same period last year, primarily reflecting lower operating expenses, combined with the increase in gross margin.
Westport Fuel Systems share of CWI's net income for the fourth-quarter 2020 increased to $9.4 million from $6.7 million in the same period last year. Now turning to our balance sheet and liquidity. As mentioned earlier, we have made significant strides to secure the liquidity of Westport Fuel Systems through the past year, which included the restructuring of our convertible debt held by the Cartesian Group. Due to the significant appreciation of Westport Fuel Systems' share price, the Cartesian Group converted $7.5 million of the $10 million in debt outstanding, $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 and $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2021.
As part of our efforts to improve our liquidity and funding, we are also actively managing our debt profile to align that to our long-term capital investment needs. And discussing with our lenders about modifying or renewing some of our term loans to extend terms and improve borrowing rates based on our improving credit profile. Under the at-the-market program that was launched after we released the third-quarter results last year, we issued 5 million shares at an average price of $5.48 for net proceeds of $27 million in equity from the period of November 2020 to January 2021. This equity raise has significantly ameliorated the liquidity of the company to operate as a going concern in the near term and provides a buffer against the continuing challenges of COVID-19.
Recently, we have issued a preliminary base shelf perspective, they issue shares from time to time. During the 25-month period at this perspective is effective, up to $400 million. Due to the outlook of significant growth of our HPDI sales volumes with our initial launch partner and with Weichai, there will be a need for investment to augment production capacity, as well as continued investment in the evolution of our technology and potential expansion of the application of the technology and other industry verticals beyond on-road transportation. We are also excited about the potential industrial and clean energy benefits from applying our HPDI technology in an internal combustion engine using hydrogen.
Based on our current and long-term prospects, we anticipate additional investments in these opportunities that potentially can create shareholder value and benefits for our current and potential customers. With that, I turn it back to you, David.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Richard. To recap, I'm immensely proud of our team and the substantial progress we made on our business plan throughout 2020 despite COVID-19. In 2021, our focus will be on continued growth at scale in key markets. For HPDI, that means Europe, China and then North America.
And for our light-duty business, profitable growth through the aftermarket and OEM channels in markets like Turkey, Russia, Egypt, India and other cost-sensitive markets where our products resonate strongly the need to deliver affordable transportation and reduce emissions. The market fundamentals are in place. Societal expectations and regulatory requirements, demand response to the need for clean, cost-effective carbon-reducing transportation and our products provide that response. They're developed, validated in production for sale and end-use today and they meet customers' demand.
Operational excellence and exceptional customer service will continue to guide our efforts, as well as innovation at the forefront of clean transportation solutions. As Richard said, we think it's a good indicator that at the current rate of growth for HPDI and the heavy-duty OEM business will lead to expand production capacity and also fund growth potential of emerging technologies such as hydrogen HPDI. I'm confident in our team, and we're committed to delivering value for our customers and shareholders. With that, I'd like to turn it back to the operator for your questions.
Questions & Answers:
Operator
Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our first question comes from Eric Stine of Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.
Eric Stine -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst
Hi, everyone.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Richard Orazietti -- Chief Financial Officer
Hey, Eric.
Eric Stine -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst
Good morning. So just wondering if you can start on hydrogen. You've had a pretty busy start to the year. I mean, clearly, this started in 2020, but in terms of what you've shared publicly in the Scania announcement, just curious what that has meant for your development pipeline.
I know you've got a number of potential partners looking at LNG, but giving them the additional path to hydrogen, just curious what that's meant.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thanks for the question, Eric. I think it's a really important dynamic for us because in the marketplace, there are customers. There are OEMs out there who thought, "Let's skip it and go straight to hydrogen." And I think now seeing that actually HPDI with hydrogen is not only a good solution, but perhaps a far better solution, one that enables them to reuse all their industrial complex that's already built. All the engine plants, all the transmission plants, all that capability and know-how they have with respect to internal combustion engines can now be used with hydrogen based on our initial test results.
Of course, there's work for us to do. But I think companies and OEMs that we work with are technically focused and engineering driven in terms of products, and the test results are very, very strong. I expect a further bounce when we get through the deal, all the test results at the Vienna Motor Symposium late next month. So it's, I think, a very important dynamic for us and changes the positioning of our product as a long-term viable zero carbon product for transportation and long-haul, specifically.
Eric Stine -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst
Got it. And then, maybe just sticking with HPDI and the current offering with your current partner, well, I guess, number one, I know you don't give out units, but anything you can share? I mean, it seemed if I'm trying to back into some kind of a number. It seems like it was -- you did see sequential growth in the quarter. So maybe if you could confirm that? And then, maybe just talk about with the baseline being set last July 1, I mean, how much has that been a part of the growth in addition to, obviously, fleets just starting to roll out more units?
Richard Orazietti -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I think there's a whole bunch of dynamics that play out there. They are playing out and will continue to play out. And one of them is the regulation. Another one is, I would say, normal fleet adoption cycle with respect to new technology like HPDI is for commercial trucking.
What we saw, clearly, we shut down and our customers shut down in Q2 and that included our lead HPDI customer in Europe. And that was a very slow and difficult time for us. But when Q3 started up and factories restarted, I think there's a clear picture recognizing that 13% lower revenues in Q3 versus 2019 and 13% higher revenues in Q4 versus 2019. So I think this kind of trend of 13% lower, 30% higher, gives you a flavor for what was happening.
And as we mentioned in our discussion, that call -- or that number was really driven by our OEM business. So with that, I think you can kind of, as you say, back into some analysis, but as you say, we don't talk about the details of our volumes unfortunately.
Eric Stine -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst
OK, got it. Fair enough. Maybe last one for me. You have talked about the investment.
And it sounds like it's both some internal, but also doing some -- or some steps within the supply chain. I mean, is that -- should we take that as securing more capacity for injectors? Is it more on the tank side? I mean, maybe just dig into the -- into kind of all the things that you're referencing there, if you could.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, of course, we sell a complete system from the tank to the injector and some electronics along the line. We have capacity challenges in various parts of the system. Injector is a big part of it, for sure. We use VI in every engine, of course.
So that is -- we're excited about this challenge to our business to say, "Hey, you need to grow your capacity to respond to demand." And thinking that at this point in time, we're servicing one customer in one market of the world. And the potential for growth with respect to the Chinese market is really tremendous. We've talked about that this is already in the world the largest natural gas trucking market. And the infrastructure there is built out.
We are, through our JV, the leading manufacturer of natural gas engines for commercial vehicles. And those are spark-ignited engines. And so when you bring the superior product of HPDI, which improves the economics for the operator, reduces the carbon footprint and we've already developed and validated in the European market. So we're looking forward to that launch and the volume curve that comes along with that.
So we will be investing. We are investing in expanding that capacity and we think that's something that we've been looking forward to for some time and are glad the time has come.
Eric Stine -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst
OK, thanks a lot.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Eric.
Operator
Our next question comes from Colin Rusch of Oppenheimer and Company. Please go ahead.
Colin Rusch -- Oppenheimer & Co. Inc -- Analyst
Thanks a lot, guys. In China, can you just speak to the expected cadence of the ramp and what that might do to gross margins as you guys scale up from reasonably low volumes?
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. They -- I think the speculating and forecasting the ramp is very challenging, but I do expect that we'll be able to witness that this year and hopefully soon. Basically, we have this opportunity with our JV to supply all the OEMs in China. We have a unique product that should be appealing to many OEMs in China.
That differs from our European market where we have just the one OEM, and it's a vehicle OEM. And so that dynamic is different. And then, it's also the largest market. So I do think -- and we're going into it with a product that's had multiple years of experience in Europe.
So there's more confidence globally in our industry -- around industry, around the product. So I think we can expect a steeper curve but yet at the same time, it's still a launch curve. So not a lot of specificity there for you, but I think it's important for us, and it is factoring into our equations with respect to growing our capacity to support that expected demand. In terms of margins, I won't make any specific comments at this point in time.
But the key ingredient for us is to grow the volume to get the economies of scale that will improve our margins, and launching in China is a very important part of that equation for us.
Colin Rusch -- Oppenheimer & Co. Inc -- Analyst
OK, thanks so much, guys. And then, can you just give us a state on how you're thinking about the medium-duty market? Certainly, there's a lot going on all across the different class of vehicles. But as you have the potential to address both natural gas and hydrogen, it seems there's probably an opportunity for you to creep into some different vehicle designs as you go forward. So just wondering where you're at with that opportunity.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. The medium-duty market is, I'll say, two things, more fragmented, and I'll say more economically challenged in terms of -- in order for the economics to work for or any fuel-based product like ours where we're saving money every mile, you drive -- the more you drive, the more mass you carry, the quicker you get your payback. So that's where in the medium-duty market, it is more challenging. There's more diversity of applications, which don't go very far at all and some of which approach kind of, I don't know, half the distance of long haul.
So quite a significant reduction. They also use the vehicles longer, tend to have longer cycles for their turning over the fleet. So I do think there are opportunities there. Clearly, that's on our radar.
But I think actually, with HPDI, we could see the opportunity to move in the other direction toward mining and rail and other applications that are kind of bigger engines and really see excellent economics there with HPDI.
Colin Rusch -- Oppenheimer & Co. Inc -- Analyst
That's super helpful. Thank so much, guys.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Colin.
Operator
Our next question comes from Rob Brown of Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Rob Brown -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst
Hi, good morning.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Rob Brown -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst
Just following up on the European market, maybe if you could give some more color in terms of the demand drivers there? Are you seeing this any RNG activity in that market? Or is this sort of a cost savings driven market? Maybe just a sense of what the demand drivers are in that market.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. I think -- for sure. OK, so we have just to be very clear, right? It's still trucking. So the economics are the supreme ingredients, I'll say, after your confidence in the technology and the products to deliver the reliability, durability that the truck fleets expect.
If you can't deliver their freight, it doesn't matter how efficient it is or how clean it is. So that's number one. Number two is the economics. And then, I would say, in Europe, especially, there is a tremendous societal pressure and momentum with respect to greening transportation.
And this works for us, both on the front of our current product with LNG, as well as the potential for that product to respond to zero carbon hydrogen, green hydrogen in the future. So I think those dynamics are very much in our favor, and we're really happy to be with our partner in Europe and to have launched when we did and be able to ride this pressure in the marketplace and to do it on the basis of a great product that delivers for the fleets and saves the money.
Rob Brown -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst
OK, good. Thank you. And then, on the capacity additions you're thinking about, could you give us a sense of the scaling there? Is it a doubling, tripling, kind of multiple of current capacity? Or how do you sort of see that overall capacity addition playing out in the next year or so?
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. It's a really important parameter to manage for any supplier is to match your capacity with your demand as closely as possible. We don't want to be running any part of our manufacturing system or our suppliers' manufactured system at 10% of capacity. And we also don't want to run into a bottleneck that we can't supply the demand that occurs.
So that's the general equation. As we look at it, we are expecting multiples of growth because right now, we're moving from one customer in one market to two customers or maybe even three or four, when you think about the vehicle OEMs in China that we'll be able to serve. And so we're making those plans carefully. But there's also some challenge.
So I think you can imagine that we'll be leaning forward a bit on capacity so that we can serve every unit of demand that eventually has come to us in the near term.
Rob Brown -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst
OK, thank you. I'll turn it over.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Rob.
Operator
Our next question comes from Amit Dayal of H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.
Amit Dayal -- H.C
Thank you. Good morning, David. How are you doing?
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Amit Dayal -- H.C
With respect to cadence of revenues in 2021, how should we think about the quarterly revenue that may play out given that you are seeing recovery in your segments, your HPDI is getting traction, but at the same time, there are some supply chain challenges that are also in the market right now. So any color on how to model for the next four quarters would be helpful. Thank you.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Absolutely glad to kind of try to paint a picture a little bit of what we expect. First of all, we are still dealing with some COVID situations around the world. We're fully recognizing how wonderful the vaccines are, and we expect those to have an effect.
But in the meantime, our factories in Italy, for example, and our customers around those factories and so forth and our distributors, they're in orange and red zones. And so that COVID impact is still with us. And we see that affecting our light-duty and our aftermarket business. On the heavy-duty side, we've seen a bit more stabilization, and you can see that the growth is coming through in kind of the fourth quarter.
And we expect a good year for HPDI going forward. And then, maybe the other thing that's important to mention is that, as you've heard from in the media, there are supply side challenges that all the OEMs are facing. And that includes us, and we're managing that on a daily basis to try and make sure that we can meet our customers' demand. But I think there is risk that that could impact us and constrain us in some days, some weeks, hopefully not any month from achieving everything we wanna achieve in 2021.
I think we aren't back to full normal. And so kind of the normal seasonality you might see and expect, it will be still perturbed by COVID this year. And I think those are kind of the factors, at least that are on my mind with respect to the market outlook for 2021.
Amit Dayal -- H.C
That's helpful. Thank you so much, David. And then, Richard talked about some concessions on the margin front that may have been provided in the fourth quarter. Are these behind the company? And do we see gross margins bouncing back in 2021 relative to the fourth quarter?
Richard Orazietti -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. The price reductions were made in the fourth quarter of 2019, and they were significant. And we saw sort of muted the sort of the growth that we had, especially in the second half. Going into the new year, there was a question with Weichai.
We can't go into specific contracts, but there is, we'll call it, a little bit of near-term gross margin pressure that then yields to better economics as more volume starts ramping up and the numbers start getting significant that we have contractual price savings with our supplier base.
Amit Dayal -- H.C
OK. Just one last one, I guess, then. With respect to the China milestones for 2021, can you share any key highlights that we should be looking for?
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, in China, I think we've made good progress. Of course, we had substantial delays through 2020 with COVID and other challenges with the certifications. But we expect to see the certification of the vehicle side shortly. And then, thereafter, so through this year, start the project process of launching production and sales.
So we're looking forward to that, but I don't have any more specifics to offer you than that today.
Amit Dayal -- H.C
OK, understood. Thank you, David. That's all I have.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Amit.
Operator
Our next question comes from Thomas Boyes of Cowen and Company. Please go ahead.
Thomas Boyes -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Most have been asked, but I wanted to maybe just follow up on the question about China just because, obviously, you're going -- the certification through the Weichai was accomplished. The OEM level. How do those tests usually take on their side? Is it different for everyone who's testing the engine? Or is most of them completed in, say, a quarter or something like that?
Richard Orazietti -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes. So I think the process is not a short process, but we are aware that there are cases with specific OEMs where the testing is complete. So then it's just a matter of, let's say, getting the paperwork through the officials and having them bless it and issue the certification. And I can't comment on those time lines.
It's challenging for us to see and it's also challenging for the -- for our JV and the OEMs to see into that process. But the testing is done at least in one case.
Thomas Boyes -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Perfect. And then, it was nice to see, I think as Amazon had ordered around 700 vehicles through the JV with Cummins. I was just wondering if you could talk maybe how that business is secured and how you're seeing potential discussions with other customers, just, obviously, given the rise of e-commerce from the pandemic how that markets are moving.
Richard Orazietti -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. I think it was a real promising report from Reuters is about that order. Because I think what it says is that the fleets -- large fleets in North America consider and according to the report, our purchasing natural gas product to green their fleet. The economics in North America, because our fuel prices are relatively low and the fuel price differential, is not so great.
The economics are more challenging and not as compelling. Nonetheless, you have a big fleet, whether it's UPS. We made that announcement previously. And now this report from Reuters about what Amazon is doing, these are really good signs that fleets are taking their responsibility with respect to carbon emissions very seriously and taking action and recognizing that natural gas is an important part and an important step.
And it works for them in their fleet operations, where, again, even for Amazon, UPS or any other fleet in North America, then or one thing is get the freight there on schedule and don't pass up capability and reliability to try and get to low cost or green. And so I'm real compelled and really excited about the opportunities in North America. And we look forward to the chance to bring HPDI to North America and go a step further than you can with those spark-ignited natural gas engines.
Thomas Boyes -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Fantastic. Appreciate it. Thank you.
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Thomas.
Operator
This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Christine Marks for any closing remarks.
Christine Marks -- Investor Relations
Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. If you do have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to us at the Westport investor relations team hotline. And thanks again so much for your interest in Westport Fuel Systems.
Operator
[Operator signoff]
Duration: 47 minutes
Call participants:
Christine Marks -- Investor Relations
David Johnson -- Chief Executive Officer
Richard Orazietti -- Chief Financial Officer
Eric Stine -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst
Colin Rusch -- Oppenheimer & Co. Inc -- Analyst
Rob Brown -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst
Amit Dayal -- H.C
Thomas Boyes -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
The 100 billion blue ocean lidar market has become a "competitive ground", WiMi Hologram announced the development of "WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR" to expand the holographic application market.
source
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/relnews/us/2021-03-17/doc-ikkntiam3718945.shtml
March 17, 2021 10:55 CCTIME
Since the advent of the 5G era, the progress of driverless cars has also accelerated. Among them, lidar technology is particularly important.
With the continuous iterative update of technology, the intelligentization of automobiles has become closer and closer to us. "Intelligent Connected Vehicle Technology Roadmap 2.0" proposes that by 2025, L2 and L3 equivalent partially automated driving (PA) and conditional automated driving (CA) will account for more than 50% of car sales, and highly automated driving ( HA, equivalent to L4) began to enter the market.
As a "what you see is what you get" sensor, lidar can enhance the redundancy of the sensing system and supplement the scenes where millimeter wave radar and cameras are missing. It is a standard configuration for high-end autonomous driving. Judging from the current research data in the industry, lidar is on the eve of its outbreak.
Unlike camera-based solutions, lidar solutions enable machines to see 3D images by providing accurate distance measurement of surrounding objects. Lidar solutions use a series of lasers to measure the distance in the environment at the speed of light. In low light conditions, lidar also performs better than cameras and produces fewer errors. Compared with radar, lidar provides better resolution and can perceive the shape of objects, thereby obtaining better mark detection and classification. According to a report from the American Automobile Association, current pedestrian detection systems are relatively ineffective in protecting pedestrians and bicycles, especially at night. The lidar system can detect pedestrians well during the day and night, because the lidar system provides self-illumination through the laser beam. These advantages of lidar, coupled with lower computing power requirements, enable the platform to make decisions quickly and accurately to reduce collisions.
What is Lidar
In terms of technical principles, lidar can be divided into four major systems:
Laser emission, laser reception, beam manipulation and information processing. The working principle is to use laser transmitter and beam scanning technology to emit laser light between infrared and visible light. The time difference and phase difference of the laser signal describe the three-dimensional point cloud image of the surrounding objects, so as to obtain accurate distance and contour information.
In 2019, the global market size of lidar is about 1.65 billion U.S. dollars. The agency predicts that it is expected to exceed 10 billion U.S. dollars by 2025 and reach 24 billion U.S. dollars in 2030, corresponding to 36% (2019-2025) and 28% (2019--2025). 2030) CAGR.
Looking to the future, what can really promote the expansion of the lidar market is its application in the automotive field. When intelligent driving became the main battlefield of car companies, the "Vision System" used cameras to achieve high-end autonomous driving with AI algorithms, and Tesla's NOA was quickly introduced to the market to make the "Vision System" become the current mainstream. However, the vision solution still has a bottleneck and requires a large amount of data accumulation and processing. Unlike the vision solution, which focuses on analysis, the lidar can directly model objects and road conditions through active detection, which greatly reduces the difficulty of analysis in the vision solution.
According to Bloomberg News, another technology giant Apple is in active dialogue with a number of LiDAR (lidar) sensor suppliers to realize a key technology in the development of its autonomous driving Apple Car. LiDAR sensors enable the car’s computer to "see "The surrounding environment.
Bloomberg said that Apple has been working on driverless car projects for many years and has developed most of the necessary software, underlying processors and artificial intelligence algorithms for this complex system. What Apple is looking for is the hardware equipment that matches with it.
According to reports, ongoing discussions indicate that Apple has not yet identified a preferred supplier of LiDAR, and during the development process, Apple may consider a variety of options, including highly customized sensors.
As a global AI visual holographic AR representative company, Weibo and other institutions with a strategic investment of 61.58 million US dollars, the recent performance of WiMi Hologram is also eye-catching. China Mobile and the media cloud platform holographic remote interaction won the bid, and as a technology provider of 5G holographic communication, it was once again selected by operators. In the field of lidar, it seems that it is also catching up. Since the announcement of the patent of the 3D holographic pulse laser processing device for optical holography, many industry application customers have shown strong market demand, so WiMi Hologram decided to develop 3D holography Pulse Lidar product "WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR" to further expand the company's holographic product portfolio matrix.
WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR is a multifunctional holographic pulse 3D solid-state lidar. The goal is to reach a long detection distance of more than 200m and capture high-resolution 3D holographic images. LiDAR uses MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) micro galvanometer to provide high resolution, long detection range and wide field of view. Through dynamic control, LiDAR can flexibly adjust the vertical resolution and frame rate, for example, allowing the focus area to be dynamically defined. LiDAR uses solid-state silicon detectors, which can reliably detect weak reflections from distant objects and strong reflections from close objects. Digital signal processing is to determine the precise position in the three-dimensional space through filtering, correlation and statistical analysis. The point cloud generated by the LiDAR sensor can map the sensor environment in 3D. A single point cloud can be composed of tens of thousands of distance points (single distance measurement), which contains holographic data of 3D original environment information. The software stack extracts a lot of abstract information from the holographic data, transmits commands to the actuator through deep neural network control, and presents 3D holographic data.
The WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR LiDAR solution provides software development kits that match the hardware products, including target detection, classification, and counting functions. Combined with software recognition algorithms, it can provide solutions for many fields (autonomous driving, environment perception, 3D holographic imaging, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), traffic management, 3D printing, etc.), and quickly expand the application market of holographic technology.
Public information shows that WiMi focuses on holographic cloud services, mainly in the professional fields of vehicle AR holographic HUD, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR, head-mounted light field holographic equipment, holographic semiconductor, holographic cloud software, holographic car navigation, etc. Covering multiple links from holographic AR technology, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR technology, holographic vision semiconductor technology, holographic software development, holographic AR advertising technology, holographic AR entertainment technology, holographic ARSDK payment, interactive holographic communication Holographic cloud comprehensive technical solution provider.
Research data shows that in 2025, 6 million new cars worldwide will be equipped with lidar, and the penetration rate of L3 autonomous driving in passenger cars will reach 6%. According to Sullivan’s estimates, the market size of automotive-grade lidar will reach US$4.61 billion in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 83.7% from 2019 to 2025.
For intelligent technology, lidar is equivalent to "eyes". With the rapid development of industries such as intelligent robots, unmanned driving, drones, medical imaging, and the Internet of Things, the lidar market will grow substantially.
Digital Rights Management Platform Market May See a Big Move: Apple, Dell EMC, Verimatrix.
source
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/5008075
03/16/2021
A new business intelligence report released by HTF MI with title "Global Digital Rights Management Platform Market Report 2020 by Key Players, Types, Applications, Countries, Market Size, Forecast to 2026 (Based on 2020 COVID-19 Worldwide Spread)" is designed covering micro level of analysis by manufacturers and key business segments. The Global Digital Rights Management Platform Market survey analysis offers energetic visions to conclude and study market size, market hopes, and competitive surroundings. The research is derived through primary and secondary statistics sources and it comprises both qualitative and quantitative detailing. Some of the key players profiled in the study are Apple, Dell EMC, Verimatrix, Oracle Corporation, Intralinks Holdings, Conax, Adobe Systems, Fasoo.com, Microsoft Corporation & OpenText Corporation.
What's keeping Apple, Dell EMC, Verimatrix, Oracle Corporation, Intralinks Holdings, Conax, Adobe Systems, Fasoo.com, Microsoft Corporation & OpenText Corporation Ahead in the Market? Benchmark yourself with the strategic moves and findings recently released by HTF MI
Market Overview of Global Digital Rights Management Platform
If you are involved in the Global Digital Rights Management Platform industry or aim to be, then this study will provide you inclusive point of view. It's vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Applications [Gaming, Video on Demand, Digital Content & Others], Product Types [, On-Premises & Cloud] and major players. If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization according to your requirement.
This study mainly helps understand which market segments or Region or Country they should focus in coming years to channelize their efforts and investments to maximize growth and profitability. The report presents the market competitive landscape and a consistent in depth analysis of the major vendor/key players in the market along with impact of economic slowdown due to COVID.
Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:
Historical year – 2015-2020
Base year – 2020
Forecast period – 2021 to 2026 [unless otherwise stated]
Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.
The titled segments and sub-section of the market are illuminated below:
The Study Explore the Product Types of Digital Rights Management Platform Market: , On-Premises & Cloud
Key Applications/end-users of Global Digital Rights Management PlatformMarket: Gaming, Video on Demand, Digital Content & Others
Top Players in the Market are: Apple, Dell EMC, Verimatrix, Oracle Corporation, Intralinks Holdings, Conax, Adobe Systems, Fasoo.com, Microsoft Corporation & OpenText Corporation
Region Included are:
North America (Covered in Chapter 6 and 13), United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe (Covered in Chapter 7 and 13), Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Others, Asia-Pacific (Covered in Chapter 8 and 13), China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, Others, Middle East and Africa (Covered in Chapter 9 and 13), Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Others, South America (Covered in Chapter 10 and 13), Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Chile & Others
Important Features that are under offering & key highlights of the report:
– Detailed overview of Digital Rights Management Platform market
– Changing market dynamics of the industry
– In-depth market segmentation by Type, Application etc
– Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value
– Recent industry trends and developments
– Competitive landscape of Digital Rights Management Platform market
– Strategies of key players and product offerings
– Potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth
– A neutral perspective towards Digital Rights Management Platform market performance
– Market players information to sustain and enhance their footprint
Major Highlights of TOC:
Chapter One: Global Digital Rights Management Platform Market Industry Overview
1.1 Digital Rights Management Platform Industry
1.1.1 Overview
1.1.2 Products of Major Companies
1.2 Digital Rights Management Platform Market Segment
1.2.1 Industry Chain
1.2.2 Consumer Distribution
1.3 Price & Cost Overview
Chapter Two: Global Digital Rights Management Platform Market Demand
2.1 Segment Overview
2.1.1 APPLICATION 1
2.1.2 APPLICATION 2
2.1.3 Other
2.2 Global Digital Rights Management Platform Market Size by Demand
2.3 Global Digital Rights Management Platform Market Forecast by Demand
Chapter Three: Global Digital Rights Management Platform Market by Type
3.1 By Type
3.1.1 TYPE 1
3.1.2 TYPE 2
3.2 Digital Rights Management Platform Market Size by Type
3.3 Digital Rights Management Platform Market Forecast by Type
Chapter Four: Major Region of Digital Rights Management Platform Market
4.1 Global Digital Rights Management Platform Sales
4.2 Global Digital Rights Management Platform Revenue & market share
Chapter Five:
Major Companies List
Chapter Six: Conclusion
Key questions answered
- What impact does COVID-19 have made on Global Digital Rights Management Platform Market Growth & Sizing?
- Who are the Leading key players and what are their Key Business plans in the Global Digital Rights Management Platform market?
- What are the key concerns of the five forces analysis of the Global Digital Rights Management Platform market?
- What are different prospects and threats faced by the dealers in the Global Digital Rights Management Platform market?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?
For more information on this press release visit:
http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/digital-rights-management-platform-market-may-see-a-big-move-apple-dell-emc-verimatrix-1331684.htm
Media Relations Contact
Nidhi Bhawsar
PR & Marketing Manager
HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited
Web: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/
Telephone: 1-206-317-1218
I have asked exactly this question in the last 10 Months over and over again via email to CAPC.
Unfortunately, I haven't received an answer to this day.
A problem that many other long-term shareholders are familiar with.
So far I have sent my request to the following email addresses:
Investor Relations
aimee@capstonecompaniesinc.com
Capstone Industries
info@capstoneindustries.com customercare@capstoneindustries.com
Marketing
Marketing@CapstoneConnected.com
IT
IT@irreach.com
No answer, until today, with more than 10 attempts.
So I ask everyone here at IHUB again to ask my important question from Post # 78231 on the conference call.
Thank you in advance to you
Westport (WPRT) Q4 Earnings and Sales Top Estimates, Up Y/Y.
source
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/westport-wprt-q4-earnings-sales-104710012.html
Tue, March 16, 2021, 11:47 AM
Westport Fuel Systems Inc. WPRT reported earnings per share of 3 cents for fourth-quarter 2020, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a penny. The bottom line also improved from breakeven profit in the corresponding quarter of 2019 on the back of operational efficiency, higher investment income from the CWI joint venture and forex gains. Westport registered consolidated revenues of $83.9 million for the fourth quarter, up 13% year over year. The top line also outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $69.4 million.
Westport had cash and cash equivalents of $64.3 million on Dec 31, 2020, up from $46 million in the corresponding quarter of 2019. Long-term debt came in at $45.6 million as of Dec 30, 2020 compared with $35.3 million in the comparable period of 2019.
Westport will be included in the S&P/TSX Composite Index effective Mar 22, 2022.
Operational Results
Original Equipment Manufacturer Segment (OEM):
Net sales of the segment soared 31.5% year over year to $58.8 million for the reported quarter, mainly on increase in sales volume in the HD OEM business and forex gains. The segment’s operating loss came in at $3 million, narrower than the loss of $6.1 million incurred in fourth-quarter 2019.
Independent Aftermarket Segment (IAM):
Net sales of the segment slid 15.2% year over year to $25.1 million for the December-end quarter on prevailing negative impact of the pandemic in Western Europe. The segment reported an operating income of $1.3 million, lower than the prior-year profit of $2.2 million.
CWI Joint Venture (50%):
This segment’s revenues totaled $48 million for the October-December period, down from the year-ago quarter’s $51.2 million due to lower engine sales. Operating income was $12.1 million, higher than $10 million recorded in the comparable year-ago period, thanks to lower operating costs and higher gross margins on the back of a favorable product mix.
Corporate Business Segment:
For the reported quarter, operating profit of the segment amounted to $0.9 million against operating loss of $1.6 million incurred in the year-earlier period.
WiMi Hologram Announces Plans to Develop WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR, Its 3D Holographic Pulse Laser Processing Device.
source
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wimi-hologram-announces-plans-develop-100000155.html
Tue, March 16, 2021, 11:00 AM
WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. (Nasdaq: WIMI), a leading Hologram Augmented Reality ("AR") Technology provider, today announced its plans to develop WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR, its 3D holographic pulse laser processing device. The Company made the decision to begin the product development process in light of the strong market demand that it has observed from several of its industry application customers since it obtained the patent for its 3D holographic pulse laser processing device.
The Company plans to develop WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR as a versatile holographic pulse 3D solid-state LiDAR that is capable of detecting objects from more than 200 meters away and capturing high-resolution 3D holograms. The LiDAR will use microvibrators from microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to provide high resolution, long detection ranges, and wide fields of view. LiDAR will utilize dynamic controls to facilitate the flexible adjustment of its vertical resolution and frame rates, including the dynamic definition of focus areas.
In terms of smart technology, LiDAR is the technological equivalent of a set of eyes. With the rapid development of intelligent robots, autonomous vehicles, autonomous drones, medical imaging, Internet of Things, and other industries, LiDAR's market scale should grow exponentially in the future. To better meet its customers' needs, the Company plans to launch its WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR products in three phases. The Company plans for WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR to be a small-sized, light weight, and multi-functional holographic pulse LiDAR sensor with a long detection range, wide field of view, and unique scanning pattern. The Company also plans for WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR to come with its own point cloud interface and to not require an additional adapter for connection when under operation. The WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR solution will offer a software development kit along with its hardware product. This kit will feature such functionalities as, target detection, categorization, and measurement. The Company will integrate software recognition algorithms into WiMi HoloPulse LiDAR to provide solutions across various industries, including autonomous driving, environmental perception, 3D holographic imaging, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), traffic management, and 3D printing, which will help to rapidly expand the market for holographic technology applications.
About WIMI Hologram Cloud Inc.
WiMi Hologram Cloud, Inc.(NASDAQ: WIMI), whose commercial operations began in 2015, is a holographic cloud comprehensive technical solution provider that focuses on professional areas including holographic AR automotive HUD software, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR, head-mounted light field holographic equipment, holographic semiconductor, holographic cloud software, holographic car navigation and others. Its services and holographic AR technologies include holographic AR automotive application, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR technology, holographic vision semiconductor technology, holographic software development, holographic AR advertising technology, holographic AR entertainment technology, holographic ARSDK payment, interactive holographic communication and other holographic AR technologies.
For more information, please visit
http://ir.wimiar.com/
Contacts
WIMI Hologram Cloud Inc.
Email: pr@wimiar.com
ICR, LLC
Sharon Zhou
Tel: +1 (646) 975-9495
Email: wimi@icrinc.com
My request to all board members who plan to take part in the CAPC conference call.
Unfortunately, because I live in a different time zone in Western Europe, I cannot take part myself.
In addition, I can only speak English moderately. Everything I report and write here myself, I create with the help of the Google translation program.
Please ask Stewart Wallach why the homepage for the led lighting division has not been available for over 10 months.
Although this is indicated on page
https://capstonecompaniesinc.com/products/led-lighting/
in the lowest area with the "Learn more" button.
to
https://capstoneindustries.com/products/led-lighting/
Thank you in advance to you
Read the full LONG Report with all relevant numbers at:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/westport-fuel-systems-reports-fourth-210500850.html
or at
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/5006350
Westport Fuel Systems Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Financial Results.
source
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/westport-fuel-systems-reports-fourth-210500850.html
Mon, March 15, 2021, 10:05 PM
Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (“WFS”) (TSX:WPRT / Nasdaq:WPRT) today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2020 and provided an update on operations. All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.
FOURTH QUARTER 2020 HIGHLIGHTS
Record revenue of $83.9 million, an increase of 13% over same period last year, with OEM revenue up 32% due to continued growth in HPDI™ 2.0 sales volumes combined with strengthening light-duty OEM sales
Net income of $4.1 million or $0.03 per share; Adjusted EBITDA was $8.1 million, or a $4.5 million improvement year-over-year
Liquidity bolstered by net $27.6 million raised by shares issued under the at-the-market equity offering, of which $13.2 million was raised following the close of the quarter
Announced new product development work with current OEM partner to apply HPDI 2.0 to an upgraded base engine platform designed to meet Euro VI Step E emission regulations that take effect in 2024
FULL YEAR 2020 HIGHLIGHTS
Revenue of $252.5 million, down 17% vs. 2019 due to COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on customer demand, partially offset by significant year-over-year growth in HPDI sales volumes to our initial launch partner
Net loss of $7.4 million, or $0.05 per share; Notwithstanding the pandemic's impact, recorded positive adjusted EBITDA of $14.7 million, compared to $28.4 million in the prior year
Working with our lenders, we strengthened the balance sheet, improved overall liquidity and reduced cost of capital
Joint venture with Weichai Power secured certification for WP12 natural gas engine powered by HPDI in China
Combined our Indian businesses with UNO MINDA to create a JV to better serve the growing market in India for gaseous fuel systems through cost efficiencies and greater product choice
Published enhanced Environment, Social and Governance ("ESG") report, highlighting our commitment to ongoing ESG performance improvements and responsible corporate citizenship.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/westport-fuel-systems-reports-fourth-210500850.html
CNG & LPG Vehicle Market by Vehicle Body Type, Fuel Type, Kit Type, Fitting, Engine System Type and Region - Global Forecast to 2026 - ResearchAndMarkets.com.
source
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/5005782
Mar 15, 2021 14:06 UTC
The "CNG & LPG Vehicle Market by Vehicle Body Type (Passenger Cars, Three-wheelers & Commercial Vehicles) Fuel Type (CNG & LPG), By Kit type (Venturi & Sequential), By Fitting (OE & Aftermarket), by Engine System Type and by Region - Global Forecast to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5304949/cng-and-lpg-vehicle-market-by-vehicle-body-type?utm_source=BW&utm_medium=PressRelease&utm_code=k8m2xk&utm_campaign=1512915+-+CNG+%26+LPG+Vehicle+Market+by+Vehicle+Body+Type%2c+Fuel+Type%2c+Kit+Type%2c+Fitting%2c+Engine+System+Type+and+Region+-+Global+Forecast+to+2026&utm_exec=jamu273prd
The global electric vehicle charging station market size is projected to reach 4,389 thousand units sales by 2026, from an estimated 2,135 thousand units in 2021, at a CAGR of 15.5%.
Governments are supporting CNG and LPG vehicles through subsidies & tax rebates for using low emission vehicles and working in collaboration with such OEM's to speed up growth of their countries.
Increased demand for efficient and low emission vehicles along with government support will boost the CNG and LPG vehicle market. Consumers from developing countries are already feeling the heat of the increasing cost of petrol. CNG and LPG vehicles use can reduce the operating cost of these vehicles. To make the CNG and LPG vehicle market grow, a continued support from the government will be needed along with the growing numbers of bi-fuel and dual fuel vehicle users and reduced initial cost of adding CNG and LPG options for the vehicles.
However, COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have a significant impact on the CNG and LPG vehicle market. Both the production and sales of CNG and LPG vehicles had come to a halt in Q1 and Q2 of 2020 across the globe as the whole ecosystem had been disrupted. However, in the next two quarters, the sale of CNG and LPG vehicles had been growing. OEMs had to wait until lockdowns were lifted to resume production, which affected their business. Post the pandemic, the demand for CNG and LPG vehicles might increase, as people are getting increasingly conscious of reducing emissions from vehicles around the world.
The Passenger vehicle Segment is expected to be the largest market in the vehicle body segment in the forecast.
Passenger cars are motor vehicles primarily used to transport passengers and have up to 9 seating capacity, including the driver. Some major types of passenger vehicles include sedan, hatchback, MPV/minivan, SUV/4X4, CUV/crossover, pickup, coupe, convertible, and station wagon. Many OEMs have been developing CNG and LPG fuel passenger cars over the years. Major manufacturers in this segment include Suzuki Motor Corporation, Honda Motor Company, Hyundai Group, Volkswagen AG, and Ford Motor Company. Governments around the world have been encouraging the use of CNG and LPG as low emission vehicles for passenger vehicles.
Heavy-duty segment is expected to be the fastest growing in the vehicle type segment during the forecast period.
The sales of heavy-duty CNG and LPG vehicles are projected to significantly increase during the forecast period due to the trend of commercial vehicles worldwide moving towards the usage of low emission fuels. This projected increase is also attributed to many countries around the world adopting new regulations to lower emissions on a large scale. These countries have encouraged the growth of CNG and LPG fuels especially in the heavy duty vehicles segment where electric vehicles are less of a competition to CNG and LPG vehicles market.
Sequential Kit segment is expected to be the fastest growing in the Kit segment in the forecast period.
The sequential kit is a much better option for vehicles. In this type of kit, the alternative fuel flow is controlled by injectors and directly sent into the intake manifold of the petrol injectors. Gas flow is monitored and fixed electronically by a separate ECU. Sequential engines, however, can only be installed on vehicles that have electronic fuel injection systems. Sequential injection systems offer better mileage and higher performance than venture kits. However, sequential kits perform best with high compression engines only.
Market Dynamics
Drivers
- Significant Increase in Vehicle Production and Sales Globally.
- Lower Operational Cost Compared to Petroleum Vehicles.
- Rising Petrol Prices in the International Market.
Restraints
- Higher Maintenance and Initial Vehicle Costs Compared to Petroleum Vehicles.
- Less CNG and LPG Fuel Availability in Many Regions.
Opportunities
- Rising Concerns Worldwide About Vehicle Emissions.
- Availability of Dual Fuel Options in Vehicles.
Challenges
- Improper Drainage Causing Cylinder Damage.
- Improper Protection of Exhaust and Other Heat-Producing Components.
Companies Mentioned
AB Volvo
AC Spolka
Agility Fuel Solutions
Agrale
Atiker Group
Baic Group
Bajaj Group
Cnh Industrial Nv
Cummins
Daimler Ag
Deere and Company
Dongfeng Motor Group
Dongxu
Eicher Motors
Faw Group
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Ford Motor Company
General Motors
Great Wall Motors
Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group
Honda Motor Company
Hyundai Motor Group
IGT Motors
Iran Khodro
Kion Group
Landi Renzo S.P.A.
Macropolo Sa
Mahindra & Mahindra
Mazda Motor Corporation
Mitsubishi Motors
Nikki Co., Ltd.
Nissan Motor Company
Paccar
Psa Group
Quantum Fuel Systems
Renault
Saic Motor Corporation
Saipa
Subaru Corporation
Suzuki Motor Corporation
Tata Motors Limited
Tomasetto AChille
Toyota Motor Corporation
Volkswagen Ag
Westport Fuel Systems
ResearchAndMarkets.com
Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager
press@researchandmarkets.com
For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470
For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630
For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900
Verimatrix Named Official Partner of ESL Premiership.
source
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/5006007
Mar 15, 2021 16:45 UTC
Team End Point, an organization striving to strengthen the UK’s position in the global scene, has won the ESL Premiership six times straight. The team also stands as the most decorated UK CS:GO organizations ever. The attached photo shows their most recent ESL Premiership win. (Photo: ESL)
Verimatrix,
https://www.verimatrix.com/
(Paris:VMX) (Euronext Paris: VMX), the leader in powering the modern connected world with people-centered security, today announced it’s an official partner of ESL Premiership,
https://pro.eslgaming.com/uk/
one of the most anticipated competitions from the world’s largest esports company.
Verimatrix has helped enhance and protect the delivery of live sports content for years, with today’s partnership announcement signaling that esports has now joined ranks to become one of the fastest growing segments within the broader media and entertainment sector. Fans, athletes, teams, leagues, video game publishers and streaming platforms will experience Verimatrix’s brand presence during in-game and live broadcasts of the longest running, national esports tournament in the UK that will feature Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO).
As a rapidly growing, digital industry, esports has always pushed the boundary of content creation and delivery. Verimatrix aims to provide digital rights management, anti-piracy watermarking technology and a plethora of other services to the space, delivering live experiences to fans without compromise.
“As a long-time leader in securing digital entertainment and ensuring optimal user experience, Verimatrix is pleased to serve as an official sponsor of ESL Premiership,” said Asaf Ashkenazi, Chief Operating Officer at Verimatrix. “It’s an exciting time in esports. The industry’s clear growth trajectory into the billions of dollars falls in line with our commitment to serve as a secure delivery partner from origination to destination.”
“We welcome Verimatrix as an official partner of the ESL Premiership,” said Dan Ellis, Partnerships Director at ESL UK. “Making sure fans and players can enjoy competition to its fullest potential are paramount to ESL, it’s always a pleasure to work with partners who share those values.”
ESL Premiership runs through June 27, 2021. Among the teams slated to participate in the ESL Premiership include:
End Point
uMx Gaming
Audacity Esports
CeX
Endpoint CeX
Max&BigGarlicDips
Vexed Gaming
About ESL
ESL is the world’s largest esports company. Founded in 2000, ESL has been shaping the industry across the most popular video games with numerous online and offline esports competitions. The company operates high profile, branded international leagues and tournaments under the ESL Pro Tour including ESL One, Intel® Extreme Masters, ESL Pro League, and other premier stadium-size events, to more clearly define the path from zero to hero. ESL also produces the ESL National Championships, grassroots amateur cups, and matchmaking systems, creating a world where everybody can be somebody. With offices all over the world, ESL is leading esports innovation on a global scale through the combination of global ESL competitions, amateur leagues, publisher activations, and more. ESL is a part of MTG, the leading international digital entertainment group.
For more information, visit
https://about.eslgaming.com/
About Verimatrix
Verimatrix (Euronext Paris: VMX) helps power the modern connected world with security made for people. We protect digital content, applications, and devices with intuitive, people-centered and frictionless security. Leading brands turn to Verimatrix to secure everything from premium movies and live streaming sports, to sensitive financial and healthcare data, to mission-critical mobile applications. We enable the trusted connections our customers depend on to deliver compelling content and experiences to millions of consumers around the world. Verimatrix helps partners get to market faster, scale easily, protect valuable revenue streams, and win new business.
To learn more, visit
https://www.verimatrix.com/
Investor Relations Contact:
Richard Vacher Detournière
General Manager & Chief Financial Officer
+33 (0)4 42 905 905
finance@verimatrix.com
Media Contact:
Matthew Zintel
+1 281 444 1590
matthew.zintel@zintelpr.com
CloudMD Announces Closing of $8.2 Million Over-Allotment Option.
soure
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cloudmd-announces-closing-8-2-140400411.html
Fri, March 12, 2021, 3:04 PM
CloudMD Software & Services Inc., a telemedicine company seeking to revolutionize the delivery of healthcare to patients, is pleased to announce that it has completed the sale of an additional 3,060,000 common shares of the Company at the price of $ Canada 2.70 per Share for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of $8,262,000. The Shares were issued pursuant to the full exercise of the over-allotment option granted to Canaccord Genuity Corp., Beacon Securities Limited and Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters including Laurentian Bank Securities Inc. and Mackie Research Capital Corporation in connection with the Company’s bought deal short form prospectus offerin.
The Company issued the Underwriters an additional 214,200 broker warrants. Each Broker Warrant is exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company at the exercise price of $2.70 per common share for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering.
About CloudMD Software & Services
CloudMD is digitizing the delivery of healthcare by providing a patient centric approach, with an emphasis on continuity of care. The Company offers SAAS based health technology solutions to healthcare providers across North America and has developed proprietary technology that delivers quality healthcare through a holistic offering including hybrid primary care clinics, specialist care, telemedicine, mental health support, educational resources and artificial intelligence (AI). CloudMD currently services a combined ecosystem of over 500 clinics, almost 4000 licensed practitioners and 8 million patient charts across North America.
For more information visit:
https://investors.cloudmd.ca/
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
“Dr. Essam Hamza, MD"
Chief Executive Officer
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:
Julia Becker
Vice President, Investor Relations
Email: julia@cloudmd.ca
investors.cloudmd.ca
Facebook expands the team to advance the AR/AR strategy radically, WiMi Hologram expands the holographic matrix product development 5G holographic ecology.
source
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/relnews/us/2021-03-15/doc-ikknscsi5016463.shtml
March 15, 2021 10:12 CCTIME
According to The Information report, Facebook has developed a radical strategy in recent years to build its own consumer-grade hardware and reduce its dependence on the two main operating system suppliers: Google and Apple.
Facebook’s ambitions for AR/VR are reflected in the number of employees. According to internal organizational data reviewed by The Information, nearly 10,000 people in its team are participating in the development of AR/VR devices. As of early 2021, the number of employees officially announced by Facebook is 58,604 people, the number of AR/VR business employees reached about 17% of the entire Facebook.
In contrast, when Facebook just released the Rift equipped with Oculus Touch controllers in 2017, the total number of employees was only 18,770, of which AR/VR business employees accounted for 12%, or about 2,252.
The growth of Facebook’s AR/VR business staff is a huge expense for an advertising-driven company, even though the hot sales of Quest 2 allowed its non-advertising business revenue in Q4 of 2020 to nearly triple that of the previous fiscal quarter. However, it still accounts for only about 3% of the company's overall revenue.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg firmly believes that AR/VR will become the next-generation computing platform, and will continue to invest in AR/VR research and development with a long-term vision spanning more than 10 years. In a recent interview with Zuckerberg by The Information, he also emphasized the hope that the current revenue of the VR business will continue to be invested in product development, and he hopes to bring entry-level VR headsets to every consumer and use AR /VR hardware sales will get rid of dependence on application distribution channels such as Google and Apple in the future.
As a pioneer in promoting the contemporary AR/VR industry, Facebook's AR/VR business and layout have always attracted attention. At the same time, Zuckerberg also said: The most anticipated business in 2021 is VR, and Quest 2 is expected to be the first VR headset to open the mainstream market.
Facebook is a social platform, the goal is to provide users with a variety of interactive methods, such as: private messaging, video and photo sharing and so on.
Currently, Facebook applications are built on the platforms of other companies (Windows, iOS, Android, macOS, etc.), so I hope to invest in AR/VR to create a next-generation computing platform with a sense of presence and immersion.
Relevant teams under Facebook include the VR product team, the AR team and the interaction team. The VR team is developing Quest 3, 4 and related technologies to optimize optics, performance, appearance, etc. In addition, the new generation of products is likely to have eye tracking and face tracking functions.
As a global AI visual holographic AR representative company, Weibo and other institutions with a strategic investment of 61.58 million US dollars, the recent performance of WiMi Hologram is also eye-catching. The newly launched in-vehicle product "WiMi HoloAR HUD" provides safe driving services and value-added services for car owners. Recently, China Mobile and the media cloud platform holographic remote interaction won the bid, and as a technology provider of 5G holographic communication, it was once again selected by operators. In the field of lidar, it seems that it is also catching up with it, which can be seen from this passage.
According to reports, WiMi focuses on holographic cloud services, mainly focusing on automotive AR holographic HUD, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR, head-mounted light field holographic equipment, holographic semiconductor, holographic cloud software, holographic car navigation and other professional fields, covering From holographic vehicle AR technology, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR technology, holographic vision semiconductor technology, holographic software development, holographic AR advertising technology, holographic AR entertainment technology, holographic ARSDK payment, interactive holographic communication and other holographic AR technologies, it is a holographic Cloud integrated technology solution provider.
As 5G holographic communication network bandwidth conditions change, the 5G holographic application market will usher in an explosion. High-end applications such as holographic interactive entertainment, holographic conferences, and holographic conferences will gradually become popular in holographic social, holographic communication, holographic navigation, and holographic home applications. WiMi Hologram (WIMI.US) plans to use holographic AI face recognition technology and holographic AI face-changing technology as its core technologies, and use multiple technologically innovative systems to support holographic cloud platform services and 5G communication holographic applications.
Compared with its domestic counterparts, WiMi has established a comprehensive holographic AR content library. The format of holographic AR content covers from 3D models to holographic short videos. According to Frost&Sullivan data, WiMi has established a comprehensive and diversified holographic AR content library among all holographic AR solution providers in China. In terms of revenue, the number of customers, the number of holographic AR content, holographic AR patents and software copyrights in 2018, WiMi is a leader in China's holographic AR industry. In 2018, WiMi Hologram Cloud owned approximately 4654 AR holographic contents, 106 software copyrights and 219 technical patents. WiMi Hologram Cloud is committed to using holographic technology to meet the entertainment and business needs of customers and end users.
WiMi Hologram has the world's leading 3D computer vision technology and SAAS platform technology. WiMi Hologram uses AI algorithms to turn ordinary images into holographic 3D content, which is widely used in holographic advertising, holographic entertainment, holographic education, holographic communication and other fields. WiMi Hologram has core technologies such as holographic face recognition, holographic face change, and holographic digital life, and is seeking market cooperation and investment opportunities on a global scale. In the future, WiMi Hologram Cloud will expand the holographic ecology in the international market and aspire to become a leader in the global holographic cloud industry.
In the first week of 2021, three private equity financing events were announced in the AR/VR field in the Chinese market, with the financing amount exceeding 100 million yuan. The capital market releases positive signals, and the AR/VR industry is picking up. Since the development of the global AR/VR industry, it has gone through the concept period, the boom period and the trough period. After 2019, the industry's growth curve has crossed the downward turning point, and AR/VR has begun to return to the public's vision. At present, the industry is in the dawn of the next wave of high-speed growth. The systematic driving force of this upward trend is mainly due to the rapid development of basic layer technology and infrastructure as the bottom support of the AR/VR industry in the past few years, mainly including 5G commercial, AI, cloud computing, edge computing, etc.
In 2021, there is also a highly anticipated global "big event" in the AR/VR field, that is, Apple's AR glasses Apple Glass may be released as early as the second half of the year. Various signs indicate that AR/VR will occupy a place among the investment hotspots of China's primary capital market in 2021.
S&P Dow Jones Indices Announces Changes to the S&P/TSX Composite Index.
source
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kuro-edition-launches-select-mazda-120000267.html
Fri, March 12, 2021, 11:15 PM
As a result of the quarterly review, S&P Dow Jones Indices will make the following changes to the S&P/TSX Composite Index prior to the open of trading on Monday, March 22, 2021:
S&P/TSX COMPOSITE INDEX – March 22, 2021
ADDED Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (TSX:WPRT) Industrials Construction Machinery & Heavy Trucks
ABOUT S&P DOW JONES INDICES
S&P Dow Jones Indices is the largest global resource for essential index-based concepts, data and research, and home to iconic financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500® and the Dow Jones Industrial Average®. More assets are invested in products based on our indices than products based on indices from any other provider in the world. Since Charles Dow invented the first index in 1884, S&P DJI has become home to over 1,000,000 indices across the spectrum of asset classes that have helped define the way investors measure and trade the markets.
S&P Dow Jones Indices is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), which provides essential intelligence for individuals, companies, and governments to make decisions with confidence.
For more information, visit
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/
CSG Conversational Artificial Intelligence Recognized Globally for Driving a Personalized and Engaging Customer Experience.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/csg-conversational-ai-recognized-driving-personalized-engaging-c
March 11, 2021
CSG®’s (NASDAQ: CSGS)
https://www.csgi.com/
Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution was named Best Product In Telecommunications by the Business Intelligence Group during their 2021 BIG Innovation Awards.
https://www.bintelligence.com/big-innovation-awards
“More than ever, the global society relies on innovation to help progress humanity and make our lives more productive, healthy and comfortable,” said Maria Jimenez, chief operating officer, Business Intelligence Group. “We are thrilled to recognize CSG as one of the organizations leading with innovative problem solving, creativity and progress.”
“CSG delivers industry-leading customer engagement solutions that give our customers the ability to deliver an exceptional experience to their customers, while providing the agility to rapidly adapt as their business needs evolve,” said Dave Bukovinsky, executive director, CSG. “We are focused on revolutionizing customer engagement solutions to ensure our customers’ businesses are future-ready, while making the best experiences today even better. Thank you to the Business Intelligence Group.”
Artificial Solutions Named as a Leader in Conversational AI in the 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Intelligent Automation – Solutions and Services report for the US.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-named-as-a-leader-in-conversational-ai-in-the-2020-isg-provider-lens-intelligent-automation-solutions-and-services-report-for-the-us
March 9, 2021
Artificial Solutions® (SSME:ASAI), the leading technology provider in enterprise Conversational AI, today announced that it has been recognized by ISG, a renowned technology research and advisory firm as a Leader, in Conversational AI.
Artificial Solutions provides a development platform for Conversational AI that can be deployed in half of the time while delivering twice the value compared with other existing, traditional Conversational AI- solutions. Teneo is the most advanced hybrid linguistic platform available supporting 38 languages and several dialects.
The ISG report highlights Artificial Solutions’ AI software solutions through its platform Teneo, and its outstanding ability for developers to build conversational AI apps. Teneo focuses on applicability in enterprise context not just by leveraging machine learning (ML) or linguistic approach alone, but rather by taking a hybrid approach that provides meaningful context for regular linguistic actions. Artificial Solutions’ Teneo also enables enterprises to connect back-end processes, channels, and systems for meaningful interactions.
The analyst comment in the report states, “Artificial Solutions’ hybrid approach to map linguistic and ML capabilities in the business context helps Teneo identify customer intent with high accuracy and is a key differentiator”.
The ISG Provider Lens™ 2020 Intelligent Automation — Solutions & Services 2020 report for the U.S. assesses more than 70 service providers.
Andreas Wieweg – CTO, Artificial Solutions, commented, “We view this as a recognition of our excellence with yet another industry innovation; we were first with an open model and we are now first with a hybrid model. Our dedication is to create value to our clients’ needs with a modular, sustainable, and scalable approach that provides far higher value over time. Our mission is to make our clients more productive.”
Artificial Solutions has an open modular approach to cater for the different needs of developers. Recently, Artificial Solutions announced the availability of Teneo within the Azure marketplace, which enables the Microsoft customer base to integrate conversational AI solutions within their enterprise. With LUIS^Teneo,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/ms-luis-teneo
a free SaaS-based development suite and bot engine using Microsoft LUIS, developers can rapidly build a prototype and then scale these solutions for high volumes, across multiple channels and languages.
For detailed information on Artificial Solutions’ performance in Conversational AI in the 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Intelligent Automation – Solutions and Services report for the U.S.,
download the full version here:
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/conversational-ai-reports/isg-intelligent-automation-report-us
CONTACT DETAILS
Daniel Eriksson, Chief Innovation and Customer Success Officer, Artificial Solutions Daniel.eriksson@artificial-solutions.com
+46708517810
About ISG
ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to approximately 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006 and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs approximately 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data.
For more information, visit
https://isg-one.com/
Artificial Solutions adds Malay and Indonesian, spoken by 290 million people, to its Conversational AI platform.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-adds-malay-and-indonesian-spoken-by-290-million-people-to-its-conversational-ai-platform
March 1, 2021
Artificial Solutions® (SSME:ASAI), the leading technology provider in enterprise conversational AI, has added more languages to its SaaS development platform. The Conversational AI platform, Teneo, enables rapid deployment of multi-language bots and virtual agents with less effort across 38 languages, platforms and channels.
Very few large-scale projects can run more than one tone of voice or language. As Teneo’s Conversational IDE and Runtime is integrated with MS LUIS, LUIS^Teneo
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/ms-luis-teneo
enables enterprises to build, link and manage multi-tone, multi-channel and multi-language solutions with inheritance, reusability and control. Its structure allows new languages to be quickly added, whilst building and controlling multilingual implementations through its powerful localization functionality.
LUIS^Teneo also allows a global conversational bot to be developed in one language and then easily ported into other languages – of course with the added ability to localize if required to accommodate product differences, local regulations etc.
Artificial Solutions empower businesses to build bots and maximize their resources through rapid development, fast implementation times, increased functionality and greater scalability.
“We enable enterprises to develop natural language bots faster than any other software vendor on the market, making it easier to build natural language capabilities into applications and engage directly with customers in multilanguage and in multiple communication channels. Our mission is to help all developers become more productive and create value for every enterprise we interact with,” said Andreas Wieweg, CTO at Artificial Solutions.
Teneo’s conversational AI framework is now available in Basque, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian.
In addition, the platform also caters for regional differences and different writing scripts. Examples of this include the different spelling variations between UK and US English, the differences in vocabulary and grammar for Brazilian and European Portuguese, and the different Japanese writing systems.
Developers can try Teneo for free to see for themselves how easy it is to rapidly build a prototype and then scale these solutions for high volumes and across multiple channels and languages.
More information about LUIS^Teneo:
Visual flows.
The development platform is highly visual, enabling easy collaboration. LUIS^Teneo allows developers and business specialists to work together to build, visualize, optimize and deploy applications.
Lower the total cost of ownership of Conversational AI-implementations.
LUIS^Teneo offers a more efficient development allocation over the project life cycle, by combining the easy-to-build experience with more advanced functionality required when projects and ambitions grow. Artificial Solutions’ hybrid language model reduces the need for expensive training data and can enable rapid deployment of multi-language solutions. One platform covers every aspect of application development: pre-analysis, scoping, design, development, integrations, testing, deployment, logging, analysis and data-driven automated optimization.
Accessible SaaS model.
LUIS^Teneo offers clients to signup, build and deploy their conversational API from Artificial Solutions cloud platform with lower initial cost and greater economies of scale.
Artificial Solutions’ Teneo Now Available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-teneo-now-available-in-the-microsoft-azure-marketplace
February 16, 2021
Microsoft Azure customers worldwide now gain access to Teneo to take advantage of the scalability, reliability, and agility of Azure to drive application development and shape business strategies.
Artificial Solutions a leading technology provider in enterprise conversational AI, today announced the availability of Teneo in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace,
https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/artificialsolutions1610634679270.teneo_artificialsolutions?tab=Overview
an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure.
Enterprises are accelerating the adoption of conversational AI to provide better customer experiences, drive revenue, and capitalize on new opportunities. Teneo enables Microsoft’s clients to build virtual agents, chatbots, and voicebots and maximize the effectiveness of their resources through rapid?prototyping, fast implementation times, increased?functionality,?and greater scalability. With Teneo, developers can go into production in a matter of days and weeks vs. months, directly impacting time to value and ROI.
Developers can try Teneo for free
https://developers.artificial-solutions.com/signup/?firstName=&lastName=&jobTitle=&email=&utm_source=luis-teneo&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=final-banner
to see for themselves how easy it is to rapidly build a prototype and then scale these solutions for high volumes and across multiple channels and languages.
“Businesses looking into leveraging virtual agents and conversational bots can’t afford not to try Teneo´s development platform, as they can build, test, and release conversational bots faster,” said Daniel Ericsson, Chief Innovation and Customer Success Officer at Artificial Solutions. “We look forward to collaborating with Microsoft, and we see that the Teneo platform fundamentally changes how enterprises work with conversational bots: speeding up deployments, potentially growing from one to several markets in different languages, providing real scalability.”
“Through Microsoft Azure Marketplace, customers around the world can easily find, buy, and deploy partner solutions they can trust, all certified and optimized to run on Azure,” said Jake Zborowski, General Manager, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp. “We’re happy to welcome Teneo from Artificial Solutions to the growing Azure Marketplace ecosystem.”
The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions certified to run on Azure. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use.
With Teneo, it’s easy to go from rapid prototyping to production releases, leveraging advanced conversational design patterns to speed up development, with?valuable?access to conversational data insights.
Developers could easily build and use any of the 20+ front and back-end connectors already available. Connectors include Amazon Alexa, Facebook Messenger, IVR by CSG-IM, IVR by Twilio, SMS by Nexmo, Slack, Telegram, Teneo Web Chat, Twitter, Salesforce, WeChat, and WhatsApp by Twilio.
Teneo also includes over 30 native language packs that enable you to launch advanced multilingual conversational AI solutions at speed. Languages include Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. Learn more about Teneo at its page in the Azure Marketplace.
About Artificial Solutions
Artificial Solutions is a leading specialist in conversational AI. We enable communication with applications, websites, and devices in everyday, humanlike natural language via voice, text, touch, or gesture input.
Artificial Solutions’ conversational AI technology makes it easy to implement a wide range of natural language applications, such as virtual assistants, conversational bots, speech-based conversational UIs for smart devices, and more. It is already used daily by millions of people across hundreds of private and public-sector deployments worldwide.
For more information, please visit
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Artificial Solutions launches LUIS^Teneo, a conversational bot runtime & development environment for Microsoft Azure customers.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-launches-luisteneo-a-conversational-bot-runtime-development-environment-for-microsoft-azure-customers
February 15, 2021
Build scalable multilingual conversational bots more efficiently
Artificial Solutions® (SSME:ASAI), the leading technology provider in enterprise conversational AI, today announced LUIS^Teneo,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/ms-luis-teneo
a SaaS-based development suite and bot engine using Microsoft LUIS. LUIS^Teneo allows you build, scale and maintain LUIS-based bots with less resources improving conversational bot ROI.
Enterprises are accelerating the adoption of conversational AI to provide better customer experiences, drive revenue and capitalize on new opportunities. Teneo, enables Microsoft Azure’s clients to build virtual agents, chatbots or voicebots and optimize their resources through rapid?prototyping, fast implementation times, increased?functionality,?and greater scalability.
“Microsoft is powering the dawn of digital transformation with the one of world’s largest cloud platforms. Artificial Solutions support Microsoft Azure’s clients by making them more productive, much faster in the bot space. The world has seen an accelerated demand of ROI, when organizations build and expand on their conversational AI-strategy. We are addressing this need in a strategic, high-growth area in the market,” said Per Ottosson, CEO at Artificial Solutions.
Teneo is Artificial Solutions’ conversational AI development platform, designed for enterprise use, that allows business to create conversational bots in 38 languages and across multiple communication channels, in an agile and efficient way. The ability to analyze and make use of the enormous quantities of conversational data is fully integrated within Teneo, delivering unprecedented levels of data insights.
Microsoft Azure’s Cognitive Services is a comprehensive family of AI services and cognitive API’s to help you build intelligent apps and brings AI within reach of every developer—without requiring machine-learning expertise.
Developers can try LUIS^Teneo for free
https://developers.artificial-solutions.com/signup/?firstName=&lastName=&jobTitle=&email=&utm_source=as-websitel&utm_campaign=luis-teneo-pr
to see themselves how easy it is to rapidly build a prototype and then scale these solutions for high volumes and across multiple channels & languages. The combination of the best of two technologies leverages Teneo’s and MS LUIS’ strong points to benefit users with:
- A powerful and user-friendly developer environment to increase productivity.
- An extension of MS LUIS’ intent recognition engine with our intellectual property and linguistic approach.
- Strong embedded conversation analytics tools to make it easier for developers to keep improving the performance of their projects.
Developers can now build bots with the timesaving, low-maintenance, low cost-of-entry, and scalability that a SaaS model can provide. Our partner network has already experienced an increased speed of development and added capabilities by using LUIS^Teneo.
About Artificial Solutions
Artificial Solutions® is the leading technology provider in Conversational AI. We enable communication with applications, websites and devices in everyday, humanlike natural language via voice, text, touch or gesture input.
Artificial Solutions’ conversational AI technology makes it easy to implement a wide range of natural language applications such as virtual assistants, conversational bots, speech-based conversational UIs for smart devices and more. It is already used daily by millions of people across hundreds of private and public sector deployments worldwide.
For more information, please visit:
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/
Artificial Solutions International is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm with short name ASAI. Erik Penser Bank is the company’s Certified Adviser (https://www.penser.se/, tel +46 (0) 8-463 83 00, e-post certifiedadviser@penser.se)
Artificial Solutions Wins Engage Award for Best Technology Integration in Customer and Employee Engagement.
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https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-wins-engage-award-for-best-technology-integration-in-customer-and-employee-engagement
December 4, 2020
Artificial Solutions® (SSME:ASAI), announced today that Teneo® Connectors was awarded silver for Best Technology Integration in Customer and Employee Engagement in this year’s Engage Awards.
Launched last year, Teneo Connectors allows enterprises to easily integrate a wide variety of back-end systems and processes into their chatbot and digital assistant interfaces using a pre-built library of intelligent connectors that span a range of business and AI assets including RPA (robotic process automation) and CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service).
This expands the chatbot’s capabilities and harnesses the power of back-office technology to deliver more intelligent responses based on the back-end actions, requests and processes it has executed.
With Teneo Connectors, chatbots and virtual assistants can answer questions more precisely, for example approve loan requests by integrating existing RPA sequences, use personalized data from a CRM system to deliver contextually aware responses, or trigger a series of HR events when an employee books leave.
The Engage Awards recognize customer and employee engagement excellence. Winners of the Best Technology Integration in Customer and Employee Engagement award must be able to demonstrate how it has successfully integrated new technology that has transformed the organisation, including contributing to the performance and profitability of the business.
“We’re delighted our technology has once again been recognised for the difference it makes to businesses implementing intelligent digital employees,” says Per Ottosson, CEO of Artificial Solutions. “Teneo Connectors makes it easy for enterprises to integrate between front-end chatbot interfaces and back-end processes and systems to improve customer satisfaction, while increasing RoI by leveraging existing technology investments.”
Verimatrix: improvement in operating profit.
source
https://www.boursedirect.fr/fr/actualites/categorie/resultats/verimatrix-amelioration-du-resultat-operationnel-boursier-e68c2610c6ae5d2b8d68a74e2faa244a0fbd95f0
03/10/2021 6:52 PM
Verimatrix's 2020 revenue was $ 94.9 million, down 11% from 2019 (on a pro forma basis).
Verimatrix's 2020 revenue was $ 94.9 million, down 11% from 2019 (on a pro forma basis). As a reminder, in 2019, revenue included the income of $ 3.9 million generated by the NFC patent license program managed by France Brevets (nil in 2020).
If we exclude the non-recurring revenue from the NFC program, revenue from the strategic software activity was down 8% over one year.
From a general point of view, the management of Verimatrix considers that the published turnover does not fully integrate the positive commercial dynamics, which is better reflected if we take into account both the published turnover and the increase in the amount of multi-year subscription contracts. The inherently volatile nature of the perpetual license activity further validates the strategy aimed at increasing recurring revenues through the deployment of the subscription offer and SaaS.
In 2020, the company made further progress in its strategy to deploy its subscription and SaaS offering. During the year, Verimatrix signed 56 contracts under this new model in total, while limiting the termination rate, multiplying CAAR by 2.4 year-on-year, to $ 9 million as at December 31, 2020, corresponding to a Total Contract Value (CTV) of $ 20 million.
Adjusted gross margin was $ 78.1 million in 2020 (82.3% of revenue), compared to $ 85.7 million in 2019 (on a pro forma basis). In 2019, excluding the contribution of the NFC patent license program (which typically generates a gross margin of 70%), the adjusted gross margin stood at 81.3% of revenue.
Adjusted operating income from continuing operations grew 3.5% year-on-year in 2020 to $ 19.7 million, reflecting the operational leverage effect as well as the impact of cost synergies and demonstrating the resilience of the business model of the Company.
EBITDA increased 2.4% to $ 24 million (from $ 23.4 million in 2019) while pro forma EBITDA margin increased 580 basis points year-on-year to 21.1 % of sales.
Strong improvement in operating income and net income from continuing operations (IFRS)
In 2020, the company significantly improved its consolidated operating income from continuing operations to $ 11.8 million in 2020 (12.4% of sales), compared to operating income of $ 3 million in 2019 (3, 1% of consolidated sales), in particular due to the decrease in non-recurring charges.
In 2020, adjusted operating income from continuing operations of $ 19.7 million was partially offset by two factors:
- A one-time charge relating to the acquisition costs of Verimatrix, Inc. for $ 1.3 million (fees and commissions and provision for retention bonuses) and the implementation of the cost synergies plan for $ 1.1 million (compared to $ 9.9 million in 2019);
- Various items with no impact on cash for $ 5.5 million, relating to the amortization resulting from the purchase price accounting of acquisitions made by the Company for $ 5.1 million and an expense related to payments based on shares up to $ 0.4 million.
The company recorded a financial loss of $ 10.3 million in 2020, relating to interest paid on financial debts (final bond loan due 2026, convertible bonds due 2022 and rental debts resulting from the application of IFRS16 ) for $ 5.7 million, as well as non-cash charges (including the fair value measurement of the convertible bond derivative).
In 2020, the company achieved a consolidated net loss (IFRS) from continuing operations of $ 1.4 million compared to a net loss of $ 5.9 million in 2019. This figure results from operating income from continuing operations of $ 11.8 million, a net finance charge of $ 10.3 million and an income tax expense of $ 2.8 million.
The company recorded a consolidated net loss (IFRS) of $ 10.4 million (vs. positive net income of $ 27.3 million in 2019), including a net loss of $ 1.4 million from continuing operations and a net loss of $ 9.1 million on discontinued operations.
Financial situation
As of December 31, 2020, the company posted consolidated cash of $ 48.6 million, compared to $ 46.5 million as of June 30, 2020 and $ 54 million as of December 31, 2019.
Net debt stood at $ 25.3 million. as of December 31, 2020 (and net cash of $ 6 million if we exclude convertible bonds and debt relating to finance leases recognized under IFRS 16), compared to net debt of $ 27 million as at June 30, 2020 and $ 19.6 million as at December 31, 2019.
Business outlook and objectives
In 2021, Verimatrix is ??focused on continuing to execute its strategy. The company intends in particular to support the OTT market, which is experiencing significant growth and to increase commercial opportunities for application protection solutions, in particular for Fintech, Healthtech, and the digital revolution in the industrial sector. Verimatrix also aims to increase business synergies related to cross-selling and additional sales (up-selling) and to gain market share in conditional access to video services, while continuing to grow the business model. 'subscriptions and SaaS solutions.
As a result, the company is targeting 2021 revenue from the strategic single-digit business growth in the mid-single digit range, with double-digit growth in recurring revenue. Investments intended to fuel the growth of SaaS solutions and subscriptions combined with the strength of the euro against the US dollar9 should weigh on results and the Company is therefore setting itself an objective of broadly flat EBITDA compared to 2019. These Objectives include an exchange rate of $ 1.235 to 1 euro and the absence of income from the non-strategic NFC patent licensing program, or from business or company acquisitions.
The revenue targets for 2021 should be read taking into account this gradual change in the composition and revenue profile of the company, which implies a lower recognized level of short-term revenue but with more sustainable subscription revenue at long term.
WiMi Hologram Cloud Announces Partnership with China Telecom iCartoons.
source
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wimi-hologram-cloud-announces-partnership-093000436.html
Thu, March 11, 2021, 10:30 AM
WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. (Nasdaq: WIMI), a leading Hologram Augmented Reality ("AR") Technology provider in China, today announced its partnership with China Telecom iCartoons. Under the partnership, the Company will provide holographic virtual social media, live streaming, education, and other holographic virtual solutions to the online platform for original comic content operated by China Telecom iCartoons. By interfacing both parties' systems, the partnership will enable both companies to develop virtual user inquiries, order placement, and payment process services for China Telecom iCartoons' proprietary content for its users nationwide.
China Telecom is one of the largest telecommunications service providers in China and has been named as one of named as a Fortune Global 500 company for many years in a row. China Telecom provides integrated information services, including landline telephone, cell phone, and satellite communication services, as well as Internet access and related applications. As of December 2019, China Telecom had 110 million landline telephone subscribers, 335 million cell phone subscribers, 150 million broadband subscribers, a total asset of RMB710.96 billion, and more than 400,000 employees. iCartoons is a diversified, omni-channel, cross-platform animation platform, and a pioneer in entering the animation industry from telecommunications.
WiMi Hologram Cloud has an extensive library of proprietary holographic content, and its content formats range from 3D models to holographic virtual products. The Company has a total of 4,654 proprietary holographic content materials that the Company can integrate into its holographic AR products and solutions. These proprietary holographic content materials cover a wide range of categories including holographic animation, virtual live streaming, virtual idols and virtual social interactions. Among them, 2,961 of these holographic IPs are used for virtual education, 851 holographic IPs are used for virtual tourism, 739 holographic IPs are used for virtual arts and entertainment, and 103 holographic IPs are used for virtual science. In addition, the Company has further extended its virtual content library by obtaining copyrighted IP content licensed from third parties. Through collaborations with various content owners, including brands, filmmakers, and agencies, the Company is able to transform high-quality proprietary content into holographic virtual products, which serves to enhance the operating systems of WiMi Hologram Cloud's ecosystem. The Company plans to provide the aforementioned holographic virtual products with its own IP rights to iCartoons. In addition, by interfacing with iCartoons system, WiMi Hologram Cloud will also develop its holographic virtual services for China Telecom iCartoons' proprietary content that will serve its users nationwide.
About WIMI Hologram Cloud Inc.
WiMi Hologram Cloud, Inc. (NASDAQ: WIMI), whose commercial operations began in 2015, is a holographic cloud comprehensive technical solution provider that focuses on professional areas including holographic AR automotive HUD software, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR, head-mounted light field holographic equipment, holographic semiconductor, holographic cloud software, holographic car navigation and others. Its services and holographic AR technologies include holographic AR automotive application, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR technology, holographic vision semiconductor technology, holographic software development, holographic AR advertising technology, holographic AR entertainment technology, holographic ARSDK payment, interactive holographic communication and other holographic AR technologies.
For more information, please visit
http://www.wimiar.com/
Westport Fuel Systems Successfully Completes Initial Startup and Testing on Hydrogen-Fueled Internal Combustion Engine.
source
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/5001435
March 10, 2021
H2-HPDI early test results validate modelling, demonstrates HPDI has comparable efficiency to fuel cells in heavy-duty applications.
Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (TSX | Nasdaq: WPRT), a global leader in alternative fuel, low-emissions transportation technologies, is pleased to announce successful startup and initial trials of a heavy-duty internal combustion engine running on hydrogen (H2) fuel, using its patented and proprietary High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI) 2.0™ System.
“We believe H2-HPDI could be extremely compelling, with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions and much lower cost than fuel cell vehicles or battery electric vehicles, particularly for heavy-duty trucking and other high-load applications like mining, marine and rail that have come to rely on the efficiency, power, durability and reliability of diesel engines,” said David Johnson, CEO of Westport Fuel Systems. “While there is more work to be done, our initial test results are encouraging and a testament to our team’s ongoing commitment to innovation. This demonstrates the inherent versatility of our HPDI system to utilize a range of gaseous fuels and provide a long-term carbon-reduction strategy. We are confident there is a larger opportunity to leverage our extensive expertise with gaseous fuel combustion and engine management systems.”
“We were able to commence running at full torque and at rated power within hours of successfully starting the first ever HPDI engine operating on hydrogen,” said Scott Baker, Westport Fuel Systems’ Vice President of Engineering. “Preliminary test results validate our combustion simulations,
https://wfsinc.com/file_library/files/wpt-wfsinc/20201225_Westport_AVL_Whitepaper_Hydrogen_HPDI_final.pdf
demonstrating the potential for hydrogen combustion and efficiency comparable to fuel cells in heavy-duty applications. The potential for OEMs and others to avoid new and significant investments that would be required to develop and manufacture fuel cells, electric motors and batteries that are associated with heavy-duty long haul fuel cell electric vehicle product proposals, while leveraging established supply chains, manufacturing investment and infrastructure and economies of scale, is incredibly exciting.”
Development is ongoing, with technical results to be reviewed at the upcoming Vienna Motor Symposium,
https://wiener-motorensymposium.at/en/
which takes place April 29-30, 2021.
About Westport Fuel Systems
Westport Fuel Systems is driving innovation to power a cleaner tomorrow. The company is a leading supplier of advanced fuel delivery components and systems for clean, low-carbon fuels such as natural gas, renewable natural gas, propane, and hydrogen to the global automotive industry. Westport’s technology delivers the performance and fuel efficiency required by transportation applications and the environmental benefits that address climate change and urban air quality challenges. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with operations in Europe, Asia, North America and South America, the company serves customers in more than 70 countries with leading global transportation brands.
For more information, visit
https://wfsinc.com/
Investor Inquiries:
Christine Marks
Investor Relations
T: +1 604-718-2046
E: invest@wfsinc.com
Artificial Solutions Expands Professional Services to Guide Enterprises to Self-Sufficiency in Conversational AI.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-expands-professional-services
December 2, 2020
Artificial Solutions® (SSME:ASAI), the leading specialist in enterprise-strength conversational AI, announced today that it is expanding the capabilities offered by its Professional Services team to meet the demand from partners and corporate centers of excellence to build internal teams with the necessary skills and knowledge to rapidly take advantage of conversational AI technology.
The new offering provides access to some of the world’s most experienced conversational AI experts. Working hands-on alongside the organization, they will enable skills transference, provide mentoring and support throughout the lifetime of the project and provide a path for enterprises to achieve self-sufficiency in developing their conversational AI applications.
“While community support has its place with development platforms, it doesn’t meet the needs of large enterprises. For many businesses developing advanced conversational applications is a step into the unknown. Being able to rely on expert advice at the beginning of a project – and getting that hand-holding as the project progresses – is crucial to developing the application to its full potential and ensuring success in meeting business goals,” says Darren Ford, VP Global Customer Services for Artificial Solutions.
Self-sufficiency in developing conversational AI applications will be essential for enterprises to maximize resources as its adoption spreads beyond traditional uses such as customer services into other areas including sales and HR. The democratization of AI, one of the two megatrends that dominates the Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence 2020,
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/2-megatrends-dominate-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-artificial-intelligence-2020/
will see developers and business users start to lead projects that were once the domain of data scientists and computational linguistics experts.
Artificial Solutions’ most senior consultants will guide development from the initial stages of mobilizing resources and designing the conversational application through to going live and ongoing maintenance. As the project progresses and the enterprise’s own in-house skills and understanding of conversational AI increases, Artificial Solutions role evolves from leading the project to providing coaching and mentoring services. This eventually leads the team to operate on its own resources supported by Artificial Solutions’ consultants in an advisory capacity.
This latest offering allows partners and corporate centers of excellence
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/conversational-ai-center-of-excellence
to benefit from the knowledge and experience already gained by Artificial Solutions involvement in many successful implementations of global conversational AI deployments across a wide range of industries. Using their expertise, senior consultants will steer the project to ensure it delivers a robust, scalable and maintainable system that meets business’ goals, while providing unparalleled advice on the finer points of conversational AI.
The additional services supplement the freely accessible training already available on the Teneo Developers portal,
https://developers.artificial-solutions.com/
alongside its community forum in which Artificial Solutions’ conversational AI experts regularly provide articles and tutorials to help developers gain a better understanding of the technology.
UPCOMING WEBINAR
How to Develop Scalable Multilingual Conversational AI Applications Quick & Easy
March 2 at 11am CET
Register here
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/17594/468959?utm_source=as-website&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=top-articles
Artificial Solutions Ranked as Leader for Intelligent Virtual Assistants.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-ranked-leader-intelligent-virtual-assistants
November 26, 2020
Artificial Solutions® (SSME:ASAI), the leading specialist in enterprise-strength conversational AI, announced today that it is ranked as a leader in the Kisaco Leadership Chart
https://www.kisacoresearch.com/categories/kisaco-research-tech
on Intelligent Virtual Assistants 2021.
Noted for having one of the most advanced technical solutions in the report, Artificial Solutions’ multi-award-winning conversational AI development platform, Teneo®,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/teneo
was praised for providing developers with a rich set of tools.
The report also highlights Teneo’s extensive language capabilities, its hybrid approach to machine and linguistic learning that allows enterprises to rapidly build applications with very little training data, and its easy integration features with a number of out-of-the-box connectors.
“We’re delighted that Kisaco has rated our technology so highly,” says Andy Peart, CMSO of Artificial Solutions. “Since the pandemic the conversational AI market has accelerated rapidly and it’s these highlighted features in our technology that are enabling enterprises to rapidly build out applications that are making a difference to their businesses already.”
Teneo allows developers and business users to rapidly create sophisticated conversational AI applications that improve the customer experience, drive revenue and reduce costs. Working together directly with clients and with high profile system integrator partners Artificial Solutions is revolutionizing the interaction between technology and people.
Kisaco Research brings together conference programs and business intelligence to inform and help clients meet the challenges of today’s changing technology landscape. Vendors compared in the Kisaco Leadership Chart on Intelligent Virtual Assistants all focus on the needs of larger enterprises that typically have more complex end-user journeys, which less capable chatbots cannot support.
Digital Transformation: The Definitive Guide (2021)
This is the ultimate guide to digital transformation.
Everything from what digital transformation is, business benefits, challenges and what to expect in the future.
Read the Guide
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/digital-transformation
CloudMD Announces Closing of $55 Million Bought Deal Financing.
source
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/4999693
March 09, 2021
CloudMD Software & Service, a telemedicine company seeking to revolutionize the delivery of healthcare to patients, is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced short form prospectus offering, on a bought deal basis. The Company issued a total of 18,500,000 common shares at the price of $2.70 per Share for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of $49,950,000. The Offering was led by Canaccord Genuity Corp., Beacon Securities Limited and Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters including Laurentian Bank Securities Inc. and Mackie Research Capital Corporation.
In addition, 1,900,000 Shares were purchased by the Underwriters from Essam Hamza and Kanchan Thindal at the Offering Price for aggregate gross proceeds to the Selling Shareholders of $5,130,000.
The Company issued the Underwriters an aggregate of 1,295,000 broker warrants. Each Broker Warrant is exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company at the exercise price of $2.70 per common share for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering.
Essam Hamza, CEO of CloudMD commented, “I’m very proud of the team for closing another bought deal financing, which allows us to continue executing on our strategic M&A plan. CloudMD has seen significant growth over the last year and we remain committed to our vision of disrupting the delivery of healthcare, with a whole-person, patient-centric approach to care. Our focus remains on seamlessly integrating our platform of healthtech solutions to provide one, centralized product offering for our patients, providers and clients. We have seen some early successes on the integration which is already driving organic growth. Upon closing of the financing, we have strong balance sheet with approximately $100 million in cash, leaving us approximately $60 million following the closing of previously announced acquisitions. We are well-positioned to continue delivering growth while we actively review both organic and acquisitive growth opportunities. Thank you to our key stakeholders, syndicate partners and supportive shareholders for the confidence in our team and vision moving forward.”
CloudMD intends to use the proceeds of the Offering for strategic M&A activities.
About CloudMD Software & Services
CloudMD is digitizing the delivery of healthcare by providing a patient centric approach, with an emphasis on continuity of care. The Company offers SAAS based health technology solutions to healthcare providers across North America and has developed proprietary technology that delivers quality healthcare through a holistic offering including hybrid primary care clinics, specialist care, telemedicine, mental health support, educational resources and artificial intelligence (AI). CloudMD currently services a combined ecosystem of over 500 clinics, almost 4000 licensed practitioners and 8 million patient charts across North America. For more information visit: investors.cloudmd.ca
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
“Dr. Essam Hamza, MD"
Chief Executive Officer
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:
Julia Becker
Vice President, Investor Relations
Email: julia@cloudmd.ca
investors.cloudmd.ca
Cummins Introduces New Heavy-Duty Powertrain for Natural Gas Customers.
source
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/4997739
Mar 8, 2021 13:06 UTC
Global power leader Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) and Cummins Westport Inc. announced today that the ISX12N+Endurant HD N powertrain from its Integrated power portfolio is now available for heavy-duty customers, delivering a fully integrated natural gas powertrain. The combination of the ISX12N near zero natural gas engine and the Endurant HD N 12-speed automated transmission from Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies is well suited for heavy-duty regional haul fleets looking to lower emissions and improve their sustainability profile.
“The ultra-low emissions of the ISX12N combined with the Endurant HD N transmission provides the optimal powertrain solution for customers working to lower their carbon footprint,” said Thomas R. Hodek, President of Cummins Westport. “The deep powertrain integration delivers improved launch, low speed maneuverability, and smoother shifts that drivers will appreciate.”
When paired with the Endurant HD N automated transmission, the ISX12N natural gas engine is available with a rating of 400 horsepower and 1,450 lb-ft torque and can operate with 100% compressed natural gas (CNG), liquid natural gas (LNG) or renewable natural gas (RNG). This reduces smog-forming NOx emissions by 90% compared to the current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard. When operated using RNG, the system is credited with a neutral to negative carbon index, resulting in net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at or below zero.
The new Endurant HD N automated transmission was optimized for integration with the ISX12N natural gas engine and features new software functionality and calibrations, and a new diaphragm spring clutch designed to meet the load requirements of the natural gas engine while protecting the engine for optimal performance.
The integration between the engine and transmission results in improved launch performance, improved low-speed maneuverability and smoother shifts when compared to previous natural gas engines and automated manual transmission combinations.
Inquiries regarding OEM availability may be made with your preferred OEM or dealer.
About Cummins Inc.
Cummins Inc., a global power leader, is a corporation of complementary business segments that design, manufacture, distribute and service a broad portfolio of power solutions. The company’s products range from diesel, natural gas, electric and hybrid powertrains and powertrain-related components including filtration, aftertreatment, turbochargers, fuel systems, controls systems, air handling systems, automated transmissions, electric power generation systems, batteries, electrified power systems, hydrogen generation and fuel cell products. Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana (U.S.), since its founding in 1919, Cummins employs approximately 57,800 people committed to powering a more prosperous world through three global corporate responsibility priorities critical to healthy communities: education, environment and equality of opportunity. Cummins serves its customers online, through a network of company-owned and independent distributor locations, and through thousands of dealer locations worldwide and earned about $1.8 billion on sales of $19.8 billion in 2020.
Learn more at
https://www.cummins.com/
About Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies
Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies is a 50/50 joint venture between Eaton (NYSE: ETN) and Cummins, Inc. (NYSE: CMI). The global joint venture produces and markets industry-leading, heavy-duty automated transmissions for commercial vehicles.
For more information visit
https://www.eatoncummins.com/us/en-us.html
About Cummins Westport Inc.
Cummins Westport Inc. designs, engineers and markets 5.9 to 12 liter spark-ignited natural gas engines for North American commercial transportation applications such as trucks and buses. Cummins Westport is a joint venture of Cummins Inc. (NYSE:CMI), a corporation of complementary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power generation systems, and Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: WPRT / TSX: WPRT), a global leader in alternative fuel, low-emissions technologies that allow engines to operate on clean-burning fuels such as compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), Propane (LPG), hydrogen, and biofuels such as landfill gas.
Jon Mills
Director – External Communications
(317) 658-4540
Jon.Mills@cummins.com
Capstone Companies, Inc. Common Stock Approved For DWAC/FAST.
https://sec.report/CIK/0000814926
source
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/capstone-companies-inc-common-stock-115500559.html
Mon, March 8, 2021, 12:55 PM
Capstone Companies, Inc. (OTC: CAPC) ("Capstone" or the "Company"), a designer, manufacturer and marketer of consumer inspired products that simplify daily living through technology announced today that Depository Trust Company ("DTC") has approved Capstone common stock for DWAC/FAST transfers. This newly approved stock transfer capability will enable Capstone Shareholders to transfer their shares of CAPC common stock electronically after buying or selling on the open market, without the extra expense and delay associated with the processing and transfer of physical share certificates.
Aimee C. Brown, Capstone’s Corporate Secretary, commented, "DWAC/FAST will improve the ability of shareholders to manage their CAPC common stock and is part of our ongoing 2021 review of ways to provide shareholder-friendly assistance in investor relations and make progress in the evolution of our public company."
About DWAC/FAST.
DWAC allows participants to instruct DTC regarding deposit and withdrawal transactions being made directly via a FAST transfer agent. The FAST system eliminates the movement of physical share certificates for transfers of securities registered in the name of DTC's nominee, Cede & Co., on the transfer agent's books. DTC and its FAST transfer agents reconcile the results of participants' deposit and withdrawal activities electronically on a daily basis.
About Capstone Companies, Inc.
Capstone Companies, Inc. is a public holding company that engages, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Capstone Industries, Inc., Capstone Lighting Technologies, LLC, and Capstone International HK, Ltd., in the development, manufacturing and marketing of consumer products.
Visit our websites;
https://capstonecompaniesinc.com/
and
https://capstoneconnected.com/
for information on our current product offerings. Contents of referenced URL’s are not incorporated herein.
Capstone’s SEC filings can be accessed through SEC website:
https://www.sec.gov/
Contacts
Aimee C. Brown
Corporate Secretary
(954) 252-3440, ext. 313
Two sessions of 5G immersive cross-screen cloud interviews on black technology hot search, WiMi Hologram leads AR+AI holographic communication remote interaction.
source
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/relnews/us/2021-03-08/doc-ikkntiak6036315.shtml
March 08, 2021 10:59 CCTIME
On the eve of the National Two Sessions in 2021, Xinhua News Agency will create 5G immersive multi-site multi-screen interviews, using 5G, CAVE, and MR technologies, in a full-scene, true multi-screen manner, and on behalf of the committee members, please tell the story of their performance.
No matter how far apart, in 5G immersive multi-location multi-screen interviews, Xinhua News Agency reporters in the Beijing studio can communicate face-to-face with representative committee members in a "naked-eye 3D" manner, and it is full-real and true multi-screen.
As the main site for shooting, Xinhua News Cube Intelligent Studio first collects real-time signals from the working environment where the committee members are represented, through 5G, CAVE (Projection-based Virtual Reality) technology, MR (Mixed Reality) technology, LED screen multi-angle 3D Stitching technology, etc., restore the scene in the studio in equal proportions, creating an infinitely wide and rich immersive environment in the limited real space, realizing the virtual interlacing of the two real spaces, and achieving the best visual effect with the shooting environment Fusion. The simulation and creativity of digital technology have added diversified space to the studio, and at the same time further expanded the imagination of the scene. The host walks at a fixed point as if he has crossed any door and came to the work of the representative committee. The place.
Through the player, multi-channel speakers, broadcast control system, etc., an audiovisual presentation system with a large viewing angle and high immersion is constructed, so that the audience can obtain multi-directional audiovisual information at the same time, bringing a powerful immersion that a single plane video cannot display sense.
The visual presentation of this remote interview made everyone exclaim as if they were communicating and interacting in the same space. In the subsequent question and answer sessions for reporters, the large LED screen was used as the interactive medium to carry out real-time interaction of screen-to-screen transmission, realizing "space dialogue" and "space question and answer" between the venue of the Great Hall of the People and the venue of Media Effect.
In the studio, the distance is no longer a monotonous "two-dimensional" on the plane, but a three-dimensional scene visible to the naked eye. By collecting the real-time signals of the representative committee members and their working environment in advance, and then using CAVE (immersive virtual reality large-scale display system) studio technology, the scene is restored to the same proportion. In addition, with the blessing of 5G, artificial intelligence, and MR (mixed reality) technology, the host can "step into" the representative committee's field work and research scenarios to talk to the representative committee.
It is believed that this novel interview method is not only of interest to the industry and the media, but the general public will also be pleasantly surprised. To understand 5G "black technology" from a more diverse perspective is not only fast internet speed. Last year’s 5G live broadcast to this year’s 5G+ holographic remote same-screen interviews, as 5G technology matures and large-scale commercial use, the black technology reported on the two sessions is also upgrading. Through the "warm-up" of the two sessions, 5G will be more widely used in the economy and society.
As the latest generation of mobile communication technology, 5G has been standing in the spotlight in recent years from technological innovation, standard construction, license issuance, and commercialization. Its characteristics such as large bandwidth, high reliability, low latency, and massive connections are gradually being recognized by the public. . China Mobile alone has more than 50 million 5G package users.
For users, the current advantage of 5G seems to be that the internet speed is fast enough, and some netizens joked that changing 5G phones is “mainly convenient for speed testing and sending to Moments”. In fact, this is not the case. From the successful practice of Xinhua News Agency’s 5G+ holographic remote same-screen interviews, it can be seen that 5G is not only an innovative technology in itself, but also as an information and communication infrastructure, which can be effectively integrated with other innovative technologies and promote other innovative technologies. Towards large-scale applications.
Holographic imaging is not the latest technology developed, and its history can be traced back to the 1960s. Holographic imaging technology uses the principles of interference and diffraction to record and reproduce real images of objects. It requires more than 100 times the amount of information processed by ordinary cameras. It places high requirements on shooting, processing and transmission platforms. Therefore, the earliest holographic technology only uses For processing still photos. To achieve ultra-low latency transmission of high-definition images, holographic imaging has waited until the commercialization of 5G.
With the development of technology and the vigorous deployment of 5G, the holographic communication industry is about to explode. "AR+AI" holography has become a breakthrough point in holographic technology, and the 5G message ecological chain is being built. Holographic video calls that appeared in sci-fi movies in the past may be fully implemented in the 5G era. As an important participant, WiMi Hologram has won the bid for China Mobile and the second phase of the holographic remote interaction of the media cloud platform. It is redefining China Mobile’s communication method through "5G + holographic remote", striving to promote the combination of AI and China Mobile’s communications industry, and gradually build a leading 5G real-time The core competitiveness of holographic communication.
Relying on the high-speed characteristics of 5G networks, holographic image communication can transmit 3D video signals with a large amount of data, which can show users a more real world, a qualitative leap in interactivity, and will become a disruptive technology for Internet social networking. At present, technology giants such as Samsung and Facebook have joined the field for technology research and development, showing that the technology application prospects are broad, and the number of domestic enterprises engaged in the holographic projection field has also increased significantly.
In 5G holographic video calls, human-to-human communication is no longer limited to both ends of the screen, but can truly realize three-dimensional real-time interaction. With the AR holographic device, the two parties on the call are immediately in the same room, and can change the distance and angle of view at will, see the other's gestures and body language, and even see the precise details of the other's skin.
As a representative enterprise of holographic vision AR in China, WiMi focuses on holographic cloud services, mainly focusing on vehicle AR holographic HUD, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR, head-mounted light field holographic equipment, holographic semiconductor, holographic cloud software, holographic car Navigation and other professional fields, covering many holographic AR technologies such as holographic vehicle AR technology, 3D holographic pulse LiDAR technology, holographic vision semiconductor technology, holographic software development, holographic AR advertising technology, holographic AR entertainment technology, holographic ARSDK payment, interactive holographic communication, etc. This link is a holographic cloud comprehensive technical solution provider.
As 5G holographic communication network bandwidth conditions change, the 5G holographic application market will usher in an explosion. High-end applications such as holographic interactive entertainment, holographic conferences, and holographic conferences will gradually become popular in holographic social, holographic communication, holographic navigation, and holographic home applications. WiMi Hologram Project is based on holographic AI face recognition technology and holographic AI face-changing technology as its core technologies, and uses multiple technologically innovative systems to support holographic cloud platform services and 5G communication holographic applications.
After the launch of 5G, the first scenario application will accelerate the development of VR/AR, and the growth rate of the Chinese market will be higher than that of the global market. Therefore, with the blessing of 5G, the communication transmission shortcomings of immersive game scenes such as VR/AR will be compensated, and it is expected that the commercial use of VR/AR of immersive games will accelerate. According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the scale of the global virtual reality industry is close to 100 billion yuan, and the compound annual growth rate in 2017-2022 is expected to exceed 70%. According to Greenlight's forecast, the global virtual reality industry will exceed 200 billion yuan in 2020. Among them, the VR market is 160 billion yuan, and the AR market is 45 billion yuan. In addition, for the Chinese market, according to IDC's latest "IDC Global Augmented and Virtual Reality Spending Guide", by 2023, China's AR/VR market spending will reach 65.21 billion U.S. dollars, which is higher than the 2019 forecast (6.53 billion U.S. dollars). remarkable growth. At the same time, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2018 to 2023 will reach 84.6%, which is higher than the 78.3% growth rate of the global market.
Industrial digitization is an important part of the digital economy. Industrial upgrading has an extremely urgent need for informatization, empowering traditional industrial networking, digitization, and intelligent transformation, and continuously unleashing the magnification, superposition, and multiplication effects of digital technology on economic development. It is necessary to accelerate the "private network + talent + ecology + platform + The construction of the 5G capability system of “terminals” promotes the integration of 5G into various industries and serves the public as soon as possible.
Only by accelerating the construction of the 5G capability system and fully promoting the integration and innovation of 5G and artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, edge computing, blockchain and other information technologies, can 5G technology be deeply adapted and widely used in vertical industries. Lay a solid foundation.
As 5G market services have penetrated into people’s daily lives, as operators, they need to further enhance their service awareness, promote the deep integration of 5G and the economy, society, and people’s livelihood, catalyze the creation of more new scenarios, new products, and new formats of information services, and promote 5G to accelerate its integration into all industries , Serve the public, let more people use 5G and make good use of 5G.
Form F-6EF Jpmorgan Chase Bank, N.a. - Adr Depositary
Registration of American Depository Receipt shares, immediately effective.
source
https://sec.report/Document/0001193805-21-000318/
Published: 2021-03-03 12:36:32
Read at:
https://sec.report/Document/0001193805-21-000318/