Finance

The company no longer wants to use the term to avoid people feeling excluded.

Unilever company sign.

The consumer goods company Unilever no longer wants to use the term “normal” to describe its care products. The multinational company with headquarters in London announced on Tuesday. Unilever manufactures, among others, the brands “Dove”, “Vaseline” and “Ax”. The term sometimes appears in shampoos or body lotions, where it says, for example, “for normal skin”.

The step is to prevent people from feeling left out. In a survey of 10,000 participants in nine countries, 70 percent of those questioned stated that the term “normal” could have a negative effect on people, the statement said.

In future, Unilever also wants to dispense with the subsequent editing of body shapes, proportions or skin color in advertising and show more people from different and previously under-represented groups.

“We are determined to combat harmful norms and stereotypes and forge a broader, more inclusive definition of beauty,” said Sunny Jain, head of Unilever's beauty and grooming division, according to the announcement.

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  The Austrian company C SEED specializes in giant televisions for outdoor use. These are used, for example, in the gardens of villas, at event venues or the outside decks of luxury yachts.

  With the C SEED M1 there is now also a model for the living room. This is not only huge, but also foldable and retractable.

  Sinks into the ground

  This works because the M1 consists of 5 panels. These have hinges and are motorized when folded. The monolith created in this way then swivels down into a device provided for this purpose, which is embedded in the room floor. Flaps close the whole thing, so that the M1 has completely disappeared from the room.

  The elaborate construction weighs 1,350 kilograms and requires professional installation and a suitable building. Simply cutting a hole in the living room to accommodate over a ton of TV is not recommended in normal houses and apartments.

  MicroLED

  When opened, the screen has a diagonal of 165 inches – this corresponds to 4.2 meters. MicroLED is used as the technology. This is seen as the successor technology to OLED for particularly large screens, but it is still very expensive. Do not confuse yourself with MiniLED: this is an improved version of the LED backlight for LCD TVs.

  The M1 has 4K resolution, but only one HDMI input and 2 USB ports. There is a built-in 2.1 sound system with 2x 250 watts for the speakers and a 700 watt subwoofer.

  The M1 is available in 4 colors and costs $ 400,000. When asked by futurezone, the manufacturer did not name a euro price. The clientele for $ 400,000 TVs that can be lowered into the floor probably do not live in Europe.

The online video service was launched in the USA in November 2019 and is now available in 59 countries.

US entertainment giant Walt Disney's streaming service has passed 100 million paying subscribers. CEO Bob Chapek spoke at the virtual shareholders' meeting on Tuesday of an “enormous success” – Disney + had reached this milestone in just 16 months.

The online video service was launched in the US in November 2019 and is now available in 59 countries. Investors were unimpressed by the numbers, the share reacted cautiously in US stock market trading and was recently in the red.

Competitive streaming market

So far, Disney's streaming business is not generating any profits, and despite the impressive growth, the gap to market leader Netflix remains large. The streaming pioneer had also grown strongly in the pandemic and had almost 204 million paying users at the end of the year.

Netflix has been around for much longer and is represented in significantly more countries, but the chase to catch up is hardly likely to be easier for Disney in the future. Netflix tries to keep the competition at a distance with an enormous production budget.

In addition, the strong start of Disney + was largely due to low prices and limited temptation offers. In addition to the service under its own brand, Disney also operates the steaming services Hulu and ESPN +.

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  The loudspeaker manufacturer Sonos is known for its smart multi-room boxes that are networked with each other via WLAN. With the Sonos Move, Sonos already has a portable Bluetooth speaker in its range. However, this is quite large and heavy and hardly comparable to conventional Bluetooth boxes.

  Now Sonos has introduced a small, portable loudspeaker that was designed for use anywhere. Accordingly, the Sonos Roam is WLAN and Bluetooth-capable, has a built-in battery, is low in weight and has a compact design. And a new function of the Roam could take the entire Sonos system to a new level.

  Sonos Roam in the WLAN

  However, the Roam can also be integrated into the WLAN-bound Sonos system as usual. Multi-room playback and stereo pairing are also possible.

  The Roam is controlled via the Sonos S2 app, so that the respective streaming services, radio stations and locally stored music files can also be played.

  Sonos Roam with Bluetooth

  If you leave the house, the Roam automatically switches to Bluetooth. Outside of the in-house WLAN, the compact Sonos loudspeaker can be used like a normal Bluetooth box.

  The weight of the Roam is 0.43 kilograms and the music playback time on one battery charge is 10 hours. It is also protected against dust and water in accordance with IP67.

  When you come back home, the Roam should automatically connect to the WLAN and be able to be used again as a normal Sonos loudspeaker.

  

  Sound swap

  What sets the Roam apart from the Move is a central function – namely sound swap. This allows the roam's sound to be sent to the nearest Sonos loudspeaker.

  Theoretically, this means that you can send the music of a YouTube video from your mobile phone to the Roam via Bluetooth, for example, and the Roam then forwards the data to the existing Sonos system.

  So far, it has not been possible to play audio sources outside of the known streaming services and locally stored music files on Sonos speakers.

  

  Voice Control, TruePlay, wireless charging

  The Roam has integrated microphones, which means that the voice assistants Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant can also be addressed. Apple's Siri is not supported.

  In addition, the compact loudspeaker has integrated Auto-TruePlay. The roam measures its surroundings and can adapt its sound to the respective environment.

  The Roam is charged via USB-C. Wireless charging using the Qi standard is also possible. Sonos offers a corresponding wireless charging station for $ 49.

  Pre-orders are now possible

  The Sonos Roam is available in the colors Shadow Black and Lunar White. Pre-orders are accepted immediately. The loudspeaker will be delivered from April 20th. The price is 179 euros

It is still unclear where the FFP2 masks from Chinese production were imported into the EU.

Mask from Hygiene Austria.

The FFP2 masks imported from China by Hygiene Austria did not go through customs in Austria, writes the “Presse”. It is unclear in which other EU country – and whether at all – the masks were cleared. “The controls in Austria are so strict that many entrepreneurs have lost a lot of money because they did not get their masks through customs,” writes the newspaper, citing an “insider”.

An incorrect declaration of the masks is also conceivable. “We have the impression that many forged documents are presented as proof of conformity,” said the European Safety Federation (ESF) to the “press”. This applies in particular to imports from China.

The documents from Hygiene Austria have not yet been made available to the public. The company said to the “press”: “We will collect all questions and comment on them publicly. We are very confident that we will clear up all misunderstandings.” The Ministry of Finance has not yet officially checked whether the masks have been properly cleared in Austria.

Meanwhile it became known that the daughter of Lenzing boss Stefan Doboczky also worked for Hygiene Austria. The 29-year-old was “active in sales and order processing”, said a Lenzing spokesman for the “press”. In April of the previous year she was an employee of Palmers and then switched to Hygiene Austria. She has since resigned.

During the discussion of the people's climate change petition in the Environment Committee of the National Council on Tuesday, the turquoise-green government planned to submit a motion for a resolution for “important milestones” for more climate protection in Austria. The cornerstones are the introduction of a climate council, a climate cabinet and ensuring the climate protection billion by 2030, as Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) said. SPÖ and NEOS did not want to approve the request.

Image: APA

According to Gewessler, “a really nice proposal to implement the people's climate change initiative” was successful. This was signed by more than 380,000 people in the summer of 2020. As requested by the referendum, the motion includes the creation of a climate council in which at least 100 citizens can actively participate in climate policy. Lukas Hammer, climate spokesman for the Greens and committee chairman, had a kind of “mini-Austria” in mind: “People from all parts of the population living here will sit down with scientific support to discuss solutions to the greatest challenge of our time and specific proposals to do, “he said.

There are also plans to create a climate protection cabinet to which Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) and the Environment Minister belong. This cabinet is supposed to ensure that “climate protection laws and regulations are incorporated and that all members of the government and federal states pull together,” said Gewessler.

The establishment of a scientific climate advisory board is also planned to check compliance with the CO2 budget and “issue specific recommendations” in the event of possible misconduct. This advisory board is to have its own office and “will come very close to the climate audit office required by the climate protection referendum,” said Hammer. The extent to which the recommendations then have to be followed should be precisely formulated in the planned climate law, which, according to Gewessler, should go into the assessment “before summer”.

And another institution is in the application: namely that of a “Climate Responsibility Fund”. This is to ensure that the money raised in the event of misconduct is used to finance domestic climate protection measures, so as not to spend millions on pollution rights.

The environmental and climate spokesman for the ÖVP, Johannes Schmuckenschlager, emphasized that the climate protection measures are “a significant opportunity for the sustainable development of the economy and jobs in Austria”. For the goal of a climate-neutral Austria by 2040 and the achievement of the climate goals, a “technology offensive should be started and digitization and innovation accelerated”.

SPÖ and NEOS did not want to approve the request. SPÖ climate spokeswoman Julia Herr missed the consideration of employment measures and general plans for the implementation of the project. The request corresponds to the “announcement policy” practiced by the government. “The climate crisis doesn't care about press conferences,” she emphasized. Rather, the SPÖ will bring in four of its own applications. The NEOS also missed the concrete steps for implementation. Environment spokesman Michael Bernhard could imagine that his parliamentary group would still be able to agree in two weeks' time in the plenary session of the National Council, provided that negotiations are started and the proposal is improved accordingly.

After the first wave of pandemics subsided last spring, Vienna set up a kind of corona-compatible festival in a hurry. Since the virus is still raging, there will be this “cultural summer” again this year under special security precautions – with more budget, more stages and more genres, as Mayor Michael Ludwig and City Councilor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler (both SPÖ) announced on Tuesday. It starts at the beginning of July.

Image: APA

The concept remains essentially the same as in the previous year: at various locations throughout the city, there will be free concerts from different musical styles, dance performances, readings, poetry slams as well as cabaret, theater or circus performances for a limited number of guests due to the corona. The “Public Moves” in cooperation with ImPulsTanz will also take place again – for example in the arcade courtyard of the town hall.

In the previous year there were 25 venues, this year 40 locations are planned on as many match days, Ludwig announced in a press conference. The aim is to offer 2,000 artists the opportunity to play in front of an audience again from the beginning of July to mid-August. Interested acts can apply from now until the end of March. The program will then be presented in the course of spring. The budget was increased from four to six million euros.

Of course, one does not yet know what the corona framework would look like in summer. But thanks to progressive vaccinations and an offensive test strategy, Ludwig is confident that he will assume that the cultural summer can also take place this year. In any case, after a year of pandemic, the need is great: “We want to offer many Viennese people the decentralized opportunity to participate in culture – physically,” said the city chief.

Kaup-Hasler took a similar line: “We all have music, books and films at home – but we need social closeness.” This is one of the reasons why the art and cultural life in Vienna is now so sorely missed. The exact security concept has not yet been determined. It will then be based on the relevant ordinances. The city councilor assumed today that there would again be distance rules and, in contrast to the premiere in summer 2020, this time also entry tests and a mask requirement. However: Thanks to the longer lead time, it should be possible this year to offer catering on site.

In addition to stages that were tried out last year, for example on the Danube Island, on the Kaiserwiese in the Prater or on the Naschmarkt, several new stages are being planned for this year's edition – for example in the Simmeringer Herderpark, in Neu Marx or in the Ottakringer Kongresspark. It is played from Thursday to Sunday, usually two acts should be shown per evening. According to the current status, the largest locations should accommodate up to 500 people, the smallest around 30.

Ludwig emphasized that the program will be expanded this year in the area of children's and youth entertainment as well as for the elderly. For example, the number of appearances in retirement homes will be increased from 16 to 25.

The festival is organized by the City of Vienna Marketing. A separate “Kultursommer-Board” is responsible for the curation – with a few new names. A new addition is Nadine Cobbina, member of the IG Clubkultur and responsible for electronics and experimental music. Today she announced her own club profile: Club operators, for whom the lockdown has now lasted for more than a year, should be able to “maybe even dance a bit” at a special outdoor location, at least they will Hope.

(SERVICE -)

The renovation in the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg started its hot phase at the beginning of the week. The Mozarteum is getting a “facelift” after 100 years. Since Monday, the work on the building on Schwarzstrasse in the city of Salzburg has also been visible from the outside. After extensive preparatory work, the demolition of the break foyer between the two main buildings began. The large foyer is scheduled to open in summer 2022.

Image: APA

The old break foyer in the middle wing of the building, which was built between 1912 and 1914, has become much too small over time. A new wing with the large foyer is now being built. The previous part of the building will be completely demolished by the start of the Salzburg Festival in summer 2021 and the foundations for the construction of the new complex will be implemented. The old facade between the main building of the Mozarteum and the Great Hall will remain.

“With the achievement of this milestone, the renovation is still on schedule, the opening of the Grand Foyer is planned for summer 2022”, the Mozarteum Foundation informed in a broadcast. The redesign of the break foyer connects “contemporary, filigree, airy, light and elegant” the two building parts of the Mozarteum and offers all guests and artists from 2022 “more space for Mozart” and a carefree concert visit in the Great Hall and in the Vienna Hall explained. One of the most modern concert halls in Europe will then be located in the middle of Salzburg.

The renovation work around the new building goes hand in hand with the modernization of the halls and the integration of the bastion garden into the concert operations. The diverse usable areas would also allow new event concepts. The plans come from the Salzburg architects Maria Flöckner and Hermann Schnöll, who won the competition in 2018. New artist rooms, depot and technical rooms as well as further toilets in the basement are also being built.

A break room with 170 square meters is being created on the first floor of the new building. On the ground floor, a significantly expanded entrance and cloakroom area and an additional staircase will be built on 200 square meters. The installation of another elevator will also enable barrier-free access to the entire building in the future. The foyer opens a new axis from Schwarzstraße to Mirabellgarten, which is why the Bastion Garden can be integrated for events, especially in summer.

The renovation costs of around nine million euros have been fully financed. According to the President of the Mozarteum Foundation, Johannes Honsig-Erlenburg, the money comes from its own reserves, private donations and there is also financial support from the public sector.

The foundation also started a building block campaign to finance the work. For a donation of 1,000 euros, the donors will receive a newly designed decorative object as a souvenir and will also be honored with their names on a plaque in the Mozarteum. Since the start of the campaign in autumn 2020, 150 stones have already been acquired by Mozart fans from Salzburg and around the world.

In order to enable the events of the Salzburg Festival 2021 and the Mozart Week 2022, the construction work will be interrupted twice for several weeks.

E-Control: Three quarters do not know the costs before they fill up with electricity. Relieve the evening peak, reward slow-loaders with a tariff discount.

The electricity charging tariffs for electric cars should become more transparent and should only be based on the amount of energy used – and electric cars should be able to be easily refueled at work during the day. These demands were made on Tuesday at a meeting of the regulatory authority E-Control.

In order to achieve the e-mobility goals, the charging infrastructure and networks must be expanded, and there should also be a “right to plug” for tenants.

Greater transparency

“Around three quarters do not know how high the cost of charging will be before loading,” said E-Control board member Wolfgang Urbantschitsch. Transparency must be greater here.

A legal basis is necessary for price comparison of the charging contracts. Such a tool could work like the E-Control energy price calculator with electricity and gas prices. “It would be good if this could be expanded and linked to the directory of e-charging stations operated by us,” said Urbantschitsch.

Changed billing

Around 85 percent of people would like to be billed for their charging according to the amount of energy used, said Bernhard Hintermayer, who is responsible for parking + rest and multimodality at Asfinag in the group management. That is the way to go, even if there are still no calibrated devices for pure energy billing for e-car refueling in Austria today. Customers wanted automatic Plug & Charge billing.

The lack of clarity as to whether a separate customer account is required or worries about prices being too high were most frequently cited as reasons why someone has not yet refueled at public charging stations on the motorway and expressway network. This fear of prices is unfounded, unlike with fuel, you should make sure that refueling is not more expensive here than elsewhere, says Hintermayer.

Route still unclear for trucks

Asfinag has equipped 30 of its 87 rest stations with charging stations, and four more are to be added this year. At the end of 2021 / beginning of 2022, they want to have a charging station every 65 kilometers on average. In the case of trucks, the way forward is still unclear, “the one leading technology” is still missing here, which is not exactly good for the transport sector.

E-Control board member Andreas Eigenbauer advocated enabling electric cars to be charged as much as possible at workplaces, ideally linked directly to photovoltaic systems. In this way, the evening hours, which are increasingly being used by e-cars, could be defused and the vehicles could serve as storage for renewable solar power.

Ranges lower in winter

E-mobility is a partner for energy efficiency and CO2 reduction, but a competitor for renewables, because meeting electricity needs in winter is difficult anyway, but electric cars would then need more energy. The e-car ranges would decrease significantly in winter, with 30 percent e-car share, this sector is in competition with air heat pumps on the consumption side.

Bernhard Kern from the E-car user platform EletroMobilitätsClub (EMC) also campaigned for a “right to plug” for rental apartments and criticized the fact that there is currently an ignorance or an unclear legal situation about housing. The question of what to pay for the drawer and where must be answered clearly. Billing must be based on kilowatts (kW) and should not include a time tariff.

7,800 charging points

Urbantschitsch referred to the planned introduction of service accounting on all network levels (“Tariffs 2.1”). Measuring performance instead of work increases causal justice and strengthens efficiency. In total, the revenues of the network operators would remain constant, but households who behave in a way that is beneficial to the network or who charge their e-car slowly will be rewarded – for which households are charged a higher network usage fee for fast charging, according to Urbantschitsch.

Austria currently has around 7,800 charging points in around half as many public charging stations, and there were around 225,000 public charging stations across the EU at the end of 2020. In 2019, there were one million pure e-cars and 0.8 million plug-ins in the EU, out of around 250 million vehicles.

EU goals

The EU Commission's goal is at least 30 million e-cars in the EU and 3 million public charging stations by 2030. In Austria at the end of 2020 only 0.9 percent of the cars were “Stromer”, including hybrid cars it was 2.6 percent of the car population of 5 million units.

The Vodafone radio tower subsidiary Vantage Towers wants to use the good mood on the stock markets and the increased demand for radio masts for the largest initial public offering (IPO) of the year in Europe. The new issue in Frankfurt should be up to 2.8 billion euros, announced Vantage Towers on Tuesday. This would mean that the floor on the floor would be larger than that of the online used car dealer Auto1, which debuted at the beginning of February.

With a volume of 1.8 billion euros, the Berlin start-up Auto1 carried out the largest share issue of the year in Germany to date, topped only by the Polish InPost in Amsterdam in Europe. In Germany, Vantage would rank behind Knorr-Bremse's IPO in 2018 in terms of size.

The price range was set at 22.50 to 29.00 euros. This results in a market value of Vantage Towers of up to 14.7 billion euros. The subscription period began on Tuesday and will last until March 17th. One day later, the share is to be traded on the Frankfurt floor for the first time.

Radio masts are in business

Vantage benefits from the fact that radio masts are currently booming due to accelerated digitization and the expensive 5G network structure. Infrastructure providers such as Vantage can rent the masts on the ground and on the roofs to several telecommunications companies at the same time, which promises regular income for years. “The demand for data and connectivity across Europe is driving growth in the radio tower industry,” said CEO Vivek Badrinath.

And that in turn fuels the deals: Cellnex recently spent ten billion euros on 25,000 masts from CK Hutchison 0001.HK throughout Europe, and the Telefonica subsidiary Telxius sold its mobile communications sites to American Tower for 7.7 billion euros. The French telecom group Orange packed its radio masts in Spain and the home country into its own company and brought an IPO or sale into play.

So far, Vantage Towers operates 82,000 locations in ten European countries – significantly fewer than Cellnex will soon call its own, but far behind American Tower. Vantage will not receive any proceeds from the IPO, but Badrinath says it has around one billion euros left for acquisitions that could be increased through capital increases.

Two anchor investors

Vodafone will initially raise two billion euros and – depending on the issue price – sell up to 88.9 million shares in Vantage Towers. If there is sufficient demand, the issue can be increased by 500 million euros. There is also a placement reserve of up to 300 million euros.

Vantage has already won two anchor investors who will buy shares for 950 million euros: the infrastructure investor Digital Colony and the private equity firm RRJ from Singapore. (APA / red.)

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