Associated Press Published 8:26 p.m. UTC Jul 30, 2018 Orlando, Fla. – U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is asking for a federal investigation into a company that manages the Sunpass toll system in Florida, accusing the company of mismanagement. Nelson and U.S. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan on Monday requested the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Conduent State & Local Solutions. State transportation officials in Florida blame the company for an upgrade to the system that resulted in delayed and inaccurate charges. Sunpass suspended posting charges in June for what was supposed to be a week during the upgrade, but charges didn’t resume posting until a month later. Florida officials recently suspended paying the company until the problems are resolved. The request from the senators says the company has burdened consumers with onerous toll charges. … [Read more...] about Senators to feds: Probe company running Fla. tolls
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MoviePass app down after parent company runs low on cash
Financial woes afflicting its parent company could spoil the show for MoviePass. Customers were being barred from theaters after the subscription movie service stopped functioning on Thursday because of glitches with its card-based check-in process, the company explained in a tweet. MoviePass' owner, tech services company Helios & Matheson, said in a Friday regulatory filing that "if the company is unable to make required payments to its merchant and fulfillment processors, the merchant and fulfillment processors may cease processing payments for MoviePass, which would cause a MoviePass service interruption." Helios & Matheson added that it would use $5 million of a roughly $6 million short-term loan to pay its processors and resume operations. MoviePass subscribers pay $9.95 a month to watch a film daily in a theater. So far, that has proved a money-losing proposition. Earlier this month, MoviePass started charging its more than 3 million subscribers extra for especially … [Read more...] about MoviePass app down after parent company runs low on cash
Meet the ‘reverse ICO,’ where existing companies run a token sale
In 2017, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) netted a collective $5.6 billion, becoming one of the hottest tech trends of the year. Also referred to as token sale, ICO is a method for companies to raise funds by selling their own proprietary cryptocurrencies on the blockchain. In many cases, blockchain startups managed to raise millions of dollars by introducing nothing more than a conceptual whitepaper, a flashy website, a promo video and a team of veteran engineers. However, this wasn’t without troubles and controversies, especially as the crypto industry is still highly unregulated. A considerable number of blockchain projects died and did not deliver on their promises while many others didn’t reach their soft ICO cap and had to be abandoned. And let’s not forget that the landscape was marked with fraud and exit scams. Nonetheless, ICOs are here to stay, because more than raising funds, crypto-tokens are a new way to run organizations and businesses. As they mature, … [Read more...] about Meet the ‘reverse ICO,’ where existing companies run a token sale
Meet the ‘reverse ICO,’ where existing companies run a token sales
In 2017, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) netted a collective $5.6 billion, becoming one of the hottest tech trends of the year. Also referred to as token sale, ICO is a method for companies to raise funds by selling their own proprietary cryptocurrencies on the blockchain. In many cases, blockchain startups managed to raise millions of dollars by introducing nothing more than a conceptual whitepaper, a flashy website, a promo video and a team of veteran engineers. However, this wasn’t without troubles and controversies, especially as the crypto industry is still highly unregulated. A considerable number of blockchain projects died and did not deliver on their promises while many others didn’t reach their soft ICO cap and had to be abandoned. And let’s not forget that the landscape was marked with fraud and exit scams. Nonetheless, ICOs are here to stay, because more than raising funds, crypto-tokens are a new way to run organizations and businesses. As they mature, … [Read more...] about Meet the ‘reverse ICO,’ where existing companies run a token sales
Trump’s 2020 campaign is secretly working with a company run by former Cambridge Analytica employees
Brad Parscale. Drew Angerer/Getty Images A company run by former officials at data firm Cambridge Analytica has been quietly working for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. Cambridge Analytica was used in Trump's 2016 campaign and shut down after an investigation found it was behind the targeting of Facebook users with political messaging. Data Propria specializes in voter and consumer targeting work similar to that of Cambridge Analytica. The company's head of product said he and and Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, were “doing the president’s work for 2020.” WASHINGTON (AP) — A company run by former officials at Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm brought down by a scandal over how it obtained Facebook users’ private data, has quietly been working for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election effort, The Associated Press has learned. The AP confirmed that at least four … [Read more...] about Trump’s 2020 campaign is secretly working with a company run by former Cambridge Analytica employees