Angry Birds developer lays off up to 130 jobs to 'reignite growth'

 Rovio Entertainment, the Finnish company developers of the hit mobile game app ANGRY BIRDS is planning on laying off 16% of its staff, admitting that the company’s headcount had swelled based on ‘assumptions of faster growth than have materialised’.
Chief executive Mikael Hed announced the news publicly in a blog post, revealing that a maximum of 130 staff will be affected in Rovio’s native Finland.
“We are an entrepreneurial company and have been exploring multiple areas. We have been building our team on assumptions of faster growth than have materialised,” wrote Hed.
“As a result, we announced today that we plan to simplify our organisation around our three key businesses with the highest growth potential: games, media, and consumer products.”
This may not be good news for Rovio’s educational arm, including the Angry Birds Playground initiative that has seen the company working with the University of Helsinki to develop an educational programme based around maths, science, music and other subjects.
“It is never easy to consider changes like this, but it is better to do them sooner rather than later, when we are in a good place to reignite growth,” added Hed.
“At Rovio we live to delight our fans. This year we have more launches and news than ever. As we consider these painful measures, we keep our eye on always delighting our fans with products they love.”
As The Guardian reported earlier this week, the Angry Birds games still have 200m active players, but that’s down from 263m at the series’ peak at the end of 2012.
Rovio reported revenues of €156m (£128.4m) for its 2013 financial year, a slight increase on the €152.2m from 2012. The company’s profits halved from €55.5m in 2012 to €26.9m in 2013, as it invested in its ToonsTV animation network and the Angry Birds movie, which will be released in 2016.
Rovio added 300 staff in 2013, taking its headcount to 800 at the end of the year. The company has faced unavoidable comparisons with fellow Finns Supercell, which made $892m of revenues in 2013 from just two games with a headcount of 132 staff.
Supercell’s startling success – like that of Candy Crush Saga publisher King – came from “free to play” games that make their money from in-app purchases of virtual items.
Rovio has moved into that market too with games including Angry Birds Go!, Angry Birds Epic and Angry Birds Stella, but has yet to generate a hit as big as those rivals, even if its consumer products business – from magazines and books to sweets and clothing – is more advanced.
Hed has already announced that he will step down as Rovio’s CEO at the end of 2014, to be replaced by former Nokia marketing executive Pekka Rantala. Hed will become a board member, while chairing Rovio’s animation division.

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Toyota Slumps in September, Shifts into Fourth Place

A 60% decline in fleet deliveries last month harmed the No.1 Japanese brand’s sales, while Lexus continued its hot streak.

Toyota sales fell 2.5% on a daily-selling-rate basis in September to 167,279, a tally that placed the automaker fourth in U.S. sales.
Fiat-Chrysler usurped Toyota’s usual third-place position in monthly U.S. deliveries for the first time in three years, WardsAuto data shows.
Toyota’s strong performance in August, when sales rose 10.2%, pulled ahead some September purchases. A 60% reduction in Toyota Div. fleet sales, largely reflecting the transition to the new ’15 Camry, also contributed to the weak month.
Fleet sales made up just 4% of total Toyota Div. sales, says Bill Fay, Toyota Div. group vice president.
“It was a month of transition for us,” Fay tells media today of September.
Sales of both the hybrid and conventional Camry fell last month, 38.0% and 11.8%, as Toyota sold down the ’14 model and launched the ’15 Camry.
Fay says Camry retail sales climbed 15% in September and that only a small sliver, roughly 1,000, were sold to fleets.
The Camry, with 28,507 monthly deliveries, was outsold by rival midsize sedan the Honda Accord for the first time since December 2013, WardsAuto data shows. The Accord racked up 32,956 sales.
Toyota’s second-best-selling car, the C-segment Corolla, also stumbled, down 14.9% vs. September 2013, when the current generation was launching.
Prius sales continued to underwhelm, which Fay blames on Toyota selling out of the ’14 liftback variant in August, low fuel prices and the advanced age of the lineup.
Prius liftback and V wagon sales were down 10.2% last month, bringing their 9-month volume down 16.2%.
Prius C sales slipped 6.8% and that car is off 4.7% calendar-year-to-date.
Deliveries of the low-volume plug-in hybrid Prius plummeted 70.6% in September but the model is up 48.5% for the year.
Toyota will be refreshing the V and C Priuses next year, Fay says. An all-new generation of the liftback also is expected in 2015.
Toyota’s light trucks fared better than the brand’s passenger cars. While just three models were in the black, the 4Runner and FJ Cruiser SUVs and the gasoline-engine RAV4 CUV, their gains were hefty enough to bring Toyota light-truck sales up 12.4% vs. like-2013.
The current-generation RAV4 CUV continues to benefit from higher inventories and strong demand despite almost two years on the market.
Sales of the gas-engine model rose 37.4% from year-ago to 22,599, coming close to the Honda CR-V’s 23,722 September deliveries but nowhere near August’s record-shattering 35,614.
The CR-V is the longtime volume leader in U.S. midsize CUV sales.  
The Tacoma midsize pickup was flat last month, up 0.1%.
Lexus continued its hot streak, with sales up 7.3% on a DSR basis in September to 21,852, its 12^th straight year-over-year gain.
Cars were stronger than light trucks for the brand, despite the 99.8% jump for the GX SUV, sales of which were jump-started by a lower-priced base grade introduced in ’14.
The Lexus car improving the most last month was the refreshed CT 200h hybrid hatchback, up 29.5% to 1,078 units.
Lexus’ highest-volume passenger car, the ES 350, rose 20.9% and the larger GS 350 was up 26.9%.
Both the RX 350 and RX 450h saw rare declines, down 4.5% and 18.3%, respectively, as the midsize CUVs approach six years on the market.
The Scion youth brand saw its worst month in four years in September, with sales on a DSR basis down 22.4% from September 2013. Scion’s previous low-water mark was a 61.1% decline in August 2010, WardsAuto data shows.
All Scion models were in the red last month, with the xB off the least, 8.9%, and the iQ off the most, 55.9%.
Toyota maintains a healthy outlook for the fourth quarter, Fay says, largely due to the launch of the ’15 Camry.
“We’re optimistic for the fourth quarter,” he says. “We’ve had seven straight months with (an industry seasonally adjusted annual rate) over 16 million (units).”
A wide-ranging marketing campaign using the tagline “One Bold Choice Leads to Another” gets under way in Q4, with Fay noting the blitz is similar to the marketing muscle Toyota usually puts behind a full-model change.
Lexus, too, is high on the final quarter of the year, as the brand will launch the all-new RC and RC F coupes in early November and the all-new NX small CUV near the end of 2014.

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Video: Toyota puts tough men to the test in new Hilux advert

Video: Toyota puts tough men to the test in new Hilux advert

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Toyota Company unveils 2015 Bass Pro Shop Edition Tundra.

This is really a monster truck!! Look out, Texans, there's a new 2015 truck to drool over.
Gulf States Toyota made the big reveal at the State Fair of Texas' auto showcase, debuting the new 2015 Toyota Tundra Bass Pro Shops Off-Road Edition.
The truck features all of the standard Tundra's capabilities, along with a tow package, 20-inch matte black wheels and all-terrain upgrade, custom Bass Pro Shops floor mats and bed decals, 5-inch oval black step tubes, bedliner, pocketed fender flares, and a stainless steel exhaust tip.Toyota unveiled an off-road Bass Pro Shops edition of its San Antonio-made full-size Tundra pickup at the State Fair of Texas. Price tags start at $43,975, according to a news release.

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Volkswagen Group’s pre-Paris Motor Show event: Lamborghini Austerion LP1 hybrid supercar concept a crowd teaser

A LITTLE dog named Junior and a left-of-centre hybrid Lamborghini supercar stole the show at Volkswagen’s Paris Motor Show preview night, one of several corporate events held around the French capital ahead of the show’s opening.

Parking a Lamborghini in any street is almost guaranteed to stop traffic but a Lamborghini with a fire-breathing V10 engine, three electric motors and a combined 680 kilowatts brought rousing applause from industry and the world’s motoring media when it snarled its way onto the stage at Porte de Versailles.
The car, designed to give world a look into what could well be the future of high-powered sports cars, was given another round of applause as it was driven, silently and on full electric power, around the display area.
The stunning Italian super coupe was not the only one to paint a rosy picture of the future for powerful cars.
Porsche also used Volkswagen Group’s “Les Images des Marques” to showcase three plug-in hybrid cars as well as having one of its 919 petrol-electric hybrid racing cars parked in the foyer of the display hall.
Porsche’s charge was led by its limited-edition, million-dollar 918 Spyder with a pair of plug-in hybrids, a Panamera GT sedan and Cayenne SUV which will be launched in Australia in November.
The night showcased cars from Volkswagen Group’s Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Bentley, Volkswagen Commercial and motorcycle maker Ducati, which used the night to launch its new Scrambler bike.
Only the Scania and MAN truck brands, both owned by Volkswagen Group, failed to appear.As for the little dog, his name is Junior and he is the star of VW Group’s current European adverting campaign. He was also something of a star at the corporate night.

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World Most Expensive Bicycle 24k Gold Extreme Mountain Bike.

Just saw this,Its so lovely to behold.What you think about the price when you see the heading of World Most Expensive Bicycle Whatever was that but I assure you that original price of the 24k Gold Extreme Mountain Bike is far higher than you expected.

24k Gold Extreme Mountain bicycle

The house of solid gold offers 24k Gold Extreme Mountain Bike  for $1Million which is almost equal to the price of McLaren P1 car. Question arises in every mind after listening the prices that why this bicycle costs as much. The answer is there are a lot of expensive and gold plated bicycles around the world which includes Peacock Groove have their gold plated bicycle there are some gold plated BMX like Hutch Trick Star and many more. Aurumania have their Gold Plated bike Crystal Edition, 24k gold plated Swarovski crystal adorned fixed gear that claimed the title of the world most expensive gold bike at under $110,000. But house of gold bike 10X expensive than Aurumania fixed gear bike. And house of gold claims that 24k Gold Extreme Mountain bike is world most expensive bike.The 24k Gold Extreme Mountain Bike is handcrafted and each part of the bike is electroplated with 24k Gold using modern techniques all the process completes in 750hrs in USA. “THSG” the logo of house of the solid gold on the bike is paved with the diamonds and sapphires and “THSG” is embellished and encrusted with over 600 black diamonds 6.0 carats in total and 500 golden sapphires 4.5 carats in total. The seat of the cycle covered with the fine chocolate brown alligator leather is one of its kind. Water bottle is covered with gold and accented with chocolate brown stingray.

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MERCEDES-BENZ S400 HYBRID SET TO LAUNCH IN INDIA

German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz is really doing excellently well in the Indian market and a fantastic performance in 2013 has propelled the firm to try out a few things in the coming future. According to reports, the Stuttgart based firm has brought the S400 Hybrid in India, a model set to be launched soon, for homologation. Sources claim that the German giant has gauged the potential of hybrid cars in India and will be hoping to offer the class of S400 combined top class efficiency.

mercedes s400 Hybrid

According to reports, the positive response rendered towards S-Class models has boosted Mercedes-Benz’s resolve to further expand the portfolio, which is the reason why, after launching S500 and S350 CDI, the S400 Hybrid is set to be introduced in India. And that is not all as the Mercedes-Benz, rumours claim, has the S500 Plug-in lined-up after this. The arrival of S400 Hybrid in India for homologation makes its launch in the sub-continent imminent. Though there are not many modification on the exteriors and interiors, Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid is among the top most economical hybrid sedans with a spark engine in the world. This car features a V6 petrol engine that is mated to an electric motor. A combined maximum output of 302 BHP can be achieved after the coming together of petrol drivetrain and electric motor. In addition, the maximum torque level of Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid is 370 Nm.

The engine in S400 Hybrid is conjoined to a 7G-TRONIC PLUS gearbox that is configured for a hybrid module. This sedan is capable of rendering a mileage of around 15.87 kmpl, which is excellent given its size and power levels. As far as price is concerned, analysts and reports claim that the Mercedes-Benz is likely to put the S400 Hybrid right between S350 CDI and S500. The company aims to draw customers who are Mercedes-Benz aficionados but want a car that is more frugal than the others.

Mercedes-Benz has made a stunning comeback in the Indian market and it is hoping to multiply its success in coming years. The last year was fantastic for the three pointed star in India and its “Year of Offensive” policy worked in every possible way. With the graph of the luxury car segment rising upwards, Mercedes-Benz’s relentless launches and expansion might spell a boon for the Indian market. Another positive effect that could happen would be the entry of more foreign luxury brands. It would also mean that BMW and Audi need to pull their socks up and stop the charge of Mercedes-Benz.

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