Zoom Announces Termination of Merger Agreement with Five9

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) today announced that Zoom and Five9 have mutually terminated the merger agreement executed by the parties on July 16, 2021.

At Five9’s special meeting of stockholders held on September 30, 2021, Five9 did not obtain the requisite stockholder support for the merger agreement. As a result, Zoom and Five9 each had the ability to terminate the merger agreement.

“While we were excited about the benefits this transaction would bring to both Zoom and Five9 stakeholders, including the long-term potential for both sets of shareholders, financial discipline is foundational to our strategy,” said Eric S. Yuan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Zoom. “The contact center market remains a strategic priority for Zoom, and we are confident in our ability to capture its growth potential. At Zoomtopia, we announced the Zoom Video Engagement Center, our cloud-based contact center solution, which will launch in early 2022. Video Engagement Center will be a flexible, easy-to-use solution that connects businesses and their customers. We are building this new solution with the same scalability and trusted architecture that has made Zoom the platform of choice for businesses around the world. We also plan to maintain our valued existing contact center partnerships with companies like Five9, Genesys, NICE inContact, Talkdesk, and Twilio. We remain focused on driving long-term value creation for Zoom shareholders and delivering happiness to our customers through our broad-based communications platform including unified communications, developer, and events solutions.”

About Zoom
Zoom is for you. We help you express ideas, connect to others, and build toward a future limited only by your imagination. Our frictionless communications platform is the only one that started with video as its foundation, and we have set the standard for innovation ever since. That is why we are an intuitive, scalable, and secure choice for individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises alike. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ: ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Visit zoom.com and follow @zoom.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains express and implied “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding Zoom’s strategic priorities, market opportunity, product launches, the expected benefits of new products, growth strategy, partnerships and expected benefits from the same, and business aspirations to support organizations and people on multiple fronts as they look to reimagine work, communications and collaboration. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “project,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “can,” “predict,” “potential,” “target,” “explore,” “continue,” or the negative of these terms, and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. By their nature, these statements are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks, including factors beyond our control, that could cause actual results, performance or achievement to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the statements, including: declines in new customers and hosts, renewals or upgrades, difficulties in evaluating our prospects and future results of operations given our limited operating history, competition from other providers of communications platforms, continued uncertainty regarding the extent and duration of the impact of COVID-19 and the responses of government and private industry thereto, including the potential effect on our user growth rate once the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic tapers, particularly as a vaccine becomes widely available, and users return to work or school or are otherwise no longer subject to shelter-in-place mandates, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on the overall economic environment, any or all of which will have an impact on demand for remote work solutions for businesses as well as overall distributed, face-to-face interactions and collaboration using Zoom, delays or outages in services from our co-located data centers, and failures in internet infrastructure or interference with broadband access which could cause current or potential users to believe that our systems are unreliable. Additional risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements are included under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2021. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available to Zoom at the time those statements are made and/or management’s good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. Zoom assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, except as required by law.

Press Relations
Colleen Rodriguez
Global Public Relations Lead for Zoom
press@zoom.us

Investor Relations
Tom McCallum
Head of Investor Relations for Zoom
investors@zoom.us

INVNT GROUP® And PepsiCo Innovate Through StrategiAc Partnership At Global Fair In Dubai

INVNT GROUP Develops and Builds Three Immersive Brand Experiences

New York, NY, Sept. 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — [INVNT GROUP] and PepsiCo have strategically partnered to design and build three one-of-a-kind, interactive, and educational pavilions opening October 1st , 2021. Each pavilion is designed around core sub-themes of Mobility, Sustainability, and Opportunity.

PepsiCo’s global brands including Aquafina®, Gatorade®, Pepsi® and Lay’s® headline the landmark pavilions; designed with the power of connectivity and sustainable futures in mind. 

Each pavilion has taken acute dedication, creativity, and labor – logging 6,032 hours for the Aquafina The Drop pavilion, 5,815 hours for the Gatorade The Bolt pavilion, and 5,943 hours for the Pepsi & Lay’s The Plus pavilion. Through advanced modular methodologies, INVNT GROUP in partnership with it’s on the ground fabrication partner in Dubai, Bespoke Modular Systems, has designed and engineered the pavilions with eco-conscious materials and considerations.

Scott Cullather, President & CEO, INVNT GROUP notes, “We’ve been working collaboratively with PepsiCo since 2006 on many of their largest activations and brand engagements across the portfolio. We are thrilled to continue that partnership through our purposeful work. The entire world will be present at this magnificent event, and we look forward to entertaining, educating, inspiring, and delighting.”

Jamal Wick, Managing Director, Bespoke Modular Systems added, “We are thrilled to support INVNT GROUP in bringing to life their designs for these iconic pavilions and can’t wait for the world to experience them firsthand this October.”

Aquafina: The Drop

The glistening Aquafina pavilion features 41,000 strategically placed recyclable aluminum cans on its exterior, creating a striking yet fluid water-drop structure. Visitors will be transported through The Drop pavilion as if within a water drop, while engaging with eye-opening statistics and ways to eradicate water inequity experienced by so many, globally.

It also delivers a high-tech experience with “Aquatar”: the 3D water encyclopedia that shares facts on the human body’s relationship to water. Aquatar was created with Unreal Engine, the world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool for cutting-edge content, interactive experiences, and immersive virtual worlds. Upon engaging, guests are transformed into water and water particles are displayed on a larger-than-life curved projection wall – all in real time.

Gatorade: The Bolt

Gatorade delves into to the science of physical performance and active lifestyles. The Bolt pavilion features multiple educational and shareable moments, starting with a retrospective of the Gatorade legacy and its relationship to some of the greatest athletes and sports moments of all time.

Visitors will get a look at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI Lab), which boasts years of research focused on performance of the human body and its unending capabilities. Gatorade approaches personal hydration through innovation, with the GX™ Sweat Patch. Created to sync with your mobile device, the patch tracks performance vitals through perspiration, and offers bespoke recommendations for powering active lifestyles.

The Bolt pavilion also features an experiential moment where visitors can put their agility to the test against other visitors, through the Gatorade React Board.

Pepsi & Lay’s: The Plus

Bringing two of the world’s biggest brands under one roof, visitors can crunch and fizz through The Plus pavilion. Designed to engage all the senses through a kaleidoscope of bold flavors and rich colors, the pavilion creates a moment of joy and discovery.

Lay’s immersive pods allow visitors to bask in the renewing power of the spring season. Visitors can step into a striking cherry blossom display that is enhanced by scents of some of the most inventive Lay’s flavors from around the world.

Pepsi Black draws visitors into a multi-media world activated by cutting edge technology. Unity, the world’s leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D (RT3D) content, powers interactive stations like the Pepsi Black “Pledge Wall” – a giant 5m x 4m LED curved wall where guests can enter a pledge and send their pledge into the fizzing world of Pepsi. The wall will hold all visitor’s pledges over the 6 months duration of the global conference. The number of pledges will keep accumulating and eventually the activation will cycle through thousands of pledges.

“PepsiCo will bring its unique sense of fun, ensuring that every guest makes the most of this iconic world gathering. The Bolt, The Drop, and The Plus are perfectly aligned with subthemes of Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability and will showcase how PepsiCo will lead the world towards a fun and sustainable future,” said PepsiCo’s AMESA Chief Marketing Officer, Mustafa Shamseldin.

The pavilions will be open from 1 October 2021 through March 2022.

######

ABOUT INVNT GROUP

[INVNT GROUP] was established with a vision to provide consistent, meaningful, well-articulated BrandStory across all platforms. With offices in New York, Dubai, London, Singapore, San Francisco, Sydney, Stockholm, Detroit, and Washington D.C.; headed up by President and CEO, Scott Cullather, [INVNT GROUP], THE GLOBAL BRANDSTORY PROJECT™ represents a growing portfolio of complementary disciplines designed to help forward-thinking organizations everywhere, impact the audiences that matter, anywhere. The GROUP consists of modern brand strategy firm, Folk Hero; creative-led culture consultancy, Meaning; branded content studio and content marketing agency, HEVĒ; collegiate events and experiences, INVNT Higher Ed, and INVNT, the founding live brandstory telling agency. For more information about [INVNT GROUP], visit: www.invntgroup.com.

ABOUT PEPSICO

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than US$70 billion in net revenue in 2020, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, and Tropicana. PepsiCo’s product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 23 brands that generate more than US$1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

Guiding PepsiCo is the vision to Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods and Beverages by Winning with Purpose. “Winning with Purpose” reflects our ambition to win sustainably in the marketplace and embed purpose into all aspects of the business.  For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.

ABOUT BESPOKE MODULAR SOLUTIONS

Bespoke Modular Solutions (BMS) provides a new level of modular and prefabricated turnkey solutions to innovational real estate developers, hoteliers, and private residential projects to name a few. We offer a complete end-to-end solution, from a team of international experts that understand the region’s cultural and geographical sensitivities. Our designers and engineers have worked for the most renowned European companies in modular construction and in hotel operations.

Our company values live by building a better future for our next generation and children. We therefore are proud to say that we are pioneers in the region in off-site construction in an eco- friendly environment, with sustainable materials and in a time reduced manner. For more information, visit: www.bespoke-modular-solutions.com.

Attachment

Jhonathan Mendez de Leon
[INVNT GROUP]®
3478192089
jmendezdeleon@invnt.com

Casio lance la deuxième G-SHOCK signée Kanoa Igarashi

TOKYO, 1er octobre 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Casio Computer Co., Ltd. a annoncé aujourd’hui le dernier ajout à la ligne de montres pour sports extrêmes G-LIDE, qui fait partie de la marque de montres antichocs G-SHOCK. La nouvelle GBX-100KI est le deuxième modèle signé par le surfeur professionnel Kanoa Igarashi.

Igarashi a commencé à surfer à l’âge de trois ans. Depuis, il a remporté plusieurs grandes compétitions de surf et est actuellement un surfeur professionnel de classe mondiale qui participe au circuit de championnat de la World Surf League (WSL), au sommet du sport.

Le deuxième modèle signé Kanoa Igarashi est basé sur la GBX-100, qui est équipée des fonctions Mobile Link en plus d’un graphique de marée utile pour les surfeurs. La nouvelle GBX-100KI est une montre d’édition spéciale dont le design et les couleurs ont été créés sous la supervision d’Igarashi. La montre entièrement noire est ornée de textures et de teintes différentes pour chaque partie, y compris la lunette, le bracelet et l’écran LCD, exprimant ainsi la vision cool et unique du monde d’Igarashi. La lunette et le verre présentent un graphique d’Igarashi lui-même en train de chevaucher une énorme vague. Le cadran, le fond du boîtier et l’extrémité du bracelet portent la signature d’Igarashi. Le côté de l’attache du bracelet porte le numéro 50, qui est le numéro d’Igarashi sur le circuit de championnat de la WSL.

La GBX-100KI est également équipée des fonctions Mobile Link qui s’appuient sur un smartphone. Grâce à l’application smartphone dédiée, l’utilisateur peut sélectionner un lieu parmi environ 3 300 lieux prédéfinis dans le monde entier et envoyer les informations à la montre, notamment les données de marée, les heures de coucher et de lever du soleil et d’autres données essentielles pour les surfeurs. Outre l’affichage des graphiques de marées et des données lunaires, la montre est dotée de diverses fonctions utiles à l’entraînement quotidien, telles que la distance parcourue, l’heure et le rythme. Le large cadran de la montre utilise un écran LCD à mémoire en pixels (MIP) à fort contraste pour une visibilité optimale.

Kanoa Igarashi

https://world.g-shock.com/asia-mea/en/team/kanoa_igarashi/

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638455/GBX_100KI.jpg

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638454/GBX_100KI_1.jpg

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638456/Kanoa_Igarashi_signature_Special_packaging.jpg

Vos coordonnées seront utilisées pour les activités de relations publiques de notre société. Avant d’envoyer une demande, assurez-vous de consulter et d’accepter notre politique de confidentialité à partir de l’URL ci-dessous, qui explique en détail la manière dont nous traitons vos informations personnelles. https://world.casio.com/privacy/

Casio to Release Second Kanoa Igarashi Signature G-SHOCK

TOKYO, Oct. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Casio Computer Co., Ltd., announced today the latest addition to the G-LIDE line of watches for extreme sports, which are part of the G-SHOCK brand of shock-resistant watches. The new GBX-100KI is the second signature model endorsed by pro surfer Kanoa Igarashi.

GBX-100KI

Igarashi started surfing at the age of three. Since then, he has gone on to win a number of major surfing competitions and is currently a world-class professional surfer competing on the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour at the top of the sport.

The second Kanoa Igarashi signature model is based on the GBX-100, which is equipped with Mobile Link functions in addition to a useful tide graph for surfers. The new GBX-100KI is a special-edition watch with a design and color theme created under Igarashi’s supervision. The all-black watch is adorned with different textures and shades for each part including the bezel, band, and LCD, expressing Igarashi’s cool and unique worldview. The bezel and glass feature a graphic of Igarashi himself tube riding a massive wave. The dial, case back, and band tip feature Igarashi’s signature. The band’s lug side showcases the number 50, which is Igarashi’s number on the WSL Championship Tour.

GBX-100KI

The GBX-100KI is also equipped with Mobile Link functions that pair with a smartphone. With the dedicated smartphone app, the user can select a location from approximately 3,300 preset locations worldwide and send the information to the watch, including tide data, sunset/sunrise times, and other essential data for surfers. In addition to displaying tide graphs and moon data, the watch comes with a variety of functions that are useful in daily training, such as distance traveled, time, and pace. The wide watch face uses a high contrast Memory in Pixel (MIP) LCD for optimum visibility.

Kanoa Igarashi signature / Special packaging

Kanoa Igarashi
https://world.g-shock.com/asia-mea/en/team/kanoa_igarashi/

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638455/GBX_100KI.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638454/GBX_100KI_1.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638456/Kanoa_Igarashi_signature_Special_packaging.jpg

Your contact information will be used for our company’s public relations activities.  Before sending inquiries, please be sure to review and agree to our privacy policy at the URL below that explains the details on how we handle your personal information. https://world.casio.com/privacy/

US, Africa to Work Together on Climate Change

The U.S. government says it wants to partner with African countries to combat climate change.

A U.S. climate envoy, who is in South Africa to prepare for a key conference next month, said the fight must be an international one.

“These kinds of damages do not limit themselves to one country,” said Jonathan Pershing, U.S. deputy special presidential envoy for climate change. “You can’t say I have got a problem and nobody else does. But neither would any country be immune. You don’t have to be a landlocked country or an island country or coastal country. We are all in this together.

“That brings me to why I have come to Africa. It’s the fastest growing continent, it’s a continent in many ways it represents the future, what it chooses to do could either leapfrog the past or follow the previous historical trajectory.”

The State of the Climate in Africa 2019 report, a publication coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization, showed increasing climate change threats to people’s health, food and water.

The predictions on weather patterns, covering the years between 2020 and 2024, call for a continued warming trend and less rainfall in northern and southern Africa.

This has major consequences for the continent. Farmers in Africa depend on their natural environment to grow crops, and due to unpredictable weather patterns, they are getting less food from the farms.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the number of undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa has increased by 45% since 2012.

Pershing said despite the challenges, Africa’s natural resources can transform the economic fortunes of many countries.

“We could have the critical minerals Africa has in abundance servicing that global demand, that is countries like Kenya, it’s countries like Namibia,” he said. “We have forest opportunities in countries like the Congo, both of the Congos — Brazzaville and Kinshasa — real windows of opportunities. We have an extraordinary capacity around ports, fishing choices that could be all of our coastal nations. This is an opportunity that is continent-wide.”

Pershing said climate issues matter to Americans and said the U.S. wants to work with Africa to solve the global problem.

Developed countries have pledged some $100 billion per year to help developing countries mitigate climate change. In 2019, $80 billion was collected.

Wanjira Mathai, vice president and regional director for Africa at the World Resources Institute, based in Nairobi, said Africa needs to invest in its people and lands to mitigate climate change.

“We have to invest in adaptation, we have to invest in cushioning and building resilience in our cities, in our rural settings and certainly investing in energy because energy will ensure that we can make the necessary transition that will cushion us building resilience, especially in the rural areas will require protecting and restoring nature,” she said.

High-level officials are expected to gather in Glasgow next month for the COP26 climate summit to accelerate action toward the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The 2016 agreement set out to limit global warming caused by climate change to 1.5 degrees. It also supports countries’ efforts to deal with the impacts of climate change.

Source: Voice of America

European-Japanese Probe BepiColombo to Fly by Mercury on Friday

A joint mission of the European and Japanese space agencies, the spacecraft BepiColombo is set to make a close, initial flyby of Mercury on Friday as part of a seven-year mission to put two probes in orbit around the solar system’s closest planet to the sun.

In a statement on its website, the European Space Agency explains the spacecraft, launched in 2018, will swoop by Mercury on Friday at an altitude of about 200 kilometers (124.3 miles), capturing imagery and data that will give scientists preliminary information on the planet they hope to explore in depth when the mission puts two probes into orbit there in 2025.

The ESA says the British-built spacecraft will make use of the gravitational swing of nine planetary flybys — one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury — together with the spacecraft’s solar electric propulsion system, to help steer into Mercury’s orbit.

The craft made a second flyby of Venus and collected pictures of the planet as it passed within 570 kilometers (354 miles) of its surface.

The spacecraft’s main mission — in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) — is to study the structure of Mercury and its magnetic field. When BepiColombo finally arrives, it will release two probes that will independently investigate the surface and magnetic field of Mercury.

The ESA-developed probes will operate in Mercury’s inner orbit, while the JAXA probe will be in the outer orbit to gather data that would reveal the internal structure of the planet, its surface and geological evolution.

Scientists hope to build on the insights gained by NASA’s Messenger probe, which ended its mission in 2015 after a four-year orbit of Mercury. The only other spacecraft to visit Mercury was NASA’s Mariner 10 that flew past the planet in the mid-1970s.

Source: Voice of America