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A curious moment during the Edmonton Oilers ’ recent game against the New York Rangers has fans buzzing, with Sportsnet analysts questioning what appeared to be a heated exchange between defenseman Mattias Ekholm and forward Kasperi Kapanen . It seemed clear there was an issue, but no one seemed to understand why. The incident occurred after Kapanen registered his first assist as an Oiler, contributing to a Connor McDavid goal alongside Evan Bouchard . Instead of joining in on the celebration, Ekholm seemed to pull Kapanen aside and deliver some stern words. EDM NYR G22. November 23, 2024. Connor McDavid goal. 5-1 EDM. ?: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/UtSXJQHmpq The Sportsnet panel speculated that Ekholm might have been critiquing Kapanen for a risky play leading up to the goal. Specifically, they suggested the veteran defenseman might have seen Kapanen’s pass as a high-danger move that could have backfired. While Ekholm’s body language suggested frustration, others pointed out that the moment could easily have been misinterpreted. Was Ekholm upset, or was he offering a mix of constructive criticism and encouragement? What was clear is that Ekholm didn’t look happy. At the same time, Kapanen didn’t react with a shocked look on his face or one that suggested he was returning the sternness of the exchange. What Was The Ekholm and Kapanen Talk About? Fans on social media were split. Some believed Sportsnet was reading too much into a moment that means nothing on an otherwise great play. “It’s just as likely Ekholm was congratulating Kapanen in his own intense way,” one fan noted, adding that Ekholm’s leadership style often blends tough love with genuine support. The timing of Ekholm’s actions raised eyebrows, as it seemed odd to critique a player immediately following a successful goal. The pass itself was a beauty, one that McDavid acknowledged when he pointed to both Bouchard and Kapanen after the goal. If there was an issue, it’s logical to assume it was not on that particular offensive play. Ekholm does have a reputation as a trash-talker and a vocal leader. It’s possible he was simply ensuring that Kapanen understood that a great play doesn’t negate a questionable one from a different play or earlier in the series. If he was treating it as a coachable moment, that’s not a bad thing. Regardless of the context, the incident underscores the passion and high standards Ekholm brings to the team. We may never know what that interaction with Kapanen was really about, but the idea that these two might have a beef now feels like a stretch. Knoblauch told the media on Monday that he has been happy with Kapanen and this was a player the Oilers had an interest in before they claimed him on waivers. This article first appeared on NHL Trade Talk and was syndicated with permission.Reniya Kelly scores 18 and No. 16 North Carolina women beat 14th-ranked Kentucky 72-53
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ: API) (the “Company”), a pioneer and leader in real-time engagement technology, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024. “Recently, we launched our Conversational AI SDK in collaboration with OpenAI’s Realtime API to allow developers to bring voice-driven AI experiences to any app. We believe multimodal AI agents that can interact with human through natural voice will gain widespread adoption across many use cases such as customer support, education and wellness, and Agora is well positioned to become a key infrastructure provider for real-time conversational AI,” said Tony Zhao, founder, chairman and CEO of Agora. “To support this vision, we recently made some structural changes, aligning our organization to fully leverage the accelerating conversational AI opportunities, and operate in a faster, leaner, and more responsive fashion. These changes will help us build the next generation real-time engagement technology for the Generative AI era and strengthen our position as the leader in real-time engagement space.” Third Quarter 2024 Highlights Third Quarter 2024 Financial Results Revenues Total revenues were $31.6 million in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease of 9.8% from $35.0 million in the same period last year. Revenues of Agora were $15.7 million in the third quarter of 2024, an increase of 2.6% from $15.3 million in the same period last year, primarily due to our business expansion and usage growth in sectors such as live shopping. Revenues of Shengwang were RMB112.9 million ($15.9 million) in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease of 20.0% from RMB141.2 million ($19.7 million) in the same period last year, primarily due to a decrease in revenues of RMB 17.5 million ($2.4 million) due to the end-of-sale of certain products and reduced usage from customers in certain sectors such as social and entertainment as a result of challenging macroeconomic and regulatory environment. Cost of Revenues Cost of revenues was $10.5 million in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease of 16.4% from $12.6 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the end-of-sale of certain products and the decrease in bandwidth usage and costs, which was offset partially by severance expenses for customer support teams of $0.3 million. Gross Profit and Gross Margin Gross profit was $21.0 million in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease of 6.1% from $22.4 million in the same period last year. Gross margin was 66.7% in the third quarter of 2024, an increase of 2.7% from 64.0% in the same period last year, mainly due to the end-of-sale of certain low-margin products, which was offset partially by higher severance expenses in the third quarter of 2024. Operating Expenses Operating expenses were $45.9 million in the third quarter of 2024, an increase of 24.3% from $36.9 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the increase in restructuring and severance expenses in the third quarter of 2024, which included share-based compensation of $11.4 million as a result of the cancellation of certain employees’ equity awards and immediate recognition of relevant remaining unrecognized compensation expenses, as well as severance expenses of $4.4 million. Loss from Operations Loss from operations was $24.7 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $13.9 million in the same period last year. Interest Income Interest income was $3.9 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $4.9 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the decrease in the average balance of cash, cash equivalents, bank deposits and financial products issued by banks and the decrease in average interest rate realized. Losses from equity in affiliates Losses from equity in affiliates were $4.2 million in the third quarter of 2024, primarily due to an impairment loss on an investment in certain private company of $4.1 million. Net Loss Net loss was $24.2 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $22.5 million in the same period last year. Net Loss per American Depositary Share attributable to ordinary shareholders Net loss per American Depositary Share (“ADS”)1 attributable to ordinary shareholders was $0.26 in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $0.23 in the same period last year. 1 One ADS represents four Class A ordinary shares. Share Repurchase Program During the three months ended September 30, 2024, the Company repurchased approximately 6.8 million of its Class A ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 1.7 million ADSs) for approximately US$3.9 million under its share repurchase program, representing 1.9% of its US$200 million share repurchase program. As of September 30, 2024, the Company had repurchased approximately 129.4 million of its Class A ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 32.3 million ADSs) for approximately US$113.7 million under its share repurchase program, representing 57% of its US$200 million share repurchase program. As of September 30, 2024, the Company had 368.3 million ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 92.1 million ADSs) outstanding, compared to 449.8 million ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 112.5 million ADSs) outstanding as of January 31, 2022 before the share repurchase program commenced. The current share repurchase program will expire at the end of February 2025. Executive Leadership Update Today the Company announced that Chief Security Officer Roger Hale will be leaving the Company, effective immediately. Mr. Hale has served in this role for the past 2.5 years, during which he made significant contributions to enhancing the Company’s security, compliance, and data protection protocols. Mr. Hale will work closely with senior leadership to ensure a smooth transition of his responsibilities. Moving forward, Patrick Ferriter and Robbin Liu will assume responsibility for security and compliance, reflecting the Company’s commitment to maintaining a strong and effective security framework. Mr. Hale will continue to provide strategic advice as an advisor to the Company. “We are grateful for Roger’s dedication and expertise over the past two and a half years. His leadership has been invaluable in strengthening our security & compliance foundation,” said Tony Zhao, founder, chairman and CEO of Agora. “Security and compliance remain top priorities for Agora, and we will continue to uphold the highest standards to protect our customers and stakeholders.” Financial Outlook Based on currently available information, the Company expects total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2024 to be between $34 million and $36 million, compared to $31.6 million in the third quarter of 2024, and $33.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 if revenues from certain end-of-sale low-margin products were excluded. The Company also expects significant improvement in net income / (loss) in the fourth quarter. This outlook reflects the Company's current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change. Earnings Call The Company will host a conference call to discuss the financial results at 5 p.m. Pacific Time / 8 p.m. Eastern Time on November 25, 2024. Details for the conference call are as follows: Event title: Agora, Inc. 3Q 2024 Financial Results The call will be available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/wie28zvr Investors who want to hear the call should log on at least 15 minutes prior to the broadcast. Participants may register for the call with the link below. https://register.vevent.com/register/BIf58a0b6f500c4362b1a8c64f9fa4cea8 Please visit the Company’s investor relations website at https://investor.agora.io on November 25, 2024 to view the earnings release and accompanying slides prior to the conference call. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures The Company has provided in this press release financial information that has not been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”). The Company uses these non-GAAP financial measures internally in analyzing its financial results and believe that the use of these non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors as an additional tool to evaluate ongoing operating results and trends and in comparing its financial results with other companies in its industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures. Besides free cash flow (as defined below), each of these non-GAAP financial measures represents the corresponding GAAP financial measure before share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill. The Company believes that such non-GAAP financial measures help identify underlying trends in its business that could otherwise be distorted by the effects of such share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill that it includes in its cost of revenues, total operating expenses and net income (loss). The Company believes that all such non-GAAP financial measures also provide useful information about its operating results, enhance the overall understanding of its past performance and future prospects and allow for greater visibility with respect to key metrics used by its management in its financial and operational decision-making. Non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable GAAP financial measures and should be read only in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of its historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures has been provided in the tables captioned “Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures” included at the end of this press release, and investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation. Definitions of the Company’s non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release are presented below. Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) Non-GAAP net income (loss) is defined as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill. Free Cash Flow Free cash flow is defined as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment (excluding the acquisition of land use right and the payment for the headquarters project). The Company considers free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors regarding net cash provided by operating activities and cash used for investments in property and equipment required to maintain and grow the business. Operating Metrics The Company also uses other operating metrics included in this press release and defined below to assess the performance of its business. Active Customers An active customer at the end of any period is defined as an organization or individual developer from which the Company generated more than $100 of revenue during the preceding 12 months. Customers are counted based on unique customer account identifiers. Generally, one software application uses the same customer account identifier throughout its life cycle while one account may be used for multiple applications. Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate is calculated for a trailing 12-month period by first identifying all customers in the prior 12-month period, and then calculating the quotient from dividing the revenue generated from such customers in the trailing 12-month period by the revenue generated from the same group of customers in the prior 12-month period. As the vast majority of revenue generated from Agora’s customers is denominated in U.S. dollars, while the vast majority of revenue generated from Shengwang’s customers is denominated in Renminbi, Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate is calculated in U.S. dollars for Agora and in Renminbi for Shengwang, which has substantially removed the impact of foreign currency translations. Shengwang excluded the revenues from certain end-of-sale products, Easemob’s CEC business and K12 academic tutoring sector. The Company believes Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate facilitates operating performance comparisons on a period-to-period basis. Safe Harbor Statements This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical or current fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding the Company’s financial outlook, beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements include statements containing words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “project,” “will” and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. Among other things, the Financial Outlook in this announcement contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. The Company’s actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, risks related to the growth of the RTE-PaaS market; the Company’s ability to manage its growth and expand its operations; the continued impact of COVID-19 on global markets and the Company’s business, operations and customers; the Company’s ability to attract new developers and convert them into customers; the Company’s ability to retain existing customers and expand their usage of its platform and products; the Company’s ability to drive popularity of existing use cases and enable new use cases, including through quality enhancements and introduction of new products, features and functionalities; the Company’s fluctuating operating results; competition; the effect of broader technological and market trends on the Company’s business and prospects; general economic conditions and their impact on customer and end-user demand; and other risks and uncertainties included elsewhere in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including, without limitation, the final prospectus related to the IPO filed with the SEC on June 26, 2020. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. About Agora, Inc. Agora, Inc. is the Cayman Islands holding company of two independent divisions, under Agora brand and Shengwang brand, respectively, whose businesses are conducted through separate entities. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Agora is a pioneer and global leader in Real-Time Engagement Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), providing developers with simple, flexible, and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to embed real-time voice, video, interactive live-streaming, chat, whiteboard, and artificial intelligence capabilities into their applications. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, Shengwang is a pioneer and leading Real-Time Engagement PaaS provider in the China market. For more information on Agora, please visit: www.agora.io For more information on Shengwang, please visit: www.shengwang.cn Agora, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited, in US$ thousands) Agora, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss (Unaudited, in US$ thousands, except share and per ADS amounts) Agora, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited, in US$ thousands) Agora, Inc. Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures (Unaudited, in US$ thousands, except share and per ADS amounts) Investor Contact: investor@agora.io Media Contact: press@agora.ioNone
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DETROIT (AP) — General Motors said Tuesday it will retreat from the robotaxi business and stop funding its money-losing Cruise autonomous vehicle unit. Instead the Detroit automaker will focus on development of partially automated driver-assist systems for personal vehicles like its Super Cruise, which allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel. GM said it would get out of robotaxis “given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.” The company said it will combine Cruise’s technical team with its own to work on advanced systems to assist drivers. GM bought control of San Francisco-based in 2016 with high hopes of developing a profitable fleet of robotaxis. Over the years GM invested billions in the subsidiary and eventually bought 90% of the company from investors, all while racking up millions in losses. GM’s brushoff of Cruise represents a dramatic about-face from years of full-blown support that left a huge financial dent in the automaker. The company invested $2.4 billion in Cruise only to sustain years of uninterrupted losses, with little in return. Since GM bought a controlling stake in Cruise for $581 million in 2016, the robotaxi service piled up more than $10 billion in operating losses while bringing in less than $500 million in revenue, according to GM shareholder reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The automaker even announced plans for Cruise to generate $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025, but it scaled back spending on the company after one of its autonomous Chevrolet Bolts dragged a San Francisco pedestrian who was hit by another vehicle in 2023. The California Public Utilities Commission alleged Cruise of the crash for more than two weeks. The embarrassing incident resulted in Cruise’s license to operate its driverless fleet in California being and triggered — in addition to layoffs that . GM CEO Mary Barra told analysts on a conference call Tuesday the the new unit will focus on personal vehicles and developing systems that can drive by themselves in certain circumstances. The company has agreements to buy another 7% of Cruise and intends to buy the remaining shares so it owns the whole company. The move is another step back from autonomous vehicles, which have proved far harder to develop than companies once anticipated. Two years ago, crosstown rival Ford Motor Co. disbanded its Argo AI autonomous vehicle venture in Pittsburgh that it co-owned with Volkswagen. At the time the company said it didn’t see a path to profitability for a number of years. Yet other companies are pressing forward with plans to deploy autonomous vehicles and expanding their services. Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo is accelerating plans to broaden its robotaxi service beyond areas of metropolitan Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Last week the company said it would its driverless Jaguars in Miami next year, with plans to start charging for rides in 2026. The move comes less than a month after Waymo opened up its robotaxi service for a ride in an 80-square-mile (129 square kilometer) area of Los Angeles. Waymo also has plans to launch fleets in Atlanta and Austin next year in partership with ride-hailing leader Uber. In April, a company called Aurora Innovation plans to on Texas freeways using fully driverless semis. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said his company plans to have autonomous Models Y and 3 running without human drivers next year. Robotaxis without steering wheels using Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system would be available in 2026 starting in California and Texas, he said. But an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into Full Self-Driving’s ability to see in low visibility conditions cast doubt on whether Teslas are ready to be deployed without humans behind the wheel. The agency after getting reports of four crashes involving “Full Self-Driving” when Teslas encountered sun glare, fog and airborne dust. An Arizona pedestrian was killed in one of the crashes. GM said it will work with Cruise’s leadership to restructure the company and refocus Cruise’s operations on driver assist systems. The company expects the restructuring to reduce spending by more than $1 billion annually. Cruise has about 2,300 employees and will retain a presence in San Francisco, GM said. It’s too early to talk about employment levels until the restructuring is completed next year, a spokesman said. Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering, said Cruise will bring its software, artificial intelligence and sensor development to GM to team up on improving GM’s driver-assist systems. “We want to leverage what already has been done as we go forward, and we think we can do that very effectively,” Barra said. Shares of GM rose about 3% in trading after Tuesday’s closing bell. They are up about 47% for the year. _____ AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report. Tom Krisher, The Associated PressORLANDO, Fla. — UCF coach Gus Malzahn is resigning after four seasons with the school. ESPN’s Pete Thamel was the first to report the move, which will see Malzahn to leave to take the offensive coordinator job at Florida State. Malzahn previously worked with FSU coach Mike Norvell during their time at Tulsa under then-coach Todd Graham from 2007-08. The Knights ended a disappointing 4-8 season in which they lost eight of their last nine games, the longest losing streak since 2015. Malzahn, 59, was in the fourth year of a contract through 2028. His buyout, it is reported, would have been $13.75 million. He finished 27-25 at UCF but lost 16 of his last 22 games and was a dismal 4-14 in two seasons in the Big 12. After back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2021-22, the Knights went 6-7 in 2023 and 4-8 in 2024. This season started with high expectations as Malzahn made sweeping changes to the program. He retooled the strength and conditioning department and hired Ted Roof and Tim Harris Jr. as defensive and offensive coordinators, respectively. He also added nearly 50 new players to the roster, leaning heavily on the transfer market. UCF started by winning its first three games against New Hampshire, Sam Houston and a thrilling comeback at TCU, but offensive struggles saw the Knights tumble through a TBD-game losing streak to finish the season. Terry Mohajir hired Malzahn on Feb. 15, 2021, six days after he was hired to replace Danny White. The move came eight weeks after Malzahn had been fired at Auburn after eight seasons of coaching the Tigers. The two briefly worked together at Arkansas State in 2012 before Malzahn left for the Auburn job. “When he [Mohajir] offered the job, I was like, ‘I’m in.’ There wasn’t thinking about or talking about ...,” Malzahn said during his introductory press conference. “This will be one of the best programs in college football in a short time. This is a job that I plan on being here and building it.” UCF opened the 2021 season with non-conference wins over Boise State and Bethune-Cookman before traveling to Louisville on Sept. 17, where quarterback Dillon Gabriel suffered a fractured collarbone in the final minute of a 42-35 loss. Backup Mikey Keene would finish out the season as Gabriel announced his intention to transfer. The Knights would finish the season on the plus side by accepting a bid to join the Big 12 Conference in September and then by defeating Florida 29-17 in the Gasparilla Bowl. Malzahn struck transfer portal gold in the offseason when he signed former Ole Miss quarterback John Rhys Plumlee. Plumlee, a two-sport star with the Rebels, helped guide UCF to the American Athletic Conference Championship in its final season. However, Plumlee’s injury forced the Knights to go with Keene and freshman Thomas Castellanos. The team finished with losses to Tulane in the conference championship and Duke in the Military Bowl. Plumlee would return in 2023 as UCF transitioned to the Big 12 but would go down with a knee injury in the final minute of the Knights’ 18-16 win at Boise State on Sept. 9. He would miss the next four games as backup Timmy McClain took over the team. Even on his return, Plumlee couldn’t help UCF, on a five-game losing streak to open conference play. The Knights got their first Big 12 win at Cincinnati on Nov. 4 and upset No. 15 Oklahoma State the following week, but the team still needed a win over Houston in the regular-season finale to secure a bowl bid for the eighth straight season. From the moment Malzahn stepped on campus, he prioritized recruiting, particularly in Central Florida. “We’re going to recruit like our hair’s on fire,” Malzahn said at the time. “We’re going to go after the best players in America and we’re not backing down to anybody.” From 2007 to 2020, UCF signed 10 four-star high school and junior college prospects. Eight four-star prospects were in the three recruiting classes signed under Malzahn. The 2024 recruiting class earned a composite ranking of 39 from 247Sports, the highest-ranked class in school history. The 2025 recruiting class is ranked No. 41 and has commitments from three four-star prospects. Malzahn has always leaned on the transfer market, signing 60 players over the past three seasons. Some have paid huge dividends, such as Javon Baker, Lee Hunter, Kobe Hudson, Tylan Grable, Bula Schmidt, Amari Kight, Marcellus Marshall, Trent Whittemore, Gage King, Ethan Barr, Deshawn Pace and Plumlee. Others haven’t been as successful, such as quarterback KJ Jefferson, who started the first five games of this season before being benched for poor performance. Jefferson’s struggles forced the Knights to play musical chairs at quarterback, with true freshman EJ Colson, redshirt sophomore Jacurri Brown and redshirt freshman Dylan Rizk all seeing action at one point or another this season. This season’s struggles led to several players utilizing the NCAA’s redshirt rule after four games, including starting slot receiver Xavier Townsend and kicker Colton Boomer, who have also entered the transfer portal. Defensive end Kaven Call posted a letter to Malzahn on Twitter in which he accused the UCF coaching staff of recently kicking him off the team when he requested to be redshirted. ©2024 Orlando Sentinel. Visit orlandosentinel.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 25, 2024-- Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. (TSXV: TBRD, OTCQX: THBRF) (“Thunderbird” or the “Company”) has granted an aggregate amount of 143,317 restricted share units (the “RSUs”) to its non-executive directors on November 25, 2024, pursuant to the terms of the Company’s equity incentive compensation plan. The RSUs will vest on December 14, 2024. Each vested RSU entitles the holder thereof to receive one common share of the Company. The Company also granted an aggregate amount of 171,606 RSUs to certain members of the Company’s executive management team, pursuant to the terms of the Company’s equity incentive compensation plan. The RSUs will vest over three years, and each vested RSU entitles the holder to receive one common share of the Company. Additionally, 400,412 performance share units (“PSUs”) were granted to certain members of the Company’s executive management team, based on certain performance targets to be met. Subject to the satisfaction of such performance targets, the PSUs will vest on the one-year anniversary of the date of the grant. Each vested PSU entitles the holder to receive one common share of the Company (or can be paid out in cash at the discretion of the Company’s board of directors). Thunderbird Entertainment Inc. (“TEI”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, has also entered into an Addendum to the Executive Employment Agreement dated July 1, 2021 between TEI and Jennifer Twiner McCarron, the CEO of the Company (the “Addendum”). Under the terms of the Addendum, effective from July 1, 2024, Ms. Twiner McCarron has agreed to forego a guaranteed bonus and has agreed to a bonus structure that ensures eligibility for annual short term incentive payments is driven entirely by performance based on the achievement of AEBITDA targets and strategic objectives established by the Company’s board of directors. For information on Thunderbird and to subscribe to the Company’s investor list for news updates, go to www.thunderbird.tv . ABOUT THUNDERBIRD ENTERTAINMENT GROUP Thunderbird Entertainment Group is a global award-winning, full-service multiplatform production, distribution and rights management company, headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Los Angeles and Ottawa. Thunderbird creates award-winning scripted, unscripted, and animated programming for the world’s leading digital platforms, as well as Canadian and international broadcasters. The Company develops, produces, and distributes animated, factual, and scripted content through its various content arms, including Thunderbird Kids and Family (Atomic Cartoons), Thunderbird Unscripted (Great Pacific Media) and Thunderbird Scripted. Productions under the Thunderbird umbrella include Mermicorno: Starfall, Super Team Canada, Molly of Denali, Highway Thru Hell, Kim’s Convenience, Boot Camp, and Sidelined: The QB and Me . Thunderbird Distribution and Thunderbird Brands manage global media and consumer products rights, respectively, for the Company and select third parties. Thunderbird is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @tbirdent. For more information, visit: www.thunderbird.tv . Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information Thunderbird’s public communications may include written, or oral “forward-looking statements” and “forward-looking information” as defined under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements or information may be identified by words such as “anticipate”, “continue”, “estimate”, “expect”, “forecast”, “may”, “will”, “plan”, “project”, “should”, “believe”, “intend”, or similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements in this document include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the vesting schedule of the RSUs, the PSUs, and the achievement of certain performance objectives relating to Ms. Twiner McCarron’s performance bonus entitlements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic and social uncertainties; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; product capability and acceptance; and other factors set out in the “Risk and Uncertainty” section of the Company’s MD&A dated June 30, 2024. The foregoing is not an exhaustive list. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to Thunderbird or that management believes to be less significant may also adversely affect the Company. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this document represent the Company’s views as of the date hereof, and therefore such information should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this document. The Company’s actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits the Company will derive therefrom. Readers are therefore cautioned that the foregoing lists of important factors are not exhaustive, and they should not unduly rely on the forward-looking statements included in this news release. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Thunderbird has no intention, and undertakes no obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241125609691/en/ CONTACT: Investor Relations Contacts: Glen Akselrod, Bristol Capital Phone: + 1 905 326 1888 ext 1 Email:glen@bristolir.comMedia Relations Contact: Lana Castleman, Director, Marketing & Communications Phone: 416-219-3769 Email:lcastleman@thunderbird.tvCorporate Communications: Julia Smith, Finch Media Email:Julia@finchmedia.net KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CANADA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: FILM & MOTION PICTURES ONLINE GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT TV AND RADIO SOURCE: Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 11/25/2024 05:00 PM/DISC: 11/25/2024 05:02 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241125609691/enMichigan aims to cap lost season by beating Ohio StateIn 2018, Google DeepMind's AlphaZero program taught itself the games of chess, shogi, and Go using machine learning and a special algorithm to determine the best moves to win a game within a defined grid. Now, a team of Caltech researchers has developed an analogous algorithm for autonomous robots—a planning and decision-making control system that helps freely moving robots determine the best movements to make as they navigate the real world. "Our algorithm actually strategizes and then explores all the possible and important motions and chooses the best one through dynamic simulation, like playing many simulated games involving moving robots," says Soon-Jo Chung, Caltech's Bren Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and a senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. "The breakthrough innovation here is that we have derived a very efficient way of finding that optimal safe motion that typical optimization-based methods would never find." The team describes the technique, which they call Spectral Expansion Tree Search (SETS), in the December of the journal . Many robots can move quite freely and in any direction. Consider, for example, a designed to assist an elderly person in a home. Such a robot should be able to move in many different ways and, essentially, in any direction within the space as it encounters obstacles or unexpected events while completing its tasks. That robot's set of movements, obstacles, and challenges will be very different from those of a self-driving car, for example. How, then, can a single algorithm guide different robotic systems to make the best decisions to move through their surroundings? "You don't want a designer to have to go in and handcraft these motions and say, 'This is the discrete set of moves the robot should be able to do,'" says John Lathrop, a graduate student in control and dynamical systems at Caltech and co-lead author of the new paper. "To overcome this, we came up with SETS." SETS uses control theory and linear algebra to find natural motions that use a robotic platform's capabilities to its fullest extent in a physical setting. The basic underlying concept is based on a Monte Carlo Tree Search, a decision-making algorithm also used by Google's AlphaZero. Here, Monte Carlo essentially means something random, and tree search refers to navigating a branching structure that represents the relationships of data in a system. In such a tree, a root branches off to so-called child nodes that are connected by edges. Using Monte Carlo Tree Search for a game like Go, possible moves are represented as new nodes, and the tree grows larger as more random samples of possible trajectories are attempted. The algorithm plays out the possible moves to see the final outcomes of the different nodes and then selects the one that offers the best outcome based on a point valuation. The problem, Lathrop explains, is that when using this branching tree structure for continuous dynamical systems such as robots operating in the physical world, the total number of trajectories in the tree grows exponentially. "For some problems, trying to simulate every single possibility and then figure out which one is best would take years, maybe hundreds of years," he says. To overcome this, SETS takes advantage of an exploration/exploitation trade-off. "We want to try simulating trajectories that we haven't investigated before—that's exploration," Lathrop says. "And we want to continue looking down paths that have previously yielded high reward—that's exploitation. By balancing the exploration and the exploitation, the algorithm is able to quickly converge on the optimal solution among all possible trajectories." For example, if a robot starts out calculating a couple of possible actions that it determines would cause it to smash into a wall, there is no need for it to investigate any of the other nodes on that branch of the tree. "This exploration/exploitation tradeoff and search over the robot's natural motions enables our robots to think, move, and adapt to new information in ," says Benjamin Rivière, a postdoctoral scholar research associate in mechanical and civil engineering at Caltech and co-lead author of the paper. SETS can run an entire tree search in about a tenth of a second. During that time, it can simulate thousands to tens of thousands of possible trajectories, select the best one, and then act. The loop continues over and over, giving the robotic system the ability to make many decisions each second. A key feature of the SETS algorithm is that it can be applied to essentially any robotic platform. The features and capabilities do not have to be programmed individually. In the new paper, Chung and his colleagues demonstrate the algorithm's successful utility in three completely different experimental settings—something that is very rare in robotics papers. In the first, a quadrotor drone was able to observe four hovering white balls while avoiding four orange balls, all while navigating an airfield rife with randomly occurring, dangerous air currents, or thermals. The drone experiment was conducted at Caltech's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST). In the second, the algorithm augmented a human driver of a tracked ground vehicle to navigate a narrow and winding track without hitting the siderails. And in the final setup, SETS helped a pair of tethered spacecraft capture and redirect a third agent, which could represent another spacecraft, an asteroid or another object. A team of Caltech students and researchers are currently applying a version of the SETS algorithm to an Indy car that will participate in the Indy Autonomous Challenge at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on January 9.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday announced its first list of 11 candidates for the Delhi Assembly election scheduled for February next year. Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are yet to announce their candidates. Out of the 11 candidates, six had switched to the ruling party in the last two months, three each from the BJP and the Congress. The party has dropped three of its sitting MLAs. The names were announced after a meeting of AAP’s political affairs committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, which is headed by party national convener Arvind Kejriwal. AAP has been in power in Delhi since 2015 and had won 67 of the 70 seats in the 2015 Assembly poll and 62 seats in the 2020 poll. ‘Set to launch campaign’ Addressing mediapersons, AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai said, “With the announcement of candidates, AAP has now geared up to accelerate its campaign for the Assembly election. Starting today, AAP is preparing to launch a massive campaign across the city. The details will be shared soon.” Mr. Rai said AAP remains confident that under the leadership of Mr. Kejriwal, the people will re-elect the party in the election to continue the momentum of progress and development in the Capital. The AAP leader said the candidates were announced early as eight of these 11 constituencies currently do not have AAP MLAs. “To strengthen its campaign in these areas, the party has prioritised them in the first list.” The BJP and the Congress targeted AAP over giving tickets to leaders from other parties who had joined it as recently as Sunday. The BJP said six candidates being entrants from other parties showed that AAP is scared of “anti-incumbency”. The Congress alleged that Mr. Kejriwal was desperate to save his party as three of the 11 candidates in the first list were “Congress discards”. Published - November 22, 2024 01:39 am IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Aam Aadmi Party / Delhi / election / Bharatiya Janata Party / Indian National Congress
Wisconsin faces its first losing season in 23 years and the end of a bowl streak when the Badgers host arch-rival Minnesota on Friday in the annual Big Ten battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe. Minnesota (6-5, 4-4) lost to No. 4 Penn State 26-25. Wisconsin (5-6, 3-5 Big Ten) lost its fourth straight, 44-25, at Nebraska in a game that was not as close as the score. "Well 1890 is the first time we played this football team coming up and this is what it's all about," Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said of the rivalry. "And you wouldn't want to have it any other way, being able to end the season with one of your biggest rivals. I know our guys will be ready to go, ready to play." Wisconsin has 22 consecutive winning seasons since going 5-7 under Barry Alvarez in 2001, the longest active streak among Power 4 teams. The Badgers also have played in a bowl game in each of the last 22 seasons, the longest active streak in the Big Ten and third-longest in FBS. Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell is more concerned with the rivalry game than the winning season and bowl streaks. "I'm not downplaying it, I'm not saying it's not important, I'm not saying it's another thing that's on our plate," Fickell said Monday. "But when it gets down to this last week, it's about one thing, it's about the rivalry. It's about preparing to play in the most important game of the year." The Gophers have dropped their last two games after winning four in a row. Minnesota averages 26.6 points per game, while allowing 18.5, 15th-best in the country. Max Brosmer has completed 67 percent of his passes for 221 per game with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions. Daniel Jackson is the top target with 69 catches for 802 yards and three scores, and Darius Taylor is the top rusher with 730 yards at 4.8 per carry with nine touchdowns. One week after leading Oregon after three quarters, the Wisconsin defense was shredded for 473 yards and five touchdowns by Nebraska. Braedyn Locke, who took over at quarterback when Tyler Van Dyke suffered an early season-ending knee injury, has thrown at least one interception in eight consecutive games. Locke has completed 56.4 percent of his passes for 180.6 yards per game, with 12 touchdowns and 10 picks. Tawee Walker is the leading rusher with 828 yards at 4.7 per carry with 10 touchdowns. He has failed to reach 60 yards in three of the last four games. Former Wisconsin and NFL standout JJ Watt posted on social media his assessment - and frustration - with the Badgers after the Nebraska game. "Losing happens, it's part of the game. Hearing announcers talk about how much tougher and more physical Nebraska & Iowa are while getting blown out ... that's the issue," Watt wrote on X. "We are Wisconsin. Physicality, running game, great O-Line and great defense. That is our identity." Wisconsin defeated the Gophers 28-14 last after Minnesota had won the previous two meetings. The Badgers have won 7 of the last 10 and lead the storied series 63-62-8. --Field Level MediaUkrainian girls’ team finds hockey haven at Wickenheiser festival