Toyota invests $50M in artificial intelligence, robots
Toyota is investing $50 million in joint research with Stanford and MIT into artificial intelligence and robots to improve mobility of people and cars.
Toyota officials in Palo Alto, Calif., Friday announced that the Japanese automaker will invest $50 million over the next five years in research centers at the two prestigious U.S. universities. The joint research centers will develop intelligent vehicles and other mobility technologies for a society that is aging and seeking new ways to move as well as cities increasingly challenged by traffic congestion.
The investment is an extension of Toyota's belief that everyday living can be improved through technology that uses artificial intelligence. Breakthroughs in robotics and intelligent vehicles can also help the heath-care system support the physically infirm, officials said.
“We’re here today to mark the beginning of an unprecedented commitment," said Kiyotaka Ise, chief officer of Toyota''s R&D Group, during a webcast of the California press event. "We will initially focus on the acceleration of intelligent vehicle technology, with the immediate goal of helping eliminate traffic casualties and the ultimate goal of helping improve quality of life through enhanced mobility and robotics."
Toyota also announced that Gill Pratt, the former program manager at DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and leader of the Robotics Challenge, has joined the company to oversee the research as executive technical director.
Pratt wants to avoid the need to take car keys from an aging parent; or move people from their homes into care facilities.
"Autonomy is not just for machines," he said. He wants to give people the ability to move about safely, regardless of limits of age or illness. That movement can be in a car, or within the home.
“This bold collaboration will address extremely complex mobility challenges using ground breaking artificial intelligence research," Pratt said.
In terms of autonomous driving, Toyota may not have shown off autonomous cars like the competition or Google, but it has competitive driver-assist technologies from 20 years of research, Ise said.
The harder work is developing artificial intelligence systems, Pratt said. For the car's intelligent systems to intervene, the vehicle must be aware of what is going on around it and know better than the driver what action to take. And it can do no harm.
"We want to solve the harder part of the problems as well," Pratt said. "We think the race has just begun."
Research at the new centers will work to improve the ability of intelligent vehicle technologies to recognize objects around the vehicle, assess conditions and make safe decisions on behalf of the vehicle occupants, other vehicles and pedestrians.
The research center at MIT will be led by Professor Daniela Rus, director of the institute’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Rus called it the "beginning of the end for traffic accidents," in the belief computing can make cars better in efforts to prevent car crashes that occur every five seconds in the U.S. and have an economic cost of $277 billion a year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Intelligent vehicles "will play a major role in helping reduce traffic casualties, and potentially even helping us develop a vehicle incapable of getting into a collision," Rus said.
The Stanford research center will be led by Professor Fei-Fei Li, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Work will continue on using computers, intelligent machines and data analysis to help vehicles perform in complex traffic situations.
"Technology is shaping our lives more than ever," Li said.
Toyota has been developing robots for industrial use since the 1970s. About 2000 Toyota started work on using robotics to improve a person's mobility.
"I am very excited about what this new venture means for Toyota, and I look forward to more announcements in the future,” Ise said.
Source:http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2015/09/04/intelligent-cars-robots-focus-toyota-research-plans/71702672/
Explanations * Artificial
**Made or produced by human bring than occurring by naturally; typically as a copy of something natural. * Prestigious
**Inspiring respect and admiration; having high status. * Unprecedented
**Never done or known before. * Acceleration
**Increasing in the rate or speed of something. * Intervene
**To come between or to be between by person or things; to occur, fall or come between, points of time or events. * Pedestrian: A person walking along a road or in a developed area; lacking inspiration or excitement; dull. * Casualty
** people who were killed or injured in a war or accident. * Collision
**An instance of one moving object or person striking violently against another; (physics) a brief event in which two or more bodies come together.

Vocabulary meaning and Examples 1. Artificial
On Valentine day, customers tend to buy the arrangement of artificial flowers to their lover more than the real flower because it can kept longer and is cheaper. 2. Prestigious
The new actor boasted after he had received a prestigious award from his new drama. 3. Unprecedented
The stock market of this company was unprecedented loss lowest after facing economy crisis. 4. Acceleration
The Acceleration of fuel price in America makes people tend to change their driving behavior to take public buses instead of driving a car. 5. Intervene
The farmers of garlic and onion appeal to intervene into market after the garlic and onion price have dropped. 6. Pedestrian
The ambulance went out of control and came close to running over a pedestrian who walked along the street. 7. Casualty
Firefighters urgently rescued all of the casualties inside the fire building. 8. Collision
The collision of trucks caused the drivers sudden death in accident area.

Feedback:
After reading both articles, they make me think that project is just about to make, create, improve or innovate something new or make the old one become more successful based on customer satisfied and improve human lifestyle to be more convenient. But moreover from the articles, also make me understand and realize about in each project is not easy to be done and it can rely on many methods and procedures to be completed. The impact of the project can come from both internal and external which can be affected directly or indirectly such as delay or increasing cost. So before doing the project or investment, organizations should be put more concern about. And I can learn many interesting words from this articles that can be adapt in many classes and in real business life.

Naomi 10177089A

Disney Sells Miramax for $660 Million
By MICHAEL CIEPLY and BROOKS BARNES

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company agreed late Thursday to sell Miramax Films to an investor group for about $660 million, but the art film unit will not be out of Disney’s hair for another year.
In selling Miramax to a group that includes the construction executive Ronald N. Tutor, Disney agreed to distribute films from the studio and its library for as long as a year, said people who had been briefed on the deal and spoke on condition of anonymity to keep from disrupting it.
The distribution agreement promises to shore up the Tutor group as it completes financing arrangements — which include equity and bank debt — for a purchase that is priced considerably higher than other bidders were willing to pay.
Potential buyers as highly motivated as Bob and Harvey Weinstein — the brothers who founded Miramax three decades ago and sold it to Disney in 1993 — for months had argued that Miramax and its 700-film library, which includes “Chicago” and “No Country for Old Men,” was worth less than $600 million in the face of steadily falling home video revenue.
Neither Mr. Tutor nor Thomas J. Barrack Jr., the chief executive of Colony Capital, which joined Mr. Tutor in the purchase, responded to queries on Friday.
But one person who was briefed on the transaction said the group was relying on $50 million in cash that would come with Miramax and receivables valued at slightly less than half the purchase price. The price is about four times the company’s annual cash flow.
Disney said the transaction, which must comply with federal antitrust regulations, was expected to close between Sept. 10 and Dec. 31.
“Our current strategy for Walt Disney Studios is to focus on the development of great motion pictures under the Disney, Pixar and Marvel brands,” Disney’s chief executive, Robert A. Iger, said in a statement.
Mr. Tutor, who is the chief executive of the Tutor Perini Corporation, Mr. Barrack and their backers bought Miramax through a company called Filmyard Holdings.
A spokeswoman for Colony declined on Friday to say whether the buyers intended to restart Miramax as an operating studio — a daunting, expensive task when small film companies like Overture Films, Apparition and Senator Entertainment have struggled or folded.
Ron Burkle, an investor and supermarket executive, had been allied with the Weinsteins in their bid, which once led in a process that has gone on for months. Many potential buyers have kicked the tires, and then walked away. The Burkle-Weinstein group had offered about $565 million.
As much as $150 million of the Miramax unit’s value, according to one person who was briefed on the transaction but asked for anonymity because the talks were private, remains tied to film franchises, including the “Spy Kids,” in which the Weinstein brothers have rights.
It was unclear how Mr. Tutor’s group planned to deal with the Weinstein presence, given the brothers’ chagrin at not having prevailed in the bidding. A spokeswoman for the Weinsteins did not respond to queries as to whether they planned to act to protect their stake in Miramax as the Tutor deal closes.
Miramax virtually created the art house boom in the 1990s by turning offbeat, inexpensive movies into mainstream hits. In recent years, as the economics of independent films shifted Miramax declined until Disney virtually shuttered it last fall.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/31/business/media/31miramax.html?_r=0

Explanation: * Anonymity:
** The condition of being anonymous. * Queries:
** To ask a question about something, especially in order to express one's doubts about it or to check its validity or accuracy. * Antitrust:
** Opposing or intended to restrain trusts and monopolies. * Daunting:
** Seeming difficult to deal with in prospect; intimidating. * Apparition:
** Anything that appears, especially something remarkable or startling.

Sentences: 1. Anonymity:
Since most online activities can be traced, Internet anonymity does not exist.

2. Queries: I submitted a query for my teacher to answer, because I had no idea what I had to do.

3. Antitrust:
In the United States, laws that prohibit monopolies are called antitrust laws.

4. Daunting
My friend Vumile is so shy, she finds it daunting to go to a party.

5. Apparition:
Graveyards are known for rumors of apparitions, especially during Halloween

Feedback:
Having read the article Up, up and away twice in class and twice at home. Though it is not related to the two articles above, this one I found it quite interesting because it’s about Tony Douglas who built the Britain’s largest free-standing building into an airport that cater for 30m passengers a year that would include ways to connect to London Transport, new roads and rail links. But doing so, it can tricky because you’d need to come up with better ways that would benefit passenger’s and their baggage, also how it would work its way around with other transport links, Being appointed as the new project manager for T5 after the previously boss left, is a lot to take in because you have to come up with new ideas from what they already have in order to reach the deadline, or it would take the whole company down. I’ve learned that you have to make sure you know what you’re bringing to the table before taking over something big as this and Tony Douglas looks like he knows what his doing with this plan and people can learn from it.

Miiao 10177097A
TRLPC: Term loans rising in US high-grade acquisition financing
NEW YORK | BY KAREN SCHWARTZ AND TESSA WALSH

(Oct 30) The use of term loans to finance acquisitions by highly-rated US companies is rising amid a late surge of M&A activity in the fourth quarter as companies such as drug retailer Walgreens Boots Alliance opt for more medium-term financing to give greater flexibility around when to tap volatile bond markets.
A busy year for M&A in the US has been capped by a run of multibillion acquisition loans in recent weeks backing Walgreen Boots Alliance Inc's US$9.4bn acquisition of pharmacy chain Rite Aid and hard disk maker Western Digital's US$19bn acquisition of SanDisk Corp, among others, which show the increasing use of term loans to finance acquisitions.
Walgreen's acquisition is backed by a US$12.8bn bridge loan, which is expected to be refinanced by term loans and bonds and Western Digital's acquisition is backed with around US$18.1bn of loans, including US$9bn of term loans, US$8.1bn of secured and unsecured bridge loans and a US$1bn revolving credit.
An even bigger financing could be brewing backing pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's acquisition of Botox-maker Allergan, which has a market value of US$113bn.
"Term loans are stacking up," a banker said.
Until recently, US acquisitions were typically financed with bridge loans that were quickly refinanced with bond issues, but the use of term loans started to increase earlier this year. Bond pricing also widened amid wider global markets volatility in September and October, which makes term loans look more attractive.
US health insurance company Anthem Inc included US$4bn of three- and five-year term loans in a financing package backing its US$54.2bn acquisition of Cigna Corp in July. Managed health care company Aetna also put a US$3.2bn three-year term loan in place in August to help finance its US$37bn acquisition of Humana.
In the third quarter of 2015, US$19bn of term loans were issued to finance acquisitions by highly rated US companies, compared to US$14bn in the second quarter and only US$7.32bn a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data.
"Anthem and Aetna use term loans - if there are any other bridges coming in 2015, chances are they'll also have a term loan," the banker said.
Term loans are commonly seen in European acquisition finance on deals including a US$31.5bn financing which backs Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' acquisition of Allergan Generics and which includes US$4.5bn of three- and five-year term loans in a package which also comprises a US$4.5bn revolving credit and a US$22.5bn 364-day bridge loan.
Global brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) is also expected to use pre-payable term loans on a jumbo US$70bn financing backing its US100bn-plus acquisition of rival brewer SABMiller. The term loans will allow the company to stagger its bond issues and avoid being held to ransom by the bond market which can charge significant new issue premiums to issue in size, bankers said.
Bridge loans typically have pricing 'step ups' to encourage companies to issue, but some US companies with outstanding bridge loans have not been rushing to issue bonds after September and October's volatility pushed pricing wider and made refinancing more expensive.
This has left arranging banks holding the exposure for longer than anticipated, which hits returns. Although bridge loan pricing increases over time, banks are not able to reuse the capital quickly, and have to allocate more against the exposure.
US acquisition financing now typically consists of three- and five-year term loans which can be refinanced at any point, bridge loans to longer-term fixed-rate bonds, or a combination of both, bankers said.
"It (term loans) allows you to issue bonds whenever you want, rather than when the market tells you to," the banker said.
While higher-paying term loans are good news for investor banks looking to add higher-paying funded assets to their portfolios, including liquid US regional banks, some lenders could face capacity issues if drawn term loans increase.
"I don't think there's room on everybody's books, I think some banks will have to choose where they want to allocate capital," a second banker said. "Banks are doing a lot of things for their key relationships - it just depends how strong their relationships are with their clients."
While drawn term loans offer higher margins, banks have to allocate more capital against the loans, which can dilute return on equity and also push risk-weighted assets higher.
Term loans are good for borrowers, as they are not underwritten, unlike bridge loans, which save a set of fees. AB InBev has managed to avoid this on its self-arranged US$70bn loan, but not all companies will be able to match the global brewer's pulling power with its banks.
Lower-rated companies could find it more difficult to raise term loans, particularly deals for mid-BBB rated issuers with small bank groups that want to put a significant amount of term loan in place to avoid being forced into the bond market.
"I think that's a much tougher trade than the InBev trade," said the first banker. "The InBev numbers will be astronomical, but it's InBev." (Editing By Jon Methven)

Source:http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/30/risingtls-acq-idUSL1N12U1Y020151030

Explanation: * Volatile:
**likely to change suddenly and unexpectedly or suddenlybecome violent or angry
** A volatile liquid or solid substance will change easily into a gas. * Pharmaceutical:
** connected with the production of medicines * Ransom:
** a large sum of money which is demanded in exchange for someone who has been taken prisoner, or sometimes for an animal * Dilute:
** to make a liquid weaker by mixing in something else
** to reduce the strength of a feeling, action, etc. * Brewer:
** a person or company that makes beer * Astronomical:
** describes an amount which is extremely large

Sentences: 1. Volatile: Commodity price keep volatile when the war started, especially in poor country.

2. Pharmaceutical:
The pharmaceutical really help us a lot in the medical area and create hopes to the people.

3. Ransom:
Someone had kidnaped the son of the regal and asked for ransom.

4. Dilute:
I believe time always is the best thing to dilute those painful past.

5. Brewer:
Most of the restaurants have their own brewer to help them in their business.

6. Astronomical:
Shooting stars could also become the principal astronomical observation platform in the universe

Peet's rides coffee's 'third wave' with stake in Intelligentsia By Lisa Baertlein
Oct 30 (Reuters) - Peet's Coffee & Tea will expand its reach in the hot "third wave" coffee sector with the purchase of a majority stake in Intelligentsia Coffee, the two chains said on Friday.
The deal is the second this month for Peet's, a pioneer in the craft U.S. coffee industry. It comes as upscale, independent coffee shops are popping up all over the United States - even as corporate rivals like Starbucks Corp and Dunkin' Donuts keep adding shops.
Peet's acquisition of Portland's Stumptown Coffee Roasters from private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners will close soon and the Intelligentsia transaction is slated to be finished by year-end, Peet's Chief Executive Dave Burwick told Reuters. Terms were not disclosed.
There has been a flurry of deals involving tiny chains that cater to sophisticated young taste makers who have basically grown up on Starbucks but now seek exotic and rare coffee drinks coaxed from traditional espresso machines or siphon and vacuum brewers by expert baristas.
Experts call this artisinal trend, coffee's third wave.
"Their customers are willing to pay more and to wait longer because they feel like it’s a higher-quality, more unique experience," said Bob Goldin, an executive vice president at food consultancy Techonomic.
Chicago-based Intelligentsia, like Stumptown, will continue to operate independently. Intelligentsia cofounders Doug Zell and Emily Mange as well as co-owner Geoff Watts will retain a significant stake and remain actively involved in operations.
The 18- to 34-year-olds who are driving demand for ever-higher quality coffee, as well as craft beer and other artisan products, are seeking a variety of experiences, Burwick said.
"That's the coffee connoisseur of the future. To be relevant, we have to provide those types of experiences," Burwick said.
The tie-up gives Chicago-based Intelligentsia added muscle, particularly when it comes to selling its packaged coffee in grocery and specialty food stores, Zell said.
Intelligentsia, Stumptown and Peet's combined operate roughly 300 cafes. Those cafes will continue to use traditional espresso machines and make every drink by hand, the executives said. Starbucks, which now has more than 23,000 cafes around the world, years ago switched from traditional espresso machines to automated units to reduce worker injuries and speed up service.
Emeryville, California-based Peet's is majority owned by JAB Holdings Co, a holding company controlled by Germany's billionaire Riemann family. JAB also owns Caribou Coffee.
Other major third-wave players include San Francisco-based Philz Coffee and Oakland, California-based Blue Bottle Coffee, which recently raised $70 million in a funding round led by Fidelity. Blue Bottle already has scooped up Los Angeles' Handsome Coffee Roasters and Tonx, a coffee subscription service.
Elsewhere, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya has taken a stake in La Colombe Coffee Roasters.
Starbucks took direct aim at its third-wave rivals late last year, spending an estimated $20 million to open a showcase reserve coffee roastery and tasting room in its hometown of Seattle.
The world's biggest coffee chain plans to open a similar facility in Asia next year and promises to add 100 reserve-only coffee shops in the coming years.
(Additional reporting by Luc Cohen; editing by Matthew Lewis and Diane Craft)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/30/intelligentsiacoffee-ma-peets-idUSL1N12U1K920151030z

Explanation: * Sophisticated:
**having a good understanding of the way people behave and/ or a good knowledge of culture and fashion
**clever in a complicated way and therefore able to do complicated tasks * Exotic:
** unusual and often exciting because of coming (or seeming to come) from a far, especially tropical country * Coaxed:
** to persuade someone gently to do something or go somewhere, by being kind and patient, or by appearing to be * Baristas:
**a person who serves customers in a modern coffee shop (= small restaurant that serves coffee) * Artisinal:
** pertaining to or noting a high-quality or distinctive product made in small quantities, usually by hand or using traditional methods: artisanal cheese * Connoisseur:
** a person who knows a lot about and enjoys one of the arts, or food, drink, etc. and can judge quality and skill in that subject * Roastery:
** A place where coffee beans are roasted and processed * Sentences: 1. Sophisticate:
Dr. Chu is sophisticate in her professional area, she is able to answer any questions from the public.

2. Exotic:
Some of the people always have some illusion dream, like meet someone and have an exotic relationship.

3. Coaxed:
Doctor coaxed those patients who have cancer, make sure they’re in a peace mood and won’t be too worst.

4. Baristas:
A professional baristas experience is much more important than a bachelor degree.

5. Artisinal:
Usually things that made by artisinal price will be higher because of its quality and quantity.

6. Connoisseur:
Working as a connoisseur can get you a commission after they complete their mission.

7. Roastery:
My parents hope that they can own a roastery coffee shop before they retire.

Feedback Through the classes and the research of the article it let me know more and even deeply about the topic. I’m quite interest at M&A so both of my articles are in the direction. From now on I only realize it’s not that easy to merge a company. It needs to be well preparing in case it won’t affect the head quarter. Thus, those companies who plan to merge the others it should has strong financial support. In the other hand it also helps me to learn more details about merge & acquisition. At first I thought people just care about the share and make sure they have the authority to control everything. But it not just about the power but also the skills, the leaderships, the management and etc. All of these are required to make sure the company can work smoothly or even better and better in the future. I’m very glad that not only the vocabulary we can learn in the articles or chapter but also the general knowledge in business area.