ReleaseWire

An investigation on behalf of current long-term investors in shares of Polycom Inc (NASDAQ:PLCM) shares was announced over potential breaches of fiduciary duties by certain officers and directors at Polycom.

An investigation on behalf of investors, who currently hold shares of Courier Corporation (NASDAQ:CRRC), was announced concerning whether the takeover of Courier by Quad/Graphics, Inc for a value of $20.50 per shares is unfair to NASDAQ:CRRC stockholders.

An investigation on behalf of current long-term investors in shares of Virtus Allocator Premium AlphaSector Fund Class A (MUTF:VAAAX) shares was announced over potential breaches of fiduciary duties.

An investor, who purchased shares of Altisource Asset Management Corp (NYSEMKT:AAMC), filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws by Altisource Asset Management Corporation (NYSE:AAMC) and certain of the executive officers and directors of the Company in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between April 19, 2013 and January 12, 2015.

An investor in shares of PIMCO ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:BOND) filed a lawsuit against Pacific Investment Management Company and PIMCO Investments for alleged breach of fiduciary duty in connection with bonuses paid to certain PIMCO's Executives.

A deadline is coming up on March 18, 2015 in the settlement reached in the securities class action lawsuit filed on behalf of investors who purchased shares of CRM Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ: CRMH) between December 20, 2005 and November 5, 2008.

While Romania boasts a wide array of tourist attractions, its tourism market is underdeveloped and facing significant challenges (such as poor infrastructure and political tens ions in neighbouring countries). In addition, Romania has been overly reliant on attracting visitors of neighbouring countries and has struggled to attract visitors from more prosperous countries. However, if it can convince countries such as Germany and the Netherlands that it can function in the Schengen Area, inbound and outbound travel are likely to increase substantially.

Towards the end of the review period, the German economy performed very well, boosting average disposable income levels and promoting expenditure on travel and tourism and retailing. All of these trends were favourable for sales of bags and luggage during 2014 as growing demand, especially for high-quality products with high levels of functionality and sophistication and products with interesting and individual designs, brought positive volume and value growth to the category. Sports bags and backpacks with clever designs numerous and compartments for easy access to items stored within them remained especially popular among fitness enthusiasts, especially those interested in order to outdoor activities such as hiking and skiing. Purses and wallets with similarly practical features and designs and additional linings which can protect chip cards from RFID attacks as well as luxurious designs is also growing among German women and men of all ages and income levels, thereby increasing overall value and volume growth in bags and luggage towards the end of the review period.

We currently forecast 2.6% real growth in Israel's construction industry in 2015, following an estimated contraction of 0.4% in 2014. Our forecast is supported by low base effects and a recovery in gross fixed capital formation (GFCF). We maintain our medium-to-long term favourable view of Israel's construction market and we forecast an average growth rate of 2.3% between 2016 and 2024.

Cigarettes continues witnessing adverse impacts from restrictive regulations which took place during the review period. Not only direct advertisements of cigarettes, but also any kind of indirect promotion, distribution of sample cigarettes, cigarette-branded t-shirts and other non-cigarette products became fully prohibited. Restrictive regulations apply also to the sphere of retailing: appearance of cigarette brands in posters is now prohibited. As the last step in anti-tobacco initiatives,...

Consumers continued to dine out in 2013 as more parents work and lack the time to cook meals at home. Besides, many consumers are choosing to eat in outlets located conveniently near their office or home. Therefore, leisure has become an increasingly ideal location type for consumers looking to relax after work.

In 2013 chilled processed food packaging in Russia did not see significant change. There are two main packaging types: flexible plastic and thin wall plastic containers, though the former dominates unit volume share. One reason is that these packaging formats are cheaper than others, especially microwaveable ones. Moreover, chilled processed food is usually consumed cold in Russia or it requires more complicated cooking processes than microwaving. Thus, consumers do not pay much attention to...

Infrastructure outsourcing refers to the outsourcing of data centers, desktop services, help desks, networks, and other related services. This enables the transfer of managerial responsibilities that include offering an optimized, secure, and scalable IT infrastructure to an external provider. The demand for service integration and automation of infrastructure services has been driving the demand for infrastructure outsourcing services. The top four end-users of the market are the BFSI, Government, Manufacturing, and Telecommunications sectors.

Declining by 1% in current value terms in 2014, mixed retailers were undermined by a poor economic climate in Finland as well as growing sales via internet retailing. The decline was due to a poor performance for department stores, which suffered from several store closures and a declining number of consumers during the year.

Consumer electronic devices have historically represented stand-alone objects functioning in isolation. This is rapidly changing as high-end consumer appliances, digital equipment, and assets as well as many lower cost devices gain connectivity through embedded computing and communications. A Connected Consumer Devices is any device in physical and software form that is used by a consumer user for various purposes including entertainment, news, information, and general lifestyle enhancement.

In 2012-2013 manufacturers of sauces continued the diversification of packaging formats, mainly through the launch of plastic pouches, PET jars and bottles and squeezable plastic tubes in new sizes. The fall of glass bottles in packaging volume share was insignificant. Various manufacturers continued the production of glass pack types, simply adding other pack types to their portfolios. Although more expensive than other types, glass packaging is always demanded by consumers, who believe it improves the aesthetic of the product. Glass bottles and jars are regarded as clean and glass as a material does not negatively impact the contents. As a result, glass jars holds a strong position in sauces packaging, though plastic pouches holds the biggest unit volume share.

The growing availability of smartphones at a wider range of price points in Saudi Arabia, as well as the progressive reduction in the overall unit prices of these phones, fuelled demand for these phones from a wider section of the consumer base in the country, thus supporting the strong growth rate recorded by smartphones in 2014. Furthermore, internet surfing and social media are quickly becoming favoured pastimes amongst Saudis, with the contagion effect causing more and more people to take up these pastimes, and thus invest in a smartphone as a means of gaining access. Accordingly, smartphones increased by 24% in retail volume terms in 2014.

In 2014 direct selling grew by 10% in current value terms. The performance of this category is deeply influenced by sales of beauty and personal care direct sellers, which offer attractive discounts and promotional prices and frequently focus on product innovation.

Even though value sales of watches in Germany are expected to have registered further declines volume and value sales over the course of 2014, overall volume sales of watches remain at a fairly high level in the country. Opposing trends such as the use of smartphones and feature phones to show tell the time instead of watches in addition to the decline being recorded in the general consumer base for watches, which is the result of the progressive ageing of the German population and the overall decline being recorded in the size of the German population, continue to have a relatively limited impact on overall volume sales of watches, which remain at relatively high levels, ensuring that per capita volume sales of watches in Germany remain consistently high.

In 2013, there was an explosion of new product development within RYO tobacco in Serbia. Many manufacturers and distributors recognise the importance of this product area, due to consumers switching from cigarettes to RYO tobacco in order to save money. Cigarette prices soared during the review period due to higher tax, with more consumers thus becoming attracted to RYO tobacco. Major new product development in 2013 came from major players, with sales in 2013 indeed led by the new launches of Filter 57 and Bond Street from Imperial Tobacco and Philip Morris respectively.

After back-to-back years of contraction in both production and consumption in the metals sector in the Ukraine between 2012 and 2013, the sector turned a corner last year. Despite being rocked by the ongoing conflict with Russia and the subsequent political and economic uncertainty BMI estimates that the sector bounced back to post a 3.5% y-o-y gain in output and a 3.1% y-o-y increase in use. Going forward,, Ukraine's metals sector will see modest growth over our forecast period to the end of 2018, with a handful of new projects to increase production growth. Production will not return to pre-crisis highs, however, due to global overcapacity and steel prices not making substantive gains over 2013 - they have, however, since improved. There are no major expansions on the cards, and no major players in either the aluminium or steel industries have announced substantial investment plans.

The Ecuadorian Government made several changes in terms of laws and regulations at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. The COMEX (External Commerce Committee, in Spanish), created the 116 Resolution, which regulates the imports of over 293 tariff subheadings through local quality controls and certificates from the Norms Institute (INEN in Spanish). Also, in November 2013 the General Regulation of the Organic Communication Law was launched and determined different parameters for companies...

This report elaborates Austria's power market structure and provides historical and forecast numbers for generation, capacity and consumption up to 2030. Detailed analysis of the Austrian power market's regulatory structure, import and export trends, competitive landscape and power projects at various stages of the supply chain is provided. The report also gives a snapshot of the power sector in Austria on broad parameters of macroeconomics, supply security, generation infrastructure, transmission infrastructure, degree of competition, regulatory scenario and future potential.

Vietnam's insurance sector is expansive and dynamic, and slowly continues to develop into a more sophisticated market. Slow economic growth and a harsh competitive environment have plagued the sector in the last few years; however, new innovation generated by multinational companies has had a positive effect on demand for insurance. In addition, considering Vietnam's changing demographic structure, we certainly have a favourable outlook for premium growth in the years to come.

This report presents worldwide IPTV subscriber market forecast, as well as recent quarter review of regional markets and market share by vendor. This report finds that the global IPTV subscriber base totaled around 102.7 million in the second quarter of 2014, up 27% year-on-year. Asia Pacific has become the largest IPTV subscriber market in the world, boasting 50.49 million subscribers, which are equivalent to 49.2% of the global IPTV population. In Latin America and Southeast Asia, although IPTV services are only in the introduction stage, the fast deployment of domestic fiber networks in both regions has continued to see continued subscriber growth. The global IPTV subscriber market have seen over 100 million subscribers by the end of first half of 2014 and is estimated to have climbed to approximately 113 million by the end of 2014.