Avengers: Age Of Ultron – The Age Of Marvel Continues To Create Greatness

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

It has been said over many years that lightning never strikes twice in the same place. We know that, scientifically speaking, this is not true.  However in the movie industry, more often than not, it is true. In this age of movie making that is replete with sequels, prequels, and remakes, it seems that for the most part, when there is a great movie, it is usually followed by another film that is less than what is expected. But as we all know, there are exceptions to almost every rule, and Marvel would seem to have figured out how to make movies that are consistently as good as, if not better than the ones that come before their previous efforts.

Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron is once again proof that lightning, at least as far as movies are concerned, can not only strike twice, but multiple times.  What is it with this studio?  They seem to have hit on a formula, or some device that has brought hit after hit to the big screen. I’m not complaining, mind you, but it is impressive.

Age of Ultron opens with a massive battle scene that finds the Avengers advancing on a large castle-like structure that houses a Hydra outpost.  Inside is Baron von Strucker who has been working on enhancing human abilities using Loki’s scepter. The result of his experimentation are a brother and sister duo Pietro (Quicksilver) with the power of super speed, and Wanda (Scarlet Witch) who can manipulate minds and throw energy bursts.  After the running battle, Tony Stark captures Loki’s scepter and all return to Stark’s tower that has become the base of operations for the Avengers.

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A drifting barge was about an hour away from hitting BP’s oil installations at the Valhall oilfield in the North Sea, a spokesman said on Thursday.

When asked about the risk of an oil spill, company spokesman Jan Erik Geirmo said: “It depends on which platform the barge hits as there are several installations in the field, but there is no oil stored on the platforms, it’s transported by pipelines.”

The remaining platform staff was expected to be evacuated within the next 15 minutes, he told the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by William Hardy)

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Investor enthusiasm for highly valued private tech companies waned substantially in the fourth quarter last year, with new data revealing that the growth of the so-called ‘unicorn’ herd slowed dramatically.

Just nine tech companies last quarter became unicorns, or venture-backed companies valued in the private market at $1 billion or more, according to data released on Thursday by CB Insights, which tracks venture capital and angel investments globally into private companies.

That compares to 23 companies that became unicorns in both the second and third quarters last year.

“Sentiment got very negative” toward the end of the third quarter, Anand Sanwal, CB Insights CEO and co-founder, said in an email. “And while we expected that would manifest in the funding stats, we were surprised to see the hit so quickly – in just the next quarter.”

With an abundance of cash available in the private market, startups have stayed private much longer than in previous tech booms, sustained by funding rounds of hundreds of millions, and even billions, of dollars. Along the way, their valuations swelled.

According to CB Insights, there are 144 unicorns globally with a cumulative valuation of $525 billion.

But market turbulence last summer brought anxieties about those valuations to the forefront, and investors began showing more discretion.

San Francisco mobile payments company Square Inc took a 42 percent discount in its initial public offering in November, stoking fears that the public market would not support highly priced tech companies.

The data from CB Insights offers new evidence that investors have responded by tightening their purse strings. In the fourth quarter of last year, there were 39 financing deals of $100 million or more. There were 72 such deals in the third quarter and 65 in the second quarter.

These so-called mega-deals first appeared in 2014, according to venture capital analysts.

“Some of these big deals are cannibalizing what would have been IPOs,” said Tom Ciccolella, U.S. venture capital leader at consulting firm PwC.

Overall venture capital funding fell 29 percent to $27.3 billion in the fourth quarter from $38.7 billion in the third quarter. The number of financing deals also dipped from 2,008 to 1,743.

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Apple suppliers Cirrus Logic Inc and Qorvo Inc estimated third-quarter revenue below analysts’ expectations, exacerbating fears about softening iPhone demand.

Cirrus shares slumped 9.5 percent to $24.25 in after-market trading on Thursday, while Qorvo’s fell 12.4 percent.

Cirrus said it expected third-quarter revenue of about $347 million, well below analysts’ average estimate of $385.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Chipmaker Qorvo said it expected third-quarter revenue of about $620 million, well below the average analyst estimate of $723.7 million.

Japanese daily Nikkei, citing parts suppliers, said output of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus models would be cut by about 30 percent in the January-March time frame so dealers could offload stock.

(This story corrects the first paragraph to say Cirrus and Qorvo estimated third-quarter, not current-quarter, revenue below analysts’ expectations. It also corrects the headline to conform.)

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The alliance between automakers Renault and Nissan will launch more than 10 cars with self-driving technology over the next four years in the United States, Europe, China and Japan, the partnership’s leader said on Thursday.

The alliance also said it hired technology executive Ogi Redzic to lead its connected car efforts as senior vice president for connected vehicles and mobility services. Redzic most recently worked at mapping business Nokia HERE overseeing the automotive business group.

Vehicles with self-driving technology will debut this year, said Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and chairman of the Renault-Nissan alliance. The cars will have a feature called “single-lane control” that allows them to drive autonomously on highways without switching lanes.

Renault-Nissan will also launch an app for mobile devices this year that allows users to interact remotely with their cars, such as by controlling music or the car’s temperature.

By 2018, Ghosn said the alliance will start selling vehicles with “multiple-lane control,” meaning they can autonomously change lanes on highways and navigate heavy traffic. By 2020, the alliance will have cars that can drive through city intersections and heavy city traffic on their own.

Several companies, including Tesla Motors (TSLA.O) and Google Inc (GOOGL.O), are working to build self-driving cars and technology that allows users to control their cars from their smartphones.

Renault-Nissan is a partnership between Paris-based Renault and Japanese carmaker Nissan that combined the companies’ engineering teams. They still operate as two separate companies.

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Yahoo is working on a plan to cut its workforce by at least 10 percent and it could start the process as early as this month, Business Insider reported, citing sources.

“We are not confirming this rumor or commenting further”, Sarah Meron, a spokeswoman for Yahoo told Reuters on Thursday in an e-mail.

The layoffs, which would result in more than 1,000 people leaving the tech giant, is set to affect Yahoo’s media business, European operations, and platforms-technology group, Business Insider said on Wednesday.(read.bi/1ZawbOm)

This move follows activist investor Starboard Value LP’s letter to Yahoo on Wednesday ramping up pressure on Yahoo, taking aim at Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer and her leadership team and raising the prospect that a proxy battle is approaching.

Starboard implied that Mayer and her officers needed to go, without naming her specifically.

The activist investor also threatened to shake up the board if Yahoo’s stock continued to suffer.

Yahoo spokeswoman Rebecca Neufeld said the company will provide more details on its turnaround plan prior to its fourth quarter earnings call later this month.

Starboard, which owns about 0.75 percent of Yahoo, has been pushing for changes at the Internet company since 2014, urging it to separate its Asian assets and auction off the core business.

The investor, together with other shareholders, has demanded Yahoo separate the Asian assets, including stakes in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) and Yahoo Japan Corp (4689.T), and conduct an immediate public auction of the core business, including search and advertising businesses.

But Yahoo is resisting, instead pursuing a tax-free spinoff of the core business, which could take at least a year.

Yahoo had appointed management consulting firm McKinsey & Co, in November, to help with the reorganization of its core businesses.

The company also had plans to make big changes to its media unit, restructuring and consolidating it, including making cuts and shuttering some efforts.

In December, Yahoo shelved plans to spin off the Alibaba stake and said it would create a separate company that would house Yahoo’s Internet business and its stake in Yahoo Japan.