Honda and Nissan Officially Pursuing a Merger

Honda and Nissan are officially pursuing a merger, a deal that will see the two automakers—along with Mitsubishi—combine to become the third-largest in the world.

Reports emerged last week that the two Japanese automakers were exploring a merger, although no official word had been given. In a joint press release, Honda and Nissan executives said the merger would help the two companies further a carbon-neutral and zero-traffic-fatality society.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (“Nissan”) and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (“Honda”) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to start discussions and considerations toward a business integration between the two companies through the establishment of a joint holding company.

To further accelerate their efforts toward achieving a carbon-neutral society and a zero-traffic-fatality society, Nissan and Honda signed an MOU on March 15 regarding a strategic partnership for the era of vehicle intelligence and electrification. Since then, the two companies have held discussions aimed at collaboration in various fields.

The two companies plan to integrate their management teams, as well as their automotive tech to become a “leading global mobility company.”

If the business integration can be realized, both companies can aim to integrate their respective management resources such as knowledge, human resources, and technologies; create deeper synergies; enhance the ability to respond to market changes; and expect to improve mid- to long-term corporate value. Additionally, Nissan and Honda can aim to further contribute to the development of Japan’s industrial base as a “leading global mobility company” by integrating Nissan and Honda’s four-wheel-vehicle and Honda’s motorcycle and power products businesses, enabling the brands of both companies to become more attractive and to deliver more attractive and innovative products and services to customers worldwide.

“Today marks a pivotal moment as we begin discussions on business integration that has the potential to shape our future,” said Makoto Uchida, Nissan CEO. “If realized, I believe that by uniting the strengths of both companies, we can deliver unparalleled value to customers worldwide who appreciate our respective brands. Together, we can create a unique way for them to enjoy cars that neither company could achieve alone.”

“Creation of new mobility value by bringing together the resources including knowledge, talents, and technologies that Honda and Nissan have been developing over the long years is essential to overcome challenging environmental shifts that the auto industry is facing. Honda and Nissan are two companies with distinctive strengths,” added Toshihiro Mibe, Honda Director and Representative Executive Officer. “We are still at the stage of starting our review, and we have not decided on a business integration yet, but in order to find a direction for the possibility of business integration by the end of January 2025, we strive to be the one and only leading company that creates new mobility value through chemical reaction that can only be driven through synthesis of the two teams.”

The Mitsubishi Question

Nissan is currently the largest shareholder in Mitsubishi, with a controlling stake of 34%. Although neither company has specifically addressed Mitsubishi, the automaker’s status is a major question in the merger scenario.

If Mitsubishi is included in the terms of the merger, it will help make the combined company the number three automaker in the world, a status that would help it improved its ability to compete at scale. The companies acknowledged the importance of the scale a merger would bring:

• By standardizing the vehicle platforms of both companies across various product segments, the companies expect to create stronger products, reduce costs, enhance development efficiencies, and improve investment efficiencies through standardized production processes.
• The integration is projected to increase sales and operational volumes, allowing the companies to reduce development costs per vehicle, including for future digital services, while maximizing profits.
• By accelerating the mutual complementation of their global vehicle offerings – including ICE, HEV, PHEV, and EV models – Nissan and Honda will be better positioned to meet diverse customer needs around the world and deliver optimal products, leading to improved customer satisfaction.

We will continue to monitor the story as it develops.

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Grammarly Acquiring Coda; Coda CEO to Lead Company

Grammarly is acquiring productivity platform Coda, with the latter’s CEO, Shishir Mehrotra, to lead the combined company.

Grammarly is one of the leading platforms for writers and professionals to check their work, correct mistakes, and receive suggestions on how to improve their writing. The platform has increasingly incorporated AI, making it a powerful tool for professional and novice writers alike.

Meanwhile, Coda is an all-in-one platform that combines documents, spreadsheets, applications, databases, and team communication, as well as an AI assistant that can handle much of a team’s “busywork.”

Mehrotra says the combination of the two companies will dramatically accelerate Coda’s mission.

This represents an opportunity for dramatic acceleration of the Coda product and our mission. For the tens of thousands of teams that rely on Coda docs every day, you can count on those docs to continue working as they do now, and you’ll see fast innovation as we supercharge them with our joint AI roadmap.

Mehrotra says a shared vision of a future where AI-powered productivity suite’s are the norm.

As I watched the foundational capabilities of AI change how just about every tool and surface operates, I started drafting my 2025 planning memo for the team. I titled it “the AI-native productivity suite.”

I shared this memo with my close advisors, and one of them suggested that I connect with the Grammarly team. I asked for more context, but they said, “Just trust me, you’ll have a lot more to talk about than you think.” So Coda co-founder Alex DeNeui and I spent a full day with the Grammarly leaders. It was one of the most fun meetings I’ve been a part of — a day full of brainstorming and ideas, lots of head nodding, and more than a few high-fives.

I also learned a lot about Grammarly. With 40 million active users, Grammarly is actually the original AI assistant, one that’s provided AI-powered suggestions to users for the past 15 years. Beyond being an incredibly smart assistant, Grammarly seamlessly blends with your existing tools and works with over 500,000 applications and websites to provide meaningful assistance directly inline, wherever you’re working. While the Coda team has been busy redefining a new blinking cursor, the Grammarly team has been busy making every existing blinking cursor much smarter. But most excitingly, the Grammarly leaders shared their future vision for Grammarly with me — and the resemblance to my Coda vision memo was extraordinary.

Once discussions between the two companies began, both parties realized they had much to offer each other, and could accelerate their development by combining forces.

We discussed each of our paths to achieving this vision, and while both teams felt confident in their paths, it was obvious that we would move much faster together. The way that each of us has approached this market is different but inherently complementary. And so the conversation became… “What if we merged the companies?”

Over the next few days, through discussions with Grammarly CEO (Rahul Roy-Chowdhury) and the co-founders (Max Lytvyn and Alex Shevchenko) we started sketching out what a combined company would feel like: how the teams would fit together, where the products could immediately integrate and amplify, etc. And we also discussed the leadership structure, and agreed that I would lead the joint company as CEO.

With a round of sushi and some sake, we shook hands — excited to work together on the future of AI.

Moving Forward

Moving forward, the combined teams will be working to improve Grammarly, making it even “smarter” and “more helpful” by using Coda Brain to help the writing assistant better understand context, and be able to tap into a user’s other documents and assets to provide additional insights.

The teams will also be combining Grammarly with Coda Docs, giving users more flexibility in how they work and manage their documents and projects.

While many mergers often result in a popular product or platform losing much of its appeal as it’s cannibalized by the buyer, the merge of Coda and Grammarly looks poised to be one of those rare mergers where the end result will be a stronger product that benefits customers of both platforms.

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Common CRM Challenges for Small Businesses and How to Solve Them

The ways of managing customer relationships are crucial to any small business’s success, although this task has its complications. A Customer Relationship Management system can really help small businesses, but they often face challenges like not being able to track customer interactions properly or not using resources efficiently.

This guide is here to walk you through common challenges small businesses face with CRM systems and offer practical tips to solve them.

Identifying the Right CRM Solution

Choosing the right client relationship management software for small business is a critical step toward streamlining operations and improving customer interactions. Small businesses have lots of choices at their disposal and must identify their particular requirements and objectives. These aspects, for example, can be limited by budget restrictions, intuitive interface, the possibility of expanding functionality, and compatibility with other applications.

There is also a need to look into areas that will address organizational objectives, which include the possibility of lead tracking and follow-up, repetitive tasks, and reporting capabilities. To select the right client relationship management software one should see the reviews, request the demonstrations, and try to use the available free trials so that the software would become an inalienable part of the work and would contribute to the development of the cooperation with the clients.

Integration Challenges

One of the main issues associated with adopting a new CRM system is that it has to be integrated with tools and workflows that are already in place in the context of a small business. This process is never easy and, if uncoordinated and without the help of professionals, can lead to large data islands, poor processes, and sometimes user rebellion due to misunderstanding or disruption of their patterns.

To eliminate these risks it is crucial to select a CRM solution that should be compatible with other crucial systems like email marketing, accounting, customer support, and project management systems. Integrating systems properly means that data can be transferred from one system to another in order to help teams perform and make better decisions.

The first step in avoiding problems in the future is to carve out the time to better understand how your workflows currently connect and where integration may be possible. If the process looks discouraging, it might be helpful to consult with a professional specialist or pay for your team’s training sessions to make the transition smoother and integrate problematic issues more efficiently.

This investment of time and energy at the beginning can prevent headaches and inefficiencies further down the line while making certain that your CRM is a genuine improvement to your organization’s operation.

Data Management

Lack of clean and accurate data in the CRM system is one of the most frequent issues that small businesses come across. Inaccurate, outdated, or missing customer data not only harms good decision-making but also customer satisfaction communication, and retention.

For instance, when sending marketing emails to the incorrect email address or when a company does not update the clients’ preferences, such avenues turn into losses and even trigger acts that harm relations. To counter these problems, small businesses need to define data management procedures and educate all their staff members about correct and authoritative ways to input, change, and sort customer data.

This ranges from the development of standard forms of data entry and data checklists, data verification checks by the automated system to the enforcement of penalties for violation of data integrity among the team.

User Adoption

The success of most CRM solutions even if they are equipped with the latest software applications lies in the ability of its users to embrace it. This is where even the most potent system can let the company down if the employees are not fully committed.

Otherwise, it can lead to situations when employees do not understand the advantages of this system, feel overloaded by its options, or simply do not want to use it in practice. Failure to adopt the systems results in data entry irregularity, lost opportunity, and underutilization of tools/techniques that are crucial in the growth of the business.

Hence, for maximum usage by users of the small business, the employees should be engaged in the choice to provide information regarding the features that best suit them at the workplace. It also assists in the selection of a good system and minimizes conflicts within the staff since they feel like it belongs to them.

Customer Engagement Strategies

Having a comprehensive CRM system in place is crucial for small businesses looking to build meaningful relationships with their customers. A good CRM allows businesses to track and analyze customer interactions across multiple channels, providing valuable insights into behaviors, preferences, and buying patterns. With this information, businesses can develop more effective engagement strategies, such as personalizing their marketing campaigns to meet individual customer needs, which can significantly increase brand loyalty.

CRM systems also help identify potential upsell or cross-sell opportunities by highlighting trends in purchasing history or preferences. For example, if a customer frequently buys a certain product, the CRM can prompt the business to offer complementary or upgraded options, boosting overall sales.

To Summarize

A well-implemented CRM system can be a game changer for small businesses, helping to manage customer relationships, streamline workflows, and boost overall efficiency. That said, choosing the right CRM and keeping it running smoothly takes some effort. To get the most out of it, focus on tackling common challenges like integration problems, data management, and user adoption. With the right approach, the benefits are well worth it.

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How Payment Service Providers Can Benefit from Leasing a White-Label Payment Gateway in MENA

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has witnessed exponential growth in digital payments over the last decade. With increasing smartphone consumption, a young tech-savvy population, and governments advocating for cashless societies, the payment ecosystem is ripe for innovation. Payment Service Providers (PSPs) in MENA are at the forefront of this evolution, seeking solutions to enhance their offerings and gain a competitive edge. One such solution is leasing a white-label payment gateway.

What Is a White-Label Payment Gateway?

A white-label payment gateway is a ready-made payment processing solution that can be customized and branded as per the requirements of the PSP. Instead of building a payment gateway from scratch, PSPs can lease these platforms and focus on enhancing customer experience and expanding their market reach. The white-label solution often comes with essential features such as fraud detection, multi-currency support, integration APIs, and compliance with regional regulations. 

Why MENA Is a Strategic Market for PSPs

The MENA region is experiencing a digital transformation driven by increased internet penetration and a shift toward online transactions. According to industry reports, the digital payments market in the region is projected to grow significantly, fueled by sectors like retail, travel, and fintech. PSPs in MENA must act quickly to capitalize on this growth and meet the evolving demands of merchants and consumers.

Governments across MENA are actively encouraging cashless transactions. For instance, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the UAE’s National Payments Strategy aim to reduce dependency on cash and promote digital payments. Such initiatives create a favorable environment for PSPs to expand their operations and introduce innovative solutions.

Benefits of Leasing a White-Label Payment Gateway

Reduced Development and Maintenance Costs

Building a payment gateway from scratch requires significant investment in technology, development, and ongoing maintenance. Leasing a white-label solution eliminates these costs, enabling PSPs to allocate resources to other critical areas like marketing, merchant acquisition, and customer support.

Scalable Pricing Models 

Most white-label providers offer flexible pricing models, such as pay-as-you-go or tiered pricing. This allows PSPs to scale their operations without the burden of upfront capital expenditure, making it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes.

Faster Time-to-Market

In a competitive market like MENA, speed is crucial. Leasing a white-label payment gateway enables PSPs to launch their services quickly without the delays associated with custom development. This is particularly advantageous for PSPs looking to enter new markets or introduce new features ahead of their competitors.

Customization and Branding

White-label payment gateways can be tailored to reflect the PSP’s brand identity. From logos and color schemes to user interfaces and custom functionalities, PSPs can create a unique product that resonates with their target audience. This enhances brand recognition and fosters customer loyalty.

Compliance with Regional Regulations

The MENA region has diverse regulatory requirements, ranging from data protection laws to anti-money laundering (AML) standards. White-label payment gateways often come pre-configured to comply with these regulations, reducing the compliance burden on PSPs.

Advanced Technology and Security

White-label payment gateways typically offer advanced features such as tokenization, 3D Secure authentication, and real-time analytics. These features enhance the payment experience for merchants and customers alike.

Robust Security Protocols 

Security is a top concern in the payments industry. White-label providers invest heavily in security measures such as PCI DSS compliance, encryption, and fraud prevention, ensuring that PSPs can offer secure transactions without additional investment.

Multi-Currency and Multi-Language Support

The MENA region comprises diverse markets with different currencies and languages. White-label payment gateways are equipped to handle multi-currency transactions and provide multi-language support, making it easier for PSPs to serve cross-border merchants and customers.

The Role of White-Label Solutions in Enhancing Customer Experience

In a market as diverse as MENA, delivering a seamless and localized customer experience is critical for success. White-label payment gateways play a significant role in helping PSPs achieve this:

Personalization at Scale

White-label solutions allow PSPs to customize interfaces, payment flows, and branding to match customer expectations. Personalization helps PSPs build trust and loyalty among merchants and end-users, which is essential in highly competitive markets.

Multi-Channel Support

Customers in MENA increasingly expect seamless payment options across multiple channels, including mobile apps, websites, and in-store solutions. White-label payment gateways enable PSPs to provide an omnichannel experience, ensuring consistent service across all touchpoints.

Faster Issue Resolution

White-label providers often include advanced reporting and analytics tools. These allow PSPs to monitor transaction data in real time, identify issues promptly, and resolve them efficiently, thereby improving customer satisfaction.

Key Considerations When Leasing a White-Label Payment Gateway

PSPs should carefully evaluate potential white-label providers based on factors such as reliability, scalability, and customer support. Conducting thorough due diligence ensures that the chosen solution aligns with the PSP’s business objectives.

A white-label payment gateway should integrate seamlessly with existing systems, including merchant platforms, CRM tools, and accounting software. Easy integration minimizes disruption and enhances operational efficiency.

While leasing a white-label payment gateway is cost-effective, PSPs should consider the total cost of ownership, including transaction fees, customization costs, and potential future upgrades.

Real-World Applications in MENA

The MENA region is home to a burgeoning startup ecosystem. Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lack the resources to develop custom payment solutions. PSPs using white-label payment gateways can offer tailored solutions to these businesses, helping them accept online payments effortlessly.

With the rise of cross-border e-commerce, PSPs in MENA need to support international transactions. White-label payment gateways equipped with multi-currency and international payment capabilities empower PSPs to facilitate seamless cross-border trade.

Financial inclusion remains a priority in MENA, where large segments of the population are unbanked or underbanked. PSPs can leverage white-label payment gateways to introduce digital wallets, mobile payments, and other innovative solutions, bridging the financial gap.

Conclusions

Leasing a white-label payment gateway offers numerous benefits for Payment Service Providers in the MENA region, from cost savings and faster deployment to advanced technology and regulatory compliance. Akurateco provides a ready-to-use payment gateway platform featuring multi-currency support, fraud prevention tools, seamless integration options, and compliance with regional regulations. Designed to minimize operational complexities, the platform allows PSPs to focus on core business functions like merchant acquisition and customer retention, delivering secure, reliable, and scalable solutions.

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Apple Is Finally Nearing a Foldable iPhone Release

Apple users waiting for the company to release a foldable iPhone may not have to wait much longer, with the company reportedly planning to release one soon.

Apple’s iPhone represents roughly half of the company’s revenue, but designs in recent years have largely stagnated, offering users only incremental improvements. As a result, sales have largely plateaued as the company has struggled to convince users to upgrade to models that don’t offer much more than the ones they already have.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is preparing two major upgrades to its iPhone lineup. The first is a thinner model, less than the current models’ 8-millimeter design. WSJ says Apple intends to price the thinner phone at a point less than the Pro model. The new model is expected next year.

Meanwhile, the company is also working on not one but two foldable devices. WSJ reports that one of the models blurs the lines between tablet and laptop, with a screen that folds out to a whopping 19 inches.

The second model is a more traditionally sized phone, which will be larger than an iPhone 16 Pro Max when it is unfolded.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on a foldable iPhone but has not been satisfied by the limits of the technology. The company is known for creating some of the best-designed phones in the industry, with a near-maniacal focus on design. While foldable phones provide some significant advantages over traditional models, they also come with some equally significant trade-offs, especially when it comes to durability and battery life.

The fact that Apple appears to be closing in on a foldable release would seem to indicate that the company believes technology has finally reached a point where it can release a phone with minimal compromises. Either that or Apple is so desperate to jumpstart iPhone sales that it’s finally willing to accept the compromises that come along with such devices.

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Google Reportedly Tapping MediaTek for Pixel 10 Modems

Google is reportedly tapping MediaTek for Pixel 10 modems, a big win for the chip firm and a rebuttal of Qualcomm and Samsung.

MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Samsung are the three primary 5G modem makers, with Qualcomm often considered the industry leader. Google currently uses the Exynos Modem 5400 in its Pixel 9 lineup. According to Android Authority, however, Google plans to switch to MediaTek’s model in the Pixel 10.

There’s no reason given as to why Google is making the switch, as the Pixel 9 has acceptable 5G performance and has not received criticism on that front. Having said that, MediaTek has a solid reputation for delivering high-quality chips that offer solid performance and energy efficiency.

It’s not really a surprise that Google is eschewing Qualcomm’s offerings, as Qualcomm historically has a reputation for charging more for its components than its rivals, based largely on the performance advantages it offers. Google’s Pixel phones, however, are often priced significantly less than Apple’s iPhones or Samsung’s flagship devices, making a less expensive 5G modem an appealing option.

MediaTek also benefits from using TSMC to manufacture its chips, whereas Samsung traditionally manufactures its chips in-house. As a result, Samsung has struggled at times to offer the same level of power efficiency as MediaTek, with its Exynos chips being criticized for running hotter and using more power.

Overall, the switch from Samsung to MediaTek could provide a welcome upgrade to the Pixel lineup.

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Microsoft Touts Its Push to Adopt Passkeys

Microsoft is pushing users to adopt passkeys as part of its bid to improve cybersecurity, proclaiming that “the password era is ending.”

Microsoft is in the midst of a high-profile attempt to improve cybersecurity across its platforms, following a series of costly and embarrassing security failures. One of its endeavors is convincing users to adopt passkeys instead of passwords. Passkeys do away with the need for passwords by relying on a phone or other physical device to authenticate a user, or by using biometrics, such as a fingerprint or face scan.

Sangeeta Ranjit, Microsoft Group Product Manager, and Scott Bingham, Principal Product Manager, penned a blog post highlighting the company’s progress convincing users to switch to passkeys. The two executives begin by highlighting the cybersecurity challenges the company faces, and why passkeys are important.

At Microsoft, we block 7,000 attacks on passwords per second—almost double from a year ago. At the same time, we’ve seen adversary-in-the-middle phishing attacks increase by 146% year over year.1 Fortunately, we’ve never had a better solution to these pervasive attacks: passkeys.

Passkeys not only offer an improved user experience by letting you sign in faster with your face, fingerprint, or PIN, but they also aren’t susceptible to the same kinds of attacks as passwords. Plus, passkeys eliminate forgotten passwords and one-time codes and reduce support calls.

The executives say the company worked hard to get passkey adoption right, start small, experimenting to find the right path forward, and then ‘scaling like crazy.’ The pair say the results have been impressive, with passkeys greatly improving the authentication experience for most users.

To make sure we got our passkey experience right, we adopted a simple methodology: Start small, experiment, then scale like crazy. The results have been encouraging:

• Signing in with a passkey is three times faster than using a traditional password and eight times faster than a password and traditional multifactor authentication.
• Users are three times more successful signing in with passkeys than with passwords (98% versus 32%).
• 99% of users who start the passkey registration flow complete it.

Microsoft Passkey Data – Credit Microsoft

The blog post makes clear that Microsoft is intent on pushing users toward passkeys, furthering the demise of traditional passwords.

As we began to understand where and when to invite users to enroll passkeys, we also explored “how.” We ran multiple user studies and tested every pixel in our nudge screen to answer the question, “What would motivate a user to stop what they’re doing and enroll a passkey?”

First, we wanted to understand which value proposition would resonate most. Surprisingly, an easier sign in didn’t resonate with users as strongly as a faster or more secure sign in. Perhaps less surprising was discovering that security and speed resonated almost equally. Approximately 24% of users shown a message emphasizing security clicked through while approximately 27% of users shown messaging about speed clicked through.

If a user sees a nudge and chooses to enroll a passkey, great! But, if they see the nudge and decide that now isn’t the right time, we wanted to frame their decision in a positive way. The button text, “Skip for now,” respects that the user isn’t ready to enroll a passkey yet and lets them continue with what they were doing, but it also sets the expectation that we’re going to ask again. We’re implementing logic that determines how often to show a nudge so as not to overwhelm users, but we don’t let them permanently opt out of passkey invitations. We want users to get comfortable with the idea that passkeys will be the new normal.

The exciting results of our experiments are helping us craft the best experience possible for our users, and we’re continuing to evolve. We encourage you to run your own experiments as well. Your products and users are different from ours and you might discover different outcomes. However, if you’re looking for a good place to start, messaging about speed and security is probably a safe bet. We also encourage you to reference the fantastic research that the FIDO Alliance has done, along with the UX guidelines they’ve published.

Microsoft is clearly intent on transitioning all of its users to passkeys. While some users may be hesitant to make the switch, the company is right that passkeys are far more secure, while also offering some convenience benefits.

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