West Highland Way
Socket Mobile, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCKT), an innovative provider of mobile productivity solutions, today announced that Signature Bars Ireland, an operator of 10 top-quality restaurants and bars located in the Dublin Airport, have selected Cratos Hospitality Solutions and Socket Mobile as providers of their electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) system. The EPOS system consists of EPOS and stock control software from Cratos Hospitality and the Socket SoMo® 650 handheld computer.
With Cratos EPOS software running on the SoMo 650, waiters can send food and drink orders directly from customer tableside to the kitchen or bar over a wireless network. Wait staff spends less time walking to and from the kitchen or bar and more time taking care of customers, resulting in improved productivity and higher quality service.
“The SoMo 650 has been a great solution for Cratos Hospitality because it provides all the core functionality restaurants need for mobile point of sale without unnecessary features found in other manufacturers devices,” said David McIntosh, managing director of Cratos Hospitality. “Its priced ideally for the UK market, and for the restaurant sector that we sell into, its mix of features is spot on perfect.”
In April 2010, when the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull caused a massive ash cloud that disrupted air traffic across northern Europe and left thousands of travelers stranded at Dublin Airport, the Cratos and Socket EPOS system was put to the test as one Signature Bars restaurant using the system experienced three to four times its normal volume of customers.
“Signature Bars wanted an EPOS system that was efficient and could stand up to high volumes of turnover,” said McIntosh. “When the volcano in Iceland erupted, Dublin airport had its busiest day ever, and our system with the SoMo 650 handheld computer stood up to it.”
Going with the notion too big to fail, the American people saw a falling giant in the insurance industry, AIG, received $182 billion bailout funds since September 2008. People realized that the U.S. had been caught in a sand-trap, and from there a great depression gripped the American economy and toppled global economy into a recession. It has been a long walk in the scorched sand for the U.S. Nonetheless, the U.S. economy slowly saw some signs of recovery in 2010, even if global economic environment continues to stay uncertain. AIG on its part has been shedding its assets to willing buyers as part of it strategy to pay off its Federal loans. These endeavors, however, have been riddled with challenges as the financial sector worldwide was in a state of turmoil and AIG assets were not overly appealing for many. A recent failure to conclude sales was reported at the very beginning of this month when AIG declined to let go of its AIA Group for $30.5 billion which was initially priced at $35.5 billion. The potential buyer was U.K. based insurer Prudential PLC.
AIG is now rumored to continue with its asset sales strategy with two of its Japanese insurance units, AIG Edison Life Insurance Co. and AIG Star Life Insurance Co. These are the same two assets that the company had decided not to sell in late 2009. With AIG placing these units back for sales, a number of industry experts believe that these units are perfect acquisition targets for Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: PRU). Prudential Financial has been very active on the Japanese market and has every intention of growing its presence in this region as indicated by its most recent quarter figures. Another asset sales that have made the headlines in March 2010, is the sales of the Alico to MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) in the next few months for a total of $15.5 billion — that is $6.8 billion in cash and the rest in MetLife stocks.
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