Electronic Business or e-business is a term which can be used for any kind of business or commercial transaction that includes sharing information across the internet. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, groups and individuals and can be seen a as one of the essential activities of any business. Electronic commerce focuses on the use of ICT to enable the external activities and relationships of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses or e business refers to business with help of internet i.e. doing business with the help of internet network. The term "e-business" was coined by IBM's marketing and Internet team in 1996.

History

In 1994, IBM, with its agency Ogilvy & Mather, began to use its foundation in IT solutions and expertise to market itself as a leader of conducting business on the Internet through the term "e-business." Then CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. was prepared to invest $1 billion to market this new brand.

After conducting worldwide market research in October 1997, IBM began with an eight-page piece in the Wall Street Journal that would introduce the concept of "e-business" and advertise IBM's expertise in the new field. IBM decided not to trademark the term "e-business" in the hopes that other companies would use the term and create an entire new industry. However, this proved to be too successful and by 2000, to differentiate itself, IBM launched a $300 million campaign about its "e-business infrastructure" capabilities. Since that time, the terms, "e-business" and "e-commerce" have been loosely interchangeable and have become a part of the common vernacular.

Business model

When organizations go online, they have to decide which e-business models best suit their goals. A business model is defined as the organization of product, service and information flows, and the source of revenues and benefits for suppliers and customers. The concept of e-business model is the same but used in the online presence.

Revenue model

A key component of the business model is the revenue model, which is a framework for generating revenues. It identifies which revenue source to pursue, what value to offer, how to price the value, and who pays for the value. It is a key component of a company's business model. It primarily identifies what product or service will be created in order to generate revenues and the ways in which the product or service will be sold.

Without a well defined revenue model, that is, a clear plan of how to generate revenues, new businesses will more likely struggle due to costs which they will not be able to sustain. By having a clear revenue model, a business can focus on a target audience, fund development plans for a product or service, establish marketing plans, begin a line of credit and raise capital.

E-commerce

E-commerce (short for "electronic commerce") is trading in products or services using computer networks, such as the Internet. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the transaction's life cycle, although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail.

Concerns

While much has been written of the economic advantages of Internet-enabled commerce, there is also evidence that some aspects of the internet such as maps and location-aware services may serve to reinforce economic inequality and the digital divide. Electronic commerce may be responsible for consolidation and the decline of mom-and-pop, brick and mortar businesses resulting in increases in income inequality. Author Andrew Keen, a long-time critic of the social transformations caused by the Internet, has recently focused on the economic effects of consolidation from Internet businesses. Keen cites a 2013 Institute for Local Self-Reliance report saying brick-and-mortar retailers employ 47 people for every $10 million in sales, while Amazon employs only 14. Similarly, the 700-employee room rental start-up Airbnb was valued at $10 billion in 2014, about half as much as Hilton Hotels, which employs 152,000 people. And car-sharing Internet startup Uber employs 1,000 full-time employees and is valued at $18.2 billion, about the same valuation as Avis and Hertz combined, which together employ almost 60,000 people.

Security

E-business systems naturally have greater security risks than traditional business systems, therefore it is important for e-business systems to be fully protected against these risks. A far greater number of people have access to e-businesses through the internet than would have access to a traditional business. Customers, suppliers, employees, and numerous other people use any particular e-business system daily and expect their confidential information to stay secure. Hackers are one of the great threats to the security of e-businesses. Some common security concerns for e-Businesses include keeping business and customer information private and confidential, authenticity of data, and data integrity. Some of the methods of protecting e-business security and keeping information secure include physical security measures as well as data storage, data transmission, anti-virus software, firewalls, and encryption to list a few.

Privacy and confidentiality

Confidentiality is the extent to which businesses makes personal information available to other businesses and individuals. With any business, confidential information must remain secure and only be accessible to the intended recipient. However, this becomes even more difficult when dealing with e-businesses specifically. To keep such information secure means protecting any electronic records and files from unauthorized access, as well as ensuring safe transmission and data storage of such information. Tools such as encryption and firewalls manage this specific concern within e-business.

Authenticity

E-business transactions pose greater challenges for establishing authenticity due to the ease with which electronic information may be altered and copied. Both parties in an e-business transaction want to have the assurance that the other party is who they claim to be, especially when a customer places an order and then submits a payment electronically. One common way to ensure this is to limit access to a network or trusted parties by using a virtual private network (VPN) technology. The establishment of authenticity is even greater when a combination of techniques are used, and such techniques involve checking "something you know" (i.e. password or PIN), "something you need" (i.e. credit card), or "something you are" (i.e. digital signatures or voice recognition methods). Many times in e-business, however, "something you are" is pretty strongly verified by checking the purchaser's "something you have" (i.e. credit card) and "something you know" (i.e. card number) .

Data integrity

Data integrity answers the question "Can the information be changed or corrupted in any way?" This leads to the assurance that the message received is identical to the message sent. A business needs to be confident that data is not changed in transit, whether deliberately or by accident. To help with data integrity, firewalls protect stored data against unauthorized access, while simply backing up data allows recovery should the data or equipment be damaged.

Non-repudiation

This concern deals with the existence of proof in a transaction. A business must have assurance that the receiving party or purchaser cannot deny that a transaction has occurred, and this means having sufficient evidence to prove the transaction. One way to address non-repudiation is using digital signatures. A digital signature not only ensures that a message or document has been electronically signed by the person, but since a digital signature can only be created by one person, it also ensures that this person cannot later deny that they provided their signature.

Access control

When certain electronic resources and information is limited to only a few authorized individuals, a business and its customers must have the assurance that no one else can access the systems or information. Fortunately, there are a variety of techniques to address this concern including firewalls, access privileges, user identification and authentication techniques (such as passwords and digital certificates), Virtual Private Networks (VPN), and much more.

Availability

This concern is specifically pertinent to a business' customers as certain information must be available when customers need it. Messages must be delivered in a reliable and timely fashion, and information must be stored and retrieved as required. Because availability of service is important for all e-business websites, steps must be taken to prevent disruption of service by events such as power outages and damage to physical infrastructure. Examples to address this include data backup, fire-suppression systems, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems, virus protection, as well as making sure that there is sufficient capacity to handle the demands posed by heavy network traffic.

Cost

The business internet which supports e-business has a cost to maintain of about $2 trillion in outsourced IT dollars just in the United States alone. With each website custom crafted and maintained in code, the maintenance burden is enormous. In the twenty-first century, look for new businesses that will help standardize the look and feel of the internet presence of a business to be more uniform in nature to help reduce the cost of maintenance. Expect maintenance by graphical software tools instead of directly by code as a key business proposition that will revolutionize the internet once again.

Security solutions

When it comes to security solutions, sustainable electronic business requires support for data integrity, strong authentication, and privacy.

Access and data integrity

There are several different ways to prevent access to the data that is kept online. One way is to use anti-virus software. This is something that most people use to protect their networks regardless of the data they have. E-businesses should use this because they can then be sure that the information sent and received to their system is clean. A second way to protect the data is to use firewalls and network protection. A firewall is used to restrict access to private networks, as well as public networks that a company may use. The firewall also has the ability to log attempts into the network and provide warnings as it is happening. They are very beneficial to keep third-parties out of the network. Businesses that use Wi-Fi need to consider different forms of protection because these networks are easier for someone to access. They should look into protected access, virtual private networks, or internet protocol security. Another option they have is an intrusion detection sy stem. This system alerts when there are possible intrusions. Some companies set up traps or "hot spots" to attract people and are then able to know when someone is trying to hack into that area.

Encryption

Encryption, which is actually a part of cryptography, involves transforming texts or messages into a code which is unreadable. These messages have to be decrypted in order to be understandable or usable for someone. There is a key that identifies the data to a certain person or company. With public key encryption, there are actually two keys used. One is public and one is private. The public one is used for encryption, and the private for decryption. The level of the actual encryption can be adjusted and should be based on the information. The key can be just a simple slide of letters or a completely random mix-up of letters. This is relatively easy to implement because there is software that a company can purchase. A company needs to be sure that their keys are registered with a certificate authority.

Digital certificates

The point of a digital certificate is to identify the owner of a document. This way the receiver knows that it is an authentic document. Companies can use these certificates in several different ways. They can be used as a replacement for user names and passwords. Each employee can be given these to access the documents that they need from wherever they are. These certificates also use encryption. They are a little more complicated than normal encryption however. They actually used important information within the code. They do this in order to assure authenticity of the documents as well as confidentiality and data integrity which always accompany encryption. Digital certificates are not commonly used because they are confusing for people to implement. There can be complications when using different browsers, which means they need to use multiple certificates. The process is being adjusted so that it is easier to use.

Digital signatures

A final way to secure information online would be to use a digital signature. If a document has a digital signature on it, no one else is able to edit the information without being detected. That way if it is edited, it may be adjusted for reliability after the fact. In order to use a digital signature, one must use a combination of cryptography and a message digest. A message digest is used to give the document a unique value. That value is then encrypted with the sender's private key.

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In the United States a medallion signature guarantee is a special signature guarantee for the transfer of securities. It is a guarantee by the transferring financial institution that the signature is genuine and the financial institution accepts liability for any forgery. Signature guarantees protect shareholders by preventing unauthorized transfers and possible investor losses. They also limit the liability of the transfer agent who accepts the certificates.

Different institutions have different policies as to what type of identification they require to provide the guarantee and whether they charge a fee for such service (usually nominal if any). Most institutions will not guarantee a signature of someone who has not already been their customer.

A medallion signature guarantee is not the same as an acknowledgment by a notary public, in the sense that a "signature guarantee" is a certification by the issuing institution that the signature is authentic, and an acknowledgment is a certification by a notary public attesting that the signer signed a document voluntarily, signed the document in the presence of the notary and provided proof of identity.

Some banks may no longer provide this service; however, many still do as well as other financial institutions such as a savings and loan association (a thrift) and credit unions. At their sole discretion these institutions may provide the medallion signature guarantee stamp. These institutions would be able to provide clarification on their requirements for providing the stamp. Each of these institutions is different and may have different requirements for documentation necessary from one to the next.

When US citizens are abroad and unable to obtain a medallion signature guarantee stamp, with prior notice of the substitution some financial institutions may accept a United States embassy seal in its place. Financial institutions outside the United States which have a correspondence relationship with a US bank may be able to offer a medallion signature guarantee to existing customers.

References

• "U.S. Department of State telegram to all U.S. diplomatic and consular posts abroad concerning medallion stamp guarantees". Digest of International Law. U.S. State Department. May 21, 2001. Retrieved 2009-11-17. 
• "Signature Guarantees: Preventing the Unauthorized Transfer of Securities". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 2013-11-15. 

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of State.

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UCLA Extension Writers' Program is a unit within UCLA Extension [1], the not-for-profit and self-supporting community outreach arm of the University of California, Los Angeles. Located in the Westwood Village area of the city, the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program offers more than 400 annual open-enrollment screenwriting and creative writing courses for all levels of writers. Courses are available online, on the UCLA campus, and at some satellite locations in the Los Angeles area, and all courses are approved by the UCLA Academic Senate [2]. The Writers’ Program also offers many services and free events that are open to the public.

History

The Regents of the University of California [3] established University Extension in 1891. A permanent Extension office was opened in Los Angeles in 1917.¹ Extension moved to the UCLA campus in 1948, and subsequently to its present location at Gayley and LeConte in 1971. The UCLA Extension Writers’ Program was established in 1966. Today, the Writers’ Program offers more courses than any university-related writing program in the world [4].

Courses

The Writers’ Program offers more than 400 annual onsite and online courses including beginning, intermediate, and advanced-level courses in fiction, memoir, personal essay, poetry, playwriting, publishing, writing for the youth market, feature film writing, and television writing. Courses are taught by a roster of more than 200 published or produced writing professionals. Daytime, evening, and weekend courses are available. The Writers’ Program also offers nine- and six-month Master Classes in Novel Writing, Feature Film Writing, and Television Writing, and a four-day intensive Writers Studio.

Services

Five certificate programs (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Feature Film Writing, Television Writing and Film and TV Comprehensive) are available for students who prefer a structured course of study. The Writers’ Program also offers script and manuscript consultations and annual literary and screenwriting competitions. The James Kirkwood Literary Prize was established in 1991 in memory of James Kirkwood to honor the literary achievements of new generations of fiction writers. The UCLA Extension Screenplay Competition replaced the Diane Thomas Screenwriting Award in 2006.

Events

The Writers’ Program hosts an annual Publication Party where instructors read aloud from their recently published fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Refreshments are available and authors sell and sign copies of their work. In addition, the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program partners with, or has a presence at, various literary and film-oriented events throughout the year.

Scholarships

The UCLA Extension Writers' Program Scholarship seeks to acknowledge and foster the talent of promising writers from diverse backgrounds and cultures who might otherwise not have the opportunity to study their craft in a supportive educational environment. Up to ten scholars are named annually, and each of the recipients is given the opportunity to enroll in three full-length Writers' Program courses during a one-year period. This scholarship replaces the Community Access Scholarship Program which was created in 1991.

In 2014, the Writers' Program established the Allegra Johnson Prize, a merit-based award with a prize of $5,000. The award will be given to a promising novelist or memoirist in alternating years, providing both formal recognition of their talent and financial resources to support them as they complete their manuscripts.

Books

In 2013, Gotham Books published two books that were edited by Writers' Program Director, Linda Venis, and written by Writers' Program instructors, all of whom are working professionals with hundreds of writing and producing credits to their names. The books are: Cut to the Chase: Writing Feature Films with the Pros at UCLA Extension Writers' Program and Inside the Room: Writing Television with the Pros at UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

Student Success Stories

Thousands of UCLA Extension Writers’ Program students have gone on to have their work published or produced. Some of the most notable are: Bryan Cogman, Game of Thrones; Stuart Beattie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra; Australia; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; 30 Days of Night; Collateral; Zoanne Clack, Grey’s Anatomy; Tucker Cawley, Parks and Recreation, Everybody Loves Raymond; Eric Jerome Dickey, Resurrecting Midnight; Doug Ellin, Entourage; Janet Fitch, White Oleander (Oprah Pick); Alice Greenway, White Ghost Girls (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction)[8]; Gavin Hood, Tsotsi (Academy Award winner, Best Foreign Film), Randi Mayem Singer, Mrs. Doubtfire; Melissa Rosenberg, adaptation of Twilight, Dexter; Earl W. Wallace, Witness (Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay); Joseph Wambaugh, The Onion Field; Kevin Williamson, Screa m, Dawson’s Creek; Iris Yamashita, Letters from Iwo Jima (Academy Award nominee for Best Original Screenplay).

Sources

¹UCLA Extension Approvals Guide, p. 8

External links

• UCLA Extension: http://www.uclaextension.edu
• UCLA Academic Senate: http://www.senate.ucla.edu
• The Regents of the University of California: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents
• UCLA Extension Writers’ Program: http://www.uclaextension.edu/writers
• 826LA: http://www.826LA.org
• PEN Center USA: http://www.penusa.org
• International Black Writers and Artists: http://www.ibwala.com
• Los Angeles Times Book Prizes: http://www.latimes.com/extras/bookprizes

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Blue Nile is an online specialty retailer of fine jewelry. Blue Nile was founded in 1999 and today is the largest online retailer of diamonds. Blue Nile is based in Seattle, Washington and competes with traditional jewelry stores such as Tiffany & Co., and online retailer stores such as James Allen, Belgium Diamonds, Ringsberry.com.The key feature of being able to search through thousands of diamonds by carat weight, cut, clarity, color and other characteristics is what attracts many customers to the website.

History

The company that became Blue Nile began in 1995 when Doug Williams of Williams & Son Inc. of Seattle started a website to sell diamonds online. Mark C. Vadon, then a management consultant at Bain & Company, purchased a diamond engagement ring from the site in 1998. In 1999, Vadon raised $6 million to purchase 85% of the company and improve the website. The company’s name was changed to Blue Nile in November 1999. During the next year, the company raised an additional $44 million. Investors included Bessemer Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Blue Nile raised $76 million in its IPO on May 18, 2004. Merrill Lynch & Co., Bear Stearns Cos. and Thomas Weisel Partners LLC managed the IPO, sharing fees of $5.4 million. The initial public offering of shares in Blue Nile Inc, rose 39% in first-day trading, closing at $28.40.

Although the company had $44 million in revenue in 2000, it lost $30 million because it spent $40 million in television advertising. Its investors contributed an additional $7 million in 2001. In 2006, Blue Nile sold $197 million in engagement rings and wedding bands, compared to $186 million for Tiffany & Co.

On Nov, 8, 2011, CEO Diane Irvine, who had been with the company for 12 years and its CEO since 2008, abruptly resigned. Irvine was replaced on an interim basis by senior vice president and general manager of international Vijay Talwar. In March 2012, Harvey Kanter, former CEO of MooseJaw, was named the new CEO.

In 2015, Blue Nile reported net sales of US$ 473 million and net income of US$ 9.7 million. Blue Nile promotes itself as a supplier of ethically sourced diamonds and endorses a zero-tolerance policy towards conflict diamonds.

In the summer of 2015, Blue Nile opened their first webroom at Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island, N.Y., the company plans to open three more webrooms in 2016 at The Westchester mall in White Plains, N.Y., at Tysons Corner Center mall in Fairfax County, Va., and at Washington Square mall outside of Portland.

Acquisition

A group of investors including Bain Capital Private Equity, Bow Street and Adama Partners completed the acquisition of Blue Nile, on February 17, 2017, for $40.75 per share. First announced on November 7, 2016, the transaction was approved by company shareholders on February 2, 2017. Trading in Blue Nile’s common stock on NASDAQ ended February 21.

References

External links

• Blue Nile US website

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Houston Community College (HCC), also known as Houston Community College System (HCCS) is a community college system that operates community colleges in Houston, Missouri City, Katy, and Stafford in Texas. It is notable for actively recruiting internationally and for the large number of international students enrolled, over 5,700 in 2015. Its open enrollment policies, which do not require proficiency in English, are backed by a full-time 18-month English proficiency program and remedial courses.

As defined by the Texas Legislature, the official service area of HCCS includes the following school districts:

• the Houston Independent School District,
• the Stafford Municipal School District,
• the Spring Branch Independent School District (included in service area by state law, but is not part of the tax base),
• the Alief Independent School District,
• the North Forest Independent School District,
• the portion of the Fort Bend Independent School District located within the territory of Missouri City.

History

In 1927, the Houston Independent School District founded its first community colleges, Houston Junior College (for whites), which later evolved into the University of Houston and the Houston College for African American students (now Texas Southern University). In 1971, the district founded HCCS after HJC's and HCN's evolutions into the University of Houston and Texas Southern University respectively. In its early days, HCCS once used HISD school campuses for teaching facilities with classes during evenings and weekends like its founders. Around 1997, HCCS began to transfer operations to community college district-operated campuses throughout the HCCS service area.

Jim Murphy, a member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 133 in Houston, was a HCCD trustee for two terms from 1997 until 2006.

HCC Police

HCC operates its own police department.

As peace officers, state law grants HCC Police the power to arrest without warrant for any felony, breach of the peace, disorderly conduct or intoxication offense that is committed in their presence or view while in Texas. They may make an arrest pursuant to a warrant anywhere in Texas. The HCC Police Department is divided into six divisions: Administrative, Criminal Investigations, Patrol, Bike Patrol, Training, Communications.

HCC Television

HCCS operates Houston Community College Television (HCCTV). aired on Comcast Channel 19, TV Max Channel 97, Phonoscope Channel 77 and Cebridge Channel 20. Content is also streamed over the internet. The studio complex, which has one large studio unit, five editing suites, and a digital master control system, is located at the HCC District Campus.

HCCTV was initiated in 1994.

HCC Athletics

HCC offers several sports activities to its students throughout its campuses; the sports offered include:

• Soccer (Men & Women)
• Basketball (Men & Women)
• Volleyball (Women)
• Flag Football (Men)
• Golf (Men & Women)
• Tennis (Men & Women)
• Fitness (Men & Women)

List of colleges in HCCS

Central College

• Central Campus (Houston)
  • HCC Central Campus in Midtown Houston is served by a METRORail station, Ensemble/HCC Station. Houston Academy for International Studies of Houston ISD opened on HCC's Central Campus in Fall 2006.
• Willie Lee Gay Hall (South Campus) (Houston)

Coleman College of Health Sciences

• Coleman College of Health Sciences (Houston) (located in the Texas Medical Center district)

Northeast College

• Codwell Hall Campus (Houston)
• Northline Campus (Houston)
  • The HCC Northline Campus is the site of HISD's North Houston Early College High School.
• Pinemont Campus (Houston)

Northwest College

• Alief Campus (Houston)
  • The Alief Campus is the site of Alief ISD's Alief Early College High School.
• Alief Continuing Education Center (unincorporated Harris County)
• Katy Campus
• Spring Branch Campus

Southeast College

Southeast College is home to two separate campuses in different parts of the HCC Southeast service area.

Eastside Campus (Houston)

Felix Fraga Academic Campus (Houston)

The Felix Fraga Academic Campus is located a mile and a quarter east of Downtown Houston at 301 N. Drennan St.

The campus opened in January, 2010 and was named for Felix Fraga by the HCC Board of Trustees in honor of his dedication to the educational, social, and economic success of the young people of Houston’s southeast community and his devotion to improving their neighborhood. Fraga served as an HISD trustee and as a member of the Houston City Council. Today he is the Vice President of External Affairs for the Neighborhood Centers, Inc.

The Felix Fraga Campus hosts classes to over 1,500 students every semester. Its flagship offerings include Maritime Logistics, Pre-Engineering, and other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) classes. Most core courses are also available.

In partnership with HISD, the Felix Fraga Campus is also the host location of HISD's East Early College High School.

Southwest College

Qatar (Middle East)

The country of Qatar operates an area called Education City. Its purpose is to bring U.S. universities to the Middle East. Houston Community College ran a satellite campus in Education City. However, as of March 2016, HCC “is massively scaling back operations,” according to Gulf News Journal.

Over a five-year period, Qatar’s government paid HCC approximately $30.5 million to subsidize the Education City campus. In a news interview, the HCC Board of Trustees Treasurer said he did not support continuing the campus. “We’re a community college to educate kids in our district,” he said.

When HCC first sent teachers to its Qatar campus, the Qatari government made some of them return back to the United States because they were Jewish.

Notable alumni

• Kim Su Tran La, founder of the restaurant chain Kim SÆ¡n.

References

External links

• HCCS Homepage
• HCCS Libraries
• "TSPR Houston Community College System" - Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

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JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank, is a national bank that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and financial services holding company, JPMorgan Chase. The bank was known as Chase Manhattan Bank until it merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000. Chase Manhattan Bank was formed by the merger of the Chase National Bank and The Manhattan Company in 1955. The bank has been headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its merger with Bank One Corporation in 2004.The bank acquired the deposits and most assets of Washington Mutual.

Chase offers more than 5,100 branches and 16,100 ATM's nationwide. JPMorgan Chase has 250,355 employees (as of 2015) and operates in more than 100 countries. JPMorgan Chase currently has assets of approximately US$2.49 trillion.

JPMorgan Chase, through its Chase subsidiary, is one of the Big Four banks of the United States.

History

From September 1, 1799, to 1955, it was called The Bank of The Manhattan Company (New York); after a 1955 merger with the Chase National Bank (which existed separately from 1877 to 1954) it was called The Chase Manhattan Bank.

The Manhattan Company

Chase traces its history back to the founding of The Manhattan Company by Aaron Burr on September 1, 1799, in a house at 40 Wall Street:

After an epidemic of yellow fever in 1798, during which coffins had been sold by itinerant vendors on street corners, Aaron Burr established the Manhattan Company, with the ostensible aim of bringing clean water to the city from the Bronx River but in fact designed as a front for the creation of New York's second bank, rivaling Alexander Hamilton's Bank of New York.

In 2006, the modern-day Chase bought the retail banking division of the Bank of New York, which then only months later merged with Pittsburgh-based Mellon Financial to form the present-day BNY Mellon.

Chase National Bank

Chase National Bank was formed in 1877 by John Thompson. It was named after former United States Treasury Secretary and Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, although Chase did not have a connection with the bank.

The Chase National Bank acquired a number of smaller banks in the 1920s, through its Chase Securities Corporation. In 1926, for instance, it acquired Mechanics and Metals National Bank.

However, its most significant acquisition was the Equitable Trust Company of New York in 1930, the largest stockholder of which was John D. Rockefeller, Jr. This made Chase the largest bank in America and indeed, in the world.

Chase was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients, such as General Electric, which had, through its RCA subsidiary, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center, rescuing that major project in 1930. The bank is also closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially ExxonMobil, which are also Rockefeller holdings.

Merger as Chase Manhattan Bank

In 1955, Chase National Bank and The Manhattan Company merged to create The Chase Manhattan Bank. As Chase was a much larger bank, it was first intended that Chase acquire the "Bank of Manhattan", as it was nicknamed, but it transpired that Burr's original charter for the Manhattan Company had not only included the clause allowing it to start a bank with surplus funds, but another requiring unanimous consent of shareholders for the bank to be taken over. The deal was therefore structured as an acquisition by the Bank of the Manhattan Company of Chase National, with John J. McCloy becoming chairman of the merged entity. This avoided the need for unanimous consent by shareholders.

For Chase Manhattan Bank's new logo, Chermayeff & Geismar designed a stylized octagon in 1961, which remains part of the bank's logo today. The Chase logo is a stylized representation of the primitive water pipes laid by the Manhattan Company, which were made by nailing together wooden planks. The bank included an asset management business called the Chase Investors Management Corporation.

Under McCloy's successor, George Champion, the bank relinquished its antiquated 1799 state charter for a modern one. In 1969, under the leadership of David Rockefeller, the bank became part of a bank holding company, the Chase Manhattan Corporation.

Mergers with Chemical, J.P. Morgan

In July 1996, Chemical Bank of New York purchased Chase Manhattan Bank. Chemical's previous acquisitions included Manufacturers Hanover Corporation, in 1991, and Texas Commerce Bank, in 1987. Although Chemical was the nominal survivor, the merged company retained the Chase name since it was better known (particularly outside the United States).

In December 2000, the combined Chase Manhattan completed the acquisition of J.P. Morgan & Co. in one of the largest banking mergers to date. The combined company was renamed JPMorgan Chase. In 2004, the bank acquired Bank One, making Chase the largest credit card issuer in the United States. JPMorgan Chase added Bear Stearns & Co. and Washington Mutual to its acquisitions in 2008 and 2009 respectively. After closing nearly 400 overlapping branches of the combined company, less than 10% of its total, Chase will have approximately 5,410 branches in 23 states as of the closing date of the acquisition. According to data from SNL Financial (data as of June 30, 2008), this places Chase third behind Wells Fargo and Bank of America in terms of total U.S. retail bank branches. In October 2010, Chase was named in two lawsuits alleging manipulation of the silver market. The suits allege that by managing giant positions in silver futures and options, the banks influenced the prices of silver on the New York Stock Exchange's Comex Exchange since early 2008.

The following is an illustration of the company's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors to 1995 (this is not a comprehensive list):

Bank One Corporation

In 2004, JPMorgan Chase merged with Chicago-based Bank One Corp., bringing on board its current chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon as president and COO and designating him as CEO William B. Harrison, Jr.'s successor. Dimon's pay was pegged at 90% of Harrison's. Dimon quickly made his influence felt by embarking on a cost-cutting strategy and replaced former JPMorgan Chase executives in key positions with Bank One executivesâ€"many of whom were with Dimon at Citigroup. Dimon became CEO in January 2006 and Chairman in December 2006 after Harrison's resignation.

Bank One Corporation was formed upon the 1998 merger between Banc One of Columbus, Ohio and First Chicago NBD. These two large banking companies were themselves created through the merger of many banks. JPMorgan Chase completed the acquisition of Bank One in Q3 2004. The merger between Bank One and JPMorgan Chase meant that corporate headquarters were now in New York City while the retail bank operations of Chase were consolidated in New York.

The following is an illustration of Bank One's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors (this is not a comprehensive list):

Washington Mutual

On September 25, 2008, JPMorgan Chase bought most banking operations of Washington Mutual from the receivership of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). That night, the Office of Thrift Supervision, in what was by far the largest bank failure in American history, seized Washington Mutual Bank and placed it into receivership. The FDIC sold the bank's assets, secured debt obligations and deposits to JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA for $1.888 billion, which re-opened the bank the following day. As a result of the takeover, Washington Mutual shareholders lost all their equity. Through the acquisition, JPMorgan became owner of the former accounts of Providian Financial, a credit card issuer WaMu acquired in 2005. The company completed rebranding of Washington Mutual branches to Chase in late 2009.

Other recent acquisitions

In the first-quarter of 2006, Chase purchased Collegiate Funding Services, a portfolio company of private equity firm Lightyear Capital, for $663 million. CFS was used as the foundation for the Chase Student Loans, previously known as Chase Education Finance.

In April of that same year (2006), Chase acquired the The Bank of New York Co.'s retail and small business banking network. This gave Chase access to 338 additional branches and 700,000 new customers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Indiana.

Controversies

Purchase of Nazi Germany's Reichsmarks during WWII

A press release from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in 2004 announced that many of the new Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files had become declassified. This declassification enabled the discovery that before and during the early years of World War II, the German government sold a special kind of Reichsmark, known as Rückwanderer [returnee] Marks, to American citizens of German descent. Chase National Bank, along with other businesses, were involved in these transactions. Through Chase, this allowed Nazi sympathizers to purchase Marks with dollars at a discounted rate. Specifically, "The financial houses understood that the German government paid the commissions (to its agents, including Chase) through the sale of discounted, blocked Marks that came mainly from Jews who had fled Germany." In other words, Nazi Germany was able to offer these Marks below face-value because they had been stolen from emigrés fleeing the Nazi regime. Between 1936 and 1 941, the Nazis amassed over $20 million, and the businesses enabling these transactions earned $1.2 million in commissions. Of these commissions, over $500,000 went to Chase National Bank and its subagents.

These facts were discovered when the FBI began its investigation in October 1940. The purpose of the investigation was to follow German-Americans who had bought the Marks. However, Chase National Bank’s executives were never federally prosecuted because Chase's lead attorney threatened to reveal FBI, Army, and Navy "sources and methods" in court. Publicly naming the sources and methods could have posed security risks and threatened future intelligence gathering. To avoid such revelations, the executives' violations of the Johnson Act, the Espionage Act, and the Foreign Agents Registration Act were never prosecuted.

Release of funds for Nazi Germany during WWII

Besides the controversial Rückwanderer Mark Scheme, NARA records also revealed another controversy during the occupation of France by the Nazis. From the late 1930s until June 14, 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) issued an Executive Order freezing German assets, Chase National Bank worked with the Nazi government. The order blocking any access to French accounts in the U.S. by anyone, but especially by the Nazis was issued by Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr., with the approval of FDR. Within hours of the order, Chase unblocked the accounts and the funds were transferred through South America to Nazi Germany.

Refusal to release funds belonging to Jews in Occupied France

US Treasury officials wanted an investigation of French subsidiaries of American banks, such as Chase Bank, J.P. Morgan & Co, National City Corporation, Guaranty Bank, Bankers Trust, and American Express. Of these banks, only Chase and Morgan remained open in France during the Nazi occupation. The Chase branch chief in Paris, France, Carlos Niedermann, told his supervisor in New York that there had been an "expansion of deposits". Also, Niedermann was, "very vigorous in enforcing restrictions against Jewish property, even going so far as to refuse to release funds belonging to Jews in anticipation that a decree with retroactive provisions prohibiting such release might be published in the near future by the occupying Nazi authorities".

In 1998, Chase general counsel William McDavid, said that Chase did not have control over Niedermann. Whether that claim was true or not, Chase Manhattan Bank acknowledged seizing about 100 accounts during the Vichy regime. Kenneth McCallion, an attorney, led a lawsuit against Barclays Bank for the illegal seizure of assets during WWII and has since turned his attention toward Chase. The World Jewish Congress (WJC), entered into discussions with Chase and a spokesperson for the WJC said, "Nobody at Chase today is guilty. They were not involved in whatever happened, but they do accept that they have an institutional responsibility." A Chase spokesman said, "This is a moral issue that we take very seriously." Chase general counsel McDavid added, "that Chase intends to compensate Jewish account holders whose assets were illegally plundered". In 1999, the French government formed a commission to report findings to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Claire Andrieu, a commission member and h istory professor at the Sorbonne, said that under the Vichy regime, French banks received visits from Nazi officials but U.S. banks did not. At that time, they did not have to report Jewish accounts, but they did just as the French banks did. She goes on to say that an American ambassador protected the U.S. subsidiaries.

Recent controversies

JPMorgan Chase has paid $16 billion in fines, settlements and other litigation expenses in just the last four years (2011-2013). Of the $16 billion JPMorgan Chase has shelled out, about $8.5 billion were for fines and settlements resulting from illegal actions taken by bank executives, according to Richard Eskow at the Campaign for America’s Future, who cited a new report from Joshua Rosner of Graham Fisher & Co.

The $16 billion total does not include a recent settlement that calls for JPMorgan Chase to pay $100 million to waive $417 million in claims it had made against clients of the firm MF Global.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control found that JPMorgan had illegally aided dictatorships in Cuba, Sudan, Liberia and Iran, including transferring 32,000 ounces of gold bullion for an Iranian bank.

Among its other transgressions, JPMorgan has been found to have:

• Misled investors
• Engaged in fictitious trades
• Collected illegal flood insurance commissions
• Wrongfully foreclosed on soldiers; charged veterans hidden fees for refinancing
• Violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by making false statements to people seeking automobile loans
• Illegally increased their collection of overdraft fees by processing large transactions before smaller ones
• Helped drive Jefferson County, Alabama, into bankruptcy by switching its fixed-rate debt to variable
• Violated antitrust provision of the Sherman Act relating to bid rigging

Targeted account closures

During 2013 and 2014, Chase and other banks received media attention for the practice of canceling the personal and business accounts of hundreds of legal sex workers, citing in some instances the "morality clause" of their account agreement. Later it was discovered that this practice included mortgage accounts and business loans. Chase canceled the mortgage refinancing process for one individual, that the bank had initiated, whose production company made soft core films like those broadcast on Cinemax. This resulted in a lawsuit which cited evasive dealings and misleading statements by several Chase executives including Securities Vice President Adam Gelcich, Legal Fair Lending Department Vice President Deb Vincent, and an unnamed executive director and assistant general counsel.

In addition to closing accounts for sex workers, the bank has also been using its "morality clause" to disassociate from other types of businesses. Some of these other businesses include medical marijuana dispensaries and any that are "gun related". Another was a woman-owned condom manufacturing company called Lovability Condoms. Company founder Tiffany Gaines was rejected by Chase Paymentech services "as processing sales for adult-oriented products is a prohibited vertical" and was told that it was a "reputational risk" to process payment for condoms. Gaines then started a petition to ask Chase to review and change its policy of classifying condoms as an "adult oriented product ". The bank later reversed its decision and invited Gaines to submit an application citing that was already doing business with a "wide variety of merchants, including grocers and drug stores, that sell similar products".

Dakota Access Pipeline

Financial documents from Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline builder for the Dakota Access Pipeline, lists a number of large banking institutions that have provided credit for the project, including JP Morgan Chase. Because of these financial ties, Chase and other banks, have been a target of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests during 2016 and 2017.

References

Further reading

• Bird, Kai (1992). The Chairman: John J. McCloy, the Making of the American Establishment. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-45415-9. OCLC 25026508. 
• Koeppel, Gerard T. (2000). Water for Gotham: A History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-691-01139-4. OCLC 247735191. 
• Rockefeller, David (2002). Memoirs. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-40588-7. OCLC 231967677. 
• Wilson, John Donald (1986). The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945â€"1985. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 978-0-87584-134-2. OCLC 13581810. 

External links

• Official website
• Chase mobile banking
• An Evolutionary View of Internationalization: Chase Manhattan Bank, 1917 to 1996. A Financial Institutions Center study (PDF) completed in 2002.
• About J.P. Morgan Chase

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Carbonite is an online backup service, available to Windows and Mac users, that backs up documents, e-mails, music, photos, and settings. It is named after carbonite, the fictional substance used to freeze Han Solo in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. It was the first such service to offer unlimited backup space for a fixed price. Previously, all online backup services were priced by the gigabyte; many other vendors have since changed to an unlimited model.

Carbonite offers two separate lines of products: Carbonite Home and Home Office for individuals, families, and one- or two-person businesses; and Carbonite Small Business for businesses with three or more computers.

Carbonite was named "Best Windows Backup Tool" by Lifehacker, "Labs Winner" by PC Pro, "Editor's Choice" by NextAdvisor, Hottest Boston Company by Lead411, but received only "two mice" in a MacWorld review putting it second to last.

Product details

Carbonite Online Backup installs a client software program (Windows and Mac operating systems only, Linux-based systems are not supported) on the user’s computer that operates continuously in the background. This client software automatically seeks out new and changed files on the user’s computer and backs them up using incremental backup. Each file is compressed and encrypted using a 128-bit Blowfish encryption before it is sent to remote servers at the company's data centers via the Internet. (This of course requires that the user's computer be continually connected to the internet, and the speed of the internet connection will impact system performance.) Data is transmitted to the servers using a secure SSL link. The encrypted files are stored on 15-drive RAID 6 storage arrays. The client software also provides de-duplication at the bit level only. Thus files moved to a new drive will be backed up twice.

The program is designed to automatically back up user-generated content including text documents, spreadsheets, financial documents, photos, music, etc. Specifically, on a Windows PC, Carbonite backs up everything in the Documents and Settings folder, including the desktop, favorites, and all other files except for temporary, log and video files. Any file or folder can be added to the default backup if it is on a local (internal) drive formatted with the FAT32 or NTFS file systems. (According to the Carbonite website, the Home version will only backup internal drives whereas the HomePlus and HomePremium versions will also backup external drives.) The backup software integrates with Windows Explorer, adding green dots to the file icons of any backed up file. Adding or removing files from the backup is done using the right mouse button and the Windows context menus. The Windows version of Carbonite will keep multiple versions of backed up files. Carbonite can recover from some forms of Ransomware but this requires contacting Carbonite customer service. For Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5 (Leopard), Carbonite is controlled through System Preferences and using the contextual menu. File systems supported 'by default' on Mac OS X are supported by the Mac client with the exception of FAT. Note that Carbonite is not fully compatible with Lion, consuming around 100% CPU during backup.

The program also includes a remote access application that allows individual files to be downloaded to any computer using a web browser.

Company profile

CEO David Friend and CTO Jeff Flowers founded Carbonite in 2005, the fifth joint venture for the pair who also together founded Computer Pictures, Pilot Software, FaxNet and Sonexis. Friend had also been an executive at ARP Instruments, Inc., a pioneering electronic music synthesizer manufacturer, in the 1970s.

Since its launch in 2006, Carbonite has backed up more than 100 billion files and has restored more than 7 billion lost files for its customers.

Carbonite introduced their Macintosh version for Intel-based Macs with OS 10.4 or 10.5 in March 2009.

History

The product debuted at Staples in 2006 when it focused on photo backup and offered a free six-month subscription with all camera purchases. It partnered with Microsoft in 2006 to include the program with purchase of Microsoft Money 2007. and renewed the following year for the 2008

In 2007 it was named ‘Top Private Company’ by AlwaysOn in 2007.

It has partnered with several other backup, storage, and file transfer companies: with Ipswitch,Inc. in 2007 to provide the service to purchasers of their FTP client, OLBEX in 2007 to offer the service to U.S. cable companies, Sonic Solutions in 2008 to provide core technologies for their digital media storage solution, and with TDS Telecom in 2008 to provide core technologies for their online backup service, and with LaCie in 2008,to power their online backup. It partnered with Lifeboat Distribution in 2008, to enhance distribution coverage within North America.

It partnered with Packard Bell in 2008, the first partnership between an independent online backup company and major PC manufacturer, providing all purchasers of their desktop and notepad computers in Europe a free four-month subscription. It subsequently partnered also with Lenovo in 2008, to have the service pre-loaded on their PCs, and with Acer to have their online backup service pre-installed on select PCs. Acer signed on for a similar arrangement in 2009.

In 2009, it admitted loss of backups of "over 7,500 customers" in a lawsuit filed against Promise Technology, a hardware provider.

On June 6, 2011, Carbonite acquired Phanfare. Carbonite declined to honor Phanfare lifetime memberships, instead granting lifetime members $299 in Phanfare credit which would expire after three years if unused. Two days later, Phanfare founder and CEO, Andrew Erlichson notified lifetime subscribers that customers requesting a refund will be paid not by Carbonite, but what remains of Phanfare, Inc.

Funding

In 2006, it secured $2.5 million in series A financing from 3i and CommonAngels; in 2007 it completed $15 million series B financing led by Menlo Ventures. in 2008 it secured additional $5 million in series B-2 funding and completed C round financing with approximately $20 million of new capital, led by Performance Equity of Stamford, Connecticut; in 2010 it closed a mezzanine round of funding with the total financing raised to $67 million. Carbonite made its IPO in August 2011, raising $62.5 million in its offering. On 4 Feb 2013, Carbonite announced that its net loss for the full year 2012 was ($18.9) million, compared to ($23.5) million in 2011. Since its inception in 2005, NASDAQ:CARB has lost in excess of ($120,000,000) of public and private investment. The company's SEC financial reports state: "We do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future."

Amazon review controversy

Carbonite reviews on Amazon were a subject of controversy in early 2009. Apparently, employees of the company posted favorable testimonial-style ads on Amazon in 2006, including those by senior members of the management team. Additionally, the New York Times reported that the CEO was made aware of the situation in September 2008 but did nothing to remove the false postings until the NY Times blog appeared in January 2009.

Misleading advertising controversy

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the United Kingdom ruled on August 1, 2012, that Carbonite had misled consumers by describing its online backup as unlimited. Following a complaint, the ASA investigated and found that due to bandwidth restrictions for uploading data, which limit upload to 2 Mbit/s for the first 200 GB but then to only 100 kbit/s once 200 GB had been exceeded, the backup was not unlimited. Therefore, the advert was "likely to mislead consumers".

Additionally, Carbonite breached rule 1.7 of the CAP Code for failing to respond to the ASA's charges.

Carbonite states they have eliminated bandwidth throttling for all of their customers.

Releases

• version 1.4 (late 2005) of Carbonite Photo Backup
• version 2.0 (May 2006) Carbonite Unlimited Backup
• version 2.1 (February 2007) with added support for Windows Vista
• version 2.3 (June 2007) with added block-level incremental backup
• Launch (2007) of Online Backup Service in French and German
• version 3.0 (August 2007) with added online backup simplification processes
• version 3.5 (January 2008) with enhanced user controls and saving up to three months of previous file versions
• Launches (2008) Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese versions
• version 3.6 (June 2008) with improved backup speed for large files and other performance enhancements
• version 3.7 (March 2009) with user-requested enhancements
• Adds remote file access (2009)
• Launches (2009) Carbonite Online Backup for Intel-based Macs with OS 10.4 or 10.5 in March 2009
• version 4.0 ( September 2010)
• Releases iPad app and updates for iPhone and BlackBerry apps
• Launches (2011) Carbonite Small Business offering

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