Startups in financial tech to get spotlight
Executives with 10 startup companies in Little Rock's financial-technology accelerator program will make their business presentations and demonstrate their products today in front of business and community leaders, bankers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.
The 2019 FIS Fintech Acclerator Demo Day will be held 4-7 p.m. at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre at 601 Main St. in Little Rock.
The event is the culmination of a 12-week program that evaluated and refined the startups' financial-technology business plans. They were chosen from a pool of 225 applicants from 32 countries.
Demo Day is designed to showcase emerging technologies and innovative solutions for financial institutions. It is sponsored by FIS, an international financial-services provider based in Jacksonville, Fla., with 1,200 of its 59,000 employees in Little Rock, and the Venture Center, a Little Rock organization that helps entrepreneurs turn their startups into viable, high-growth businesses.
-- Noel Oman
CBS fears blackout in dispute with AT&T
CBS Corp. warned Tuesday that it could get blacked out by AT&T Inc.'s DirecTV and U-verse as it struggles to reach a new contract with the largest U.S. pay-TV provider.
AT&T "continues to propose unfair terms well below those agreed to by its competitors and may drop CBS unless we agree to those terms," the network said on Tuesday.
If no agreement is reached, DirecTV and U-verse customers in major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago could lose CBS at 11 p.m. Pacific time on Friday, the company said. CBS is the most-watched network in the U.S.
"AT&T's willingness to deprive its customers of valuable content has become routine over the last few weeks and months, and recent negotiations have regularly resulted in carriage disputes, blackouts and popular channels being removed from their service," CBS said.
This month, AT&T blacked out 120 stations operated by Nexstar, including affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, in a similar dispute over programming costs.
-- Bloomberg News
Arkansas Index rises 3.33, ends at 418.96
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Tuesday at 418.96, up 3.33.
"After a five-day rally, U.S. stocks fell from record highs on Tuesday as President [Donald] Trump said he could impose more tariffs on China, reminding investors that the trade battle remains," said Chris Harkins, managing director at Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 07/17/2019