By the way, Chris, do you have any fancy, Thanksgiving
traditions since you I I do believe that's your 10th
10th year in New York City. Right? Oh,
11. 11? Yeah. Oh, congratulations,
man. Any cool traditions there?
You know, I was usually invited to a family, but
so far the invite hasn't come in 2 days before Thanksgiving. So I'm not
gonna like, I'm not gonna talk about it.
We will see. But I have, Friendsgivings going on. That is
cool. By the way, we're going back to the roots. I have done a
lot of early podcasts with a, cup of peppermint
tea, and I'm going back to this. Chris, I do believe we're
here for this month in GSA Startup November 2024, and
you are the one who takes the lead. Right? So let's go.
Welcome to our new, November
2024 wrap up with news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship
scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Our startup
news are recorded with me, Chris, in New York
City, back from a Europe trip, only yesterday.
So, my mind is all over the place in terms of
time. And Joe is joining from Frankfurt
officially. Hello, my friend. Hey. How are you doing,
guys? Today's news cut is
November 20th. This month, we cut a bit a
bit earlier for three reasons. Number 1, there are a lot of news. Number 2,
our next news will be published shortly before Christmas. So
this is then only around, 4 weeks away.
Everyone is in the final sprint of the year. And
3, due to travel plans. As always, though, all news not
included will be in our next news wrap up. News cycle is
picking up considerably. Last month, we plowed through 20 pages of raw,
unstructured news we had collected, and, now we
have 36 pages to go through. And, it
will be a surprise for you listeners how many of them
actually made it into the show. But we, needed to cut it
seriously, so you can have a brief news overview. First of
all, happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate today. We were
hinting at it already. For me, I know it has a problematic
past and, history. But for me, being
thankful makes it my most
favorite holiday, actually. Yeah. That
that's something I took with me as a tradition from the US, and
it's actually very great, week to kick
off, Christmas season. Plus, we do do on
Friday a Thanksgiving turkey here in Germany with my family as
well. Let's, there have been a few questions,
a few outreaches to us. And so I would like to set
our news in perspective a little bit. We're
relying on other sources, mostly in Germany here that we
put together and give you a brief overview in 30 minutes or less. That's our
goal. We check those Switzerland, normally, sources like friendly
Russian news spots does not make the cut. This also means we
cannot cover everything, especially in a month where there's a lot of
news. We have to drop articles and coverage. Yes. We have News piece
and blog posts for us and other sources that contradict
each other. This is unfortunately reality, and we're trying to give
you a real picture of what is going on rather than a closed world
view, especially in terms of VC numbers, IPO, and
m and a volumes nor source ever matches the others.
Yes. That is mapping for us as well. Right, Chris?
Yes. With our own blog posts, we try to give you a
broader view of the overall picture as well as
with these news. Think about them as small piece of a bird's eye
view, especially in our blog post that's where we try to cover
something nobody else does, especially focused on GSA. With
our regular Startup interview, we zoom in much further. This should
give you a great piece of a great picture of what is
going on in regional startup scene. And our news is just a
starting point for all of you who are doing this
for professional reasons and are serious about it. That's why we
provide a source link. And also we know
around 80% of you out there are
listening to this for professional reasons. So,
Chris, as always, you are our highlights guy.
Yes. That is true. So,
also, as always, we saw in the past couple of
weeks, many significant
challenges and breakthroughs in the countries that we covered, Germany, Austria
and Switzerland. About a couple of them, we will talk a bit more
in-depth. Let me just give you, like, a very brief overview about
some of the highlights. First off, German air taxi
pioneer Lilium filed for insolvency, underscoring
the funding difficulties in the, electrical
electric vertical takeoff and lending sector, while
Volocopter navigated similar headwinds with a new CFO
appointment. We see that Fintech giant Solaris is
is reportedly exploring options to raise funds
or sell itself after a sharp decline in user accounts.
And, we also found more optimistic news.
The, GSA region saw successes
like Vienna's Cubicure achieving a €79,000,000
exit and Berlin based Quentun Quentun
raising a €135,000,000 to develop a
variable device for diabetics. This is the
worst sentence for, for German.
Develop a wearable device for diabetics.
Marking a step forward in text out of news Chris, I do my best to
make it hard for you. V and
w. After 11 years, it's still a struggle. As said before, we
threw out most fundraising announcement announcements below €10,000,000
or US dollars, but we still have almost a quarter 1,000,000,000
in new funding in, this news update
today. European Startup show continue to show
resilience despite a challenging funding environment. We
have Atomico's, Startup of European Tech
2024, which says that the continent now hosts
35,000 early stage Startup ups, a fourfold
increase in the past Tech, and, putting cities like Berlin
and Vienna on the map as global innovation hubs. Highlights this
month include out of Alpha's AI partnership with Deutsche Bank and
415 Capital's a €150,000,000 fund announcement
for medical innovation. So, yeah, we see that Europe's
influence in the Startup scene is growing.
Investors are being attracted even in the middle of
political and economic uncertainty. So let's
get going for more with more updates.
First off, though, you have some scheduling
to announce. Yes. Expect the next news to drop every
Thursday a month, and our last regular news episode will go
live on December 19th. We
have to take a little break during the holidays and be back around
January 9th with the next news going live on January
30th. There are only a few exceptions
for, to this rule. They include the summer wrap up
on Labor Day each year. 1st Monday is September
where we wrap up July August. Chris, I do have a
question for you. I'm already done with my Christmas present
shopping even before the black week. How about you? Are you
listening to this chopper? Nervous
laughter on my end. Of course, I haven't shopped
anything yet. And,
yeah, what can I say? I all I'm saying is, I guess, it's different when
you have children. On average, Germans will
spend €533, something like 550,
560 US dollars for all the Christmas presents according
to a IDW study. Our
podcast, video and audio will go live during different
times on Thursday, November 29th. As always, we try to
publish our, our audio podcast very early
6 AM Germany time, and the
video podcast goes live in,
during noon. Our enablers, this recording is supported
by HDI and the enterprise Europe network and,
our partner Modern News where you can get 2 free SEO
pieces a month. Chris, heading over to
the top five news. Let's do it.
So, I already hinted at it.
Air taxis are still writing headlines,
and, Volocopter got a reprieve with government funding.
Lilium, though, in Germany did not and had News to fire had
now had to file for insolvency
now despite being IPOing and Nasdaq in the
past. If you're reading between the lines here, it seems as if
funding for both has dried up a bit, and Volocopter has treated its early
backers badly enough. So that crowdfunding
may not be an option right now. You can be sure, though, that Lilium
also took a look at issuing new shares, but had to decide against
it. So yeah. I mean, it's still, like, a wild sector
to me because no one really knows when it will finally
take off. But, still,
yeah, I don't know. It seems like it seems like it's also an
industry that is so much connected to the the
times we live in and probably with so much criticism
against airlines in general in terms of climate change. How big is the
hunger actually for these, like, you know, for for
these kind of of companies? Volocopter
also considered a SPAC deal that fell through in 2021.
So, yeah, we really see that both companies are struggling to get funding
for their the air taxi plans to get to mass production.
And, yeah, on top of it all is that
that way of transportation is not really, really approved
yet anywhere else. So, or anywhere. So it's a tough
job. But, yeah, since we are the hopeful podcast
here, we obviously appreciate them fighting
on for their big dream.
Lilium, as we said, filed for insolvency amid financial
struggles. We have some more, in-depth
analyses in our show notes about this. The German air
taxi manufacturer, had several unsuccessful attempts
to resolve its cash crisis, despite their plans to
revolutionize urban travel with the
eVTOL aircrafts. The company, faced
significant funding challenges and regulatory hurdles. The
shares have plummeted. The anticipated €100,000,000
loan from German state owned bank KFW was
blocked, and that further exacerbated their
financial woes. They are also looking for
investors in Saudi Arabia now, it seems. And,
they also face a potential class action lawsuit in the
US. Investors are alleging that they were
misled about the company's financial health and technological
capabilities. So, yeah, we also see that they have legal
challenges moving forward, which definitely makes
funding even harder. Volokopter, though,
on the other hand, I already said it, appointed a new CFO
in the middle of all these industry challenges. His name is
Oliver Fogelgesang. It's a strategic move that
the, company uses to navigate landscape in urban air
mobility, because also, obviously, this
guy needs to, strengthen the financial leadership within the
company and also secure necessary funding and uphill battle
there too, definitely. Moving on to a different
Austria, Aleph Alpha partners with Deutsche Bank to enhance
AI capabilities. Aleph Alpha being a leading AI
Startup up, now in that strategic partnership with, like, a very
traditional German bank. I guess in
the eighties or seventies, you would say this is like the epitome of German
industrial and and and,
company pride. The collaboration aims to leverage all
of Alpha's advanced AI models to enhance the bank's
services, particularly in natural language processing and a data
analysis. So, they're looking to make significant
steps in integrating AI into the, financial
services of a big traditional company like
Deutsche Bank. Zolavers, the,
Berlin based Tech firm, has experienced a significant decline in
its account numbers, dropping from nearly 8,000,000 during high times
to now only approximately 2,000,000 at last disclosure.
So basically losing 75% of the customers. The
reduction is primarily due to the loss of major
clients, including Trade Republic and Vivid Money. They have
transitioned to other banking partners. But despite the setback,
Solaris remains committed to its banking as a service model,
focusing on partnerships and technological innovation to regain its
market's position. The company is actively seeking new collaborations
to expand its service offerings and enhance customer experience.
Yeah. They are either raising funds or selling the bank outright.
So it's a bit of a troubled story here,
leading to a bigger
scope where we can see that also
the, political scene offers or
provides uncertainty for Startup in Germany because the, German
coalition government collapsed, as many of you might know.
Basically, the Germans woke up the day after the,
US election to Donald Trump winning the election, and they
went to bed with their own government falling apart. That was
must have been quite a wild Wednesday for the Germans.
And now we see that the end of that coalition government, which was
the Social Democratic Party, the Green Startup, and the, Pro
Business Liberal Party, that this end of this
coalition introduced a significant uncertainty as experts
anticipate delays in funding programs like the €12,000,000,000
win initiative, which was potentially could
be postponed until 2026. This
also obviously disrupts financial planning and growth prospects for emerging
companies, and it underscores the need for a stable
government to foster innovation and economic development. So
troubling times here as well or turbulent times at least.
Those are the big stories that we have.
Let's talk about ourselves. Yeah. I do believe that's
also a big point in, we will later see that the business
climate also took another dive. I do believe this
uncertainty and that there is currently no government in
full power right News. We'll have an election, I do believe, in February. Right,
Chris? Sometime in February. Tech. Because the Liberal Startup left a 3
party ruling coalition. And, you can really tell
that the the economy would be in need now of a
government funded stimulus program. But since they don't have a
majority any anymore, that is going to be a pretty bad winter,
I do believe. Housekeeping and time to brag. We are
dissecting Atomico's report report state of European
Tech 2024. It has a mere
366 pages, and we're currently crafting a series of
posts on our blog to give you the most important information in bite
sized pieces. We found a pretty high level,
article on FA set, Frankfurt, Algemeine Zeitung, one of
Germany most circulated newspapers. I would say this
is a translation. The future might look brighter for Europe according to state of
European Tech reported by Atomico. The report highlights that
Europe's currently boast that Europe currently boasts 35,000
early stage tech Startup ups more than any other
region worldwide. This is a fourfold increase over the past decade.
More entrepreneurs have launched in new startups in Europe than in the
US. 2024, 16,000
individual founders were found in Europe. For the
report, There's also significant progress in Startup funding at
least in the early stage. In 2015, London was the only city in the
global top Tech start up hubs by funding race for early
stage start ups. This year, London has claimed the 2nd place
globally with Berlin and Paris joining the top Tech. According
to Atomico, Europe's investment in Startup are growing faster
than in any other region. Over the past decade, the
average annual growth rate of Startup funding in Europe has been
13% by comparison. The US saw an average growth of
8% and China lacked with just 2%.
They also are pretty upbeat. Atomico rights, we're seeing more
startups, more ambitious ideas built to solve harder
problems. The overall universe of companies has grown 4.7
times in the last decade, with as many
early stage companies as any other
any other region and a eightfold increase in growth
stage firms. As we said, have a look at our blog. I do
believe we're currently at a stage where this is dissected into,
16 different blog posts. If you're interested
working with us, reach out, subscribe, and follow on our
link Switzerland I hand over the ecosystem to Chris again.
I feel as if I get to do all the good parts today. So,
first off, let's look at, worldwide the worldwide
ecosystem for Startup ups. We found a couple
of articles and analyses there that we think are worth talking
about. Forbes.com, for example, writes about the
question or asks the question if the,
software as a service era might be ending,
the, article is about rethinking software's
role in modern business. Sifted has a couple
of VC predictions for the Q4 of 2024, which we're
right in the middle of. What Startup and investors
need to know, you can find the link in our show notes. Then we have
the 3rd annual ESGF ESG Fintech,
100 highlights. Sorry.
The 3rd annual ESG Fintech 100, which
highlights innovators transforming sustainability in
finance. And we see the Global VC investments
in impact Startup fell by 25%.
It's a tough year for sustainable innovation, it seems. And,
Pioneers Post has a bit more about that. Zooming in
on Europe, deep tech, opportunities
are showing there. Deep Tech innovations in Europe hold
a €9,300,000,000,000 potential,
says an article in trending topics. Question is, are we ready
to unlock it? The European Space Deep
Tech Innovation Center is here. An
article about this is on Startup, so
in Switzerland. And, VC funding for Tech in
Europe seems to be going quite well. They hit a
record, number this year, so women's health
innovation seems to be thriving. Zooming even
further in Germany, Munich is becoming
Europe's hub for investor education, shaping the future of
funding, says Wiesseemagat Sinpunkt. De.
Germany's economic advisers predict a challenging year ahead.
Question remains is if Startup can weather the storm.
So, yeah, the German
economic outlook being still being rather grim and the Germany
economy in general having much more trouble than
other industrialized western countries. We should we
may add that, this, forecast is from the,
like, economic adviser council of the Germany federal
government. So, yeah, smartest people we have
for the these questions, probably Yep. Apart from you.
And, related to this is also,
the e for business climate index that we talk about in each
of our shows. Sentiment there is that companies in
Germany feel even heavier, so the,
outlook has become gloomier, and the index fell from 85.7
fell to 85.7 points down from 86.5
points in October. German Startup formation
declines, so meaning fewer startups founded in,
are founded in Germany right now. Question is, what
can rejuvenate the ecosystem in 2025,
says hanersblatt.com. Business
Insider has a an article in
which experts predict a surge in IPOs,
for next year. So,
well, like, where they raise the question. So question is, are start ups
ready to go public? Tech Parks
in Germany are the subject of an article on
transcript.de and their need to have
their own ecosystem. So, in to
thrive. We see that unicorn
sightings dwindle as market valuations adjust,
says, Ephardzet. So the, biggest conservative
newspaper in Germany, question there that they raise is
if the Startup bubble might be deflating.
And in Lower Saxony, Germany is
getting especially in Lower Saxony, Germany is getting into the
weed business. The first legal cannabis distribution
begins there. Yeah. And
everyone is wondering. So it's pretty heavily regulated, but
everyone is wondering whether this can become a
relevant business. And we would like to highlight Munich
here. Yeah. Since we said they have
a, investor training hub,
I would say we cut this, please, because we have it up front.
It's twice. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah.
Okay. That's also twice. Yeah. That's
also twice. Okay. Okay. So then I will just
yeah. So then I will just after the cannabis, I will just say
this. And that's it for the ecosystem.
Now, you can move on and talk about
some of the most important hubs and what's going on in specific cities
in Germany. Mhmm. Talking about,
highlighting some hidden gems here. Frankfurt Rein
MainScavenger AI has already made significant,
headlines here. They've been also guest with us, and they land
some major clients for its innovative software. Learn more
atkodkasten.com Tech in the interview from
us. I Voca, raises £200,000,000
funding with German headquarters in Frankfurt, to
support small businesses with flexible financing. So that means their
headquarters in London and their German headquarter is in Frankfurt.
SME get get a boost. The company has 400 employees spread
across London and Frankfurt. Emma Mattresses. Yes.
Known from our interviews. UK regulators use
matcher, Emma Mattress Startup for misleading
marketing transparency in advertising is
under scrutiny there. And we do have oop.
Hang on. We do have the Dutch News bank, Bank News offers
equity trading. The block, Finance Forward learned that the custody
feature is made possible by Frankfurt based Jinmon in the
background. Burden based analytics packs €8,000,000
interestingly, we just had an interview with them last week. We talked
before the interview about the, fundraising, but we could
not, we could not tell about it because it was not
announced yet. So it's not part of the interview. Passau, my
muesli, what would you say? Is there an
equivalent in US? It's basically, putting together your
favorite breakfast cereals. Their valuation
plummeted to €30,000,000, which is pretty good
because many Startup would aspire to be valued at €30,000,000.
But a former stock market hopeful was rumored at a
250 million valuation at
the IPO. So that is quite a drop. Lehr
in Oost Friesland. Chris, how to explain Oost
Friesland? It's on, on the very northern it's on the shores of
Germany of the North Sea. Right? It's it's it's pretty flat.
It's it's very flat. And, actually, a very good friend of mine teaches
business at their, university.
Okay. Industrial software firm, Futero, acquires
Orga Data, signaling a new growth in the sector.
Chris, you are the Austria guy. Yes. So,
also a couple of hub news
in Austria. I already spoke about Cubicure
because they had a €79,000,000 exit. It's a Vienna
based 3 d printing Startup. And,
yeah. So congratulations to them.
That's quite a significant number. We see that,
the, a medtech company in
Steyr, an Austrian
state. Good lord. Looking for the word. So, the
Austria Tech company filed for insolvency with €16,000,000
in debt. Quite a blow for the health tech sector
there. We see that Bitpanda is exploring a potential
Frankfurt IPO. It's, Bitpanda, as a little reminder,
is an Austrian crypto company. And
we see that the green Startup center that
Austria opened a green start up center
in Leopin. Leopon.
I have to apologize if any Austrians are listening, and I don't know how to
pronounce their city. Chris, don't worry about it. You you told us you're
still jet lagged. Yes. No
particular news from Switzerland now, but we will get to get back to a
couple of big fundings there later on because now we are moving on to
the general news section, with VC News
and new funds in case someone is looking for a for money.
As always, justice election. We already talked
about that Germany sees a decline in active start up investors.
We see that Berlin's, start up scene faces
also venture capital shake up. Question is
here how to evolve how to navigate that evolving investment
landscape. Manager Margot Zinn has an article about this.
Nico Rosberg, former Formula 1 driver, his
venture fund is investing in Tourlane and MetKitDOG.
We have couple of articles about this. And,
Impact VC is expanding into Germany. They are launching a,
an own chapter pushing sustainable develop sustainable investing
there. And 415 or 415 Capital
announced a €150,000,000 Tech fund to
support, breakthrough innovation in
Tech. Moving on to green Tech.
Yes. Chris, I hear sirens in the background. I know. Of
the hook for the bagel today. The new mic can't to hide
it. BASF to build the world's
largest heat pump pushing the boundaries of sustainable
energy. Going to the Tech News as was said, Bitpanda
considers an IPO in Frankfurt this time. N26
revenue milestone, they hit €440,000,000
in revenue, but still keep growing. Tech,
Cupix, raises €25,000,000 from Tech, the Fintech
accounts, also Deutsche Bank amongst its investors, and
finance.net sold including News broker.
Finanzen.net, the website sold including its News broker
by Axel Springer in a strategic shift in fintech. According to
the report, the transaction is valued around €400,000,000.
Trade Republic expands, they're exploring new
opportunities, launch a crypto app, Alpha Link,
and RightCapital struggles, file for insolvency.
They struggle to find new investors to keep operating.
Going into general news, Kaufland and Google partnership.
Kaufland has, for me, been always a pretty conservative
retailer, but they now partner with Google for tech forward
initiative. Amazon exits food delivery in
Germany. Amazon shut down its grocery delivery in Germany,
but they are now partnering with Knuspa.
So how how would you translate Knuspa Klus?
Like, crispy? Yeah. Something like this. Yeah.
They partner with Knuspa not really for delivering
fresh food, but packaged food.
Tech loses market share in Germany. They struggle to maintain
their mortgage, their market share in Germany as
competition heats up. Cantaneo acquisition,
planned engagement network acquires Munich Cantaneo
for 195,000,000 US
dollar. Startup talent challenges. Start ups crave
international talent, but visa delays hold them back.
German court whose Facebook users affected by data breach
are eligible for compensation, but in Germany, that won't
be that much. Related to that,
MITA's €797,000,000
fine from the EU for antitrust antitrust
violations, big Tech, bigger consequences. Volkswagen
partners with Rivian. They bet 5.8
1,000,000,000 US dollar on a Rivian partnership to enhance software
capabilities. Volkswagen has been quite in the news because they
are doing pretty bad, and hopefully, their bet will
work. Accessible ecommerce giant,
Iable, proves accessible online stores Thrive with
Thrive revenue inclusion Switzerland b to b SaaS
rising stars. Sift that ranks Europe's top b to b
SaaS Startup for 2024, who is climbing the charts.
There are 9 startups from Berlin, 2 each from
Vienna and Munich. There's one startup from Zurich, Dusseldorf,
Kriesen, Kiel, and Ludgards.
Going a little bit into the, the creative destruction.
No insolvency, but cutting head down head count here.
Personius lay offs, they lay off 115
employees. Green energy, green energy
hydrogen Startup h h two e files for
insolvency. EV supplier Quantron files for
insolvency. And
lift Lyft Heroes, Lyft Hero,
they they they are an elevator elevator, startup. They
file for insolvency. Aufzugheld aufzughelden
is it called in Germany. Another tough chapter in,
in the book of a hardware Startup. Chris, you wanna do the high notes.
Right? More like tragic heroes, I guess. So,
yeah, successful fundraisings and exits, as
always, just a small selection selection. Now, basically,
our threshold has become, €10,000,000 Swiss
francs or US dollars or more. So let me just,
like, gallop through a couple of them. Monterosa Therapeutics
inks a $1,000,000 $1,000,000,000 deal with Novartis.
They are, working on targeted protein degradation.
Alentis there Chris, what one reason this didn't make it into the
headlines or into our oval count, this is
potentially worth 1,000,000,000. That's why it is there.
But Yes.
Good clarification. Allentus Therapeutics secures
a $181,000,000 in series d funding, a biotech
company. The exploration company
raises a $160,000,000 for reusable
spacecraft development. Berlin's QUANTUN secures a
130 €5,000,000 to develop wearable for
diabetics. Blacklane attracts Saudi Arabia's
PIF in its latest funding round worth €60,000,000,
working on global expansion there. Aignostics,
Tech Gnostics raises $34,000,000
in a series b to advanced AI powered pathology.
Ocean Loop gains backing from the European
Investment Bank, EIB, advancing sustainable aquaculture.
Tourlane raises €25,000,000 as Sequoia
keeps faith in travel Startup. Question here is
if the whole industry might be rebounding, so the industry
being travel Tech. Localstack secures
$25,000,000 to advance its clouds dev its cloud
developer platform. Klim
secures €22,000,000 to expand its regenerative
farming platform globally. Agriculture here meeting
innovation, I'd say. Zurich based Tech, Widen,
w y d e n, secures $16,900,000
to fuel goob global growth. They
are a company working in wealth management. Media
Air, lends €12,000,000 to scale its
AI driven medical imaging solutions. HTGF,
also €12,000,000 to, finance for
as a financing round for, to advance AI driven
medical imaging solutions.
Oh, that's also the same. Mhmm. Good lord. The the
News was that they're just leading, but we just take it out.
Yes. Madhu cut this out after the media funding
announcement. Thank you. Dunia
Dunia AI secures $11,500,000
to revolutionize data analytics. Tot 0 or
20, I guess, raises €11,000,000 in seed funding
to revolutionize battery recycling.
But a huge problem in
the future of mobility, I'd say. Validation Cloud raises
$10,000,000 to enhance blockchain infrastructure.
Tech x y t, gets €10,000,000
in funding. It's a German data analytics firm,
in order to come up with a smarter insight. So it's an
an analytics company. Validation Cloud secures
another $10,000,000 to scale blockchain infrastructure,
and Deutsche Bank invests in Qplix,
q p l I x, in order to
innovate wealth management platforms.
And that's all I got for you for the fundraisings
and the exits. Is that it? That's it. I do
believe that's right, man. We do have a few articles.
Stay ahead of the curve. Plus, as I said, we have upcoming
series of more than 10 blog posts for the,
Atomico survey. So stay tuned, everybody. Keep safe,
and enjoy your Christmas time. We will be back shortly before
Christmas. Plus, I did send out today's email,
for the for participation in the Fintech review, so that will be also
coming along shortly before the holidays. Thank you, everybody. Chris,
it was a pleasure as always to work with you. Thank you. Once again,
happy Thanksgiving. Bye. News.