title: James Eastland

text: On July 24, 1957, interviewed by Mike Wallace on the occasion of the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, Eastland said segregation was wanted by both races:As I said, we have more Nigra professional men, more businessmen, we have substantial Nigra cotton planters. In fact, they have made more progress in the South than in the North. The master-servant relationship today is largely a Northern product.In the Sixties, Eastland belonged to the Genetics Committee of the Pioneer Fund.


title: James Eastland

text: Civil rights workers Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman went missing in Mississippi on June 21, 1964, during the Freedom Summer efforts to register African American voters. Eastland tried to convince President Lyndon Johnson that the incident was a hoax and there was no Ku Klux Klan in the state. He suggested that the three had gone to Chicago:


title: James Eastland

text: Eastland, like most of his Southern colleagues, opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited segregation of public places and facilities. Its passage caused many Mississippi Democrats to support Barry Goldwater's presidential bid that year, but Eastland did not publicly oppose the election of Johnson. Four years earlier he had quietly supported John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, but Mississippi voted that year for unpledged electors. Although Republican Senator Goldwater was strongly defeated by incumbent Johnson, he carried Mississippi with 87.14 percent of the popular vote, which constitutes the best-ever Republican showing in any state since the founding of that party. In 1964, almost all blacks in Mississippi remained excluded from voting, thus Goldwater's mammoth win essentially constituted the vote of the white population.


title: James Eastland

text: Eastland was often at odds with Johnson's policy on civil rights, but they retained a close friendship based on long years together in the Senate. Johnson often sought Eastland's support and guidance on other issues, such as the nomination of Abe Fortas in 1968 as Chief Justice of the United States. The Solid South opposed him. In the 1950s, Johnson was one of three Senators from the South who did not sign the Southern Manifesto of resistance to "Brown v. Board of Education", but Eastland and most Southern Senators did, vowing resistance to school integration.


title: James Eastland

text: Eastland lobbied for the appointment of his friend Harold Cox to a federal judgeship, promising John F. Kennedy, who planned to appoint Thurgood Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals, that he would permit Marshall's confirmation to go forward if Cox was also appointed to the bench. This was in keeping with Kennedy's approach to handling Eastland; not wanting to upset the powerful chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Kennedy generally acceded to Eastland's requests on judicial appointments in Mississippi, which resulted in white segregationists dominating the state's federal courts. Though Eastland agreed to allow Marshall's nomination to proceed, he and senators Robert Byrd, John McClellan, Olin D. Johnston, Sam Ervin, and Strom Thurmond, made unsuccessful attempts to block Marshall's confirmation to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.


title: James Eastland

text: In early 1969, Eastland went to Rhodesia and came back praising the White minority regime for the "racial harmony" supposedly lacking from America. According to Ken Flower, head of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Operation, Eastland once complained about the fact an hostel of Salisbury was integrated, stating "You've inserted the thin end of the wedge by allowing stinking niggers into such a fine hotel".


title: James Eastland

text: When he considered running for reelection in 1978, Eastland sought black support from Aaron Henry, civil rights leader and president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Henry told Eastland that it would be difficult for him to earn the support of black voters given his "master-servant philosophy with regard to blacks." Eastland decided not to seek re-election. Partly because of the independent candidacy of Charles Evers siphoning off votes from the Democratic nominee, Maurice Dantin, Republican 4th District Representative Thad Cochran won the race to succeed Eastland. Eastland resigned the day after Christmas, enabling the governor to appoint Cochran to complete the last few days of Eastland's term, which gave Cochran a seniority advantage over other senators elected in 1978. After his retirement, Eastland remained friends with Aaron Henry and sent contributions to the NAACP, but he said that he "didn't regret a thing" in his public career.


title: James Eastland

text: In 1968, after opposing the nomination of Abe Fortas to Chief Justice, Eastland, as chair of the Judiciary committee, said "After [Thurgood] Marshall, I could not go back to Mississippi if a Jewish chief justice swore in the next president."


title: James Eastland

text: In 1977, Eastland "sneer(ed) openly at Senator Jacob Javits, saying, 'I don't like you or your kind,' because Javits was Jewish."


title: James Eastland

text: Eastland served on a subcommittee in the 1950s investigating the Communist Party in the United States. As chairman of the Internal Security Subcommittee, he subpoenaed some employees of "The New York Times" to testify about their activities. The paper was taking a strong position on its editorial page that Mississippi should adhere to the "Brown" decision, and claimed that Eastland was persecuting them on that account. The "Times" said in its January 5, 1956 editorial:


title: James Eastland

text: In 1974, Eastland led congressional subcommittee hearings into marijuana, the report on which concluded:


title: James Eastland

text: Eastland was a staunch supporter of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and shared intelligence with the FBI, including leaks from the State Department. An investigation initiated by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and executed by former FBI agent Walter Sheridan traced some of the unauthorized disclosures to Otto Otepka of the State Department Office of Security.


title: James Eastland

text: Hoover received intelligence that Eastland was among members of Congress who had received money and favors from Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic. Eastland had regularly defended him from the Senate floor. Hoover declined to pursue Eastland on corruption charges.


title: James Eastland

text: In his last years in the Senate, Eastland was recognized by most Senators as one who knew how to wield the legislative powers he had accumulated. Many Senators, including liberals who opposed many of his positions, acknowledged the fairness with which he chaired the Judiciary Committee, sharing staff and authority that chairmen of other committees jealously held for themselves. He maintained friendly personal ties with liberal Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Joe Biden and Philip Hart, even though they disagreed on many issues. Following Johnson's retirement from the White House, Eastland frequently visited Johnson at his Texas ranch.


title: James Eastland

text: While at a fundraiser on June 18, 2019, presidential candidate Joe Biden said that one of his greatest strengths was "bringing people together" and pointed to his relationships with Eastland and fellow segregationist senator Herman Talmadge as examples. While imitating a Southern drawl, Biden remarked, "I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland. He never called me 'boy,' he always called me 'son.'” New Jersey Senator Cory Booker was one of many Democrats to criticize Biden for the remarks, issuing a statement that said, "You don't joke about calling black men 'boys.' Men like James O. Eastland used words like that, and the racist policies that accompanied them, to perpetuate white supremacy and strip black Americans of our very humanity".


title: James Eastland

text: Eastland was portrayed by actor Jeff Doucette in the 2016 HBO film "All the Way" and by Nicholas Bell in the 2022 film "Elvis".


title: Elyon

text: Elyon ( "ʿElyōn") is an epithet of the God of the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible. "" is usually rendered in English as "God Most High", and similarly in the Septuagint as ("God the highest").


title: Elyon

text: The term also has mundane uses, such as "upper" (where the ending in both roots is a locative, not superlative or comparative), "top", or "uppermost", referring simply to the position of objects (e.g. applied to a basket in Genesis 40.17 or to a chamber in Ezekiel 42.5).


title: Elyon

text: The compound name ʼĒl ʻElyōn 'God Most High' occurs in Genesis 14:18–20 as the God whose priest was Melchizedek, king of Salem. The form appears again almost immediately in verse 22, used by Abraham in an oath to the king of Sodom. In this verse the name of God also occurs in apposition to ʼĒl ʻElyōn in the Masoretic Text but is absent in the Samaritan version, in the Septuagint translation, and in Symmachus.


title: Elyon

text: Its occurrence here was one foundation of a theory first espoused by Julius Wellhausen that ʼĒl ʻElyōn was an ancient god of Salem (for other reasons understood here to mean Jerusalem), later equated with God.


title: Elyon

text: The only other occurrence of the compound expression is in : "And they remembered that God [ʼĒlōhīm] "was" their rock, and the high God [ʼĒl ʻElyōn] their redeemer."


title: Elyon

text: The name is repeated later in the chapter, but with a variation: verse fifty-six says ʼElohim ʻElyōn.


title: Elyon

text: It has been suggested that the reference to ʼĒl ʻElyōn, maker of heaven and earth" in Genesis 14:19 and 22 reflects a Canaanite background. The phrasing in Genesis resembles a retelling of Canaanite religious traditions in Philo of Byblos's account of Phoenician history, in which ʻElyōn was the progenitor of Ouranos ("Sky") and Gaia ("Earth"). Genesis 14:18–20


title: Elyon

text: The name "ʽElyōn" 'Most High' standing alone is found in many poetic passages, especially in the Psalms.


title: Elyon

text: It appears in Moses' final song in Deuteronomy 32:8 (a much discussed verse). A translation of the Masoretic text:


title: Elyon

text: Many Septuagint manuscripts have in place of "sons of Israel", "angelōn theou" 'angels of God' and a few have "huiōn theou" 'sons of God'. The Dead Sea Scrolls fragment 4QDeut reads "bny ’lwhm" 'sons of God' ('sons of ’Elohim'). The New Revised Standard Version translates this as "he fixed the boundaries ... according to the number of the gods".


title: Elyon

text: This passage appears to identify ʽElyōn with ’Elohim, but not "necessarily" with Yahweh. It can be read to mean that ʽElyōn separated mankind into 70 nations according to his 70 sons (the 70 sons of Ēl being mentioned in the Ugaritic texts), each of these sons to be the tutelary deity over one of the 70 nations, one of them being the God of Israel, Yahweh. Alternatively, it may mean that ʽElyōn, having given the other nations to his sons, now takes Israel for himself under the name of the Tetragrammaton. Both interpretations have supporters.


title: Elyon

text: In Isaiah 14:13–14 ʽElyōn is used in a very mystical context in the passage providing the basis for later speculation on the fall of Satan where the rebellious prince of Babylon is pictured as boasting:


title: Elyon

text: Also Psalm 97:9: "For you, Lord [YHWH], are Most High [ʽelyōn] over all the earth; you are raised high over all the gods."


title: Elyon

text: The most controversial is in the earliest of three Aramaic treaty inscriptions found at al-Safirah southeast of Aleppo.


title: Elyon

text: The "Sefire I" inscription ("KAI." 222.I.A.8–12; "ANET" p. 659), which dates to about 750 BCE, lists the major patron deities of each side, all of them in pairs coupled by "and", in each case a male god and the god's spouse when the names are known. Then, after a gap comes "’l wʽlyn"


title: Elyon

text: In Eusebius' account of Philo of Byblos (c. 64–141 CE) record of Sanchuniathon's euhemeristic account of the Phoenician deities, "Elioun", whom he calls "Hypsistos" 'the highest' and who is therefore possibly ʿElyōn, is quite separate from his Elus/Cronus who is the supreme god Ēl. Sanchuniathon tells only:


title: Elyon

text: In their time is born a certain Elioun called "the Most High," and a female named Beruth, and these dwelt in the neighbourhood of Byblos.


title: Elyon

text: And from them is born Epigeius or Autochthon, whom they afterwards called Sky; so that from him they named the element above us Sky because of the excellence of its beauty. And he has a sister born of the aforesaid parents, who was called Earth, and from her, he says, because of her beauty, they called the earth by the same name. And their father, the Most High, died in an encounter with wild beasts, and was deified, and his children offered to him libations and sacrifices.


title: Elyon

text: According to Sanchuniathon it is from Sky and Earth that Ēl and various other deities are born, though ancient texts refer to Ēl as creator of heaven and earth. The Hittite theogony knows of a primal god named Alalu who fathered Sky (and possibly Earth) and who was overthrown by his son Sky, who was in turn overthrown by his son Kumarbi. A similar tradition seems to be at the basis of Sanchuniathon's account.


title: Elyon

text: As to Beruth who is here ʿElyōn's wife, a relationship with Hebrew "brīt" 'covenant' or with the city of Beirut have both been suggested.


title: Center of excellence

text: A center of excellence (COE or CoE ), also called excellence center, is a team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, best practices, research, support or training for a focus area.


title: Center of excellence

text: Due to its broad usage and vague legal precedent, a "center of excellence" in one context may have completely different characteristics from another. The focus area might be a technology (e.g. Java), a business concept (e.g. BPM), a skill (e.g. negotiation) or a broad area of study (e.g. women's health). A center of excellence may also be aimed at revitalizing stalled initiatives. The term may also refer to a network of institutions collaborating with each other to pursue excellence in a particular area. (e.g. the Rochester Area Colleges Center for Excellence in Math and Science).


title: Center of excellence

text: Within an organization, a center of excellence may refer to a group of people, a department or a shared facility. It may also be known as a competency center, or as a capability center, or as an excellence center. Stephen Jenner and Craig Kilford, in "Management of Portfolios", mention COE as a coordinating function which ensures that change initiatives are delivered consistently and well, through standard processes and competent staff. In technology companies, the center of excellence concept is often associated with new software tools, technologies or associated business concepts such as service-oriented architecture or business intelligence.


title: Center of excellence

text: In academic institutions, a center of excellence often refers to a team with a clear focus on a particular area of research; such a center may bring together faculty members from different disciplines and provide shared facilities.


title: Center of excellence

text: In Australia, the Australian Research Council (ARC) funds a competitive grant program for centres of excellence which link a number of institutions within the country and internationally in a specific field of research. New centres are funded every three years and each run for seven years.


title: Center of excellence

text: In the Philippines, a center of excellence (COE) is a certification given by the Commission on Higher Education to departments within a higher education institution (e.g. a college within a university) which "continuously demonstrates excellent performance in the areas of instruction, research and publication, extension and linkages and institutional qualifications". Candidates for this certification are referred as centers of development (CODs) by the education body.


title: Center of excellence

text: In Russia, the Center of Excellence status (in Russian it is used notion "Leading scientific school") is granted by the Council for Grants of the President of the Russian Federation since 1996. To obtain the COE status, a group of scientists, usually based on a department at a university or a laboratory at an academic institute, and its leader should have a high scientific reputation and should submit an application, which presents a plan of scientific and educational work for the period of two years, to the council. The council issues a special certificate of the COE status to the leader of the group.


title: Center of excellence

text: In the United KIngdom, schools and sixth forms specialising in an area of curriculum are known as specialist schools. These schools are recognised as centres of excellence in their specialist subject areas. Schools that attained Beacon status were also recognised as centres of excellence, however this status has been discontinued.


title: Center of excellence

text: Walmart is designating certain employee healthcare venues as Centers of Excellence. In 2013, several regions of the country (Dallas-Fort Worth; Northern Arkansas; Orlando, FL) Walmart is offering employees free treatment when they use the designated Centers of Excellence. Treatments are administered to covered employees, who travel to the Centers, along with a caregiver, for a course of treatment at the center. Depending on the budgetary outcome, Walmart will be sharing its operational results with other employers, as a method of controlling its healthcare costs.


title: Center of excellence

text: Ford Motor Company has announced a battery center of excellence, meant to centralize a cross-functional team to accelerate the development of battery and battery cell technology. Electrical batteries would then serve as the basis for all-electric vehicles. The Center of Excellence is called Ford Ion Park.


title: Center of excellence

text: Northrop Grumman has invested in its Manned Aircraft Design Center of Excellence in Melbourne, Florida. This investment uses modeling and simulation tools at the Center of Excellence which predict the performance of its test-bed aircraft, as a method for reducing risk during the process of developing the B-21.


title: Center of excellence

text: Huntington Ingalls Industries is building out an Unmanned Systems Center of Excellence, which is working on Boeing's project for the Navy's Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle.


title: Center of excellence

text: Similarly Alliant Techsystems, Otis Elevator, Alcoa, Greatbatch, and GE have all used Centers of Excellence as organizational mechanisms to gain economies of scale, when discovering and sharing efficiencies of operation.


title: Center of excellence

text: In the healthcare sector, the term often refers to a center that provides sufficient and easily accessible medical services to patients.


title: Center of excellence

text: In the British NHS, the term is almost always used sarcastically, following its popularisation by Dr Peter Gooderham on the Doctors.net.uk fora. It can often be heard being used to describe tertiary centres by staff working in district general hospitals.


title: Center of excellence

text: In the European defense community, the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats is a response to hybrid warfare on its periphery; the COE seeks to inform, and also protect its non-NATO components, as well as its non-PESCO members. The US Department of Defense (DoD) intends to use CoEs that focus on key technologies, such as drones, and commercial satellite imagery.


title: Center of excellence

text: TRADOC oversees ten of these Centers of Excellence, each focused on a separate area of expertise within the Army. These centers train over 500,000 Soldiers and service members each year.


title: Bell Media

text: Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include television broadcasting and production (including the CTV and CTV 2 television networks), radio broadcasting (through iHeartRadio Canada), digital media (including Crave) and Internet properties (including the now-defunct Sympatico portal).


title: Bell Media

text: Bell Media is the successor-in-interest to Baton Broadcasting (later CTV Inc.), one of Canada's first private-sector television broadcasters. Although the company was founded in 1960 as Telegram Corporation, the current enterprise traces its origins to the establishment of Bell Globemedia Inc. in 2001 by BCE and the Thomson family, combining CTV Inc. (which BCE had acquired in 2000) and the operations of the Thomson family's newspaper, "The Globe and Mail". BCE sold the majority of its interest in 2006 (after which the company was renamed CTVglobemedia Inc. in 2007), but in 2011, BCE acquired the entire company (excluding "The Globe and Mail") and changed the name to Bell Media Inc.


title: Bell Media

text: For all practical purposes, Bell Media is the successor to Baton Broadcasting Incorporated ( ), which by the late 1990s had become one of Canada's largest broadcasters.


title: Bell Media

text: Formed in 1960 as Baton Aldred Rogers Broadcasting Ltd., the company was originally created to establish Toronto's first private television station, CFTO-TV. The name of this company derived from its initial investors, including the Bassett and Eaton families (Baton), and Aldred-Rogers Broadcasting (owned by broadcaster Joel Aldred and Ted Rogers); Foster Hewitt was also an initial investor, but in a much smaller role. Aldred sold his shares in 1961, followed by Rogers by 1970, thereby relieving their names from the company title. With the Bassett and Eaton families firmly in control, the company went public in the early 1970s.


title: Bell Media

text: CFTO was one of the charter affiliates of CTV when that network formed in 1961, becoming the network's flagship. In 1966, Baton became a part-owner in the network when it was reorganized as a station-owned cooperative. The Board of Broadcast Governors was initially skeptical about the proposal to turn CTV into a cooperative. Since CFTO was by far the largest and richest station in the network, the BBG feared Baton would take advantage of this to dominate the network. However, it approved the deal after Baton and the other owners included a provision in the cooperative's bylaws stipulating that the eight station owners would each have a single vote regardless of audience share. Additionally, if one owner ever bought another station, the acquired station's shares would be redistributed among the remaining owners so that each owner would still have one vote out of eight.


title: Bell Media

text: In 1972, Baton began purchasing other CTV affiliates, starting with CFQC-TV in Saskatoon. This did not, however, give Baton a substantially higher investment in CTV, since its shares were redistributed among the other owners. As a result, Baton still had only one vote out of eight.


title: Bell Media

text: In 1987, Baton began a concerted effort to take over CTV. It started this drive with a further expansion into Saskatchewan, purchasing CKCK-TV in Regina, Yorkton twinstick CKOS-TV/CICC-TV, and CBC affiliate CKBI-TV Prince Albert. A twinstick CTV affiliate was soon launched in Prince Albert, CIPA-TV.


title: Bell Media

text: In the late 1980s, Baton applied for a high-power station in Ottawa on channel 60. The licence was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), appealed to federal cabinet by rival broadcasters, and ultimately sent back to the CRTC for review. However the licence was surrendered when Baton was instead able to acquire the local CTV affiliate, CJOH-TV, from Allan Slaight's Standard Broadcasting.


title: Bell Media

text: In 1990, Baton purchased the MCTV system of twinstick operations in Pembroke, North Bay, Sudbury, Timmins, and the Huron Broadcasting twinstick in Sault Ste. Marie. In 1993, Baton purchased CFPL-TV in London, CKNX-TV in Wingham and received a licence for a new independent station, CHWI-TV, in Windsor.


title: Bell Media

text: In 1991, the company launched Ontario Network Television, a secondary affiliation carried by Baton's CTV and independent stations in Ontario. This was expanded in 1994 into the Baton Broadcast System (BBS), which included Baton's Saskatchewan stations. BBS was meant as a backup in case Baton's ongoing acquisitions did not translate into control of CTV itself. A year earlier, CTV had been recently restructured into a corporation, with each owner holding a 14.3% stake in the network. However, any "future" acquisitions by Baton would come with all of that affiliate's CTV shares. It was around this time that former CBC executive Ivan Fecan joined the company.


title: Bell Media

text: In 1996, the CRTC approved two major deals involving Baton. First was the acquisition of CFCN-TV in Calgary from Rogers Communications, which had recently purchased Maclean Hunter. Second, Baton and Electrohome—owner of CKCO-TV in Kitchener and CFRN-TV in Edmonton—formed an alliance, under which the companies would share ownership of CFCN; Baton's stations in Saskatchewan and its independent stations in southwestern Ontario; and Electrohome's CKCO. The deals doubled Baton's own interest in CTV to 28.6%. However, as part of the deal, Baton took control of Electrohome's CTV vote, allowing it to command 42.9% of CTV's shares.


title: Bell Media

text: In January 1997, Baton-Electrohome's "Vancouver Television" proposal emerged as the CRTC's choice for the new independent station in Vancouver, beating out four other competitors. The new station, CIVT-TV, would compete directly with Western International Communications's two CTV affiliates in the market when it was launched that fall.


title: Bell Media

text: On February 25, 1997, the Baton-Electrohome alliance and CHUM Limited announced that several stations would be swapped between them. Baton-Electrohome would acquire CHUM's Atlantic Television System (ATV), consisting of four CTV affiliates in the Maritimes, the Atlantic Satellite Network (ASN), and a further 14.3% in CTV. CHUM would receive Baton's independent stations in southwestern Ontario, as well as CHRO-TV in Pembroke, which had recently disaffiliated from CTV. The Baton-Electrohome alliance now held 57.2% of CTV.


title: Bell Media

text: Shortly thereafter, Electrohome announced it would sell its broadcasting assets—including CFRN, its interest in the alliance, and its CTV shares—to Baton in exchange for cash and shares in Baton. These two deals were approved by the CRTC in August. Baton now held controlling interest in CTV, triggering a put option that allowed the other owners to sell their stakes in the network while still keeping their stations. Accordingly, Baton acquired the remaining CTV shares from WIC and Moffat Communications (Newfoundland Broadcasting, owner of CJON-TV, had effectively relinquished its vote when CTV became a corporation) that fall.


title: Bell Media

text: The BBS television system was merged into CTV, with the company itself being renamed CTV Inc. the following year. The Eatons' remaining shares, representing 41% of Baton (estimated at CA$450 million), were sold off to the general public in early 1998. By the end of 2001, nearly all CTV stations were consolidated under network ownership (including one replacement).


title: Bell Media

text: NetStar Communications Inc. (previously Labatt Communications Inc., and currently CTV Specialty Television Inc.) was formed by Labatt Brewing Company to hold that firm's broadcasting assets, which included TSN, RDS, Viewers Choice, and Discovery Channel. In 1995, when the parent company was sold to the foreign brewing conglomerate Interbrew, a consortium of four Canadian investors—Stephen Bronfman (22.5%), the Caisse (22.5%), Reitmans (16.5%), and senior management (6.5%)—along with ESPN (32%), took over the company.


title: Bell Media

text: After a takeover attempt by CanWest Global that was vetoed by ESPN, CTV announced a friendly bid to take over NetStar Communications in early 1999, with CRTC approval on March 24, 2000. After acquiring Netstar, the CRTC required CTV to divest itself of either Netstar's TSN or their own Sportsnet; they chose to sell the latter to Rogers.


title: Bell Media

text: At the beginning of the 2000s, Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) acquired CTV Inc. (including the NetStar assets) and bought "The Globe and Mail", folding the two into a new media venture, Bell Globemedia Inc (BGM).


title: Bell Media

text: This venture was masterminded by former Bell Canada chief executive Jean Monty, largely as a response to Canwest's purchase of the Southam newspaper chain as well as the trend of media convergence, particularly the AOL-Time Warner merger. Monty believed that, to survive in a changing technological landscape, and in particular to drive subscriptions to satellite television provider Bell ExpressVu and internet service provider Bell Sympatico, BCE had to have control over content.


title: Bell Media

text: The transaction was structured as follows. In 2000, BCE acquired CTV Inc. in an all-cash transaction valued at CA$2.3 billion. Soon after, Monty arranged to have Thomson Corporation transfer control of "The Globe and Mail", the Toronto-based national newspaper, to BCE in exchange for a significant interest (20%) in the merged CTV/"Globe" entity. The Thomson family's holding company (The Woodbridge Company Limited) invested in the company directly to obtain an additional 9.9% interest, and it later bought Thomson Corporation's interest.


title: Bell Media

text: The resulting company (Bell Globemedia) consisted of CTV, "The Globe and Mail", and the Internet portal then known as Sympatico-Lycos (Lycos was later replaced by MSN). Fecan was named the combined firm's president and CEO (a role he remained in for the duration of the BGM/CTVglobemedia era). After Monty resigned and was replaced by Michael Sabia in 2002, it became clear that Monty's vision was not producing anything near the desired results, notwithstanding the good results for the individual units, particularly the CTV network.


title: Bell Media

text: The following years provided a few cosmetic changes in BGM's assets. In 2001, CTV acquired CKY-TV in Winnipeg and CFCF-TV in Montreal, and moved the CTV affiliation in British Columbia to CIVT, replacing two affiliates that had been purchased by Canwest. That fall also brought the launch of the first digital specialty channels, including several owned by CTV.


title: Bell Media

text: The company acquired partial ownership in TQS in 2002, the Sympatico portal was sold back to Bell Canada, while a further investment from the Thomsons (whose ownership increased to 31.5%) funded the acquisition of 15% of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. However, beginning in 2003, BCE management began to refer to BGM as a non-core asset; as a result, much attention was given to the likely sale of the company, and potentially a breakup into several different pieces.


title: Bell Media

text: On December 2, 2005, Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) announced that it would sell an 8.5% interest to The Woodbridge Company Limited (increasing their total ownership to 40%), a 20% interest to Torstar, and a 20% interest to the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. BCE retained 20% of the group—a condition that ensured that Bell Satellite TV, Sympatico, and other Bell units continued to have access to Bell Globemedia (BGM) content. The transaction closed on August 30, 2006.


title: Bell Media

text: This deal put to rest any rumours about a possible breakup of the company. However, Torstar's involvement led to additional media concentration concerns, mainly from media unions. Torstar insisted it was committed to maintaining the editorial independence of the "Globe" and its own "Toronto Star", and ultimately there were no major regulatory hurdles due to this.


title: Bell Media

text: On July 12, 2006, BGM announced a friendly bid to take over CHUM Limited for an estimated $1.7 billion. The acquisition would bring the secondary broadcast system (Citytv), other stations including CablePulse24, MuchMusic, Star!, Bravo!, and Space, and all of CHUM's radio stations, into the BGM fold. BGM originally announced that CHUM's A-Channel stations, Access, CKX-TV, MusiquePlus, MusiMax, Canadian Learning Television, Cooking Channel and BGM's own OLN would not be retained.


title: Bell Media

text: On September 7, 2006, in order to pay for the CHUM acquisition, BGM sold additional shares to its existing shareholders. BCE did not participate in the refinancing; the net effect was an increase in Teachers' ownership to 25%, while BCE's interest was reduced to 15%.


title: Bell Media

text: On January 1, 2007, as a result of BCE's reduced ownership in the company, Bell Globemedia was renamed CTVglobemedia Inc.


title: Bell Media

text: In April that year, Rogers Communications announced a tentative deal to purchase A-Channel, CKX-TV, Access Alberta, Canadian Learning Television, and Cooking Channel from CTVglobemedia, if its purchase of CHUM was approved. Astral Media made a similar deal for CHUM's 50% interest in MusiMax and MusiquePlus.


title: Bell Media

text: That June, the CRTC approved the CHUM takeover, on condition that CTV sell off the Citytv stations, because of the CTV network's owned-and-operated station stations serving the very same cities. CTV ultimately chose to keep the A-Channel stations along with the rest of CHUM assets it had previously said it would sell, except for MusiquePlus/MusiMax. Rogers Communications was announced as the buyer of the Citytv stations on June 11, 2007, and the CHUM acquisition was finalized on June 22.


title: Bell Media

text: Subsequently, CTVglobemedia sold off its interests in various non-core channels. Rogers purchased several of these assets, including CTV's 33% interest in OLN in late 2007, as well as radio stations CHST-FM in London, Ontario and CHBN-FM in Edmonton, Alberta in 2010. Corus Entertainment would acquire Canadian Learning Television, Cooking Channel, and Drive-In Classics for a combined $113 million. TQS entered bankruptcy protection and was ultimately acquired by Remstar (which renamed the network "V"). Meanwhile, Glassbox Television acquired Travel + Escape in late 2010. In two cases, the operations were closed down, specifically CBC affiliate CKX-TV in Brandon, Manitoba (which left the air in October 2009 after a deal to sell that station to Bluepoint Investment Corporation fell through) and the A station in Wingham, CKNX-TV (which left the air one month prior to CKX and is now a rebroadcaster of the A station in London, CFPL-TV).


title: Bell Media

text: On September 10, 2010, BCE announced plans to re-acquire 100% of the company's broadcasting arm, including CTV Inc. Under the deal, Woodbridge, Torstar, and Teachers' would together receive $1.3 billion in either cash or equity in BCE, while BCE would also assume $1.7 billion in debt (BCE's existing equity interest was $200 million, for a total transaction value of $3.2 billion). Woodbridge would also regain majority control of The Globe and Mail Inc., with BCE retaining a 15% interest. The overall deal was expected to close by April 2011. However, the sale of "The" "Globe", which did not require CRTC approval, was completed in late December 2010. The deal was approved by the CRTC on March 7, 2011, and officially closed on April 1, 2011.


title: Bell Media

text: On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment to BCE and its rival, Rogers Communications, in a deal valued at around $1.32 billion. Additionally, Larry Tanenbaum increased his stake in the company to 25%. The deal closed in August 2012.


title: Bell Media

text: On March 16, 2012, BCE announced that it had entered in an agreement to acquire Montreal-based broadcaster Astral Media for an estimated value at $3.38 billion; the assets of which were to be incorporated into Bell Media. The acquisition was primarily centered on Astral's premium services (such as The Movie Network and its stake in HBO Canada) and its French-language radio and television stations. Bell planned to use Astral's premium offerings to enhance its own multi-platform services to compete against the likes of services such as Netflix, and its French media outlets to better compete against the dominant Québecor Média. The merger was notably opposed by a coalition of competing cable providers (which included Cogeco, EastLink, and Vidéotronthe last of which is also owned by Québecor Média, who felt that Bell's control of a majority of Canadian media would harm consumer choice, and lead to increased carriage fees which could cripple smaller cable companies.


title: Bell Media

text: BCE's first proposal was denied by the CRTC in October 2012; the commission believed that the combined company would have had too much market power. Soon afterward, Bell and Astral began to negotiate a second proposal that would involve selling most of Astral's English-language television channels in order to quell fears by the CRTC. On March 18, 2013, the Competition Bureau cleared the revised proposal. Unlike the previous deal, which would have given Bell a 42% share of the English-language television market, the new deal would only give Bell a total market share of 35.7%, but still increase its French-language market share to 23% (in comparison to 8% before). Following hearings by the CRTC in May 2013, the CRTC approved Bell's acquisition of Astral Media on June 27, 2013. The deal is subject to conditions, including the requirement to provide fair treatment to its competitors, to not impose "restrictive bundling practices" on Astral's premium movie channels, invest $246.9 million over the next seven years on Canadian-produced programming, and to maintain the operation and local programming levels of all of its television stations through 2017. The CRTC also approved Bell's proposed exemptions for maintaining ownership of Montreal's CKGM. Bell put Family, Disney XD, the two Disney Junior services, MusiMax, MusiquePlus, and five radio stations up for sale, while Corus Entertainment acquired Historia, Séries+, and Teletoon from Astral and competitor Shaw Media.


title: Bell Media

text: On June 6, 2013, Bell announced that Bravo would be its first network to implement a TV Everywhere service, which would allow subscribers to Bravo on participating television service providers to stream video on demand content and the Bravo channel live via the Bravo Go app. Apps for some of its other networks were also released over the following months.


title: Bell Media

text: In December 2014, Bell Media launched CraveTV, a subscription video on-demand service. Initially, the service was available only through television providers; Bell Media president Kevin Crull argued that Bell did not want the service to cannibalize its linear television business, because its content "[would not] exist if you didn't have the traditional TV system. So you really can't sustainably have one without the other."


title: Bell Media

text: On April 9, 2015, Crull stepped down as president of Bell Media, and was replaced by Mary Ann Turcke, the subsidiary's former head of media sales. The move came following allegations reported by "The Globe and Mail" that, after the CRTC's March 2015 decision to mandate that pay television providers offer a la carte packages, Crull ordered all Bell-owned news properties, including CTV News, not to air any remarks by CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais during reports regarding the decision. Although the CTV News Channel program "Power Play" and a report aired on local evening newscasts complied with Crull's order, the "CTV National News" that night defied Crull's demand by airing a story on the changes that included remarks by Blais. CTV News president Wendy Freeman, Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife, and the program's anchor Lisa LaFlamme felt that the inclusion of remarks by Blais were necessary due to the nature of the story. In response to the dismissal, BCE CEO George A. Cope explained that the journalistic independence of its news operations were "paramount importance to our company and to all Canadians".


title: Bell Media

text: Shortly after taking the position, Turcke was criticized for remarks that considered the use of virtual private network services to evade geo-blocking and access the U.S. version of subscription video on demand service Netflix to be "stealing".


title: Bell Media

text: In late-August 2015, Bell Media began a series of layoffs, which included directors and vice presidents. On November 6, 2015, additional layoffs of 380 jobs from production, editorial, sales, and administrative roles in Toronto and Montreal were revealed. On November 17, 2015, further cuts were made, which included high-profile on-air talent from radio and television properties in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver.


title: Bell Media

text: On November 20, 2015, Corus announced that it would wind down the operation of Movie Central, a premium television service that had been granted exclusivity in Western Canada, and cede its regional monopoly to Bell Media's The Movie Network, which was similarly restricted to Eastern Canada, allowing it to become available nationwide in 2016. Bell Media subsequently announced that it had acquired exclusive Canadian rights to all current HBO programming in Canada (rights previously shared with Corus due to its joint venture HBO Canada).


title: Bell Media

text: On January 6, 2016, iHeartMedia announced that it had partnered with Bell Media to launch a localized version of its online radio service iHeartRadio Canada. On January 14, 2016, CraveTV became available as a standalone service without requiring an existing television subscription.


title: Bell Media

text: On May 4, 2016, Bell acquired rights to the programming and branding of Canadian specialty channel Gusto TV. The channel was shut down, and re-launched on September 1, 2016, replacing M3 under its existing Category A license.


title: Bell Media

text: On January 31, 2017, Bell Media announced that it planned to perform another round of layoffs in 24 locations, citing various developments across Canada's broadcasting industry, as well as the impact of recent regulatory decisions (such as one that prevents the federal simsub rules from being used on the Super Bowl, whose Canadian broadcast rights are currently owned by Bell Media).


title: Bell Media

text: On February 27, 2017, Turcke left Bell to join the National Football League as president of NFL Media. She was succeeded as president by Randy Lennox. That month, Bell also announced that it had partnered with record executive Scott Borchetta to develop a new, international television format that would "uncover, develop, and promote pop culture's next musical superstars", and "leverage Bell Media's massive reach and extensive platforms to showcase musicians on the national and international stage." CTV officially announced the new series, "The Launch", in April 2017.


title: Bell Media

text: On June 7, 2017, Wow Unlimited Media announced that it would acquire a specialty channel from the company (later revealed to be Comedy Gold; however, the sale would later be aborted, leading to the channel's shutdown in 2019) to form a new network targeting children and young adults, and provide children's television content for Bell's over-the-top ventures. As part of the purchase, BCE will take 3.4 million common voting shares in the company.


title: Bell Media

text: On August 9, 2017, Bell announced that it would acquire Larche Communications' four Ontario radio stations, pending CRTC approval.


title: Bell Media

text: On October 17, 2017, Bell Media announced its intent to acquire Historia and Séries+—two French-language networks whose Astral-owned stakes were divested during its acquisition by Bell—from Corus Entertainment for $200 million. On May 28, 2018, both transactions were blocked by the Competition Bureau, citing a condition on the Bell/Astral deal which forbade Bell from re-acquiring properties divested in the sale for 10 years after its completion.


title: Bell Media

text: On January 23, 2018, Bell Media announced that it had reached licensing agreements with Starz Inc. and Lionsgate, and that TMN Encore would be rebranded under the Starz brand in 2019, featuring its programming. The following month, Bell launched SnackableTV, a streaming video app with short-form content from Bell Media properties and other sources.


title: Bell Media

text: In April 2018, Bell Media acquired a controlling stake in the Pinewood Toronto Studios complex. In May 2018, Bell Media announced that it, along with several other parties, would contribute French-language content to Radio-Canada's subscription streaming service Ici Tou.tv Extra.


title: Bell Media

text: In May 2018, Bell Media laid off 17 employees, resulting in the cancellation of Discovery's "Daily Planet" and Space's "Innerspace".


title: Bell Media

text: On June 7, 2018, during the CTV upfronts, it was announced that four Bell Media specialty channels would re-brand in September 2019, with Bravo, Comedy Network, Gusto, and Space respectively becoming CTV Drama Channel, CTV Comedy Channel, CTV Life Channel, and CTV Sci-Fi Channel. Two new ad-supported video-on-demand platforms were also announced: CTV Movies and CTV Vault (renamed CTV Throwback on launch). These rebrandings and launches will be incorporated into a larger, unified digital platform containing content from all six services. Later that day, it was also announced that Bell Media was one of two Canadian companies that had acquired a stake in the Montreal-based comedy festival Just for Laughs.


title: Bell Media

text: On August 16, 2018, Vice Media announced a long-term output deal with Bell Media, which would see its networks and properties hold rights to Viceland programming in Canada.


title: Bell Media

text: On July 24, 2019, Bell announced its intent to acquire the French-language broadcast television network V from V Media Group pending CRTC approval, as well as its streaming outlet Noovo. CTVglobemedia previously owned a 40% stake in the network prior to its sale to Remstar. On April 3, 2020, the sale was approved; as a condition of the purchase, the CRTC stated that all five V stations must air five hours of local programming per-week through the 2020-2021 broadcast year, and expanding to eight-and-a-half hours per-week in Montreal and Quebec City by 2021–2022. At least half of all local programming must be locally-reflective. The sale was closed on May 15, 2020. V would later be renamed to Noovo on August 31, 2020.


title: Bell Media

text: On October 19, 2020, BCE announced that Lennox would be leaving the organization on January 4, 2021, and that Bell group president Wade Oosterman, to whom Lennox reported, would take over operational leadership of Bell Media directly, while maintaining oversight of Bell's wireless, residential, and small-business telecom operations. BCE subsequently clarified that Oosterman would henceforth hold the title of president of Bell Media while remaining vice-chair of BCE and Bell Canada.


title: Bell Media

text: Immediately following Lennox's departure, Oosterman announced a new, simplified executive structure. As a result, several senior executives of Bell Media, some having served with the company's predecessors since the late 1990s, left the company; two of the three senior vice presidents reporting to Oosterman under the new structure also have roles overseeing parts of Bell's telecom business. Several other lower-level managers were laid off about two weeks later. This in turn was followed in early February by the elimination of hundreds of rank-and-file positions, including at least 210 in the company's Toronto offices alone, the removal of dedicated newsrooms for news-talk radio stations CJAD Montreal and CFRB Toronto, and the reformatting of three TSN Radio outlets as automated business news or comedy stations with little locally produced content.


title: Bell Media

text: In a memo announcing the end of the restructuring, Oosterman described the moves as necessary to "reflect the reality of sweeping change facing [Bell Media]" including impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, changing media consumption patterns and "aggressive" competition from global players. They were also widely seen as indicating a corporate shift in focus away from traditional media outlets and towards Bell's streaming services like Crave and iHeartRadio. However, observers including Unifor, the main labour union representing Bell employees, questioned the need for the layoffs, given that parent company BCE had accepted $122 million in assistance through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy in 2020, while being able to increase its dividend payments to shareholders.


title: Bell Media

text: CTV, Inc. also owns 29 specialty television channels, frequently in partnership with U.S. companies which operate similar channels, and primarily concentrated in the following genres:


title: Bell Media

text: Through its Bell Media Radio division, the company is also Canada's largest private-sector radio broadcaster and operates a localized version of iHeartMedia's iHeartRadio platform in Canada, even owning the radio syndication company Orbyt Media, which supplies its American programming from iHeartMedia's Premiere Networks division.


title: Bell Media

text: In addition, Bell Media also owns television & radio production studios and websites associated with all of the above properties, as well as the TheLoop.ca (formerly Sympatico.ca) Internet portal previously operated through Bell Canada.


title: HitchBOT

text: hitchBOT was a Canadian hitchhiking robot created by professors David Harris Smith of McMaster University and Frauke Zeller of Ryerson University in 2013. It gained international attention for successfully hitchhiking across Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, but in 2015 its attempt to hitchhike across the United States ended when it was stripped and decapitated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


title: HitchBOT

text: Smith, who had hitchhiked across Canada 3 times, and Zeller had "designed the robot to learn about how people interact with technology and ask the question, 'Can robots trust human beings?'" The robot was not able to walkit completed its "hitchhiking" journeys by "asking" to be carried by those who picked it up. The robot was able to carry on basic conversation and talk about facts, and was designed to be a robotic traveling companion while in the vehicle of the driver who picked it up. As a social experiment, it was also given social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.


title: HitchBOT

text: The robot had a cylindrical body composed mainly of a plastic bucket, with two flexible "arms" and two flexible "legs" attached to the torso. The top section of the body was transparent, containing a screen which displayed eyes and a mouth, making the robot approximately humanoid in external appearance. It was small and had a look the team described as "yard-sale chic", to evoke trust and empathy, and had a child's car seat base to be easily and safely transportable. It was powered either by solar power or by automobile cigarette lighters. It had a GPS device and a 3G connection, which allowed researchers to track its location. It was equipped with a camera, which took photographs periodically to document its journeys.


title: HitchBOT

text: The robot's "hitchhiking" was reported by the press in many countries. From July 27, 2014 to August 21, 2014, it hitchhiked across Canada from the Institute for Applied Creativity at NSCAD University Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Victoria, British Columbia. At a First Nations powwow, it was given a name translating as "Iron Woman". The robot was so popular that its GPS had to be disabled sometimes to prevent crowds bothering those who took it into their homes.


title: HitchBOT

text: A second hitchBOT machine was made, and in February 2015 it hitchhiked around Germany for 10 days. For 3 weeks in June 2015, it hitched around the Netherlands. HitchBOT then attempted to cross the United States from Boston to San Francisco starting on July 17, 2015. After 2 weeks, on August 1, 2015 however, a photo was tweeted, showing that the robot had been stripped and decapitated in Philadelphia. The head was never found. On August 3, 2015 Adam Gabbatt reported on the Guardian website about hitchBOT's destruction. Frauke Zeller, co-creator of hitchBOT, was quoted saying: "We can see on all our data that the tablet and battery and everything shut off at the same time so it must have been when they vandalised the bot." The article also states:


title: HitchBOT

text: She said Hitchbot’s body had been found by some good samaritans who had located the roving robot through a regularly updated map on its website. "They sent us images and it’s really beyond repair. There’s not a single wire inside and all the things are broken."


title: HitchBOT

text: hitchBOT's ordeal highlighted the issues of autonomous technology, the ethics of robot treatment, and the anthropomorphism of animate-like devices. The first hitchBOT is now a permanent exhibit at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.


title: HitchBOT

text: Smith and Zeller recreated their invention as hitchBOT 2.0 in 2019. The robot was sent to Paris, France, where it was touring about and appearing in a play, "Killing Robots", written by Linda Blanchet.


title: HitchBOT

text: A similar hitch-hiking robot, known as TweenBOT, travelled in the later 2000s. Its purpose was also to study interaction of humans with it.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: He is known for his time in Pro Wrestling Noah where he was a one-time Global Honored Crown (GHC) Heavyweight Champion, three-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, three-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, and one-time GHC Tag Team Champion; once was the inaugural reign with longtime partner and rival, Naomichi Marufuji, which saw the two hold the title for almost two years, as well as a reign with protégé Taiji Ishimori. He was also the winner of the 2012 Global League and the 2013 Global Tag League tournaments.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kobayashi started his career in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), before moving to Pro Wrestling Noah; through Noah's involvement in the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance (GPWA), a global organization of cooperative promotions that allow their competitors to travel abroad to other companies, he has wrestled extensively in American promotion Ring of Honor (ROH).


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: He is also well known for his tenure in American promotion WWE where he worked under the name Hideo Itami (ヒデオ・イタミ) in the company's developmental territory NXT and later in their cruiserweight exclusive brand 205 Live. A former amateur kickboxer, Kobayashi's wrestling style is based upon strong kicks and strikes. Kobayashi pioneered both the Go To Sleep and Busaiku Knee Kick finishing maneuvers, later popularized by CM Punk and Bryan Danielson, respectively. He returned to Japan in 2019 back under his Kenta ring name and made his NJPW debut, and has since held the NEVER Openweight Championship and the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship once each.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kobayashi was born on March 12, 1981, in Sōka, Japan. He trained under Kenta Kobashi and Yoshihiro Takayama.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Prior to wrestling professionally, Kobayashi had a variety of athletic backgrounds, practicing baseball and kickboxing; the latter came to be a strong foundation in his wrestling style often referred to as shoot style. Kobayashi made his professional wrestling debut on May 24, 2000, against future ally and rival, Naomichi Marufuji, in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) to compete in their junior heavyweight division. He did not remain in the company long as Mitsuharu Misawa, acting president of AJPW, decided to leave the company following a dispute, leading to Misawa forming his own company, Pro Wrestling Noah.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: One of Misawa's focuses in his new promotion was the junior heavyweight division, which never was treated with high regard in AJPW despite the successes in other promotions. Being sidelined with injuries for the majority of Noah's first year of operation, Kobayashi made his return in July 2001, simply named Kenta.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kenta's first involvement in a championship situation came when Naomichi Marufuji was forced to vacate the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship after suffering a knee injury; Kenta entered into the tournament held to determine a new champion. He advanced to the finals by defeating Kotaro Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi before losing to Yoshinobu Kanemaru on the "Navigation with Breeze Tour" in June 2002. Following his relative success in the tournament, Kenta had an increase in his popularity, and he joined his mentor, Kenta Kobashi, in the faction Burning.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: March 1, 2003 saw Kenta team with Naomichi Marufuji for the first time against Makoto Hashi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in a winning effort. They began teaming regularly as the two entered into a tournament to christen the first GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions during the company's "Accomplish Our Third Navigation tour"; they went to win the tournament by defeating junior heavyweight veterans Jyushin Thunder Liger and Takehiro Murahama in the finals on July 16. While defending the tag team title, Kenta continued his venture in hopes of winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight title once again on November 30, 2003, in an unsuccessful bid against Takashi Sugiura.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: As part of a reward for the way Kenta performed, he earned himself a trial series of seven matches going into the next year, seeing Kenta able to challenge more established stars in an attempt to elevate his status. Kenta began his trial series on the "First Navigation" tour, beating Juventud Guerrera. This was followed by defeats to Yoshinari Ogawa and Jun Akiyama. The final match of the series was a loss against Marufuji in October. While the series was taking place, Kenta and Marufuji continued defending their title against a number of challengers: El Samurai and Ryusuke Taguchi, Yoshinari Ogawa and Kotaro Suzuki, Suzuki and Ricky Marvin, Marvin and Suwa and, on Noah's first Tokyo Dome show, against Kendo Kashin and Takashi Sugiura. Their reign as champions came to an end in June 2005 after almost two years by Kanemaru and Sugiura after the latter pinned Kenta.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kenta's first major rivalry in singles competition began in March 2005 following a dispute with SUWA, which led to a series of confrontations between the two, including a violent match that ended in his opponent getting disqualified for assaulting the referee. This led to Kenta getting one more chance to challenge for the Junior Heavyweight title against Yoshinobu Kanemaru at Destiny on July 18, which saw him win the title. He made his first defense two months later against Suwa, then against Kotaro Suzuki as his alter ego, Mushiking Terry. Simultaneously, Kenta began teaming with Katsuyori Shibata as The Takeover, challenging for the GHC Tag Team Championship, the heavyweight version of the company's tag team title.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: On March 5, 2006, Kenta faced a major challenge in Kenta Kobashi, which saw him lose following a "Burning Hammer". This was followed by a loss of the Junior Heavyweight title on June 4 to Takashi Sugiura. This saw Kenta shift his attention to the GHC Heavyweight Championship, challenging Naomichi Marufuji, losing in a match which won numerous awards and accolades from the wrestling media.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kenta spent the majority of his 2007 time in Noah wrestling a variety of tag team and six-man tag team matches with protégé Taiji Ishimori and Akitoshi Saito as partners. He saw most of his success with Ishimori as the two had critically acclaimed matches against a wide variety of competitors, including Ring of Honor (ROH) competitors on loan to the company due to the talent exchange agreement, the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance (GPWA), between ROH and Noah: the Briscoe Brothers, Davey Richards, and Bryan Danielson. As Kenta and Ishimori progressed as a unit, they entered the first NTV Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Tournament; in the finals they beat Marufuji and Kota Ibushi to win the tournament. They later challenged the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Dragon Gate wrestlers BxB Hulk and Shingo Takagi, in a winning effort before losing them to Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Kotaro Suzuki, only to defeat the team to win the second NTV Junior Heavyweight Tag Team League Tournament.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Following his loss of the tag title, Kenta returned to competing in singles competition by defeating Bryan Danielson for his second GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, which led to a match with Marufuji, who had won the World Junior Heavyweight Championship, to attempt to unify the titles; the match ended in a sixty-minute draw, keeping the titles in the hands of their respective holder, while gaining favorable reviews for their efforts by the media with some claiming it to be a "Match of the Year". Kenta lost the title in February 2009 to rival in their interpromotional rivalry with another member of the GPWA in the Kensuke Office, Katsuhiko Nakajima, only to win it back in the next month. In October, Kobayashi was forced to vacate the title after suffering a knee injury, which would keep him sidelined for over seven months.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kobayashi made his return from injury on June 6, 2010, losing to Naomichi Marufuji in a GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship number one contender's match. On October 30, 2010, Kenta and Atsushi Aoki defeated Roderick Strong and Eddie Edwards in the finals of a tournament to win the 2010 Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League. As a result, Kenta and Aoki received a shot at the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, but were defeated by the champions, New Japan Pro-Wrestling representatives Koji Kanemoto and Tiger Mask, on November 23, 2010. On January 29, 2011, Kenta turned heel and join the Disobey stable with members Muhammad Yone, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Genba Hirayanagi. Kenta would change his look and attitude. Then on March 5, he turned on Yone, removing him from the group. One week later, he renamed the stable No Mercy. On May 25 Kenta and Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki of the ANMU stable to win the vacant GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. After months of trying to persuade his mentor Yoshihiro Takayama to join No Mercy, on June 26 Takayama turned on his partner Takuma Sano during a tag match against Kenta and Kanemaru and became the fourth member of the group. Kenta and Kanemaru would then make it to the finals of the Junior Tag League on July 30. They lost to Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki. Then on August 18, 2011, Kenta and Yoshihiro Takayama won the Noah 2 Day Tag Team Tournament. On August 24, Kenta and Kanemaru successfully defended their tag title against Aoki and Suzuki, who got the shot due to their victory in the Junior Tag League. On September 23, Kenta confronted GHC Heavyweight Champion Go Shiozaki after he defeated Takayama to retain the title. Kenta got a number one contender's match with Takashi Sugiura, which he won on October 10. Kenta and Kanemaru lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight tag title to Aoki and Suzuki on October 16.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: At Noah's Halloween show on October 31, 2011, Kenta challenged the NJPW team Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson) for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with Yoshihiro Takayama. The match was set for 2012, but never happened due to injury. In November, Kenta entered Noah's Global Tag League and developed a new submission move he called "Game Over" to help him dispatch heavyweights. Kenta would make it to the finals on November 20, but would lose to Takeshi Morishima. On November 27, he lost to Go Shiozaki in his GHC Heavyweight title shot. In December 2011, Kenta tore his ACL again, forcing him to undergo another surgery to repair it. It was announced that he would be out of action for six to seven months. Tokyo Sports named Kenta the 2011 Technical Wrestler of the Year. Despite his injury, Kenta would stay in Noah and manage No Mercy during his injury. On February 14, 2012, Kenta recruited Shuhei Taniguchi as the fifth member of No Mercy and change his name to Maybach, becoming his mouthpiece and talking for him.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kenta made his in-ring return on July 22, 2012, losing to Naomichi Marufuji. On October 8, Kenta and Maybach Taniguchi defeated Magnus and Samoa Joe to win the GHC Tag Team Championship for the first time. However, they lost the title to Akitoshi Saito and Go Shiozaki just eighteen days later. On November 23, Kenta won the 2012 Global League.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: On January 27, 2013, Kenta defeated Takeshi Morishima for the GHC Heavyweight Championship at Great Voyage 2013. On February 9, Maybach Taniguchi turned on Kenta and stole his Heavyweight Championship belt. The following week, Kenta took part in a South American tour with the Alianza Latinoamericana de Lucha Libre (AULL) promotion, during which he won the Torneo Latino Americano de Lucha Libre, defeating Super Crazy in the finals. On March 10, Kenta defeated Maybach Taniguchi for his first successful defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship. On April 28, Kenta and Yoshihiro Takayama defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kensuke Sasaki in the finals to win the 2013 Global Tag League. On May 11, Kenta took part in Kenta Kobashi's retirement match at Final Burning in Budokan, where he, Go Shiozaki, Maybach Taniguchi, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru were defeated by Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, Keiji Mutoh, and Kensuke Sasaki. The following day, Kenta made his second successful defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Takashi Sugiura. On June 2, Kenta defeated New Japan Pro-Wrestling representative and reigning GHC Tag Team Champion Toru Yano for his third successful title defense. Six days later, Kenta was pinned by Yano in a GHC Tag Team Championship match, where he and Yoshihiro Takayama unsuccessfully challenged Yano and Takashi Iizuka. On July 7, Kenta made his fourth successful defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Naomichi Marufuji. Kenta's fifth successful title defense took place on August 4, when he defeated Muhammad Yone. Next Kenta defended his title against the reigning GHC Tag Team Champions, first defeating Shane Haste on September 7 and then Mikey Nicholls on September 16. On October 5, Kenta defeated Diamond Ring representative Katsuhiko Nakajima for his eighth successful title defense. With the win, Kenta became the first wrestler to successfully defend the GHC Heavyweight Championship eight times during a calendar year. On December 7, Kenta defeated New Japan representative and winner of the 2013 Global League, Yuji Nagata, for his ninth successful title defense. Kenta's near one-year long reign ended on January 5, 2014, when he lost the title to Takeshi Morishima in his tenth defense.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: On February 3, 2014, Kenta and Maybach Taniguchi's long rivalry culminated in a No Disqualification match, where Kenta was victorious. After Yuji Nagata had defeated Morishima to become the GHC Heavyweight Champion, Kenta received the first shot at the new champion, but was defeated in the title match on February 22. On April 30, Noah held a press conference during which Kenta announced his resignation from the promotion. Kenta wrestled his farewell match on May 17, where he and Naomichi Marufuji defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima and Takashi Sugiura.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: While still under WWE contract, Kenta made a one-off return to Noah under his WWE ring name of Hideo Itami on September 1, 2018, losing to Naomichi Marufuji at Marufuji's 20th Anniversary show.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Aside from competing in Pro Wrestling Noah, Kenta has been able to compete abroad in the United States with other participating members of the GPWA. His first appearance in the country was with Ring of Honor at Final Battle 2005, as a fan favorite, defending the GHC Junior Heavyweight title against Low Ki. He returned to the company the following year for Best in the World in New York City on March 25 where he and Naomichi Marufuji defeated the team of Samoa Joe and ROH World champion Bryan Danielson after Kenta connected with his finishing strike, the Go 2 Sleep, on Danielson. Kenta returned for "In Your Face" featuring him in a three-way match against Joe and Danielson, which ended in similar fashion.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kenta's first loss in the company came in the form of a tag team match, which saw his partner, Davey Richards, get pinned in a match against the Briscoe Brothers. This led to a series of matches with the two against each other, as well as reluctant partners. At "Glory by Honor V: Night 2" Kenta received another match against Danielson for the ROH World title, which saw him submit to Danielson's signature hold, the Cattle Mutilation.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kenta made his return to Ring of Honor on May 11 of the next year against Delirious in a winning effort. Ring of Honor made its pay per view debut with the show, Respect is Earned, teaming with Nigel McGuinness against Danielson and Takeshi Morishima in a losing effort, after which Kenta spent several months with the company competing against rival, Davey Richards and his contingency, the No Remorse Corps. Kenta made his next appearance on the "Glory By Honor VI" tour; the first night had him team with the GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa against Takeshi Morishima and Naomichi Marufuji, with the match ending in a thirty-minute time limit draw. The following night, Kenta wrestled Misawa for the GHC Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kenta made his return in 2009 against ROH World Champion, Nigel McGuinness in a losing effort at the company's seventh anniversary show. He returned a few weeks later to challenge Davey Richards once more, as well as make his second pay per view appearance for Take No Prisoners teaming with Tyler Black against Katsuhiko Nakajima and Austin Aries. Kobayashi was scheduled to return to ROH in November 2009, but was forced to cancel the appearances after suffering a knee injury.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: On January 27, 2014, Kenta, with Noah's blessing, entered WWE's Performance Center in Orlando, Florida for a tryout. In a press release, Kenta claimed that he was not after a WWE contract, but only wanted to fulfill a dream and take part in a WWE workout. On June 27, Tokyo Sports reported that Kenta had signed with WWE. His signing was officially announced during an in-ring segment on July 12 in Osaka. Kobayashi relocated to Orlando to resume training at the Performance Center, while also working for WWE's developmental territory NXT.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kobayashi debuted on September 11 at , introduced by William Regal, where he announced his new ring name, "Hideo Itami", meaning "Hero of Pain", and fended off The Ascension when they interrupted the segment to confront Regal. Itami made his in-ring debut at the following day's tapings of "NXT", defeating Justin Gabriel, after which he was attacked by The Ascension. During the following weeks, Itami kept engaging The Ascension in brawls, but continually lost due to the numbers disadvantage; the storyline was that as a newcomer in NXT, Itami did not have any friends in the locker room to help him. This continued until November, when Finn Bálor debuted as Itami's new partner. After weeks of feuding with The Ascension, Itami and Bálor defeated them at on December 11. Itami then participated in an NXT Championship number one contender's tournament, defeating Tyler Breeze in the first round, starting a feud between the two. He suffered his first defeat in NXT on January 15, 2015, when he was defeated by Bálor in the semi-finals, thus eliminating him from the tournament. At , Itami defeated Breeze in a rematch. They continued to exchange victories over each other until Itami lost a two-out-of-three falls match to Breeze on the April 1 episode of "NXT" to end the feud. On March 27, Itami won the WrestleMania Axxess NXT tournament by defeating Adrian Neville and then Finn Bálor to get a spot in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the pre-show of WrestleMania 31, where he was eliminated by eventual winner Big Show.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: On May 20 at , Itami was scheduled to face Finn Bálor and Tyler Breeze in a triple threat match to determine the number one contender for the NXT Championship; however, Itami was ruled out due to injury after an attack he suffered before the event started. This was made as Itami had suffered a legitimate shoulder injury, which required surgery and was expected to sideline him for six months. In January 2016, it was reported that Itami had suffered complications with his shoulder and was "nowhere close to being able to return".


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: After over a year of inactivity, Itami returned to the ring on June 30, 2016, at an NXT live event, teaming with TM-61 to defeat Samoa Joe, Blake and Tino Sabbatelli in a six-man tag team match. On August 3, Itami made his televised return, defeating Cruiserweight Classic competitor Sean Maluta. At , Itami confronted Austin Aries, following the latter's match with No Way Jose, exchanging blows before attacking Aries with a "GTS". On October 12 at an NXT live event, Itami suffered a neck injury after a botched powerslam from Riddick Moss and would not be able to team with Kota Ibushi in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in which he was scheduled to compete. In a video announcement published on October 18, Itami vowed to return to in-ring competition at NXT's first show in Japan on December 3. However, at the event, Itami did not compete but was instead in an in-ring segment alongside William Regal where they talked to the crowd.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Itami made his televised return on April 19, 2017, where he confronted NXT Champion Bobby Roode, before slapping him and executing a "GTS". This led to a match at , in which Itami was unsuccessful in winning the title from Roode. On the June 7 episode of NXT, furious after his loss to Roode, Itami faced Oney Lorcan, which ended in a no-contest after Itami performed three "GTS"s on Lorcan until Kassius Ohno attempted to save Lorcan, teasing a heel turn and a feud between the pair. On the July 5 episode of NXT, Itami teamed with Ohno in a tag team match against Sanity (Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe), but lost after Itami refused to tag in Ohno. On the July 26 episode of NXT, Itami faced Ohno in the main event, which ended after Itami intentionally disqualified himself with a low blow to Ohno before viciously attacking and laying him out after two "GTS"s, followed by a third onto the steel steps, cementing his heel turn. On the August 2 edition of "NXT", Itami cut an in-ring promo, demanding respect from the fans. He was interrupted by Aleister Black, who was scheduled to face Kyle O'Reilly in the night's main event. After a stare down between the two, Black hit Itami with "Black Mass". Itami attempted to assault Black following the event, but the two were separated by fellow talent. At , Itami was defeated by Black. In his last NXT match, Itami defeated Fabian Aichner at a live event on December 16.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: On November 21, 2017, it was announced that Itami would be moving to the main roster as part of the cruiserweight division on "205 Live". On the December 18 episode of "Raw", Itami would make his main roster debut, aiding Finn Bálor to fend off and face Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas in a tag team match, which Itami and Bálor would win, turning face in the process. On the December 25 episode of "Raw", Itami would defeat The Brian Kendrick, in which Kendrick would suffer an injury following a Go to Sleep by Itami. This would lead to Itami entering a short feud with Kendrick's tag team partner, Gentleman Jack Gallagher.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: On the February 6 episode of "205 Live", Itami would be defeated by Roderick Strong in the first round of the WWE Cruiserweight Championship tournament. During the following month, Itami would have a feud with fellow Japanese wrestler Akira Tozawa, Mustafa Ali and was involved into the orbit for Cedric Alexander's Cruiserweight Championship. He participated in a fatal four-way match involving cruiserweight champion Buddy Murphy, Kalisto, and Tozawa at the Royal Rumble, where he lost after being pinned by Murphy.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: On January 29, it was reported that Itami requested and was granted his release from the company after a five-year run. This was followed by multiple members of the roster saying goodbye to Itami on social media. On February 4, 2019, the WWE Performance Center YouTube channel that documents the Superstars travel and backstage life released a video chronicling Itami's last week in WWE. The video features Itami working with Daivari and talking about his struggles with learning to speak and understand English. The end of the video sees Hideo walking back to gorilla position and being given a standing ovation from those in the backstage area. On February 22, Kobayashi was officially released by WWE, as the company formally acknowledged his departure on Twitter.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: In 2020, when he was working with NJPW, Kenta said that his days with WWE were "the most frustrating days of my life".


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kenta made his surprise debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) on June 9, 2019, at the Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall event as a face, with Katsuyori Shibata as his manager, announcing his participation in the 2019 G1 Climax tournament. Kenta made his in-ring debut for NJPW on July 6, defeating Kota Ibushi as a part of the tournament. Kenta, competing in the A Block of the tournament, stayed undefeated in singles matches for over a month and a half, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi, Lance Archer, and Evil before suffering his first defeat against IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada on July 27, as part of the tournament. Kenta would then lose his next four matches against Sanada, Bad Luck Fale, Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr., failing to win the tournament with a final tally of 8 points (four wins and five losses).


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: On the final night of the tournament, Kenta competed in a six-man tag team match alongside Chaos members Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi against Bullet Club's Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, and Tanga Loa, only to turn on them in the closing moments of the match and assisting the Bullet Club for the victory, turning heel. As Kenta was going to explain his actions, Katsuyori Shibata rushed into the ring and attacked Kenta until the rest of the Bullet Club members ambushed Shibata. At Royal Quest on August 31, Kenta defeated Ishii to win the NEVER Openweight Championship, his first championship in NJPW. The match was criticized because Kobayashi suffered a concussion after a back suplex by Ishii, getting knocked out in the process. However, both continued the match without referee stoppage. He was sent to the hospital after the show. At Destruction in Kagoshima on September 16, Kenta returned and unsuccessfully faced Kota Ibushi for the Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: At Power Struggle on November 3, Kenta retained his title against Ishii in a rematch. Later in the night, he attacked Hirooki Goto. Kenta lost the NEVER Openweight Championship to Goto at Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 5, 2020, ending his reign at 127 days with two successful defenses. Later that night, Kenta attacked Tetsuya Naito after his main event match with Kazuchika Okada. Kenta would challenge Naito for both the IWGP Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight Championships at The New Beginning in Osaka, where he was defeated.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: In August, Kenta competed in the inaugural New Japan Cup USA tournament, with the winner receiving a match for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. Kenta defeated Karl Fredericks in the first round, Jeff Cobb in the semi-finals, and David Finlay in the finals to win the tournament. Kenta then competed in the 2020 G1 Climax in the B Block, but failed to win with a final score of 10 points. At Power Struggle on November 7, Kenta successfully retained his Right to Challenge contract for the United States Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi. He was then due to defend the contract against Juice Robinson at Wrestle Kingdom 15, but Robinson suffered an injury and Satoshi Kojima was named as his replacement. At the event on January 4, 2021, Kenta defeated Kojima to retain the Right to Challenge contract. On the January 29 episode of "Strong", Kenta was attacked by United States Champion Jon Moxley. It was then announced that Kenta would receive his championship shot against Moxley at The New Beginning USA on February 26, where he was defeated.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: At Power Struggle, Kenta defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. He would lose the title back to Tanahashi three months later on Night 2 of Wrestle Kingdom 16 in a No disqualification match, where in the match Kenta was bloodily injured.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: After his recovery, Kenta was announced to be apart of the G1 Climax 32 tournament in July, where he would compete in the C Block. He finished with 6 points, failing to advance to the semi-finals.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: Kenta made a surprise appearance for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) at the Beach Break event on February 3, 2021, attacking Jon Moxley. He wrestled his debut match for AEW on the February 10 episode of "Dynamite", where he teamed with Kenny Omega to defeat Moxley and Lance Archer in a Falls Count Anywhere tag team match.


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: After his WWE release in 2019, and joining NJPW five-months later. Kenta was labelled as an outsider by many New Japan fans. He would embrace the hatred, even joining the Bullet Club, and adopted the nickname, "Shijō Saiaku no Rannyū-sha" (Japanese for "The Worst Intruder Ever")


title: Kenta Kobayashi

text: As a former kickboxer, Kenta incorporates shoot-style kicks and stiff strikes. He is the inventor of the "Go 2 Sleep", in which he carries his opponent in a fireman's carry before dropping them forward while lifting his left knee onto their face. He also uses a backbreaker rack version called "Ura Go 2 Sleep".


title: Pro forma

text: The term pro forma (Latin for "as a matter of form" or "for the sake of form") is most often used to describe a practice or document that is provided as a courtesy or satisfies minimum requirements, conforms to a norm or doctrine, tends to be performed perfunctorily or is considered a formality. The term is used in legal and business fields to refer to various types of documents that are generated as a matter of course.


title: Pro forma

text: The "pro forma" accounting is a statement of the company's financial activities while excluding "unusual and nonrecurring transactions" when stating how much money the company actually made. Examples of expenses often excluded from "pro forma" results are company restructuring costs, a decline in the value of the company's investments, or other accounting charges, such as adjusting the current balance sheet to fix faulty accounting practices in previous years.


title: Pro forma

text: There was a boom in the reporting of "pro forma" results in the US starting in the late 1990s, with many dot-com companies using the technique to recast their losses as profits, or at least to show smaller losses than the US GAAP accounting showed. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires publicly traded companies in the United States to report US GAAP-based financial results, and has cautioned companies that using "pro forma" results to obscure US GAAP results would be considered fraud if used to mislead investors.


title: Pro forma

text: In business, "pro forma" financial statements are prepared in advance of a planned transaction, such as a merger, an acquisition, a new capital investment, or a change in capital structure such as incurrence of new debt or issuance of stock.


title: Pro forma

text: The "pro forma" models the anticipated results of the transaction, with particular emphasis on the projected cash flows, net revenues and taxes.


title: Pro forma

text: Consequently, "pro forma" statements summarize the projected future status of a company, based on the current financial statements. "Pro forma" figures should be clearly labeled as such and the reason for any deviation from reported past figures clearly explained.


title: Pro forma

text: For example, when a transaction with a material effect on a company's financial condition is contemplated, the finance department will prepare, for management and board review, a business plan containing "pro forma" financial statements demonstrating the expected effect of the proposed transaction on the company's financial viability. Lenders and investors will require such statements to structure or confirm compliance with debt covenants such as debt service reserve coverage and debt to equity ratios. Similarly, when a new corporation is envisioned, its founders will prepare "pro forma" financial statements for the information of prospective investors. Also, banks will request "pro forma" statements in lieu of tax returns for a start up business in order to verify cash flow before issuing a loan or line of credit.


title: Pro forma

text: In trade transactions, a "pro forma invoice" is a document that states a commitment from the seller to sell goods to the buyer at specified prices and terms. It is used to declare the value of the trade. It is not a true invoice because it is not used to record accounts receivable for the seller and accounts payable for the buyer.


title: Pro forma

text: Simply, a ""pro forma" invoice" is a "confirmed purchase order" where buyer and supplier agree on detail and cost of the product to be shipped to the buyer. A "pro forma" invoice is generally raised when the seller is ready for dispatching the material but they want to ensure that the payment is being sent before dispatch. And similarly, the customer also wants to know which components are included in the "pro forma" invoice to avoid disagreements later.


title: Pro forma

text: A sales quote is prepared in the form of a "pro forma" invoice, which is different from a commercial invoice. It is used to create a sale and is sent in advance of the commercial invoice. The content of a "pro forma" invoice is almost identical to a commercial invoice and is usually considered a binding agreement, but because a "pro forma" invoice is not a legally-binding document, the price may change in advance of the final sale.


title: Pro forma

text: A "pro forma" invoice can also be used for shipments containing items that "are not" being bought or sold, such as gifts, samples and personal belongings, whereas a commercial invoice is used when the commodities shipped "are" being bought or sold. However, it is best to use a customs invoice or declaration as border officials require values for the export declaration. A Customs Invoice or declaration is commonly used in New Zealand for air parcel post shipments.


title: Pro forma

text: A "pro forma" invoice is the same as a commercial invoice, which, when used in international trade, represents the details of an international sale to customs authorities. A "pro forma" invoice is presented in the place of a commercial invoice when there is no sale between the sender and the importer (for example, in the case of an RMA for replacement goods), or if the terms of the sale between the seller and the buyer are such that a commercial invoice is not yet available at the time of the international shipment. A "pro forma" invoice is required to state the same facts that the commercial invoice would and the content is prescribed by the governments who are a party to the transaction.


title: Pro forma

text: In some countries, customs may accept a "pro forma" invoice (generated by the importer and not the exporter) if the required commercial invoice is not available at the time when filing entry documents at the port of entry to get goods released from customs. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection, for example, uses "pro forma" invoices to assess duty and examine goods, but the importer on record is required to post a bond and produce a commercial invoice within 120 days from the date of entry. If the required commercial invoice is needed for statistical purposes, the importer has to produce the commercial invoice within 50 days from the date Customs releases the goods to the importer.


title: Pro forma

text: In law, "pro forma" court rulings are intended merely to facilitate the legal process (indeed to move matters along).


title: Pro forma

text: In certain Commonwealth nations with a Westminster system, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, "pro forma" bills are introduced immediately before consideration of the speech from the throne. "Pro forma" bills are incomplete pieces of legislation and undergo only the first reading stage. They symbolize the authority of the parliament to discuss matters other than those specified by the head of state, for which ostensibly parliament was summoned. After first reading, the bill is never considered further. The "pro forma" bill was first introduced in the House of Commons of England in 1558.


title: Pro forma

text: In the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the equivalents are the Outlawries Bill in the House of Commons and the Select Vestries Bill in the House of Lords. In the Parliament of Canada, such bills are titled Bill C-1, An Act respecting the Administration of Oaths of Office, and Bill S-1, An Act relating to Railways in the House of Commons of Canada and Senate of Canada, respectively. In the Australian House of Representatives, a new bill is drafted at the start of each parliamentary term (in the 47th Parliament this was the Customs Amendment Bill 2022) and presented by the Prime Minister. The bill undergoes the first reading, but a second reading is not moved unlike normal bills. However, departing from British and Canadian tradition, the contents of the bills do address the matters referred to in its title, and could theoretically be enacted like any other normal bill. This practice does not extend to the Australian Senate; instead other formal business is conducted (such as question time) before consideration of the governor-general's speech.


title: Pro forma

text: In the federal government of the United States, either house of the Congress (the House of Representatives or the Senate) can hold a "pro forma" session at which no formal business is expected to be conducted. This is usually to fulfill the obligation under the Constitution "that neither chamber can adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other." "Pro forma" sessions can also be used to prevent the president from pocket-vetoing bills, or calling the Congress into special session. They have also been used to prevent presidents from making recess appointments.


title: Pro forma

text: In 2012 President Barack Obama attempted to make four appointments during a "pro forma" session, calling the practice of blocking recess appointments into question. However, in 2014 the Supreme Court of the United States in "NLRB v. Noel Canning" determined that the President had improperly used his presidential power to make these appointments, stating that while the Senate was in recess punctuated by "pro forma" sessions the period of time between the sessions was not long enough to invoke such power.


title: Pro forma

text: In April 2020, President Donald Trump claimed that the president's constitutional power to "convene or adjourn Congress" "on extraordinary occasions", a power that has never been used to adjourn Congress, though it has been used on rare occasions to convene Congress, empowers him to suspend both houses of Congress (overriding the pro forma procedure) and enabling him to make appointments to vacant government positions while Congress is suspended. The suggestion was condemned by Joe Lockhart. In addition, the President's Constitutional power to adjourn either or both houses of Congress is limited to situations in which the "Time of Adjournment" is disagreed upon between the House and Senate creating a "Case of Disagreement", which implicates Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, which prohibits either house of Congress from adjourning for more than three days without the consent of the other house of Congress. However, the system of pro forma sessions every three days by both houses of Congress would appear to represent an obstacle to finding a Constitutional "Case of Disagreement" between the houses of Congress regarding an adjournment of more than three days if neither house of Congress ever deems itself adjourned for more than three days and therefore never seeks the consent of the other house of Congress to adjourn and therefore never creates a situation in which a "Case of Disagreement" could arise to authorize the President to exercise this power.


title: Pro forma

text: Similar practices exist in the state legislatures, and for similar reasons; for example, in Minnesota, legislative bodies have the same every-three-days meeting requirement that Congress has. "Pro forma" sessions are held to meet this requirement.


title: Storm surge

text: A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the normal tidal level, and does not include waves.


title: Storm surge

text: The main meteorological factor contributing to a storm surge is high-speed wind pushing water towards the coast over a long fetch. Other factors affecting storm surge severity include the shallowness and orientation of the water body in the storm path, the timing of tides, and the atmospheric pressure drop due to the storm. There is a suggestion that climate change may be increasing the hazard of storm surges.


title: Storm surge

text: Some theorize that as extreme weather becomes more intense and sea level rises due to climate change, storm surge is expected to cause more risk to coastal populations. Communities and governments can adapt by building hard infrastructure, like surge barriers, soft infrastructure, like coastal dunes or mangroves, improving coastal construction practices and building social strategies such as early warning, education and evacuation plans.


title: Storm surge

text: Strong surface winds cause surface currents at a 45° angle to the wind direction, by an effect known as the Ekman spiral. Wind stresses cause a phenomenon referred to as "wind set-up", which is the tendency for water levels to increase at the downwind shore and to decrease at the upwind shore. Intuitively, this is caused by the storm blowing the water toward one side of the basin in the direction of its winds. Because the Ekman Spiral effects spread vertically through the water, the effect is proportional to depth. The surge will be driven into bays in the same way as the astronomical tide.


title: Storm surge

text: The pressure effects of a tropical cyclone will cause the water level in the open ocean to rise in regions of low atmospheric pressure and fall in regions of high atmospheric pressure. The rising water level will counteract the low atmospheric pressure such that the total pressure at some plane beneath the water surface remains constant. This effect is estimated at a increase in sea level for every millibar (hPa) drop in atmospheric pressure. For example, a major storm with a 100 millibar pressure drop would be expected to have a water level rise from the pressure effect.


title: Storm surge

text: The Earth's rotation causes the Coriolis effect, which bends currents to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. When this bend brings the currents into more perpendicular contact with the shore, it can amplify the surge, and when it bends the current away from the shore it has the effect of lessening the surge.


title: Storm surge

text: The effect of waves, while directly powered by the wind, is distinct from a storm's wind-powered currents. Powerful wind whips up large, strong waves in the direction of its movement. Although these surface waves are responsible for very little water transport in open water, they may be responsible for significant transport near the shore. When waves are breaking on a line more or less parallel to the beach, they carry considerable water shoreward. As they break, the water moving toward the shore has considerable momentum and may run up a sloping beach to an elevation above the mean water line, which may exceed twice the wave height before breaking.


title: Storm surge

text: The rainfall effect is experienced predominantly in estuaries. Hurricanes may dump as much as of rainfall in 24 hours over large areas and higher rainfall densities in localized areas. As a result, surface runoff can quickly flood streams and rivers. This can increase the water level near the head of tidal estuaries as storm-driven waters surging in from the ocean meet rainfall flowing downstream into the estuary.


title: Storm surge

text: In addition to the above processes, storm surge and wave heights on shore are also affected by the flow of water over the underlying topography, i.e. the shape and depth of the ocean floor and coastal area. A narrow shelf, with deep water relatively close to the shoreline, tends to produce a lower surge but higher and more powerful waves. A wide shelf, with shallower water, tends to produce a higher storm surge with relatively smaller waves.