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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Katherine Johnson’s mathematical calculations helped guide some of America’s most important early space missions while she confronted the racial and gender barriers faced by Black women in twentieth-century America.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| SquareTrade Inc. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Subsidiary |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | Brisbane, California |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Mike Zmugg, SVP, President, APP North America and Interim President |
| Products | Consumer Electronics and Appliances Warranty |
| Revenue | US$1.32 billion |
| Parent | Allstate |
| Website | squaretrade squaretrade squaretrade |
SquareTrade Inc. is an American-based extended warranty service provider for consumer electronics and appliances[1] headquartered in Brisbane, California.
Founded by Ahmed Khaishgi in 1999, SquareTrade launched as the first online service for resolving e-commerce disputes. SquareTrade worked with online marketplaces, such as eBay, utilizing an online negotiation tool to automate the dispute resolution process between sellers and buyers. Between 1999 and 2001, SquareTrade raised $15 million in funding from JP Morgan Partners, Weston Presidio Capital, and Draper Richards. That same year, the company launched a merchant-verification service, the SquareTrade Seal.[2][3] Both original services have since been discontinued.[4]
In 2006, SquareTrade began offering consumer protection plans for portable devices, appliances, and other electronics, both online and through large retailers. That same year, PC Magazine ranked it number 93 on its list of the "Best 100 Web Sites of the Year".[5] In 2012, Bain Capital and Bain Capital Ventures announced a $238 million investment in SquareTrade, which was the second-largest venture capital deal of the year.[6]
The company's underwriter has been AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., but as of 2013, SquareTrade was shifting toward Starr Indemnity.[7]
SquareTrade was acquired by Allstate in late 2016, for $1.4 billion,[8] joining Allstate's suite of consumer asset protection services.
In late 2016, a class-action lawsuit was filed against SquareTrade, accusing the company of selling protection plans for products that were not eligible for coverage, which customers only discovered when filing a claim.[9]
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
SquareTrade Inc. is an American-based extended warranty service provider for consumer electronics and appliances headquartered in Brisbane, California.
The Xbox 360 video game console was subject to a number of technical problems and failures, some as a result of design flaws. Some issues could be identified by a pattern of red lights on the front face of the console; these colloquially became known as the "Red Ring of Death" or the "RRoD". There were also other issues, such as discs becoming scratched in the drive and "bricking" of consoles due to dashboard updates. There were many conflicting estimates of the console's unusually high failure rate. The warranty provider SquareTrade estimated it at 23.7% in 2009, while a Game Informer survey reported 54.2%. Among the consoles owned by employees of Joystiq, which saw heavy use for games journalism purposes, the failure rate had reached 90% by the end of 2007. The crisis was ultimately abated from 2009 by design revisions to the later-produced Xbox models; the S model in particular was far more resilient. By 2012 the failure rate for the Xbox 360 family was comparable to the PS3 failure rate. The issues proved extremely damaging for Microsoft. Repairs and shipping of replacement hardware cost the company US$1.15 billion. The issues triggered multiple lawsuits, cost the Xbox ground in the console wars and threatened the long term viability of the Xbox brand.
PlumChoice was a privately held corporation with headquarters that was located in Lowell, Massachusetts. PlumChoice was a provider of cloud and technical support services to consumers and small businesses. In 2018, The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) acquired Plumchoice and merged them into Allstate's SquareTrade division.
Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, communications, and recreation. Historically, these products were referred to as "black goods" in American English due to many products being housed in black or dark casings. This term is used to distinguish them from "white goods", which are meant for housekeeping tasks, such as washing machines and refrigerators. In British English, they are often called "brown goods" by producers and sellers because they were historically housed in wooden cases. Since the 2010s, this distinction has been absent in big box consumer electronics stores, whose inventories include entertainment, communication, and home office devices, as well as home appliances. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver. Later products included telephones, televisions, calculators, cameras, video game consoles, mobile phones, personal computers, and MP3 players. In the 2010s, consumer electronics stores often sold GPS, automotive electronics (vehicle audio), video game consoles, electronic musical instruments such as synthesizer keyboards, karaoke machines, digital cameras, and video players. Such video playing equipment included VCRs in the 1980s and 1990s, and eventually DVD players and Blu-ray players. Stores also sold smart light fixtures, network devices, camcorders, and smartphones. Some of the modern products being sold include virtual reality goggles, smart home devices that connect to the Internet, streaming devices, and wearable technology. In the 2010s, most consumer electronics were based on digital technologies and increasingly merged with the computer and video game industry, in a trend often referred to as the consumerization of information technology. Some consumer electronics stores also began selling office and baby furniture. Consumer electronics stores may be physical "brick and mortar" retail stores, online stores, or combinations of both. Annual consumer electronics sales were expected to reach $2.9 trillion by 2020. The sector is part of the electronics industry, which is, in turn, driven by the semiconductor industry.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
