The unidentified jihadist who apparently killed American journalist James Foley in an infamous video released last week is already being featured in a campaign ad.

In the video released Monday by Allen Weh, the Republican running against Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico), Weh's campaign tears into both President Barack Obama and Udall for their alleged lack of leadership in the world.

An audio clip of Obama promising to be dedicated to his job is mixed with images of violence abroad and Obama on vacation. Foley's killer appears for just a few frames in the video, which was flagged Monday afternoon by CNN.

Weh's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment but Udall's campaign was quick to blast the ad as "reprehensible and appalling."

"James Foley’s death is a tragedy, and to use his killer’s horrific image for personal gain in a campaign ad is reprehensible and appalling," Udall's campaign manager, Daniel Sena, said in a statement. "If Allen Weh wants to talk about the issues with New Mexico voters, he should find a way to do it that is respectful and substantive. Using James Foley’s horrific and tragic death for shock value is offensive to Mr. Foley's family, New Mexico voters and the rest of our country."

View the ad below.

Join the conversation about this story »

Shares of Kite Pharma are exploding higher in after-hours trading.

The $827 million biotech firm just revealed positive outcomes from patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after receiving its anti-CD19 treatment.

KITE is up 35%.

"The findings from an ongoing Phase 1-2a clinical trial funded by Kite and conducted by the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) demonstrated that in 12 out of 13 evaluable patients with advanced B-cell malignancies, administration of anti-CD19 CAR T cells resulted in complete remission in eight patients and partial remission in four patients, representing an overall objective response rate of 92%," said the company. "Of seven evaluable patients with chemotherapy-refractory DLBCL, four achieved complete remission, three of which are ongoing with durations ranging from 9 to 22 months."

"We are greatly encouraged by the strong results we have seen from our joint lead clinical program with the NCI," said CEO Arie Belldegrun, M.D., FACS. "Based on this substantial progress, Kite plans to file an IND in the fourth quarter of this year to initiate a Phase 1-2 single-arm multicenter clinical trial of KTE-C19 in patients with DLBCL who have failed two or more lines of therapy. We are excited to advance this promising therapy and anticipate commencing patient enrollment in our DLBCL clinical trial in the first half of 2015."

Shares of small publicly-traded biotech firms tend to be very volatile as their businesses often rely on the unlikely breakthroughs of a very narrow pipeline of drugs.

"Lots of sophisticated investors purchase biotech companies that have no earnings and are regularly raising cash to stay in business," said stock market expert Ed Yardeni. "These investors do so knowing that the outcomes are binary: The companies they invest in will either find a cure for a disease or they won’t. Their new drugs will either be approved by the FDA or they won’t. They might be acquired for a huge premium or they might not, or might go out of business."

For now, Kite is looking more like a winner than a loser.

Here's the full press release:

Kite Pharma Announces Patients With Aggressive Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Experience Positive Results After Receiving Anti-CD19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cells at the National Cancer Institute (NCI)

 Phase 1-2a Clinical Trial Highlights:

• 12 of 13 Total Evaluable Patients with Advanced B Cell Malignancies Had Complete Remissions (8 Patients) or Partial Remissions (4 Patients) Resulting in a 92% Objective Response Rate
  
• 4 of 7 Evaluable Patients with Chemotherapy-Refractory Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) Achieved Complete Remissions, 3 of Which Are Ongoing and 1 of Which Is Ongoing after 22 Months
  
• The Results Have Been Published in the August 25, 2014 Issue of the American Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO) Journal of Clinical Oncology
  
• The Results Support Kite's Plan to File an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) in the Fourth Quarter of 2014 to Initiate a Clinical Trial of Kite's Lead CAR-Based Product Candidate, KTE-C19, in Patients with DLBCL

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 25, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kite Pharma, Inc., (Nasdaq:KITE), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing engineered autologous T cell therapy (eACT™) products for the treatment of cancer, today announced the publication of clinical results in a cohort of patients demonstrating the potential to treat aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. Kite's most advanced product candidate, KTE-C19, is an anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy that involves genetically modifying a patient's T cells to express a CAR that is designed to target CD19, a protein expressed on the cell surface of B cell lymphomas and leukemias.

The findings from an ongoing Phase 1-2a clinical trial funded by Kite and conducted by the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) demonstrated that in 12 out of 13 evaluable patients with advanced B-cell malignancies, administration of anti-CD19 CAR T cells resulted in complete remission in eight patients and partial remission in four patients, representing an overall objective response rate of 92%. Of seven evaluable patients with chemotherapy-refractory DLBCL, four achieved complete remission, three of which are ongoing with durations ranging from 9 to 22 months. These findings are being published in an article titled, "Chemotherapy-refractory Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma and Indolent B-cell Malignancies Can Be Effectively Treated with Autologous T Cells Expressing an Anti-CD19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor," DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2014.56.2025, which is appearing in the August 25, 2014 issue of the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Kite and the Surgery Branch of the NCI, led by Steven A. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., are collaborating under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for the research and development of eACT™ based product candidates for the treatment of multiple cancer indications. The reported Phase 1-2a clinical trial is being conducted at the NCI with Dr. Rosenberg serving as principal investigator. Additional authors of the published study include James N. Kochenderfer, M.D., who presented earlier data for the NCI from the trial at the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in December 2013.

David Chang, M.D., Ph.D., Kite Pharma's Executive Vice President, Research and Development, and Chief Medical Officer, commented, "To date, Kite and the NCI have conducted an extensive program to investigate personalized T cell immunotherapies for blood cancers and solid tumors, including in patients with refractory DLBCL. Both the high overall response rate and the durability of the complete remissions are noteworthy, and we believe our anti-CD19-CAR T cell approach holds great potential for the treatment of B cell malignancies, including those with aggressive, resistant disease for which there are no viable treatment options."

Ronald Levy, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Director of the Lymphoma Program and Former Chief of the Division of Oncology at Stanford University and member of Kite's Scientific Advisory Board, commented, "I have been impressed by the results reported and updated from Dr. Rosenberg's group at the NCI. Particularly compelling are the frequency and the duration of the responses obtained in the difficult-to-treat patient population with relapsed, refractory lymphomas." Dr. Levy serves as a consultant to Kite and is helping to guide the Company in their upcoming clinical trials.

"We are greatly encouraged by the strong results we have seen from our joint lead clinical program with the NCI," commented Arie Belldegrun, M.D., FACS, Kite's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Based on this substantial progress, Kite plans to file an IND in the fourth quarter of this year to initiate a Phase 1-2 single-arm multicenter clinical trial of KTE-C19 in patients with DLBCL who have failed two or more lines of therapy. We are excited to advance this promising therapy and anticipate commencing patient enrollment in our DLBCL clinical trial in the first half of 2015."

Key Study Findings

The published clinical trial results relate to patients in the second cohort in the NCI's Phase 1-2a clinical trial of anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy. The second cohort consists of 15 patients, including two retreated patients from a prior cohort, with advanced B cell malignancies, of which 13 were evaluable for responses, including seven with chemotherapy-refractory DLBCL.

Patients received a conditioning regimen of chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine) followed one day later by a single infusion of anti-CD19-CAR T cells. The CAR-expressing T cells were produced from each patient's own peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), modified using a gammaretroviral vector encoding the CAR, as well as a CD28 costimulatory moiety.

Of the seven evaluable chemotherapy-refractory DLBCL patients, six showed a response (four complete remissions and two partial remissions), and one had stable disease.

Duration of ongoing complete responses ranged from 9 to 22 months in patients with chemotherapy-refractory DLBCL and from 11 to 23 months in the patients with either chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or indolent lymphoma. Pursuant to the study protocol, patients are continuing to be monitored for duration of response. Updated results will be reported at the appropriate peer-reviewed forum.

Summary of Efficacy Findings:

(1) Includes one patient with DLBCL that transformed from chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and three patients with primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma, a subtype of DLBCL.

As seen in other studies, infusion of anti-CD19 CAR T cells was associated with significant, acute toxicities, including fever, low blood pressure, focal neurological deficits, and delirium.

About Kite Pharma

Kite Pharma, Inc., is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of novel cancer immunotherapy products, with a primary focus on eACT™ designed to restore the immune system's ability to recognize and eradicate tumors. In partnership with the NCI Surgery Branch through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), Kite is advancing a pipeline of proprietary eACT™ product candidates, both CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) and TCR (T cell receptor) products, directed to a wide range of cancer indications.  Kite is based in Santa Monica, CA. For more information on Kite Pharma, please visit www.kitepharma.com.

SEE ALSO: Investing In Biotech Stocks Is Just Like Playing The Lottery

Join the conversation about this story »

Amazon announced Monday that it was purchasing Twitch, the video game live-streaming site, for $970 million. 

But before Twitch was its own nearly $1 billion business, it was part of another streaming site, called Justin.tv. 

Justin.tv, which was founded in 2007, allowed people to broadcast live video streams online. It later opened up to allow people to register and broadcast their own videos, for free.

Twitch, though, was a runaway hit, amassing more 8 million unique users after its first month. The numbers kept growing. In fact, just this past April, Twitch accounted for more than 40% of live-streaming traffic by volume in the U.S.

Twitch became so big, that Justin.tv changed its name to Twitch Interactive in February. And earlier this month, Justin.tv announced that it was shutting its doors.

"Justin.tv was officially renamed Twitch Interactive Inc. in February of 2014 and Twitch is now the focus of the company's resources,"it reads on its site. 

SEE ALSO: Amazon buys Twitch for $970 million cash

Join the conversation about this story »

Following recent territorial gains by jihadists affiliated with the extremist group Islamic State, conservatives have criticized President Barack Obama for a January interview with The New Yorker in which he seemed to dismiss the group as a "jayvee team." In a briefing Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest rejected this interpretation of the president's remarks and attempted to clarify them.

"It's important that we don't sort of shorthand the analogy the president was trying to draw here," Earnest said.

When asked about the interview, Earnest produced a copy of the president's comments, which he then read in full. Earnest said he expected he would get a question about the "jayvee team" remark.

In the published version of the interview, New Yorker editor David Remnick, who spoke with Obama, framed the comment as being an assessment of jihadist groups "in Iraq, and among various rebel factions in Syria" and "in parts of Africa." Remnick also described Obama's use of high school sports terminology to describe the groups as "an uncharacteristically flip analogy."

"The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant," Obama said. "I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian." 

Earnest stressed that Obama was talking about multiple groups including Islamic State. He also said the president was trying to highlight the "different capability" of these groups and Al Qaeda under Osama Bin Laden, which Earnest described as having been "decimated" by the Obama administration.

"There is a different threat that exists and that continues to pose a threat to American national security and that is this wider range of extremist organizations, some of whom do not have designs on attacking the West or attacking the American homeland," Earnest said.  "Not only do they not have designs — the vast majority of them — do they not have designs on attacking the West, they certainly don't have the capability of attacking the West. What Osama Bin Laden presided over was an international network of highly-trained, sophisticated, well-funded terrorists that were capable of carrying out a terrible, heinous attack on the U.S. homeland."

While he said the president viewed Islamic State as lacking the capabilities of Al Qaeda at its height, Earnest said the White House is concerned about the group. Specifically, Earnest said the fact many members of Islamic State have "western passports" is a threat.

"We want to make sure we confront this threat before it gets worse," Earnest said.

Join the conversation about this story »

Three weeks ago, 82 percent of Israelis supported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of Israel's confrontation with Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that had unleashed a steady rocket bombardment on Israeli cities, kidnapped and murdered three teenagers in the West Bank, and constructed a network of over a dozen cross-border attack tunnels, some of which extended over a mile into Israeli territory. Netanyahu seemed to have the domestic political cover needed to fight Hamas with operations in which scores of Israeli soldiers were killed that drew widespread international scorn — including rare rebukes from the United States.

That cover seems to have evaporated. On August 25, Israel's Channel 2 reported support for Netanyahu was down to 38 percent, and had dropped "by 17 percent in the past four days alone," according to The Times of Israel.

This dip was probably inevitable. On August 6, Times of Israel editor David Horovitz correctly predicted "[p]olitical infighting ... is bound to surge in Israel if the ceasefire holds. The relative political unity of the past month is just so thoroughly un-Israeli." 

It's tempting to view this poll as a predictable result of Israel's notoriously fractious political culture, in which consensus is short-lived, and the electoral system amplifies the impact of upstart political factions and keeps the country permanently split between over a dozen ideological, religious, and ethnic blocs. Too much support for the Prime Minister is indeed "thoroughly un-Israeli," and Horovitz was right in concluding that Netanyahu's popularity wasn't going to last.

However, it would be a mistake to attribute Netanyahu's suffering poll numbers to political culture alone. Israelis really are frustrated at the direction of the Gaza operation — and their wariness is a reflection of deeper problems with the current government's approach to Hamas.

As Oren Kessler, a Middle East research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society told Business Insider, "during the bloodiest days of the war, Netanyahu's numbers benefited from 'rally around the flag' sentiment that has since dissipated." 

An Inconclusive Ending to the War

Israel pulled all of its ground troops out of Gaza in early August after destroying over a dozen cross-border tunnels but without securing anything more than a series of quickly-violated 72-hour ceasefire agreements. With around half of Hamas's rockets expended or destroyed, hundreds of its fighters dead, and the anti-Hamas government of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi handling the ceasefire negotiations, it seemed like Israel could afford to end the war on their own terms — to effectively pack up and declare victory, secure in the knowledge that the Hamas threat had been contained.

This now looks like a miscalculation. On August 22, a mortar fired from the Gaza Strip killed a four-year old child in an Israeli town near the border with Gaza. Gaza-based militants fired 168 rockets on Israel on August 20, the highest single-day total in the latest round of violence, and a barrage unleashed well after Israeli forces had left the Strip.

In other words, Israel has vastly scaled back its combat operations while Hamas remains on a war footing. Israelis aren't exactly happy about it.

As Neri Zilber of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy explained to Business Insider, the Israeli government hasn't been able to stop two months worth of rocket attacks and the leadership's narrative of its handling of the crisis is wearing thin.

"Netanyahu and [Defense Minister Bogie] Yaalon's public statements regarding the objective of the campaign being 'returning quiet to the citizens of Israel' have been fairly consistent during this time — hinting at the lack of great strategic and military options for dealing with Gaza," says Zilber. "But for the average Israeli it's all sounding repetitive, cautious and above all tone deaf given that large swaths of the country's south have been evacuated."

Some Israelis bristle at the idea that a constant barrage of attacks on the country's border territory apparently isn't worth the kind of major escalation that could secure the region for good. Others are just fatigued over months of constant attack without an apparent long-term way out, Middle East scholar Michael Koplow told Business Insider.

"Israelis are looking at a conflict that is dragging on well beyond what they anticipated," says Koplow. "The longer this goes on, the clearer it becomes that Netanyahu doesn’t have a sustainable strategy to end the rocket fire, let alone deal with Hamas in the long term, and so Israelis on both sides of the spectrum are upset with what they see as a middling response."

Netanyahu doesn't want to escalate the conflict, or re-occupy the Gaza Strip — but he's loathe to make a sweeping deal with Hamas that could legitimize the group or give it the breathing room needed to rebuild its terror infrastructure. 

The result is a war of attrition that accepts a de facto baseline of instability and makes Netanyahu appear unwilling to commit to a long-term strategic course.

This only underscores the difficult position Hamas's policies put the Israeli prime minister in. During the opening weeks of the escalation, Netanyahu effectively cut his right flank out of the decision-making process, firing a hardline deputy defense minister and staving off critics like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who openly called for the re-occupation of the Gaza Strip.

It seemed as if Netanyahu had achieved Israel's battlefield objectives without entering into a ceasefire that rewarded Hamas for its intransigence or turning the Israeli public against him.

That accomplishment was apparently short-lived. Under Israel's electoral system, parties could pull out from the governing coalition and force a new round of elections before Netanyahu's term is up. The frustration and uncertainty of the current stalemate could give them the window they need once the crisis with Gaza concludes.

"There is a danger of the government falling if no diplomatic breakthrough arrives and the rockets keep coming without an appropriate IDF response," says Zilber. 

SEE ALSO: A Hamas rocket hitting an Israeli gas rig could re-ignite the Gaza war

Join the conversation about this story »

On Tuesday, August 26, the Census will release its advance report on durable good orders for July.

Expectations are for the headline reading to show orders grew 8%, according to data from Bloomberg.

But according to Wall Street economists, that number could be as high as 38%.

The reason? A massive number of planes were ordered in July.

"Swings in aircraft orders are the key driver of short-term volatility in the headline durable goods number via their impact on the transportation component," writes Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics. Shepherdson notes that Boeing recorded orders for 324 aircraft in July, up from 109 in June. Despite this large increase in orders, Shepherdson sees the headline durable goods index growing 6%.

In a note to clients, Brian Jones at Societe Generale said he expects durable goods bookings jumped 24.5% in July, which would be a new all-time record for the index, topping the 16.6% jump recorded in June 2000.

Ethan Harris at Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects durable goods orders climbed 18.5% on the back of what he calls, "a sensational gain in aircraft orders." Harris noted that a huge number of orders from the London Farnborough air show in July drove the surge in orders, though a number of these orders are for models that are still under development and so shipments won't arrive for several years.

Paul Dales at Capital Economics sees durable good orders surging by 30% in July, but like Harris notes that these orders won't be complete until the end of the decade, and won't boost GDP until then, either.

Of Wall Street economists followed by Business Insider, Michael Gapen at Barclays has the lowest estimate for durable goods, expecting a 0.5% increase in July, writing in a note to clients that he expects, "modest gains in the aircraft and vehicles components" of the report.

Last week, we highlighted this chart from Societe Generale, which showed what the expected increase in durable goods orders could look like.

The report is due out at 8:30 am ET on Tuesday. 

SEE ALSO: This 19th Century Livestock Scam Will Help You Understand Why GrubHub Shares Fell On Monday

Join the conversation about this story »

FA Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that delivers the top news and commentary for financial advisors.

Survey Shows Large Number of  Workers Won't Save Enough For Retirement (Natixis)

A recent study by Natixis Global Asset Management shows that, even with the assistance of a financial advisor and access to a 401K, many workers will not meet their retirement saving goals. This especially the case for the Baby Boomers. The survey featuring 1000 respondents show, "33 percent of Boomers have put aside less than $50,000. In comparison, 41 percent of participants in the Millennial or Generation Y group (those from ages 18 to 33) already have put aside $50,000." In fact, "Baby Boomers have saved an average of $262,541, about a third of the $805,398 they predict they’ll need at retirement."

"Investors of all ages should take a second look at how much they save and what their needs are likely to be when they retire,” Hailer said. “While many workers get it right, others might ask if their investing targets will get the job done. Too many seem to be setting the bar too low because they may lack access to the proper tools, education and guidance,"says John Hailer, CEO of Natixis Global Asset Management in the Americas and Asia.

Fortunately, the respondents also show that "employers provide a great deal of retirement information and tools. Among the most popular materials available to them are printed education documents, retirement calculators and interactive planning tools. However, relatively few investors make full use of the offerings. "

The House-Flipping Bubble Has Officially Imploded (Wolf Street)

According Wolf Street's Wolf Richter, the time to make a quick buck by flipping homes has passed. Citing RealtyTrac, "in Q2 of 2014 fewer than 31,000 single-family homes were flipped across the US, or a 4.6% share of all single-family home sales, down from a 5.9% share in Q1 and down from a 6.2% share in Q2 2013. And single-family homes sales overall were already down from last year." 

This current home-flipping trend started in 2012 when "flippers" saw profits from Wall Street private equity firms, REITS, and other institutional investors.  However, "profits have come under pressure. Flippers averaged a gross profit of just over $46,000 per flip, a return on the initial investment of 21%. That’s down from 24% in Q1, and from 31% a year ago, the highest return in RealtyTrac’s data series going back to 2011." In fact,"profits in dollars are down 23% per flip from a year ago, and it takes 39% longer to complete a flip. "

Now Is the Perfect Time To Be A Preferred Securities Investor (Alliance Bernstein)

New U.S banking regulations could be a boon to fixed-income investors writes Jeff Skogland, Director of Global Credit Research for Fixed Income, and Shrut Vakil, Global Credit Research Analyst, at Alliance Bernstein. The duo from say that, "better fundamentals and stricter regulations are creating a good formula for banks’ preferred securities."

They argue that "as banks rebuild their capital and reduce risk, the market for these securities—which are subordinate to many pure bonds—is set to grow." In fact, "the top 25 US banks have already issued nearly $100 billion of preferred securities. We expect the market to expand to about $130 billion in the next few years, as banks ramp up issuance to satisfy the new Basel III global capital rules, which require them to hold more capital as a cushion against losses."

According to Skogland and Vakil, "as banks have been rebuilding their muscle, bank regulations have raised the bar on what constitutes acceptable risk management." They believe, "a stronger US banking sector makes it more appealing to invest in lower tiers within a bank’s capital structure. Preferred securities, also known as Additional Tier 1 (AT1) securities, seem like a particularly attractive opportunity."

Why Bond Index Funds Are No Longer The Way To Go (Columbia Management)

Citing Morningstar, Columbia Management indicates that "there is currently $2.9 trillion invested in taxable bond mutual funds, including ETFs, of which $2.3 trillion is actively managed." 

Carl Cappo, head of fixed income, and Michael Zazzarino, senior portfolio manager, at Columbia Management argue that, actively managed bonds hold a distinct advantage over its passively managed/index counterparts. "Index funds are at a significant disadvantage to active portfolios in which managers incorporate valuation into their decision making process," writes Columbia Management.

"The objective of an index fund is to replicate the return of its stated benchmark. While this has proven to be a fairly easy task for the most popular equity indices, fragmentation and illiquidity in the bond market make true replication more difficult." Which means, "there have been instances where the passive approach to bond investing produced significant underperformance relative to a benchmark."

On the other hand, "an active manager’s objective is to outperform the benchmark. They are able to do this by managing interest rate risk, identifying attractive sectors and utilizing fundamental research to drive security selection. Active management also allows the flexibility to capitalize when interest rates or credit spreads reach unsustainable levels."

It's Time To Sell Your Stocks! (The Growth Stock Wire)

If veteran trader Jeff Clark is correct, now is the time to start selling. According to Clark, "the NYSE McClellan Oscillator (NYMO) – a measure of overbought and oversold conditions in the market – is saying stocks are ripe for a pullback." 

Clark says that the NYMO over the past few weeks show that the market was overbought and now exhibit signs of an impending decline. Furthermore, "the NYMO has a terrific track record of signaling short-term reversals in stocks." In fact, previous "buy" and "sell" signals from the MYMO have lined up perfectly with the rise and fall of the S&P. 

Join the conversation about this story »

Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have jointly bombed Islamist militants in Libya twice without U.S. notification or knowledge, The New York Times reports, citing four senior U.S. officials. 

The strikes, which Egypt has vigorously denied having any part in, come as Libya continues to fracture amidst fighting between various armed groups. Islamist-oriented militants have clashed with government forces throughout the country, and the country even has two competing governing bodies — one dominated by Islamists, the other by liberals and federalists. 

The Egyptian and UAE airstrikes were intended to prevent the Islamist rebels from taking Tripoli's international airport, although the strikes ultimately proved ineffective. 

Egypt and the UAE's involvement revealed how Libya is becoming yet another venue for proxy war in the Middle East, according to officials that spoke with the Times spoke.

Qatar has allegedly supported Islamist forces in the country, in a continuation of the country's policy of supporting Islamic movements and the Muslim Brotherhood. Renegade Libyan general Khalifa Hifter, who attempted to disolve Libya's government in response to to its alleged takeover by Islamists, has made this allegation of Qatari support explicitly. 

Qatar's larger strategy of supporting Islamists throughout the Middle East has brought it into conflict with Egypt before. After the Egyptian military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government of former President Mohammed Morsi, relations between Qatar and Egypt rapidly cooled. Egypt has imprisoned three journalists from Al Jazeera, a Qatari-funded media company, on trumped-up terrorism charges. 

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain have also taken issue with what they saw as Qatar's meddling in their internal affairs. The three countries withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar in March, in an unprecedented move among the countries, over protest of Qatar's support of Islamist movements. 

Bombings carried out by Egypt and the UAE against Islamists in Libya could be an extension of an anti-Qatari policy aimed at limiting the reach and impact of Islamist movements throughout the Middle East. 

At the beginning of August, Amr Moussa, Egypt's former foreign minister and a close ally of Sisi, argued that Egypt should consider a military response to the chaos in Libya. Egypt and Libya share a porous 700-mile border.

"Statelets, sects and extremist factions in Libya directly threaten Egypt's national security," Moussa said in a statement. "I call for a broad public debate to sensitize public opinion to the risks, and to build the necessary support in case we have to exercise our right to self-defence."

Aside from air strikes, U.S. officials told The New York Times, a special forces team likely comprised of Emirati and Egyptian personnel destroyed an Islamist camp in eastern Libya as well.

SEE ALSO: Libya's oil sector is in freefall as the country collapses

Join the conversation about this story »

Game streaming site Twitch just sold to Amazon for $970 million in cash, and it's a big win for everyone involved, including Twitch's investors.

The company last raised money one year ago at a $100 million valuation, a source tells Business Insider. That's not counting the few million it raised in its first form, Justin.TV.

Twitch raised $35 million in total from investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Thrive Capital, and Draper Associates. Bessemer's Ethan Kurzweil served on the startup's board.

Bessemer is the largest investor in Twitch.

Twitch began in 2011 as a pivot from another startup, Justin.tv, which launched a few years prior.

Twitch, which allows users to post and watch videos of videogame run-throughs, was a hugely popular segment of Justin.tv's traffic. Twitch amassed 8 million views in its first month, and it became so poular that it eventually took over Justin.tv's business in its entirety, as the company officially changed its name earlier this year. The site now has 55 million viewers.

Another Justin.tv spin-off, SocialCam, was previously acquired for $60 million, so spin-offs and pivots seem to be the founders' strengths. 

It's unclear how Justin.tv's original investors, including Y combinator and Asop Louie Partners, made out in the Twitch acquisition, but you can guess it was pretty good. Paul Graham's accelerator program Y Combinator wrote the first $50,000 check for Justin.tv.

Join the conversation about this story »

The final televised debate before Scotland's independence referendum on Sept. 18 took place Monday night.

A post-debate poll by The Guardian showed Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and head of the Yes Scotland campaign that supports independence, winning the argument against Alistair Darling, leader of the Better Together campaign that opposes independence.

A Twitter poll taken by Sky News also saw Salmond coming out ahead. There were "more than 2,000 retweets for a Salmond win, compared to under 500 claiming Darling had topped the debate," the news outlet said. 

This would be an important victory for Salmond, who was viewed to have lost the first debate on Aug. 5.

The 90-minute debate from Glasgow centered on three key issues, currency, oil reserves in the North Sea, and the future powers of the National Health Service.

During the showdown, Salmond was "visionary, optimistic and generalized,"The Guardian's Martin Kettle writes, while "Darling was focused, critical and nitty-gritty."

Darling continued to press Salmond on a "Plan B" if Scotland was not able to share the pound after independence. Salmond has argued that a currency union is possible even though Britain's finance minister George Osborne has been clear that this will not happen.

"What's best for Scotland is keeping the pound sterling," Salmond said during the televised debate.

In response, Darling said a currency union would be bad for Scotland because the country's "budget would have to be approved not by us, but what would then be a foreign country." He also noted that "security comes with being a part of a larger country" and that the U.K. was able to weather the 2008 financial collapse, unlike its Irish counterpart, because of the size of its economy.

On the issue of oil reserves in the North Sea, Darling said predictions were historically "too optimistic." Experts disagree on how much oil is left in the North Sea, but proponents of independence claim that this limited resource will continue to be able to pay for public services like schools, hospitals, and pensions, and support the new policies of an independent government.

Oil billionaire Sir Ian Wood warned last week that Scottish government's White Paper on independence overestimated North Sea reserves by up to 60%.

"To tell people we can rely on [oil as an asset] is gambling our children's future," Darling said. 

Darling accused Salmond of resorting to scare-mongering on the topic of national health services. Salmond meanwhile restated his position that NHS would not be privatized in an independent Scotland. 

In the closing remarks, there seemed to be some agreement among the political leaders that no matter the result, the future will be about working toward a better Scotland

"This has been the most energizing campaign in Scottish history," Salmond said. "In the aftermath, there is an obligation to bring Scotland together."

SEE ALSO: Everything You Need To Know About Scotland's Vote On Whether To Leave The UK

Join the conversation about this story »

Amazon announced on Monday that it bought Twitch, an online video streaming site where gamers share footage of themselves playing video games, for $970 million.

Twitch might not be a household name, but it accounts for more than 40% of live-streaming traffic by volume in the U.S., according to online analytics site Qwilt.

A quirky social experiment from earlier this year called "Twitch Plays Pokemon" demonstrated just how massive the video platform's audience truly is, and why it became such a tasty acquisition target for Amazon. (Before that, Google and Yahoo wanted to buy Twitch too.)

"Twitch Plays Pokemon" is exactly as it's name implies— the internet came together and collectively beat Pokemon Red for Gameboy after 390 hours of game time. The experiment, which ran Feb. 20 through March 4, was so large it temporarily brought down Twitch's servers, attracting nearly 1.1 million viewers. Those are staggering numbers for something as geeky as playing an old Nintendo game over the internet.

To play Twitch Plays Pokemon, viewers would input commands (up, right, down, left, a or b action buttons, etc.) into the chat box alongside the video stream. This tells the character what to do. At its peak, more than 100,000 users were inputting commands at the same time — ultimately resulting in utter chaos. 

In the beginning, the game was run by a system called Anarchist, which processed every single command in order. This resulted in a ton of duplicate moves and allowed trolls to type in commands to purposely sabotage battles. In other instances, trolls would release their best Pokemon for no apparent reason, as shown below. 

The hype has since died down, but the channel is still among the most popular on Twitch. About 64.3 million people have watched the channel since it was created, which is now streaming "Pokemon Stadium 2."

If you're already tired of watching hordes of gamers play Pokemon at the same time, Twitch has a new channel called "Fish Plays Pokemon." Yes, that's right— there's an entire stream dedicated to a fish playing Pokemon. The fish dictates moves by swimming into different sections of the screen, as shown here. A little more than 4.5 million people have viewed the channel so far, and 695 people are currently watching it.

As you can see, it's not that exciting:

While it may cater to a niche audience, Amazon certainly tapped into a booming market with its acquisition of Twitch.

Join the conversation about this story »

Monday night's Scottish independence referendum debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling raised the scariest question for voters leaning toward a Yes vote: Does Scotland have the courage to face down the Bank of England, walk away from its share of the U.K.'s national debt, and become an international banking pariah in order to get its independence?

Scottish National Party leader Salmond did not quite say he would do that, but admitted it was a negotiating tactic. Darling, leading the "Better Together" campaign, led him to the brink on the issue.

The central problem in the Sept. 18 independence vote is what Scotland's currency will be if the country becomes independent of the U.K. Salmond has said that Scotland should continue to use the British pound, and then negotiate some form of shared currency union with the U.K. The U.K. government in Westminster, however, has made it quite clear that Scotland will be going it alone if it leaves the union — the new country will have no say over the pound.

One potential option for Scotland is to use the pound anyway, as Panama does the U.S. dollar. The difficulty with that is that Scotland would have no control over the Bank of England, and would be forced to pay its debts in a currency whose strength is determined by interest rate decisions in London.

In that situation, Scotland could simply default on its debt and force the British to pay it instead — but that would make Scotland so risky as a sovereign borrower that it would be unable to borrow money elsewhere unless it accepted ludicrously high interest rates. Yet Salmond hinted that he was willing to force the BofE into sharing the pound by threatening just such a default, according to the Financial Times:

Mr Darling confirmed that an independent Scotland would be able to use the pound unilaterally even if the rest of the UK refused a currency union, a statement leapt on by Mr Salmond as “the most important revelation” of the debate.

But the former chancellor said the “sterlingisation” option would be hopeless since Scotland would not have a central bank and would have to run a permanent surplus. “Of course we could use the pound – but we could use the rouble,” he said.

Mr Salmond also repeated his warning that Scotland would walk away from its share of Britain’s national debt if the UK refused to “share the assets” of the Bank of England in a currency union; Mr Darling said a default would make Scotland a pariah on international money markets

That is an extraordinary thing to hear in a political debate: The leader of a country openly threatening default as a negotiating tactic. But it's a good one, and it appeals to the position that the nationalists are in: They are behind in the polls and need to show they have the grit to take Scotland to independence come what may.

That grit, however, would come with a cost. It could bring Scotland to its knees, economically, through the prospect of a major, modern European capitalist economy, currently running at a debt, being suddenly cut off from all reasonable access to international finance. Such a scenario suggests a massive collapse of the Scottish economy.

But Salmond is willing to risk it. Here's the Huffington Post's account:

He added: "We don't need permission to use our own currency. The argument actually is that they will deny us the assets of the Bank of England. The reason that won't happen is that if you deny us the financial assets, then the UK will get stuck with all of the liabilities."

Salmond said no chancellor would let Scotland away with its share of the debt liabilities and therefore a currency union would be agreed.

Darling said: "If your first message in the world is here we are, here is Scotland, and by the way we've just defaulted on our debt, what do you think that would do to people who are lending us money in the future. Nobody would lend us any money in the future."

SEE ALSO: Banks Are Planning A Massive Double Exit From The UK If It Votes To Leave The EU

Join the conversation about this story »

Tonight's 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will recognize and celebrate excellence in the television industry.

Celebrities ranging from Kaley Cuoco and Sofia Vergara to the cast of "Girls" and "Breaking Bad" all converge on the red carpet before the show.

But before the stars take home their golden statues, see who won the awards for best and worst dressed.

Updating live now throughout the pre-show...

Emmys host Seth Meyers and wife Alexi Ashe in J.Mendel

Lena Dunham and her FUN boyfriend frontman, Jack Antonoff

"Girls" star Allison Williams

Amazon announced on Monday that it purchased Twitch for $970 million. Twitch is a website where video game enthusiasts can view and participate in live streams of video games in real time.  

Unless you're familiar with the video game community, chances are you've probably never heard of Twitch. However, it accounts for a surprising amount of internet traffic — nearly as much as giant Web brands like Netflix and Google among others.

1. Twitch accounts for more than 43% of all live video-streaming traffic by volume.

2. Twitch falls right behind Netflix, Apple, and Google when it comes to peak internet traffic in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal. It accounts for 1.8% of peak internet traffic, which is just above Hulu at 1.7%. 

3. Twitch amassed more than 8 million unique users after its first month. 

4. And the numbers have kept growing since then. The site now has 55 million users. 

5. Twitch amassed about 45.6 million unique visitors and more than 8 billion page views for the period of time between July 26 and August 22, according to Quantcast.

6. 58% of Twitch users spend more than 20 hours a week watching videos on its site. That's almost 3 hours a day. 

7. On average, 12 billion minutes of content was watched per month on Twitch's website in 2013, according to the company.

8. The average user spends 106 minutes per day watching content on Twitch. That's about an hour and 45 minutes each day.

9. 76% of Twitch's users are between the ages of 18 and 49. Only a third of these people go to traditional video game websites for news, and many of them are cord cutters and don't have traditional cable TV.

SEE ALSO: Here's why Amazon just paid nearly $1 billion for a site where you watch people play video games

Join the conversation about this story »

Tell me which company this sounds like:

A company that...

• Has its own mobile operating system for tablets and smartphones.
• Has its own app store.
• Sells digital music, books, movies, and TV shows.
• Will soon have an online ad network.
• Created a way to accept payments with a smartphone.
• Owns the servers that act as the backbone for several major apps and startups and even parts of the CIA.
• Is experimenting with drones.

It's not Google. It's Amazon.

But just like Google has expanded beyond search into everything from finding ways to cheat death to making cars that can drive themselves, Amazon has been increasingly expanding beyond its core e-commerce business.

And in recent months, that only seems to be speeding up.

Amazon's $970 million purchase of Twitch, a site that lets you watch people play video games via a live stream, is its latest push into original video content and a move to transform itself into part media company. It's a longer-term bet that the trend of watching stuff online versus cable will continue.

Add that on top of the stuff listed above, and Amazon suddenly sounds less like an online store for buying books and gifts and more like a company trying to insert itself into everything you do online. It sounds very Google-y.

Plus ...

There's experimentation with same-day delivery, grocery delivery, and point of sale systems for brick-and-mortar retailers. Those are all things Google is working on or has at least experimented with.

The only difference, of course, is that Google is wildly profitable while Amazon continues to post losses each quarter. (Next quarter could be a doozy. Amazon said to expect at least a $410 million operating loss.)

But it's also a changing company, one that's no longly simply "the everything store," but an entity creeping its way into everything we do from shop to play games to run our small businesses.

SEE ALSO: 9 impressive stats about Twitch

Join the conversation about this story »

Credit and debit card payments made in physical stores add up to a huge amount of economic value — $4 trillion in transaction volume in the U.S. alone in 2013, and that volume is growing as more and more people move away from cash.

In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we look at the complicated series of interactions among different legacy players that powers each credit card payment, outlining the six types of companies that play key roles in the credit credit payment chain. We explain what each of these players do, and how much value they add, and explain why two parts of this chain — the hardware providers and merchant service providers (MSPs) — are particularly vulnerable to disruption.

Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>

Here are some of our key findings:

• The electronic payment networks like Visa aren't going anywhere for now. Visa and MasterCard in particular will remain an indispensable part of the chain because they don't actually process payments. They simply provide the rails that the credit card system runs on.
• Credit card processors like First Data that actually do the work of processing merchants' credit card transactions on the back-end are also in a strong position.
• Two pieces in the chain are particularly vulnerable to disruption, the makers of hardware and the intermediaries that provide payment services to merchants:the makers of the actual hardware — basically card readers and registers — that are used to physically accept card payments at stores, and the hundreds of vendors known as merchant service providers, or MSPs, which set businesses up to accept credit cards. Many MSPs work with Independent Sales Organizations or ISOs to sell their services. (See chart, above.)
• Manufacturers of register systems are vulnerable: Point-of-sale hardware faces an immediate threat from mobile devices.These devices are cheap and easy to implement, they do not require consumers to adopt new behaviors, and they free up retailer space previously devoted to bulky hardware.
• In addition, the new payments companies — including PayPal, Revel Systems, Square, and others — could shove traditional MSPs aside as they bridge the offline and online worlds. They pair their mobile registers with consumer-side smartphone apps, and often also provide additional merchant services, like software for loyalty programs or for parsing online consumer data. These new companies want to replace the old players that focused mainly on logistics, i.e., helping merchants take credit card payments.
• But it's not all doom and gloom yet for legacy MSPs: they have existing relationships with the majority of merchants who accept credit cards and with banks. They also have established marketing channels and large sales forces. Large MSPs will move to acquire new payments technologies to squelch the disruption threat.

In full, the report: 

• Sizes the $4 trillion U.S. credit and debit card industry, taking stock of offline vs. online volume and growth
• Gives a detailed breakdown of the entire credit card transaction process
• Defines what role each of the players occupies within that chain
• Underscores which players in the credit card transaction process are most ripe for disruption from new payments companies, and which ones remain in the strongest positions
• Explains what services these new payments companies will most likely offer to merchants and consumers
• Examines how legacy players are responding to the threats from these new payments entrants

Join the conversation about this story »

We all know that women are vastly underrepresented in the tech industry.

We've seen some encouraging signs lately that this is changing, with more women enrolling in a prominent computer science university, a high-level VC saying he's backing more women startups, and lists of women engineers having fabulous careers.

But here's a sad stat that's makes all those signs look like peanuts.

In 2013, money for startups was overwhelmingly going to male founders. LinkedIn recently analyzed 1,200 technology entrepreneurs who raised venture capital in 2013.

86.5% were men. 13.5% were women.

This is sad for a bunch of reasons. First, it shows that women are even more shamefully under-represented as startup leaders than they are in the big successful tech companies like LinkedIn, Facebook and Google.

Many big tech companies released diversity numbers this summer that showed between a quarter and a third of their employees are women. That's still kind of sad, given that women make up half the population and the tech industry makes up one of the fastest-growing, highest paying job fields around.

But 13% is far less than that.

It's all part of a harsh cycle. Fewer female-founded startups means fewer women who have big exists. That means fewer women doing multiple startups, or angel investing or becoming VCs and just plain being role models.

While the tech industry is loaded with fair-minded men, when women are a rarity in the workplace it's acts like a petri dish for sexist behavior.

That makes it harder, and discouraging, for the few women who are working alongside them. And that leads to women getting fed up and leaving the industry, according to a recent study from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. 

That study looked into why out of 5,300 women who earned engineering degrees, 38% of them had left the field and found that old-boys-club type of culture had driven them away.

Join the conversation about this story »

Uber is sending hired brand ambassadors undercover to recruit drivers from competing companies like Lyft, according to documents obtained by The Verge.

The driver recruitment process is called Operation Slog (Supplying Long-term Operations Growth). The word slog also means to work hard or hit forcefully, like in a fight.

Slog aims to disguise Uber brand ambassadors as normal Lyft riders by giving them burner phones and credit cards to create fake accounts, according to the Verge. Then the Uber workers reportedly talk to Lyft drivers about jumping ship to Uber during their rides. The hired Uber workers are supposedly called "Street teams."

One Uber contractor tells The Verge’s Casey Newton that, not only is Uber recruiting aggressively from Lyft, it’s also well-aware that Uber’s tactics are costing Lyft drivers business. Lyft previously estimated that Uber workers called and then cancelled more than 5,000 rides on its service, costing its drivers time and money.

“Not only does Uber know about this, they’re actively encouraging these actions day-to-day and, in doing so, are flat-out lying both to their customers, the media, and their investors,” the contractor told Newton.

An email about Slog details the steps Street Teams were allegedly asked to take by Uber:

1. Request a Lyft using your temporary phone/account
2. Upon arrival enter car, begin small talk with driver (“How long have you drove [sic] with Lyft?” “What brought you to Lyft?” "Do you like Lyft?")
3. After assessing driver for openness to Uber, ask them if they’d consider joining Uber
4. If they say “Yes” fill out [a] form.

Verge’s documentation suggests that Lyft is Uber’s primary target. One email from a marketing manager at Uber to “Sloggers” encouraged the street teams to "#shavethestache," a reference to Lyft’s signature pink mustaches. Other services like Sidecar, Hailo, and Gett weren't mentioned in documented cited by The Verge.

In response to The Verge’s report, Uber issued a blog post describing Operation Slog in a way that makes it sound like just your average smart growth tactic. (When asked for comment, Uber referred us to this blog post.) It says its aggressive recruitment strategy is just "cutting through the noise" of the crowded ridesharing space.

"With millions of riders and ever-increasing demand for more rides in even more cities, we are always working hard to recruit new drivers onto the platform,” Uber writes. "Ridesharing is a noisy marketplace. To market the benefits of driving with Uber, we cut through the noise to market to potential partners.”

Uber admits that it may have its team take rides from competitors, but says it never cancels rides or hurts a competing driver’s business intentionally, like Lyft has claimed in the past.

"We can’t successfully recruit drivers without talking to them — and that means taking a ride. We’re all about more and better economic opportunity for drivers. We never use marketing tactics that prevent a driver from making their living – and that includes never intentionally canceling rides,” Uber writes.

Join the conversation about this story »

Monosodium glutamate, more commonly known as MSG, gets a bad rap.

People claim that it's a toxin that causes headaches and sweating, and that it leaves you feeling lethargic and flushed. The thing is, most research shows that that's not true at normal dietary levels.

Despite its umami flavor boosting power, rumors have given MSG a reputation so bad that many Chinese restaurants frequently put up "No-MSG" signs to assuage customer's fear. Some customers then put soy sauce on their food, adding the missing MSG in after the fact. Because it's delicious.

The folks at the American Chemical Society decided to bust some MSG myths in their latest Reactions video.

What Is MSG And What Does It Do?

MSG's flavor enhancing properties were first discovered in 1908 by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda, who wanted to understand how seaweed, which had been used by chefs for centuries, enhanced the flavor of foods.

Ikeda found that the key was a common amino acid — one of the building blocks for a protein — called L-Glutamate.

Glutamate is everywhere. It's found in many foods, including meat, dairy, and vegetables, and it's even produced in our own bodies naturally when we process food.

MSG's name tells us the key difference between glutamate and monosodium glutamate. MSG has a sodium atom that glutamate doesn't, which turns it into a salt form, making it easy to add to food. That's it.

Add it to food and it reacts with umami receptors on our tongue and allows us to better taste that savory flavor in whatever we're eating.

The Source Of The Myth

In 1968, a scientist wrote to the New England Journal of Medicine saying that he'd experienced something he decided to call "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" after chowing down on Chinese food. He claimed he'd experienced "a numbness at the back of the neck that radiates to the arms and back," along with "general weakness and palpitation."

At the time, they decided to place the blame on the flavor additive.

But research over the next few decades didn't support the claim that a normal dose of MSG could cause the mysterious "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" effects.

Instead, as the ACS says, the scientific consensus from that research is that "MSG can temporarily affect a select few when consumed in huge quantities on an empty stomach, but it's perfectly safe for the vast majority of people." 

So, a normal person may get temporary symptoms if they eat huge quantities of the stuff without any other other food. But no normal person would consume MSG in that way — it would make as much sense as eating tablespoons of salt, and cause the same reaction.

As for glutamate itself — as the ACS explains, it's one of the 20 amino acids that make up all naturally occurring proteins. Nothing to fear, here.

This graphic by Compound Interest breaks down all the research a little further:

So if MSG really isn't bad for you, why do people claim they experience these unpleasant effects after they eat food that may contain it?

In a lot of cases, it's simply a placebo effect. If you think you'll feel something, you can make yourself feel that way. Some other people may experience similar reactions if they're eating something new and have some sort of allergic reaction to that food, but MSG doesn't create antibodies that could cause an allergic reaction on its own.

Other people just eat way too much when eating out, or they are sensitive to the sodium levels of the foods.

There is a key thing to learn from this food myth, as explained in the ACS video below.

"If someone tells you that something is bad for you and you can't get a definitive answer as to why, it's your job to dig in and find out for yourself. This is what science is all about, not accepting something as truth without proper evidence."

Here's the video:

SEE ALSO: How Your Diet Is Stressing You Out

Join the conversation about this story »

Gunmaker Smith & Wesson was down more than 11% in after hours trading on Tuesday after the company slashed its full-year sales expectations for the second time in two months. 

On Tuesday, the company sales are now expected to be $530-$540 million, well short of current estimates for around $593 million, and also sharply lower than the $585-$600 million expectations the company laid out in June. 

The company also said that for its fiscal first quarter ended July 31, Smith & Wesson reported revenue of $131.9 million, lower than the $133.4 expected by analysts, and down $39.2 million from last year.

The company said lower sales of long guns, including modern sporting rifles, drove 87% of this first quarter decline. 

Gross profit in the second quarter was $49.1 million, down from $72.8 million in the prior year period, and the company earned $0.26 per share, slightly better than the $0.25 expected by Wall Street.

Smith & Wesson said, however, that handgun sales showed, "continued consumer demand for the company's small concealed carry polymer pistols and revolvers."

"We believe that the current environment reflects high inventories industry-wide resulting from channel replenishment that occurred following an earlier surge in consumer buying," Smith & Wesson CEO James Debney said in a statement. "That environment, combined with typical seasonality that slows consumer buying activity during the summer, is causing us to lower our financial outlook for fiscal 2015."

Debney added that, "We expect the industry will continue to deliver growth over the long term."

Join the conversation about this story »