Latest news with #AARO
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AARO Joins Forces with Aico & Mercur to Form Unified and Complete Financial Corporate Performance SaaS Platform; Michael Teixeira Named Group CEO
STOCKHOLM, July 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Accel-KKR, a global technology-focused investment firm, today announced the successful closing of AARO, a leading provider of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solutions, and bringing together AARO with financial software providers, Aico and Mercur. This marks a significant milestone in the formation of a unified company focused on delivering the most comprehensive, unified SaaS platform for finance and performance management in EMEA for the Office of the CFO. To lead this newly formed group, Accel-KKR has appointed Michael Teixeira as Group Chief Executive Officer. Michael brings extensive leadership experience in scaling high-growth technology companies and will guide the strategic vision and growth of the combined entity. A Transformative Merger for Financial Leadership The combined entity of AARO together with Aico and Mercur cements its category leadership in EMEA, bringing together deep expertise across the financial close, planning and reporting spectrum: Aico: Automates and streamlines financial close processes. Mercur: Powers xP&A, budgeting, forecasting, business intelligence and financial analytics. AARO: Provides enterprise-grade consolidation and group reporting solutions. Together, they create a powerful unified SaaS platform for finance and performance management that empowers finance and executive leaders with automation, compliance and actionable insights, supporting faster decision-making, enhanced governance and enterprise-wide visibility. "This is more than a corporate merger; it's a strategic unification," says Michael Teixeira, Group CEO. "By bringing together AARO, Aico and Mercur, we're creating a unified, integrated cloud solution that supports CFOs across the entire value chain; from Record to Report through Consolidation and Reporting to XP&A, Budgeting, Forecasting and Analysis and from local transaction-close to consolidated group-level reporting. This positions us uniquely to serve the needs of growing enterprises across the EMEA region." Market Reach and Customer Impact Operating across the Nordics, UK, Ireland, BENELUX, DACH and Middle East & Africa, the combined company now powers finance operations for thousands of mid-market and enterprise customers with deep regional support and expertise. Key benefits to customers will include: A unified SaaS platform for the Office of the CFO: A seamless cloud solution that supports the entire finance function across Record to Report, from local transaction-close to group-level consolidation, including consolidation, budgeting, forecasting, XP&A, and performance reporting. Increased accuracy and efficiency: AI-powered automation reduces manual effort, minimises risk and improves data integrity across financial close, consolidation and reporting. Unified user experience: An integrated platform that reduces system complexity and improves ease of use for finance teams. Ongoing innovation: Enhanced capabilities driven by the combined expertise of global product and engineering teams focused on solving challenges for the Office of the CFO. Future-ready scalability: A robust, modular solution that grows with the organisation's needs, whether expanding across entities, geographies or compliance regimes. Configurability: SaaS software that is highly adaptable to enterprise clients' complex environments, thereby removing the barrier to integrate with core systems, improving efficiency and reducing data silos. Strategic Backing and Regional Scale The merger follows Accel-KKR's investment in Aico and Mercur, and now the acquisition of AARO, reinforcing the firm's long-term commitment to building a category-leading financial cloud software suite. "Our investment in Aico, Mercur and AARO stems from the vision to build a best-in-class, end-to-end SaaS financial platform," said Maurice Hernandez, Managing Director at Accel-KKR and Board Member. "By integrating three best-of-breed platforms under Michael's seasoned leadership, this fuels an ambitious expansion strategy across EMEA to create a powerhouse for the Office of the CFO," About AARO AARO provides Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software for group accounting, consolidation and financial reporting. Used by multinational companies, it supports IFRS and local GAAP standards. Finance teams rely on AARO to streamline complex reporting processes with precision and efficiency. The company was founded in 1989 and has employees in Sweden, Latvia, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, UK, and Finland. Learn more at About Aico Group Aico is a financial close automation platform for mid-sized and enterprise companies. It enables faster, more accurate month-end reporting while ensuring compliance. Founded in 2019 in Finland, Aico serves leading European companies from offices in Finland, Germany, the UK and Latvia. Learn more at About Mercur Solutions Mercur Solutions provides Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software for budgeting, planning, forecasting and reporting. Its cloud-based platform, Mercur Business Control, empowers organisations with automation and insights. Headquartered in Sweden with a UK office, Mercur has supported financial leaders for 50 years. Learn more at About Accel-KKR Accel-KKR is a technology-focused investment firm with $23 billion in capital commitments. It partners with software and tech-enabled businesses to drive growth and value. Based in Menlo Park, with global offices, Accel-KKR invests across buyouts, minority stakes, carve-outs, and credit. Learn more at Photo - View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Accel-KKR Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time of India
16-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Why the US leads in UFO sightings; here's the surprising truth behind the numbers revealed
For decades, the United States has been the epicenter of global UFO discussions, recording more sightings than any other country. Since 1947, over 100,000 incidents have been logged, according to the National UFO Reporting Center . Although the UK briefly surpassed the US in annual reports in 2025, America still holds the highest cumulative count. This persistent trend has puzzled both skeptics and enthusiasts. However, a recent government report now offers a surprising explanation which suggests that many of these sightings may be linked to misinformation campaigns and military operations rather than genuine extraterrestrial encounters. UFO sightings in the US linked to the decades of military disinformation: Report A new report from the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) which is a Pentagon-backed investigative unit launched in 2022. This has revealed many of the so-called UFO sightings may stem not from extraterrestrial activity but from deliberate human-made disinformation. According to the ET reports, AARO, led by physicist Sean Kirkpatrick, has been tasked with examining Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) across air, sea, space, and land. Stretching back to the 1940s, the team reviewed military archives and conducted interviews with former and active personnel uncovering the surprising strategies which shaped the modern UFO narrative. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like local network access control Esseps Learn More Undo Secret military strategies behind UFO reports One of the most revealing insights was that several UFO conspiracy theories were purposefully created and circulated by the US military during the Cold War. These fabrications served as cover stories for secret weapons development and testing. According to the Wall Street Journal, these disinformation campaigns were decentralized, making it nearly impossible to assess their full extent. Among the most infamous myths examined was that of Area 51, which, according to the report, became a focal point of UFO lore largely due to intentional leaks and staged evidence designed to obscure classified aircraft programs. When military briefings turned into elaborate UFO pranks The report highlights a little-known but fascinating aspect of military culture: classified induction prank aimed at new Air Force commanders. In this hoax, officers were presented with forged documents and doctored images about a fictional secret program called 'Yankee Blue', which supposedly involved the reverse engineering of alien spacecraft. New recruits were sternly warned never to speak of the program, reinforcing its illusion. Some officers remained unaware for years that the entire briefing was a fabrication. In one notable case, a retired colonel, following orders, handed fake UFO photos to a bar owner near Area 51, igniting public speculation and helping mask the development of the F-117 Nighthawk stealth jet. Misidentified objects and secret tests behind UFO sightings Some sightings were part of deliberate misinformation but others resulted from the misinterpretations of ordinary objects or covert operations. The AARO's findings indicate that many UFOs were: High-altitude balloons Birds and drones Light reflections Starlink satellites One widely cited incident involved a former Air Force captain who claimed a UFO interfered with a nuclear missile launch. However, AARO concluded that the event was a classified electromagnetic pulse (EMP) test, and the officer was intentionally kept uninformed to maintain operational secrecy. Why some people still believe in UFOs AARO report points to pop culture as a key driver of UFO sightings in addition to covert military operations. Significantly how people interpret the unexplained visuals in the sky such as the explosion of alien-themed movies, TV Shows, and online content. AARO publicly confirmed that no verified evidence of alien materials has been found in March 2024. The rise in public reports is largely attributed to cultural influence and misidentified military activities. Although the reports regarding the existence of the alien materials were verified, the fascination with UFOs persists. The former Navy Navy pilot Ryan Graves described a mysterious object that appeared to be a 'dark gray or black cube inside a clear sphere,' flying dangerously close between two military jets and an account still under review. As per current reports, AARO receives 50 to 100 reports each month where the majority of which are resolved very quickly. However, still some remain unexplained keeping the debates still alive, The Department of Defense has committed to publishing a second volume of its historical UFO analysis. This upcoming report is expected to dive deeper into the use of falsified evidence, misleading briefings, and military pranks, further demystifying decades of UFO lore. Also Read | Meet the Indian designer embedding 'India's fingerprint in space' with Axiom-4 mission badge for Shubhanshu Shukla
Time of India
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Why are alien visits and UFO sightings highest in America? Explosive truth revealed in new report
For decades, the United States has been at the center of the global UFO debate, with more sightings reported within its borders than anywhere else in the world. According to the National UFO Reporting Center, the country has recorded over 105,000 UFO encounters since 1947. While the recent data from 2025 shows the U.K. slightly ahead in annual sightings, the U.S. continues to dominate in long-term numbers. This overwhelming volume has puzzled both skeptics and believers — until now. A recently released report by the Pentagon-backed All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) has shed light on why so many of these incidents are reported in America. The findings suggest the phenomena may have less to do with extraterrestrial activity and more with human-made disinformation. Role of the Pentagon AARO, which was set up in 2022, has been investigating Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) across various domains. The team, led by Sean Kirkpatrick, reviewed military records dating back to the 1940s and interviewed numerous current and former military officials. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Top 32 Most Beautiful Women In The World One of the key revelations was that several UFO conspiracy theories — including those related to the infamous Area 51 — were deliberately planted by the U.S. military. These deceptions, often involving altered images and false briefings, were used as a cover for secret weapons testing during the Cold War. The Wall Street Journal reported that this strategy was not centralized, making it difficult to track how widespread the disinformation actually was. Hazing and Hoaxes: The Secret of 'Yankee Blue' Part of the conspiracy involved a classified military induction prank. Newly appointed Air Force commanders were reportedly shown fake documents and images claiming the existence of a program called 'Yankee Blue,' which allegedly reverse-engineered alien spacecraft. Officers were instructed to never discuss the program again. Many believed in it for years — some never learning that it was all fabricated. The report detailed that one retired colonel, acting under official orders, gave forged UFO photos to a Nevada bar owner near Area 51 to stir public speculation. The ploy worked, creating a smokescreen that helped protect the secrecy of the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter jet and other advanced technologies being tested at the time. UFO Sightings: Misidentifications and Media Influence The AARO report also addressed numerous recent and historical sightings. Many of the so-called UFOs were found to be balloons, birds, drones, or reflections from Starlink satellites. In one significant case, a former Air Force captain claimed he witnessed a UFO interfering with nuclear missiles. Investigators later concluded that the event was actually part of a secret electromagnetic pulse test — a detail kept from him to preserve operational secrecy. In March 2024, AARO publicly confirmed there was no verified evidence of alien life or recovered extraterrestrial materials. The report attributed the rise in sightings to misidentified military operations and a surge in pop culture portrayals of aliens, which have influenced public perception. Despite the official stance, many within the military still claim to have witnessed unexplained aerial phenomena. Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves described an object flying between two jets, appearing as a 'dark gray or black cube inside of a clear sphere.' AARO continues to receive between 50 and 100 new sighting reports each month, and while most are now swiftly explained, a few remain unresolved. The Department of Defense has committed to releasing a second volume of its historical findings, which is expected to further address misleading briefings, inauthentic materials, and reports of deliberate pranks.
Gizmodo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Gizmodo
Pentagon Has Been Pushing Americans to Believe in UFOs for Decades, New Report Finds
UFOs have been back in the news a lot lately, and it may be the case that the government wants it that way. Last week, the Wall Street Journal published the first of a two-part series that probes the ways in which the Defense Department has been responsible for creating and fostering the UFO mythology in America. 'The article shows that the government has, at various points over the years, purposefully sown disinformation about UFOs, in an effort to make Americans believe in little green men. This news comes as the result of an internal investigation by Sean Kirkpatrick, the head of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which was specifically set up within the Pentagon to investigate UFO sightings. Kirkpatrick, who spoke with the Journal, says he's found evidence that the government 'fabricated evidence of alien technology' in an effort to distract from real weapons programs being carried out by the government in secret. The Journal frames its findings as a 'stunning new twist in the story of America's cultural obsession with UFOs' but, while the story's specific anecdotes are certainly new and quite interesting, its broader findings are not, nor are they particularly stunning. Instead, they parrot what many critics of the UFO narrative have long said: that the UFO mythos grew out of a disinformation campaign created by shadowy defense officials to obscure more terrestrial secrets about America's national security community. Last year, we wrote a story with very much the same takeaway, having interviewed one prominent UFO critic, Mark Pilkington, who released a documentary in 2014 arguing that the government used disinformation specialists to lie to Americans and thus hide its covert activities. Still, the Journal's investigation offers fresh details about a number of bizarre incidents that will surely tantalize the most avid UFO researchers. In particular, one episode revealed by Kirkpatrick's investigation involves a UFO sighting at a nuclear bunker that took place in 1967, and seems to show that the government's disinformation efforts were not merely aimed at members of the public but also its own staff. Robert Salas, a now 84-year-old former Air Force captain, says that his former job was to man the bunker, which would have launched a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union in the event of a nuclear war. One night, Salas says that a 'glowing reddish-orange oval' was seen hovering over the front gate of the facility by the building's guard. Not long afterwards, Salas discovered that the missiles at the facility had mysteriously been disabled. What had happened? Had aliens managed to disable the base's nuclear capabilities? The Journal notes that a less supernatural—if still quite crazy—explanation for the episode may exist: Kirkpatrick's team dug into the story and discovered a terrestrial explanation. The barriers of concrete and steel surrounding America's nuclear missiles were thick enough to give them a chance if hit first by a Soviet strike. But scientists at the time feared the intense storm of electromagnetic waves generated by a nuclear detonation might render the hardware needed to launch a counterstrike unusable. To test this vulnerability, the Air Force developed an exotic electromagnetic generator that simulated this pulse of disruptive energy without the need to detonate a nuclear weapon. When activated, this device, placed on a portable platform 60 feet above the facility, would gather power until it glowed, sometimes with a blinding orange light. It would then fire a burst of energy that could resemble lightning. Another intriguing anecdote that is shared in the report involves a bizarre custom that was inflicted upon newly inducted members of highly secretive government programs. Those inductees would be handed a picture of a UFO, Kirkpatrick found: For decades, certain new commanders of the Air Force's most classified programs, as part of their induction briefings, would be handed a piece of paper with a photo of what looked like a flying saucer. The craft was described as an antigravity maneuvering vehicle. The officers were told that the program they were joining, dubbed Yankee Blue, was part of an effort to reverse-engineer the technology on the craft. They were told never to mention it again. Many never learned it was fake. Kirkpatrick found the practice had begun decades before, and appeared to continue still. The defense secretary's office sent a memo out across the service in the spring of 2023 ordering the practice to stop immediately, but the damage was done. Officials who spoke with the newspaper dubbed this practice a 'hazing ritual' that spun out of control, but, like most things associated with the UFO phenomenon, it's easy to find a different interpretation of events. Was this really a 'hazing ritual'? Or was it part of an internal disinformation campaign designed to sow confusion and maintain cover for those secret programs, even within the programs themselves? Frankly, there's just no way to tell. Similarly, there's no way to tell whether the Journal's story hasn't been futzed with in some similar way. The simple truth is that, when it comes to UFOs, it's impossible to trust anything that comes out of the mouth of a government or ex-government official. You're better off just giving up on trying to find the truth of the matter, which is, of course, exactly what the government wants.
New York Post
10-06-2025
- New York Post
Trust no one: The Pentagon needs to come clean about UFO lies
Paging Fox Mulder: In a scene right out of 'The X-Files,' the Department of Defense has uncovered evidence that the Pentagon was behind one of the most notorious conspiracy theories about little green men. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, a tiny DOD crew tasked with investigating UFO sightings, found that the Pentagon itself planted the rumor that Area 51 was swarming with aliens. In the 1980s, an Air Force colonel (no word if he was perpetually shrouded in cigarette smoke) gave fake photos of flying saucers near the base to a local bar owner: The idea was to cover for the development of the F-117 Nighthawk; any locals who caught a glimpse of the stealth fighter on a test flight would be predisposed to think it was extraterrestrial tech — and so get laughed off. Advertisement In another episode of disinfo-spreading linked to the DOD, in 1996 a radio host received a piece of metal with a note claiming it came off an alien spaceship. This wasn't wartime deception aimed at America's enemies, but peacetime disinformation fed to US citizens: Not what your taxes are supposed to pay for. Nor were civilians the only victims of out-of-this-world military tall tales. Advertisement The AARO also discovered a longstanding Air Force practice in which hundreds of new commanders of highly classified programs were reportedly given photos of a 'flying saucer,' told that they would be working on reverse-engineering the tech and sworn to secrecy. Many of these men were never clued into the ruse, and so lived their lives with the belief that aliens were real, the government knew about it, and they could never tell anyone — not even their spouses. That practice continued all the way up until 2023, and AARO investigators still don't know why the Air Force was psychologically tormenting its own officers. (One theory is that it was some idiot's idea of loyalty test.) And these lies were far from harmless: As the Journal notes, the 'paranoid mythology the U.S. military helped spread now has a hold over a growing number of its own senior officials who count themselves as believers.' Advertisement As well as the likes of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who forced the Defense Department to burn millions on ghost hunters and psychics seeking to contact the little green men. And the Pentagon was still being shady last year, when it reported that the AARO's exhaustive search of the records had never found a shred of evidence of space aliens visiting earth . . . but omitted any mention of the military's own role in pushing disinformation. Even now, the Defense Department owes the public a lot more: Come clean on every lie told in these deceptions, with the names of who made the calls to give Americans sham 'information.' Advertisement Was this the work of a few rogue officers? Or a strategy approved by top brass over the decades? However this got started, the Pentagon's duty now is to ensure that the full truth gets . . . out there.
