The big story in 2005 was that eBay had purchased the Internet's biggest telephone company Skype for $2.6 billion; the big question in 2007 was whether eBay would ever figure out what to do with Skype, which was clearly nothing more than an expensive toy for the auction firm, incapable of making big money and with no place to fit into the e-commerce giant; the big answer of 2009 is that eBay is going to pretty much admit it was wrong, and dump 65 percent of Skype on a little-known investor group and recover just over $2 billion of its 2005 purchase price; the only prominent new owner of Skype is Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, who has rounded up several investment types, including,weirdly, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, although you have to wonder how thrilled Canadian taxpayers are; eBay will retain 35 percent of Skype,which despite its size and global reach still has no public business plan to make much money.
High technology trade researchers Mobile Entertainment Forum said in a special report that Asia lags well behind the West in regulating and stimulating the mobile entertainment business; Suhail Bhat, MEF policy and initiatives director, told the ZDNet Asia group that Asian regulators have not been able to keep up with the explosive growth of the mobile entertainment industry;while the European Union is drafting policies for mobile services in 2015,Asia is still trying to figure out what rules to apply today.
In a huge, unbelievable shock surprise, the European Commission, which has not collected much in big-money hush payments for months, is going to "investigate" the pending purchase of Sun Microsystems by the database giant Oracle ; the EC says that the deal is a potential monopoly that could hinder competition in the database market;translation: If Oracle fails to budget a lot of money for the EC in its merger with Sun, the EC will make life intolerable for Larry Ellison's firm. In another shocking development, the very same European Commission said it will just have to oppose the proposed settlement designed to let Google sell digital books over the Internet because, whoops, possible monopoly trouble; strangely, the current near-monopoly on digital book sales over the Internet by amazon.com and its Kindle book readers hasn't bothered the EC at all.
So, the Associated Press reports that Siebel Systems ' billionaire owner Tom Siebel was attacked by an elephant while he was on safari in the Serengeti last month; it could have been worse for the software mogul; after all, a lot of super-rich software makers are currently being mauled by a Snow Leopard.
Advanced Technology Investment
Co of Abu Dhabi paid $1.8 billion to buy the Singapore chip foundry Chartered Semiconductor . In 2002,Samsung of Korea passed Sony of Japan in market value; last week, it neared the valuation of Intel Corp of America,and is expected to get to $110 billion and pass the US company within months.
The high profile head of Google in China quit the search engine company to start up a venture fund to finance high-technology start-ups in China; Lee Kai-fu became Google's global president for vice, stationed in Beijing, in 2005;while he revelled in the spotlight of his job, his accomplishments are another matter; under his supervision, Google came under huge fire worldwide for kow-towing to the Beijing authorities on Internet censorship, while in the meantime, Number 2 Google actually lost market share to Baidu , the runaway search leader in China; his new company,Innovation Works , will start looking for investments with $115 million in funding.
It's not those darned kids, its you;according to technology analysts comScore , just 11 percent of Twitter users are between 12 and 17; your embrace of this weird communication system shatters the belief that it's always the young people who lead the way to pop innovations.
Britain's worst polluter: Well, the contest isn't over, but the current top candidate is the $50 million supercomputer at the Meteorological Department; according to press reports, the computer takes 1.2 Megawatts of energy to run 15 million MB of RAM and 1 trillion calculations a second for 400 scientists;all of that produces some weather forecasting material and 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Vicki Walker of NEW ZEALAND was fired FROM HER JOB for annoying coworkers by sending them her imperious email IN ALL CAPS DEMANDING THEY "FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECKLIST";unfortunately, the touchy-feelie New Zealand Employment Relations Au-thority fell for her heart-breaking story of how she had gone into debt, and they ordered that she be re-hired and paid $17,000 in lost wages and unspecified "harm"; her co-workers got nothing for having to put up with her back then and now again.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Qatari buy stake
Qatar Holding has announced it will acquire a 17% stake in Volkswagen AG, which is merging with Porsche, in a deal that will exceed $10 billion.
This comes after the Porsche and Piech families said it will sell a 10%stake of their shares to the Gulf company.
In a statement released late Friday,Qatar Holding said it will now be the third largest shareholder in VW, after Porsche and Lower Saxony.
The purchase follows the UAE's Aabar Investment acquisition in March of a 10% stake of Daimler AG,famed for its Mercedes-Benz brand,indicating continuing Gulf interest in the European automotive sector despite the economic downturn.
The statement says Porsche will also establish research facilities in Doha as part of the deal.
This comes after the Porsche and Piech families said it will sell a 10%stake of their shares to the Gulf company.
In a statement released late Friday,Qatar Holding said it will now be the third largest shareholder in VW, after Porsche and Lower Saxony.
The purchase follows the UAE's Aabar Investment acquisition in March of a 10% stake of Daimler AG,famed for its Mercedes-Benz brand,indicating continuing Gulf interest in the European automotive sector despite the economic downturn.
The statement says Porsche will also establish research facilities in Doha as part of the deal.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Magnificent seven
In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Delta foresees Indian sales tripling to $1 billion
Delta Electronics (Thailand)Plc expects its sales in India to more than triple to US$1 billion in three years as demand climbs, said executive director Anusorn Muttaraid.
"India is a big opportunity and is also a good gateway for exports to Europe,Africa and the Middle East," Mr Anusorn said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday."We are bidding to supply equipment to the local power companies."
The SET-listed unit of Taiwan's Delta Electronics Inc is building plants in India to make electronic equipment and components to supply the world's secondfastest growing economy. The company expects $300 million in sales from India this year, compared with $200 million last year.
The Samut Prakan-based company makes switching power supply equipment for telecom companies and video display screens.
Delta will need to increase workers in India to almost 20,000 from 2,000 at present to boost its sales."India offers a large reserve of educated men and women who can be trained for the company's requirements," Mr Anusorn said.
Delta may add another facility in India's northeast to its existing three plants at Gurgaon, near Delhi, Pondicherry and in Uttarakhand state in northern India,he said. It may spend $50 million initially on land and construction and an equal amount later, he added.
The company expects revenue to pick up with an economic recovery in the US and Europe. Delta last year had sales of 32.9 billion baht, of which exports contributed 53%. Its first-half profits this year were 812.3 million baht, down from 1.42 billion in the same period last year.
DELTA shares closed yesterday at 18.30 baht, up 10 satang, in trade worth 53.25 million baht. The stock has gained 49%this year, compared with a 65% advance in the SET Index.
"India is a big opportunity and is also a good gateway for exports to Europe,Africa and the Middle East," Mr Anusorn said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday."We are bidding to supply equipment to the local power companies."
The SET-listed unit of Taiwan's Delta Electronics Inc is building plants in India to make electronic equipment and components to supply the world's secondfastest growing economy. The company expects $300 million in sales from India this year, compared with $200 million last year.
The Samut Prakan-based company makes switching power supply equipment for telecom companies and video display screens.
Delta will need to increase workers in India to almost 20,000 from 2,000 at present to boost its sales."India offers a large reserve of educated men and women who can be trained for the company's requirements," Mr Anusorn said.
Delta may add another facility in India's northeast to its existing three plants at Gurgaon, near Delhi, Pondicherry and in Uttarakhand state in northern India,he said. It may spend $50 million initially on land and construction and an equal amount later, he added.
The company expects revenue to pick up with an economic recovery in the US and Europe. Delta last year had sales of 32.9 billion baht, of which exports contributed 53%. Its first-half profits this year were 812.3 million baht, down from 1.42 billion in the same period last year.
DELTA shares closed yesterday at 18.30 baht, up 10 satang, in trade worth 53.25 million baht. The stock has gained 49%this year, compared with a 65% advance in the SET Index.
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