Aberdeen Asset Management Company Limited today announced the re-launch of its Aberdeen Global Emerging Growth Fund (ABGEM), which invests in units of a foreign fund, Aberdeen Global – Emerging Markets Equity Fund (Master Fund).
Aberdeen Global Emerging Growth Fund (ABGEM) has been launched since 2 April 2008 and the current fund size as of 28 October 2009 is 436.13 Million Baht.
Mr. Andrew Gillian, Investment Manager covering Asian Equities and Global Emerging Markets with Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Limited shared his outlook on the emerging markets opportunities that “Valuations in Asia and Emerging Markets still look reasonable relative to historic levels, albeit expectations are for a decent recovery in earnings in 2010. For this positive momentum to continue, profit growth will have to meet investor’s expectations. At Aberdeen, our focus remains on the underlying companies that we invest in rather than looking at liquidity or other investors’ expectations. We still identify good long-term investment opportunities in both Asia and Emerging Markets.”
“The areas where there is less doubt about growth are the emerging and Asian countries. A combination of buoyant commodity prices, substantial public expenditure and loose monetary policies, has boosted prospects in these regions where the impact of the financial crisis was less severe (Asian countries experienced their own banking crises in 1997 and have learnt from it).”
Mr. Chaikaseam Vadhanasiripong, Head of Fund Distribution Sales added that “Global emerging markets (GEMs) have been setting a fast pace in recent years. Since the 1970s, they have evolved from low cost locations for foreign manufacturing to centres of outsourcing expertise, driven by the forces of globalisation. More recently, GEMs have produced their own world class multinationals in industries as diverse as consumer electronics, semiconductors, aircraft manufacturing, shoes and shipbuilding. These companies do not rely upon cheap labour or easy access to commodities, but on “man-made” factors such as an emphasis on technology and design and a relentless focus on superior execution and quality. Thus the appeal of GEMs lies not only in their diversity, but as a hunting ground for the next global leaders.”
“Furthermore, we have the promotional campaign during November 1 – 30, 2009 for investment amount of every THB 1 million* in Aberdeen Global Emerging Growth Fund (ABGEM) and Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity Fund (ABAPAC).”
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
ELECTRONICS, IT FIRMS GEAR UP FOR RISING DEMAND
Thai electronics and information-technology firms are planning to expand their businesses as the global economic recovery gathers pace, which will boost the need for higher capacity and more outlets.
Stars Microelectronics (Thailand), an electronics-maker, plans to invest Bt150 million next year to increase capacity at its two business lines, microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA) and integrated circuitry (IC).
CEO and co-founder Polsak Lertputipinyo yesterday said the company would increase IC capacity from 800 million units per year to around 1.4 billion by the end of 2010. Meanwhile, it will raise MMA production capacity to 90 million units per annum from 80 million units per annum from 80 million this year.
At present, IC products contribute 20 per cent of Stars' revenue, with the majority generated from MMA products. The company expects revenue from IC products to increase to around 30 per cent next and be on a par with MMA within three years.
The company aims to maintain revenue growth at around 15 per cent per annum.
Polsak said the key product driver for the company's IC business was its Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, which the company supplies to leading auto-parts customers around the world. Orders have increased by 60 per cent from last year. Stars plans to raise production capacity to more than 3 million units per month from the current 2 million.
Regarding the company's MMA business, orders of hard disks for laptop computers have increased by 70 per cent.
Western Digital, the world's second-largest manufacturer of hard disk drives, has confirmed increased orders of 60 per cent until the middle of next year.
Stars has also seen a rise in orders from smart-phone manufacturers as worldwide sales climb. The company generated revenue of Bt7.6 billion and net profit of Bt189 million in the first nine months of the year. For this year, it predicts net profit will slightly exceed the Bt210 million reported last year.
Meanwhile, Supant Mongkolsuthree, CEO of Synex (Thailand), a leading importer and distributor of computers and IT-related equipment, said the company had upped its revenue growth target for this year to 15 per cent from 5 per cent, after signing a contract to become the sole distributor of Seagate's hard disk drives.
The move was despite industry forecasts that the value of the computer hardware market this year would drop 5 per cent from last year to Bt70 billion.
Stars Microelectronics (Thailand), an electronics-maker, plans to invest Bt150 million next year to increase capacity at its two business lines, microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA) and integrated circuitry (IC).
CEO and co-founder Polsak Lertputipinyo yesterday said the company would increase IC capacity from 800 million units per year to around 1.4 billion by the end of 2010. Meanwhile, it will raise MMA production capacity to 90 million units per annum from 80 million units per annum from 80 million this year.
At present, IC products contribute 20 per cent of Stars' revenue, with the majority generated from MMA products. The company expects revenue from IC products to increase to around 30 per cent next and be on a par with MMA within three years.
The company aims to maintain revenue growth at around 15 per cent per annum.
Polsak said the key product driver for the company's IC business was its Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, which the company supplies to leading auto-parts customers around the world. Orders have increased by 60 per cent from last year. Stars plans to raise production capacity to more than 3 million units per month from the current 2 million.
Regarding the company's MMA business, orders of hard disks for laptop computers have increased by 70 per cent.
Western Digital, the world's second-largest manufacturer of hard disk drives, has confirmed increased orders of 60 per cent until the middle of next year.
Stars has also seen a rise in orders from smart-phone manufacturers as worldwide sales climb. The company generated revenue of Bt7.6 billion and net profit of Bt189 million in the first nine months of the year. For this year, it predicts net profit will slightly exceed the Bt210 million reported last year.
Meanwhile, Supant Mongkolsuthree, CEO of Synex (Thailand), a leading importer and distributor of computers and IT-related equipment, said the company had upped its revenue growth target for this year to 15 per cent from 5 per cent, after signing a contract to become the sole distributor of Seagate's hard disk drives.
The move was despite industry forecasts that the value of the computer hardware market this year would drop 5 per cent from last year to Bt70 billion.
Stars aims to beat 2008 profit
Stars Microelectronics is confident that this year's profits will exceed last year's thanks to a shift to higher-margin integrated-circuit operations and improved demand with the global economic recovery.
The company reported nine-month profit of 188.13 million baht, up from 165.68 million in the same period last year.
Third-quarter profit rose to 73.68 million baht, up from 62.34 million in the same period last year.
Stars reported 2008 profits of 200.9 million baht on revenues of 12.12 billion.
While 2009 revenues are likely to fall short of last year's performance - ninemonth revenues totalled 7.5 billion baht - chief executive Polsak Lertputipinyo said profit would rise thanks to higher revenues from Stars' IC business.
Stars (SMT) is an integrated electronics manufacturing services provider with two main business lines: microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA), which contributes 70-80% of total revenues,and integrated circuits (IC), which accounts for the rest.
The company is investing 100 million baht to expand its IC manufacturing capacity by 50% to 1.2 million pieces per year.
The company has already committed 50 million baht for the project, with the remainder to be spent in the first quarter of 2010, said Mr Pinyo.
SMT also plans to invest another 100 million baht in 2010 to further expand its IC operations.
"We are confident in any case that the company this year will meet or exceed last year's net profit," he told investors at a briefing yesterday.
"The fourth quarter of this year will see our highest revenues ever, with 60%sales growth from our clients in the hard-disk industry. We have also received new orders from several multinational firms, including the world's fifth-largest semiconductor manufacturer and another a leading firm in the credit card market."
At the end of the third quarter, SMT's return-on-equity was 18.4%, down from 21.3% at its entry in the Stock Exchange of Thailand in September, he added.
Debt-to-equity remains a relatively low 1.1 times, down from 2.48 times prior to its initial public offering.
The listing allowed the company to reduce its debt burden and interest expenses by 20 million baht per year.
Stars' valuation is seven times earnings compared with a sector average of eight to 12 times.
SMT floated 92 million shares in its IPO at a price of 4.95 baht each. Shares of SMT closed yesterday at 6.25 baht,down five satang, in trade worth 11.35 million.
The company reported nine-month profit of 188.13 million baht, up from 165.68 million in the same period last year.
Third-quarter profit rose to 73.68 million baht, up from 62.34 million in the same period last year.
Stars reported 2008 profits of 200.9 million baht on revenues of 12.12 billion.
While 2009 revenues are likely to fall short of last year's performance - ninemonth revenues totalled 7.5 billion baht - chief executive Polsak Lertputipinyo said profit would rise thanks to higher revenues from Stars' IC business.
Stars (SMT) is an integrated electronics manufacturing services provider with two main business lines: microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA), which contributes 70-80% of total revenues,and integrated circuits (IC), which accounts for the rest.
The company is investing 100 million baht to expand its IC manufacturing capacity by 50% to 1.2 million pieces per year.
The company has already committed 50 million baht for the project, with the remainder to be spent in the first quarter of 2010, said Mr Pinyo.
SMT also plans to invest another 100 million baht in 2010 to further expand its IC operations.
"We are confident in any case that the company this year will meet or exceed last year's net profit," he told investors at a briefing yesterday.
"The fourth quarter of this year will see our highest revenues ever, with 60%sales growth from our clients in the hard-disk industry. We have also received new orders from several multinational firms, including the world's fifth-largest semiconductor manufacturer and another a leading firm in the credit card market."
At the end of the third quarter, SMT's return-on-equity was 18.4%, down from 21.3% at its entry in the Stock Exchange of Thailand in September, he added.
Debt-to-equity remains a relatively low 1.1 times, down from 2.48 times prior to its initial public offering.
The listing allowed the company to reduce its debt burden and interest expenses by 20 million baht per year.
Stars' valuation is seven times earnings compared with a sector average of eight to 12 times.
SMT floated 92 million shares in its IPO at a price of 4.95 baht each. Shares of SMT closed yesterday at 6.25 baht,down five satang, in trade worth 11.35 million.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Delta may miss $1bn revenue goal
SET-listed Delta Electronics (Thailand)Plc expects its revenue to miss the target of US$1 billion this year despite improving sales in the third quarter and the high growth of its Indian business.
Although the global electronics industry has generally recovered, the telecom segment and the European market have yet to pick up, said executive director Anusorn Muttaraid.
Corporate spending on electronic equipment has remained low in the face of global economic crisis while banks are still reluctant to extend loans to the corporate sector, he added.
"The third-quarter results are better than those of the previous one. Business in India reported a relatively high growth but it should be better than that," he said.
He declined to elaborate further,pending the formal release of results to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
"Purchasing power is still low and we might have to wait until the end of this year and early 2010 for corporate investment to pick up. Consequently,I don't think our revenue will reach $1 billion as projected," he said.
Delta posted total revenue of 6.06 billion baht in the second quarter, down 27.3% from the same period of 2008,as the global recession caused a significant drop in sales of IT and consumer electronic products. Net profit fell 50% year-on-year to 301 million baht. In the first six months, sales were 12.56 billion baht with net profit of 812 million, down from 1.42 billion a year earlier.
Analysts are upbeat about Delta's third-quarter results, expected to be released late next week, projecting earnings to more than double from three months earlier.
KGI Securities forecasts Delta's net profit will reach 700 million baht in the quarter to September, up 133%quarter-on-quarter, but down 20.7%from the same period of last year.
The brokerage raised Delta's 2009 earnings estimate by 3.8% to 2.3 billion baht with a target price of 21.10 baht per share.
Kim Eng Securities, meanwhile, is more conservative about this year's outlook, seeing a recovery of power supply systems in the European and Indian markets in the fourth quarter.
But Kim Eng expects an improvement in the world's financial sector and recovery in the electronics industry will help lift Delta's earning by 28% to 3 billion baht next year.
Mr Anusorn added that the company plans to set up a subsidiary in Singapore next year when the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) integrates Southeast Asian nations into a single production base.
The Singapore unit will help facilitate Delta's further expansion to the Middle East and to African countries, given the island state's more favourable tax system than Thailand's for making investment abroad.
DELTA shares closed yesterday on the SET at 17.30 baht, up 10 satang, in trade worth 18.37 million baht.
Although the global electronics industry has generally recovered, the telecom segment and the European market have yet to pick up, said executive director Anusorn Muttaraid.
Corporate spending on electronic equipment has remained low in the face of global economic crisis while banks are still reluctant to extend loans to the corporate sector, he added.
"The third-quarter results are better than those of the previous one. Business in India reported a relatively high growth but it should be better than that," he said.
He declined to elaborate further,pending the formal release of results to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
"Purchasing power is still low and we might have to wait until the end of this year and early 2010 for corporate investment to pick up. Consequently,I don't think our revenue will reach $1 billion as projected," he said.
Delta posted total revenue of 6.06 billion baht in the second quarter, down 27.3% from the same period of 2008,as the global recession caused a significant drop in sales of IT and consumer electronic products. Net profit fell 50% year-on-year to 301 million baht. In the first six months, sales were 12.56 billion baht with net profit of 812 million, down from 1.42 billion a year earlier.
Analysts are upbeat about Delta's third-quarter results, expected to be released late next week, projecting earnings to more than double from three months earlier.
KGI Securities forecasts Delta's net profit will reach 700 million baht in the quarter to September, up 133%quarter-on-quarter, but down 20.7%from the same period of last year.
The brokerage raised Delta's 2009 earnings estimate by 3.8% to 2.3 billion baht with a target price of 21.10 baht per share.
Kim Eng Securities, meanwhile, is more conservative about this year's outlook, seeing a recovery of power supply systems in the European and Indian markets in the fourth quarter.
But Kim Eng expects an improvement in the world's financial sector and recovery in the electronics industry will help lift Delta's earning by 28% to 3 billion baht next year.
Mr Anusorn added that the company plans to set up a subsidiary in Singapore next year when the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) integrates Southeast Asian nations into a single production base.
The Singapore unit will help facilitate Delta's further expansion to the Middle East and to African countries, given the island state's more favourable tax system than Thailand's for making investment abroad.
DELTA shares closed yesterday on the SET at 17.30 baht, up 10 satang, in trade worth 18.37 million baht.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Capital offence
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.
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.
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.
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