Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt said he doesn't plan to resign from Apple Inc.'s board despite a government inquiry into whether the ties between the two companies violate antitrust law.

Schmidt made his remarks Thursday in response to questions posed by reporters before Google ( GOOG - news - people )'s annual shareholder meeting. A Google lawyer confirmed recently published reports that the Federal Trade Commission is looking into whether the company's overlapping board relationships with Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) will discourage future competition.

Both Schmidt and former Genentech Inc. ( DNA - news - people ) CEO Arthur Levinson are directors at Google and Apple. The two companies both are working in mobile phones, Web browsers and some Internet services such as digital picture management, but Schmidt said he doesn't regard Apple as a "primary competitor."

The FTC inquiry is one of several signs that the government is taking a closer look at Google and its increasing dominance in Internet search and advertising. Last year Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. ( YHOO - news - people ) abandoned plans for a Web ad partnership after running into objections in the Justice Department.

Google shares fell $6.86, 1.7 percent, to close at $396.61 before the shareholder meeting began. The shares have traded between $247.30 and $599.49 over the past 52 weeks.

Labels: google apple yahoo

Thursday, May 07, 2009 at 7:00 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ten of the nation's largest financial firms need to raise $75 billion more to withstand the losses that would come with a deeper recession, the government said Thursday in a report card that found the banking system viable but still vulnerable.

Among the 10 banks that need to raise more capital, Bank of America Corp. needs by far the most -- $33.9 billion. Wells Fargo & Co. needs $13.7 billion, GMAC LLC $11.5 billion, Citigroup Inc. $5.5 billion and Morgan Stanley $1.8 billion.

The banks will have until June 8 to develop a plan and have it approved by their regulators. If they can't raise the money on their own, the government said it's prepared to dip further into its bailout fund.

The stress tests are a big part of the Obama administration's plan to fortify the financial system in the wake of last fall's credit crisis. As home prices fell and foreclosures increased, banks took huge hits on mortgages and mortgage-related securities they were holding.

Last fall, the government approved $700 billion to bail out banks and embarked on a series of historic government rescues, including the takeovers of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurer American International Group Inc.

The government hopes the stress tests will restore investors' confidence that not all banks are weak, and that even those that are can be strengthened. They have said none of the banks will be allowed to fail.

The five other firms found to need more of a capital cushion are all regional banks -- Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala.; SunTrust Banks Inc. of Atlanta; KeyCorp of Cleveland; Fifth Third Bancorp of Cincinnati; and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh.

Among the banks that the government did not ask to raise more capital were JPMorgan Chase & Co., brokerage house Goldman Sachs Group Inc., insurer MetLife Inc. and credit card companies Capital One Financial Corp. and American Express Co.

Together, the 19 firms that took the test hold two-thirds of the assets and half the loans in the U.S. banking system.

Some of the firms that need more capital were quick to announce strategies for how to get it. Wells Fargo & Co. and Morgan Stanley announced they were selling stock, and Citigroup Inc. said it would convert preferred shares -- a form of debt -- into common stock.

The tests found that if the recession were to worsen, losses at the 19 stress-tested firms during 2009 and 2010 could total $600 billion. Of those losses, $185.5 billion would be from mortgages, $82.4 billion from credit card loans and $53 billion from commercial real estate loans -- the loans on banks' books that analysts say are now most vulnerable to default.

"Looking at the big picture, you can say that things aren't so bad for the financial industry as a whole," said Kevin Logan, chief U.S. economist at Dresdner Kleinwort.

But Logan said attracting fresh capital will be a challenge for banks that need it.

"The banking industry is not going to make a lot of money going forward, and that's a dilemma for keeping banks solvent and getting them lending," he said.

Large and regional bank stocks mostly rallied in after-hours trading as investors showed relief over the results. Bank of America Corp. rose 9.2 percent to $14.75, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. gained 1.5 percent to $35.77. Fifth Third Bancorp advanced 23.4 percent to $6.60, while Boston's State Street Corp. jumped to $40.90, a gain of 8.1 percent.

The government's unprecedented decision to publicly release bank exams has led some critics to question whether the findings are credible. Some said regulators seemed so intent on sustaining public confidence in the banks that the results would have to find the banks basically healthy, even if some need to raise more capital.

Jaidev Iyer, a former risk management chief at Citigroup, said regulators are playing to public expectations, which could put the government in the role of creating "winners and losers." Because the government has said it won't let any firm fold, taxpayers may wind up on the hook.

"If there is in fact no appetite to let losers fail, then the real losers are the market at large, the government and the taxpayers," Iyer said.

In the tests, the Fed put banks through a scenario that imagines the recession would worsen: that joblessness would hit 10.3 percent next year and house prices would fall more than 22 percent.

Some analysts have questioned whether the tests were rigorous enough. For example, economists expect the jobless rate to approach or exceed 10 percent by year's end -- and to go higher next year -- even if the recession doesn't worsen.

A steeper downturn would make it harder for consumers and businesses to repay loans, which would cause banks' assets to lose value. The government is forcing the banks to keep their capital reserves up so they can keep lending even if the economic picture darkens.

The tests measured bank reserves based on what's known as common equity, the value of a company's common stock and profits. Some of the banks have big enough reserves by traditional measures but fall short by this narrower standard.

"It's not really stressful, so how could it be a stress test?" said Simon Johnson, a former chief economist with the International Monetary Fund and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "This makes it seem like we're not having a financial crisis at all."

Johnson said some bank executives have told him they already are losing more money on commercial real estate loans than the tests estimated even under the harsher economic scenario.

The stock market has cheered the results, he said, because the message is that the government will continue supporting the banks no matter what it costs.

Another criticism of the stress tests is that they did not address a key problem confronting banks: The troubled mortgage assets on their books are making it hard for them to resume normal lending.

Banks that need capital have several options. Some would be able to close the gap by converting the government's debt into common stock.

"These tests will help ensure that banks have a sufficient capital cushion to continue lending in a more adverse economic scenario," said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. "They will provide the transparency necessary for individuals and markets to judge the strength of the banking system."

Describing the purpose of the tests, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said at a news conference with Geithner, "This is to make sure banks have enough capital to offset the losses we know are coming in the next couple of years."

AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger, AP Business Writer Ieva M. Augstums in Charlotte, N.C., and AP Business Writers Stevenson Jacobs, Sara Lepro, Madlen Read and Candice Choi in New York contributed to this report.

Labels: us citi BAC share

at 6:51 PM

It's a cellphone, it's a credit card... it's both!

TAP AND GO: Phones are placed against readers and payment is added to users’ credit-card bills.

IMAGINE paying for your books and cup of coffee with your mobile phone.

Next month, 300 specially selected credit-card owners will be able to do so when Citibank and Visa launch a three-month pilot project to allow them to use their mobile phones as credit cards.

All the owners need to do to pay for their purchases is to place their Nokia 6212 phone sponsored by telco M1 against a card reader and the amount will be added to their credit- card bills.

Each phone comes with an embedded chip that contains details about the owner and his credit card. Over 400 merchants, including Popular bookstore outlets, the coffee connoisseur cafes and Gramophone music stores are involved.

Civil servant Lee Seong Per, 30, said: "Using my phone as a credit card will definitely make life more convenient, provided the security features are in place."

Citibank vice-president and business director of credit-payment products John Denhof said the pilot would help it understand "what type of products customers like".

Calling this a "quick and convenient way of paying for purchases", electronic-payment network Visa's regional head of mobile payment, Mr Gordon Cooper, said: "We'll look at what customers like before deciding whether to roll this service out to more people in the future."

Those who make at least eight transactions a month get to keep the $300 handset when the trial ends.

They can use the phone for as many transactions as they like every day, but each transaction is capped at $100.

There are no extra charges for the service, but customers' existing credit limits still apply. A passcode also prevents abuse.

news by kohht@sph.com.sg

Labels: it

Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at 7:33 PM

Find your way with wonder chip

TECH INNOVATOR: Ms Goh Yiping is the co-founder of start-up Human Network Labs, which developed PixieEngine.

Co-developed by S'porean, new tech allows navigation without Web link.
A NEW technology that will allow mobile-phone users to befriend strangers or check out where the nearest coffee outlet is all without making a call, using GPS or logging on to the Internet has been co-developed by a Singaporean.

Expected to be released worldwide next year, the stick-on chip allows mobile- phone users to use their handsets to "visualise their surrounding environment".

The novel technology, known as PixieEngine, is co-developed by Singaporean technopreneur Goh Yiping.

Ms Goh, 27, co-founder of the Philadelphia and Singapore- based start-up Human Network Labs (HNL), told my paper that besides social networking, other uses of the chip include locating children, navigating your way to the nearest retail outlet, or finding out where you parked your car.

She said: "Though we use social networks such as Facebook, when we meet people (in real life), we can't see any of that information without the help of the Internet.

"Or, when I see a movie poster, I still need to switch on a laptop or use a mobile phone to log on to the Internet to book tickets. I should be able to do that immediately by clicking on the poster (which also has the chip on it)."

That is where PixieEngine comes in, she said.

Unlike other location-based friend-finders and GPS-based maps such as Loopt, Google's Latitude and Maps, PixieEngine does not require GPS, Internet access or mobile-service providers.

Ms Goh said: "This allows users to operate it anywhere and avoid incurring service fees."

The device, whose patent is still pending, can be used on Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones and has an indoor and outdoor range of around 50m and 200m respectively. It can differentiate between users as close as 1m apart, making it highly accurate, added Ms Goh.

She said HNL has yet to determine the price of the service but added that it would be affordable to "most of the consumer market".

"We provide a service different from that of GPS, which can't help you find your keys with high accuracy or know who the people in the room are," she added.

Pilot programmes are already in the works, involving organisations such as Friendster, Singapore Management University and local-welfare groups, which can use the chip to help the visually impaired navigate. The organisations can also use it to locate dementia patients.

National University of Singapore assistant professor Denisa Kera of the communications and new-media department said that such innovations open up new ways of interacting with "familiar strangers".

She said: "With an element of serendipity, we are increasingly able to connect and forge new relationships with people."

news by - dawnt@sph.com.sg

Labels: it

at 7:30 PM

Microsoft bids $45 billion for Yahoo Software giant offers $31 a share - a 62% premium - in deal that could reorder online ad market. Microsoft's Ballmer: 'Major milestone.

February 1 2008: 5:21 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft Corp. made an unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo on Friday, setting the stage for a deal that would shake up the competitive and lucrative market for online advertising.

Yahoo shareholders would receive $31 a share, which represents a 62% premium over Yahoo stock price one day earlier.

Shares of Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) zoomed and ended the day 48% higher, while Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) tumbled 6.6%.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, called the move the "next major milestone" for the software giant.

"We are very, very confident this is the right path for Microsoft and for Yahoo," Ballmer said.

Microsoft hopes to close the deal by the end of the year. Ballmer said that Microsoft has been in "off and on" talks with Yahoo for 18 months and said he called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang Thursday night to tell him the bid was coming.

A Microsoft-Yahoo combination would create a powerful number two player in the online search business, which Google commands. It would also be one of the biggest tech deals in years, on a par with Hewlett-Packard's $25 billion acquisition of Compaq in 2002.

Microsoft announced the bid early Friday. In a statement, the company said the offer allows Yahoo shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the software giant's offer consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock.

In a statement, Yahoo acknowledged receipt of the offer and said its board would evaluate the proposal "carefully and promptly."

Searching for solutions

Both Microsoft and Yahoo have fallen far behind rival Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) in the lucrative field of Internet search. Yahoo's earnings and share of the online search market have badly trailed Google.

Google reigns over 58.4% of the U.S. search market, while Yahoo has 22.9% and Microsoft's share is just 9.8%, according to comScore, a research firm that tracks Internet traffic.

The combined forces of Microsoft and Yahoo would also make a stronger force in online display advertising - the type of targeted banner ads that Yahoo is known for.

In a letter it sent to Yahoo's board of directors, Microsoft disclosed it had explored a Microsoft-Yahoo deal a year earlier, only to be rebuffed by Yahoo, which said at that time it was confident of the "potential upside" for Yahoo from operational changes it planned.

"A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved," said Ballmer.

On Thursday, former Yahoo CEO and current Chairman Terry Semel, who opposed an earlier approach Microsoft made last year, resigned from the Yahoo board.

Yahoo announced Tuesday it would lay off 1,000 employees by mid-February, citing what CEO Yang described as "headwinds" facing the company. It also reported lower fourth-quarter earnings that still beat Wall Street's now modest expectations for the firm, but it gave a 2008 revenue forecast that disappointed analysts.

"Last year, Yahoo told investors it needed more time to get on the right track," says UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter. "But you only get a certain amount of time to turn things around."

Gunning for Google

Recently, Google has run into problems. It reported fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday that fell a penny a share short of forecasts. The company also announced a slowdown in its revenue growth, attributed partly to difficulty in selling ads on social networking sites.

A Google spokesman, Matt Furman, declined to comment on Microsoft's move on Yahoo. "It would be premature to comment at this point," he said.

Google shares have fallen 24% since hitting a record high $747.24 in early November. But Yahoo shares have lost more than a third of their value over the same period.

Still, online advertising, particularly ads tied to Internet search, is by far the fastest growing part of ad spending. That's caused problems for traditional media, which have seen ad spending fall.

Microsoft said it projects the online advertising market to grow from over $40 billion in 2007 to nearly $80 billion by 2010.

In the letter to Yahoo's board, Microsoft said a tie-up would achieve economics of scale while allowing combined research and development efforts to achieve breakthrough products, particularly in the growing areas of online video and mobile Internet connections.

Microsoft said it intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo engineers, key leaders and employees across the firm. It said it believes the proposed combination would receive all necessary regulatory approvals.

Shortly after the announcement, a U.S. Justice Department spokesperson said that its "antitrust division is interested in looking at the competitive effects of the [Microsoft and Yahoo] transaction." But with Google's strong lead in the search industry, analysts said it is highly unlikely Microsoft's proposed deal would violate antitrust laws.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst George Askew gives the deal an 80% change of being completed.

"This acquisition offer is a bear hug - and the two companies may well come to terms on a deal at a modestly higher price than the $31 offer," Askew said in a written note.

But some analysts say the integration of the two companies could be tricky to pull off. For one, Microsoft and Yahoo use different platforms to run their search engines, and they would have to decide which one to use.

Friday, February 01, 2008 at 6:21 PM

Before you sign that contract, be sure to read the fine print

- and realize that it's written with anything but your best interests in mind.
And don't ever believe anything that a salesperson tells you if it contradicts what the contract says. Verbal contracts, although technically legally binding in most jurisdictions,
turn out to be "not worth the paper they're not written on" more often than not.
By the time a dispute arises, the salesperson may be way out of the picture,
and even if not, it becomes a matter of your word against his/hers. Wednesday, November 23, 2005 at 10:02 AM

Alibaba.com chairman and CEO Jack Ma shakes hands with Yahoo Inc. COO Daniel Rosensweig (R) during a joint news conference in Beijing August 11, 2005. Yahoo Inc. said on Thursday it will pay $1 billion in cash and swap its China operations for a 40 percent interest in China's second-largest Internet auctioneer, Alibaba.com. REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV Wednesday, August 17, 2005 at 4:19 AM

new yahoo search (light version) singapore version
Monday, July 25, 2005 at 3:52 AM

A Shanghai salesman sits in a Chinese made Chery QQ car, which is the subject of a legal dispute between Cherry Automotive Co. Ltd. and GM Daewoo Automotive & Technology Co.,

the South Korean unit of General Motors Corp in Shanghai May 9, 2005. General Motors Corp. said on Monday that its piracy lawsuit against fledgling Chinese car maker Chery had been shifted to Beijing from Shanghai, but analysts were divided over the impact it might have on the case. REUTERS/Mark Ralston Monday, May 09, 2005 at 10:24 PM

Navy Cyber Cafes Help Keep Many in Touch AP - Mon May 9, 9:08 PM ET
Faults Found in Online Reporter's Stories AP - 2 hours, 46 minutes ago
For Some Techies, an Interminable Workday AP - Mon May 9, 9:08 PM ET
Engineers Say Device Has Multiple Uses AP - Mon May 9, 9:12 PM ET
Will Spyware Be Spitzer's Next Big Thing? AP - Mon May 9, 9:04 AM ET at 10:21 PM

U.S. Attack in Iraq Kills 100 InsurgentsAP - 2 hours, 19 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hundreds of American troops backed by helicopter gunships and warplanes swept into remote desert villages near the Syrian border Monday, hunting for followers of Iraq's most wanted terrorist and reportedly killing as many as 100 militants since the weekend operation began.
WWII's Victors, Victims Honored in Moscow AP - 2 hours, 18 minutes ago
Bodies of Missing Girls Found in Illinois AP - 2 hours, 20 minutes ago
Iran Confirms Uranium-To-Gas Conversion AP - 2 hours, 21 minutes ago
School Bus Crash in Mo. Kills Two in Cars AP - 57 minutes ago
Marines Recall Combat Vests After Tests AP - 2 hours, 21 minutes ago at 10:08 PM