Skype co-founder says forecasts overshot

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of Internet telecoms group Skype, said on Tuesday that the business, bought by EBay, had not performed as well as anticipated in the short term."We had to chart the trajectory of growth and how fast that would run, (but) we found out that was a bit front-loaded," Zennstrom told the annual ETRE technology conference in Hungary.He added that he thought the company was growing at a satisfactory pace, but that more time was needed if the original valuation was ever to be realized."We overshot in terms of monetization ... Our position in the market has strengthened ... you need to look at the long-term value of companies," he said. EBay said last week it would cut as much as $1.2 billion off the $4.3 billion potential price it agreed to pay for Web-based phone-calling service Skype two years ago. The writedown on the value of the deal came as eBay said Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis had resigned as executives, and marked a tacit admission of lackluster returns from Skype since eBay acquired it two years ago. The cofounders stepped down before reaching earn-out targets in 2008 and 2009, but Zennstrom would not say whether that meant he would have definitely have missed them. "It (the final target) was two years away. The time value of money is significant," Zennstrom said, adding he wanted to focus more time investing cash in smaller companies. EBay said it had paid $530 million to Skype shareholders, including Zennstrom, out of a possible $1.7 billion. Zennstrom's other major venture is Joost -- an on-line video company -- which he said had opened to the public last week. "There are different phases. First it was invitation only, now it is open to the public," he said on the sidelines of the conference following his speech. Zennstrom co-founded Skype in 2003.

Skype and UK's 3 working on mobile Internet phone

LONDON (Reuters) - EBay Inc's Skype is working with British cell phone service operator 3 to produce a handset that will allow users in Britain to make free calls on the Internet, a spokesman for the company said on Friday. A spokesman for 3 confirmed that the group was working to make Internet calls mobile but would not confirm any further details or who it was working with. The phone is expected to work in the normal way but to include a Skype function to contact other Skype customers. Skype uses an Internet connection to place a voice call, cutting out the telephony network for which telecoms operators charge by the minute. Skype calls to other broadband-connected Skype users are free. The Skype spokesman did not give any further details but said the phone would be out later this year. 3 is the British cell phone business of Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa

Nokia slashes hit phone price

HELSINKI (Reuters)

Nokia slashed this week around 15 percent off from the price of its 3G phone model E65, one of the top sales and profit generators for the world's largest cell phone maker, market data showed on Friday.Analysts said the price cut was deeper than usual, but they were not surprised by the timing as handset vendors are setting up their offerings for the upcoming Christmas sales season.Nokia sold more than one million E65's in the second quarter, making it one of the top three products for the firm. It will report July-September results on October 18, but analysts said all signs showed that good sales of the phone have continued.Nokia said E65 price cut was part of its normal price adjustments after the phone has been on the market for more than 6 months. Its success helped to pull Nokia's ailing enterprise unit to the black in the second quarter after years of losses."This is normal for any product, the price varies at different stages of the product life cycle," said a Nokia spokeswoman.After the price cut E65 competes in the same price category with rivals hit phones Samsung's U600 Apple cut its iPhone price by one third just two months after it launched the phone, but later offered some rebates after phone owners' uproar. Price cuts of up to 10 percent are normal in the industry after first few months of sales.Nokia has also clearly lowered prices for its E61i, N73 and N73 Music phones this month, but not as sharply as E65."Nokia has been very aggressive with its pricing strategy during 2007," said Ben Wood, head of research at consultancy CCS.

Google, Random House move closer on book search

FRANKFURT (Reuters)

Random House, the world's biggest book publisher, is considering joining a book-search project run by Google, once considered an arch-enemy by the paper publishing industry. The two parties are talking to one another about the less controversial part of Google's book-scanning project, its partner program, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters at this week's Frankfurt Book Fair. Google has agreements with more than 10,000 publishers, large and small, who give their books to Google to be scanned in full. Google then makes them partially available -- according to agreements with each publisher -- for online readers. It also works with 27 academic and reference library partners to gain access to out-of-print works. But part of the library project has proved controversial and thrown Google into legal dispute with U.S. publishers as Google also scans works from its U.S. library partners that are still in copyright without asking the publishers first. Random House, a unit of German media group Bertelsmann, has until now held out and not joined the publisher partner program, which can help boost book sales, especially of publishers' so-called backlists of older titles. When asked this week whether the parties were close to an agreement, a Random House spokesman said: "Random House continues to have periodic constructive conversations with Google on issues of mutual relevance." Google declined to comment.Random House, as a member of the American Association of Publishers, says it continues to support a U.S. copyright case filed against Google in 2005 and funded by the association. The lawsuit -- brought by Penguin, Pearson,, McGraw-Hill, Wiley and Simon & Schuster -- aims to stop Google from scanning in-copyright works it gets from its library partners without explicit permission from publishers. The Bookseller trade magazine reported on Thursday that Random House was "close to healing its rift with Google".

CULTURE MONOPOLY
Google has so far digitized the full texts of more than 1 million books. The total number of books in the world is unknown but global library collective WorldCat has more than 91 million bibliographic records in its database, the biggest of its kind.

Google has come some way toward pacifying its critics since causing a furor after it launched the project in 2004 amid fears, most vociferous in Europe, that Google would gain something close to a monopoly of world culture.

Google now works with 27 libraries worldwide, up from seven a year ago, and its book search is available in 11 languages Oxford University's Bodleian Library and Japan's Keio University library.The company, which does not charge or pay its publisher partners, gains depth and authority for its Internet search engine by making not only Web pages but also books searchable.It has already integrated book results into its U.S. search engine and is beginning to do so in Europe. Google does include advertising on its partner program book-search pages, with its publisher partners getting most of the advertising revenue. It has no current plans to do so on its library search pages while it still improving them, for example by including links to Google Maps to show where the action in a book is taking place or adding braille layers for the visually impaired.

UNCTAD'S investment RANKINGS

UNCTAD'S investment RANKINGS

The Nation

Kingdom the 12th most attractive China, India top list; Vietnam 6th

Thailand is ranked 12th among the most attractive economies for foreign direct investment (FDI), trailing Vietnam in sixth place, according to Unctad's World Investment Prospects Survey 2007-2009 released yesterday. In particular, South and East Asia will be increasingly attractive destinations for FDI, with China and India mentioned as the top two most favoured destinations by the transnational corporations (TNCs) surveyed. Among other countries ranked in the top 20 were Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan. According to the survey, FDI flows are expected to increase over the next three years despite concerns about global financial instability and protectionism in some countries. The survey polled 192 respondents among the largest TNCs in the world. More than two-thirds of these companies said they planned to increase their FDI expenditure each year from 2007 through 2009. FDI is expected to increase across practically all sectors and countries due to continued world economic growth, high profitability and the availability of external finance. Greenfield investments (the establishment of affiliates in foreign countries) will be more commonly used as an entry mode into developing economies, while investment in developed countries will more frequently take the form of mergers and acquisitions, the survey said. Access to large and growing markets will be by far the main driver of FDI growth - this factor was mentioned as a major investment determinant by more than half of TNC respondents - followed by access to resources (17 per cent of respondents), especially skilled labour. Access to low-cost labour was a factor cited by 9 per cent of the TNCs surveyed. On the other hand, geopolitical and financial instability were mentioned as the major uncertainties that could potentially hinder their FDI expansion. Also mentioned as a factor was a possible increase in protectionism. More than 80 per cent of respondents mentioned these three risks as "important" or "very important". Further internationalisation is expected to affect a wide range of corporate functions - almost half of the respondents said they planned further overseas expansion of research-and-development operations. A rising number of companies will consider investing in locations away from their home regions. Emerging markets, notably in Asia and Europe, are expected to receive more attention than before. North America and Western Europe remain at the top of the priority list for investors. The United States is the third most favoured location in the world. Two Western European countries - the United Kingdom and Germany - rank in the top 10, closely followed by France. Poland is another rising destination in Europe. Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States countries are also the focus of a growing preference by investors. Russia features among the top five FDI destinations; it was mentioned by one-fifth of the TNCs surveyed. In Latin America, Brazil and Mexico ranked among the top 10 most favoured locations for FDI. West Asia and Africa are expected to attract less interest despite investment niches in extractive industries and the recent growth of FDI in North Africa. The World Investment Prospects Survey 2007-2009 is the most recent of a series of surveys on FDI prospects. Unctad - the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - has carried out similar surveys since 1995.

AIS offers flexible package

AIS offers flexible package
Bangkok Post (12 October 2007)

Advanced Info Service yesterday introduced what it described as a tailor-made service that would automatically change the profile of each customer according to actual calling time. AIS president Wichien Mektrakarn said that the service, called ''Flexible'', was tailored to the calling behaviour of prepaid customers on both short-time chat and long-time chat packages. He said studies of the behaviour of each prepaid customer showed that those who chose a short-time chat package sometimes also wanted to talk for a longer period of time, while those who chose a long-time chat package occasionally wanted to make shorter calls. Therefore, the rates for such calling behaviour did not reflect actual usage because each package had a different rate for the first minute of a call, he said. But with the Flexible package that AIS has developed from its Intelligent Network to Super Intelligent Network, or Super IN, customers would get more for their money. If customers make calls that are shorter than three minutes, Super IN would charge a short-time package rate, and it would charge the long-time package rate if a customer chats for more than three minutes. Using the Flexible package requires a 30-baht monthly payment, he said. AIS will introduce two more packages developed from Super IN next month that would tailor packages to individual needs. AIS now has six million users on its long-chat package and two million on its short-chat plan.

DTAC looks to refresh brand

DTAC looks to refresh brand
Bangkok Post (12 October 2007)

Second-ranked mobile operator DTAC is preparing for a major revamp of its business strategy to strengthen core voice-based services. The Norwegian company plans to launch a ''brand refreshment and service refeeling'' campaign on Oct 24, as part of its strategy to differentiate itself from major rivals AIS and True Move. ''The campaign will be a whole new thing for the local mobile industry,'' said chief commercial officer Thana Thienachariya. AIS and True Move have already implemented strategies to expand into data communications including wireline and wireless broadband internet, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and IP television. ''Our policy is to focus on the core voice-based services,'' he said. Mr Thana admitted that it would be too late for DTAC to catch up with its rivals in terms of convergence strategy since it had done little network development in this regard. The company plans to diversify into new wireless-based services over the next two to three years as he believed that emerging international direct dialling (IDD) or third-generation (3G) services would take several years to gain popularity in the Thai market. Mr Thana also said that competition in the local mobile market would shift away from subscriber acquisition to retention in 2008 as the market is close to saturation. The local mobile-phone market has witnessed bullish development in the past three to four years, with the growth rate of net new subscribers ranging from 20-30%. The country's penetration rate of mobile phones is now around 72% of the population with 47 million users. AIS currently has 23 million customers, followed by DTAC with 14.5 million and True Move 9.1 million users.
The industry expected up to 11 million new customers in 2007. AIS alone expected five million new customers, DTAC four million and True Move two million. However, Mr Thana said the growth rate would be slower next year and would drop to single-digit growth in 2009. Penetration would be well above 80% next year, with an additional 10 million subscribers. Mr Thana acknowledged that the mobile industry had registered flat revenue growth for the past two years. But he said DTAC recorded positive growth last year, and expected to meet its revenue target growth of 8-15% this year. Revenue from the three major mobile operators is expected to reach 200 billion baht this year, 50% of which would come from AIS. However, AIS's profits account for up to 90% of the industry's total earnings given its size. Mr Thana also said that operators with strong customer retention and innovative products and services would win customers next year. As part of its retention strategy, DTAC yesterday introduced 50,000 ''twin number'' SIM cards for 100,000 numbers. Customers who buy the prepaid twin SIMs are allowed call each other free around the clock. The company will charge 1.50 baht a minute for calls made to all networks.