■ SOFTWARE
India delivers for SAP
SAP, the world's biggest business management software maker, said yesterday that India is now its fastest growing market as competition forces firms to use technology to cut costs. For the first time, India is among the German giant's top 10 markets, passing a "whole bunch of countries," SAP India head Ranjan Das told a news conference. The company's Indian unit had a record-breaking year last year by more than doubling its number of customers to 3,000 at the end of 2006. Overall revenue grew 68 percent, which was the fastest pace for SAP worldwide, Das said.
■ FOOD
New GM soy on the way
Monsanto Co, the world's biggest seed producer, said Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan approved imports of its first new genetically modified soybeans in more than a decade. Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seeds increase yields by 7 percent to 11 percent compared with first-generation Roundup Ready soybean seeds that have been sold since 1996, Monsanto said today. Monsanto plans to sell the seeds for release on as many as 810,000 hectares in the US in 2009 and on 2.43 million hectares in 2010.
■ INTERNET
Music downloads for China
Google Inc, owner of the world's most-used online search engine, has held talks with Universal Music Group to provide song downloads via the Web in China, the world's second-biggest Internet market by users. EMI Group Ltd and Sony BMG Music Entertainment may join Vivendi SA's Universal in offering free digital music downloads, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing people familiar with the talks. Google would work with Beijing-based Top100.cn, which sells licensed music downloads for 1 yuan (US$0.14) a song to operate the service, the Wall Street Journal reported. The record companies would earn royalties, it said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Daimler sales up 16%
Automaker Daimler AG said yesterday that sales of its Mercedes-Benz cars helped to increase global sales by 16 percent last month from the same time last year. The maker of Mercedes-Benz, AMG, Maybach and Smart said it sold a record 90,400 cars last month compared with 77,700 in January last year. By brand, the company said it sold 82,300 Mercedes cars last month, up 12 percent from the 73,500 sold a year earlier, led by demand for its C-Class sedan and station wagon models. Demand was strong in the US, where sales rose 7 percent to 18,300 cars. In Asia, Mercedes-Benz sales rose 19 percent to 11,700 cars. In Germany, sales were up 13 percent to 15,500 cars.
RSS