■ Telecoms
German firm mulls sale
Deutsche Telekom is considering whether to sell its subsidiary T-Mobile USA to avoid a costly network restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. A sale could potentially reap some US$30 billion for the company. Restructuring of the T-Mobile network could cost the firm up to US$10 billion dollars in the next few years if it is to remain in the running against US competitors, according to sources quoted by the Journal. T-Mobile USA has around 10 percent of the US market, outdistanced by rivals such as Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless. Deutsche Telekom has told investors it will make a decision by December. The sale would allow the company to make acquisitions in Europe. But the company's board is split on the best way to go and no buyer has been found so far.
■ IT Services
Market expected to soar
The Asia-Pacific's information technology (IT) services market is projected to grow at an annual compounded rate of 8.9 percent from last year to 2009, faster than the global expansion rate of 6.1 percent, a report said yesterday. India and China are the main drivers behind the robust predictions, technology research house Gartner said, without giving dollar figures for the market size. It also forecast that "professional services, led by development and integration, IT management and consulting, will be the region's strongest performing IT services market segment," Gartner said. India's IT services market is projected to grow at an annual compounded rate of 22.7 percent in the same period, while China's projected growth rate is 11.8 percent. Australia's IT market should expand 4 percent, Hong Kong at 3.8 percent and Singapore at 3 percent.
■ Anti-Trust
Samsung faces new hurdle
South Korea's anti-trust watchdog said yesterday that it would wage a rare legal battle with Samsung, the country's largest conglomerate, over new rules restricting the power of the chaebol or giant business groups. A law, revised in April, reduces voting rights in affiliates held by the financial institutions owned by the large conglomerates from the current 30 percent to 15 percent by 2008. The revision is aimed at preventing family-controlled conglomerates from exercising tight control over their subsidiaries through their financial arms. Samsung has asked the Constitutional Court to determine the legitimacy of the new law, complaining it would make local firms more vulnerable to takeover bids by foreign investors.
■ Aviation
AirAsia weighing options
Asia's most profitable budget carrier, AirAsia, is expecting a wave of consolidation in the sector as rising fuel prices and firmer aircraft leasing rates put pressure on new entrants, a report said yesterday. The Malaysia-based carrier's chief executive officer, Tony Fernandes, told the Financial Times that many no-frills ventures were founded by "people chasing what they thought was easy money" but who now faced much tougher operating conditions. "I think business plans are looking quite different, and I think there's going to be a rationalization for sure. I think it's inevitable," he was quoted as saying in an interview from Singapore. The comments come less than a week after Valuair and Jetstar Asia, two discount airlines based in Singapore, announced they were in talks that could lead to an alliance or merger.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft