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World Business Quick Take

■SOUTH KOREA

Fitch raises credit rating

Fitch Ratings yesterday raised its sovereign credit rating outlook for South Korea, saying foreign exchange pressure on the country caused by the global financial crisis has eased. The outlook for South Korea’s long-term credit rating was revised to “stable” from “negative,” Fitch said in a statement provided by Seoul’s Strategy and Finance Ministry. Fitch had lowered the sovereign credit rating outlook for six emerging market economies last November, including South Korea, Mexico and Russia, to reflect higher risks to creditworthiness stemming from the global financial crisis.



■INTERNET

Germany opposes book plan

Google Inc’s plan to digitize millions of books would violate German copyright law and the country’s privacy protections for Internet users, the German government said in a US court filing. Germany opposes a proposed settlement, which Google reached with the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers Inc among others last October, because Google could digitize books by German authors without their consent, said Johannes Christian Wichard, deputy director-general of the German justice ministry’s Directorate General of Commercial and Economic Law, in a filing on Monday.



■INTERNET

eBay sells Skype holding

Online auction house eBay on Tuesday sold a 65 percent stake in Skype to an investment consortium in a deal that valued the Internet telephony group at US$2.75 billion. The US dotcom group will receive US$1.9 billion in cash and US$125 million in loans. The valuation placed on Skype is roughly comparable to what eBay spent buying the business in 2005. However, eBay will in effect make a profit on the deal because it slashed the value of the business two years after it was bought as it became increasingly obvious that it had little strategic fit.



■AVIATION

SkyEurope goes bankrupt

Budget carrier SkyEurope, which serves Eastern Europe, became the latest casualty of the industry downturn when it filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday. The Slovakia-based airline suspended all flights immediately, disrupting travel plans for thousands of passengers. SkyEurope, whose main airports are at Bratislava, Vienna and Prague, warned that a refund “may not be possible” for customers who booked with the airline directly. Abta, the UK travel agents’ association, said the collapse underlined the need for a compensation system for airline passengers. “This airline failure in a tough economic climate, along with several others last year, highlights the need for urgent action by the government and EU to plug this gaping hole in customer financial protection,” CEO Mark Tanzer said.



■AUTOMOBILES

German car program ends

Germany’s car-scrapping premium expired yesterday after 2 million buyers took advantage of a landmark government offer that has boosted the crisis-hit auto sector. The Web site of the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control showed that the last contract had been taken early in the day, after demand surged to around 14,000 per day as the program entered the final stretch. But although the plan has succeeded in keeping domestic auto sales afloat, sales next year could slump heavily because many drivers brought forward purchases to benefit from the subsidy. The grant of 2,500 euros (US$3,550) for drivers who scrap old cars and buy new ones spurred sales of small cars in Germany.
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