EBay complete Skype scale

Online auction giant eBay announced Thursday it had completed its sale of Skype to an investment group that includes the two founders of the Web communications company. The previously announced sale of a 70 per cent stake in Skype for some two billion dollars had been held up by lawsuits filed by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Zennstrom, a Swede, and Friis, a Dane, settled the suits this month and will hold a 14 per cent stake in Skype through their new company, Joltid Ltd. Fifty-six per cent will be held by an investor group led by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and others. EBay will retain a 30 per cent equity investment in Skype. EBay received $1.9 billion in cash and a note for $125 million for the 70 per cent stake in Skype. The deal values Skype at $2.75 billion. EBay purchased Skype from Zennstrom and Friis in 2005 for a price tag that eventually exceeded $3.1 billion. Skype, which has its headquarters in Luxembourg, bypasses the standard telephone network by channeling voice and video calls over the Internet. It allows users to call others free of charge and provides the ability to connect with land lines or mobile devices at low rates.

Asian airlines go dicline

Asia's airline industry is pulling out of a slump sparked by the global recession with signs passenger numbers are rising, a regional body said Friday, but there were warnings a rebound will be slow. 'Hopefully, we are at least through the worst of the downturn,' Andrew Herdman, director- general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, said at an industry forum in Singapore. 'There are some encouraging signs that air traffic is starting to recover.' Figures released Thursday by the 17-member AAPA showed its airlines carried 11.1 million passengers in October, a slight improvement over the previous month. However, the figures were still below levels seen a year ago and despite signs of a recovery, the regional airline industry is still expected to turn in a collective loss for 2009, Herdman said. He did not give a figure for the losses expected this year but said the industry lost 4.8 billion US dollars in 2008. The International Air Transport Association has estimated that the global airline industry will lose 11 billion US dollars this year. 'In recent months, most airlines have seen load factors recover but low yields mean continuing losses for the industry and rising oil prices are certainly not helping,' said Herdman. 'Asia Pacific airlines are expected to report heavy losses this year.' Given the severity of the global recession, the worst since the 1930s, it will likely take some time for the industry's health to return to pre- crisis levels, he said. Airlines 'continue to face an extremely challenging operating environment' and 'it will take time to nurse battered balance sheets back to full health,' Herdman added. Chew Choon Seng, chief executive of Singapore Airlines (SIA), an AAPA member, pointed to a recovery, saying: 'The evidence, thankfully, is that we have passed the bottom of the downturn and that we are into a gradual recovery, month-on-month if not yet year-on- year.' But he said risks remained, including the sustainability of the global economic recovery and worries the A(H1N1) flu virus will disrupt travel plans during the northern hemisphere winter season. SIA narrowed its losses to 158.8 million Singapore dollars (114.5 million US) in the September quarter, from 307 million Singapore dollars the previous three months. One of the key questions is whether demand for business- and first-class air travel, generally known as premium traffic, will return strongly, delegates at the forum were told. 'Premium traffic has stopped flying because businesses have stopped, that's what the recession is all about,' said Tony Tyler, chief executive of Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific Airways. 'The question is will they come back in sufficient numbers, in sufficient strength for us to get our yields up.' Cathay Pacific, along with SIA, relies considerably on premium traffic, which has suffered after business executives cut down on air travel to reduce costs. SIA, which draws 40 per cent of its revenues from premium traffic, said it was already seeing some improvement in bookings for business- and first-class seats. For the long term, the Asia-Pacific looks set to become the biggest market for the world's aircraft makers, said Randy Tinseth, Boeing vice president for marketing, commercial planes. He said regional airlines are forecast to buy almost 9,000 airplanes worth 1.1 trillion US dollars over the next 20 years. The expected boom in orders will be fuelled by a need to meet rising air travel demand as the region's economic growth outpaces that of the rest of the world, he said. 'What this means is that the Asia-Pacific market both in terms of units as well as in terms of investments will be the world's largest marketplace,' he told a media briefing on the sidelines of the aviation forum.

Job cut in Nokia

Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said on Friday it would shed about 330 jobs in Finland and Denmark as part of a streamlining of its research and development operations. 'The planned changes are expected to affect up to 230 employees at Nokia's Oulu site in Finland and approximately 100 employees at Nokia's Copenhagen site,' the firm said in a statement, It added it currently had some 17,000 employees in research and development, of which more than 2,000 in Oulu and more than 1, 000 in the Danish capital. The mobile phone giant launched a cost-cutting programme last January, after its earnings fell as consumers cut back on buying handsets amid the global financial crisis. The programme aims to generate more than 700 million euros (1.0 billion dollars) in annual savings. Before Friday, Nokia had announced about 3, 700 job reductions since January, including around 1,300 voluntary redundancy packages. Last month Nokia posted a surprise swing into red when it reported a third-quarter net loss of 559 million euros amid rising competition in the smartphone market and problems with its Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture.

India stop their rice import

India has scrapped tenders to import rice, saying it has enough stocks to manage despite a harvest shortfall following the worst monsoon in almost four decades. A top-level cabinet committee on food cancelled the three tenders totalling 30 ,000 tonnes, which would have represented the first imports of the staple by India -- a traditional exporter -- since the 1980 s. "We are not importing (rice). We have adequate stocks. We will review (the decision) if there is any need," Commerce Minister Anand Sharma told reporters late Friday after the committee met. The tenders had been floated by state-owned trading firms MMTC, State Trading Corp and PEC. However, the Press Trust of India quoted an unnamed official as saying: "The government does not want to buy at such high prices." The decision not to import marks a U-turn from a government announcement when Sharma said India was in talks with Thailand and Vietnam about buying rice to offset an estimated summer harvest shortfall of at least 15 million tonnes.

Netbook's demand increase in Bangladesh day by day

It has a slim look. Tech-savvy customers are gradually convinced by mobility and affordable prices. So is the indication in the sales of netbooks, the latest entry in Bangladesh's portable computer market. Light and easy to browse, these sleek mini-notebooks are now gaining popularity, mainly among businessmen and students. Around 15 ,000 netbooks of different brands have so far been sold in Bangladesh since 2007. The prices range from Tk 25 ,000 to Tk 40 ,000 each. "I am looking for a design which I can carry always with me like a folder and get connected with the internet," Habibur Rahman, a businessman, told The Daily Star at the BCS ICT World Fair. Netbooks -- also known as sub-notebooks -- are a rapidly evolving category of small, light and inexpensive laptop computers suited for general computing and accessing web-based applications. After their inception in late 2000 , smaller netbooks optimised for low weight and low cost. Having smaller screen and keyboard, they offer reduced specification and computing power. Netbooks range in size from below 5 inches to over 13 inches and weigh between 2-3 pounds. Netbooks entered Bangladesh when Asus unveiled its first netbook, ASUS Eee PC, on the global market in late 2007. Since 2007 , around 5 ,000 Asus netbooks have been sold here, according to Global Brand Private Limited, the sole distributor of Asus. "Businessmen and students are the main customers of netbooks," said Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, the distributor's manager (sales). Bangladesh's PC (personal computer) penetration is one of the lowest in the world (4.5 per 1 ,000). However, the growth rate is quite impressive. A recent study indicates that the PC growth rate in the country is around 40 percent per year, according to Bangladesh Computer Samity. Industry insiders said netbooks' popularity depends on availability of the internet. Bangladesh's only 4 percent internet penetration rate is not a good sign for sellers. However, SM Rashed-Uz-Zaman, business manager of Computer Source, a leading computer seller, said queries for netbooks have increased gradually. At the BCS fair, his company has sold 100 laptops, 20 of which are netbooks. Computer Source brought HP, Fujitsu, Dell and Portlink netbooks to Bangladesh eight months ago. The company sold more than 1 ,800 netbooks. Around 3 ,000 Acer brand netbooks were sold in the last one and a half years in Bangladesh market. "Price is one of the major factors for which customers prefer netbooks," said Shaharul Haque, sales consultant of Executive Technologies, the sole distributor of Acer in Bangladesh, It is estimated that almost thirty times more netbooks were sold in 2008. Global netbook makers sold 11.4 million netbooks in 2008 , which was 70 percent more than in 2007. The year 2007 witnessed sales of only four million netbooks on the global market. For 2009 , sales are projected to jump to 35 million, while figure will reach 139 million in 2013 , according to ABI Research, a market intelligence company specialising in global connectivity and emerging technology. In Bangladesh, laptops have become the first choice in case of buying personal PC. However sellers are not ready to think netbooks will be a segment that may replace laptops soon. "Multi-featured laptops are replacing desktop. But Bangladesh portable computer market trend does not show any sign of any replacement of laptops," said Haque. "Low penetration of internet is a hurdle."