Archives: June 2009

Toyota teams up with Aston Martin

Posted by: Ian Rowley on June 30

It's seems an unlikely combination, but is the deal between Toyota and Aston Martin, announced yesterday, such a bad idea? Under the plan, Aston Martin will sell a version...

Is Sony Developing A PlayStation Phone?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 29

Is Sony finally taking aim at Apple’s iPhone? Over the weekend the Japanese business daily Nikkei reported that Sony plans to form a skunkworks team whose job it will be...

Malaysia's Air Asia Sponsors NFL's Oakland Raiders

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 29

What could have prompted Malaysian budget airline AirAsia to sign a sponsorship deal with the Oakland Raiders of the NFL when it does not even fly to the U.S? Well,...

China May Reject GM Hummer Deal on Environmental Concerns

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 26

It looks like China will reject the proposed purchase of General Motors's Hummer division by Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. on the grounds that producing the GM gas hogs...

Disney to Expand Hong Kong Disneyland

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 26

It looks like the Walt Disney Company (DIS) and the Hong Kong government have finally reached an agreement to expand their undersized and underperforming Hong Kong version of the Magic...

Will deflation spoil Japan's economic recovery?

Posted by: Ian Rowley on June 26

In recent weeks there have been signs that the worst of Japan's economic slump is over. Gross domestic product, which plunged at a terrifying pace after the collapse of Lehman...

More Economist Upgrades For China's GDP Growth

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 25

Signs that China's economic recovery is gaining speed have led to a flurry of optimistic revisions to GDP growth forecasts in the past week. First the World Bank upped its...

Bain Capital Bets on China's GOME

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on June 24

Following a seven-month trading suspension, electronic retailer GOME’s Hong Kong-listed shares soared 70% on June 23, following the announcement that Bain Capital will buy as much as 23.5% of the...

Ghosn says Nissan will make electric cars in the U.S.

Posted by: Ian Rowley on June 23

It is annual shareholder meeting time in Japan and, after receiving dozens of questions from Nissan investors in Yokohama this morning, CEO Carlos Ghosn answered a few more from reporters....

Coke CEO on China and India

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 23

I’m in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province in central China, where Coca-Cola has just opened a bottling plant. Muhtar Kent, Coke’s chairman and CEO, flew in for the opening and...

China Censors Google Foreign Internet Searches

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 21

China is clamping down on the internet once again, this time by forbidding Google (GOOG) from linking to certain foreign websites with pornographic content and other material deemed harmful to...

World Bank Raises China Growth Forecast

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 18

The World Bank’s China Quarterly Update released today in Beijing contained some good news, and some not-so good news. First the good news: the Bank has raised ts forecast for...

Analyst: Sony May Outsource Up To 50% Of Flat TVs

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 17

In late January, Sony’s CEO Howard Stringer suggested that he was considering outsourcing flat-panel TVs. Not all, mind you, but just enough that the TV division, which accounts for 10%...

Could BAT's Indonesian Investment Help Anti-Smoking Efforts?

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 17

It was only a matter of time before British American Tobacco would follow Philip Morris International's lead and invest in Indonesia. BAT has announced it's paying $495 million for an...

Could Obama End North Korea's Nuclear Ambition?

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on June 17

President Barack Obama and his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung Bak on June 17 displayed a strong unity, both vowing to depart from a pattern of rewarding North Korea for...

It's Official: Beijing's 'Buy Chinese' Policy

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on June 17

More evidence has emerged that China intends to favor its own companies as it spends money to boost its economy, including through its $586 billion stimulus package. As I blogged...

Samsung Smartphones’ Strength and Weakness

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on June 16

Heralding an aggressive push this year in the smartphone market, Samsung Electronics unveiled this week five new models sporting features comparable to Apple’s iPhone. The Korean company, the world’s...

China Censorship Software: From Bad to Worse

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 15

As if it weren't already clear Chinese bureaucrats didn't do their homework before mandating new censorship software for all Chinese PCs, over the past few days comes more news that...

Green Business and Protectionism in China

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on June 12

I hardly expected to get an earful on how China’s $586 billion stimulus package fails to meet even basic standards of transparency and well may prove of limited benefit to...

China Backtracks from PC Censorship

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 11

Not to say I told you so, but it seems China is indeed stepping back from its new censorship policy for computers. As TelecomAsia's Robert Clark writes here, the Chinese...

Foreign Banks Reap Handsome Profits Cashing out of Chinese Banks

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 10

One of my alert New York editors [hat tip to Cristina Lindblad] sent me this nice little story from the Deal which points out how foreign banks including Bank of...

China Tries a New Censorship Strategy

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 08

There are naturally a lot of alarming headlines today about the news from Beijing. The Chinese government, the Wall Street Journal reports, will require computer companies to ship PCs with...

North Korea Seeks Talks with U.S. by Jailing Journalists

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on June 08

At first blush, North Korea’s move on June 8 to sentence two U.S. journalists to 12 years in labor prison appears Pyongyang’s escalation of confrontation with Washington. But if you...

Intel Helps Shape Japan's WiMax Future

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 08

Intel is betting big on a Japanese company that will soon launch the world’s fastest wireless broadband services using WiMax technology. On June 7, Intel Capital said it plans to...

Dead Rio Tinto Deal Signals End of China's Buying Opportunites

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 05

A few months ago, when major banks around the world were struggling for survival, the deep-pocketed Chinese were the only bidders around. With more than $1.7 trillion in foreign reserves...

Did June 4 Crackdown Put China behind India in Telecom?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 05

Not often that you see someone comparing China’s telecom sector unfavorably to India’s. China has the world’s largest cellular market and, in China Mobile, the world’s largest cellular operator. India...

Electric Car Wars?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 05

The launch of Honda’s Insight gas-electric hybrid car in February led to talk of a war against Toyota’s new Prius. The rivalry has boosted hybrid sales. Last month, hybrids accounted...

Japanese banks: More bad news for Cerberus-backed Aozora

Posted by: Ian Rowley on June 04

More trouble at Aozora, the Japanese bank owned by U.S. private equity giant Cerberus. According to reports in Tokyo, Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission raided Aozora's offices today amid...

G.M.'s Hummer goes to China

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on June 03

This is how mixed up the global business world has become: who should arise to snap up General Motor’s once popular gas-guzzling monster, also known as the Hummer? A private...

Minority Report Film Inspires Video Games, Cars

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 03

Minority Report, Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film, had plenty of cues about whiz-bang technologies for the future. One that’s coming to video games soon: A gizmo that translates a user’s body...

In Australia, Indian Students Find Themselves Targeted

Posted by: Mehul Srivastava on June 03

While the media brouhaha continues over the attacks against Indian students in Australia, it is worthwhile to take a step back and ask what exactly is happening – and why....

Yet Another Dynastic Succession in North Korea?

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on June 03

Since 1998 when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il finally took over the official mantle of his father, Kim Il Sung, four years after the death of the senior Kim,...

China's Internet Censors Hit Twitter, Flickr & Bing

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 02

More censorship news from China. With the 20-year anniversary of the suppression of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement two days from now, Beijing’s censors have gone after Twitter, Flickr, Bing...

Samsung-Sony Venture Adds LCD Capacity despite IT Slump

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on June 02

A liquid-crystal display (LCD) joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Sony held a ceremony on June 2 to mark the start of volume production at its new factory aimed at...

The Facebook Controversy in Indonesia

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 01

Indonesians still seem to be talking about the suggestion by some Muslim clerics last week that the government should regulate Facebook to prevent users in Indonesia from trading gossip or...