Hardware
ò General Electric Co. disclosed its plans to make a tender offer worth up to US$1.1 billion for Japan's Sanyo Electric Credit Co., with the board of the credit service company reportedly supporting the tender offer. Sanyo Electric Credit Co. is a financial unit of Sanyo Electric Co., the electronics maker. GE said STV Partners, a wholly owned unit of GE, will offer Ñ3,250 yen ($27.5) for each Sanyo Electric Credit share. Goldman Sachs Group is Sanyo Electric Credit's top shareholder, controlling an estimated 40 percent of shares. Sanyo Electric currently holds a 16.7 percent stake in the financial services company. Goldman Sachs Group acquired its stake in December 2005, when Sanyo sold a portion of its 52 percent stake as part of a restructuring drive.
ò Hitachi announced its plans to sell the world's first high-definition TVs with removable hard drives. The product can expand high-definition recording capacity with the new hard drives. Hitachi expects the feature as a factor that will push up its sales. Hitachi has promised to bring its flat TV business into the black in the January-March quarter. The company said it will equip plasma TVs and liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs with 250-gigabyte internal hard drives and removable 80-GB or 160-GB drives starting April 20th in Japan, with the aim of deploying the products overseas within one to two years. The hard drives, called ôinformation versatile disks for removable usageö is programmed to prevent duplication of copyright high-definition material while allowing content to be transferred.
Semiconductors
ò NuFlare Technology, a semiconductor developer, said it has received approval to list on the JASDAQ Securities Exchange on April 25th. The company will offer 18,500 shares to the public in its initial public offering. Of those, 10,000 are newly issued shares and 8,500 are shares currently held in private. An additional offering of 2,500 existing shares is expected under an over-allotment arrangement in the event of exceptional demand. NuFlare Technology will offer all the shares through the book-building method. The company expects to net 1.9 billion yen (US$16 million) from the IPO, which it plans to use for capital investment in its production facilities. For the current fiscal year through March, the company forecasts a parent pretax profit of 1.7 billion yen (US$14.3 million), net profit of 1 billion yen (US$8.4 million), and sales revenue of 23 billion yen (US$194.8 million). Nomura Securities is the lead underwriter of the offer.
Korea
Internet
ò Network specialist, Ciena Corporation announced that Dreamline Co., Ltd., a leading broadband service provider in South Korea, has selected its CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform to support the delivery of new Ethernet services for its growing base of leased-line customers in the region. Dreamline owns and operates a nationwide DWDM network with 400 Gbps of capacity in most metropolitan areas. Ciena Corporation is focused on expanding the possibilities for its customers' networks while reducing their cost of ownership. Dreamline provides fully-integrated communication and broadband Internet services for the business market and residential market in South Korea, with four Internet-related business segments: Leased-line and data communications services, serving major corporations, which include Samsung Corporation, Hyundai Home Shopping, LG CNS, and various telecommunications operators, which include all three wireless operators (SK Telecom, KTF, LG Telecom), along with many conglomerates, telecommunications service resellers and Internet service providers (ISPs); Broadband Internet access to residential and commercial subscribers; Data center-based applications and solutions services, from web-hosting to high-end applications service provider; and Network & security management services such as firewall, QoS, IDS.
ò INICIS, a payment gateway company, announced that it has secured the contract to provide electronic payment service for Internet keyword search advertisement by making a service contract with Google Korea. This service is provided by linking INIPAY, INICISÆ PG system, at the Adwards settlement column, GoogleÆs keyword search advertisement service. With this service, an advertiser can use the Adwards service by paying in advance the advertisement cost with credit cards and real-time wire transfer method using INICIS PG, with the cost will be paid from the charged advertisement expenses. Before the agreement, only deferred payment was possible through directly affiliated overseas cards.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
ò Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), the world's leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment, plans to make an equity investment in Korea-based online gaming company, Neowiz Corporation, in a bid to enhance its current and expand the existing co-development and publishing relationship with that company. Upon completion of the investment, EA will own approximately 19 percent of common stock equivalents (excluding treasury shares) comprised of 15 percent of common stock and 4 percent of preferred stock, which could be converted into common stock at a later date. The aggregate investment made by EA will be approximately US$105 million. When the deal closes, EA will be Neowiz' second largest shareholder after CEO-founder Sung Kyun Na. Additionally, EA and Neowiz intend to co-develop an additional four online games for Asia. Neowiz has the rights to publish two of the four online games in Korea and Japan. Electronic Arts Inc. develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for videogame systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. In fiscal 2006, EA posted revenue of US$2.9 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. Neowiz Co. Ltd is South KoreaÆs leading online game company. Founded in 1997, Neowiz is expected to post revenues of US$150 million for fiscal 2007. The company develops and publishes online games.
ò Beijing-based CDC Games announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to make a strategic investment in MGame Corp., one of South Korea's leading developers of online games including Yulgang, the popular licensed free-to-play game in China. CDC Games originated the free-to-play, pay-for-merchandize model for online games in China. Under the agreement, CDC Games becomes the company's largest external shareholder and John Lee, President of CDC Games Corp., will serve as a board observer of MGame. Through this equity investment, CDC Games makes the shift from a licensee to MGame's largest external investor and has obtained exclusive distribution rights for MGame's next MMORPG, Wind Forest Fire Mountain in China. Together with the exclusive distribution rights for WFFM in China, CDC Games announced that it has extended the license of Yulgang to 2010. The investment is the latest for CDC Games, which earlier announced the setting up of CDC Games Studio, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDC Games fitted with up to US$100 million in investment funding. MGame is considered a frontrunner in the online game industry in South Korea.
Semiconductors
ò NeoMagic Corporation announced today that LG Innotek is using NeoMagic's MiMagic 6+ Multimedia Processor for a follow-on wireless security camera product. The next generation wireless camera offers upgraded features, including higher resolution video and enhanced audio capability. The new wireless camera also captures video and audio and delivers the data to a PC server for remote monitoring. NeoMagic Corporation delivers semiconductor chips and software that provide mobile solutions that enable new multimedia features for handheld devices. These solutions offer low-power consumption, small form-factor and high performance processing. Founded in 1970, LG Innotek Co., Ltd, a division of LG Group, is a global market leader in the manufacture and sale of key electronic components and modules in the areas of digital information-based mobile telecommunications, displays, networks and car electronics. The company has its headquarters in Seoul, Korea with sales and development offices around the world. LG Innotek has generated annual sales of over US$ 1.2 billion to customers such as LG, Motorola, Nokia, Sharp and Sony.
ò Hynix Semiconductor Inc. announced that it has secured a cross-licensing deal with U.S.-based SanDisk Corp. allowing for the sharing of patented technologies. The two companies said they also signed a memorandum of understanding on the establishment of a joint venture, which will lead the production and sales of computer memory products.
Software
ò Infraware, a browser company, announced that it is entering the Mongolian market by way of an alliance with Uzone Wireless, a CDMA terminal developing company. Under the plan, Infraware will provide MongoliaÆs largest telecommunications operator SKYTEL with Software Development Kit (SDK), a browser for terminal use, and secure the development license and technological support.
ò According to Intelli Korea, a CAD software developing company, its design program dubbed CADian was selected as an official program of the members of Geodetic Engineers of the Philippines (GEP). The members of GEP selected CADian after reviewing candidate programs for over a year for a common purchase. GEP is the largest engineering related group in the Philippines with over 7,600 member companies under it. The software is seen as compatible with the AutoCAD of Autodesk even as it carries a lower price.
Hardware
ò Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies; STMicroelectronics, the leader in set-top box chips; and Metalink Ltd., a provider of high-performance wireless and wireline broadband communication silicon solutions, announced their collaboration to launch a revolutionary set-top box, which supports high-definition (HD) TV quality based on 802.11n wireless IPTV standard. Samsung's product is specifically designed for the delivery of HD IPTV over wireless LAN. It is equipped with a STi7109 chipset providing HD video decoding technology from STMicroelectronics, and Metalink's 802.11n WLANPlus chipset enabling the wireless delivery of multiple HD video streams throughout the home.
Ventures/Investments
ò CinTel Corp (CinTel) announced that it has entered into an agreement to issue an aggregate of US$63 million in convertible bonds (CB), convertible to the common stock of the company. CinTel disclosed that it plans to use the proceeds of the investment to continue its strategic acquisitions in more diverse and profitable businesses focusing on the semiconductor industry and emerging technologies. The investor in the CB is the Woori Private Equity Fund (Woori PEF). Woori PEF is a subsidiary company of Woori Financial Group (Woori FG), one of the largest financial groups in Korea with assets of over US$170 billion and aggregate consolidated capital of over US$13 billion. Woori Private Equity Fund is a subsidiary of Woori Financial Group, which is one of the top three financial groups based in Korea. The major business area of Woori PEF consists of the private equity business in accordance with the Indirect Investment Asset Management Business act. Woori Financial Group is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Korea Stock Exchange. CinTel maintains its position as a leader in Internet Traffic Management (ITM) systems. The company said it has also initiated expansion into creative new markets and worldwide distribution of Korean and Chinese-based semiconductor technologies. With its main headquarters in North America and operations worldwide, CinTel Corp. provides a wide range of enterprise technology solutions, introducing Korea's first dynamic server load balancer, which has now evolved into a world-class product line.
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