Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi to combine LCD operations, plan IPO

TOKYO

They aim to complete the merger by the spring of next year and have forecast sales of ¥750 billion (S$11.8 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2016.

The three partners are also planning an initial public offering by March 2016, according to the venture’s biggest shareholder.— Japanese electronics makers Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi will merge their liquidcrystal display (LCD) operations into a venture to be called Japan Display KK, using about S$3.1 billion of governmentbacked funds to fend off growing competition from rivals in South Korea and Taiwan.

The LTA said it had worked closely with its contractors and the SMRT within these constraints to complete the retrofitting as quickly as possible without compromising safety.

CHANNEL NEWSASIA

A worry if PA thinks political rather than people

Letter from Chan Chi Yung

THE stand taken by the People’s Association

(PA) on why opposition Members of Parliament

cannot be advisers to grassroots bodies

is disturbing because of its implications.

For instance, that opposition MPs exist only to oppose the Government instead of playing the roles of offering alternative views, holding the Government accountable and representing their constituents.

In that case, ruling party MPs who oppose the Government’s policies during Parliamentary or internal debates, which are often said to be conducted robustly, should not take the adviser’s role, even if they are forced to vote according to party Whip.

Other implications:

The taxpayer-funded PA is set up to further the Government’s goals above all other aims, such as serving the community, while opposition MPs will oppose, for no good reason, community efforts such as active-ageing and anti-dengue programmes.

It seems only People’s Action Party (PAP) members are qualified to become advisers even if they are voted out and that the PA is not apolitical, after all.

The name “People’s Association” is then a misnomer it should be the “Government’s Association”.

I fail to see how the PA’s stand is in line with oft-stated exhortations to have a harmonious political system.

Instead, it feeds the perception that most government bodies are political and controlled by the PAP for partisan interests.

Given the call for national reconciliation, unity and fairness after the bruising GE, a bold reform of grassroots-level politics is needed.

Political stability is the Government’s responsibility

Letter from Edwin Yeo Tee Yeok

Call us at 6691 1938 and share your views.

TRUTH  OR  LIE  ? ? ? ?

Thumbs up to Jurong Town Council

In the past, whenever something was faulty in my estate, the former town council took forever to solve the issue. At the recent General Election, we were “moved” to the Jurong Group Representation Constituency, and we got a new town council.

After the GE, I tested the system, I went around my estate, listing some faults that the last town council did not resolve.

To my surprise, the new town council replied, and the faults were rectified within a week.

I am impressed and wish to give my compliments and thumbs-up to the Jurong Town Council.

Letter from Gerald Yong

It also claims that the girl was “aware of the danger of the oncoming trains and that by standing behind the yellow safety line until the train had stopped”, she would have been reasonably safe from falling onto the tracks.— The SMRT has filed its defence in the S$3.4-million lawsuit brought against the transport operator by the family of the Thai girl whose legs were severed after she fell onto the Ang Mo Kio MRT Station tracks in April.

Discourage practice of COV, industry body urges in letter

SINGAPORE

The Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers (SISV) cautioned yesterday — in a statement from its president (valuation and general practice) Lim Lan Yuan — that the practice will lead to a rapid rise in housing prices, encouraged by “exuberant sentiments ahead of economic fundamentals”.

The SISV added: “As ‘cash over valuations’ arise from specific individual buying decisions and are not necessarily paid in all transactions, they should not be recognised as such in the market. We should discourage the practice of ‘cash over valuations’.

The SISV reiterated that buyers and sellers should use market valuations or actual prices of recent transactions when negotiating the price of a HDB resale flat.

While median COV data — which had been published by the HDB until recently — is now used by sellers as the basis for the right to ask for a cash amount in any resale transaction, the SISV said COVs should only be paid in isolated cases where the buyer is “overly-anxious” and feels pressured to pay a cash premium. The HDB stopped releasing such data in its most recent official quarterly statistics in July.

Professional valuations already take into account market conditions but if COVs are consistently paid it will be subsequently incorporated into market value of the flat pushing up prices, said the SISV.

It also noted that as housing loans are made on the basis of the market valuation of a property — without taking into account the COV — COVs may affect affordability for buyers as more cash will be required for the purchase.

Last month, Mr Khaw had noted on his Facebook page that abolishing COV and relying on a professional valuer to set the price of resale flats was tried “years ago”.

“COV then went underground as ‘under counter cash payment’,” he had noted.— Supporting National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan’s decision to stop releasing the median cash-over-valuation (COV) data, the industry body representing property valuers here has urged the authorities to go a step further and “discourage” the practice of paying COV.

Dr Tony Tan resigns from posts at NRF and RIEC

SINGAPORE — President-elect Dr Tony Tan has resigned from his posts as chairman of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and deputy chairman of the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC).

Dr Tan Cheng Bock was surprised with the result as he expected Dr Tony Tan to garner a higher percentage of votes.

He said: " Tony’s ahead of me, not many, about 113 votes. So actually I’m quite happy, because I thought overseas votes (on) my side would be a bit low. Surprisingly, I’m quite good."

Observers say the results show that all four candidates’ appealed in the same way to both local and overseas Singaporeans.

The Elections Department says the total number of votes cast is some 2.156 million.

This is 94.80 per cent of the registered electors for this election.

Windows 8 has Native Mounting Support for ISOs, VHDs

Singapore’s first capsule hotel contravenes fire safety rules

The insanity of patent warfare

What a shame that a precept conceived to incentivise innovation, has been corrupted into threatening it

Sarabjit Singh

Google surprised many industry watchers last week with the announcement that it is purchasing Motorola’s mobile phone division for US$12.5 billion (S$15.1 billion). According to the BBC, the deal “gives the search giant access to a range of technology patents (which) means extra ammunition in the spiralling arms race of suit and counter-suit”.National Public Radio in America published a story last month on the growing number of “companies without employees or operations” that are filing lawsuits using obscure patent claims that “would make pretty much the entire Internet guilty of infringing”.

Even before this development however, this arms race had already descended into something much worse — an ugly battle over patents that has pulled in companies both big and small.

Earlier this month, a court in Germany ruled that Samsung’s latest gadget, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, may be infringing on Apple’s patents, effectively banning the Korean company from launching its tablet in most countries across Europe. The ruling marked another in a series of setbacks for Samsung, which now stands alongside HTC and Motorola at the receiving end of the world’s biggest company’s lawsuits.

Then there is Microsoft, which has developed an IP strategy that strangely allows it to make more money from Google’s Android operating system than it does from its own Windows Phone 7. Citigroup analysts estimate that for every Android licence that HTC gets from Google (for free), the company pays US$5 to Microsoft — a small fee to avoid a lawsuit claiming that the Android OS infringes on Microsoft’s patents.

Even more bizarre are the patent trolls — companies that have no interest in developing new products but are buying patents only to sue anybody out there who may be even remotely infringing on them. The

Welcome to the wonderland of 21st century intellectual property, where a patent portfolio is much more than mere defensive armour. It is an asset that can be monetised on its own merit — that is, leased, sold, or if the patent holder has no intention to use it productively, even used for extortion.