GOOGLE, AMAZON EYE TOSHIBA’S CHIP
Google and Amazon joined a list of potential buyers eyeing Toshiba’s lucrative memory chip business as the Japanese conglomerate seeks bidders to cover huge losses, a newspaper said Saturday.
Toshiba has reportedly completed the first round of bidding for its prized memory chip business, seen as key for the cash-strapped company to turn itself around.
Nearly ten foreign companies and funds, including Google and Amazon, tendered bids, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting unnamed sources.
The two US tech giants are expected to use Toshiba’s memory chips for their cloud services, the daily said.
Taiwan’s Hon Hai, which acquired Japanese electronics maker Sharp last year, has apparently bid more than 2 trillion yen ($18 billion), the daily said.
Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.
Toshiba shares jumped more than five percent on Friday after local media reported that bidders included Apple, US private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners and American chipmaker Broadcom.
Toshiba is expected to negotiate with individual candidates this month.
Local media said any foreign buyer would need to pass a Japanese government review, given concerns about security around systems already using Toshiba’s memory chips.
Toshiba is the world’s number two supplier of memory chips for smartphones and computers, behind South Korea’s Samsung, and the business accounted for about a quarter of its 5.67 trillion yen in revenue last fiscal year.
The news report came after angry investors lambasted Toshiba executives at a shareholders meeting over its warning that annual losses could balloon to more than $9.0 billion.
The red ink is largely tied to huge cost overruns and construction delays at its US nuclear power unit Westinghouse Electric, which filed for bankruptcy protection late March.
ANGELA:MIGRANTS NEED RESPECT TOLERANCE, GERMAN LAWS
Chancellor Angela Merkel said refugees in Germany must respect tolerance, openness and freedom of religion, while senior members of her party called for a ban on foreign funding of mosques.
Merkel, who will seek a fourth term as chancellor in what is expected to be a tight election in September, has come under fire for allowing more than one million refugees to enter Germany over the past two years.
Interviewed by a Syrian journalist who came to Germany in 2015 and asked about what Germany was expecting from refugees, Merkel said in her weekly podcast:
“We expect the people who come to us to stick to our laws.”
Merkel said it was paramount that new arrivals respected and understood the liberal values of modern Germany such as tolerance, openness, freedom of religion and freedom of opinion.
The center-right leader urged Germans to show openness in return. “We know very few things about Syria, we know very few things about Iraq or African countries. And we must see this as an opportunity to learn more and experience more,” she said.
Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has lost support since her decision in 2015 to leave Germany’s borders open for hundreds of thousands refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria and Iraq.
Immigration and security are set to be major issues in the election, in which the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is expected to enter parliament.
In an apparent attempt to address unease among traditional CDU voters over Merkel’s migration policy, CDU deputy party leader Julia Kloeckner called for stricter rules for Islamic preachers and a ban on foreign funding of mosques, echoing comments by other senior CDU members in recent days.
Most of the four million Muslims living in Germany have a Turkish background and some mosques in Germany are financed by the Turkish government.
“An ‘Islam law’ can place the rights and duties of Muslims living in Germany on a new legal basis,” Kloeckner told Bild am Sonntag.
Kloeckner also called for a public register that would list all mosques in Germany and provide background information on sponsors and financiers.
Such rules should also include a right to a Muslim religious counselor in prisons, hospitals and nursing homes, she added.
The CDU’s coalition partner and rival party the SPD, whose new leader Martin Schulz will stand against Merkel in September’s election, flatly rejected the idea.
“In my opinion, the proposals are hardly compatible with the German constitution,” SPD deputy leader Olaf Scholz told the Funke media group, adding that a law could not only be made for a single religious community.
The chairman of the Islamic Council in Germany, Burhan Kesici, said the proposals were populist and put Muslims under blanket suspicion.
French conservative Francois Fillon criticised German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her refugee policies in a televised presidential debate on Monday, saying her management of the migration crisis had caused huge problems for Europe.
“I completely disagree with Emmanuel Macron who praised the German chancellor when he was in Berlin for (refugee) policies that turned out to be bad policies and which are now criticised by her own allies in Germany,” Fillon said in a slap at his centrist rival.
“The way this crisis was handled has created an enormous problem for Europe,” Fillon added.
INDIA, MALAYSIA INK SEVEN COVENANT
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak in New Delhi on Saturday.India and Malaysia agreed to strengthen their strategic partnership for mounting an effective response to common challenges of terrorism and extremism during the talks Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with his Malayasian counterpart Najib Razad.Two leaders had wide-ranging talks encompassed trade ties.
Prime Ministers held restricted as well as delegation-level talks which ran the wide range of bilateral relations, including cultural, economic and strategic engagement.
Addressing a joint press with PM Najib, Modi said,”To secure our societies, and for the greater regional good, we have agreed to further strengthen our strategic partnership to shape an effective response to our common concerns and challenges.”
PM Modi said the two sides were conscious of their role and responsibility in promoting economic prosperity, freedom of navigation, and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, especially its oceans. Najib said Modi was specifically interested in knowing about the success of Malaysia’s de-radicalisation programme and he presented the Indian leader a book on the specific module dealing with it apart from offering to extend his country’s expertise in the area.”We are willing to work closely together with the Indian government for special conference that will be held in near future and we will provide our experience and with our partners to make sure Malaysia and other parts of the world will never be a place in which militancy and extremism will take root,” Najib said.
PM Nalib asserted that defence and strategic partnership will be “very important to us to fight global terrorism, militancy, extremism and that includes our fight against IS and against any form of extremism”. “For this, we will enhance our cooperation,” he said.
Modi and Najib, the two sides inked seven pacts, including one related to air services and cooperation in development of a fertilizer plant in Malaysia with off-take of surplus urea by India.
While seeking to deepen the engagement between the two countries, Najib maintained the bilateral ties have not yet realised its full potential and hoped these pacts will boost the engagement in various sectors.
On economic ties, Modi said the two countries have built a thriving economic partnership. “In our efforts to scale this up, as the fastest growing large economy in the world, India offers unparalleled opportunities. And, to build new avenues of prosperity in our societies, we are ready to expand trade and capital flows between our two economies,” he said, identifying infrastructure as one of the key sectors for investment.
At a joint news conference after the meeting, the prime ministers said the two countries will further cooperate in building infrastructure, such as railways and roads.
They also said that efforts will be made to help more companies make inroads into each other’s industries. They mentioned IT and pharmaceutical firms.
Modi said Malaysia is India’s important partner in the Asian region, and that India wants to deepen strategic relations between the two countries.
Since his inauguration 3 years ago Modi has expressed his intention to boost his country’s involvement in East and Southeast Asia.
Modi regards Malaysia as a stepping stone to accelerate India’s investment in the entire ASEAN countries.The two nations have historically close ties and 2.7 million ethnic Indians live in Malaysia. Both are heterogeneous countries.
VICTORY FOR NLD IN MYANMAR
Myanmar on Sunday,leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party settled for a lackluster victory in by-elections for both houses of Parliament.
The Union Election Commission said Sunday that the governing National League for Democracy won 8 seats out of 12 up for grabs in election districts, including Yangon.
The parties led by ethnic minority groups won a total of 3 seats in some election districts. These include Rakhine State, which is plagued by conflict between Muslims and Buddhists, and Shan State, where sporadic ethnic fighting continues.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party, over which the military has traditionally held strong influence, won a seat in Mon State.
Saturday’s by-elections were the first national elections since the NLD took office just one year ago.
Some of these seats became vacant because Myanmar’s lawmakers are barred from holding concurrent cabinet posts. Aung San Suu Kyi lost her seat when she became state counsellor.
The NLD’s results in ethnic minority regions will alarm de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who claims that making peace with ethnic groups is her top priority.
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