The following is excerpted from IRG's weekly stock report:

Media, Entertainment and Gaming

• Variety announced its launch of VarietyJapan.com, the first daily Japanese-language web site that will provide daily coverage of entertainment industry in Japan and Hollywood. According to Variety, VarietyJapan.com will offer news, film and TV reviews, videos, lifestyle columns and community features, including fan blogs, with the website getting traffic from Variety.com and from syndication partnerships with companies including MSN Japan and Yahoo!Japan.

Internet

• NTT Communications (NTT) announced that it has entered into an agreement with Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited [VSNL], a leading Indian telecom and Internet service provider. The agreement will allow NTT Com clients traveling in India to use the Tata Indicom Wi-Fi network of wireless broadband access points for international roaming. With the agreement, the roaming service does not require any additional subscription or startup fee. Currently, NTT Com also has international roaming arrangements with KT (South Korea), Maxis (Malaysia), StarHub (Singapore), British Telecom (UK), Telecom Italia (Italy), Telestra (Australia) and the T-Mobile Group (USA, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands and UK). The companies are all members of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), an industry alliance encompassing telecom operators, equipment makers and service providers in Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe. NTT Com is a cofounder of the WBA and currently the only Japanese member.

• NTT Corp. said it will launch a web site leasing service for companies that will allow them to use the site for videos and other promotional material. The service is expected to enable small or midsize companies lacking the knowledge to create their own web sites to upload videos related to their products on a leased cyberspace.

Mobile/Wireless

• Comel Co., a fully owned subsidiary of Softbank Telecom Corp. (SFTBF.PK), and Vanten K.K. announced that they have developed what they claim to be Japan’s first wireless digital signage system. The new system supports 3G mobile communications technology called High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and allows content such as advertisements and information to be shown via the Internet on displays set up at commercial facilities, railway stations, airports and bus terminals. Comel and Vanten are companies into digital signage. Softbank Telecom is affiliated with Softbank Corp.

Hardware

• Hitachi Ltd. (HIT) and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Inc. [HGST], its hard disk drive unit in the U.S. announced that they have developed technologies that can allow personal computers to store as many as one million songs in their HDDs. Hitachi and California-based Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc. said that the new technologies will be able to increase the desktop PC's HDD storage capacity to four terabytes from the current maximum capacity of one terabyte. The companies said the production of HDDs adopting the new technologies is expected to start in 2011.

Semiconductors

• Sanyo Electric Co. (SANYY.PK) disclosed that it has changed its mind about selling its semiconductor subsidiary. Sanyo said the decision was made after the talks with Advantage Partners LLP fell through. Industry sources said Advantage Partners failed to raise sufficient funds to buy Sanyo Semiconductor Co. Earlier, Sanyo granted Advantage Partners priority negotiating rights on the sale as the fund proposed the highest acquisition price in bidding held late August, and had been negotiating a deal since then. According to industry analysts, the decision of Sanyo not to sell Sanyo Semiconductor is likely to force Sanyo to review the current restructuring plan, which calls on the company to sell loss-making operations like manufacturing of chips and mobile phones.

Information Technology

• According to industry sources, JAL Airlines is preparing to sell its JALCard credit card business in an auction that is drawing the attention of Japan's biggest banks. Sources point to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group as among those interested to join the auction. Another company identified as joining the auction is Credit Saison, one of Japan's largest credit card companies, which has an alliance with Mizuho, the second-biggest bank. Sources identified Mizuho Securities, the brokerage and investment banking arm of the Mizuho group, as JAL's adviser.

Ventures/Investments

• Sony Corp (SNE) announced that it has agreed to sell its production facilities for the computer chip of its PlayStation 3 game console to rival Toshiba Corp (TOSBF.PK). The deal is estimated to be worth more than US$1 billion. Analysts see this move of Sony as part of its efforts to concentrate more on its core electronics business. Sources said the Sony and Toshiba are forging a joint venture to produce highperformance semiconductors.

Disclaimer: IRG is not responsible for the accuracy of the news compiled within this article, which is based on publicly available information.

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