South Korean electronics giant's investment in local rival Pantech in a deal valued at almost US$47.6 million will boost cooperation in smartphone and other business areas. Samsung Electronics has announced it will buy a 10 percent stake in South Korea's third-largest handset maker, Pantech. Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday the deal will be valued at about 53 billion won (US$47.6 million) and it will help solidify bilateral cooperation between both parties, particularly in the area of smartphones. This investment will make Samsung the third-largest stakeholder in Pantech. It is behind U.S. mobile chip manufacturer Qualcomm and state-run Korea Development Bank, which own 11.96 percent and 11.81 percent stakes, respectively, it noted. In the South Korean market, Pantech trails behind Samsung and LG Electronics in terms of mobile phone shipment, the report added.Source:ZD Net More»

Eng. Mohamed Al-Nawawi, CEO of Telecom Egypt (TE), said (TE) has indeed taken serious steps towards becoming an integrated telecom operator, pointing to Telecom Egypt’s commitment to specified timetable to launch the integrated operator services and complete the pricing of the integrated licenses by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA). Al-Nawawi has emphasized that his company has taken all technical and technological measures and experiences so as to provide mobile phone services, which it is expected to provide the service in conjunction with Ramadan (holy Islamic month), asserting the importance to become  an integrated telecom operator in order to achieve the balance with the mobile phone firms operating in the Egyptian telecom market. Al-Nawawi added that the integrated license will contribute for (TE)’s rapid exist in the mobile market depending on mobile phone operators networks in the market and achieving more revenues as well as leading the entire Egyptian telecom market. Al-Nawawi has asserted that (TE) has treasure of human cadres who able to keep up with all of these developments in the telecom market, adding that the company has customer service centers across governorates, about 130 centers have been developed, and it is expected to reach 300 centers by the end of 2013. More»

Orascom Telecom Holding (ORTE.CA) announced that it didn’t informed about stoppage of negotiations between Russian VimpelCom, owner of Orascom, and the Algerian Government about OT’s unit in Algeria Djezzy. OT added, in a release sent on Wednesday to Egypt’s bourse - EGX that, it is not party in these talks. More»

The long-standing negotiations between Russia’s VimpelCom and the Algerian authorities over the acquisition of Orascom Telecom Algerie (OTA) ‘Djezzy’ have been ceded until further notice, senior sources told Amwal Al Ghad on Wednesday. The statement came in the wake of the meeting, which included officials from VimpelCom and representatives of the Algerian government, held in Paris earlier this month. During the meeting VimpelCom offered a new joint stock agreement, but it was rejected by the Algerian government and the talks have been stopped since then. Meanwhile, government sources said Algeria is seeking a new valuation for VimpelCom's local mobile phone unit Djezzy before acquiring 51 percent of it. "There will be a new valuation of Djezzy," the source, who asked not to be named, said on May 11th. More»

Google Inc's tax affairs will come under renewed scrutiny in Britain on Wednesday when the leader of the opposition Labor party accuses the Internet company of wrongly going to "extraordinary lengths" to avoid paying tax. In comments designed to politically outflank Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of next month's G8 summit on what has become a high-profile issue, Ed Miliband, the Labor leader, will say he is disappointed that Google pays so little tax. "I can't be the only person here who feels disappointed that such a great company as Google would be reduced to arguing that when it employs thousands of people in Britain, makes billions of pounds of revenue in Britain, it pays just a fraction of that in tax," Miliband will tell a Google event held just outside London. "So when Google does great things for the world, as it does, I applaud you, but when Google goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying its taxes, I think it's wrong." More»

Consumer Reports may have lost some of its luster in recent years thanks to the onslaught of smartphone rankings across the web. Still, when Consumer Reports talks, people listen and that’s why we’re taking note of their new choice for “top-rated smart phone.” According to the report published yesterday, the Galaxy S 4 dethroned the LG Optimus G which sat in the top spot for several months. The S4 has an excellent 5-inch, high-definition (1080p) touch-screen display, as well as oodles of gesture- and sensor-based tools for accessing and sharing content you create and capture on your phone. The display is sensitive enough to use with gloves on—handy during cold weather. A true multi-tasker, the S4 lets you run two apps simultaneously in a split-screen view. For instance, you can watch a video while checking e-mail, or you can use Google Maps and Messaging simultaneously. We did find that battery life and voice quality varied slightly between cell carriers, as with the LG Optimus G. The news comes on the heels of reports that Samsung will blow past the 10 million mark for sales in 30 days besting Galaxy S III sales. Source: TmoNews More»

Sony Corp cut its sales targets for digital cameras, smartphones and tablets by 13-17 percent for the year to end-March 2015, but said there were "encouraging" signs of a revival in its electronics business. CEO Kazuo Hirai told a press briefing on Wednesday that Sony would assess a proposal from its biggest shareholder, billionaire Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC hedge fund, that the group should sell up to a fifth of its music and movies business, which includes artists such as Adele and hit franchises like "Spider-Man". Loeb argues a partial spin-off of Sony Entertainment would free up cash to help the struggling electronics division and could boost Sony's stock price by 60 percent. Third Point's "proposal is one that affects a core part of Sony's business and the direction of our management, so the Sony board will give it thorough consideration before replying to Mr. Loeb," Hirai said. Sony has relied on entertainment and insurance profits to offset losses from TVs and other consumer devices. Sony shares charged to their highest in more than 2 years on Wednesday after the Nikkei newspaper said Sony's board would consider evaluating Loeb's proposal. The stock closed up 5.9 percent at 2,290 yen. More»

Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook made no apology on Tuesday for the iPad maker saving billions of dollars in U.S. taxes through Irish subsidiaries and told lawmakers that his company backs corporate tax reform, even though it may end up paying more. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found that Apple in 2012 alone avoided paying $9 billion in U.S. taxes, using a strategy involving three offshore units with no discernible tax home, or "residence." Cook, in his first congressional testimony since becoming Apple CEO in 2011, said his company is a major taxpayer, handing over nearly $6 billion in cash to the U.S. government in 2012. "We expect to pay even more this year," Cook said. "We pay all the taxes we owe." But Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the subcommittee and a veteran tax sleuth, said Apple had sought "the Holy Grail of tax avoidance," creating one Irish unit that paid no income taxes to any national tax authority for the past five years. Levin said Apple used Ireland as a base for a web of offshore holding companies and negotiated a deal with the Irish government for a tax rate of less than 2 percent. The top U.S. corporate tax rate is 35 percent, one of the world's highest. More»

Yasser El Kady, CEO of Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), has asserted that the Information and Communication Technology Ministry (MCIT) has demanded from Supply , Investment, trade and Industry Ministries to prevent the dissemination of misleading advertising on TV channels concerning the technological products especially mobile phones. El Kady added that the initial step in order to ban misleading advertising is to aware the user for his rights inform him for the original products, demanding from the TV channels to adopt the strategy. He has emphasized on the sidelines of the seminar which has held by (ITIDA) for the need to legitimacy companies for the registration of the software and information technology (IT) of (ITIDA) in order to creat a real database of the companies operating  in the market, pointing out that the current situation may contribute for the increase of companies which spreading misleading information on the channels. Furthermore, Customer Protection Agency (CPA), has transferred seven satellite channels to the Public Prosecutors from several weeks ago regarding the dissemination of misleading ads of some products such as Samsung's Galaxy phones ,Ideal Zanussi and others. More»

Dr.Amr Badawi, CEO of National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA), has revealed that  the mobile operators have granted written license in order to activate mobile money transfer service. Badawi added to Amwal Al Ghad  that the three mobile phone operators Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat have waited for providing services until obtaining the written license, noting that the companies are ready now to activate the service according to the readiness of their own systems and the required time so as to employ these systems with the license need. The Information and Communication Technology Ministry (MCIT) has announced in the last mid-April to provide  mobile money transfer services within the Ministry’s five-year strategy 2013-2017. More»