AKR, Petronas may distribute more fuels

Alfian ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 12/29/2009 8:32 AM  |

 

PT AKR Corporindo and PT Petronas Niaga Indonesia, two firms selected to join PT Pertamina in distributing subsidized fuels in 2010, may distribute more subsidized fuels in the following years, says the  regulator.

While the tender for subsidized fuel distributors is carried out every year, both AKR and Petronas have a major chance to be selected again for 2011 and beyond, having been selected as the distributors for 2010 , giving them the edge over other rivals for the future, in term of expertise and distribution networks, said downstream oil and gas regulator BPHMigas on Monday.

"Whether they will get more subsidized fuel quotas in the following years pretty much depends on their readiness with infrastructure," BPHMigas's chairman Tubagus Haryono said in the appointment delivery ceremony in Jakarta on Monday.

During the occasion, Pertamina, AKR and Petronas were officially assigned to distribute subsidized fuels next year,  which will be the first time that private companies have been involved in the subsidized fuels business, which has long been monopolized by the state oil and gas company Pertamina.

Although AKR and Petronas have been selected to assist with the distribution of subsidized fuels, which happens at national level, they can only distribute the fuels in limited volume and in limited areas under the present arrangements.

The government and the House of Representatives, through the Law on the 2010 state budget, have established that the quota for subsidized fuel distribution next year will be 36,504,779 kiloliters, which will include 21,454,104 kiloliters for Premium gasoline; 3.8 million kiloliters for kerosene; and 11,250,675 kiloliters for diesel.

Most of the quota will be distributed by PT Pertamina. AKR is only allowed to distribute 56,500 kiloliters of diesel per year in Deli Serdang, Medan, Central Lampung, South Lampung, East Lampung, North Lampung, Bandar Lampung, Banjar Masin, and Pontianak.

Petronas is only allowed to distribute 20,440 kiloliters of Premium gasoline per year in four fuel stations in Medan, North Sumatra.

Tubagus said that, besides the infrastructure, the commercial aspects would also help to determine whether the two companies would get additional quotas or not.

As for this year's  assignments, both AKR and Petronas said they were ready to distribute the subsidized fuels.

"Starting from the first January 2010, we are ready to distribute the subsidized fuels. All our outlets have been audited by BPHMigas," AKR's president director Haryanto Adi Koesoemo said.

Pertamina's president director Karen Agustiawan said the presence of AKR and Petronas in the subsidized fuels distribution business would be good for Pertamina as this would make the business more competitive.

"Now we have competition in subsidized fuel distribution. I hope that Pertamina's team would  do better in doing this job," she said.

Director general for oil and gas Evita H. Legowo emphasized that AKR and Petronas must give priority to buy the fuels from domestic refineries.

"We know that the outputs from domestic refineries are still small, but we want this to be used optimally. We don't want to see that AKR and Petronas import the fuels, while at the same time Pertamina wants to export the fuels from their refineries," she said.

Tubagus said all subsidized fuel distributors were required to report their sales volume on a daily basis in a bid to provide and monitor up-to-date figures on the consumption of subsidized fuels.

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Nokia opens new front in Apple patent battle

Nokia opens new front in Apple patent battle

 

 

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia launched a new patent broadside against Apple, escalating a battle for control of the smartphone market that has already led to a flurry of lawsuits.

Nokia filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Tuesday alleging that Apple infringes Nokia patents in "virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers" sold.

The seven patents at issue relate to Nokia technology being used by Apple to create features in user interface, camera, antenna and power management technologies, it said in a statement.

A Nokia spokesman said the firm expected the ITC to decide whether to pursue the case in around 30 days. Any possible injunction against the sale of Apple products with regard to the alleged patent infringement would not happen until early 2011.

Apple was not immediately available for comment.

The ITC action is the latest step taken by Nokia to fight off fierce competition from Apple, with the inclusion of the U.S. firm's iconic iPod and iMac products in the complaint marking an escalation from previous patent claims.

Both firms had earlier this year launched patent infringement suits against the other.

Nokia shares closed 0.5 percent higher in Helsinki at 8.85 euros, while Apple shares traded 0.7 percent lower at $210.11 at 1635 GMT in New York.

TIT FOR TAT

Analysts say the dispute, potentially involving hundreds of millions of dollars in annual royalties, reflects the shifting balance of power in the mobile industry as cellphones morph into handheld computers that can play video games and surf the Web. They have said it could take years to resolve.

Relative newcomer Apple trails the Finnish firm in cellphone shipments, but has gained a lot of ground against the market leader in the smartphone segment thanks to the iPhone.

Apple, which entered the industry in mid-2007, overtook Nokia last quarter as the cellphone maker generating the highest total operating profit.

In October Nokia said it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. state of Delaware, accusing Apple of infringing 10 patents and trying to hitch a "free-ride" on Nokia's technology investments.

This month Apple struck back, saying Nokia infringed 13 of its patents and accusing the Finnish firm of anti-competitive practices. Nokia said the countersuit did not change anything fundamental in its own case.

(Reporting by Brett Young; editing by John Stonestreet)

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Schumacher Returns to Formula One With Mercedes GP

Schumacher Returns to Formula One With Mercedes GP

By RICHARD S. CHANG

 

Michael Schumacher, left, has signed on with Mercedes GP Petronas after a three-year absence from Formula One.

Michael Schumacher is back. The seven-time world champion who had retired from Formula One at the end of the 2006 season has signed on to race for Mercedes GP Petronas, the reigning constructors' champion.

The team made the announcement on Wednesday. The deal had been widely anticipated for weeks, ever since Mercedes bought a 75 percent stake in the team from Brawn GP in November. Mercedes was determined to replace the two existing drivers, Jenson Button, the new world champion, and Rubens Barrichello. Button left to join McLaren, and Barrichello signed with Williams.

"Mercedes-Benz supports the idea of signing an experienced and capable German driver," said Norbert Haug, the vice president of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, at the time. "There is, however, no reason to finalize the driver situation too hastily."

Mercedes quickly signed Nico Rosberg to fill one of the seats, and then hesitated on naming a second driver. Haug promised a surprise, which quickly started the rumor mill spinning.

There was romance in the notion of a Schumacher comeback. He came close to returning to the grid in 2009 after the Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was injured at the Hungarian Grand Prix. But Schumacher's attempt was thwarted because his neck had not recovered from a motorcycle injury. Schumacher had also once raced with Mercedes sports car program before his career in Formula One.

The signing reunites Schumacher with Ross Brawn, the team principal of Mercedes GP Petronas. Brawn has played a big part in Schumacher's past successes. He was the technical director for Benetton when Schumacher won his first two drivers' titles. And then the two moved to Ferrari, where they proceeded to win five more championships.

"Mercedes GP Petronas represents a new challenge for me both in a sporting and a personal context," Schumacher said in a statement. "It is a new chapter in my racing career and I am really looking forward to working with my old friend Ross Brawn and my companions from my days with the Mercedes Junior Program."

Schumacher will be 41 when he arrives at the season opener in Australia. One of the greatest drivers in racing history, he has 248 grand prix starts and 91 wins, 154 podiums and 68 pole positions.

"It is fantastic that Michael is returning to Formula One and will be my teammate at Mercedes GP Petronas," Rosberg said. "It's a great challenge for me to be up against one of the best drivers of all time. I'm sure that we will form a very strong partnership as he will have lost none of his speed! It is also great news for our sport and the fans."

Update | 11:02 a.m.

Brad Spurgeon, who covers Formula One for The Times, has weighed in his thoughts on Schumacher's prospects for 2010.

"Even if Schumacher has moved to the winning team of last year, I think his age and the very nature of the current period of Formula One, where the technology is much closer between cars than it was only a few years ago, will make it a much more competitive affair," Spurgeon wrote, comparing Schumacher's comeback with his dominating years at Ferrari. "The one thing it will be, and of that I'm sure, is extremely interesting to watch how Schumacher performs after three years' retirement and at the age of 41 — and with drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Schumacher's own teammate, Nico Rosberg, hungry to get a chance to show him up."

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Malaysia's Petronas joins Mercedes GP team

Malaysia's state energy firm Petronas said Monday it had struck a five-year deal with automaker Mercedes to become a title sponsor of the Mercedes GP team in Formula One.

 

Malaysia's state energy firm Petronas said Monday it had struck a five-year deal with automaker Mercedes to become a title sponsor of the Mercedes GP team in Formula One.

"The team will from 2010 be officially known as the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team," Petronas said in a statement.

The team was known as Brawn GP, winner of the 2009 Formula One drivers' and constructors' championship, until Mercedes, its engine supplier, acquired a majority stake in a deal last month.

"The partnership also allows related business arrangements with Mercedes that will support Petronas' international business expansion efforts, particularly in its global lubricant business," the Petronas statement added.

Petronas did not disclose the amount of the deal, but said the move would enhance Malaysia and Petronas's "ongoing global brand positioning efforts."

Petronas -- Malaysia's biggest company in terms of profit, assets and revenue -- is also the title sponsor of the Petronas Malaysian F1 Grand Prix.

Apart from Petronas, Malaysia's budget carrier AirAsia group chief executive Tony Fernandes is the new Malaysian-backed Lotus team principal, one of the four new teams that will compete in the 2010 Formula One season.

Their involvement in F1 come as the sport battles the global financial downturn, which has forced major players like Germany's BMW and Japan's Honda to pull out.

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Google to produce, sell own "Nexus One" phones: report

Google to produce, sell own "Nexus One" phones: report

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Google Inc plans to sell its own cellphone direct to consumers as soon as next year, bypassing wireless operators in a rare strategic move, the Wall Street Journal cited sources as saying on Saturday.

Called the Nexus One and made by smartphone maker HTC, the phone will run on the search giant's Android operating system -- around which Motorola and other cellphone makers have built devices -- and will be sold online, the newspaper cited persons familiar with the matter as saying.

Cellular service will have to be bought separately, it added.

The Internet search leader may be sounding a challenge to wireless carriers such as Sprint and Verizon, as well as smartphone makers like Apple. It marks a departure for the leader in Web advertising, which has rarely sold devices directly to consumers, the newspaper said.

Google's Android phones have won attention in the mobile industry lately, with Motorola and Sony Ericsson choosing to launch it with their new top models.

Analysts say the aim is to gain access to valuable consumer data that can be used to sell ads at premium prices, rather than to make money from direct hardware sales, as companies such as Nokia or Research in Motion do.

Research house IDC estimates the market share for Android operating software rose to 5.4 percent from 4.2 percent in July-September in Western Europe, a key market.

Executives at HTC, the Taiwan-based world's No. 4 smartphone brand, were not available for comment. Google was also not available for comment. Google began sharing a version of the Nexus One with employees in recent days, the newspaper cited its sources as saying.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan; editing by Todd Eastham)

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EBay and Craigslist square off in Delaware court

GEORGETOWN, Delaware/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc's former chief executive, Meg Whitman, took the witness stand on Monday to make the case online classifieds site Craigslist unfairly cut eBay's stake in the company.

EBay sued Craigslist in 2008 for lowering its ownership stake to 24.85 percent from 28.4 percent, causing the e-commerce giant to lose its seat on Craigslist's board.

Craigslist sued eBay a month later in San Francisco, saying the larger rival used its board seat to glean information to launch its own classified site, Kijiji, and employed deceptive tactics to direct traffic away from Craigslist's site.

Whitman, who is running for governor of California and took the stand on Monday, denied eBay was out to steal Craigslist's secrets. She said eBay had bought shares of Craigslist from disgruntled shareholder Philip Knowlton in 2004 in the hope of ultimately owning the company outright and keeping competitors at bay.

"We were very interested in making an acquisition of Craigslist and we would have loved to have bought the whole thing," Whitman said, testifying in front of about 20 people in a small courtroom in Delaware, where eBay is incorporated. "But we understood early on that was not going to be possible, at least early on."

Whitman said eBay paid $32 million for its stake in Craigslist -- $16 million to Knowlton and $8 million each to Craigslist co-founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster in exchange for special rights that included an ability to block the issuance of new shares.

EBay sought to have a "collaborative" relationship with Newmark and Buckmaster -- and be a "good partner," she added.

"We knew there was no path to control unless they sold us the shares," Whitman said.

EBay first sued Craigslist in Delaware in April 2008 -- claiming that Newmark and Buckmaster hatched a "coercive plan" to dilute eBay's stake and strip it of its board seat -- but Craigslist a month later filed a lawsuit over the same issues in San Francisco.

Craigslist said eBay never revealed it was developing Kijiji, which it launched internationally in 2005 and in the United States in 2007.

COMPETING CLASSIFIEDS

Whitman, appearing calm and confident, said eBay had an ambitious vision for an international classifieds business. She said she did not initially reveal a plan to buy Dutch classifieds site Marktplaats to Craigslist because the deal had not yet closed.

Under cross-examination, Whitman said she was aware eBay would have to give up some of the special rights it had purchased from Buckmaster and Newmark, however, when eBay launched a U.S. version of Kijiji that included job listings.

Also on the stand was eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, who temporarily sat on Craigslist's board. He testified that eBay fully disclosed to Craigslist that it intended to launch a classified business in the United States.

"I did disclose that eBay was going to do classified aggressively and going to launch Kijiji," he said.

"My recollection at that time was that I was to communicate the urgency and anyone sitting across the table from someone who says eBay is committed and is going to aggressively pursue these opportunities would understand that," he added.

EBay, one of the high-flyers in the dot-com boom, pioneered online auctions and spurred millions of people around the world to sell and buy on the Web.

Despite generating $8.5 billion of revenue in 2008 and employing thousands of people, the San Jose-based company has been forced to broaden its market to better compete and expand beyond its traditional online auctions.

In contrast, privately held Craigslist, with only a few dozen employees, is now the top U.S. online classifieds site, beloved for its mostly free service to help people find homes, adopt pets or sell junk from their garages.

The trial, which could last about a week, is being broadcast over Courtroom View Network.

The case is eBay Domestic Holdings Inc v Newmark, et al, Delaware Chancery Court, No. 3705-CC.

(Additional reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; editing by Tim Dobbyn and Andre Grenon)

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