The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- YTL Comms is the frontrunner for the RM1.5bil 1Bestarinet to wire up schools
- Motorola Mobility revenue misses, net loss narrows
- Chipmaker AMD says resolving output problem
| YTL Comms is the frontrunner for the RM1.5bil 1Bestarinet to wire up schools Posted: 27 Oct 2011 04:54 PM PDT PETALING JAYA: YTL Communications Sdn Bhd (YTL Comms) is the frontrunner for the RM1.5bil 1Bestarinet project that involves wiring up schools in the country, sources said. YTL Comms may have edged out 18 other players, including a joint bid by Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) and Time dotCom Bhd (TDC) for the 1Bestarinet tender. The project involves providing Internet access and a virtual learning (VLM) platform for 9,924 schools in the country from January. Sources said on Tuesday at about 1pm the YTL Comms' name appeared as the winner of the contract on the Education Ministry's website but two hours later the announcement was taken off the website for reasons unknown. A proof of concept is required before YTL Comms can embark on the first phase by rolling out access to at least 7,000 schools by Jan 1, 2012. Sources said the success rate of the proof of concept would be the determinant to the company bagging the contract or else another party will be chosen. The contract is for a five-year period, with an option to extend for another five plus five years, totalling 15 years, and this would include installation, maintenance and provision of a VLM. Some have expressed surprise that YTL was the frontrunner. Said an industry player: "If indeed they are the winner, it is shocking as they are an unproven service provider. They also do not have fibre so how are they going to offer the services?" The industry player also pointed out that the tender specifications for 1Bestarinet seemed vague and cautioned that he hoped the project would not suffer the same problems faced by a similar project in the past called Schoolnet. 1Bestarinet came about as a result of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit national key economic area lab series as there is a need to provide Internet access to all schools in the country since the earlier project to wire up schools, Schoolnet, did not meet the objectives set. For 1Bestarinet, the Internet speed has to be constant and cannot be based on "best effort.'' For urban areas, the access speed is 2Mbps to 10Mbps, and for rural and remote schools 1Mbps to 4Mbps. All sorts of technologies can be used, be it fibre or wireless technologies including Vsat, wireless, WiFi, but the link to the school should be via fibre. The winner will only be paid based on how much access is provided, the source said. Schoolnet was introduced in 2004 to wire up schools using wireless or fibre technology but it had major constraints and did not live up to expectations in terms of speed and capacity, and also due to the lack of specifications and integration. In May, the Education Ministry called for a tender bid for the wiring up of all schools under the 1Bestarinet project. In the tender's posting it was clearly stipulated that the tender was open to all local companies with preference given to bumiputra tender bids registered with the Finance Ministry under some codes stipulated. This 1Bestarinet tender bid was opened on May 5, saw 80 companies collecting the tender documents but at its closing on May 31, only 19 companies submitted their bids. Ironically, YTL Comms, TM and TDC had initially wanted to put in a joint bid but at the last minute the parties could not agree on terms and YTL Comms put in its own bid while TM and TDC submitted a joint bid. StarBiz reported on Aug 31 that six companies were shortlisted. They were YTL Comms, TM/TDC, Celcom Axiata Bhd, Jaring Communications, Maxis Bhd, and Multimedia Synergy Corp. Though the Government is looking at RM4.5bil as the absolute sum for the 15-year contract, those in the know claimed the bids received ranged from RM2bil to RM6bil. At RM4.5bil, it works out to RM1.5bil for every five years or RM300mil for each year. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Motorola Mobility revenue misses, net loss narrows Posted: 27 Oct 2011 04:50 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc's third-quarter revenue rose at a slower pace than Wall Street estimates as it shipped fewer smartphones than expected. Motorola, which has agreed to be bought by Google Inc , said it sold 4.8 million smartphones in the quarter, compared with the average forecast of 4.96 million by five analysts contacted by Reuters. Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt said Motorola's slight shortfall on revenue and phone shipment volumes was likely due to a pullback on marketing. "They're getting acquired so they spent less on advertising and (therefore) sold slightly less phones," said McCourt. Motorola's selling, general and administrative expenses fell to $426 million from $456 million in the year-ago quarter. But since Google has already agreed to pay $12.5 billion, or $40 per share, to buy Motorola Mobility, investors focused on the deal rather than financial performance, analysts said. Chief Executive Sanjay Jha said in a statement that the company still hopes to complete the Google deal in late 2011 or early 2012. Both companies have received requests for additional information from U.S. antitrust regulators reviewing the deal, which was announced on August 15. U.S. SALES PERCENTAGE UP While Jha said international sales were strong, North America, where it trails rivals like Apple Inc with the iPhone, accounted for a growing share of its business. About 48 percent of its third-quarter mobile device revenue came from the region, up from 43 percent in the second quarter. Its next biggest markets were Latin America and China. Motorola uses Google's Android software in its smartphones. Motorola Mobility reported a net loss of $32 million, or 11 cents per basic share, compared with a loss of $34 million, or 12 cents per basic share, in the year-ago quarter before Motorola Mobility became an independent company. Excluding certain items, it earned 12 cents per share, double Wall Street expectations of 6 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose to $3.26 billion from $2.95 billion, compared with Wall Street expectations for $3.37 billion. Including less advanced phones and tablets, the company said total mobile device shipments were 11.6 million. It shipped about 100,000 Xoom tablets, the company said. Motorola shares were largely unchanged in late trade from their $39.02 close on New York Stock Exchange. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Chipmaker AMD says resolving output problem Posted: 27 Oct 2011 04:49 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc forecast higher fourth-quarter revenue as it recovers from a manufacturing setback that has pinched the supply of its new personal computer processors. AMD, a distant second to Intel Corp in selling microprocessors that are the brains of PCs, said it was working with manufacturing partner GlobalFoundries to resolve the problem affecting its new 32 nanometer Llano chips as well as older 45 nanometer chips. "We are already seeing steady improvement day after day, week after week, but we are not out of the woods yet," recently appointed Chief Executive Rory Read told analysts on a conference call. That progress helped the Sunnyvale, California company give a forecast for current-quarter revenue that beat most analysts' expectations, even as AMD faces a shaky economy and weak consumer demand. "They're gradually improving. Clearly their biggest problem in the quarter was supply-related and going forward my sense is they'll have a healthier supply level in the current quarter and beyond," said Patrick Wang, an analyst at Evercore Partners. Intel said last week that brisk growth in first-time PC purchases by families in emerging markets like China was helping make up for soft demand for laptops in the United States and Europe. That emerging markets strength is supporting sales of companies that make chips for PCs, while other parts of the chip sector suffer more from the slow economy. "Just about everyone else in semiconductors is guiding for down 10 percent for the fourth quarter so anyone that's guiding up is seeing a different market," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Kevin Cassidy. SUPPLY-CHAIN OK AMD does not expect a shortage of hard drives caused by recent flooding in Thailand to impact the PC supply chain and hurt business in the current quarter, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Seifert said on the call. Like Intel, AMD has failed to gain traction in increasingly popular mobile gadgets like Google Inc's Android smartphones and Apple Inc's iPad, which some people are buying instead of laptops. In August, AMD hired Read, replacing Dirk Meyer, who left in January partly due to differences with the board of directors over the company's mobile strategy. AMD said revenue in the third quarter rose 4 percent from the year ago period, to $1.69 billion. AMD said revenue in the fourth quarter ending in December would rise 3 percent compared to the previous quarter, plus or minus 2 percentage points, equivalent to $1.71 billion to $1.77 billion. Analysts on average expected fourth quarter revenue of $1.71 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Non-GAAP earnings in the quarter were $110 million, up from $108 million in the year-ago period. Non-GAAP earnings per share were unchanged at 15 cents, beating expectations of 10 cents. The company reported a net profit of $97 million, after a year ago loss of $118 million. Shares of AMD rose 4.8 percent in extended trade after closing up 8.63 percent to $5.54. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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