Foxconn bought Sharp - Taiwanese takes smartphone orders from Japan and now their company(ies?)

nice move. good synergy and currency play.

Terry Gou is one sharp dude.

sauce

Foxconn and Sharp Corp (6753.T) on Saturday formally signed a long-awaited deal that would see the Taiwan firm take control of the Japanese display maker, as executives sought to dispel lingering doubts over whether Sharp can turn around its ebbing fortunes.

At a packed news conference following the signing of the $3.5 billion deal, Foxconn CEO Terry Gou ducked questions about how - and when - Sharp would become profitable again, but expressed confidence in the Japanese company's ability to bounce back with its highly regarded technology.

Gou pointed to Sharp's proprietary know-how to mass-produce the advanced IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) display technology as a standout, calling it superior to the popular OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology. IGZO technology is used in products such as Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPad.

"Everybody is saying OLED," Gou said at the event held at Foxconn and Sharp's jointly owned liquid crystal display factory in Sakai, western Japan. "If I was an engineer, I would choose IGZO," he said, noting that they were more energy-efficient than OLEDs.

Masayoshi at it again, first Sprint, now T-Mobile

sauce

SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son has a 300-year plan, so if combining Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. takes a few years longer than he hoped, that’s OK.
Son, who became one of the world’s wealthiest men by turning Tokyo-based SoftBank into a telecommunications and technology powerhouse, still would like to merge the U.S. wireless providers, according to people familiar with his thinking. SoftBank owns more than 80 percent of Sprint after acquiring the majority stake in 2013, part of Son’s famed plan to build a business empire that can endure through the centuries.
Son considered buying T-Mobile in 2014, before abandoning the effort when officials at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department signaled they were against a theoretical merger. There’s a key figure who will determine if Son makes another run at T-Mobile: the yet-to-be named new head of the FCC. If Son feels that person is more amenable to a combination to take on market leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., he will probably try again, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter is private.

Low unemployment coupled with low inflation is ultimate happiness, will last?

sounds familiar?

sauce

The yen’s 22 percent gain against the U.S. dollar in the past year is another factor adding to deflationary pressure, suggesting the BOJ will have to maintain asset-buying stimulus that has supported prices of bonds commercial property.
“For the average person, low unemployment coupled with low inflation is the ultimate happiness,” said Toru Suehiro, the senior market economist at Mizuho Securities Co. in Tokyo. “We’re actually in a kind of sweet spot now, where we’re seeing the positives of deflation. But it’s not going to last forever.”

Faber: 50% Crash Coming! (However. . . )

changing business - apple

Source: Weebly

Small German bank charging people for placing deposits with them

still small sample.

link

When the European Central Bank introduced a negative interest rate on lenders’ deposits two years ago, few thought things would ever go this far.

This week, a German cooperative savings bank in the Bavarian village of Gmund am Tegernsee -- population 5,767 -- said it’ll start charging retail customers to hold their cash. From September, for savings in excess of 100,000 euros ($111,710), the community’s Raiffeisen bank will take back 0.4 percent. That’s a direct pass through of the current level of the ECB’s negative deposit rate.

All time Reasons to Sell

Vietnam launching digital visas, very bullish

if this is not bullish, i don't know what is.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/vietnam-to-launch-digital-visas-next-year-116081000630_1.html#.V63vabIUTHU.twitter

Vietnam is working on a scheme to grant electronic visas for foreign visitors from next year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said.
The government had allocated some 200 billion Vietnamese dong ($8.97 million) to speed up the implementation of the scheme so that the e-visa system can be launched on January 1 next year, Xinhua news agency quoted Phuc as saying on Tuesday.
Last month, in an attempt to attract more visitors, Vietnam renewed the 15-day visa waiver policy for citizens of Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy for another year.
By 2020, Vietnam targets to attract 10 million to 10.5 million international visitors with tourism revenue reaching $18 billion to $19 billion each year.

Consumer brands mega infographic

could someone give me a version of the chinese companies?
and the rest of asia?
thanks.

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/consumer-brands-full-size.html

Kurds in Japan

Kurds in Japan.

http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/japan-kurds/

Balibay, 24, is a Kurdish asylum seeker who fled to Japan more than eight years ago after he said his family was persecuted by Turkish security forces who tortured his father. He has since been on provisional release from immigration detention, which means he is barred from working while the immigration authorities consider his application for asylum and could be detained again at any time.

But the ban hasn’t stopped Balibay from providing the muscle on a slew of public works projects funded by a government that refers to people like him as “undesirable.” “Japan bans us from working, but everyone knows that without foreigners this country’s in trouble,” said Balibay.
“Construction jobs won’t get done. There aren’t enough workers and young Japanese can’t do these jobs. The government knows that better than anyone.” Two of Balibay’s brothers have also worked without permits on government projects around Tokyo, laying asphalt and digging sewers. Reuters also spoke to more than 30 Kurds on provisional release who are working illegally on private sector projects, mainly in demolition.

New type of mall activities - Pokemon

http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/CL_NewRelease_PokemonSTAR_6Aug2016.ashx?App=Announcement&FileID=416030

#PokemonSTAR - Reward, Redeem, Recharge From 6 to 10 August 2016, CapitaLand will be running #PokemonSTAR, a first-of-its-kind O2O campaign that weaves together augmented reality with CapitaLand's physical properties in Singapore as well as its digital and social media platforms. Members of CAPITASTAR, CapitaLand's multi-mall, multi-store cashless rewards programme, will be rewarded with over 2 million STAR$® through #PokemonSTAR, a snap-and-reward Instagram activity that comes with a daily capture component and two bonus stages – the additional #PokemonSTAR of the Day Challenge and the #CatchEmAllAtCapitaLandMalls Grand Bonus.

http://mothership.sg/2016/08/ion-orchard-is-suddenly-a-pokestop-in-spore/

Barely a few hours after Pokémon Go launched in Singapore on Aug. 6, 2016, ION Orchard has become the first PokeStop here.
A PokeStop is a landmark or place of interest where players get to “catch” virtual Pokemon that are attracted by lures released at these locations.
Lures can be purchased by anyone, and in this case, ION Orchard most probably did.
Because from Aug. 6 to 21, ION Orchard will be releasing hundreds of Lures during designated hours as part of Pokemon Go @ ION Orchard, a marketing campaign to draw Pokemon players.

Sand not oil is the new gold

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-03/one-nook-of-america-s-shale-industry-is-eyeing-a-big-comeback

Amid the gloom and doom that’s set in all along America’s shale fields these past two years, there has been one small, but consistent, bright spot. Sand, it turns out, is a much greater tool in hydraulic fracking than drillers had understood it to be. Time and again, they’ve found that the more grit they pour into horizontal wells -- seemingly regardless of how extreme the amounts have become -- the more oil comes seeping out.
The message from drillers is “more, more, more sand,” said Sean Meakim, an oil-services analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “All of the numbers are going up and they’re going up dramatically.”

U.S. Silica’s shares have more than doubled this year, while Fairmount Santrol Holdings Inc. tripled. Hi-Crush Partners LP rose 116 percent and Emerge Energy Services LP climbed 103 percent. In comparison, oil exploration and production companies in the S&P 500 rose 14 percent, while those in a broad oil-services index are little changed.
“People are uber uber bullish on sand,” said Matthew Johnston, an oil-services analyst at Nomura Securities. “I get it. I understand where all the euphoria is coming from.”

Empires in History

http://www.justtheflight.co.uk/blog/35-mapping-the-empires-of-history.html

Chinese are buying from Japan via apps and amazon japan

amazing, the spillover from chinese demand for hongkong consumer goods seems to be overflowing into japan.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-01/china-s-new-killer-app-a-princess-a-pea-and-a-way-around-japan

The app with the fairy tale name, called Wandou in Chinese, uses about 50 professional shoppers in Japan to procure everything from toilet-seat covers to toothpaste for consumers over in China. For Chen, it’s a way of getting safe and reliable everyday items without having to leave her home or the country, and shipping is free for orders over 300 yuan ($45).
Chinese have been flocking to Japan for electronics, luxury and consumer goods for years, perceiving them to be better and more luxurious than what they can buy at home. Five million Chinese tourists shelled out 1.4 trillion yen ($13.7 billion) there last year, a 154 percent increase from 2014, Japan’s tourism agency says.
Amazon Inc. recently added Chinese language to its Japanese website, lowered the cost of shipping to China and enabled shoppers in China to pay with local currency in response to demand for goods ranging from health and personal care products to cosmetics, Amazon Japan President Jasper Cheung said in a July 27 interview.
Wandou users can make purchases from among more than 3,000 items -- from Lion Corp. toothpaste and Kao Corp. sanitary pad to Calbee Inc.’s potato snacks -- stocked in a 20,000 square-foot warehouse near Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Orders are shipped to China through the company’s own logistics system.
“I want to use made-in-Japan products even if they cost me extra money since I’m scared of Chinese goods,” said Chen. “There are a lot of people like me. Whenever I get good stuff delivered from Japan and introduce them to my friends, they want to buy them right away.”

M&As deal makers for Japan's ageing business owners

amazing. with the ageing population in Japan, maybe the consolidations and M&As will just increase?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-01/the-tinder-for-aging-japanese-ceos-posts-a-1-170-stock-gain

Enter Nihon M&A Center Inc., a rare deal-advisory boutique in Japan, which introduced Takeuchi to a young company president on the other side of the country who wanted a foothold in the Tokyo software market. Months later, Takeuchi sold. It was just one of 110 deals Nihon M&A facilitated that year, a number that’s been increasing since it went public in 2006. Helping small-business owners find successors has sent its shares up almost 13-fold since listing.

Automated fish slicing fascinating!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-06-20/your-fish-sticks-may-have-been-sliced-by-this-algorithm

IMF independent evaluation Office says IMF kelong?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/07/28/imf-admits-disastrous-love-affair-with-euro-apologises-for-the-i/

time for AIIB?

The report by the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) goes above the head of the managing director, Christine Lagarde. It answers solely to the board of executive directors, and those from Asia and Latin America are clearly incensed at the way EU insiders used the Fund to rescue their own rich currency union and banking system. 

The three main bail-outs for Greece, Portugal, and Ireland were unprecedented in scale and character. The trio were each allowed to borrow over 2,000 percent of their allocated quota – more than three times the normal limit – and accounted for 80pc of all lending by the Fund between 2011 and 2014. 

The report said the whole approach to the eurozone was characterised by “groupthink” and intellectual capture. They had no fall-back plans on how to tackle a systemic crisis in the eurozone – or how to deal with the politics of a multinational currency union – because they had ruled out any possibility that it could happen. 

“Before the launch of the euro, the IMF’s public statements tended to emphasize the advantages of the common currency, “ it said. Some staff members warned that the design of the euro was fundamentally flawed but they were overruled.

The Richest Man in History - Mansa Musa

http://www.barrons.com/articles/who-was-the-richest-person-who-ever-lived-1469247020?mod=bol-ampush

So while we cannot translate Mansa Musa’s wealth into modern terms with any specificity, Forbes Magazine’s researchers had no hesitation in calling him the richest man who ever lived, and ballparked his modern-day net worth at $400 billion.

what the heck was that? July 2016

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-26/what-fk-was

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-26/stocks-slide-after-japans-helicopter-money-plan-leaks-underwhelms

Yahoo sold to Verizon, what a discount?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-24/verizon-said-to-announce-4-8-billion-deal-to-buy-yahoo-tomorrow

Verizon Communications Inc. will announce its plans to buy Yahoo! Inc. for about $4.8 billion on Monday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.
The takeover is expected to be announced before the market opens, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The deal includes Yahoo real estate assets, while intellectual property assets are expected to be sold separately, the person said.
Yahoo will keep its stakes in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Yahoo Japan Corp.