Microsoft abandons Yahoo bid
Ap, San Francisco
Microsoft Corp, withdrew its $42.3 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. on Saturday, scrapping an attempt to snap up the tarnished Internet icon in hopes of toppling online search and advertising leader Google Inc.
The decision to walk away from the deal came after last-ditch efforts to negotiate a mutually acceptable sale price proved unsuccessful.
The talks reached a breaking point after Jerry Yang and David Filo, the co-founders 6f Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, flew to Seattle in the morning to meet personally with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, who runs the software maker's unprofitable online services division, according to someone familiar with the talks. The person was ndt authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified.
"Clearly a deal is not to be," Ballmer wrote to Yang in a letter sent late Saturday.
Microsoft was willing to pay $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, up from the bid's current value of $29.40 per share, according to Ballmer's letter.
But Yahoo's board demanded at least $53 billion, or $37 per share, according to Ballmer. That would have been nearly double Yahoo's stock price of $19.18 at the time Microsoft first made its bid a little over three months ago.
Asean committed to FTA
with Australia, NZ
AFP, Jakarta
Asean was showing strong commitment to try to wrap up negotiations on a free trade pact between the regional grouping, Australia and New Zealand, Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean said Sunday.
Crean, who attended the Asean Economic Ministers Closer Economic Relations talks in the Indonesia island of Bali on Saturday, said "we all agreed on the importance of successfully concluding the FTA negotiation in August."
"Considerable work remains. But ministers have given a clear signal to officials that the political will is there to try and achieve a substantial outcome this year," he said in a statement issued by his office.
"Encouragingly, ministers did not identify any issue as being beyond resolution," Crean said of the ongoing Asean-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) negotiations.
Both sides were working on reducing trade barriers to improve market access for goods, services and investment, the statement said.
It gave no further details, but the Australian embassy had earlier cited Sydney's wishes for a lifting of Asean trade barriers on Australian manufacturing and agriculture products as well as services.
Japan's Toyota to hike prices in North America
AFP, Tokyo
Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp, will raise sale prices in North America this month in a bid to offset rising production costs and the stronger yen, a report here said Sunday.
The Japanese maker has expanded aggressively outside its home market, helped by its reputation for fuel efficient vehicles, including petrol-electric hybrids, which have generated strong interest at a time of soaring oil prices.
But Toyota is widely expected in the current business year to March 2009 to suffer its first drop in operating profit in nine years because of sluggish US sales and a stronger yen, as well as surging costs of steel and other materials.
From those to be shipped from Monday, the price of the popular Prius hybrid will likely climb by 1.8 percent and that of the Yaris compact by up to 1.7 percent, the Nikkei business daily reported citing unnamed company sources.
Malaysia mulls using ID to stop foreigners buying cheap fuel
AFP, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia on Sunday said it was considering using its chipbased national identity card to prevent visitors from Singapore and Thailand buying cheap subsidised fuel meant for locals.
Its latest plan comes as the government begins radically reviewing its fuel subsidies, expected to cost 43 billion ringgit (13.6 billion dollars) this year if oil prices hover around 120 dollars per barrel.
Malaysia heavily subsidises petrol, diesel and gas as well as 21 food items but rising global prices and controls have triggered severe shortages, as well as smuggling across its porous borders and long coastline.
"The technical features are there on the Mykad (Malaysian identification card) and can be integrated with fuel pumps so they can be used to identify the person," domestic trade and consumer affairs minister Shahrir Samad told AFP
"We are looking to see if we can use it on the fuel pumps so that only Malaysian citizens get the subsidy," he added.