Samsung wins U.S. court order to access Apple-HTC deal details

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has ordered Apple Inc to disclose to rival Samsung Electronics details of a legal settlement the iPhone maker reached with Taiwan's HTC Corp, including terms of a 10-year patents licensing agreement.

The Korean electronics giant had earlier filed a motion to compel its U.S. rival -- with whom it is waging a bitter legal battle over mobile patents across several countries -- to reveal details of the settlement that was reached on November 10 with HTC but which have been kept under wraps.

In August, the iPhone maker won a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung after a U.S. jury found that certain Samsung gadgets violated Apple's software and design patents.

Now, legal experts say the question of which patents are covered by the Apple-HTC settlement, and licensing details, could be instrumental in Samsung's efforts to thwart Apple's subsequent quest for a permanent sales ban on its products.

The Asian company has argued it is "almost certain" that the HTC deal covers some of the same patents involved in its own litigation with Apple.

The court on Wednesday ordered Apple to produce a full copy of the settlement agreement "without delay", subject to an Attorneys-Eyes-Only designation.

Representatives for the U.S. company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Samsung also requested the California court to add three newly released Apple products -- the iPod Touch 5, the iPad 4 and the iPad mini -- to the list of devices that it claims to have infringed on some of its patents, according to court documents.

The settlement of Apple and HTC ended their worldwide litigation and brought to a close one of the first major flare-ups in the global smartphone patent wars.

Apple first sued HTC in 2010, setting in motion a legal conflagration that has since circled the globe and engulfed the biggest names in mobile technology, from Samsung to Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit.

(Reporting By Edwin Chan; Additional reporting by Miyoung Kim in SEOUL; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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15 Thanksgiving Day Parade Photos from Mashable Readers

GENEVA (Reuters) - Kris Kristofferson -- Oxford scholar, athlete, U.S. Army helicopter pilot, country music composer, one-time roustabout, film actor, singer, lover of women, three times a husband and father of eight -- seems ready to meet his maker. At least, that was the clear impression he left with an audience of middle-aged-and-upwards fans at a concert in Geneva this week, a message underscored by his 28th and latest album, "Feeling Mortal" and its coffin-dark cover. ...

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10 Adorably Sleepy Animals That Ate Too Much Turkey

GENEVA (Reuters) - Kris Kristofferson -- Oxford scholar, athlete, U.S. Army helicopter pilot, country music composer, one-time roustabout, film actor, singer, lover of women, three times a husband and father of eight -- seems ready to meet his maker. At least, that was the clear impression he left with an audience of middle-aged-and-upwards fans at a concert in Geneva this week, a message underscored by his 28th and latest album, "Feeling Mortal" and its coffin-dark cover. ...

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RIM shares rally as optimism about new devices grows

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of Research In Motion Ltd surged 17.3 percent in Toronto on Thursday on rising optimism around RIM's soon-to-be-launched BlackBerry 10 devices that will vie against Apple's iPhone and Android-based smartphones.

The rally in RIM shares was sparked by National Bank analyst Kris Thompson, who boosted his price target on RIM shares to $15 from $12. Thompson believes that there is more money to be made in the stock ahead of the early 2013 launch of the make-or-break new line of devices.

It was the second vote of confidence this week for the Canadian company, which has struggled to compete with the iPhone and with devices running on Google's market-leading Android operating system. On Tuesday, Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek, who has been one of RIM's most influential critics, raised his rating and price target on the stock.

RIM shares, which have now risen in the last seven straight trading sessions, rose to their highest level since May on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday and ended the day at C$12. The U.S. market, where trade volumes usually top those in Toronto, was closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday.

It was the biggest percentage gain in the stock since April 2009, when RIM shares rallied after the company's results topped market expectations.

Thompson, who has an "outperform" rating on RIM stock, said he raised his price target due partly to the "positive sentiment building in the industry" ahead of BB10's launch.

"The new management team is executing by maintaining the BlackBerry subscriber base, managing costs and cash, and seemingly readying a February 2013 BB10 global platform launch," he said in a note to clients.

Earlier this week, Misek said a favorable reaction from telecom carriers to the new devices and the BB10 operating system that runs them was behind his decision to lift his rating and price target on RIM.

The BlackBerry maker, a smartphone pioneer, hopes BB10 will rescue it from a prolonged slump. RIM shares peaked at over $148 in 2008 before diving more than 90 percent.

The stock is up more than 90 percent in the past two months as the launch date for the BB10 devices nears. The stock has now enjoyed seven straight days of gains.

RIM promises its new devices will be faster and smoother than previous smartphones, and will have a large catalog of applications, which are crucial to the success of any new line of smartphones.

Thompson said he now expects RIM to ship about 35.5 million devices in fiscal 2014, up from an earlier estimate of 31.6 million. RIM, whose sales slump has been particularly pronounced in North America, shipped 7.4 million devices in its most recent quarter, ended September 1.

RIM has said it plans to roll out a touchscreen version of its BB10 smartphone initially. Phones with the mini QWERTY keyboards that many long-time BlackBerry users rave about will come a few weeks later, while lower-end versions of both devices will be launched later in the year.

"The shipments boost reflects about one more month of BB10 product availability plus a little extra for the positive sentiment building in the industry from our discussions," Thompson said.

Analysts had expected the new devices to go on sale in March. But RIM said earlier this month it plans to launch them on Jan 30, leading many to speculate they will hit store shelves around mid-February.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins told Reuters last week he is confident that the new BB10s will provide RIM with a framework for growth over the next decade.

Earlier this month, the new platform and devices won U.S. government security clearance, which would allow both U.S. and Canadian government agencies to deploy the new smartphones as soon as they are available.

(Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio Janet Guttsman and Peter Galloway)

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Sony at greater risk than Panasonic in electronics downturn: Fitch

TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp has a better chance than rival Sony Corp of surviving Japan's consumer electronics slump because of its unglamorous but stable appliance business of washing machines and fridges, credit rating agency Fitch said Friday.

Fitch cut Panasonic's rating by two notches to BB and Sony three notches to BB minus on Thursday, the first time one of the three major ratings agencies have put the creditworthiness of either company into junk-bond territory.

Rival agencies Moody's and S&P rate both of Japan's consumer electronic giants at the same level, just above junk status. Moody's last cut its rating on Panasonic on Tuesday.

Panasonic "has the advantage of a relatively stable consumer appliance business that is still generating positive margins", Matt Jamieson, Fitch's head of Asia-Pacific, said in a conference call on Friday to explain its ratings downgrades.

But at Sony, he added, "most of their electronic business are loss making, they appear to be overstretched."

Japan's TV industry has been bested by cheaper, more innovative models from Samsung Electronics and other foreign rivals, while tablets and smartphones built by Apple Inc have become the dominant consumer electronics devices.

Investors are focusing on the fate of Sony and Panasonic after another struggling Japanese consumer electronics firm, Sharp Corp, maker of the Aquos TV, secured a $4.6 billion bail-out by banks including Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Sony and Panasonic have chosen divergent survival paths.

Panasonic, maker of the Viera TV, is looking to expand its businesses in appliances, solar panels, lithium batteries and automotive components. Appliances amount to around only 6 percent of the company's sales, but they generate margins of more than 6 percent and make up a big chunk of operating profit.

Sony, creator of the Walkman, is doubling down on consumer gadgets in a bid to regain ground from Samsung and Apple in mobile devices while bolstering digital cameras and gaming.

The latest downgrades will curtail the ability of both Japanese companies to raise money in credit markets to help fund restructurings of their business portfolios.

For now, however, that impact is limited, given the support Panasonic and Sony are receiving from their banks.

In October, Panasonic, which expects to lose $10 billion in the year to March 31, secured $7.6 billion of loan commitments from banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ, a financing backstop it says will help it avoid having to seek capital in credit markets.

Sony, which has forecast a full-year profit of $1.63 billion helped by the sale of a chemicals business to a Japanese state bank, announced plans to raise $1.9 billion through a convertible bond before the latest rating downgrade.

Thomson Reuters' Starmine structural model, which evaluates market views of credit risk, debt levels and changes in asset values gives Panasonic and Sony an implied rating of BB minus. Sharp's implied rating is three notches lower at B minus.

Standard & Poor's rates Panasonic and Sony at BBB, the second lowest of the investment grade, while Moody's Investors Service has them on Baa3, the lowest of its high-grade category. Moody's has a negative outlook for both firms while S&P sees a stable outlook for Panasonic and a negative one for Sony.

Stock markets in Japan were closed on Friday for a national holiday.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

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Australian tax crackdown to target Google, other multinationals

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia released draft revisions to tax laws on Thursday, which it said were designed to stop big firms, including the local arm of Google, from shifting their income to countries such as Holland or Ireland where the tax rates are lower.

The move is in line with a push by Britain and Germany who want the G20 group of nations to make multinational companies pay their "fair share" of taxes, following reports of large firms exploiting loopholes to shift taxation of their income away from where they are generated.

Australia's Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said the tax laws were being revised to ensure that companies pay tax on profits made in the country, citing the case of Google Australia.

"While the day-to-day dealings of Australian firms advertising on Google might be with Google Australia, under the fine print of contracts Australian firms sign with Google, they are actually buying their advertising from an Irish subsidiary of Google," Bradbury said in a speech to accountants in Sydney.

"It is then argued that the source of this income - and therefore the taxing rights under our tax treaty - would be with Ireland rather than Australia."

Australia's company tax rate is 30 percent, compared to Ireland's rate of 12.5 percent.

Google Australia would not comment directly on Bradbury's comments, but said it complied with all local tax laws.

"We make a significant contribution to Australia's economy by helping thousands of businesses grow online, providing services to millions of Australians at no cost, as well as employing 650 people locally," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

"We abide by all Australian tax laws."

Bradbury said Google's tax structures involved complicated royalty payments to a Dutch subsidiary which is paid back to another holding company controlled in Bermuda, where there is no corporate tax.

"The profits from the sale of advertising to an Australian firm then sit in a tax-free jurisdiction - possibly indefinitely," Bradbury said.

In October, a Reuters report showed Starbucks had legally lowered its UK tax bill with inter-company loans, paying royalty fees to foreign subsidiaries and allocating money made in the UK to other units in so-called "transfer pricing".

In other recent reports, companies including Apple have come under scrutiny for their approach to paying taxes.

($1 = 0.9665 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by James Grubel; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Sneak Peek at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons [PICS]

1. Hello Kitty

Image courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Click here to view this gallery.

[More from Mashable: Share Your Photos of the Thanksgiving Day Parade 2012]

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons are getting pumped up -- literally -- for their big performance in New York City on Thursday morning. Before Papa Smurf, Kermit and other classic characters float through the streets of midtown, they undergo the helium treatment to ensure maximum float-ability.

SEE ALSO: Nicole Westbrook Talks Turkey With New Yorkers

[More from Mashable: Thanksgiving Etiquette, Martha Stewart Style [COMIC]]

Instagram and Twitter users helped to offer a sneak peek of tomorrow's festivities by sharing snapshots of the half-inflated balloons.

Take a float through the gallery above and let us know in the comments which classic balloon is your favorite.

Thumbnail courtesy of Flickr, drivingthenortheast

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Try Out Mozilla's Mobile Operating System in Your Browser

Mozilla has made a new prototype of its mobile operating system, Firefox OS, available to the public. An early (and still a little buggy) build, the release lets you run the operating system as a Firefox add-on on your computer, allowing you to get a taste of the OS without actually installing it onto a mobile phone.

[More from Mashable: Firefox 16 Withdrawn as Mozilla Finds Security Flaw]

An exceptionally open operating system, Mozilla's main target for Firefox OS is emerging markets. The company is currently conducting research in Brazil to learn how the middle class in the country uses their mobile phones, in order to customize the Firefox OS experience to meet those needs.

"Much like various versions of Firefox, the overall concept here is premium and of quality, but not because it's expensive. Good quality design should be accessible to masses much like our products," Mozilla's Patryk Adamczyk said in a blog post about the OS earlier this year. "Our strong focus is on high quality and distinctive design in the marketplace."

[More from Mashable: Slimmer PlayStation 3 and Two Other Stories You Need to Know]

The phone's basic functions — calling, messaging, calendar — are all based on HTML5.

While the OS already has a few apps available in its marketplace -– which can also be accessed via the simulation -- Mozilla hopes that by making the simulator available it will be able to attract new developers to the platform.

The first Firefox OS devices are expected in 2013, and Mozilla has already lined up some serious support for the project. China's ZTE and TCL, two large mobile phone manufacturers, have said they will build Firefox OS handsets. The smartphones will use Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, the same kind of chip found in a number of popular smartphones currently on the market.

In May, I was able to spend a bit of time with Firefox OS running on a Samsung Galaxy S II handset.

Clean and easy to use, the OS has a familiar look while standing out in many ways against other mobile operating systems out there.

Check out a few photos of Firefox OS in action below.

FireFox OS

With Firefox OS, the phone's basic functions — calling, messaging, calendar, etc. — are all based on HTML5.

Click here to view this gallery.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, John Antoni

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Samsung wins U.S. court order to access Apple-HTC deal details

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has ordered Apple Inc to disclose to rival Samsung Electronics details of a legal settlement the iPhone maker reached with Taiwan's HTC Corp, including terms of a 10-year patents licensing agreement.

The Korean electronics giant had earlier filed a motion to compel its U.S. rival -- with whom it is waging a bitter legal battle over mobile patents across several countries -- to reveal details of the settlement that was reached on November 10 with HTC but which have been kept under wraps.

In August, the iPhone maker won a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung after a U.S. jury found that certain Samsung gadgets violated Apple's software and design patents.

Now, legal experts say the question of which patents are covered by the Apple-HTC settlement, and licensing details, could be instrumental in Samsung's efforts to thwart Apple's subsequent quest for a permanent sales ban on its products.

The Asian company has argued it is "almost certain" that the HTC deal covers some of the same patents involved in its own litigation with Apple.

The court on Wednesday ordered Apple to produce a full copy of the settlement agreement "without delay", subject to an Attorneys-Eyes-Only designation.

Representatives for the U.S. company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Samsung also requested the California court to add three newly released Apple products -- the iPod Touch 5, the iPad 4 and the iPad mini -- to the list of devices that it claims to have infringed on some of its patents, according to court documents.

The settlement of Apple and HTC ended their worldwide litigation and brought to a close one of the first major flare-ups in the global smartphone patent wars.

Apple first sued HTC in 2010, setting in motion a legal conflagration that has since circled the globe and engulfed the biggest names in mobile technology, from Samsung to Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit.

(Reporting By Edwin Chan; Additional reporting by Miyoung Kim in SEOUL; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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Fitch cuts Sony, Panasonic debt ratings to "junk" status

TOKYO (Reuters) - Ratings agency Fitch downgraded the debt ratings of Japan's Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp to "junk" status citing weakness in their consumer electronics and TV operations, further diminishing the luster of the once-great Japanese brands.

The cut to below investment grade, the first by a ratings firm, comes as the floundering Japanese tech giants face weak demand and fierce competition from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

A strong yen and bumps in China, where growth has slowed and Japanese goods have been targeted in sometimes violent protests recently, have also weighed on their earnings.

The two companies, along with Sharp Corp, racked up combined losses of $20 billion last year, leading them to axe jobs, sell assets and close facilities.

"Both Sony and Panasonic are struggling to generate operating profits, but each is restructuring and I don't envision the current situation continuing," said Masahi Oda, Chief Investment Officer at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

"A collapse of their core business would be a problem, but we are not at the point yet, and to me Fitch looks too negative," Oda added.

Fitch downgraded Sony by three notches to BB-minus from BBB- minus, saying meaningful recovery will be slow. The move came after Sony, the maker of PlayStation game consoles and Vaio laptops, last week announced plans to raise 150 billion yen ($1.82 billion) through the sale of convertible bonds.

"Fitch believes that continuing weakness in the home entertainment and sound and mobile products and communications segments will offset the relatively stable music and pictures segments and improvement in the devices segment which makes semiconductors and components," it said in statement.

In a separate statement, Fitch cut Panasonic to BB from BBB-minus, a two-notch downgrade, citing weakened competitiveness in its TVs and display panels as well as weak cash generation from its operations. It has a negative outlook on both the companies.

The downgrade sent Sony's five-year credit default swaps (CDS), insurance-like contracts against debt default or restructuring, 5 basis points wider to 382.5/402.5 basis points.

Panasonic's CDS for the same maturity were quoted at 295/315 basis points, 15 basis points wider than in Thursday morning Asian trade.

Standard & Poor's rates the two consumer electronics makers at BBB, the second lowest of the investment grade, while Moody's Investors Service has Baa3 on them, the lowest of the high-grade category.

With two of the three major ratings agencies still having the two companies as investment grade, institutional investors won't face too great a pressure to cut their debt holdings in them, analysts said.

SONY SHARES TUMBLE

Sony shares shed 4.4 percent in Frankfurt on Thursday. The shares ended 1.8 percent higher at 834 yen in Tokyo before the Fitch announcement, trading not too far from their 32-year closing low of 793 yen hit on November 15. Sony stock is down 40 percent so far this year.

Panasonic shares were down 0.6 percent in Frankfurt in low volume. The stock inched up 0.7 percent to close at 407 yen in Tokyo trading, near its 34-year closing low of 385 yen reached on November 13.

Last month, Panasonic cut its forecast and warned it will lose close to $10 billion in the year to March, as it writes off billions of yen in tax-deferred assets and goodwill related to its mobile phone, solar panel and small lithium battery businesses.

Ahead of its earnings revision, Panasonic won $7.6 billion in loan commitments in October from banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a funding backstop it says will help it avoid having to seek capital from credit markets.

Sony made a small operating profit in the July-September quarter, helped by the sale of a non-core chemicals business, and kept its forecast for a full-year profit of $1.63 billion.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau in Tokyo and Umesh Desai in Hong Kong; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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