AABR BUSINESS BULLETIN, (Vol XIX, No. 37), Feb. 1, 2002

This is the abridged version of the twice-a-month electronic Business Bulletin. The full version is made available only to paid members. 

I.     General

Can we trust Govt figures where numbers are involved, e.g. budget deficit, budget projections, economic growth (based on educated guesses?), or data percentages regarding prime contracts, SB/SDB/WOSB/HUBZ contracts, etc.?

Is this a business philosophy not to pay taxes, or a rip-off? Enron did not pay taxes in 4 of the last 5 years in spite of reported profits.

Is this the end for Arthur Andersen for “three strikes and you’re out?”                                     

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II.      Private Sector

AT&T lost in CA federal court in its 5-month old requirement that consumers must refer all disputes to arbitration, saying that it was illegally trying to limit its liability by restricting a consumer’s right to sue.

Nextel Partners,  the wireless communications company, said that service revenues more than doubled for the 4^th Q over the previous year, but also suffered a net loss of $78.2 million. Nextel also added 81,700 customers in the 4^th Q. 

AOL urged users of older versions of its ICQ instant messaging program to upgrade to the latest version because of a new security hole that would leave computers vulnerable to hacking.

III.  Federal Government

DOJ will be responsible for reviewing all mergers involving Internet, software, telecom and entertainment companies.

Of a total $77 billion of subcontracted dollars reported in FY 2000, $31 billion was subcontracted to various types of small businesses, e.g. SDBs, WOSBs and HUBZs. These numbers are no big deal when one looks at the size of federal procurement.

SSA has agreed to pay $7.25 million to black male employees who claimed the agency kept them in lower-wage jobs and barred them from management positions for more than a decade, according to EEOC.

According to USDA, 47% of community payments flow to large commercial operations with average income of $135K. These farms make up 8% of the nation’s 2.2 million farms.  

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III.  International

Asian financial markets will probably languish in the slow lane for much of this year, leaving regional currencies largely untroubled, interest rates low, and share-market performance patchy.

Foreign management companies are lobbying Beijing to go beyond the foreign ownership limits, when the country joined the WTO last year.

The mainland’s IT sector faces a tough year, given the global economic slowdown and increasing competition flowing China’s WTO entry, a minister has warned.

China has attracted a record $46.84 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) last year.

Arthur Andersen insists it has done nothing wrong in the auditing process of JW International Holdings, which canceled its listing plans at the last minute due to accounting problems.

ISC,  a nonprofit consortium for security certification of international information systems, is establishing its Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Hong Kong.

Mobile operators in Hong Kong are trying to sing in a lunar New Year language as text messaging becomes the latest way to pass on the age-old kung hei fat choy greeting.

Japan’s trade surplus slid to 38% last year, its biggest drop sine 1970 and a third-straight year of decline.

Two Japanese insurers have agreed to merge to form the country’s third largest insurance group with assets of $201 billion.

Quanta Computer is among the Taiwan companies out to benefit from Apple’s latest range of computers launched last month.  

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The Philippine love affair with mobile phones should drive its second-largest mobile operator, Globe Telecom, to a record net income of more than 4 billion pesos ($80 million) in 2001, analysts said.

Intel will infuse up to $100 million to its RP operations this year to make the country its largest assembly site for processors and flash memory chips.

Struggling Singapore-based unified messaging services provider 2bsure.com has pulled the plug on free email, voice mail and fax services for registered users. Instead, it will sell prepaid cards for IDD calls with unified messaging features.

Malaysia’s debt-laden telecom firm, Time Engineering, which last month failed to pay the balance owed on a $250 million bond, unveiled a new restructuring plan for lenders.

The National Institute of IT (NIIT), India’s largest computer education firm, is expanding in China as it believes the mainland needs more IT professionals to cope with its high growth.

Lippo Group of Indonesia Deputy Chair Stephen Riaddy is planning a legal challenge to the insider dealing tribunal’s powers after being drawn into one of its inquiries.