Summit Notebook

from MediaFile:

GlobalMedia: EA nabs triple word Scrabble score from Oprah

Forget sports tournaments or new movie releases as boosters for game demand. Electronic Arts' latest hero is America's most famous chat show host.

Chief Executive John Riccitiello,  at the Reuters Media summit, went out of his way to praise Oprah Winfrey, whose recent shout-out of Scrabble  gave a new lease of life to the not-so-new word game.

"We're very thankful to Oprah for mentioning Scrabble on iPad as one of her ultimate favorite gifts. There was a 400 percent pop ... on her word." He said. "I think there's different grades of favorite so we were happy to be among her ultimate favorites."

So did Riccitiello contact Oprah directly to say thanks? "My sense is that the number of people sending her flowers is too many for her to notice my petunias," he said.

(Photo: Reuters)

from MediaFile:

GlobalMedia-ABC News in talks with Bloomberg

The news divisions at the big networks have been in a world of hurt lately as advertisers seek out younger consumers and viewers. This has lead to big cutbacks in staffing and resources over the years as the networks strive to keep profit margins from deteroirating even further.

ABC is certainly no expectation and has experienced managment upheaval when ABC News president David Westin announced in September his departure partly due to the financial situation and the pressure to increase profit margins.  

Speculation has persisted that ABC News parent company, Walt Disney, has been seeking to untie itself from the division-- rumors that similary dog CBS.

Anne Sweeney, president of Disney/ABC Television Group, flatly denied that the company was looking to offload the news or TV divisions but also confirmed that ABC News has been in talks with Bloomberg in forming a partnership. "We've had a lot of conversatoins with Bloomberg over the past couple of years," she said during Reuters Media Global Summit.

Sweeney also said they are currently searching for Westin’s replacement though she was coy on when and who that might be. “We certainly have a lot of talent in ABC,” she said.

from MediaFile:

GlobalMedia-3D? After some thought, News Corp COO likes its future

To our surprise, News Corp President and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, whose studio released the highest grossing movie of all time in 3D, hesitated when asked about the future of that technology.

Carey, speaking at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York, was asked whether he rated a series of technologies "long" or "short" and raced through most of the list without hesitating until faced with 3D.

"Ummm ... (pause) ... long, but long with limits," Carey said of 3D. "I don't think it's (high definition), so those who sort of think it's the second coming of HD, I think it is an event medium that's for films, for sports events."

Twentieth Century Fox film studio released "Avatar" last year with new 3D technology, grossing $2.8 billion globally. However, clunky 3D glasses are one thing many believe will hold back the technology's acceptance in the home.

"(3D) will be out there, but until you've tackled the glasses thing I think people aren't popping home at 7 o'clock at night, 8 o'clock at night and popping on (3D) glasses to watch TV," Carey added. "The richness of that experience is real, but I think as long as it's got the glasses it becomes an event, so somewhere where it becomes more seamless without the glasses so we should probably just say long." 

For the record, Carey, who addressed the future of MySpace, was also long on tablets, social media and apps. Meanwhile, he was short on gesture interfaces like Microsoft's Kinect, physical media like Blu-ray DVDs and bypassing cable or pay-TV subscriptions by watching everything on the Internet.

(Reuters photo)

from MacroScope:

APEC’s robots stealing the show

A guide at the "Japanese Experience" exhibition talks to Miim, the Karaoke pal robot, on the sidelines of the APEC meetings in Yokohama, Japan on Nov. 10. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao

    Miim is one of the more popular delegates at the APEC meetings in Yokohama Japan. She sings. She dances. She tosses her shoulder length hair. She may not be able to spout an alphabet soup of APEC acronyms like the other Asia-Pacific delegates. But she's still pretty lively. For a robot.

    This week's meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum have been earnest and most comprehensive . Foreign and trade ministers issued a 20-page statement about all the things they talked about -- a giant free trade zone, protectionism, the Doha round, easing restrictions on businesses, simplifying customs procedures, promoting green industries, cooperating on health and security, you name it. They also have been, and pardon my French here, excruciatingly dull. So far, the meetings and their stupefying statements have been a testimonial to Japan's skill at stating the ambiguous. Call it the opaque meetings. Journalists from around the Pacific rim have been desperately trying to find news as the 21 APEC leaders gather for their annual pow-wow this weekend.

     The annual "silly shirts"  photo shoot, in which leaders don native attire for the class picture of their summit is usually good news fodder, but is going to be a  big let-down this year. The leaders are merely being asked to show up wearing "smart casual" for the photo shoot on Saturday night, before they head inside for a Kabuki show.

   Which brings us back to Miim, the karaoke robot. She, er it, is one of 130 exhibits on display at  "Japan Experience", a government-sponsored exhibition in  the Pacific Yokohama convention center where the APEC meetings are taking place. The exhibit also features "personal mobility vehicles",  a cyborg suit named HAL that enables the wearer to lift really heavy stuff and perform heroically in disaster relief, a talking delivery robot, cute robotic seal pets for use in pediatric therapy, and much other cool stuff . 

    "Welcome to APEC Japan 2010," the anatomically correct Miim says. "This exhibition shows Japan's strengths and attractions. Please see, feel and touch advanced technology and initiatives of Japan."

Cure for lending constipation needed

Yes, the market for IPOs is opening up, investors are regaining confidence and the worst seems to be over, but challenges are still looming and there’s a dire need for a change in regulation. Or so suggested Shuaa Capitals’ chief Sameer al-Ansari.

“With the balance sheet of banks, whatever is keeping them constipated, we need to give them something to start. Banks have to be more comfortable and confident that there are no more shocks on the horizon,” said Ansari at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit in Dubai on Tuesday.

The right provisions need to be made — and that means more acknowledgment of non-performing loans — in turn bringing adequacy ratios down, so that banks get a boost and start lending again, Ansari noted.

“We need to open the tap a bit, even if its a drip,” the banking exec said, using hand gestures to illustrate his point. “We can’t have growth in the economy if its negative.”

Ansari, who’d made recommendations – simple to drastic – to decision makers in Dubai, suggesting solutions, cited the Irish example of gathering all bad debts linked to real estate and placing them in a government bank.

“It should be looked at here. If that’s what’s making the banks constipated, then lets do it!” he says.

Dubai, one of seven emirates that make-up the UAE federation, was hard hit by the global financial downturn and endured billions of dollars in projects cancellations, not to mention the $25 billion debt restructuring of Dubai World.

No bonds for Arabtec; not for now anyway

Just to be clear, Arabtec is not considering a convertible bond issue.

The builder has no need for funds and has adequate access to capital if needed. But nonetheless its chief financial officer Ziad Makhzoumi is watching the region’s increasing capital raising activities with interest.

“I don’t think we need any funding whatsoever… As a CFO I have to look at all the options all the time,” he told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit in Dubai on Monday.

Convertible bonds are an attractive way to raise funds for listed companies, he said, highlighting Emaar Properties’ recent issuance plans.

Earlier this month, Emaar, the builder of the world’s tallest tower in Dubai, outlined plans for a $500 million convertible bond issue.

Makhzoumi said he saw more convertible bonds coming to the market, but there was no mention at all of Arabtec.

Arabtec has expansion plans which include a push into Central Asian states like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which could be funded from internal resources, he said.

Is investor confidence returning to the Middle East?

A recovery in the Middle East and the prospects for investment are on the agenda at the Reuters Middle East and Investment Summit, taking place in Dubai, Riyadh, Cairo, Kuwait, Beirut, Bagdad, Abu Dhabi and London.

In the wake of Dubai’s debt crisis, which rocked financial markets globally and dented confidence in the region, top executives and officials will discuss whether the investment climate in the region is improving and confidence returning. 2011 will be a year of more restructurings, but the region’s capital needs will lead to a surge in debt issues and even a possible revival of the IPO market.

Reuters Middle East Investment Summit will generate exclusive stories, investable insights, online videos and blog postings. Check back here for more over the course of this week.

from Environment Forum:

Could “putting the cow inside the plant” make a new biofuel?

The Next Big Thing in biofuel might involve genetically engineered plants that digest themselves, making it cheaper to turn them into fuel. That's one of the new ideas that Arun Majumdar finds fascinating. As the head of the U.S. Energy Department's ARPA-E -- the path-breaking agency that aims come up with efficient, green energy solutions -- Majumdar said this concept is one of a few dozen that are in the development stage now.

Majumdar let his enthusiasm show as he described this project at the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit on Thursday. He was talking about a project in its early stages at Massachusetts-based Agrivida.

"If you look at biofuels, cellulosic biofuels  ...  you take agricultural waste, you separate out ... the cellulose, then you throw a bunch of enzymes at them. And these enzymes are there in the cow's gut, or termites, that break down this long chain polymer, this cellulose, into small bits and pieces called sugar molecules. And then you take those sugar molecules and feed them into another bug and then you produce gasoline," he said.

The costly part of this process, Majumdar said, is growing these enzymes in a bio-reactor instead of in a cow.

"What this company's doing is a very interesting idea. They take the gene sequences that produce enzymes and put them in the plant itself, so when the plant grows, it produces the enzymes free of cost." But isn't there a risk that the plants wouldn't grow, since they would carry enzymes that would make the plants self-digesting? One possible solution is what this start-up company is trying: make the enzymes inactive, and activate them later by changing temperature, humidity or acidity.

"It's supposed to chew itself from the inside," Majumdar said, with evident delight. "And I call this 'putting the cow inside the plant.' It's an amazing idea. Now I don't know whether it's going to work, but if it does, you essentially eliminated the cost of those enzymes, which is the really expensive part, and you create a more competitive pathway for biofuels than what is traditionally being done."

For more from the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit, click here.

Will Bjorn Lomborg be compared to Al Gore?

Bjorn Lomborg (left) worries that people will conclude he’s becoming like Al Gore (right).

At first sight, that sounds unthinkable.

Lomborg, a Danish statistician who wrote the book “The Skeptical Environmentalist”, argues that the world should develop cheap new green technologies before taking radical steps to fight global warming (…echoes of the policies of former U.S. President George W. Bush).

By contrast, former U.S. Vice President Gore won a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize after describing climate change as a “planetary emergency”.

But Lomborg  makes a joking comparison with Al Gore in an interview with the Reuters Global Climate and Environment Summit to illustrate how he reckons debate is often polarised between people who fear global warming means the planet is doomed and others who dismiss it all as a hoax.

Lomborg wants the world to invest $100 billion a year in research and development of new green technologies to help make renewable energies competitive with fossil fuels. The problem is, he says, that some people conclude he’s suddenly embracing Gore-style action to confront climate change.

He says people usually denounce him as a denier of climate change because he says the issue is not a top priority. On the other hand, he said: ”if you say as I do that we should spend $100 billion on this technology, people say: ‘Oh, he’s saying we must spend money, he must be Al Gore’.”

Is emerging Europe out of the woods yet?

A surge in portfolio inflows is flooding into emerging central Europe, although yield-hungry investors are picking solid policy and higher growth over countries still struggling to put the crisis behind them.

After deep contractions across the region, a two-speed recovery is underway, with countries boasting better debt fundamentals like Poland and the Czech Republic for the moment ahead of those who depend on foreign lending.

Investors are also dipping into countries like Hungary, but struggles by the new centre-right Fidesz government to get its budget deficit under control mean it is lagging for now, along with fellow International Monetary Fund benefactor Romania.

“There has… been clear differentiation between the more robust and the weaker economies of the region,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a research note on the region.

“We believe that the region’s stronger economies — namely, Poland, Turkey, Israel and the Czech Republic — will be the first to see an acceleration in financial inflows both in debt and, increasingly, equity.” Turkey and Israel are often grouped with emerging European markets.

Extremely easy monetary policy in the world’s developing economies, including expectations the Fed will push ahead with more asset-buying, plus continued worries over debt in troubled euro zone countries like Greece and Ireland have helped push investors into these higher-yielding countries.

But these new, more volatile, portfolio flows carry risks.