Blog

A bridge crossing the Skagit River in Northwest Washington State collapsed on Thursday, sending three vehicles into the river and injuring three people.

According to a report from Seattle’s local Fox affiliate, a bridge along I-5 about 60 miles north of Seattle collapsed, sending vehicles into the Skagit River 50 feet blow. People in those vehicles were reported to have climbed on top of their cars to stay out of the water. The injured persons are all reported to have survived with only minor injuries.

A Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) cited witnesses as saying the cause of the bridge collapse was an oversized load truck that struck the bridge, though the official cause of the collapse is still under investigation. The department has closed both directions of traffic on the I-5 in Skagit County, and is advising locals on possible detour routes. The National Transportation Safety Board will also be investigating the collapse, after which the WSDOT will remove the broken bridge and replace it.

(Image courtesy the Washington State Department of Transportation)

Good corporate governance is about many things — boards that act independently, robust shareholder rights, accurate accounting, reasonable and fair executive compensation, and so on. No single parameter defines good governance. It takes a village.

But with board independence in the spotlight recently, it’s easy to overlook another aspect of good board health that’s just as important to performance: diversity. While not all studies on board diversity reach the same conclusion, many agree that putting women on boards can be a good thing for shareholders. In particular, many studies agree that a critical mass of women on boards — variously defined, but often somewhere around three women or 30% of the board — is positively correlated with performance measures like return on equity, Tobin’s Q, lower cost of debt, or quality of earnings. Pension giant CalPERS noted in a 2009 report that “companies with more diverse boards…have higher performance on key financial metrics, such as return on equity, return on sales, and return on invested capital.”

Urban Outfitters’ recent move to nominate a woman to serve on its board ought to serve as a case in point. As company that markets fashion apparel, accessories, and home goods (at its namesake stores as well via its other brands, like Anthropologie and Free People), it seems reasonable to think that the perspectives of women could be useful to its board. Many shareholders agree. A 2011 shareholder proposal requesting simply a report on board diversity won 22% shareholder support, and a 2012 shareholder proposal requesting that the company commit to a policy of seeking women and minority candidates for every director search won 38% of the shareholder vote. A vote in favor of nearly 40% is considered a strong signal that an issue proposed for consideration should get serious attention, and action, from directors.
But this is where it gets complicated. In fact, neither proposal was adopted by the company, despite the strong showing of shareholder support. Urban Outfitters’ management has also recommended that shareholders vote against a shareholder resolution requesting that the company make racial and gender diversity part of every director search, just as it did in 2012. And the woman being added to the company’s board? In addition to being a senior manager at the company, she’s the CEO’s spouse.

It may be that she is quite capable of acting independently from company management, not to mention the CEO. But, in general, we as shareholders expect that company insiders and relatives are less likely to act independently, and decades’ of research confirms that the greater the role of families and insiders, the smaller the chances of true independence.

It’s not the first time that Urban Outfitters has nominated an insider to the board, either. As a whole Urban Outfitters’ board skirts the edges of listing and regulatory requirements for independence; two of the seven directors are identified as affiliates of the company and two, if the entire slate is elected, are insiders. One of the “affiliated” directors is the brother-in-law of the co-president of one of the company’s brands, and another is a partner in a law firm that got nearly $2 million in business from the company in its most recently completed fiscal year.

The value of board diversity ought to be in the fact that diverse perspectives increase a board’s independence and objectivity. Women, who have long been excluded from boards, can bring fresh perspectives to the boardroom. But the chances that those fresh perspectives will come from a company insider and family member of the current management are not especially high. Of the 13 companies Urban Outfitters lists as peers in its 2013 proxy statement (in order to benchmark executive compensation), all but three have more than one woman director. The median number of women on the boards of Urban Outfitters’ self-selected peer group? Three. One wonders if Urban Outfitters would have so readily kiboshed the proposed diversity initiatives if that decision had itself been put before a more diverse group.

Good governance in many ways is straightforward. Managing the corporation and overseeing the management are two fundamentally different roles. There are reams of examples of how bad things can get when those roles are blurred. Robert Monks and Nell Minow, in their classic book Corporate Governance, give vignettes from the governance of Enron, Tyco, Countrywide, Chesapeake Energy, Lehman Brothers and others that serve as ample warning on the dangers of having boards too cozy with management to question things that later cost billions of dollars and robbed thousands of Americans of their pension assets, jobs, and nest eggs.

It is past time for all companies to get serious about board diversity, and to do so in ways that comport with other parameters of good governance. Diversity is a source of independence, and independence is what makes boards valuable.

Digg’s new RSS reader will be out in about a month – but it won’t be a standalone app.

Instead, Digg’s new reader will simply be a part of Digg. Speaking at Internet Week New York, Digg CEO Andrew McLaughlin said that users will ”have one download, which is Digg, and the current Digg will have added onto it reader capabilities.”

Oh, and yes, Digg’s reader will be called “Digg Reader.”

Ever since Digg announced that they were working on their own reader, shortly after Google announced that they were killing Google Reader, the goal has been to build a replacement – something fast and simple that Google Reader users will want to adopt. Digg has said that apart from making it fast and simple, they really only want to make it synchronous across multiple devices and make it easy to import from existing Google Reader accounts.

Digg’s own surveys have shown that users want very little changed about Google Reader.

Another interesting thing that they found was that 40% of respondents said that they would pay for a Google Reader replacement – something that “pleased” them. They went on to say that they wanted their users ““to be customers, not our product.”

“Free products on the Internet don’t have a great track record. They tend to disappear, leaving users in a lurch. We need to build a product that people can rely on and trust will always be there for them. We’re not sure how pricing might work, but we do know that we’d like our users to be our customers, not our product. So when we asked survey participants whether or not they would be willing to pay, we were pleased to see that over 40% said yes.”

Although there’s no confirmation here, that makes it seem like Digg is at least strongly considering charging for Digg Reader. And if that’s the case, and it’s not even its own standalone app, is Digg just trying to charge people to use Digg?

Anyway, McLaughlin confirmed that Digg Reader will launch by the end of June, just in time for the Google Reader kill date of July 1st. Hopefully for Digg, that’s not too late. By then, users will have had months to find a replacement, and there are certainly plenty out there.

Remote control apps are increasingly versatile, allowing smartphone and tablet users to access and manage computers from the workplace, a holiday resort or the couch in my case. For Windows Phone 8 users the most popular choice is PC Remote but, late-yesterday, another app hit the Store.

“Many Windows Phone users have asked for Splashtop”, says Splashtop CEO Mark Lee. “We are excited to partner with Nokia and Microsoft to optimize and deliver the best-in-class Splashtop experience for Windows Phone 8”. The app allows folks to remotely access Linux, OS X and Windows-based computers straight from the tiled operating system. Let’s take a look at the features.

With Splashtop 2 for Windows Phone 8 users can remotely access and edit files, open applications (and play games), watch videos, stream music, move the mouse cursor and control various functions of the operating system. For instance, accessing a Windows 8 PC gives users the ability to trigger the Charms and Start menus or switch between multiple monitors.

The app, unlike PC Remote, automatically matches the resolution of the Windows Phone 8 device to the connected computer screens. That’s a tad annoying as the former is restricted to 1280 by 768 whereas even basic laptops come with larger resolution displays (like 1366 by 768, 1600 by 900 or 1920 by 1080).

Splashtop 2 requires users to install a server application on computers (multiple ones can be controlled) and log in with a Splashtop account on each device. The latter makes the app easy to use in different scenarios, as folks no longer have to know and type in IP addresses and ports in order to enable a connection.

Splashtop 2, “in coordination with Nokia and Microsoft”, is free for Windows Phone 8 users until August 31. There is no word on pricing afterwards.

Splashtop 2 is available to download from the Windows Phone Store.

In the name of science, 2,500 people have participated in Harvard’s Personal Genome Project, anonymously sharing DNA data along with such information as histories of depression and sexually transmitted disease. But Harvard Privacy Lab director Latanya Sweeney demonstrates what “anonymous” really means. Of 579 participants who listed their birth dates, ZIP codes, and genders, her team was able to identify 42% by name using public records. Previously she was able to identify up to 87% of the U.S. population with just ZIP code, birth date, and gender.

As the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) adopts new types of globally distributed technologies, it is working to improve communications for servicemembers, both on the battlefield and with family at home.

While those of us in the corporate world may take for granted the ability to clearly relay a message between multiple parties, communications in the military’s IT world can be critically important.

The military’s shift in technology is happening at all levels and the DOD is fully embracing the new infrastructure push. Just two years after its inception, the Department of Defense Enterprise Email system has reached its one millionth user. This milestone means that the DOD Enterprise Email (DEE) is now one of the largest independent email systems in the world.

“For the war fighters, using DEE means wherever they are, they can use their email, whenever they need it. It is not necessary to start a new email account when you move or deploy. It is as mobile as the servicemember,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

With so many important users at any given time, the DOD and DISA are working to ensure optimal performance and maximum communication capabilities for U.S. troops. The landscape for the typical soldier or sailor has changed quite a bit. Just a few years ago, communicating with home meant a long wait and a short chat. Now, with better WAN connectivity and solid infrastructure, U.S. soldiers based all over the world can connect with friends and family via everyday connection means. This could mean that a soldier at Bagram Airbase can communicate with his or her loved ones via Skype, Facebook and even Gmail.

These are truly common tools that civilians use every day. Now, because of the advancement in global distributed infrastructure designs, these same platforms can be used to bring home a little closer to the people defending the national interests abroad.

Here’s a look at some of the behind the scenes infrastructure projects which are helping to bolster all cloud, Internet and WAN-based communications for the military.

Data Center Consolidation

The data center is changing to support more cloud, more data and a lot more users. The DOD quickly realized that it needed need to jump on this evolution bandwagon and update its data center infrastructure. With almost 1,200 data centers, there was a direct need to consolidate and deploy better, more efficient technologies. In fact, the same press release indicates that in using DEE, the DOD is doing just that.

DEE saves millions of dollars for the department by leveraging the buying power of the entire department. Enterprise services reduce costs by consolidating system hardware requirements and maintenance, eliminating unnecessary and inefficient administration and resource allocation. That means the military services and defense organizations using enterprise services can save money in IT services to preserve more resources for their primary mission.

Unified computing systems, converged infrastructures and intelligent hardware components are finding their way into the DOD’s data center environment. These high-density environments are capable of being locked down, diversified and given the opportunity to support numerous different services. These technologies are capable of virtualization and even logical segmentation of workloads. This means that administrators are able to granularly control how communications and data enter and leave their data centers.

Improved Global Infrastructure

Directly related to these consolidation and efficiency efforts has been the direct improvement within the global data center and communications infrastructure. What can be achieved now with intelligent switching technologies is truly amazing. One logical switch controller is able to deliver hundreds – even thousands – of virtual connections. These connections are able to be controlled and can cross-communicate when necessary. Virtual appliances can be deployed within various points in an environment creating a highly agile system. Software-defined networking has helped the DOD create more redundancy on a global scale. Furthermore, the increase in bandwidth and direct communication links has improved the type of information that can be passed point-to-point. Plus, the speed at which such data travels has greatly increased as well.

Interest in social mapping and navigation provider Waze is reportedly heating up, with Google and several other “large tech companies” currently holding talks with the Israel-based company. Bloomberg on Friday reported that Google is considering a bid that exceeds Facebook’s earlier offer, which reportedly fell between $800 million and $1 billion. Earlier rumors suggested Facebook and Waze’s negotiations had stalled due to a disagreement over whether or not Waze’s Israeli research and development center would remain open. According to a follow-up from Israel-based newspaper Calcalist, which first broke the story that Facebook was in talks to acquire Waze, Google may face some trouble if it’s serious about a possible deal — Facebook and Waze have reportedly just signed an agreement that prevents Waze from negotiating with other companies for the time being.

Cool ideas for new businesses are a dime a dozen. That — plus all the new tech enablers such as instant websites and e-commerce platforms — makes it deceptively easy to start up a new venture. The bigger challenge is to start up a big venture that just happens to be small at first.

Fortunately, real entrepreneurs are growth-obsessed: they cringe when you call them “small.” In fact, I don’t think you can call something entrepreneurship unless it is driven by big vision, big aspiration, and a burning desire and ability to grow — that is a key message in my new book, Worthless, Impossible and Stupid (due out in July). In the book, I tell the stories of scale-up entrepreneurs from around the world, and how they beat the odds to make a mark on their markets.

Here’s a quick test to help you figure out whether you are cut out to be a scale-up entrepreneur. Just answer each question as honestly as you can, Agree or Disagree.

1. Something inside compels me to make something that will impact the marketplace.
2. I am great at selling things to people that they may not know they want, nor think they have the money to buy.
3. I have people on my team who are better than me in several areas of knowledge or practice.
4. My venture already has the procedures, policies, and processes in place to be ten times the size we are today.
5. When I don’t know what my next step is, I have experienced people I can turn to for ideas.
6. There is money out there to fuel a venture that is growing fast; I just have to find it when I am ready.
7. When I achieve my objectives I keep raising the bar higher and higher.
8. I am one of the best sales people I know.
9. Think big; thinking small is a crime.
10. I know entrepreneurs just like me who have grown big, fast.
11. The sales process is just starting when the customer first says no.
12. If my venture stands in one place too long, it runs the risk of perishing. We have to keep moving forward.
13. I know how to find great people to hire.
14. Nothing gives me a bigger rush than closing a big sale.
15. It is more important to know of a big problem that customers have and then look for a solution, than it is to have a solution that is looking for important problems to solve.
16. I used to think our great technology would take us to leadership in our market — now I realize it is our team, our organization, our marketing and our ambition to sell.
17. Even though I am a startup, I think more like a market leader than a small business.
18. (extra credit) If Isenberg were smart, he would make millions from this test and retire.

If you scored 16 or more, the sky is the limit. Go for it.

Why the emphasis on sales? I recently met the head of a startup accelerator who said that entrepreneurs should not be concerned about selling; they can always go out and hire a vice president of sales when they are market ready. Indeed, many would-be entrepreneurs who are drawn by the romantic vision of developing a snazzy new app or product pooh-pooh selling as beneath their dignity.

I don’t think so. I learned a lasting lesson when I was in charge of the Japan market at Voltaire, the Israeli pioneer in the lab and field proven Infiniband open standard technology that makes super computers out of huge racks of commodity computers. Voltaire got the technology down pat but struggled with selling a product that enterprise customers were leery of. It was the CEO’s incredible persistence (and experience) in all aspects of selling — sales organization, compensation, pipeline management, and selling skills — that not only saved Voltaire from oblivion, but eventually propelled it to a NASDAQ IPO. Sale is a big part of scale.

Why the emphasis on attitude? I have found that ambition, which seems to have become a dirty word in some cultures, is a continental divide between self-employment and entrepreneurship. Without it, you will always be a mom-and-pop operation. In Denmark, they call this the “BMW Syndrome” — make enough to buy my BMW, and I have made it. Nothing wrong with that, it just isn’t entrepreneurship. As Apax founder Sir Ronald Cohen puts it, “Your business will grow to the size of your vision .”

Internet Explorer’s tight integration into Windows 8, coupled with the fact that IE10 is actually pretty good, means the veteran browser is enjoying something of a resurgence these days. Humorous advertising poking fun at the browser’s past (while distancing itself from it) has also encouraged many ex-users to take a fresh look.

I chatted with Internet Explorer’s Marketing Manager Rebecca Wolff about the “Browser you loved to hate” campaign, asked her what major changes we can expect to see in IE11, and found out why embracing web standards is now a major priority for Microsoft.

BN: Has the “Browser you loved to hate” campaign changed public opinion of Internet Explorer?

RW: We’ve seen some great feedback from the community on the campaign and our videos like “Do you know this guy?” and “Child of the 90s.” In a little over a year since we launched the campaign, we’ve had over 35 million total video views worldwide, so we know we’re reaching some new users and reconnecting with some old ones, hopefully piquing their interest about the entirely new Internet Explorer. IE has been posting some of its highest share numbers in years the past few months, so that’s pretty encouraging too.

BN: Are there any areas where you know you can be doing better?

RW: When it comes to the web, it can never be fast enough and safe enough, so even where we’re leading in performance like hardware accelerated graphics and malware protection with SmartScreen, we know we’ll just keep investing. We see touch performance as the new measuring stick for fast, so we hold the bar very high for what great touch performance for the real web means — pages that pan and zoom with buttery smoothness and a user experience that really embraces the great capabilities of new mobile touch devices like Surface.

BN: Any major changes to look forward to IE11?

RW: We don’t have any additional information on future versions of IE or Windows to share today, but suffice it to say it’s going to build on a lot of the great work we did with IE10. Of course, if you want just a little hint, there’s always this Vine…

BN: Do you have any idea of how the browser is being used in Windows 8 — by which I mean, what percentage are using the Modern UI version vs. desktop.

RW: We’re getting great feedback from our customers on both experiences, and the immersive experience in the Windows 8 UI is getting particularly high marks from people for things like gaming, watching movies or reading web content. People also tell us how much they like multi-tasking with it — snapping a web page alongside another app, for example. We don’t typically provide percentage breakouts for usage, but our internal telemetry from millions of Windows 8 users through the opt-in customer experience program shows that tablet users spend the majority of their browsing time in the Windows 8 UI, which is great since we built the modern IE10 experience to be perfect for touch on a tablet.

BN: What are the challenges of developing two versions of the same browser?

RW: IE is one browser — one HTML5 engine, one JavaScript engine, one networking stack — with user experiences that are optimized for both the immersive, touch-first Windows 8 UI and the Windows desktop. We have a point of view that your experience of the web shouldn’t be compromised on modern touch devices. Getting the touch experience right, with great touch performance for the real web, with pages that pan and zoom, a really fluid feel and a user experience that fully respects the needs of new mobile touch devices; that’s a challenge. The team wrote a blog on that recently that’s worth a read since it talks about some of the things we did to make sure the touch experience was really great.

BN: What kind of innovations will we see in future versions of Internet Explorer?

RW: We don’t have any specific information on future versions of IE to share, but touch will continue to be a big area of focus for us. As more and more touch devices come to market, we want to keep raising the bar on responsiveness and the best ways to experience web browsing on modern, touch devices.

BN: Will we get to see the Chrome and Windows 8 style login and sync feature added to IE?

RW: Again, we can’t speak to any new features coming to future versions of IE just yet, but I think our customers are going to like what they see. We do currently sync your IE Favorites (or bookmarks), Pinned Sites, and browser history across Windows 8 PCs that are connected to your Microsoft Account.

BN: Why can’t newer versions of IE run on Windows XP?

RW: Starting with IE9, we started to really take advantage of both a modern OS like Windows 7 and modern PC hardware — tapping into things like the GPU with hardware acceleration. With both IE9 and IE10, we want to ensure users have the best possible experience, which means being on modern hardware with a modern OS — so that we can offer features like hardware accelerated HTML5.

BN: Why the sudden interest in HTML5 and other assorted open web standards?

RW: We know all too well about the issues of a single browser ecosystem and the barriers that creates for innovation. We don’t want to go down that road again and so we really started to change things up with IE9. That was a significant release for us in terms of showing our commitment to supporting web standards, and we continued that with IE10, which has a 60 percent increase in supported modern web standards. We’ve also doing more to help developers write cross-browser and cross-platform with tools and resources like modern.IE, and providing examples — including code samples — of what can be done on the web through experiences like the The Hunger Games Explorer and Contre Jour. This will continue to be a huge focus for us moving forward too.

BN: Any features you admire in other browsers?

RW: We’ve been pushing support for modern web standards and interoperability across all browsers for some time now. It’s great to see the continued development to these standards and the specs that come out from standards bodies like the W3C from the folks at Google, Mozilla, Apple and Opera. You may have seen this recently with the cross-platform pointer events work. With this common goal of having the same markup run across all browsers, web developers can spend less time worrying about coding to a particular browser and instead spend more time building great web sites and web experiences. I’d also give a shout out to Mozilla’s efforts around privacy and how there are trying to better protect users online with privacy protections in Firefox.

Ares Management said Friday that Charles Steel has joined the Ares Private Equity Group as a Managing Director and will be based in London. Steel previously worked at The Carlyle Group from 2001 to 2010 in European leveraged buyouts.

PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES & LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ares Management LLC announced today that Charles Steel has joined the Ares Private Equity Group as a Managing Director, based in London.

“We are pleased to welcome Charles to Ares Management,” said David Kaplan and Bennett Rosenthal, Senior Partners of Ares and co-Heads of the firm’s global Private Equity activities. “Charles’ extensive experience investing across a range of transaction types in Europe will be of great value as we invest a portion of our latest $4.7 billion corporate opportunities fund outside of the United States.”
“I am excited to be joining Ares Management at this time,” said Mr. Steel. “The firm has established significant resources across its five European offices and has demonstrated a multi-year track record in this region’s corporate credit marketplace. I look forward to working with my new colleagues to source and structure compelling private equity investments.”
Charles Steel previously worked at The Carlyle Group from 2001 to 2010 in European leveraged buyouts, and played a leading role in a number of significant investments for the firm. Prior to that, Mr. Steel was a member of the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs since 1998. Most recently, he served as an adviser to Tony Blair on Finance & Business Development at the Office of the Quartet Representative in Jerusalem. He holds a B.A. in History with Honors from Cambridge University.
About Ares Management LLC
Ares Management LLC is a global alternative asset manager and SEC registered investment adviser, which had approximately $59 billion of committed capital under management and approximately 560 employees as of March 31, 2013. Ares is headquartered in Los Angeles with professionals located across the United States, Europe and Asia and invests across the capital structure – from senior debt to common equity. Ares’ investment activities are managed by dedicated teams in its Capital Markets, Private Debt, Private Equity and Real Estate investment platforms. Ares Management was built upon the fundamental principle that each platform benefits from being part of the greater whole. This multi-asset class synergy provides its professionals with insights into industry trends, access to significant deal flow and the ability to assess relative value.
For additional information, visit www.aresmgmt.com.
About Ares Private Equity
The Ares Private Equity Group manages approximately $9 billion of committed capital as of March 31, 2013 through five private equity funds: Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund, L.P. (2003), Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund II, L.P. (2006), Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund III, L.P. (2008), Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund IV, L.P. (2012) and Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund Asia, L.P. (2011). Unlike many traditional private equity funds that are principally focused on control buyouts and may be restricted by charter or a lack of experience, the Ares Private Equity Group pursues a range of creative transaction structures in an effort to maximize the risk/reward profile of our capital. The combination of our flexible capital approach with the broad resources of Ares Management widens our universe of potential investment opportunities and allows us not only to remain active, but highly selective in making investments in all market environments.

The post Steel Joins Ares Private Equity Group appeared first on peHUB.

Phew! Is this week over yet? Yahoo dominated the headlines with a $1.1 billion Tumblr purchase, a Flickr relaunch and a new New York office. But Microsoft made a doozy of an announcement with the unveiling of its new (and gigantic) Xbox One TV/game console. Given all this news, the departure of some high-level HTC execs was well timed for that company.

This week’s GigaOM Show covers it all, and even features a guest appearance by AllThingsD‘s Peter Kafka.

(Download this episode)

The GigaOM Show podcast feed

iTunes

Stitcher Radio

SHOW NOTES:
Hosts: Chris Albrecht, Tom Krazit
Guests: Peter Kafka, Janko Roettgers and Kevin Tofel

Yahoo buys Tumblr and what it all means!

Microsoft’s TV dreams inside the Xbox One and what it all means!

HTC’s size problem, Android, and what it all means!

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro

Toshiba Corp and U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) are among those expected to bid for Panasonic Corp’s healthcare business, sources told Reuters.

(Reuters) – Toshiba Corp and U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) are among those expected to bid for Panasonic Corp’s healthcare business, financial sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Panasonic is looking to raise as much as $1 billion by selling shares in the healthcare unit, whose products include blood sugar monitoring equipment, hearing aids and electronic medical record-keeping systems.

The company, which is being advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the sale, has set a deadline of Monday for first-round bids, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bidding is not public.

Panasonic declined to comment on the sale process.

About 10 investment funds, including KKR, Bain Capital, Carlyle Group, TPG Capital Management, CVC Capital Partners and Unison Capital are expected to enter bids, the sources said.

Japanese electronics conglomerate Toshiba and a handful of manufacturers are also planning to bid, they said.
Representatives of Toshiba and KKR declined to comment.

Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga said in March that he would seek a partner “with medical knowledge and skills and capital for future growth” to invest in the healthcare unit as part of a wider company revamp to bolster profitability.

Tsuga did not say how much of the unit he planned to sell. The business generated a profit of 8.7 billion yen ($85.77 million) on 134.3 billion yen in sales in the previous business year ended in March.

Investment funds are eyeing the growth potential of its blood sugar monitoring devices in markets such as China and India, while Toshiba sees the deal as a way to bolster its medical equipment operations, the sources said.

The company is aiming to narrow the field to two or three bidders in June, conduct a second round of bidding in July and enter exclusive talks with one firm around August.

The post Toshiba, KKR to Bid for Panasonic Healthcare Unit: Sources appeared first on peHUB.

3i Group PLC is taking over the European infrastructure fund management business run by Barclays as part of a plan to boost fee income from public-private partnerships and energy investment projects, Reuters is reporting.

(Reuters) – 3i Group PLC is taking over the European infrastructure fund management business run by Barclays as part of a plan to boost fee income from public-private partnerships and energy investment projects.

The private equity firm, which is aiming to become one of Europe’s biggest investors in infrastructure, said the deal announced on Friday would complement its existing business at 3i Infrastructure and help it to raise new funds and source new investment opportunities.

Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management Limited (BIFM) has around 780 million pounds ($1.2 billion) of assets under management and is run by an investment team based in London and Paris. Since its launch in 1996, the business has invested 1.7 billion pounds across six funds.

Financial terms of the proposed transaction were not disclosed but the annual asset management fees earned by BIFM are expected to cover its operating costs, 3i said.

The post 3i says to Buy Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management appeared first on peHUB.

Former News Corp president Peter Chernin and private equity fund Guggenheim Digital Media have placed bids for Hulu, sources told Reuters, triggering a tug-of-war for the online video service.

(Reuters) – Former News Corp president Peter Chernin and private equity fund Guggenheim Digital Media have placed bids for Hulu, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, triggering a tug-of-war for the online video service.

Satellite operator DirecTV and cable operator Time Warner Cable Inc also put in bids, one of the people told Reuters.

Hulu was put on the auction block this year for the second time after disagreement between owners News Corp and Walt Disney Co on how best to operate a Web service that streams TV programs and other videos, Reuters previously reported.

In April, Chernin placed a bid for $500 million, plus an unspecified additional sum to cover Hulu’s debt and programming commitments.

Representatives of Guggenheim, Time Warner Cable and DirecTV had no comment. A spokesman for Chernin could not be reached.

Hulu says on its website that it has more than 3 million subscribers paying $7.99 a month for its premium service and that it generated revenues of around $700 million last year. It sells advertising for its free service.

It is being advised in the sale by Guggenheim Partners, a separately funded group from the digital media unit that placed the bid.

The Los Angeles Times initially reported the bids On Thursday.

The post Hulu Video Site Auction Attracts Four Bidders: Sources appeared first on peHUB.

Google Inc is considering buying Israeli mobile satellite navigation start-up Waze Inc, which may lead to a bidding war with Facebook Inc, Bloomberg news reported.

(Reuters) – Google Inc is considering buying Israeli mobile satellite navigation start-up Waze Inc, which may lead to a bidding war with Facebook Inc, Bloomberg news reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Waze is seeking more than $1 billion and is fielding expressions of interest from multiple parties, said Bloomberg, citing a source.

Other media have reported that Facebook Inc has held talks to buy Waze for as much as $1 billion.

Google and other parties approached Waze after the Facebook talks became public but none of the bidders are close to clinching a deal, Bloomberg said, adding that the start-up might decide to remain independent.

Waze could not immediately be reached for comment. Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Waze uses satellite signals from members’ smartphones to generate maps and traffic data, which it then shares with other users, offering real-time traffic info.

The post Google, Like Facebook, in Talks to Buy Waze for About $1 Billion: Report appeared first on peHUB.

A week ago BBC iPlayer finally made its debut on Windows Phone 8, but the existing Android version has been far from forgotten about. BBC iPlayer 1.7 has hit Google Play and now boasts support for 10 inch tablets.

While owners of larger tablets previously had to pay a visit to the iPlayer website, UK viewers can now enjoy their favorite programmes directly in the app. If you’re nursing a smaller 7-incher, there’s no need to feel left out. The UI for more diminutive tablet and phones has been updated with a few tweaks as well.

Anyone holding out for the video downloads that are already enjoyed by users of the iOS version of the app may take heart in the update description. Developers state that “work continues” on this feature, although no timeframe is suggested.

The app can be downloaded free of charge from Google Play.

Former child actress and Nickelodeon star Amanda Bynes has been arrested on marijuana-related charges.

According to an Associated Press report, Bynes was arrested in her Manhattan apartment on Thursday evening on charges of reckless endangerment, tampering with evidence, and possession of marijuana. The actress was reportedly smoking marijuana in the lobby of her building when the doorman called police. Bynes retreated to her apartment when police arrived, where she allegedly threw a bong out of a window.

New York’s NBC 4 is also reporting that police took Bynes to Roosevelt Hospital to undergo psychiatric evaluation before taking her in for processing. She is expected to appear in court on Friday. Bynes is currently on probation for driving on a suspended license.

Since last year, Bynes has been exhibiting bizarre behavior, starting with a string of driving-related arrests that included a hit-and-run incident involving a police officer’s car. After losing her driver’s license, the actress moved to New York City and began using her Twitter account to chronicle strange experiments with makeup and nudity. Just this week, Bynes threatened to sue InTouch magazine for publishing photos of her with what appears to be drugs in her apartment.