Sony working on e-paper watch

Sony is developing a watch made out of electronic paper for release as soon as next year in a trial of the company’s new venture-style approach to creating products.

Sony Corp is developing a watch made out of electronic paper for release as soon as next year in a trial of the company's new venture-style approach to creating products, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The watch's face and wrist band will be made from a patented material that allows the entire surface area to function as a display and change its appearance, the people said, asking not to be named because it hasn't been announced. The device will emphasize style, rather than trying to outdo more technological offerings like Apple Inc's watch and Sony's own SmartWatch, they said. 

At stake is more than a win against Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. A decade of cost reductions and job cuts has soured Sony's culture of innovation, once celebrated for the Walkman and the Trinitron television. Chief executive officer Kazuo Hirai formed a business creation division this year under his direct control to fast-track promising products, and the watch is one of the effort's first results. 

"The innovation programme is very important, but it will take time and require some risk-taking," said Sadao Nagaoka, a professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo who studies innovation and serves as an economic adviser to Japan's Patent Office. "It's not that Sony ran out of new ideas, but rather, it's taking too long to restructure, and gigantic losses have starved new businesses of funds." 

New ideas
Hirai's new division is aiming to come up with products and services that don't fit the mold of Sony's existing businesses. 

Besides the e-paper watch, the group is developing technology building blocks designed to help professionals and amateurs rapidly create prototypes of new products. The MESH project — for make, experience and share — is a collection of sensors, light-emitting diodes and buttons encased in colorful blocks smaller than a pack of chewing gum. The devices are linked wirelessly and can be operated via a tablet interface, friendly to people without programming or engineering skills. 

The division also includes Sony's Seed Acceleration Program, which was set up so any employee with a good idea can pitch for venture financing. Would-be entrepreneurs make their proposals either to other employees or to a panel of outside experts, in which case their pitch remains anonymous, said one of the people. The startup process includes an audition, incubation and implementation stages that emphasize speed and profitability. 

Teams of up to five people face off every three months and can include outsiders, according to an internal newsletter published in July. Those that pass have at most six months to prepare a business plan and may work on the ideas full-time. The final product could fall under an existing division or become an independent company. The first round, held in June, attracted 187 applications, of which 80 passed to the next stage, according to the document. 

Litmus test
Koji Kurata, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Sony, declined to comment when reached by phone yesterday. 

The e-paper watch will be a litmus test for Sony's new division. Though the market for wearable technology is still small, with only 22 million of the gadgets sold worldwide this fiscal year, the industry is set to grow fivefold in the next five years, according to MM Research Institute Ltd. More than half of all wearable devices already target the wrist, with competition Fitbit Inc's rubber band-like fitness trackers to the $780 luxury Veldt timepieces. 

Focusing on appearance may help distinguish Sony's new product from the crowd of devices serving as a second screen for smartphones. The company's own SmartWatch acts as a music player remote control, while Samsung's Galaxy Gear offers hands-free calls. Both push e-mail and Facebook notifications and require a phone. 

General ugliness
Consumers surveyed by Nomura Research Institute cited the general ugliness of wearables as the third-biggest obstacle to adoption, after price and weight. Apple, which hired celebrity designer Marc Newson in September, will offer a choice of stainless steel, aluminum and 18-karat gold when its watch goes on sale next year. 

"Smartwatches don't sell now because there is little reason to buy one, since your smartphone can do it all anyway," said Taichiro Nakayama, a senior consultant at Nomura Research in Tokyo. "Many people choose their watches based on the brand and design. Convincing them to replace what's on their wrist now is no mean feat." 

Hard things
Hirai has struggled to turn the company around as he faces rising competition in mobile phones and games, and soft demand for televisions and cameras. Sony is set to pile up more than 1 trillion yen ($8.5 billion) of losses since 2010. 

Hirai sounded an optimistic note when he addressed investors in May, saying the innovation programme will create new businesses while also nurturing young talent. He said it will become "the driving force for our new Sony." 

A Sony engineer who participated in the programme said it has created a stir among younger employees, though there are still hesitations about trying something that may fail. He chose to pitch his project to a panel of outside experts rather than putting it up for a public vote, in part because he didn't want his bosses to know he was trying to leave. The engineer, who asked not to be named because he's not authorized to talk about the programme, said his proposal didn't get funding. 

"Sony's trouble is not just with targeting the right technologies — they also have problems in terms of management, corporate governance and so on," said Keun Lee, a professor of economics at Seoul National University who writes about disruptive innovation. "Tapping diverse sources for knowledge and communicating across the company's silos can be one source of recovery.
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Samsung seeks to block Nvidia chips from US: Report

Samsung has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission seeking to block chips made by Nvidia Corp from the US market, Bloomberg reported.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission seeking to block computer-graphics chips made by Nvidia Corp from the US market, Bloomberg reported. 

Samsung had accused Nvidia of infringing several of its chip-related patents and for making false claims about its products, counter-suing after Nvidia filed a suit against the company in September. 

The Korean company's lawsuit came after Nvidia accused it and rival Qualcomm Inc of infringing patents on its graphics-processing unit (GPU). 

Samsung, which had filed the lawsuit in a US federal court on November 4, is seeking damages for deliberate infringement of several technical patents, including a few that govern the way semiconductors buffer and use data. 

The Bloomberg report said that the ITC complaint also named computer-parts manufacturers Biostar Microtech International Corp and Elitegroup Computer Systems Co.

Twitter: India among our fastest growing markets

"India is one of our fastest growing markets and we will be investing more here," Twitter VP, global media, Katie Jacobs Stanton said.

Buoyed by the rising penetration of internet in the country, a top official from Twitter has said that India is one of the fastest growing market for the website.

The US-based social networking platform said it will be investing more in India, which industry body IAMAI has predicted will surpass the US by December this year in terms of internet users.

"India is a big market for us. It is one of our fastest growing markets and we will be investing more here," Twitter VP, global media, Katie Jacobs Stanton said at a conference.

She added that 78% of the traffic on Twitter now comes from outside the US, signifying the growing importance of emerging markets.



According to its latest quarterly report, for the three months ended September 30, 2014, Twitter had 284 million average monthly active users (MAUs) spanning nearly every country.

Users outside the US constituted 78% of its average MAUs, but the international revenue, as determined on the basis of the billing location of its advertisers, was only 34% of its consolidated revenue in the three months ended September 30, 2014.

Stanton further said: "India is a growing market, which can be ascertained by the fact that the Lok Sabha elections generated about 60 million tweets."



Speaking at a discussion on whether social media is killing big media, she said Twitter is a tech company in the media business.

"We are not here to put media out of business. In fact, journalists were the first users of the median to break and consume news," Stanton added.

London Evening Standard editor Sarah Sands said the paper had turnaround at a time when print has been declared doomed, but added that like other organizations, the paper is on a multi-platform format.

Both Stanton and Sands agreed that social media has been a game changer for the way the media operates, with the latest proof being Prime Minister Narendra Modi breaking the news of president Barrack Obama's India visit as the chief guest for the Republic Day on Twitter
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Indian-American's internet TV startup files for bankruptcy

Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia said the court decision created "regulatory and legal uncertainty" that proved insurmountable.

 Aereo Inc, the online video streaming company backed by media mogul Barry Diller, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Chapter 11 filing on Thursday night came five months after the US Supreme Court said Aereo violated broadcasters' copyrights by capturing live and recorded programmes on miniature antennas and transmitting them to subscribers who paid $8 to $12 a month.

That decision effectively forbade New York-based Aereo's business model, an attempt to offer a less-expensive alternative to cable television.

Chief executive officer Chet Kanojia said the court decision created "regulatory and legal uncertainty" that proved insurmountable.

"A little over three years ago, the team at Aereo set out to build a better television experience for the consumer," Kanojia said in a blog post. "We knew we had touched a nerve, had created something special, and had a built something meaningful for consumers."

Ultimately, he said, "the challenges have proven too difficult to overcome."

In a filing with the US Bankruptcy Court in New York, chief financial officer Ramon Rivera said getting protection from creditors should provide "necessary breathing room" for Aereo to sell its assets, recapitalize or restructure.

The privately held company had been trying to persuade regulators to declare it eligible for a license available to cable systems, but Rivera said the timing was "uncertain."

Lawton Bloom, a principal at Argus Management Corp in New York who specializes in restructurings and crisis management, was named Aereo's chief restructuring officer.

Kanojia owns 42.32% of the company, and Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp holds 23.3%, according to Aereo's bankruptcy petition. Aereo had raised about $95.6 million in equity financing.

An IAC spokeswoman said Diller was not available to comment.

The 6-3 Supreme Court decision was a victory for broadcasters such as CBS Corp, Comcast Corp's NBC, Walt Disney Co's ABC and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's Fox network.

Aereo suspended its streaming service, which it said had been available in 11 US metropolitan areas, three days after the decision. On November 12, it laid off 74 employees, leaving 14.

In court papers, Aereo said it had about $20.5 million of assets and $4.2 million of debts
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Microsoft: Compared to Tim Cook and Marissa Mayer, we are not overpaying our new CEO

By Microsoft's calculation, Nadella is being paid $25.1 million for 2014 (without his one-time $65 million stock grant that he can't touch until 2019.) 

Investor watchdog organization Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) caused a stir last week by telling Microsoft investors that Satya Nadella's pay package was too high.
It advocated that they vote no on the "say on pay" advisory vote during Microsoft's shareholder meeting December 3.

As part of his promotion, Nadella was granted a starter kit of stock valued at about $65 million which won't begin to vest until 2019. Plus, he got another one-time stock grant worth $13.5 million in August 2013 to keep him around during the CEO search process. It vests over seven years.

In 2014, his base salary is $918,917 for a role he assumed in February. (ISS calculates his full year base at $1.2 million) and a cash bonus of $3.6 million.

But Nadella isn't like the two previous CEOs. Both Bill Gates, the founder, and Steve Ballmer, one of Microsoft's earliest employees, owned massive stakes from the get-go. With Nadella, Microsoft has crafted a brand new pay-for-performance model.
So Nadella will be eligible for an annual $13.2 million stock award, with a complicated vesting schedule, that he'll unlock if he hits certain performance targets.

"Over 80% of the reward opportunity is performance-based measured by our total shareholder return ("TSR") relative to the S&P 500. To earn the target value of this award, Microsoft's TSR must exceed the 60th percentile of the S&P 500 over each of three overlapping five-year performance periods that extend to 2021," chairman John Thompson wrote in a letter to shareholders about the pay plan.





ISS calculates the whole starter package to be worth $90 million and complains that the performance targets he's supposed to hit are too vague ("lacks a strong connection to objectively measured company performance"). That's why they think his pay is too high, according a report shared with Business Insider.
A Microsoft spokesperson tells us this is misleading because a good chunk of that stock won't begin to available to him for five years. Plus, the value of another chunk is based on performance targets and isn't known yet. It depends on how well the company is doing.

By Microsoft's calculation, Nadella is being paid $25.1 million for 2014 (without his one-time $65 million stock grant that he can't touch until 2019.) Microsoft tells investors they are aiming for his annual pay to be $18 million, $13 million of it as stock awarded based on performance. (This excludes that $65 million as it vests and the $13 million chunk issued in 2014 as it vests).

By the way, Microsoft also agreed to a $17.4 million golden parachute.

How does that compare to others?

Oracle is paying its new co-CEOs Safra Catz and Mark Hurd $37.7 million apiece for their first year. That was a pay cut from $44 million the year before. (Larry Ellison is making $67 million in 2014).

Tim Cook was granted a staggering $378 million one-time stock grant when he took over as CEO, which has vastly grown in value. Between a $4 million salary and about $70 million of his stock options that vested, he made $74 million in 2013.

Marissa Mayer was paid $36.6 million her first year as the CEO of Yahoo.

A Microsoft spokesperson tells us that when adding in their one-time stock chunks, Tim Cook's annualized pay is $40.4 million, Eric Schmidt's annualized pay is $32.9 million, and Marissa Mayer's annualized pay is $24.3 million. When looking at it that way, Microsoft feels that Nadella isn't overpaid at all.

Of course, if all of this goes as planned, and Microsoft's stock continues to rise, his pay will be much higher in the next seven years. On the other hand, we doubt that any investor advocacy group will complain about that
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