$3 million fine on German automaker, BMW

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced on Friday, February 10, that the German automaker, BMW, has to pay $3 million in fine as the company has not told about the safety defects earlier than expected and in its full form.

“It’s critical to the safety of the driving public that defects and recalls are reported in short order,” said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland. “NHTSA expects all manufacturers to address automotive safety issues quickly and in a forthright manner.”

NHTSA said, "As part of today's settlement, BMW of North America, LLC and its parent company Bayerische Motoren Werke AG agreed to make internal changes to its recall decision-making process to ensure timely reporting to consumers and the federal government in the future."

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Fourth quarter results by Sprint Nextel

“Our strong fourth quarter performance illustrates the power of matching iconic devices like the iPhone with our simple, unlimited plans and industry-leading customer experience,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, who is hopeful about the future of the company. “During the past year, Sprint added more than 5 million net new customers and grew wireless service revenue by more than 5 percent, including 17 percent for the Sprint platform. This momentum gives us confidence as we execute our Network Vision upgrade and 4G LTE roll-out.”

From Saypeople,

Sprint Nextel reported, on Wednesday, $1.3 billion of net losses or 43 cents of downfall in share. This loss is more than the previous year’s same quarter, which was $929 million. However, according to the company the revenue went up 5% to $8.7 billion i.e. slightly higher than The Wall Street Expectations of $8.69 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. 

Sprint reported to serve the highest number of customers, i.e. 55 million customers, in its history. Moreover, 1.6 million total net subscribers were added in the quarter i.e. best since 2005.

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Nokia's new plans for the production of phones

Nokia has announced that by the end of the year, it will transfer the production of phones to the continent of Asia, where it can get components from the suppliers in a faster manner.

This strategy by the company has been announced in order to compete in this smartphone era of fast technological advancements and financial pressure.

"With the planned changes, our factories at Komarom, Reynosa and Salo will continue to play an important role serving our smartphone customers. They give us a unique ability to both provide customization and be more responsive to customer needs," said Niklas Savander, Nokia executive vice president, Markets.

"Shifting device assembly to Asia is targeted at improving our time to market. By working more closely with our suppliers, we believe that we will be able to introduce innovations into the market more quickly and ultimately be more competitive," said Savander. "We recognize the planned changes are difficult for our employees and we are committed to supporting our personnel and their local communities during the transition."

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UBS AG has faced second consecutive quarterly loss

UBS AG, Swiss bank, has announced a second consecutive quarterly loss. 

From UBS,

Pre-tax profit was CHF 471 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with CHF 888 million in the previous quarter, which included a gain of CHF 433 million from the sale of our strategic investment portfolio and CHF 85 million of restructuring charges. Excluding this gain, the gross margin on invested assets declined by 6 basis points to 91 basis points, as a result of lower client activity and lower interest income. Net new money inflows of CHF 3.1 billion were recorded in the fourth quarter.

The bank is expecting poor performance in the first quarter of the new year.

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Orexigen and FDA has reached at an agreement about Contrave

Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., Biopharmaceutical Company, has developed a drug for diet and obesity i.e. Contrave.

The company reported on Monday that it has reached at an agreement with U.S. Food and Drug administration (FDA) over the details of design and analysis of the experimental drug.

"We are pleased to receive agreement on the SPA (Special Protocol Assessment) from the FDA after just one cycle of review," said Michael Narachi, President and CEO of Orexigen. "A few months ago, we received detailed written correspondence from the FDA's Director of the Office of New Drugs that identified a clear and feasible path forward for this important potential obesity therapy. We believe the rapid progress we have since made with the FDA's Division of Metabolic and Endocrinologic Products on the detailed protocol and plans for analysis is further indication of the alignment we have reached within the FDA on the requirements for resubmission of the Contrave NDA."

The company will work on 10,000 patients in a placebo-controlled trial to prove that there are very less chances of unacceptable increased adverse cardiovascular events.

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Western Europe will lose its Mitsubishi manufacturing plant

Mitsubishi motors has announced on Monday that it will close its Netherlands manufacturing plant (NedCar) by the end of the year 2012.

This stoppage of production in Europe would be the result of financial crisis faced by the company in different countries.

“In ending production in Europe, Mitsubishi is taking its first steps to concentrate production in places like Thailand that are selected as export hubs,” said Takeshi Miyao, a Tokyo- based analyst at industry researcher Carnorama. “Demand in Europe is slipping, so they may have chosen to end production there first.”

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Vodafone and Wind Hellas has terminated the merger deal

Vodafone has announced on Monday that

Vodafone Group and Largo Limited, the sole shareholder of Wind Hellas, confirm that they have agreed to terminate discussions relating to a potential business combination between Vodafone Greece and Wind Hellas.

The discussions about the merger started back in August.

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Advanced MIcro Devices' "ambidextrous" strategy

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Chip maker, has announced an "ambidextrous" strategy for not only innovative products but also for novel business options.

“AMD’s strategy capitalizes on the convergence of technologies and devices that will define the next era of the industry,” said Rory Read, president and CEO, AMD. “The trends around consumerization, the Cloud and convergence will only grow stronger in the coming years. AMD has a unique opportunity to take advantage of this key industry inflection point.  We remain focused on continuing the work we began last year to re-position AMD.  Our new strategy will help AMD embrace the shifts occurring in the industry, marrying market needs with innovative technologies and become a consistent growth engine.”

This new strategy would help the company to introduce ultra-thin devices with consideration of cloud based computation and low power consumption.

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Xstrata in merging deal with Glencore

Xstrata, Swiss mining company, confirms in a report on its website that it in merging deal with Glencore, commodities trader.

“Glencore being such a dominant trader and marketer of commodities, and Xstrata being such a strong operator of difficult assets, I think it creates enormous value,” Prasad Patkar, who helps manage about $1 billion at Platypus Asset Management Ltd. in Sydney, said by phone before the statement. “On one end you have great mining expertise, on the other you’ve got great marketing expertise. Two and two together should make five.”

According to the experts, the merger deal could be of $80 billion. Moreover, the transaction could generate $794 million in savings as reported by Credit Suisse Group AG in October.

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Sony's new president and CEO; Kazuo Hirai

Sony has announced that Howard Stringer, who worked as CEO of the company since 2005, will start working as Chairman of the Board and he will be succeeded by Kazuo Hirai, video game executive.


Kazuo Hirai will have to face a challenging post in the new position as company is expecting big losses this year.


Kazuo Hirai said,

As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position. I am grateful to Sir Howard and to the Board for their confidence in me, and I look forward to working with everyone at Sony more closely than ever before to build a strong future for our customers, shareholders, partners and employees. The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses - primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains. The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony’s diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets and growing array of networked services, to engage with our customers around the world in new and exciting ways.

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