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Symantec To Announce Security Initiative For Non-PCs – WSJ.com

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Highlighting the growing importance of non-PC devices connected to the Internet, Symantec Corp. (SYMC) unveiled a new family of products targeted primarily at mobile devices.

The new line, dubbed Norton Everywhere, includes products covering three broad areas: home-network security, mobile phone security, and device security. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company unveiled the products, set for release next month, at its annual analyst day conference in New York.

Shares were up 2% at $14.42 in recent trading amid a broad market upturn. However, the stock remains down 19% this year.

The announcement come as competition increases among security vendors for a stake in the non-PC market, which covers everything from smartphones to medical devices. In March, data tracker IDC forecast worldwide mobile-security license and maintenance revenue would more than double, to $2.7 billion by 2014 from $1.3 billion in 2009.

Symantec’s new product line also comes as more and more consumers and businesses demand mobile devices that are always connected to the Internet. One widely cited estimate, given by Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior, calls for one trillion mobile devices to be connected to the Internet by 2013, compared to just 500 million in 2007.

via UPDATE: Symantec To Announce Security Initiative For Non-PCs – WSJ.com.

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US lawmakers push for ID to buy prepaid cell phones | Reuters

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Two U.S. senators proposed legislation on Wednesday to make it easier to identify buyers of prepaid cell phones, moving to close a loophole that had enabled criminal and terror suspects to avoid detection.

Under the proposal by Democrat Charles Schumer and Republican John Cornyn, buyers of the prepaid cell phones would have to produce identification at the time of purchase and phone companies would have to keep that information on file.

“For years, terrorists, drug kingpins and gang members have stayed one step ahead of the law by using prepaid phones that are hard to trace,” Schumer said in a statement. “There’s no reason why it should still be this easy for terror plotters to cover their tracks.”

In the most recent instance, the Pakistani-American accused of trying to ignite a car bomb in New York’s Times Square, Faisal Shahzad, used a prepaid cell phone to make calls to Pakistan, according to the lawmakers.

When authorities matched a phone number in the call log on the device with a number given to U.S. Customs officials, they were able to trace it back to Shahzad, they said.

via US lawmakers push for ID to buy prepaid cell phones | Reuters.

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Arizona – A Law Facing a Tough Road Through the Courts – NYTimes.com

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Can Arizona’s controversial new immigration law — allowing the police to stop people and demand proof of citizenship — pass constitutional muster?

To many scholars, the answer is, simply, no.

“The law is clearly pre-empted by federal law under Supreme Court precedents,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, an expert in constitutional law and the dean of the University of California, Irvine, School of Law.

Since the 1800s, the federal government has been in charge of controlling immigration and enforcing those laws, Professor Chemerinsky noted. And that is why, he argued, Arizona’s effort to enforce its own laws is destined to fail.

But even some experts who say they are troubled by the law said it might survive challenges.

“My view of the constitutional question is that it is unconstitutional,” said Hiroshi Motomura, co-author of leading casebooks on immigration law and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. “But it’s a far cry from predicting empirically what a judge who actually gets this case will do.”

Whether any challenges to the Arizona law succeed could come down to the perception of judges about whether it competes with federal law.

via News Analysis – A Law Facing a Tough Road Through the Courts – NYTimes.com.

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Dell adds document management features to printers | ITworld

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dell is embedding document management features in multifunction printers as it tries to establish a foothold in the managed print services market, the company said Thursday.

The embedded custom software is in multifunction printers for specific vertical markets like education, legal and health care. Such embedded software expands the functionality of MFPs and automates printing and scanning tasks, said Orlando Lacayo, product manager at Dell’s printing and imaging division. MFPs will be capable of scanning documents directly into forms or rerouting scanned documents to the right folders.

“As customers consolidate their printing resources and optimize their document workflow processes, it becomes very important to have software and integration tools to allow organizations … become more efficient,” Lacayo said.

For example, Dell’s Healthcare Print Station printers will scan documents and place the scanned data inside electronic medical records by just pressing one button. Based on the form layout, nurses can scan prescriptions, which would go directly to the pharmacy. The printers could help reduce medical errors and improve patient care, Lacayo said.

The Dell Classroom Print Station and Legal Print Station can scan documents directly to a network folder without additional instructions. The classroom printing product will also be capable of instantly grading tests and reporting the results in the right document. However, a server with Windows and additional software will be required to carry out the grading, a Dell spokeswoman said.

The applications are developed in Java and embedded directly into the MFPs.

via Dell adds document management features to printers | ITworld.

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Joint Ventures: MENA’s Win-Win Game (Usually)

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The old days of big multinationals breezing into town, shuffling a few papers and leaving the Middle East with a valuable concession are gone. Today, regional governments and sovereign wealth funds want partners, not licensees. With billions of dollars involved, both Western companies and host countries in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) have warmed to the form of the joint venture as a win-win for all concerned. The world’s largest companies have interests in the region, and increasingly sophisticated local players have come to appreciate the joint ventures’ (JV) many legal and commercial advantages.

JVs do more than allow cost splitting and profit sharing: They give each side a stake in the success of a project, but at the same time, maintain transparency and accountability. Unlike other forms of mergers & acquisitions where interests don’t always align neatly, the JV has a sense of common purpose about it. In some cases, especially in the West, the structure provides a mechanism to keep less-than-mature investments off the balance sheet. In developing economies, the joint venture provides a foil to the old charge of exploitation of a country’s natural resources.

Where Middle Eastern governments and sovereign wealth funds may like the structure for its ability to leverage the attractiveness of their own markets, Western companies likewise benefit from the arrangements. Whether for accounting reasons, exposure concerns, or complying with foreign ownership requirements, some of the world’s biggest companies participate in MENA JVs.

Most of these companies, not surprisingly, have their roots in either the energy or energy services sector, including: Occidental Petroleum (Bahrain, Qatar), Chevron (Qatar, Saudi Arabia), ConocoPhillips (Qatar), and Nabors Industries (Saudi Arabia). Tech companies, such as United Technologies (Qatar), MEMC Electronics (Israel), and Rockwell Collins (Israel) have also been active joint venturers in the region. Even food & beverage and hospitality concerns, such as Pepsi (Jordan), Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. (GCC), and Marriott International (Jordan, Kuwait) have at least some joint venture interests in the Middle East.

via Joint Ventures: MENA’s Win-Win Game (Usually).

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UK Hot Topic: Structured Products Plot Their Comeback

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A comeback has been structured for once-maligned structured products, despite a backlash against derivative-based financial products. UK debt markets have become awash in these exotic securities issued by no less than Barclays, Bank of America and Société Générale. Their quite-creative products offer the opportunity, in effect, of betting on fluctuations in the price of copper, the rate of inflation in Mexico, and the even food prices. In total, these new, exotic securities tell two tales: the return of structured products, and the onset of betting on where the global economy is likely to go.

Structured products are a type of financial alchemy that investment banks undertake in order to turn movements in base assets into precious profits. A structured product is a market linked financial instrument that provides banks with capital and pays out investors on the basis of a predefined formula tied to an underlying asset. A few of these structured products don’t just offer returns that match underlying assets, and in a few cases they offer accelerated gains where payments are ratcheted up if assets hit certain high watermarks.

Leading the way with some of the more unusual structured products is Bank of America. It issued a 500 billion Mexican Pesos structured note programme on both the London Stock Exchange and the Mexican Stock Exchange recently, with a formula tied to the Unidad de Inversion Index of the Banco de Mexico (the official inflation index of Mexico). The structured product which forms part of Bank of America’s Euro Medium-Term Note Program, tracks the Mexican inflation index, paying investors out at a defined rate for any gain in the rate of inflation. This product allows investors in both Mexico and the UK to speculate on an increase in the rate of inflation in Mexico, something that is difficult to achieve directly. This Mexican inflation tied product also suggests that Bank of America is betting that inflation in Mexico is set to rise until 2025.

Alongside Mexico, other emerging markets’ fortunes are the subject of financial speculation. Barclays announced recently a £10 million zero coupon note due May 2016 which is tied to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, a free float-adjusted market capitalisation index that is designed to measure equity market performance in global emerging markets. This exotic Barclays’ product is structured so that investors receive index linked warrants for Class 42K Redeemable Preference Shares in Barclays Capital (Cayman) Limited at the maturity of the note programme. The note programme includes a final payment guarantee at the end of the 6 year period and offers a 75% capital gain on any positive index performance on top of initial capital. Also included in the programme is a volatility dampener that is designed to stop volatility of up to 17% from affecting the underlying value of the fund.

via UK Hot Topic: Structured Products Plot Their Comeback.

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Corporate Finance Watch: European Forward Start Facility Used to Refinance NXP…in the U.S.

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Rebounding PE funds are refinancing their European portfolio companies, even turning to the U.S. to do it. NXP Semiconductors and its private equity owners (Bain and Silver Lake among them, via acquisition entity Kaslion Acquisition B.V) have just done so. They’ve used a Forward Start Facility, a characteristically European structure yet governed by U.S. law, to the tune of €458,000,0000. The syndicate of banks including Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse (USA), RaboBank, Goldman Sachs International, HSBC and Morgan Stanley Bank.

The choice of a U.S. law loan is a notable one, as it is being used to refinance an existing UK credit facility, and Kaslion even has its corporate seat in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In particular, the forward start revolving credit facility will allow Kaslion, an acquisition vehicle of Private Equity funds Bain Capital, Silver Lake Partners and Koninklijke Philips Electronics, and its subsidiary NXP Semiconductor companies, to pay down an Original Revolving Credit Agreement with Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Deutsche Bank, dated 29 September 2006, two years before the expiry of the original credit agreement.

The agreement contains interest margins of between 4 and 5.5% depending on the level status of the borrower for all ABR, EURIBOR and LIBOR loans and contains a change of control clause.

Under the agreement Kaslion is subject to a minimum borrowing amount of €1 million and a maximum of 25 loans under the credit agreement. The facility allows for borrowing in alternative Currencies, including; US dollars, Sterling, Yen, Swiss Francs, Singapore Dollars, HK Dollars or any other specified currency.

via Corporate Finance Watch: European Forward Start Facility Used to Refinance NXP…in the U.S..

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Energy Watch: Legal Risks for Exxon-XTO Merger, in the Age of BP | Westlaw Business

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The $41 billion Exxon/XTO merger is moving forward, despite shareholder objections and an arguably permissive material adverse change (MAC) out clause. The latter takes on new meaning in light of the BP-induced controversy over messy energy extraction. With that said, things appear poised to move forward: the definitive merger proxy requesting XTO shareholder approval has been filed, the S-4 registration gone effective, and, together, Exxon and XTO Energy hope to create the largest U.S. natural gas company.

George R. Bason, Jr. and Louis L. Goldberg led Davis Polk & Wardwell in representing Exxon. XTO is represented by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom with Roger S. Aaron, Stephen F. Arcano and Kenneth M. Wolff acting as lead counsel.

Important legal factors remain, however. Among these are shareholder lawsuits that appear to have been put to bed, regulatory approvals, and an arguably-permissive MAC out clause in light of threatened re-regulation of the energy industry. As the BP oil slick expands, so does threatened re-regulation of the energy industry, with a focus on messy energy extraction techniques. And this has got to have special resonance to XTO’s fractal drilling techniques for natural gas to the latter. Which brings us to the MAC clause: in addition to other standard language for material adverse effect, the agreement allows the merger to be terminated if “any applicable law enacted, enforced, promulgated or issued after the date of the merger agreement by any governmental authority (other than antitrust or other competition laws), that would reasonably be likely to result in “an adverse material effect.”

via Energy Watch: Legal Risks for Exxon-XTO Merger, in the Age of BP.

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The Prior Art: Patent Litigation Weekly: International Trade Commission rebuffs Big Tech, keeps doors open to NPEs

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The International Trade Commission is in charge of enforcing the Tariff Act of 1930, a law passed during the Depression to protect U.S.-based companies from unfair trade practices, including the sale of goods that infringe valid U.S. patents. In recent years, however, the agency’s definition of what qualifies as “domestic industry” has expanded to the point that small patent-holding companies with just a handful of employees (Saxon Innovations, St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants) and even individual inventors have been allowed to proceed with ITC litigation.

Congress helped expand the ranks of who could seek remedies at the ITC in 1988 when it amended the “domestic industry” requirement to include “licensing” as qualification. Patent-holding companies have relied on that change ever since to justify their arguments that the taxpayer-funded ITC should ban imports of certain products on their behalf. Of course, in 1988, the patent litigation landscape was very different, and patent-holding companies—aka “non-practicing entities,” or “patent trolls”—in the modern sense simply didn’t exist.

Over the past two decades, the question of what constitutes a domestic industry has typically been heard by the same ITC administrative law judges who ultimately rule on the patent disputes that come before the agency. It’s rare that the full commission considers the issue. On April 14, though, the full commission did weigh in on the subject, issuing a striking ruling that will make it easier than ever for patent-holding companies to enforce patents at the ITC—and put added pressure on the companies getting sued there.

Big companies that are frequent targets of holding company infringement claims have good reasons not to want the ITC to open its doors any wider to NPEs. After all, only a tiny fraction of district court infringement cases go to trial, with the typical defendant paying an estimated average of $5 million per case. By contrast, 40 percent of ITC cases go to trial and the average defendant there can expect to rack up as much as $10 million in litigation costs over a much shorter period of time. And while the ITC can’t award damages for patent infringement, it can impose bans on imported goods deemed to be infringing, giving NPEs a powerful lever for extracting cash payments from their targets.

via The Prior Art: Patent Litigation Weekly: International Trade Commission rebuffs Big Tech, keeps doors open to NPEs.

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Commerce Department opens a public discussion on private data — Federal Computer Week

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Online commerce offers terrific conveniences for consumers and massive growth opportunities for retailers. But it also poses complex issues for online businesses and consumer advocates alike, particularly over the role that the federal government should play in regulating how companies handle people’s personal data.

Privacy advocates, banks, data brokers, software companies, the makers of search engines and information technology security firms all have strong opinions on the subject, some of which are rooted in ideology while others are the result of heavy investments in their business models. Complicating the matter even further is the often-conflicting approaches that federal and state regulators take.

Thus, the debate over federal data privacy laws is complex, layered and almost impossible for policy-makers to arbitrate. The differing perspectives might explain why data breach notification bills seem to languish each year in Congress and why Congress hasn’t seriously considered comprehensive consumer privacy legislation in years. What’s been missing so far is an honest broker among the competing stakeholders. In recognition of the importance of that discussion, the Commerce Department has moved to enter the debate.

The department is actively soliciting input from Internet users — consumers and businesses alike — on the current regulatory framework. In just the past several weeks, Commerce has formed an Internet policy task force, held a conference and issued a public notice of inquiry, and Secretary Gary Locke has given speeches on the subject. The department is gathering public comments through June 7, and those comments will contribute to the Obama administration’s domestic policy and international engagement on Internet privacy.

People can comment on a range of topics, such as the country’s legal framework for protecting privacy and ways to improve it, how the various state-level and international privacy laws affect companies and consumers, and the jurisdictional conflicts companies and regulators must deal with as a result of the plethora of data privacy laws and how that affects trade.

via Commerce Department opens a public discussion on private data — Federal Computer Week.

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