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Sony CEO steps down; Tencent-led group to invest US$1.6B in menswear company

TOP NEWS

* Sony Corp. President and CEO Kazuo Hirai will step down on April 1. He will be replaced by Sony CFO Kenichiro Yoshida. Hirai will continue to serve the company as chairman. Meanwhile, the Japanese conglomerate announced an operating profit of ¥350.8 billion for the three months ended December 2017, an almost fourfold jump from ¥92.4 billion in the same period the previous year.

* Tencent Holdings Ltd. is spearheading a deal to invest 10 billion yuan in Chinese menswear group Heilan Home Co. Ltd., according to China Money Network. Chinese retailers JD.com Inc. and Vipshop Holdings Ltd. will also be among the group that plans to acquire less than 10% of the company for 5 billion yuan.

* Foxconn Technology Group, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., plans to invest NT$10 billion in artificial intelligence over the next five years, according to Focus Taiwan News. Speaking at a technology conference, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou said the investment will develop applications with a focus on industrial internet.

* Indonesia-based mobile operator XL Axiata is allocating US$500 million to develop its own pay TV, broadband and fixed line services, CNN Indonesia reports. XL mentioned the possibility of a merger or forming a joint venture to launch the new business in the second quarter of 2018.

JAPAN

* Yahoo Japan Corp. saw a 2% drop in its net profit to ¥103.1 billion for the nine months ended in December 2017. The struggle is due to heavy investments in its e-commerce business amid fierce competition with Amazon.com and Rakuten, according to The Nikkei.

* Tokyo-based internet mobile gaming company GREE Inc. announced that the Nintendo Switch version of its mobile social game "Fishing Star" would be available worldwide by the end of this year as part of a strategic move into the home gaming market.

* SoftBank Group Corp. tapped Andrew Kovacs, former head of communications at U.S. venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, to serve as the company's new public relations chief, according to Recode.

* GungHo Online Entertainment Inc. named Keiji Miyakawa, auditor of sports equipment company ASICS, as independent director, effective March 23.

* INTEC Inc. promoted Managing Executive Officer Takayuki Kitaoka to president, replacing Shigeki Kusaka, who is to become executive adviser effective April 1. Managing Director Tadayasu Ueno will also be promoted to chairman, replacing Katsuki Kanaoka, who will become senior executive adviser.

SOUTH KOREA

* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. signed an MOU with Southeast Asian ride-hailing service Grab to provide its smart devices, including smartphones and tablets, as well as its mobile security solution Knox, to Grab's fleet.

* In other Samsung news, the company opened China's first Samsung Cinema LED in Shanghai in partnership with Wanda Cinema Corp. Samsung will install another cinema LED in Beijing soon.

* Naver Corp. is expected to launch its web browser service Whale in March, The Korean Economic Daily reports. According to a source, Whale will be available in Google Play first, then in Apple's App Store.

* Meanwhile, Naver's kid content platform Junior Naver has revamped its Pororo TV service, expanding the original content of Pororo and Tayo series, Digital Times reports. The company added 1,400 new paid and free video clips to the revamped TV service.

CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN

* China Media Capital has taken full ownership of Pearl Studio, formerly known as Oriental DreamWorks, Xinhua reports. DreamWorks Animation LLC will continue to work with the studio on the animation "Everest," which will be released in 2019.

* Baidu Ventures, the investment unit of Baidu Inc. focused on artificial intelligence, reached the first closing of its second funding round at 2 billion yuan, China Money Network reports, citing a WeChat post by the company. With the latest fundraising, Baidu Ventures' total assets stand at about 3 billion yuan.

* China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom and China Telecom Corp. Ltd. renegotiated the terms of their tower rental agreements with China Tower Corp. Ltd. All three companies released statements detailing the new terms of five-year agreements, cutting the markup margin rate from 15% to 10%.

* JD.com entered into a partnership with Hong Kong-based supply chain conglomerate Fung Group to build a retail center backed by JD's AI technologies, JRJ reports.

* Professional Diversity Network Inc. on Jan. 29 sold 380,295 shares of common stock at US$3.91 per share, for gross proceeds of about US$1.5 million. The shares were sold to Shengqi Cai, a resident of China.

* Hangzhou-based big data company Fanwen completed its series B fundraising round, but did not disclose the amount, 36kr reports. Fanwen works for Chinese news media, including People's Daily, Xinhua and Tencent News.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* Reliance Industries Ltd. chairman Mukesh Ambani will invest 25 billion Indian rupees over the next three years in Assam, a state in northeast India. According to Press Trust of India, the investment will be allotted for various sectors, including retail, petroleum, telecom, tourism and sports, and will create jobs for at least 80,000 people.

* Indian state-run telco BSNL is seeking 66.52 billion rupees in equity infusion from the government to fund its spectrum purchase worth about 138.85 billion rupees, Press Trust of India reports.

* Facebook Inc.'s Facebook Marketplace, which was launched as a pilot project in November 2017 in India, is now live for select cities in the country, including Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, Inc42 reports. Facebook Marketplace is a platform for users to buy and sell products without any fees.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Iflix Sdn. Bhd. established a joint venture with Football Malaysia LLP to broadcast Malaysian soccer tournaments, The Nation reports. Iflix customers will be able to live stream soccer matches for free regardless of their subscription status.

* Telekom Malaysia also signed a 480-million-ringgit sponsorship deal with Football Malaysia LLP, Utusan Online reports. Through the partnership, TM can live broadcast Malaysian Super League and several other local soccer matches.

* Thai telco Advanced Info Service plans to restructure its entire organization, Thai Post reports. AIS CEO Somchai Lertsutiwong said that there would be no layoffs.

* Thailand's Minister of Digital Economy and Society Pichet Durongkaveroj signed a memorandum of understanding with his Laotian counterpart Thansamay Kommasith to collaborate on information and communication technology, Thai Post reports. The minister added that Laos also expressed interest in investing in Thailand's submarine communications cable project.

* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission approved the Nokia 8 Sirocco TA-1005 smartphone for distribution in Thailand, Thai Mobile Center reports.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* Telstra Corp. Ltd. expects to make an impairment charge of A$273 million and write down the carrying value of Ooyala Inc., its U.S.-based intelligent video business, to zero.

* New Zealand's SKY Network Television Ltd. launched a Sky TV skill for Amazon Alexa which will allow customers with Alexa-enabled devices to discover what's on TV using their voice.

FEATURED NEWS

MarketWeek: Utilities may need to look more like tech giants to grow: The staid U.S. electric utility sector may need to evolve rapidly to develop home energy services offerings attractive to retail customers or risk seeing that avenue for growth cut off by more agile consumer-facing technology companies.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Global Multichannel: Global multichannel market up 3.5% in 2017 as Western Europe reaches saturation: The global pay TV market grew by 3.5% in 2017, reaching 1.05 billion subs and 60.5% penetration. Western Europe's multichannel penetration fell below that of Eastern Europe in 2017 and is expected to stagnate in 2018 and start declining in 2019.

Economics of Networks: YouTube TV enters sports rights fray with local MLS rights acquisition: YouTube TV has been announced as Los Angeles Football Club's exclusive local TV partner, marking the Google-owned company's first deal as a sports rights holder.

Nozomi Ibayashi, Nicole Shiwon Kim, Frances Wang, Kevin Osmond and Wil Hathaway contributed to this report. The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. Hong Kong time. Some external links may require a subscription.