TOP NEWS
* SoftBank Group Corp. is offering to buy Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd. shares from investors as well as former and current employees at a range of US$85 to US$89 per share, giving the e-commerce marketplace a valuation of up to US$10 billion, three people familiar with the matter told Mint. The shares are reportedly slightly lower than Flipkart's pre-money valuation that it clinched in two previous funding rounds worth US$1.4 billion each.
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. priced its senior unsecured notes offering to raise up to US$7 billion. The five-tranch debt offering will have maturities ranging from nearly 6 years to 40 years and the company plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes. The offering is expected to close Dec. 6. Investor order for the Alibaba bonds reached US$41 billion, according to Financial Times (London).
PAN-ASIAN NEWS
* Ericsson AB said in its new Mobility Report that there will be 1 billion 5G subscriptions by 2023. The first 5G networks are expected to be deployed in urban areas in 2019, with major deployments from 2020. Early deployments are foreseen in markets including South Korea, Japan, China and the U.S.
JAPAN
* Tokyo Disney Resort operator Oriental Land Co. Ltd. is planning to spend over ¥300 billion, or US$2.68 billion, to expand the theme park and has initiated discussions with U.S.-based Walt Disney Co., The Nikkei reports.
* Western Digital Corp. lawyers said an international court is expected March 22, 2018, to issue a ruling on its complaint against Toshiba Corp. over the Japanese firm's sale of its flash memory unit, The Nikkei reports. The statement came during a Tokyo court's first hearing in Toshiba's own suit against Western Digital in their feud over the unit's sale to Bain Capital LC.
* BBC America's "Orphan Black" has been remade for Japan, Variety reports. British Broadcasting Corp.'s commercial arm BBC Worldwide Ltd. handles the licensing and format rights.
* Fremantle Media bagged global format rights to TV Asahi Holdings Corp.'s "Vs Kids" series, World Screen reports.
* Fujitsu Ltd. will invest roughly ¥2 billion in 1QB Information Technologies Inc., a Canadian quantum software firm, as the Japanese infotech company moves to market its own quantum computer, The Nikkei reports. Fujitsu will take a 9.3% stake in 1QBit, making it the Vancouver-based company's biggest non-financial shareholder.
* SoftBank Robotics Corp., a unit of SoftBank Group Corp., is launching joint research projects with Brain Corp., a California-based robotic artificial intelligence software firm, on bringing commercial robots to market, according to a press release. In the first of several projects, the companies will develop an autonomous navigation system for a line of industrial robotic products using Brain Corp.'s Brain OS AI platform.
SOUTH KOREA
* Naver Corp. invested in three local AI startups through its technology startup accelerator D Startup Factory. The company has invested in deep learning-based video analysis startup V.Do, smartphone blood pressure measuring algorithm developer DeepMedi, and deep learning-based image generation startup Alethio.
* SK Telecom Co. Ltd. developed new 5G transmission technology that can expand the service coverage by three times. The company has jointly developed the new technology in collaboration with local communication equipment companies including SK Telesys Co. Ltd.
* South Korea's KT Corp., China Mobile Ltd. and Japan's NTT Docomo agreed to establish a task force to cooperate on AI technologies, Financial News reports. KT and China Mobile will exchange translation data to sophisticate their multi-language AI database.
* Xiaomi Inc. will release its budget smartphone model Xiaomi A1 in the Korean market on Dec. 14, ZDNet Korea reports. G-mobi Korea and Thinkware Corp. will be Xiaomi's official vendors in Korea. The Android-powered smartphone is priced at 290,000 South Korean won.
CHINA
* Tencent Holdings Ltd. launched "Glorious Mission," the first military-themed mobile game released by the People's Liberation Army, a few hours after the announced time due to technical problems, Hong Kong Economic Times reports. The game, which allows 100 players to compete at the same scene, has attracted 40 million player reservations before the release.
* Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. will set up a 1 billion Chinese yuan fund to encourage innovation from app developers, and expects to increase AI-based applications in 2018, Tencent News reports. The company is also planning to provide smart services through its cloud service by learning about users' preferences through smart devices.
* China Mobile announced a 1 billion yuan subsidy to NB-IoT equipment makers and another 1 billion yuan fund to finance 4G-IoT parts manufacturing, with a cap rate of subsidy at 80% and 50%, respectively, c114 reports. The company has over 200 million internet of things connections currently and aims to boost it to over 320 million in 2018.
* Baidu Inc. will introduce smart advertising screens that integrate technologies such as facial recognition, search engine, big data and artificial intelligence, Yicai Global reports, citing The Paper.
INDIA
* The Unique Identification Authority of India ordered a probe against Bharti Airtel Ltd. for allegedly violating the Aadhaar Act and may slap a financial penalty for surreptitiously opening Airtel Payments Bank accounts of customers while undertaking Aadhaar verification of the customers' mobile numbers, Times News Network reports, citing unnamed sources.
* SoftBank may invest up to US$250 million in Bundl Technologies, which owns food delivery startup Swiggy, with the Japanese conglomerate eyeing a significant minority stake, three people aware of the development told The Economic Times (India). Tencent reportedly is also interested to invest nearly $100 million, while Alibaba is also in talks with Swiggy for a potential investment, the sources added.
* The Indian security establishment advised troops posted along the Line of Actual Control, or the border with China, to delete mobile apps such as WeChat, Weibo, UC Browser and UC News from their smartphones to guard against any possible online espionage attempts from across the border, TNN reports.
* Leshi Holding (Beijing) Co., Ltd., or LeEco, will not exit the Indian market but is simply re-strategizing, Yicai Global reports, citing Securities Daily. The news comes after the company has been reported to have stopped promoting and supplying smartphones in India.
* The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has pushed the auction for spectrum allocation and 4G license to January 2018 from December 2017, The Daily Star reports. The commission will make an official announcement once they get an approved copy of the guideline from the country's prime minister.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
* Singapore-based broadcasting company MediaCorp Pte. Ltd. announced its first partnership with Hong Kong-based Cantonese language entertainment TV channel ViuTV at the 2017 Asia TV Forum & Market, Channel News Asia reports. HK Television Entertainment Company Ltd, which operates ViuTV, will join Mediacorp to co-produce "Blue Tick," a 20 episode Toggle Originals suspense thriller.
* Singapore's Info-communications Media Development Authority will boost its partnerships with key media players, including international broadcasting companies such as Home Box Office Inc.'s HBO Asia and Discovery Communications Inc.'s Discovery Networks Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., and global content marketing company Brand New Media Pty Ltd., according to a statement.
* The board of directors at Thailand's state-owned TOT voted to renegotiate local roaming and equipment leasing terms with Advanced Info Service prior to the signing of a joint 3G contract, Thairath reports. The two companies hope to finalize the agreement for joint 3G services on the 2100MHz band by the end of 2017.
* Thai telco Total Access Communication Public Co. Ltd. launched Dtac Call, a new app that supports Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G voice calls, Beartai reports. Dtac Call allows users to make and receive calls from up to five different Dtac numbers, without the need for multiple handsets.
* Uber Technologies Inc. signed its first mobile payments deal in Southeast Asia with MoMo, Vietnam's largest e-wallet company, Prachachat reports. MoMo has 5 million users and is backed by Standard Chartered Private Equity and Goldman Sachs.
AUSTRALIA
* The future of The Huffington Post Australia is uncertain after Fairfax Media Ltd. ended its joint venture with the digital news site's owner AOL Inc., the Australian Financial Review reports. The digital publication will operate as a stand-alone Australian edition starting Dec. 1.
* Australia's tax commissioner Chris Jordan will start tax audits with other countries' authorities to ensure companies including Amazon.com Inc., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. pay their taxes in Australia, The Australian reports.
FEATURED NEWS
CAPITAL Letters: Cyber Monday was a record day for online shopping, and big data: The business wires are buzzing about Cyber Monday setting a new high watermark of $6.59 billion in online sales. That's a lot of spending and also a lot of potential for data exposure.
Conference Chatter: Marketers assess impact of blockchain on programmatic ad-buying: With scores of middlemen and hidden costs in the supply chain, marketers at the ad:tech London event questioned whether blockchain technology, a mechanism used to process and store data, would ensure cleaner and higher performing traffic.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Economics of Internet: Profile: iflix (Malaysia): Iflix initially launched in the Malaysia market in May 2015 as a partnership between Catcha Group and Evolution Media Capital.
Economics of Advertising: Q3'17 cable network earnings reveal a sluggish ad market: Third-quarter earnings from the major programmers were mixed as the majority reported declining year-over-year ad revenue.
Joji Sakurai, Nicole Shiwon Kim, Emily Lai, Patrick Tibke and Ed Eduard 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.
