TOP NEWS
* Reliance Industries Ltd. will buy majority stakes in cable operators DEN Networks Ltd. and Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd. The company will acquire a 66% stake in DEN Networks through a primary investment of 20.45 billion Indian rupees and will acquire a 51.3% stake in Hathway Cable through a primary investment of 29.40 billion rupees. The company said the transactions will accelerate JioGigaFiber's rollout in 50 million homes across 1,100 cities.
* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will acquire Barcelona-based ZhiLabs SL, a provider of artificial intelligence-powered network analytics, for an undisclosed amount. The South Korean conglomerate said the acquisition will help improve its 5G offerings of automation and network analytics.
JAPAN
* Fujifilm Holdings Corp. hopes to revive talks with Xerox Corp., the Financial Times reported, after a court lifted an order blocking the Japanese group's US$6.1 billion deal to gain control of the U.S. printer and photocopier maker. Fujifilm said it continues to believe that a merger of Xerox and Fuji Xerox, an Asian joint venture between the two companies, would enhance value for shareholders.
* Toshiba Corp. will invest ¥16.2 billion in building a new lithium-ion battery plant in the Japanese city of Yokohama in anticipation of higher demand for electric vehicles, Jiji Press reports. Construction begins July 2019 with operations to be launched in 2020.
* NTT Communications Corp., the ICT solutions arm of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., announced it will build a data center campus in London. The new campus is capable of up to 24,000 square meters of IT space. The facility will be developed by e-shelter GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of NTT Communications.
* SoftBank Group Corp. COO Marcelo Claure said the company is "anxiously watching" the case of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as the incident brings SoftBank's investment ties with the Saudi Government into the spotlight, Nikkei Asian Review reports. Claure also said that it is still "too early" to decide whether SoftBank should accept Saudi's contribution, pegged at US$45 billion, for its second Vision Fund.
SOUTH KOREA
* Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. will shut down its video streaming service DramaFever Corp. with immediate effect, Variety reported, citing a company statement. The over-the-top service specializes in Korean dramas, known as K-drama, and other Asian programming. Warner Bros. Digital Networks "will be closing its DramaFever OTT service due to business reasons and in light of the rapidly changing marketplace for K-drama content," the statement said. About 20% of its 110 employees will be laid off.
* SK Telecom Co. Ltd. is set to launch NUGU Developers, a website for developers to access tools to build services based on the telco's artificial intelligence platform NUGU, Financial News reports. The website, which goes live Oct. 24, will offer the NUGU Play Kit and NUGU Play Biz for service development and device management.
* Kakao Corp. incorporated its artificial intelligence platform Kakao i in its navigation app Kakao Navi to enable voice command, Dailian reports. With the update, users can make verbal requests to the app to find routes, search a destination, and send messages to people on the contact list.
CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN
* Apple Inc. said it is "deeply apologetic" about the inconvenience caused to Chinese customers whose accounts were hacked because of phishing scams, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a company statement. The tech giant said a small number of its users' accounts were affected after the theft of Apple IDs.
* IQIYI Inc. inked an agreement with Viacom Inc.'s Viacom International Media Networks to produce and distribute the second season of iQIYI's original animated children's series "Deer Run." Under the deal, Viacom company Nickelodeon will assist in the creative production of the show, which upon completion will air on Nickelodeon's international networks outside of China.
* Lumi, a subsidiary of Xiaomi Corp. that makes smart home devices, completed a strategic financing round, 36Kr reports. The undisclosed investment amount will be used for global expansion in the next three years.
INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA
* Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd. acquired a 12.7% shareholding in U.S.-based tech company SkyTran Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The company aims to leverage SkyTran's technology in telecom for 4G, 5G, internet of things and giga fiber, as well as digital platforms and services.
* VMware Inc. will invest US$2 billion in India in the next five years to bolster its business and research capabilities in the country, The Economic Times (India) reports.
* Lenovo Group Ltd. is looking to increase its smartphone production capacity in India to around 500,000 to 1 million units per month by the end of 2019, up from its current monthly capacity of 100,000, according to Press Trust of India.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
* The Philippine Competition Commission will slap a cumulative penalty of 16 million pesos on ride-hailing apps GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. Ltd. and Uber Technologies Inc. for violations, including failing to maintain separate operations before their merger was approved, CNN Philippines reports.
* Eros International PLC's over-the-top platform Eros Now partnered with Celcom Axiata Bhd. to provide content to Malaysian customers under a data plan called Video Walla. The partnership offers Celcom customers access to Eros Now's catalog of over 11,000 movies, original shows and music videos.
* Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. is in discussions with Tencent Holdings Ltd. to allow users of its NetsPay digital wallet to make mobile payments in mainland China via Tencent's WeChat Pay, people familiar with the discussions told South China Morning Post.
* Total Access Communication PCL will be the only bidder for Thailand's upcoming 900 MHz spectrum auction, Thai PBS News reports. The auction, which will be held Oct. 28, will have a reserve price of 37.99 billion baht.
* Telekom Malaysia is exploring funding options to boost high-speed internet access in the country, Nikkei Asian Review reports.
* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has expressed concerns that the arrival of 5G technology in 2020, coupled with the prominence of IoT and AI, will result in an increase in unemployment of up to 30% on average, Matichon reports.
* Indonesian telco PT Indosat Tbk appointed Chris Kanter as its new managing director. Kanter previously served as one of the company's commissioners from 2010 until 2018.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
* The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is seeking A$10 million in penalties from Singtel Optus Pty. Ltd., which has admitted that its statements about its third-party billing service known as Direct Carrier Billing were in contravention of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act.
* After the exit of Michelle Guthrie and Justin Milne, another senior Australian Broadcasting Corp. executive is set to leave the company. Michael Mason, director of regional and local and the previous director of radio, is departing the national broadcaster after 34 years, The Australian reports. Judith Whelan, head of specialist content, will take over Mason's role in an acting capacity.
* Telstra Corp. Ltd.'s board suffered a "first strike" as a majority of its shareholders voted against high executive salaries and moved to stall the passing of a resolution related to the company's remuneration report for the year ended June 30. If more than 25% of shareholders vote against the remuneration report at the annual general meeting in 2019, it would be a second strike and could force a spill of board positions.
* Ooyala Inc.'s management completed its buyout of the California-based video technology company from Telstra. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
FEATURED NEWS
Data Dispatch: Multiple operators suffer damage to fiber networks from Hurricane Michael: Storm debris, power outages and significant fiber damage are hindering efforts to restore communications services in those counties most devastated by Hurricane Michael.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Global Multichannel: Top 25 multichannel groups in the Americas: AT&T's U.S. and Latin America footprints cement the company's multichannel leadership in the Americas. Overall, U.S. multichannel providers led the ranking, but Latin America operators are climbing due to U.S. operators' subscriber losses.
RECENT EARNINGS
Netflix Q3 earnings, subscriber beat comes at cost, competition: Netflix executives on an earnings webcast unpacked a big upside surprise to third-quarter guidance, but also discussed the impact from cash burn and increased competition.
Joji Sakurai, Myungran Ha, Frances Wang, Ed Eduard 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. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.