H&M's profit hit by expansion costs

Swedish clothing retailer H&M posted a 6.6-percent rise in annual net profit on Wednesday but said results had been hit by costs for its long-term investments as well as by currency factors.
The cheap-and-chic fashion giant said its net profit rose to 16.9 billion kronor ($2.7 billion, 2.0 billion euros) in 2012 from 15.8 billion kronor in the previous year, and that it increased its market share despite a difficult operating environment.
Gross sales by the firm, world's number two clothing retailer after the Spanish Zara group, rose by 9.4 percent to 141 billion kronor in the financial year that ended November 30, but net sales measured at constant exchange rates gained only one percent, the company said.
"H&M continues to stand strong in a challenging clothing market which in many countries has been even more challenging in 2012 compared to 2011," chief executive Karl-Johan Persson said in a statement.
In the fourth quarter, net profit fell 1.3 percent to 5.29 billion kronor ($830 million), beating a 5.09 billion kronor consensus estimate compiled by Dow Jones Newswires.
H&M said its expansion moved faster than expected in 2012, with 304 new stores opening their doors, mainly in China and the United States.
It proposed holding the dividend steady at 9.5 kronor per share.
"On the whole, these results are on the weak side," said Soeren Lundtoft Hansen, an analyst at Sydbank.
Investment costs for expanding online and mobile sales, as well as for a new, high end fashion brand for women, were higher than expected, he added.
The new brand, & Other Stories, will open its first stores in the coming months in seven European countries.
The company said it plans to open 325 stores in this financial year, including in Chile and in Indonesia via a franchise.
"This is a positive development at a time when same store sales, in my view, will remain subdued amid continued weak consumer spending and strong competition in H&M's market segment," Lundtoft Hansen said.
The Stockholm-based company currently has 2,800 stores in 48 markets and more than 104,000 employees.

Looming worker shortage threatens China economy

China's demographic time bomb is ticking much louder with the first fall in its labour pool for decades, analysts say, highlighting the risk that the country grows old before it grows rich.
The abundant supply of cheap workers in the world's most populous nation has created unprecedented cost efficiencies that underpinned its blistering economic expansion over the past 35 years, propelling the global economy forward.
But now the inexorable consequences of the one-child policy imposed in the late 1970s are beginning to appear, and threaten to impact its future growth.
China's working-age population, defined as 15-59, fell 3.45 million last year, official data showed earlier this month -- the first decline since 1963, after tens of millions died in a famine caused by the Great Leap Forward.
The immediate effect may be small in a nation of 1.35 billion people, but the cumulative effects will accelerate over the coming decades.
The number of people aged between 15 and 64 will drop by around 40 million between 2014 and 2030, said Wang Guangzhou, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a government think-tank -- more than Poland's entire population.
"The population is aging so fast that we are running short of time to deal with it," said Li Jun, also of CASS, adding the family planning policy had exacerbated the problem.
China's proportion of over-65-year-olds is projected to double from seven to 14 percent over only 26 years -- a key demographic measure that took the United States 69 years to complete.
"Undoubtedly it will substantially slow down China's potential growth rate," Yao Wei, an economist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong, told AFP.
An ageing population not only means fewer people available to employ and higher labour costs, but investment -- a key driver of China's growth -- will be harder to maintain as families spend their savings on health care, she said.
Chinese authorities maintain that controlling its population growth has been key to increasing its prosperity.
But while China has risen to become the world's second-largest economy, on a per capita basis it still lags far behind the US and other developed countries.
Industrial disputes have become more common in recent years, as workers demand higher pay and better working conditions on the back of growing awareness of their rights and the shortage of skilled staff.
Multinational companies are looking to other developing economies with lower wages for further expansion, with some already moving production bases out of China to rivals such as Indonesia and Vietnam.
In a survey of 514 Japanese manufacturers by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation last year, the number of respondents voting China as the top destination for overseas business fell by more than 10 percentage points on 2011.
Economists said China must look to speed up the transformation of its economic model and move up the value chain.
"The golden period of the manufacturing industry, particularly those depending on exports, has gone," said Yao.
At the same time, she said, the country was woefully underprepared to meet the burden of caring for the elderly.
"The fiscal situation is not prepared and the social security network is not complete," she said.
By around 2060, every three Chinese workers will have to support two people above 60, compared with a ratio of five to one now, according to Li's projections.
It is a crucial challenge for the ruling Communist Party, said Ren Xianfang, a Beijing-based analyst with research firm IHS Global Insight.
"Delivering growth and delivering social security to the general public are the key things for the state to (maintain) its legitimacy."
Analysts said the medical services are increasingly expensive and hard to access, while the country's flagship public pension plans are crippled by problems including insolvency risks, difficulties in expanding coverage and mismanagement.

Nano education: route forward for business

Navid B Saleh
Either we consider the sustained growth of an economy according to classical Solow's model or redefine the growth parameters via Schumpeterian 'Creative Destruction' paradigm, innovation becomes essential for economic development. Foundation of such innovations rests on education and 'Scientific Temper' of a society. Faced with numerous economic challenges, Bangladesh always struggled to balance between meeting minimum basic needs for its population and progressing forward with novel development initiatives. Our failure in establishing a successful biotechnology industry, likely lies in the lack of educational and training deficiencies that should have preceded the industrial and economic efforts. Well-planned educational programmes are essential to develop not only a trained professional class, but more importantly to generate a social temper towards acceptance and nourishment of a new technology. This article attempts to outline a few practical steps towards a comprehensive educational programme on nanotechnology for Bangladesh; global examples and practices will serve as cornerstone for such potential programme outline.
As the leader in nanotechnology research and development, the United States has had federally funded efforts via National Science Foundation to develop educational programmes across the nation. The Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) programme initially promoted singular course development on nanotechnology. Theory-based and laboratory courses were the focus. The NUE programme funded nearly 100 institutions in the US in the first 10 years (2003-2012) to promote nano education. The programme's recent focus has shifted towards more comprehensive nano programmes, which will introduce minors in nanotechnology that includes local non-degree awarding institutions, even aspire to involve industrial trainees, and promote local collaborations. This example may not be directly applicable to a developing country like Bangladesh, due to the differences in federal sponsorship, educational structure, and industry-academia interaction. However, part of these initiatives, not in exact order, can be followed to expedite the education programmes in our region.
India rather, can be an example to be emulated. Jawaharlal Nehru's Palampur Declaration or 'A Statement on Scientific Temper' of 1981 has set India's path towards developing a technologically aware culture. Nehru's establishment of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and universities had served as the necessary infrastructure for technological development. The physical infrastructure then found its soul in the philosophical guidance of Palampur Declaration and Scientific Temper of the nation. Nanotechnology development in India seems to have synced in with the technologically aware culture of the nation as reflected from its national educational and training initiatives. The Indian nano education model in the beginning, somewhat followed the US trend of introducing single courses in the IITs and other technical colleges and universities. However, in a short period of time, their efforts turned out to be more extensive. India is one of the first countries to establish a private institution that is primarily focused on nano education, namely: Amity Institute of Nanotechnology, Noida. The vision of this standalone centre is to promote nanotechnology via organised education efforts and scholarly research. The institute offers Bachelors (four years) and Masters (three years) degrees (BTech, MSc, MTech) in nanotechnology, which likely are one of the first degree-programmes in the world. Amity was followed by establishment of numerous centres, institutes, and university programmes, which include: Centre for Nanotechnology & Advanced Biomaterials (CeNTAB, Thanjavur); academic courses and programmes at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), IIT-Bangalore, University of Madras, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Delhi, Banaras Hindu University, etc. Research efforts are also underway in all these institutions as well as in National Physical Laboratory, Delhi and National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. It is to be noted that the leadership of nano education and training in India was initiated by a private institute; whereas, the subsequent endeavours were government patronised.
Bangladesh should not wait to start a focused effort in nano education. The cadre of private universities in the country can serve as the infrastructure to start the nano-related education. Initially, fundamental principles of nano science and nanotechnology can be taught via an elective course. For example, the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MNS) of BRAC University in Bangladesh is launching such an elective course for its bachelor's degree programme. Over time, other core courses can slowly be introduced discussing specific topics of nanotechnology; for example, synthesis and characterisation of nano-materials, application of nano-materials, nano-optics, nano-electronics, nano-medicine, etc. Later, technical minors can be developed by combining these courses. However, minors and other comprehensive programme development depend on the market demand for such training. Starting a nano education programme in a private university is advantageous because of its relatively flexible curricula with a higher number of elective courses. The internal academic structure is also more relaxed compared to the hierarchical and rigid public universities. Thus the effective strategy can be to begin nano education programmes at private universities and work our way into the public university structure; as government initiatives will be necessary to proliferate the nano education efforts further.
The readers might still be wondering how education efforts lead to business and research initiatives. Again, putting education in the core of development has been exercised in the western world as well as in our regions. The notion is that education will develop human resources, who either will join an existing workforce in the trained area or will generate demand for job growth in that area. In parallel, the education structure will also likely encourage research initiatives in the respective field. Small businesses once established will likely require skilled workforce, which will in turn increase the demand and need for the educational and training activities. Industries will also need new innovations to remain competitive in the national and world market; which will promote research. The educational institutes will collaborate with industries and also make an effort to establish independent research initiatives to compete in the education market. This will improve and foster education. This self-contained loop will thus result in a true impetus for development in a new area of interest. Nanotechnology is a new field for Bangladesh. Beginning with research or investment in industrial sectors can be risky. A void in the trained workforce can compromise both such activities. However, given the high IQ and existing academic-savvy culture of our country, nano education programmes should be the first step to encourage subsequent business and research efforts.
The strategy outlined in this article is one of the many routes that can be followed in Bangladesh. The author currently is leading a nano education effort in his institution funded by the US National Science Foundation. The experiences therein have guided the strategy discussion in this article. The academics, industry professionals, and policymakers of Bangladesh and those who are pursuing nano-related research and education elsewhere, should be brought together to formulate a comprehensive plan for nanotechnology development in Bangladesh. New ideas and strategies will likely emerge from the unique experiences of the other experts, which can only help in taking the most appropriate measures for our country and establish a truly successful nanotechnology education, research, and entrepreneurial programme.

The author is an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina (USC), USA. He currently supervises multiple research projects on nanoscience and nanotechnology at USC.

Sort legal disputes before 3G auction: GP chairman

Grameenphone is undecided about its participation in the 3G auction due to outstanding disputes with the government, said the mobile operator's high official.
“We need to see what the conditions are [for securing 3G licences] and resolve the pending disputes before we take a decision on 3G,” Sigve Brekke, Grameenphone's chairman, said in an interview.
Brekke, who was recently in Dhaka to introduce the company's new chief executive officer Vivek Sood, met with the finance minister, telecom secretary and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission's (BTRC) chairman -- to voice his concerns.
“I am a bit worried about the regulatory situation of Bangladesh. That should be sorted before the 3G auction is held,” he said.
The government and four of the mobile operators -- Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell -- are currently stuck in a tug-of-war over value-added tax (VAT) rebate for 2G spectrum licence.
When the operators renewed their 2G spectrum licences in August last year, they had to pay 15 percent as VAT on top of the renewal fee, a pay-out they did not have to bear the first time round.
The licence fee, previously, was inclusive of tax, with the proceeds split as 85 percent to the telecom regulator and 15 percent to the National Board of Revenue.
The operators individually went to court challenging the legitimacy of the 15 percent VAT, with Grameenphone getting the verdict in its favour. Robi, however, was denied the VAT rebate.
The BTRC and NBR then took the matter to the appellate division, where the case is still pending.
Then last year BTRC claimed upwards of Tk 3,000 crore as unpaid taxes and fees from Grameenphone, which the operator vehemently denied.
The operator placed a case to the High Court, with the verdict yet to be heard.
Brekke urged the government to reach out-of-court settlements for the issues before holding the 3G auction, for which the government has finalised $20 million as the base price and a 15 percent VAT on top.
“If not, it will be difficult for us to participate in the 3G auction. We need to be guaranteed a stable environment before we undertake investments of such scale.”
Brekke deemed the base price to be “excessive”, while adding that the VAT on the licence fee was “not logical” as the operators pay taxes for the services.
The company, which deems its voice business to be saturated and sees future growth coming from data transmission services, however, is excited about the advent of 3G service in Bangladesh.
“When 3G will come you will see explosion of data usage,” said the Grameenphone chairman, adding that the company has a 3G-ready network thanks to recent upgrades.
Brekke hopes the price of smartphones, needed to experience the best of 3G's capabilities, will become affordable for all with the roll-out of the service.
The company has seen its growth in subscriber base stagnate in recent months, and Brekke blames it on the SIM tax.
Regarding the employee outrage Grameenphone faced last year, Brekke said the company is in dialogue with the employees concerned to find an agreeable solution for all.
Brekke, who is also part of Telenor, Grameenphone's parent company's board, said the Norwegian telecommunication giant is now turning its attentions to Asia.
“There is tremendous scope for growth in Asia, in both the areas of voice and data,” he said, adding that about half of the group's revenues come from its Asian concerns.
Telenor, which already has operations in Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, is now looking to enter Myanmar.
Global telecom companies are now eyeing the lucrative Southeast Asian country, which is aiming to expand its telephone penetration between 75 and 80 percent by 2016 from the current level of around 10 percent.
Myanmar's communications and information technology ministry has launched tenders for two mobile phone licences, to which Telenor has expressed its interest.
Regarding the group's growth prospects in its home region, Brekke said: “Growth in voice service there [in Europe] is over. While there is still scope for data growth, overall growth prospect is not promising.”

WTO chief in Dhaka

Star Online Report
Pascal Lamy, director general of World Trade Organisation, arrived in Dhaka on Thursday on a two-day visit to discuss different trade related issues.
Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed received Lamy at Shahjalal International Airport in the afternoon.
The WTO chief will hold a meeting with Commerce Minister GM Quader at state guesthouse Padma at 7:00pm, said an official at the ministry.
Apart from holding meetings with the foreign and finance ministers, he will visit Chittagong.
Lamy's visit to Bangladesh is important as the country is largely dependent on WTO policies for overseas trade, Quader said earlier.
Invited by the commerce ministry, Lamy also visited Bangladesh a few months ago.

3 Jamaat men killed; hartal in Bogra Saturday

Star Online Report
Jamaat-e-Islami will enforce a daylong hartal in Bogra on Saturday protesting the deaths of its three activists in clashes over Thursday's shutdown.
Talking to The Daily Star, the president and secretary of Bogra unit of Jamaat said that they will enforce a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district protesting the deaths.
A Shibir man was killed and at least three were injured critically when the activists of Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir clashed with police and Rab personnel in the town.
Abu Raihan, in-charge of Silimpur Police outpost, told The Daily Star that Abdullah, 22, was rushed to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogra where he was pronounced dead.
The clash broke out after two Jamaat-Shibir men were hacked to death allegedly by the ruling party activists during Thursday's hartal.
Police said a students' hostel was torched during the clash.
Another clash erupted when police intercepted a procession brought out by the hartal activists in Bogra town, reports our Bogra correspondent.
The processionists were carrying the bodies of two Jamaat-Shibir men who were hacked to death allegedly by the ruling party men during Thursday's hartal.
Mokbul Hossain, assistant superintendent of police, told The Daily Star that law enforcers fired around 400 rounds of tear shells and brought the situation under control around 6:45pm, reports our Bogra correspondent.
The activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir exploded four to five cocktails in Shatmatha area during the clash, said the police official.
Additional police and Rab personnel were also deployed, the ASP added.
Jamaat and Shibir blamed Bangladesh Chhatra League, student body backed by Awami League, for the killings, an accusation denied by the ruling party leaders.
The deceased are Abu Ruhani, 22, president of Azizul Haque College, Old Bhaban unit of Shibir and Mizanur Rahman, 30, a Jamaat activist and owner of a hatchery.
Unidentified criminals stabbed four youths in front of Mujibur Rahman Women's College in the town around noon, reports our Bogra correspondent.
They were rushed to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital where Ruhani died around 2:30pm.
The injured -- Shamin Miah, Adnan Rafique, and Shabbir Pramanik -- are undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Shibir town publicity secretary Mizanur Rahman claimed armed BCL activists stabbed the Shibir activists while they were picketing during Thursday's hartal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami.
BCL Secretary Mashrafi Hero however denied the allegation.
In another incident, unidentified miscreants stabbed Mizanur to death when he was working at his hatchery at Satgram, on the outskirts of the town, around 1:30pm.
Mazedur Rahman Jewel, town secretary of Shibir, claimed that victim Mizanur was a Jamaat activist.
Abu Raihan, in-charge of Silimpur Police outpost, confirmed the murder.
Son of Abu Bakker of Mondalpara area in Bogra, Rohany was an honours final year student at social science department of the college while Mizanur Rahman was the owner of Bhai-Bon hatchery in the town.

Small is Big: the iPad Mini

Small tablets are tailor-made for road warriors. They’re easy, light, portable, and have all the power you need to access the internet or write an email on the go. More functional than smartphones, less bulky than laptops, they’re quickly becoming a must-have in every go bag. Now the only question is: Which smaller tablet should you carry? For me, there are two serious contenders �" the Nexus 7 that’s already in my go bag and the iPad Mini Apple shared with me to review.
The iPad Mini comes with a legacy advantage. Apple is the market leader in tablets, selling more than 100 million iPads in fewer than three years. By one recent analysis, iPads account for 98% of all web traffic originating from tablets �" and 54% from all mobile devices, including smartphones. It’s not as if no other tablet comes close: It’s more like every other tablet combined doesn’t come close.
Still, the iPad Mini was only introduced last October, which meant that competitors could beat it to the small tablet market. The Nexus 7 was released earlier in 2012, and, for all intents and purposes, introduced the category*. Cheaper worthy tablets like the Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook also joined the fray, creating need for Apple to create the iPad Mini, and the appealing chance for price pressure on the iPad premium.
So, which one is a smarter choice to toss in my go bag?
On one level, it comes down to the software, specifically the iPad’s iOS versus the Nexus 7′s Android platform. To note the obvious, app selection is vastly superior for Apple devices. The total number of apps available isn’t necessarily make or break, if the ones you need exist on your platform of choice. But the extent to which you need to be future proof is a factor. The Apple and Android development communities are both robust.
One of the simplest hardware decisions is one of the most powerful on the iPad: The placement of the iPad’s home button makes it possible to wake the device with one hand when it’s lying on a surface. On the Nexus 7 the wake-up key is on the recessed side and cannot even be accessed when laying flat. I often use a tablet right next to my laptop for quick reference, and being able to work it with one hand is big plus.
That home button is also your quick access to Siri. With a press of that button, you can access any app and conduct any web search. You can dictate and send SMS and IM messages. As a second screen �" say you’re working at your laptop �" hitting the home button and saying “open IMDB” doesn’t require nearly the level of disengagement from your main task as navigating for the app. It’s akin to hitting an intercom and having an assistant play a crucial supporting role as you stay focussed on the task at hand. Semantic search is still a work in progress, but don’t hold that against this technology, which in addition to providing reliable command and control is also a powerful dictationist. I use Siri to take notes all the time, and it’s usually the way I start writing anything. The Nexus 7 equivalent requires first navigating to a Google search prompt (after using two hands to unlock the device). A painfully long time passes at is processes the request, then tells you (verbally) it is opening the app, then opens the app. It’s a novelty to the point of being worthless. Add to that, in my far-from-scientific tests, word recognition was vastly superior on the iPad.
There other important differences. Google search from the home screen is unexpectedly better on the iPad than on the Nexus 7. IPad also has the clear edge in the PIM Department: both the mail and calendar clients are more usable.
I also prefer notifications on iPad �" the Nexus 7 status bar can get clogged with icons, when all I need to know is that I have something awaiting my attention. Both reveal the entirety of waiting messages with a swipe down from the top, and Android notifications can all be closed with a single swipe �" on the iPad, only each app’s notifications can be cleared en masse. Another a small improvement in iOS would be single icon indicating unseen notifications.
I didn’t want to like the new iPad charging interface �" the lightning connector. Actually, I wanted to hate it, partly because of the inconvenience of potentially rendering my vast collection of “old” adapters obsolete and partly because Apple (almost certainly for revenue reasons, I imagine) chose to move to another proprietary standard and not micro USB. But after using thunderbolt for a while, I’ve become a convert. It’s superior to USB because it’s “reversible” �" it can be plugged in either way. It also provides very satisfying haptic feedback that it has been inserted properly, unlike the analog plug or USB. And, hey, didn’t Palm change their connector more than a couple of times?
I also want to hate 4G models of any kind, not because of the extra hardware cost but because data plans aren’t rational �" I would pay more than twice as much for AT&T’s “Mobile Share” for less data than I contract for now using three iPhones on my family plan. Under Mobile Share, if I added a tablet with only 1 GB of data that would increase the share plan by $25 a month. As it stands now, dropping my personal hotspot and adding 3 GB for an iPad a la carte would increase increase my bill by only $5 for that same 1 extra GB.
Paying a la carte for connectivity on your phones and tablet is maddening, but it’s hardly the fault of the tablet makers. The iPad’s implementation of 4G backup was perfect in my tests, which included above-ground rail commuting. If you happen to be in a 4G-LTE zone, the speed is breathtaking. If your phone can connect, so will your iPad, whenever you do anything which requires Internet, with no special setup. It’s like a hybrid automobile that starts using the standby gas on its own initiative: it is a non-event for you, just as it should be.
Peripheral cabling is also not a fair fight between the iPad and Nexus 7. An optional thunderbolt-to-HDMI cable means that an iPad can be your entertainment hub in most hotel rooms, patched right into that massive flat screen TV. At home it can substitute for a Roku or Apple TV for downloaded video �" and it operates with the cover closed so there is no mirror image you have to hide under a pillow. At present, there is no equivalent on the Nexus 7.
The iPads �" more accurately, iOS 6.0.2 �" does lack one powerful feature found on the Nexus 7: Gesture typing. This input technique allows you to skate across the keyboard to form words rather than tapping individual keys. It’s a surprisingly effective way to type, especially when standing and holding the tablet in one hand. There is no equivalent for Apple devices. (Swype, a third-party app, has been available for Android devices for some time but gesture typing is now part of the OS of the latest Android update, Jellybean 4.2).
That one winning feature may not be a deciding factor. But while I have defaulted to my review iPad Mini for most everything in recent days, I continue to grab my Nexus 7 when I want to jot something down (and can’t, for ambient reasons, use Siri). But adding gesture typing would be an easy fix for Apple, one which would make their 7″ entrant virtually unassailable. I hope the company isn’t adamantly against it, as it seems to be regarding NFC �" also ubiquitous on Android devices and nowhere to be found in the Apple universe.
On battery life, iPad Mini seems a clear winner as well. It charges more rapidly and discharges more slowly than the Nexus 7, in part because the Android device tends to like things running in the background. That’s addressable, but a nuisance task.
For the truly mobile �" those of it who intend to lug it around to use it at home, at work, and everywhere in between �" the iPad Mini is the clear choice for a smaller tablet. A Mini is destined for my go bag, probably this spring. There are rumors that a second generation is coming out as early as March, so I’m holding off on making the purchase until that clears up. But as soon as Apple makes its move on the iPad Mini, one will move into a permanent place in my go bag.

Google seen missing another deadline in EU antitrust caseDG News Service - Despite saying in December that talks with Google could not go on forever, European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia seems resigned to keep waiting. Almunia laughed as he said at a Wednesday press briefing that "talks were continuing." There is no legal deadline for resolving the antitrust investigation, but in December the commissioner had a meeting in Brussels with Google chief Eric Schmidt and asked his team to provide proposals for a settlement agreement by the end of January. "Today is the 30th and tomorrow is the 31st, so I can imagine the proposals are flying in," said Almunia. "Possibly by express post," he joked. A spokesman from Google could likewise confirm only that talks were continuing and said he could not say whether there would be developments in the coming days or weeks. Google has been under investigation by the Commission since November 2011 after rivals accused the search giant of setting its algorithm to direct users to its own services by reducing the visibility of competing websites and services. In all, 14 companies have complained about Google including the U.K.-based Foundem; Microsoft-owned German price comparison site Ciao; Dutch football website Elfvoetbal; French companies Dealdujour.pro and Twenga; British online mapping company Streetmap; and online travel sites Expedia and TripAdvisor. Google controls more than 90 percent of the search market in several European countries. Follow Jennifer on Twitter at @BrusselsGeek or email tips and comments to jennifer_baker@idg.com.

IDG News Service - Despite saying in December that talks with Google could not go on forever, European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia seems resigned to keep waiting.
Almunia laughed as he said at a Wednesday press briefing that "talks were continuing." There is no legal deadline for resolving the antitrust investigation, but in December the commissioner had a meeting in Brussels with Google chief Eric Schmidt and asked his team to provide proposals for a settlement agreement by the end of January.
"Today is the 30th and tomorrow is the 31st, so I can imagine the proposals are flying in," said Almunia. "Possibly by express post," he joked.
A spokesman from Google could likewise confirm only that talks were continuing and said he could not say whether there would be developments in the coming days or weeks.
Google has been under investigation by the Commission since November 2011 after rivals accused the search giant of setting its algorithm to direct users to its own services by reducing the visibility of competing websites and services.
In all, 14 companies have complained about Google including the U.K.-based Foundem; Microsoft-owned German price comparison site Ciao; Dutch football website Elfvoetbal; French companies Dealdujour.pro and Twenga; British online mapping company Streetmap; and online travel sites Expedia and TripAdvisor.
Google controls more than 90 percent of the search market in several European countries.
Follow Jennifer on Twitter at @BrusselsGeek or email tips and comments to jennifer_baker@idg.com.

Nest raises $80 million for thermostat business -- report

The Nest Learning Thermostat has proven to be a huge hit. In October, CNET Reviews Editor-in-Chief Lindsey Turrentine reviewed the Nest and gave it a full five stars out of five, or "spectacular," rating. Turrentine reported that the thermostat, which is capable of learning the user's heating and cooling preferences over time and can save energy costs, "is easy to install and easy on the eyes." In addition, with its built-in Wi-Fi, it can be controlled entirely from a mobile handset.
Nest is founded by Tony Fadell, who led Apple's iPod development team through its "first 18 generations." According to GigaOm's sources, the company is shipping between 40,000 and 50,000 thermostats per month, and could hit 1 million annual thermostats per year by the summer.
Nest declined comment on CNET's request for comment on the GigaOm report.

BlackBerry goes glam, enlists Alicia Keys

Keys said she previously was a BlackBerry power user, but she left the platform after noticing sexier phones at the gym. For awhile she had two phones, but Keys has now moved back to just a BlackBerry.
It's typical for companies to seek endorsements for their products, and some have even named celebrities to positions within the company. Intel, for example, named singer Will.i.am as its director of creative innovation. Typically, such artists show up at various company events, in ads, and just generally talk up the products.
BlackBerry today launched a new operating system and two new devices that it hopes will attract users back to its platform. The company has faced steep market share loss to Apple and Android handset vendors, and BlackBerry 10 is viewed by many to be the company's last shot at winning over buyers.