Hugh Hefner to buy back Playboy

By The Star

CHICAGO: Playboy Enterprises Inc. said Tuesday its board of directors has formed a special committee to consider founder Hugh Hefner's proposal to buy out the rest of the company.

The committee will consist of attorney Sol Rosenthal, who will serve as its chairman, and Playboy director Shing Tao. Rosenthal is a counsel at international law firm Arnold & Porter, while Tao is chairman and chief investment officer of Pacific Star Partners, a private investment group.

Hefner offered on July 9 to buy the roughly 30 percent of Playboy's outstanding shares that he doesn't already own for $5.50 each, and take the company private in a deal valuing Playboy at $185 million. A few days later, Penthouse magazine owner FriendFinder Networks Inc. made a formal, competing bid for the Playboy empire worth $210 million, but any such deal would require Hefner to agree to sell his nearly 70 percent stake.

The company, which is headquartered in Chicago, said Tuesday that no decisions have been made about Hefner's offer, and there's no guarantee any agreement will be reached.

Playboy's stock price has tumbled since hitting a peak in 1999 of more than $32, closing Tuesday up 2 cents at $5.37.

The company's namesake magazine has struggled with competition from the Web, losing readers and advertisers. It has tried to make up for a declining print business by licensing its brand and the iconic bunny ears for consumer products.

It recently released its June edition equipped with 3-D glasses, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of 3-D movies such as "Avatar."

Hefner has said he worries about the editorial direction of the magazine and its legacy. At 84, he still serves as creative director and editor-in-chief. - AP

* I jst commented on my previous post that playboy magazines is losing readers and advertisers and now i came to know that playboy is surviving by its bunny products. Interesting!!

Newsweek magazine sold, editor to step down.

By the Star

NEW YORK: Sidney Harman, the 91-year-old founder of audio equipment maker Harman International Industries Inc., has agreed to buy Newsweek, ending a nearly half-century chapter for the magazine as part of The Washington Post Co.

Jon Meacham, the magazine's top editor since 2006, will step down.

Newsweek has been struggling to find a profitable niche amid poor economic conditions and a flood of online competition. Declines in circulation and advertising led to a nearly $30 million loss in 2009, and Newsweek expects to lose money again this year.

In an interview, Harman declined to discuss exactly how he will finance the magazine's operations. But he said he will give Newsweek some breathing room for a turnaround effort.

"My purpose is to get the magazine operating in a reasonable amount of time - and that's years, not weeks - on its own fuel," he said.

Harman has pledged to keep most of the magazine's staff, currently at about 350. He also said he doesn't envision any radical overhaul of the magazine, which was redesigned last year with a greater focus on long-form reporting and analysis to compete more directly with titles such as The New Yorker and The Economist.

"I bring intellectual curiosity and serious business experience to a place that could be done no harm from the first and a great deal of good from the second," he said.

Harman said he hasn't decided on a replacement for Meacham as editor.

Financial terms were not disclosed, although the Post Co. said it is keeping the magazine's pension liabilities and certain other, unspecified employee obligations.

With the print industry in decline, the Post Co. likely sold Newsweek at a fire-sale price.

Bloomberg LP bought BusinessWeek last year for just a few million dollars.

"In seeking a buyer for Newsweek, we wanted someone who feels as strongly as we do about the importance of quality journalism," Post Co. CEO Donald Graham said.

"We found that person in Sidney Harman." Graham added, "He has pledged not only to continue to produce a lively, compelling and first-rate news magazine, but also an equally dynamic Newsweek.com."

The Post Co., which acquired Newsweek in 1961, has been looking for a buyer since May, when it hired the investment bank Allen & Co. to help shop the magazine to potential bidders.

Despite continuing losses, Newsweek drew several offers, including ones from Newsmax Media, the publisher of the conservative monthly Newsmax; Open Gate Capital, the private equity firm that owns TV Guide magazine; and Thane Ritchie, a hedge fund manager who made an unsuccessful bid last year for the company that publishes the Chicago Sun-Times.

The winning bidder founded Harman International Industries in 1953. Today, the company brings in nearly $3 billion in annual revenue selling equipment under brands including JBL, Infinity, Harman Kardon and Mark Levinson.

Its audio products are used in such auto brands as Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz, BMW AG and Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus.

Though he retired from the company in 2008, Harman still holds a number of titles at philanthropic and cultural institutions, including the Aspen Institute and Freedom House.

He is the husband of California Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, who is chairwoman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence. - AP

* We yet see another magazine buyout. Online ads is gradually or should i put it rapidly taking over conventional ads on magazine, newspaper, flyers, etc. This makes conventional magazine company going down with less advert opportunities. A very good example would be playboy magazine, it was a hit on it heydays and when online porn come into place, the once mighty playboy yet have to go down. Btw, Harman/Kardon is a good product, but my Toshiba laptop embeded with Harman/Kardon speaker has broken on one side. SAD

BLand to launch projects worth RM500m this year

By Biz Times

BERJAYA Land Bhd (BLand) (4219) will launch new projects worth more than RM500 million this year to take advantage of pent-up demand for housing in the Klang Valley.

BLand is bullish on the property market, its senior general manager of properties and marketing, Mah Siew Wan, said.

"We are seeing a return of buying interest for high-end houses. Our properties are all unique and in prime areas so we are confident of brisk sales," she told Business Times in an interview.

BLand, 53 per cent controlled by Tan Sri Vincent Tan's Berjaya Corp Bhd, will launch Vastana25, a high-end project, at Seputeh Heights in Kuala Lumpur by end-July.

Last weekend, it relaunched The Peak at Taman TAR in Selangor.

The Peak, comprising 88 guarded and gated bungalow lots, was re-launched as it now has freehold status.

By the end of this year, BLand will launch KM1 Condominiun in Bukit Jalil and shop offices in Berjaya Park in Shah Alam, Selangor.

The group has about 10 ongoing developments worth some RM1 billion and it will launch more projects next year, Mah said.

BLand has some 400ha in the Klang Valley with the potential of generating more than RM8 billion in gross development value.

It also has projects in China, Vietnam and South Korea worth more than US$12 billion (RM 38.4 billion).

In China, BLand has a mixed-development project comprising retail, entertainment, theme park and water park in Sanhe City, Hebei Province. It has yet to launch the project.

Infrastructure work on its maiden US$3 billion (RM9.6 billion) resort-type mixed-development township project in South Korea has started.

The project featuring apartments, serviced residences, semi-detached and resort-style villas, a wellness resort, a casino and resort hotel, hotel residences, a mall and an indoor arena will be launched next year.

In Vietnam, BLand has a US$6.3 billion (RM20.7 billion) mixed-development project in Dong Nai Province.

* Bland is coming up with new property development this 2years (2010, 2011), we shall see other players joining in for the following months. "km 1 condominiums is open up for registration" caught my attention. Did a little searches and found that it is a total 300units condo (Density of the Condo is still reasonable & manageable, but i foresee they are many condo popping out like mushroom in that area) Hopefully it will not really dents up that area! hehe.. Location of km 1 condominiums is just beside Green Avenue Condominiums and opposite The Link, check it out "km 1 condominiums location". I guess Bland is offering the Golf Course View again to attract buyers, but i'm not sure.

* My 2cents of thought

Kuala Lumpur International Financial District (KLIFD)

Read an article on the star about the MRT to give high economic investment return. An interview by STARBIZ to Gamuda Bhd group MD Datuk Lin Yun Ling. It come to my attention on the Kuala Lumpur International Financial District (KLIFD), was curious about the location and information about of this KLIFD.

Come to realise that it is a proposed joint property development comprising office towers for finance and banking, residences and retail spaces between 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the Mubadala Development Company on a plot of land covering 34.4 hectares near Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur. (Near Jalan Davis in Pudu, at 1st i tot it was on the Sg.Besi airport/ airfield)

Unfortunately the KLIFD groundbreaking was ceremony postponed due to unknown reason. The event was reported that, was to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and General Sheikh Mohammed Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces.

Anywhere is the location of the Kuala Lumpur International Financial District (KLIFD)- http://wikimapia.org/#lat=3.1390485&lon=101.7160821&z=17&l=0&m=h

Hopefully it will start work and MRT will be connected to this area.

Malaysia FRS 139, are they ready for it?

By The Star

COME Jan 1, the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board’s Financial Reporting Standard 139 – Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement (FRS 139) will finally be implemented in Malaysia. Four years since its implementation date was set, it is still considered uncharted waters for many corporations. This is not surprising since FRS 139 is considered the “mother” of all standards by some.

Under FRS 139, many financial assets and financial liabilities are required to be carried at fair value. This will have a significant impact on loans between related parties, which generally can be interest-free or carry interest rates which are well below the market rates.

The definition of fair value under FRS 139 is “the amount for which an asset could be exchanged, or a liability settled, between knowledgeable, willing parties in an arm’s length transaction”. Paragraph 48A of FRS 139 further states that “The best evidence of fair value is quoted prices in an active market ... Valuation techniques include using recent arm’s length market transactions between knowledgeable, willing parties, if available ... ”

Interestingly, it loosely echoes the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s guide for an arm’s length interest rate:

“... an arm’s length interest rate shall be an interest rate which was charged, or would have been charged, at the time the financial assistance was granted, to uncontrolled transactions with or between independent persons under similar circumstances.”

It could well imply that the measurement of related party loans initially at their respective fair values and subsequently at amortised cost using the effective interest method, may be deemed to be in line with the arm’s length principle since market interest rate is used.

Following the introduction of Section 140A of the Income Tax Act 1967 (ITA) which basically requires taxpayers to ensure that their related party transactions are carried out at arm’s length, would this then mean that an assessment of the fair value of related party loans by the auditors under FRS 139 can serve as contemporaneous documentation for transfer pricing purposes?

The corporate taxpayers do not have an option as to whether to accept the fair value accounting treatment in their financial statements – it is a requirement of FRS 139 and also the Companies Act 1965.

Further, requiring corporations to measure related-party loans initially at their respective fair value may not only affect the income statement. However, for certain, the subsequent amortisation amounts, measured at amortised costs, will represent accounting interest income or interest expense in the income statement. Book entries are generally not the actual receipts or payments, and in tax terms are not real costs or income earned.

At this point, it would be helpful to look at what other tax jurisdictions have done under similar circumstances. Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand tax authorities have issued departmental interpretation and practice notes on the income tax implications arising from the adoption of IAS 39 or its local equivalent.

While in general most tax authorities require the tax treatments to follow or be consistent with the accounting treatment under FRS 139 as far as possible, they also acknowledge that the revenue versus capital consideration would need to be considered in determining the tax treatment.

As an example, in Singapore, the tax adjustment is such that the discount on the interest-free loan recognised in the income statement will not be allowed as a tax deduction and the interest income recorded will not be taxed because these are merely book entries.

The auditor’s primary role is still that of expressing an opinion as to the true and fair view of the financial statements. This means that corporations would still need to provide auditors with supporting evidence of the fair value of the related-party loans to enable auditors to express an opinion.

The fair value measurement rests on the rebuttable presumption that effective interest rates used in the amortised cost method is the market interest rate and is thus, at arm’s length. While this is generally true, loan arrangements made with unrelated parties in the current business environment should be considered as arm’s length, although they may not carry the same market interest rates due to various factors such as level of credit risks, tenure, size of collaterals, etc.

So, what would corporations provide to the auditors? Section 140A of the ITA provides that the acquisition or supply of property or services with related parties be conducted at arm’s length, failing which the Director General of Inland Revenue may adjust the transfer prices.

Since 2003, transfer pricing guidelines have been issued, setting out the extent of information required in a transfer pricing report. The guidelines also stipulate that it is a pre-requisite that a comparable analysis (benchmarking) be carried out to substantiate the arm’s length pricing.

To ensure that corporations provide auditors with the correct arm’s length and market rate interest for related-party loans in the FRS 139 measurement of fair value, it is very likely that a comparable analysis would need to be carried out. This should then provide the setting not only for the auditors but for the tax authorities in support of the argument for arm’s length. Any fair value book entries put through the financial statements should then be met with minimum queries from the tax authorities.

Written by Janice Wong is tax partner and head of transfer pricing services at Ernst & Young Tax Consultants Sdn Bhd.

*What is the impact of implementing FRS 139? Rumour in the financial industry is that it will have a huge impact on the reports of collection system.

Warren Buffett in India?

By The Star

OMAHA, Nebraska: Warren Buffett said on Saturday he plans to visit India next March, and would not rule out the country for possible future investments.

Speaking at Berkshire’s annual meeting in response to a shareholder question, Buffett said he had decided only on Friday to make the trip, saying the company’s Iscar Metalworking Cos unit “is doing very well there”.

He said “we do not rule out India” as a possible locale for future Berkshire investments, whether in companies or marketable securities, though bureaucratic obstacles could complicate any plans to invest, including limitations on foreign ownership.

“We’ve looked a lot at being in the insurance business in India,” he added. Insurance and reinsurance are Berkshire’s main business lines. Demographers expect India to overtake China as the world’s most populous country within the next two decades, and Buffett predicted that “people in India will be living a lot better 20 years from now.”

Buffett does not disclose where he plans to make future investments, but occasionally travels outside the United States to seek opportunities or check on Berkshire investments.

Among Berkshire’s investments in Asia are the South Korean steelmaker Posco and Chinese car and battery maker BYD. — Reuters

Both have been profitable, giving Berkshire respective paper profits of US$1.32bil and US$1.75bil as of year-end, according to Berkshire’s annual report. — Reuters

iPhone - a temporary satisfaction with a long term slave

By The star (SOO EWE JIN)

THE thing about technology is that there is no finality to it. More so when it comes to everyday technology.

Take, for example, the smartphone. I have nothing against the iPhone, the BlackBerry or the Android. They have fantastic features and I can assure you that if I have cash to spare, I will happily buy an iPhone.

Not only will I look cool, but it will really freak out the young people who call me Uncle when I use it to play the golden oldies out loud.

But my boss will probably want me to buy the BlackBerry. After all, it has become a necessary accessory of the successful working man, like the tie.

Well, I have seen how this group of people like to hang out in Mont’ Kiara after work. They are able to remove their ties, but they are constantly interrupted by their BlackBerry. And it’s always about work.

As for me and my trusty ordinary handphone, it’s often just an SMS from my dear wife asking me to remember to buy a loaf of bread on the way home.

The problem with all these fancy gadgets is that we are thrilled initially as we try out everything and anything available. But eventually, we only use a smartphone, well, as a phone.

I read an article in The New York Times last week about a feature that is fast gaining popularity. It’s called FourSquare. Basically, it allows you to beam your location to your friends so that they know where you are.

Let’s say you promised to meet friends at Suria KLCC but forgot to tell them where exactly. By beaming your location, your friends can track you down to the exact shop that you are in.

I am sure the women reading this article will be more than happy to tell their husbands or boyfriends to get connected to FourSquare.

It will end forever the little white lies that they tell like, “Sayang, I will be a bit late, still at the office lah!”

“Oh no, you are not! You are hanging outside the spa at Mid Valley and if you don’t come home this minute, you can sleep on the sofa tonight!”

Get the idea?

Actually, it’s a marketing strategy to push us to embrace anything that is new, even though old technology works just as well.

A friend, knowing how much I love the good old days, decided to give me his old PDA last week. These days, PDAs no longer exist since all their features are embedded into the phones.

I am now collating all the information I need, including the full records of my DVD collection, my books, my friends’ email addresses, and all their birthdays, on this cute little Palm.

At the dentist the other day, I whipped out the PDA to read a book about the life of William Wilberforce which I had downloaded. It went well for a while, and then the strain got to me, so I switched it off and reached out for the Reader’s Digest. It was an old issue but it kept me occupied, and happy.

Next to me, a young man was probably happier. He was busy taking photos of his beautiful girlfriend, who was taking a nap, on his iPhone.

* I found this article pretty interesting as i saw many youngster who would indulge into such fancy phone jst for a temporary satisfaction and a long term slave to it.

Small Office/Home Office (SoHo)

By the Star

CB Richard Ellis Malaysia Sdn Bhd managing director Allan Soo says the typical SoHo buyer are mostly independent individuals rather than professionals.

“This can be advertising agencies or those within the IT industry.”

Soo says the location of the SoHo is critical.

“It definitely makes sense to work in the city within a business environment and having your business partners nearby. If it’s going to be a hassle for your clients to come to you, than it does not make sense.”

Zerin Properties chief executive officer Previndran Singhe concurs that the location of the SoHo is very important.

“You need to be around amenities. Otherwise it’s going to be tough! But ultimately, it all depends on both the product and the location of the property.”

Wong, however, reckons that a SoHo buyer would be more comfortable working outside of the city centre.

“The whole idea of living and working in the same environment is so that you can avoid the hassle of getting stuck in traffic jams when travelling to your place of work.

“People who operate out of a SoHo would most likely prefer a quiet environment rather than to be smack in the middle of the city centre and dealing with the noise. The ideal location would be the outskirts of the city, near a park or commuter train station.”

A search on iproperty.com, the country’s top property portal, reveals four SoHo developments that are currently in the pipeline.

They are the Selangor State Development Corp’s (PKNS) Kasturi Idaman in Kota Damansara, HR United Group’s SB1 and Persanda 2 in Sungai Besi and Shah Alam, respectively and Ong Chong Realty Sdn Bhd’s PJ5 SoHo in Kelana Jaya.

Previndran says there is a growing market for SoHo developments and cited YTL Land & Development Bhd’s CENTRIO at Pantai Hill Park in Bukit Kerinchi, Kuala Lumpur.

According to reports, 70% of the development (at CENTRIO) have been sold. It opened for sales in 2006.

Akashdeep Singh, a 30-something freelance film editor, says working from a SoHo provided him with great flexibility.

“Some people enjoy this lifestyle – working late and sleeping overnight. It can lead to a lot of office romances,” he says, laughing.

Akashdeep, who was going to India for a month that same day, says: “And in cases of emergencies, like if you need to take a sabbatical, you can avoid the hassle of giving notice. In a normal working environment, it’s hard to do this.”

Former lawyer Melissa Ram used to work out of her home and relished the fact that she could completely avoid traffic jams.

“There’s a lot of flexibility, plus there’s no overhead cost or rentals to worry about. With the internet, you can work from virtually anywhere.”

Melissa, however, adds that there were also drawbacks when working from home.

“Sometimes when you need to meet with clients, having them over in your house isn’t appropriate and in such situations, having an office would be better. In such situations, you would have to go out of your way to meet your client rather than to have the convenience of them coming to you.”

She adds, however, that if given a choice, she would still prefer to work from home.

“While working you could still manage the house and do the cooking. Plus, you could work till midnight and not have to worry about security issues.”