Philippines News Archives

Thursday, April 20, 2000

AC ( 04/28/2000 : PDI )
Ayla Corp. yesterday said its telecom and Internet units had firmed up agreements with Web firms Yahoo Inc. and Music.com. Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, president of Ayala Corp., told analysts in a briefing that the alliances were part of the company's plan to diversify into the Internet. "iAyala has reached an agreement with Yahoo for a co-branding arrangement," Ayala said, but added the signing would take place only today. He added: "We recently secured the rights for the Philippine portal of Music.com." Yahoo and Music.com would be content providers for subscribers of Globe Telecom, Ayala's digital mobile phone firm. Globe has begun offering Internet access to its mobile phone subscribers through the wireless application protocol (WAP). The company said the multibillion-peso plan would cut across all its business interests such as banking, retail, property, telecommunications and information technology (IT). The plan is aimed at making the holding firm a leader in the age of new economy. Ayala said major subsidiaries of the company, namely, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Globe Telecoms Inc. and iAyala, would each be implementing Internet-related activities to improve their services to their different markets. ''The new economy is real and it will affect all our businesses. Ayala intends to be a prime architect of the new economy,'' Zobel de Ayala said. For starters, the Ayala Corp. has successfully recruited Filipino tech-wizard Diosdado Banatao to be the vice-chair of iAyala, the holding firm's wholly owned subsidiary for its investments in Internet-related businesses.
- posted by StockMarket @ 11:18 PM

Wednesday, April 19, 2000

AC ( 04/19/2000 : PDI )
Ayala Corp., through wholly owned subsidiary iAyala Co. Inc., has formed a $10-million "incubator" to support Internet startups "with brilliant ideas and great potential." In a symposium Monday, Ayala president Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said the venture capital fund, Ayala Internet Venture Partners, would invest both here and abroad to develop strategic partnerships in the emerging Internet community. "We formed iAyala and Ayala Internet Venture Partners because we believe in the potentials of Filipino talent. We are committed to seeking out and nurturing startups with brilliant ideas and great potential," Zobel de Ayala said. "We're putting up an incubator system where people can go to with ideas, seek funding and get all the support mechanism," he said. Zobel de Ayala said Ayala Internet would enter into commercial arrangements with content owners and content providers and develop "communities using user-generated content," citing, as an example, Globe Telecom Inc.'s wireless chat service. Globe is the Ayala group's telecommunications arm. Ayala Internet will initially fund developers of "wireless application protocol," or WAP, products. WAP is an application environment and set of communication protocols for wireless devices designed to enable manufacturer-, vendor- and technology-independent access to the Internet and advanced telephony services. It basically allows subscribers of wireless services to check their e-mails and browse the Internet using their mobile phones. "This is a little bit different from the traditional Ayala, which tends to take a majority position in specific industries. We see ourselves as a catalyst. Beyond that, we will provide some technical data to really hone their skills. More than anything, we want entrepreneurs to become successful," Zobel de Ayala said. The Ayala group has invested in US technology firms Cielo Communications, SiRF Technology and Akamai Technologies Inc., and a local company called EdsaMail.com.
- posted by StockMarket @ 11:16 PM

Monday, April 17, 2000

AC ( 04/17/2000 : AFX )
Ayala Corp expects its wholly-owned iAyala Co Inc unit to "substantially affect" the company's bottomline over the long-term, Ayala Corp president Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II said. Zobel said he could not yet give definite figures. He said iAyala plans to focus on the development of the wireless applications protocol, for "building a community of WAP developers." "We are used to building these five to ten-year plans but for the first time in our lives, we don't know where this will go. It's coming from the fundamental belief that I have that the world is going to change." How this "will translate in terms of income, we don't know yet at this stage. It's going to radically change the way we do business and substantially affect our bottomline over the long term," Zobel said. iAyala executive director Jonathan Madrid said that for this year, the capital expenditure of the company is expected at 20-25 M pesos of which 10 M has been earmarked for the Ayala Internet ventures fund. Madrid said in the next two weeks, iAyala will be able to announce 3-5 investments abroad, but did not elaborate. Madrid said that by year-end most mobile phones will be WAP-enabled although there are currently handphones available now which can undertake WAP functions. Zobel said by the first quarter of 2001, general packet radio service (GPRS) will be made available. GPRS is a high speed service enabling mobile networks to access the Internet at a speed comparable to a modem. Ayala Corp subsidiary Globe Telecom will launch GPRS by the last quarter of 2000, Zobel said, adding that by the end of 2001, there will be as many as five M subscribers of GSM services, the technology used by Globe, from the current 2 M.
- posted by StockMarket @ 11:16 PM

Philippines News Archives Home

Philippine Jobs .ph

Summary of Job Openings

Career Articles & Resources Index

Investing in the Philippine Stock Market

Philippine Sites

Jobs in Canada