Daniel Rook
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/ 22 January 2006

How Japan’s internet king lost his crown

It began with a tip-off to the media that the offices of one of Japan’s top internet entrepreneurs were going to be raided. Soon dozens of reporters were camped outside, a whiff of scandal in the air. Two days later, the Tokyo stock market was in turmoil and more than -billion had been wiped off the market value of Japanese companies.

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/ 13 January 2006

Time up for camera film? Nikon focuses on digital

Nikon, the iconic Japanese camera maker, has put another nail in the coffin of traditional photography with plans to stop selling most of its film models in favour of hot-selling digital cameras. Nikon said it will end production of all but two of its eight single-lens reflex analogue models and axe all of its non-digital compacts, signalling the end of its more than 50 year history of selling film cameras.

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/ 21 October 2005

Sony gets boost as Warner hedges bets in DVD duel

Sony won a crucial boost on Friday in a war over new DVD formats as Warner Bros became the latest Hollywood studio to announce its support for the struggling electronics icon’s Blu-ray technology. Warner Bros is a member of a rival format group led by Toshiba, which said the Time Warner unit continued to collaborate closely with the group towards a commercial launch of its HD DVD technology.

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/ 26 September 2005

Sony slides as market gives thumbs-down to revamp

Sony shares tumbled almost five percent on Monday as investors fretted that with a big loss looming this year, a plan to overhaul the struggling Japanese electronic icon may not be radical enough. Sony fell by as much as 4,8% in early trade as dealers gave their first response to the restructuring plan, which was announced after the close of trade on Thursday ahead of a long holiday weekend.

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/ 18 October 2004

How big a risk are runaway oil prices?

Are global stock markets proving resilient in the face of surging oil prices or in danger of going nowhere — except downwards — unless crude futures reverse their relentless march higher? That’s the puzzle analysts were trying to solve on Monday as oil prices pushed into new uncharted territory above a barrel.

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/ 8 September 2004

British Airways sale sparks speculation

A planned sale by British Airways of its stake in Australia’s Qantas has reignited talk of further consolidation in the European airline industry, but analysts played down prospects of an imminent deal. The British carrier said on Wednesday it expects to net about £425-million from a sale of the 18,25% stake in Qantas.