Internet
ò According to its president, Sony Bank has plans to double its assets in custody to 2 trillion yen ($17 billion) in four to five years. Industry observers see intense competition among Japanese Internet-only banks, with the entry in September of SBI Sumishin Net Bank, a fifty-fifty joint venture between Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. and SBI Holdings Inc. Sony also announced the launch of Sony Bank Securities Inc., tasked with making available to Sony Bank customers asset management services, such as cash stock transactions, which cannot be undertaken by a bank. Sony Bank said it is looking to offering services that would allow clients to manage simultaneously assets held in accounts at both Sony Bank and Sony Bank Securities. Sony Financial Holdings Inc. holds 88 percent of Sony Bank, with the remaining 18 percent owned by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., the core banking unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.
ò Yahoo Japan Corp. and Mitsui & Co. announced their plans to launch a web outlet mall that will sell fashionable foreign brand items at low prices. The online mall, Premium Brand Avenue, will open at the Yahoo! Shopping site, offering the clothes, bags and accessories of 15 famous brands. The two groups said the online mall targets young consumers in their 20s and 30s. The web mall will be operated by LX Inc., an online fashion goods retailer affiliated with Mitsui. Yahoo Japan and Mitsui said they will increase the number of brands available online to more than 100 within two years.
Hardware
ò Toshiba Corp. and Microsoft Corp. announced their move to form a consortium with the aim of promoting products for the high-definition DVD system, a next-generation DVD format. The Advanced Interactivity Consortium aims to maximize consumer satisfaction worldwide by accelerating industry-wide adoption of advanced interactivity and interoperability across a broad array of HD DVD products.
ò Matsushita Electric Industrial announced that it would launch new Blu-ray optical disc recorders in November. The company said the device allows more hours of full high-definition recording on a single disc than any others available. Matsushita and Sony Corp. promote the Blu-ray technology, which competes with the HD DVD format, backed by Toshiba Corp. Matsushita also said it will offer the world's first DVD recorders that can store full high-definition programs on conventional DVD discs next month. Video rental chain Blockbuster Inc., the largest U.S. provider of home movie entertainment, came out in supporting the Blu-ray format earlier in June. Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. entered into exclusivity deals in August to distribute their next-generation discs on Toshiba's HD DVD format for the next 18 months.
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