SoftBank will own 15 percent of Uber’s equity following closing by acquiring shares from early investors, cutting the estimated value of Uber by 30 percent of those shares, according to a source familiar with the terms of the deal.

The new investment is part of an effort by Uber to move past a series of scandals and missteps and reform its board structure as it gears up for a 2019 public share offering.

A source familiar with the deal said SoftBank had reached agreements with investors to achieve its target of a 15 percent share.

The two firms did not provide details of the valuation but the source said the investment was based on Uber’s worth of $48 billion, down from $71 billion earlier this year.

“We look forward to working with the purchasers to close the overall transaction, which we expect to support our technology investments, fuel our growth, and strengthen our corporate governance,” Uber said in an emailed statement.

A separate statement from Rajeev Misra, chief executive of SoftBank Investment Advisers, said, “We are appreciative of the support from Uber’s shareholders in the successful tender offer and look forward to closing the overall investment in January.”

“We have tremendous confidence in Uber’s leadership and employees and are excited to support Uber as it continues to reinvent how people and goods are transported around the world,” he added.

The source said SoftBank’s total investment in Uber will amount to $7.7 billion including a $1 billion infusion announced earlier this year.

– $54 bn ‘blended’ value –

The earlier investment was made at the higher valuation and the share repurchases at a lower value, leaving a “blended” valuation for Uber at $54 billion, according to the source.

The investment is part of the effort by SoftBank to become a major player in the global tech world with a massive $100 billion fund, much of it targeted for Silicon Valley startups.

At Uber, new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi has vowed to fix the company’s work culture and business practices, after taking over earlier this year from ousted founder Travis Kalanick.

Even as Uber has seen unprecedented growth by expanding to dozens of countries, it has been hurt by missteps including allegations of executive misconduct, a toxic work atmosphere and potentially unethical competitive practices.

The SoftBank deal is expected to put an end to litigation among stakeholders and clear the way for new board members, further loosening Kalanick’s grip.

Uber however still faces numerous challenges including rulings from regulators that it unfairly competes with taxi operators, with London authorities having pulled its license.

Uber is also seeking to become a major player in autonomous cars, and has agreed to buy and adapt vehicles from Volvo to begin operating self-driving taxis. But it faces a trail from former Google car unit Waymo alleging Uber executives stole trade secrets.

The ridesharing group’s website says it has operations in 616 cities in 77 countries and some 16,000 employees. In most cases Uber drivers are treated as independent contractors.

The global bitcoin craze has attracted almost everyone, from mom-and-pop traders to giant investment banks.

Promoters of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies tout them as being safe and secure, and without oversight from financial regulators.

But there is some concern that these very advantages could be exploited by terrorists to transfer funds from one place to another.

Financial intelligence experts from the region say this is already happening, with several suspicious financial transactions detected recently.

Some of these experts gathered in Malaysia last month for the Third Counter-Terrorism Financing Summit. The security experts from 35 countries unanimously agreed that the first step to disrupting militant operations is by cutting off their funds.

A new alliance between Australia and South-east Asia has also been formed to directly target and disrupt the funding lifeline of terrorist groups by denying them access to the international financial system and other sources of funds.

Sources told The Straits Times that the high degree of anonymity offered by digital currencies makes them a possible preferred avenue for militants in South-east Asia.

“The number might not be big but we know it’s picking up. Their ultimate goal is to make sure that these funds get where they’re supposed to be,” said one source.

“Small or big, it can help move any terrorism planning to the next level – launching attacks.”

While the surge in the value of bitcoins and similar cryptocurrencies has garnered widespread media attention, security experts say the terrorists use digital currency not to make money, but for ease of moving funds between borders without the regular banking scrutiny.

For operational reasons, officials declined to reveal the locations and frequency of such transactions. But the identity of some of these financial movements on the Web has been determined, said a second source.

“Special equipment and database are already in place to help analyse these patterns. Identity is key to uncovering terrorism activities. We can monitor and trace the origin of the fund but to know who’s behind it is very tricky,” he said.

“We have all these equipment in place, but it’s still very hard to ‘crawl’ in the dark Web market,” the source added.

Malaysian criminologist P. Sundramoorthy said the consequences of militants or sympathisers switching to the use of cryptocurrency would be devastating as terror groups could be expected to execute attacks after receiving the funds.

“Given that cryptocurrency offers a high degree of anonymity and is popular and user-friendly, measures to control it must be put in place as soon as possible. They will always find a way to exploit such channels. We can’t eliminate the use but we need to limit it.”

Still, some experts say the issue might have been played up.

In a recent study by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), the British intelligence think-tank suggested that there is little link between cryptocurrency and terrorism. It said the claims that bitcoin is funding terrorism are greatly exaggerated.

Mr David Carlisle, an independent consultant with Rusi, said in a March 2 commentary: “Treating cryptocurrencies as an exceptional threat creates the misleading impression that more conventional financial products are not already equally, or more, vulnerable to terrorist exploitation.”

A regional security source acknowledged that most militants are indeed still channelling funds via conventional banking and money remittance services.

Still, it has been noticed that digitial currency has also been used as a means of transfer.

“We still see most of them funding their operations by taking personal loans, selling their belongings and so on. But to say the possibility of these militants turning to the dark Web is little or unlikely, that’s dangerous as we’re already seeing suspicious movements which we believe are terrorism fundings,” he said. “They will always try to find new ways to exploit technology to materialise their sick agenda.”

The danger of terrorist financing can be gleaned by the capture of Marawi in the southern Philippines by militants that ended in October after a five-month siege.

The Associated Press reported last month that Philippine military chief Eduardo Ano said at least US$1.5 million (S$2 million) was sent by terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to finance militants planning the Marawi attack.

As Malaysia begins to impose controls over the growing use of digital currencies, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), its central bank, has required that conversions of cryptocurrencies into cash must be reported under the strict transactions under anti-money laundering laws.

Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed said: “BNM has announced measures that would regulate the use of cryptocurrencies in Malaysia, especially the conversion of cryptocurrencies into cash and other equivalents. This measure will help the police and other enforcement agencies to manage terrorism financing.”

Artificial intelligence will operate more like humans, while human drivers will be less needed for the level 4 autonomous driving next year, a report by LG Economic Research Institute forecast Wednesday.

The institute cited AI and level 4 autonomous driving technologies among the top 10 major technologies that will prevail the information communications technology industry next year under the four biggest trends: hyper-intelligence, hyper-automation, hyper-connection, and hyper-convergence.

Deep learning-based AI technologies will overcome existing technological difficulties and evolve more like a human brain that can learn things proactively. Appliance of brain science will also be more importance as AI develops.

Experiments on autonomous driving that will minimize operations by human drivers will be conducted next year, opening the level 4 self-driving era, the report said. Level 4 means the second highest autonomy with the vehicle being able to handle most normal driving tasks. Level 5 autonomy means the car can drive entirely on its own.

The report said that the current level of self-driving technologies will be elevated along with the upcoming fifth-generation telecom network, and efforts to improve efficiency in the auto driving sector will be made.

Social robots and drones are likely to be used more widely, becoming more like users’ companions in everyday life, the report said.

Manufacturing businesses will start to apply smart technologies to their factories, enhancing productivity of the traditional manufacturing industry.

The other technologies the institute mentioned were edge computing needed for Internet of Things, quantum computing, blockchain, virtual reality and augmented reality, and digital healthcare.

“Global big 5 ICT companies that are Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, will face a fiercer competition as they penetrate into each other’s businesses as those technologies become more sophisticated next year,” the report said.

“Other than Silicon Valley, new innovation clusters will be formed in many parts of the world, and new forces from there will have to intensely fight for hegemony of the ICT industry against the current leaders,” it added.

They also contributed to the economy by bringing direct investment from overseas venture capitalists and investors.

One of the most prominent start-ups who played a key role to help increase efficiency in the real estate industry is the Builk One Group. The company has provided software, big data analytic, e-commerce platform, and communication platform to all stakeholders in all construction and real estate industry supply chains.

Patai Padungtin, founder and chief executive officer of Builk One Group, said that the group’s mission is to help reduce risk while increasing efficiency in the industry. A start-up contributes to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by increasing the efficiency of the real sector industry (in each vertical industry) through digital transformation, he said.

“In real estate, Builk has helped increase industry efficiency by 5 per cent of total construction value (via Builk’s business platform) of Bt30 billion. It is my role since start-ups come to solve existing [industry] problems,” said Patai.

Builk provides free software to small contractors and small construction material shops to help them with digital transformation. Currently, there are 25,000 companies using software and there are over 1 million purchase orders recorded via Builk’s software that are turned into big data assets for the company to offer big data analytic service to manufacturers and brands.

Builk also provides the intelligent e-commerce platform called Yellow, which connects contractors, suppliers, and manufacturers. The intelligent platform will help match transactions between small contractors and suppliers; and large contractors and manufacturers by sourcing the best price for them. Currently, there are 5 million real-time product prices on Builk’s platform. This year’s total e-commerce revenue was Bt220 million, increasing from Bt70 million in 2016. It aims to reach Bt1 billion in 2018.

“The beauty is it is a win-win situation for all because Builk plays the role as an intermediary, providing them benefit, offering them free software and offering the best price for products [they order via e-commerce]. We connect manufacturers and supplier to contractors. We play a role as a virtual wholeseller for them to help bring online-to-offline (O2O) e-commerce in the construction industry,” said Patai.

One of its main focus is to help transform traditional construction material shops into digital businesses by offering free software and getting them into the e-commerce network as a distribution channel. This year it has encouraged 40 shops and next year it will have 160 shops in 77 provinces nationwide. He said there are 6,000 shops in the market.

Moreover, Builk has helped 300 large contractors achieve digital transformation for years by offering enterprise resource planing (ERP) software. For real estate companies, Builk also offers customer relationship management (CRM) communication platform. Currently, it provides for 15,000 condo units at three real estate properties. Next year, it plans to offer 50,000 units from more developers.

He said the role of a start-up is to help drive Thailand 4.0 in the real sector, in each vertical sector to undergo digital transformation. Thai start-ups can play an important role in helping a lot of SMEs transform their traditional business and help them to increase efficiency and competitive capability. Well-established start-ups also help the country by hiring more workers.

Meanwhile, Krating Poonpol, manager of 500 TukTuks, one of |the most active venture capitalists in Thailand, said that start-ups are the new economic engine for the country.

This year, the role of start-ups in Thailand is to play a role in generating employment. It estimates that start-ups can help 100,000 people earn through both direct and indirect employment.

500 TukTuks invested in 46 start-ups, and 47 per cent of them are growing and have fund-raising in bigger rounds. Start-ups under 500 TukTuks’ portfolio have together created 1,000 direct jobs and |created almost 10,000 jobs for people in Thailand. For example, Skootar has 3,000 messengers, Claim Di Bike has 3,000 messengers, Seekster has 1,000 house-mades, Pomelo employs 300 staff, Fastwork has 1,000 freelancers, and Ookbee has 100,000 writers.

Meanwhile, it expects that in the next 10 years, Southeast Asia can create many tech start-ups with company value of US$100 |billion (Bt3.27 trillion). If there |is one Thai start-up worth $100 billion it can help increase the country’s GDP immediately.

Sompoat Chansomboon, director of Business Innovation & dtac Accelerate, one of the most impactful start-up accelerators in Thailand, said that this year the prominent start-up ecosystem would see collaboration between start-ups and large corporates. The role of a start-up is to help corporates do innovation as part of corporates’ digital transformation journey. For example, SCG and Giztix and Finnomena and fund houses.

Apart from collaboration with corporates, the other prominent role of start-ups is to draw direct investment from overseas to inject into Thai-based start-ups totalling $87 million, excluding non-disclose-value deals. The government has budgeted Bt20 billion into the local start-up ecosystem. Meanwhile, dtac Accelerate itself has enabled 34 start-ups and together have raised $3.5 billion, drawing oveseas direct investment of over $10 million. This has helped create 10,000 jobs for Thais.

Vachara Aemavat, president of Thailand Tech Startup Association, said that Thai start-ups in the past year had played a prominent role in helping create jobs, careers and business in many real sectors such as real estate, finance and banking, logistics, and healthcare. The role of the association is to connect the real sector and commercial associations with start-ups as well as to connect start-ups among themselves to increase their capability.

“The association did a survey of 240 start-ups in Thailand and found that 25 per cent of them had received fund raising, while 50 per cent of start-ups had success in seed fund raising. It is rare for them to achieve series-A fund-raising,” said Vachara.

He said, one strategy to help start-ups grow is to match them with corporates and the association will play a key role in matching them.

No matter your industry, you have the opportunity to use your energy, enthusiasm and confidence to create a competitive and, perhaps, wildly successful company.

As a long-time serial entrepreneur, before coming to Oracle to work with startups and SMBs, I experienced the excitement and satisfaction of creating a thriving enterprise from an idea. I’ve also come to recognize that this process is a marathon, not a sprint. Just as when you run a marathon, you will experience different stages along the route, and each of them represents a different challenge for you as a leader.

Perhaps the most daunting, and difficult to recognize, is the early shift from startup to SMB. It’s a stage where some of the leadership characteristics that were great assets at first have become liabilities. Making the transition may mean shifting your leadership style, of course without sacrificing your ideals and brand, or even assuming a different role while bringing on others who can provide long-term leadership for the company.

A new business is held together by the optimism and involvement of the founder. When all you have is an idea, maybe a working prototype, even a customer or two, and you’re still working to find the right market fit, you’re a startup. At that stage, it’s the enthusiasm of leadership and the power of the idea that binds everyone together and keeps them forging ahead. Founders also wears many hats, and tend to be directly involved in almost every aspect of day-to-day operations.

There will come a point, though, when you have gotten large enough that it’s no longer possible to operate that way. When you go from a couple of customers you know personally to a customer base big enough to track in the cloud, or when you have a scalable business, you’ve moved into the ranks of the SMB.

That’s often when that boundless optimism and desire to manage every aspect of the business personally can become liabilities for the founder and the company. Now, the company needs to establish formal processes and procedures. It needs to manage a growing workforce that may well include remote offices and even mobile employees. There’s far too much going on for the founders to be part of every decision and every piece of the operation.

While you should never shed your optimism, this is the time to develop a bit of humility to balance the raw enthusiasm of the startup phase. Leaders also need to recognize the company’s vulnerabilities before they get too large to overcome, and be willing to make some difficult decisions. The things you do at the transition to SMB will have consequences two years from now, when the company has become an enterprise.

Technology can help you make that transition, and maintain an optimistic and effective culture. Because you can’t communicate with everyone face-to-face all the time, use online channels to keep the lines of communication working across the organization and from the top down. Video conference meetings that let remote employees see and be seen can help keep everyone working together.

Using the cloud to help analyze data and gain insights can be extremely important at this stage, too. Having information at your fingertips via the cloud will let you evaluate markets, opportunities and decisions with greater confidence. You can be a lot more enthusiastic about your SMB when you’re able to make decisions based on solid, data-based insights.

Most important, this transition is the time when leaders need to recognize their own blind spots. It’s the rare individual indeed that can make the successful transition from startup founder to the CEO of a public company. The skills required are entirely different. Start now to add people to your leadership team who are smarter than you are, people who have more experience and have been through these kinds of transitions before.

That may not be easy to do; it can be hard to back away from being the decision maker for everything. But driving down decision making in the organization, trusting your people to get things done, and trusting your extended leadership team to support you, is what will enable your SMB to thrive. Making the right decisions, using the right technology, and being honest about your limitations, will help ensure you have a culture and a company that can survive for the long haul.

LG Display’s plan to build an organic light-emitting diode plant in China was conditionally approved by the South Korean government after a five-month-long review, giving the green light to the firm amid growing demand for OLED TVs in the global market.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Tuesday it approved LG Display’s OLED plant for televisions in Guangzhou, considering its positive ramifications, including market expansion and job creation at LG Display’s partner companies.

The approval, however, was made on the condition that the display maker increase the use of Korean firms’ materials and equipment; its future investments should be made in Korea; and security should be strengthened to minimize technology and manpower leakage.

LG Display welcomed the decision, saying, “With respect to the delayed approval, we will work hard to provide products in a timely way to clients by shortening the schedule.”

In July, LG Display announced its plan to build a plant for generation 8.5 of its OLED panels for televisions in China in response to growing demand for OLED TVs in the global market. The Korean display maker is currently the sole producer of large OLED panels for televisions globally.

At the end of July, the display firm asked for approval from the Korean government to build a plant in China. A company should obtain permission from the government before building a plant overseas to produce one of the nation’s designated key technologies in order to prevent leaks and protect key industries.

The government belatedly gave the green light to the firm, as it had been unsure whether it was appropriate to build plants in China. Some Korean conglomerates have faced operational setbacks due to political issues.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) currently forecasts solar flares by identifying the locations of sunspots using a radio telescope, and detecting magnetic anomalies in the atmosphere and other unusual factors via an observation device. The current prediction accuracy is said to be about 50 percent.

In January, the NICT announced that it successfully conducted an experiment to increase the accuracy of its forecast by having AI learn 300,000 images of sunspots. However, the current observation device can only store about several months’ worth of information on sunspots and magnetism.

With the help of AI, the government intends to increase the device’s capacity to allow it to store at least several years’ worth of data.

The government also plans to build another Space Weather Forecast Center under the NICT somewhere in a provincial area — the existing center is in Koganei, western Tokyo — and install a backup antenna there that would be linked to the observation device to allow for continued monitoring in the event of a large-scale disaster hitting the Tokyo metropolitan area.

A solar flare that was generated on Sept. 6 emitted high-temperature gas that took two days to reach Earth. The NICT issued an alert concerning the phenomenon on Sept. 7.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry believes that improving forecast technology will help the institute release more accurate information in advance. The ministry has requested ¥100 million for enhancing the observation device in its supplementary budget request for the current fiscal year.

In October 2003, the largest solar flare to have been recorded at that time caused problems with a Japanese satellite, as well as a major power outage in Sweden. Solar activities are said to intensify about every 11 years; the next peak is estimated to be in the mid-2020s. Solar flares could occur frequently during that period, and countries are making efforts to cope with the phenomenon.

The government aims to cooperate with other countries on the issue.

■Solar flare

A large-scale explosion occurring around a dark area on the sun’s surface known as a sunspot. The explosion emits strong X-rays, high-temperature gases — which carry electrified particles — and others. They collide with Earth’s atmosphere and affect the planet’s magnetism. This phenomenon sometimes causes errors in Global Positioning System and failures at power stations that lead to blackouts.

The guest of honour who officiated at the new mobile app was Haji Abdul Manap bin Othman, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health (MoH).

The new app, which is created to help patients perform the five time daily prayers including Wudhu (ablution) and Tayammum, can be downloaded via Google Play and App Store.

The main features of the application are guidelines on Wudhu, Tayammum and prayer for patients with physical disabilities in the form of audio, visual and text. Other features include prayer time, prayer time alarm, Surah for prayer, Doa and Kiblat direction.

The main ‘iBantu Solat’ is the result of the pilot project on ‘Khidmat Bantu Solat Pesakit’ at government hospitals which was implemented in April 2015.

In his welcoming remarks, chairman of the ceremony Haji Zulkifli bin Panglima Asgar Dato Paduka Haji Abdullah, Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary at the MoRA, said that the ‘Khidmat Bantu Solat Pesakit’ project was created three years ago to strengthen the faith of Muslim community in Brunei.

He hoped that the new application can achieve its main objectives of providing patients the convenience to perform prayers according to their situation as well as heal physical illnesses through spiritual cleansing.

The ceremony also saw the presentation of published materials and purified sand for Tayammum for the use of patients by the Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary at the MoRA to Haji Md Khairul Anuar bin Pehin Orang Kaya Pendikar Alam Dato Paduka Seri Haji Hasrin, Chief Executive Officer of RIPAS Hospital.

Also in attendance was Dato Seri Setia Haji Abdul Aziz bin Orang Kaya Maharaja Lela Haji Mohd Yusof, Permanent Secretary at the MoRA.