Rumours rife over Google stake in Chinese ISP

Also in the vnunet.com Asia News Wrap for 29 March: NTT tests WiMax to HSDPA transfer; Asia security server market bonanza

Google is considering taking a five per cent stake in a major Chinese internet company, a Chinese newspaper claimed today, citing unamed sources.

Negotiations to buy the stake in the extremely popular Sina.com site, which operates a portal, news, games and other services, have been ongoing for some time, the Beijing News said.

Sina.com is already in the news following unconfirmed reports that Hong Kong-based wireless internet service provider Tom.com has agreed to purchase the 20 per cent Sina share held by Chinese online gaming company, Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd.

Google has seen its share of the Chinese search market grow to around 30 per cent, but still lags behind China-based rival Baidu.

The cash-rich US company took a three per cent stake in Baidu early last year. Chinese regulators are typically reluctant to approve share deals that might give foreign companies an influential stake in local internet and telecoms companies.

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Japanese mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo said yesterday that it would set up a trial WiMax wireless internet service in Tokyo. 

The test network, which still awaits approval from regulators, will run for about one year, the company said.

DoCoMo will use the test to maximise WiMax network throughput, range and transmission quality.

The company added that it wants to find out how to seamlessly transfer connected users from WiMax to other wireless connection standards, such as HSDPA, to allow them to move around freely without breaking their network connections.

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Asian businesses and individuals spent $164.8m on security appliance servers in the fourth quarter of 2005, IDC reported yesterday. 

An increasing number of customers in Asia are now buying fully-integrated security servers rather than separate standalone products, the US-based research firm said.

Security appliance servers include products like firewalls and virtual private network appliances. They typically sit on the outer edge of corporate networks, where they detect and defend against intrusion by malware and hackers.

"The unified threat management [UTM] market received a boost as major vendors introduced more comprehensive products with many features," said IDC Asia-Pacific market analyst Willie Low in a statement.

"As a result, UTM appliances are increasingly being adopted by customers, especially those looking for security appliance servers for branch offices or off-site departments.

"Prices have become more competitive, such that there is something at the right price point for even the budget conscious small businesses."

IDC forecasts 15.6 per cent annual growth for the market, with a target of $1.13bn for 2010.