Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Zurich Financial signs agreement with Santander in Latin America

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Switzerland-based insurer Zurich Financial Services Group has signed definitive agreements with Banco Santander to buy a majority interest in the bank’s Latin America insurance operations.

The insurer says the agreement is materially unchanged from what was announced on 22 February of this year.

Earlier, Zurich signed a 25-year strategic distribution agreement with Banco Santander where it would acquire 51% of the bank’s insurance business in Latin America and Santander would keep the remaining 49%.

Zurich will pay $1.67bn for its 51% participation in the insurance operations including the respective distribution agreements.

The alliance with Santander provides Zurich with access to over 5,600 bank branches and an additional 36 million customers in the region.

The two parties expect to close the transaction before the end of this year, subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Apple, Nokia show continued interest in InterDigital patents

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Following Google’s purchase of Motorola, a new report claims that Apple is still interested in acquiring InterDigital, as are Nokia, Qualcomm and others in the wireless industry.

Citing sources familiar with the situation, Reuters reported Wednesday that “several companies” are “pondering bids” for wireless telecom specialist InterDigital Inc. The forthcoming auction of the company will be postponed from next week until sometime after Labor Day.

More time is necessary because potential bidders have reportedly asked for more times to analyze the company’s patents. Companies in the wireless industry are interested in securing those inventions as patent infringement lawsuits involving all of the major industry players continue to mount.

Sources also reportedly said it’s unknown whether Google will remain in pursuit of the InterDigital patents. The search giant was previously named as a potential bidder, but the announcement that it will buy Motorola for $12.5 billion may have changed those plans.

Apple was first named as a likely bidder on InterDigital in July. The company has 1,300 patents related to wireless device technologies that would be of prime interest to any smartphone maker.

The industry-wide desire for patents was predicted to drive up the price of InterDigital by as much as 50 percent. But shares of the company dropped on Monday following the news that Google will buy Motorola, as investors are now less certain that Google will make a play for the InterDigital portfolio.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines:Obama sees China as a partner in Mars mission

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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama views China as a potential partner for an eventual human mission to Mars that would be difficult for any single nation to undertake, a senior White House official told lawmakers.Testifying May 4 before the House Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice and science, White House science adviser John Holdren said near-term engagement with China in civil space will help lay the groundwork for any such future endeavor. He prefaced his remarks with the assertion that human exploration of Mars is a long-term proposition and that any discussion of cooperating with Beijing on such an effort is speculative.

“(What) the president has deemed worth discussing with the Chinese and others is that when the time comes for humans to visit Mars, it’s going to be an extremely expensive proposition and the question is whether it will really make sense — at the time that we’re ready to do that — to do it as one nation rather than to do it in concert,” Holdren said in response to a question from Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., a staunch China critic who chairs the powerful subcommittee that oversees NASA spending.

Holdren, who said NASA could also benefit from cooperating with China on detection and tracking of orbital debris, stressed that any U.S. collaboration with Beijing in manned spaceflight would depend on future Sino-U.S. relations.

“But many of us, including the president, including myself, including (NASA Administrator Charles) Bolden, believe that it’s not too soon to have preliminary conversations about what involving China in that sort of cooperation might entail,” Holdren said. “If China is going to be, by 2030, the biggest economy in the world … it could certainly be to our benefit to share the costs of such an expensive venture with them and with others.”

Wolf, who characterizes China’s government as “fundamentally evil,” said it is outrageous that the Obama administration would have close ties with Beijing’s space program, which is believed to be run primarily by the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA.

“When you say you want to work in concert, it’s almost like you’re talking about Norway or England or something like that,” an irate Wolf told Holdren, repeatedly pounding a hand against the table top in front of him. “As long as I have breath in me, we will talk about this, we will deal with this issue, whether it be a Republican administration or a Democrat administration, it is fundamentally immoral.”

Holdren said he admired Wolf’s leadership in calling attention to China’s human-rights record, but noted that even when then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan referred to the former Soviet Union as “the evil empire” in the late 1980s, he continued to cooperate with the communist bloc in science and technology if doing so was deemed in the U.S. national interest.

“The efforts we are undertaking to do things together with China in science and technology are very carefully crafted to be efforts that are in our own national interest,” Holdren said. “That does not mean that we admire the Chinese government; that does not mean we are blind to the human rights abuses.”

Holdren said that as White House science adviser, his capacity to influence the president’s diplomatic approach to Beijing is limited.

“I am not the person who’s going to be whispering in the president’s ear on what our stance toward China should be, government to government, except in the domain where I have the responsibility for helping the president judge whether particular activities in science and technology are in our national interest or not,” Holdren said.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: LulzSec is back, hacks Rupert Murdoch’s Sun tabloid

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LulzSec is back and this time they have gone after Rupert Murdoch’s embattled News Corp., hacking the website of to its British tabloid, the Sun.

The group, along with the self-proclaimed “hacktivists” Anonymous, first defaced the Sun’s website, placing a fake story about the death of Murdoch and other made-up reports, on top of the website’s actual content.

“WE HAVE JOY WE HAVE FUN, WE HAVE MESSED UP MURDOCH’S SUN,” LulzSec tweeted.

Members of the two groups then began tweeting the login information of former employees of News Corp., including that of Rebekah Brooks, who recently resigned her post as chief executive of News International, the British division of News. Corp. Others whose information was tweeted included Pete Picton, a former editor at News Corp. publications, and Bill Akass, a former editor at the now defunct News of the World, also owned by News Corp.

LulzSec and company then proceeded to have The Sun and News International’s websites redirect to its Twitter feed.

The hacking attack on News Corp. comes a day before Murdoch is set to appear before the British Parliament to be questioned about phone hackings conducted by employees of his News of the World tabloid. The scandal has resulted in the resignations of many high-ranking officials in Murdoch’s company and British law enforcement. The weekly News of the World itself was shut down.

The return of LulzSec, however, was unexpected as the group announced its retirement three weeks ago, after 50 days of hacking. Before retiring, the group banded with Anonymous to commence Operation Anti-Security, calling on hackers around the world to go after governments and large organizations to expose classified information.

“Not so fun to get hacked Mr. Murdoch, is it? u MAD?,” retweeted an account that was tweeting some of the login information.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Taliban Releases Disturbing Video Showing Horrific Group Execution

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The notorious Taliban terror group has released a video Monday showing them brutally executing 16 Pakistani men who were captured in a raid last month.

The Taliban has claimed that the men were responsible for the deaths of six children in the Pakistan area.

The disturbing video shows the 16 men standing in a line with their hands tied behind their backs while four rebels stand in front them holding assault rifles with scarves hiding their identities.

As the 16 men stand timidly, one insurgent gives a speech before the shooting begins.

The speech which was given in a Pakistani dialect was translated by The Long War Journal, a website that specializes in reports on militancy.

The insurgent states, “These are the enemies of Islamwho originated from Pakistan…They are the Pakistani police, soldiers, and their supporters who recently lined up six kids in Swat and shot them execution-style… These Pakistanis are now our captives, and we will avenge the death of the children by doing the same to them.”

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Sony insurer sues to deny data breach coverage

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One of Sony Corp’s insurers has asked a court to declare that it does not have to pay to defend the media and electronics conglomerate from mounting legal claims related to a massive data breach earlier this year.

The dispute comes as demand soars for “cyberinsurance,” with companies seeking to protect themselves against customer claims and associated costs for data and identity theft.

How to write such policies has become a huge subject of debate in the insurance industry.

Zurich American Insurance Co asked a New York state court in documents filed late on Wednesday to rule it does not have to defend or indemnify Sony against any claims “asserted in the class-action lawsuits, miscellaneous claims, or potential future actions instituted by any state attorney general.”

A Sony spokesman in Tokyo said his company does not comment on pending litigation.

Zurich American, a unit of Zurich Financial Services, also sued units of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, AIG and ACE Ltd, asking the court to clarify their responsibilities under various insurance policies they had written for Sony.

“Zurich doesn’t think there’s coverage, but to the extent there may be a duty to defend it wants to make sure all of the insurers with a potential duty to defend are contributing,” said Richard Bortnick, an attorney at Cozen O’Connor and publisher of the digital law blog CyberInquirer.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Bayern Munich 2-0 Zurich: Schweinsteiger & Robben strikes down Swiss

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Bongarts

Bayern Munich gained a decisive upper hand in their quest for Champions League qualification as they earned a 2-0 win over Zurich in the first leg of their play-off tie.

Bastian Schweinsteiger nodded the Germans in front on eight minutes, and although the visitors did well to avoid having the match slip away, Arjen Robben’s curling effort on 72 minutes put the Bundesliga side well in control of the tie.

The visitors were first to attack and Amine Chermiti had a warning shot sail over the bar early on. However, Bayern showed more bite, and Schweinsteiger struck shortly thereafter. Arjen Robben whipped in a dangerous cross from the left, and after a slight deflection from Mathieu Beda, the Germany international nodded into the lower-right corner of the net.

Philipp Lahm should have made it 2-0 in the 12th minute, but Johnny Leoni made an excellent save after the full-back had surged into the left side of the penalty box. The defender turned provider not long after as he set up Mario Gomez, but the off-form striker hesitated and the chance went begging before he even had the opportunity to shoot.

Gomez again failed to take advantage on the hour mark; through on goal he was stopped in his tracks as he struggled to slip the ball onto his favoured right foot.

Possession was rare for Zurich, and even more scarce were opportunities on goal. Chermiti headed a free kick straight into Manuel Neuer’s arms, but was nonetheless called offside, and Ricardo Rodriguez had a long-ranged blast miss a couple yards wide.

Not satisfied with the result of the first 45 minutes, Bayern came out firing in the second half. Following some good lead-up play from Franck Ribery, Gomez missed an absolute sitter from the edge of the six-yard box on 51 minutes. Moments later, the France player’s drive was parried, but Leoni recovered to deny Lahm’s follow-up.

Ribery was unlucky not to make it 2-0 on the hour mark as his free kick hit the right post, but Robben eventually got the vital second goal as he struck a trademark left-footed effort into the upper-left corner.

Zurich tired late in the game as the hosts pressed mercilessly for a third. Gomez looked to finally have his goal, but Dusan Djuric cleared his effort off the line after the striker had rounded Leoni.

The visitors managed to keep the score down to two, but things nonetheless went from bad to worse late in the game. Defender Mathieu Beda received his marching orders for a second yellow card, meaning that he will miss the second leg of the tie.

Bayern will be pleased to have kept a clean sheet for the third time in four competitive matches this year, and to bring a two goal advantage into the return fixture. However, Zurich are not to be under-estimated and can head into the second leg with hope – albeit slim – of reversing the tie.