WSJ :Corporate Boards Race to Shore Up Cybersecurity

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Corporate Boards Race to Shore Up Cybersecurity
Directors Grapple With Issues Once Consigned to Tech Experts

After a series of high-profile data breaches and warnings, corporate boards are waking to cyberthreats, grappling with security issues they once relegated to technology experts.

Computer hacking is on the agenda these days when Kellogg Co. K +0.22% 's directors meet, alongside more conventional topics like cereal trends and the company's reliance on Wal-Mart WMT +0.57% Stores Inc.

Kellogg's management is especially worried that cyberattackers might try to steal the company's know-how, like the way it puts the "Snap, Crackle and Pop" in Rice Krispies or the curve in Pringles potato chips, according to two people briefed on its computer defenses.

To guard against such threats, Kellogg's board in 2012 created a dedicated security group and hired the company's first chief information-security officer, according to slides for a company presentation that were viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Directors at Tyson Foods Inc. TSN +1.11% are briefed yearly on cybersecurity, "as well as on an as-needed basis," said a spokesman for the meat and poultry processor. Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM -0.80% Chief Executive Rex Tillerson boasts privately about testing his employees to see if they respond to suspicious emails that might be hacker tricks, a person who recently met with him said. In 2011, Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL +0.08% added a board member because of his "substantial expertise in the information-technology-security industry," according to a company filing.

Even before hackers stole 40 million credit- and debit-card numbers from Target Corp. TGT +0.43% stores last year, Wal-Mart directors received frequent rundowns from outside consultants on cyberthreats, including gangs of Russian-speaking hackers who target payment-card data, a person familiar with the meetings said.

A Wal-Mart spokesman didn't dispute that account.

So far this year, 1,517 companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq NDAQ +0.58% Stock Market listed some version of the words cybersecurity, hacking, hackers, cyberattacks or data breach as a business risk in securities filings, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. That is up from 1,288 in all of 2013 and 879 in 2012.

Still, federal officials and others say many companies remain ignorant of, and unprepared for, Internet intruders.

"There may be a gap that exists between the magnitude of the exposure presented by cyber-risks and the steps, or lack thereof, that many corporate boards have taken to address these risks," Securities and Exchange Commissioner Luis Aguilar told directors earlier this month at a cybersecurity conference at the New York Stock Exchange.

The same week, nearly 100 board members and top executives met in Chicago for the first cybersecurity summit of the National Association of Corporate Directors. They heard a former official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and representatives of federal agencies warn that many companies aren't prepared for Internet intruders.

Some attendees at the Chicago conference bemoaned their inability to understand their own tech employees. Others worried because bloggers often learn of data breaches before executives at the affected companies.

Attendees said they now appreciate that cybersecurity can affect job security. After Target's data breach and other missteps, the company fired its chief executive, and its chief information officer resigned. A shareholder advisory firm recommended dumping most of the board. Target investors, however, recently re-elected all 10 of the retailer's directors.

If the firm's recommendation to oust the board "doesn't rattle directors' cages, nothing will," said Gerald Czarnecki, a director at State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. As head of the audit committee there, Mr. Czarnecki recently devoted two-thirds of a 4-hour meeting to information security, more than he has in the past.

He declined to elaborate.

Even among companies that have elevated cybersecurity to a boardroom issue, most are loath to discuss details, for fear of attracting or tipping off would-be attackers.

A longtime banker, media executive and leadership consultant, Mr. Czarnecki, 74 years old, said he and his peers aren't always fluent in the technology of computer defenses. "Most people in this room have gray hair," he said at the directors' summit. "It's like having someone who has never paid any attention to their health talk to a doctor."

When Ellen Richey, Visa Inc. V +0.15% 's chief enterprise risk and legal officer, meets with the board members of client companies, she often struggles to persuade them to encrypt more data. The process makes it harder for hackers to break in but can slow down computers as they scramble and unscramble encrypted data.

"It's a human problem," Ms. Richey said. "It's a business-process problem."

At a conference last year, Steven Young, Kellogg's chief information security officer, said the company was less worried about hackers stealing recipes than theft of its production processes, such as "how we get the curve in a Pringle," said a person who heard his presentation. Prior to joining Kellogg, Mr. Young worked at defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT +0.40% and other companies, according to publicly posted biographies.

Kellogg makes sure certain trade secrets about how it makes cereal are stored on a machine that isn't connected to the Internet, said one of the people briefed on the company's computers defenses. American spy agencies sometimes use the same tactic to wall off classified information from intruders.

"Information on our recipes, including where they are stored, is proprietary," said Kris Charles, a Kellogg spokeswoman.

In a February securities filing, Kellogg said, "To date, we have not experienced a material breach of cybersecurity."

FT : Philips to merge lighting components businesses

Philips is to merge its LED and automotive lighting businesses and create a standalone unit with sales of about €1.4bn within the Dutch electronics and healthcare group.
The Amsterdam-based company said on Monday it would seek third-party investors in the new lighting components unit, while remaining both a customer and shareholder of the businesses. Frans van Houten, chief executive, said it was “not necessary” to retain a majority stake.

Philips is structured into three operating divisions: healthcare, consumer lifestyle – which covers products from electric razors to kitchen appliances – and lighting. The lighting business has five subsidiaries, including Lumileds and automotive, which makes headlights for cars.
Lumileds produces high-power LED components, used for instance as flashlights in smartphones and lamps for televisions.
Mr van Houten said the move to combine the component businesses made sense because they primarily served manufacturers, rather than making finished products, such as lightbulbs.
The shift to LED technology, he said, had split the lighting market into two distinct operations. “The nature of making components is quite different to making applications, such as street lighting, stadium lighting and office lighting,” he said.
“By giving the LED components business access to capital markets as a standalone company we give them the room to play that out and remain successful.”
He added: “We therefore believe it makes sense to separate these two plays.”
Sales of energy-efficient LEDs were a bright spot in otherwise gloomy first-quarter results reported in April. The company estimates that by 2016 half of the total lighting market will be LED, compared with about 30 per cent at present.

The flipside of this has been a contraction in demand for conventional, incandescent lighting, which has meant cost cuts for Philips. The lighting business has lost almost 4,000 employees over the two years – about four-fifths of jobs cut across the whole group.
Asked about a potential initial public offering of the components unit, Mr van Houten said: “All those options are open.”

Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre, the current chief executive officer of Lumileds, will run the as-yet-unnamed new unit, which is expected to be formed in the first half of 2015.
Philips said the costs of setting up the combined business were expected to be about €30m, a charge that would be taken in the second half of this year.
Philips shares rose 3.5 per cent to €23.03 in early Amsterdam trading on Monday. The wider AEX index was flat.

FT : Kurds’ deputy PM Talabani calls for decentralised Iraq

Iraq and its foreign backers must abandon a centralised system of governance if the country is to survive, Iraqi Kurdistan’s deputy prime minister has said, warning that his semi-autonomous region would gain de facto independence if the slide into chaos continues.
Qubad Talabani said that air strikes and counter offensives – led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with US support – were not enough to stem the Sunni insurgency threatening to rip Iraq apart. A political deal to decentralise Iraq is the only way to stop the conflict, he said.

“We have to get our minds off of this notion that a strong central government can govern this country, because it can’t,” he told the Financial Times in an interview. “We’re past that. We tried that. We had some competent Sunni ministers in the government . . . it didn’t provide adequate representation to the people in those [Sunni] territories.”
Kurds in northern Iraq already run a semi autonomous region, but say their inability to negotiate with the Shia-dominated government over budgets and disputed territories, as well as the Sunnis’ sense of marginalisation and repression, means governance needs to be further localised.
That could mean splitting majority Shia Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds into regions and stripping the government in Baghdad of responsibilities other than defence, foreign relations and the central bank.
Mr Talabani, the well-heeled former representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Washington, was sworn in as the deputy prime minister last week as the rest of Iraq was shaken by an insurgency led by militants of the hardline Islamic State (known as Isis) that swept through Iraq’s Sunni areas.
Insurgent-controlled territory now divides Kurdistan from the capital Baghdad and the Shia majority south.
“For us, it was like we woke up one morning and the country looked like a different country. There’s a greater fear of Iraq breaking away from us,” he said. “That’s what it looks like: We have a new country inside the country.”
As insurgents seized more than 10 per cent of Iraq, Kurdish forces have placed areas disputed between them and Baghdad – such as the oil-rich Kirkuk province – under their protection. It is unlikely Baghdad will win those territories back.
KRG president and head of the region’s dominant Kurdistan Democratic party, Masoud Barzani, openly stated last week that Kirkuk would remain under Kurdish control and that independence could be near, hinting it may be time for a referendum on the issue.
Mr Talabani, who is from the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, was more circumspect, saying the Kurds still hoped to make a deal in Baghdad.
Kurds and Sunnis are adamant that their participation depends on an end to Mr Maliki’s eight-year rule, and the appointment of a new premier who will negotiate. It is not yet clear if majority Shia politicians will agree on an alternative candidate.
“We’re trying to make Iraq work, we’re continuing to participate in the political process in Baghdad,” he said. “There may come a time – and we’re not there yet – where we have to decide whether this patient is savable.”

(Challenges) How Bouygues wants to break Free's codes

Link to Google Translation {http://bit.ly/1nXqlc5}
Link to French Original : {http://bit.ly/1q8m1Kp}

Martin Bouygues, with its box sensation and Miami began to aim it directly Freebox his rival Xavier Niel.

No doubt Martin Bouygues he prepared psychologically for the possibility of selling his telecom operator. But if it resolves, it will be having attempted a maximum of damage to society Xavier Niel. Bouygues Telecom is found today as the company most fragile two and a half years after the launch of Free Mobile. To attack Iliad, CEO of construction group began to aim at heart: its Freebox. And for that, he unsheathed Thursday, June 26, two weapons at the same time: the fiber version of its Sensation box and box for TV called Miami.

1. Doing forget 29.99 euros

Telecom operators have started for some time to depart from the original price of the Freebox since its launch in 2002, the famous 29.99. But up. With the advent of ultra-fast broadband and fiber, all added a few euros for the speed gained as well as for services. There are a few months, Bouygues Telecom has proposed a triple play box to 19.99 euros per month. Pricing present in Free but very discreetly marketed under the Alice brand. Bouygues Telecom is now preparing to commission its fiber box for 26.90 euros.

"We want to set a new benchmark price for internet is one of the staples," insisted Roussat Olivier, CEO of Bouygues Telecom. Please do not return to 29.99 euros! When they have their fiber network operators save 9 euros paid to Orange for the use of its copper network. A 26.99 euros, the offer is profitable, says the officer.

2. Partnering with Google

Technology proposed second box Thursday, June 26, the box "Miami" whose marketing is expected to fall, was designed with the American giant known for its search engine.

As SFR, Bouygues Telecom has selected last year to work with him on a new way to get internet on our televisions. Google, the Chrome browser and applications Play store have been adapted for this type of screen where they are easily accessible with a remote. System presented yesterday by Google at its annual conference for developers, where two French operators have been put forward.

All this is a big change when we look back at the birth of the Freebox. Xavier Niel had gone to California to try to see what electronics giant could produce the box "triple play" - TV, telephone and internet - he had in mind. Seeing that he was not, legend has it that, on an escalator Universal Studios, where he had gone to relax with his small team, he would have decided to do it alone. French operators have kept the habit of working each of their corner. It will not be necessarily the case at a time when Google but Apple trying to break with their own enclosures.

3. Bringing television, game publishers ...

What economic model for future box? So far, the Freebox as its competitors based on a simple system of remuneration: the monthly fee.

Martin Bouygues, deciding to play the price war on the material and the basic service, the gamble to find later income left after entering content partners. "43% of our fiber customers use video on demand" and said Olivier Roussat. Netflix video platform will be a priori present when an agreement has been reached.

In designing the Miami box, TF1, a sister company of the Bouygues group, there was pampered and games from Gameloft. Advertising resources perspectives?

Martin Bouygues is therefore a major challenge of opening the box! Remains to be seen if these major changes will enable it to attract massive amounts of subscribers, via fiber cheap either through the internet on our televisions.

The key will probably picture: the great strength of Xavier Niel , since the launch of the Freebox was winning the war communication and install the idea he proposed a revolution.

>>> Boeing, Airbus enter bids for $1.38 bln S.Korean refuelling plane order

(Reuters) - Boeing and Airbus were among three bidders in South Korea's roughly 1.4 trillion won ($1.38 billion) programme to buy four refuelling tanker aircraft, two people briefed on the matter said on Monday.
South Korea kicked off the acquisition process in March to increase the range of its airborne operations amid rising tensions in the region and with North Korea.
The bids, due Monday, saw the Boeing 767-based KC-46 pitted against Airbus' A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) and Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd's entry of an overhauled B767-300ER, the people said.
They declined to be identified as the matter remained confidential. South Korea expects to close the deal by end of this year.
Boeing and Airbus are in a global competition to fill various requirements for refuelling planes.
Airbus' A330 MRTT has been selected by six countries including Australia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, with the latest choice by Singapore for six planes in March, according to the company.
In 2011, the U.S. Air Force chose Boeing's KC-46 to start replacing its fleet of ageing KC-135 tankers, and plans to spend $52 billion to develop and buy 179 of the refuelling planes.
Tanker aircrafts are used to refuel fighter jets and other warplanes during flight. South Korea expects the acquisition will boost its fighter jets' airborne operation time by more than an hour.

>>> Gartner: Cuts 2014 global IT spending forecast to $3.7T, +2.1% y/y (-2.6% fr


Gartner: Cuts 2014 global IT spending forecast to $3.7T, +2.1% y/y (-2.6% from prior forecast of $3.8T); prior growth forecast was 3.2% - US financial press 
- Cites lower data center systems growth for revised outlook 
- Cuts data center system spending forecast to +0.4% (cites lower-cost storage options in the cloud and move away from higher end server systems) 
- Now sees device spending growth at 1.2% (cites mobile price cuts)

(Le Monde) Club Med: Andrea Bonomi about to launch its cons-OPA

Club Med: Andrea Bonomi about to launch its cons-OPA

Under pressure from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) , Andrea Bonomi must indicate , Monday, June 30 before 18 hours, if not a deposit or tender offer (OPA) on the French holiday group already coveted by the French fund Ardian himself allied with Chinese conglomerate Fosun. A priori, the Italian businessman seems determined to launch .
A final meeting with various consultants working for Mr. Bonomi, including Lazard, lawyers Cleary Gottlieb, and communication agency Havas Media, was scheduled in the morning.

"This is where we must give or not "go" to the operation. The intention is there to go , but it should of course check various elements, in particular the financing of the project, "said a close discussions . The OPA Mr. Bonomi would occur at a price obviously higher than that of the Franco-Chinese offer on the table, which values ​​the club at 558 million euros. If no deposit offer, the Italian financier can no longer run for six months, according to exchange rules.

MEANS OF AMBITIONS

Since the MFA, May 27, Mr. Bonomi to clarify its intentions, this unassuming figure of Italian capitalism has plunged in detail in the accounts of the Club Med, its business model, its performance.

This further analysis has clearly increased its interest in the company, despite its current difficulties and losses. He felt that the specialist holidays all inclusive vacation has been mismanaged, without having the means necessary to its ambitions, but he can bounce back .

Mr. Bonomi is already the largest shareholder in the French group . As too low the price offered by Fosun and Ardian he had committed since mid-March an operation to block the takeover by buying blocks of shares in exchange . This collection has allowed him to hold a little over 10% stake.

(BFW) Syngenta’s 2014 Guidance ‘Under Threat’: JPMorgan Cuts Rating

Syngenta’s 2014 Guidance ‘Under Threat’: JPMorgan Cuts Rating
2014-06-30 06:47:57.131 GMT


By Chiara Remondini
     June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Syngenta’s S/T trading likely to be
challenging, JPMorgan says in note.
  * JPMorgan cuts to underweight vs neutral, PT CHF250 vs CHF340
  * Trims 2014 organic growth est. to 4% from 6% on lower corn
    seed, crop protection sales in North, South America
    * Reduces 2014/15 EPS ests. by 5%/7%
  * Brokerage sees below avg FCF generation potential in M/T
  * Seeds business to weigh on group returns, sees slower growth
    outlook for global seeds mkt
  * Says unlikely Syngenta to be target of M&A bid, agro sector
    already consolidated, antitrust issues would be “extremely
    challenging”
  * NOTE: Syngenta due to report 1H results on July 23
  * NOTE June 23: Monsanto said to have weighed tax-inspired
    deal for Syngenta
  * NOTE June 26: DuPont cut earnings view for 2Q, yr

For Related News and Information:
First Word scrolling panel: FIRST<GO>
First Word newswire: NH BFW<GO>

To contact the reporter on this story:
Chiara Remondini in Milan at +39-02-8064-4241 or
cremondini@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Ludden at +44-20-7673-2645 or
jludden@bloomberg.net

WSJ : Philips to Set Up Stand-Alone Lighting Company

Philips to Set Up Stand-Alone Lighting Company
Dutch Company Seeks Investors for Its Lumileds and Automotive Lighting Business

AMSTERDAM— Philips PHG +0.40% NV said Monday it is seeking investors for its Lumileds and automotive lighting business, which it plans to turn into a stand-alone company within the main group.

"Philips intends to remain a shareholder and customer of the new company and will continue the existing innovation collaboration," the Dutch electronics and health care company said.

Philips, whose products range from kitchen appliances to hospital scanners, reported recently that first-quarter net profit fell 14% from a year earlier, hurt by currency losses and a weaker performance from health care. It said the year had got off to a difficult start because of weakening demand in China and Russia, and that the rest of 2014 was likely to be challenging.

It said at the time that sales slipped 5% to €5.02 billion ($6.85 billion) from €5.26 billion in the first quarter of 2013. Stripping out currency effects, sales were flat on an annual basis, with growth at Philips's consumer electronics business, flat sales at the lighting business and a decline in sales at its health care business.

It said it would slash costs by €1.5 billion this year as part of a continuing restructuring plan.

"Guided by our long-term strategy, we continue to actively manage our portfolio of businesses," Chief Executive Frans van Houten said Monday.

He said Philips wants to intensify its focus on connected LED lighting systems and services, LED luminaires, and LED lamps for professional and consumer markets.

"Both our Lumileds and Automotive lighting businesses are strong players in the lighting industry and ready to pursue more growth and scale, independently of Philips Lighting. As a world-leading lighting components business, they will have increased flexibility to attract additional investors to accelerate growth," he said.

Sales of the businesses being combined were approximately €1.4 billion in 2013. The new unit's CEO will be Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre, the current head of Lumileds.

The process is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015 and setting up the combined business is expected to cost €30 million in the second half of 2014.