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| Subject: Issue 4, Volume 1, 20 December 2002Mobey expands | |
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Author: contactlesssmart cards Liverpool Football ClubMobey expands |
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Date Posted: 06:16:26 01/11/03 Sat http://www.cardshow.com/esmart/pdf/EsmartWeekly4.pdf Issue 4, Volume 1, 20 December 2002 This week’s news from www.e-smartransaction.com P.2 : Bonderman Gets Flak from… Oberthur! • Visa: Deal on POS Terminals P.3 : EMV in Estonia • Helsinki Moves to Chip • The MasterCard PayPass • Pentagon Going for a New Biometric! P.4 : Liverpool Football Club Goes Smart • Jamaica’s Contacless Mass Transit a Small Success • From the Industry e-smartransaction WEEKLY is a weekly highlight of news published on its sister web site, www.esmartransaction. com. •Director of publications: Charles COPIN • Editor: Ivan PANDEV (ipandev@esmartransaction. com) • Contributing Journalists: Bénedicte Rallu, Brigitte Roux, & Jennifer Wilbois Marketing: Mounia Belhaoues (mbelhaoues@wanadoo.fr) • Subscriptions:•Catherine De Curieres (caroline.screve@wanadoo.fr) An Analyses & Syntheses publication : 146 rue Montmartre - 75002 Paris - FRANCE ℡+33 (0)1 53 40 97 00 +33 (0)1 44 76 01 81 www.cardshow.com © Analyses & Synthèses 2002 Gemplus: The End of the Saga? The surprise is that there are no surprises! With the only exception of the reform of the Board election process, the rest of the proposals on the agenda were accepted. In a recent interview published in the French newspaper Le Figaro, David Bonderman (head of TPG, which holds 26% of Gemplus capital) had stated that he didn’t believe in any kind of “European front” taking shape to counter the “American” (i.e. TPG’s) influence on the Board… and events have proved him right! The basic result of the shareholder’s general assembly is as follows: the board is brought down from 13 to 12 members; Ron Mackintosh remains on the Board (having defeated the motion for his removal); confirmation of Mr. Dominique Vignon as Board member and Chairman; confirmation of Mr. Alex Mandl’s seat on the Board as well as his controversial pay package; election of Quandt family representative, Dr. Johannes Fritz to the board; and a program of covering purchases in which the minimal price is reduces from €1 to €0.01. “Now they won’t have the pleasure of firing me,” quipped Marc Lassus, as he and Mr. Ziad Takkiedine, who were both to be removed from the Board, resigned as was expected. Though the departure of Marc Lassus will probably contribute to a cooling off of the much publicised Board squabbles, Continued on page 2 See also: Bonderman Gets Flak from… Oberthur! (p.2) and www.e-smartransaction.com for background We wish our readers all the best for this festive season. e-Smartransaction.com and e-Smartransaction Weekly will close down for the holidays. We will return in the New year, on the week of the 10th of January. © Analyses & Synthèses 2002 2 Continued from p.1 but this dosen’t mean that all’s back to normal. Gemplus was one of the rare firms in France to not know a strike up until a few weeks ago (and that first strike was but a one-day thing… not much of a big deal in France!), but as the shareholder general assembly was being held in Luxembourg, between 300 and 500 employees staged a demonstration to protest the 1,000 job cuts (400-some of which in France) announced in the smart card manufacturer’s restructuring plan which is supposed to save some US$100 million in 2003, and double that amount the following year. Moreover, Gemplus employee committee representative, Mr. Renaud Laffont, who was at the shareholder’s assembly in Luxembourg voiced the anger of employees: “Alex Mandl had told us [Gemplus employees, Ed.] that he would make an effort [over his pay package, Ed.]. He hasn’t, he’s a liar.” It is true that Mr. Mandl’s pay deal will make him one of the highest paid CEO’s in France, which for a relatively small firm like Gemplus which is in the midst of a restructuring effort, cannot go down well with employees – even if he has promised the board that he would produce justification for the costs related to his moving to Europe within 15 days (upkeep of his Washington DC home alone is costing Gemplus US$80,000 per month!). Another point which angers employees is the fact that Mr. Mackintosh remains on the Board, notwithstanding his ties (as well as TPG’s) with Differentis and the firm’s contract with Gemplus… To this effect, the other Board member who resigned, Mr. Ziad Takkiedine had the following comment to make on TPG: “Since TPG’s arrival [in the firm’s capital, Ed.], all is but masquerade, abuse, lies, conflict of interest and incompetence.” Though much of the controversy surrounding Gemplus these past months remains unaddressed at this latest general assembly, this may be on the mend. Chairman Dominique Vignon not only stated that he would do his best to ensure that “this new Board can now work in a calm climate towards the benefit of all: employees, clients and shareholders,” but he also praised Marc Lassus for having, in the past, been instrumental in “making Gemplus the world leader in the smart card market,” and Ziad Takkiedine for his “determination to improve corporate governance.” Victors can always afford to be good sports! Bonderman Gets Flak from… Oberthur! Oberthur Card Systems retaliates to the allegations of David Bonderman! In an interview with French newspaper, Le Figaro, published on December the 19th the Head of TPG, Mr. David Bonderman, amongst saying that he has documents which prove that it was Marc Lassus – and not he – who wished to move Gemplus headquarters to Luxembourg (where the Gemplus is holding its general assembly at time of writing), that he doesn’t believe that the “European clan” will form a front against TPG and stating that since “7% of the firm’s turnover is done in France and the double in China”, that “the only way to continue production in developed countries is to integrate more added value” (which will not reassure Gemplus employees since the firms new strategy is to become the “low-cost providers”); mentioned that “Oberthur Card Systems is having difficulties and, contrary to Gemplus, appears to have some cash flow problems.” By midday, Oberthur Card Systems sent out a press release, the text of which we now offer our readers: “Oberthur Card Systems had for some time scheduled a meeting of its Board of Directors for December 19, the agenda of which includes perspectives for the end of 2002 and the budget for 2003. These elements will reveal that the statements concerning an alleged ‘cash flow problem’ for Oberthur, made by Mr. David Bonderman, head of TPG, and released in the Figaro Economie, are untrue and without credence.” The release goes on to detail that 51% of Oberthur’s 2001 turnover came from the payments industry, where it is the number one provider for MasterCard and Visa; that 31% of the turnover is from the cellphone industry with its Java-based solutions; and that it is a pioneer in the authentication and network security markets. Thus, in one sentence reported in a French newspaper, Mr. Bonderman managed to bring Gemplus’ competition into the fray. Readers will be used to the ongoing bickering within Gemplus itself, but not to such outrage from the firm’s competition. Visa: Deal on POS Terminals Visa cuts deals with Intellect and CyberNet for low-cost smart card-enabled POS terminals. In a move designed to boost the adoption of smart cards, Visa International has cut deals with terminal manufacturers Intellect and CyberNet to offer smart card-enabled POS terminals which would sell at around US$200 rather than the actual price of about US$300. So, after having made efforts on the card side with its low-cost (less than US$1) smart card program, Visa turns to the other side of the cost problem in a chip migration, now offering low-cost POS terminals. As for astute readers who will have noted the absence of the three market leaders – Ingenico, VeriFone and Hypercom, one may be about to be © Analyses & Synthèses 2002 3 included in this new program: “A major brand name in the vendor market will be the third,” announces Roger Swales, VP of global acceptance at Visa International. This new program is aimed at markets outside the U.S., where EMV migration is (at the very least, supposed to be) on its way. The question is whether this program will be of actual help. In the case of low-cost smart cards, many manufacturers think that it’s nigh on impossible to offer more than a very low-end smart card for under US$1, bypassing the possibilities offered by the technology. One may wonder if terminal manufacturers will truly join in what appears to be the beginning of another “price war”. EMV in Estonia Finnish firm, Setec, has won the Estonian EMV contract. Setec is to supply smart cards to the three major Estonian banks, Eesti Uhispanl, Hansapank and AS Sampo Pank. These three banks alone represent 90% of the Estonian market of some 1 million debit and credit cards. In the first part of this contract, 100,000 cards will have been issued by the beginning of 2003. The country should have finalised its migration to EMV by 2005. Setec has also signed an alliance with CardBase Technologies for the integration of the latter’s Mascot multiapplication management software platform. This alliance will give Setec the extra technology it needed to supply multiapplication cards. Helsinki Moves to Chip The Finnish capital now uses a contactless smart card for mass transit. Helsinki and the surrounding areas have adopted a contacless smart card system by Buscom Oy, for its mass transit. Thus, the whole of public transport in the area – bus, subway, tramway and ferry – will use this smart card. 850,000 cards are destined for this program, being sold throughout the region. The deployment of this system started in February 2002, and there are now 300,000 cards in daily use, representing nearly 1.2 million trips per day. Moreover, 1,800 automated single ticket dispensers and 3,200 dual interface readers have been installed, these machines also offer extra information, such as traffic updates. The integrator of the system is Eterra Oy, whereas the cards themselves are made by Gemplus. The MasterCard PayPass MasterCard is about to pilot its contactless PayPass cards in Orlando, Florida. With the new year, certain clients of three MasterCard issuers (Citibank, MBNA and JP Morgan) in Orlando will have a new MasterCard, with mag-stipe, chip and antennae, a MasterCard for contactless payments, the PayPass. Some 20,000 of these cards will be issued, and used at participating merchants. Throughout this initial six-month trial, MasterCard PayPass holders will be able to pay at participating merchants with a wave of the card, the data thus transferred will be the same as that transferred with a swipe of the mag-stripe. One of the technological partners behind this new MasterCard product is On Track Innovations (OTI), a leader in the contacless smart card industry. “OTI is pleased to work with MasterCard International as a premiere solution provider for the Orlando pilot, as well as their initial employee tests,” says OTI President and CEO, Oded Bashan. “OTI is providing MasterCard and its partners a broad range of products, including the card technology, card reader solutions, drive through solutions and personalisation systems.” This MasterCard pilot closely follows an announcement by Visa which is to start testing its own contactless solution in Korea during 2003. Extra information on the MasterCard PayPass can be obtained from the Internet, at www.paypass.com. Pentagon Going for a New Biometric! The Pentagon wants the development on a new biometric identification system based on a person’s smell… The Pentagon could be willing to spend over US$3 million over two years on testing the feasibility of a biometric system based on the idea that each individual has a unique odour. In other words, trying to reconstruct what a sinffer dog can do (and a lot cheaper at that!). Of course, an individual may well be genetically programmed to emit a unique odour, but in today’s world, not only would a sniffer machine have to sift through the thousand unnatural olfactory shocks that the industrial world is heir to (a consummation, not necessarily devoutly, to be wished!), but an individual can change deodorant, perfume, soap… can start smoking (as politically incorrect as that may be)… eat garlic… sweat… all the more smells to be “pasted over” one’s genetically produced odour. © Analyses & Synthèses 2002 Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists is not very optimistic about such a project: “It would be like trying to detect an individual’s fingerprints through a pair of gloves.” Nevertheless, whether or not this project ever gets off the ground (after all, why not the Pentagon has already commissioned an “artificial nose” to detect TNT, used to “sniff out” landmines without risking a sniffer dog’s life), it just goes to show the evergrowing interest in Biometrics in today’s society. Liverpool Football Club Goes Smart The Livrpool Football Club has issued some 50,000 smart tickets. In a move to streamline stadium entry at Anfield, the Liverpool Football Club (LFC) has launched a 50,000 card pilot to get fans used to contactless smart cards in replacement of paper tickets and season tickets. Using Fortress’ secure smart card application and Inside Contactless’ PicoPass to store cardholder ID information for the purchase of tickets. For the moment, cardholders must still go by the ticket office to use the card to buy tickets, but, once it is deemed that fans are used to the idea, the tickets themselves will be stored directly on the cards. The cards are also to include e-purse and loyalty functionalities on the card’s 16Kbits of memory. Jamaica’s Contacless Mass Transit a Small Success The Jamaica Urban Transit Company’s (JUTC) introduces a smart card-based mass transit system. The launch of the JUTC’s smart card on its routes within the Corporate Area, while getting much praise from those who use it, has not yet been taken up by many. The reason? According to the JUTC’s IT manager, Nimal Amitirigala, the lack of information on where to buy the cards and how they work are to be blamed, nevertheless, he is quite happy with results, as is reported in the Jamaica Observer: “We had a few hitches, but pretty much right now, most locations are up and running, and we are looking at a success story.” The card are now accepted on the 450 busses which function on the JUTC’s routes and hold (and can be recharged for) 100 Jamaican dollars. Visit www.e-smartransaction.com for two new special reports: -RSA’s Smart Badging: Going for Growth Markets -Ranc Développement: Playin’ With the Big Boys! FROM THE INDUSTRY… (the latest press releases, which can be found in full on www.e-smartransaction.com) IDenticard(R) and Bioscrypt Harness the Synergy Between Smart Cards and Biometrics Coalition-Based Rewards Programs with Open and Real-Time Redemption will Transform Rapidly Growing Consumer Loyalty Industry E-Gov Act Strengthens Electronic Government Samsung Electronics Receives Industry- Standard Security Certification for Smart Cards ActivCard and Precise Biometrics Expand Cooperation to Meet Demand for Biometric Smart Card ID Badges Gemplus Delivers Secure SIM-Based Digital Signature Solution for SFR’s Wireless PKI Commercial Pilot - SECURISIGN Caradas Adds SCM Smart Card Readers to smart Visa Access Solution INGENICO achieves EMV4 Level 2 Approval for a Countertop Payment Terminal Micron Technology, Inc., Reports Results for the First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2003 EMV Migration Pioneer GarantiBank Uses SchlumbergerSema Expertise for Europe's Largest Co-Branding Project ID Data Wins First Polish Multi-Retailer Loyalty Card Deal RSA Security Enhances Security for Wireless LAN Environments First Data Board Elects Current President & CEO, Charles T. Fote, as Chairman Philips Selected as Semiconductor Solution for Hop-On's CDMA Disposable Cell Phone Fingerprint Cards gets order for 5.5 MSEK from AcciMetrix in the USA and 0.5 MSEK from Cryptolex in Canada SAFLINK and BIO-Key Partner to Offer Advanced Fingerprint Identification Solutions Mobey Forum Membership Expands As Leading Telecoms And Technology Players Add Support Bioscrypt’s European Office Sees Significant Growth in Biometric Adoption [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |