The “Business Call to Action,” hosted by the British prime minister, drew some 80 CEOs of the world’s biggest companies including Microsoft, Coca-Cola and Vodafone as well as top politicians to discuss how big business can stamp out global poverty.

The lure? Big profits. Ghana’s President John Kufuor said it will be easier for U.S. and European businesses to make their next million in Africa rather than anywhere else. The credit crunch has made a few more believe this might be true.

“Three billion of the world’s 6 billion people have mobile phones,” Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said. “And three-quarters of the new customers are in the developing world. This is a huge opportunity.”

Two companies laid out how they were using technology to tackle issues unique to developing nations in a race to win market share. British telecom company Vodafone has made some headway, while Telefonica O2 is launching new products to allow migrant workers to send money home using their mobiles.

Vodafone CEO Sarin:

• Vodafone already has 2 million Kenyan and Tanzanian customers, out of 10 million in total, signed up to M-PESA, which allows customers to send much-needed money to loved ones using their mobile phones.
• The company operates in Afghanistan. To get around the problem of illiteracy, the firm has developed voice recognition software. Luckily you don’t have to shout out your bank details or the amount you’re sending - you give voice instructions and plug in the numbers.

O2 CEO Matthew Key:

• Telefonica has plans to for a similar service in Latin America, where many leave for the United States and send part of their wages home.
• Telefonica wants 200 million people to sign up for “a new suite of banking products,” Key said.
• The company estimates there are 650 million money transfers back to Latin America each year, and its mobile phone products will slash the average $10 cost per transfer.

–Reporting by Chris Wills in London

From Reuters reporter Gavin Haycock: 

Enid Blyton ’s Famous Five books are getting a Disney-style makeover.

The Disney Channel will launch an animated version of the Famous Five in Britain on May 5. English youngsters George , Julian, Anne and Dick become Anglo-Indian Jyoti, Max, Allie from California and Dylan, an 11-year-old who harbors dreams of being an international business tycoon. Timmy the dog keeps his name.

The original stories, written during the 1940s-1960s, tell of a simpler life when kids would hike or bicycle along a coastline for hours by themselves enjoying camping and picnics with non-alcoholic ginger beer. They would play and solve mysteries against a backdrop of caves, lighthouses and secret tunnels.

Now, Dylan brandishes a laptop. One child detective remarks that “cellphones are human kind’s greatest invention,” and gone are the quaint exclamations, “simply smashing,” “golly gosh” or “mummy.”

One episode involves a bootlegging operation with subliminal signals embedded in DVDs, which brainwash kids. The bootleggers are foiled by the kids, who manage to crack down on media piracy .

Crikey! Is this a case of Disney pushing its own digital anti-piracy agenda? “It’s complete coincidence. If we had thought of that we could have made some big points,” Steve Aranguren, vice president of Disney Channel’s global original programming division told Reuters.

Another 16 more years to go.

Google’s top three executives made an informal pledge ahead of its IPO in 2004 to work together for 20 years, Fortune reports.

Co-founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt tells the magazine, which also rated the company as the No. 1 best company to work for this year.

Something to think about as Wall Street hammers the company for its anticipated big cash outlays to potentially compete with U.S. wireless operators.

(Fortune)

Keep an eye on:

• Fox is expected to rake in $225 million in ad sales on Super Bowl Sunday, at an average of $2.7 million per spot. (Mediaweek)
• Don Imus’s morning radio show may soon return to television in Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, among other big cities, under a deal in the works involving Comcast. (NY Times )
• Demand for Amazon’s Kindle remains strong. (Seeking Alpha)
• Fox Business could exploit a loophole in WSJ’s contract with CNBC and begin using WSJ reporters on air. (Silicon Alley Insider)

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman on what he sees coming in Internet investments. This footage was captured by Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, who is contributing to the Reuters/Nokia mobile journalism project in Davos.

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Ariel Yarnitsky, CEO of SpeedBit, catches up with Guy Rolnik, editor of Israeli newspaper, The Marker, on the Davos experience.  Yarnitsky filed this post and is contributing to the Reuters/Nokia mobile journalism project in Davos.

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The former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger records a video on YouTube as part of the Davos Conversation. This footage was captured by journalism professor and blogger Jeff Jarvis, who is contributing to the Reuters/Nokia mobile journalism project in Davos.

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Sam Zell may be leaving editorial decisions to his direct reports at the newly bought Tribune, but he was sure quick to unfetter his new employees from the tyranny of IT restrictions.

Zell learned that some of Tribune’s newspapers were keeping personnel on a pretty short leash when it comes to surfing the Internet. It seems the real estate tycoon can’t see the sense in getting in the way of reporters getting to the Web.

But it’s also not a trivial issue, since we can all think of companies that limit entry not just to porn sites, but even the more innocuous places to waste time during a work day.

Here’s how Zell put it, from a memo to employees:

I do not see how a member of the Fourth Estate, dedicated to protecting the First Amendment, can censor what its own employees and partners can see. I have instructed that all content filters be removed. You are now exposed to the dangers of YouTube and Facebook. Please use your best judgment.

(Photo: Reuters)

From our London media correspondent
Gavin Haycock

Whether you love or loathe celebrity news stories, spare a thought for executives trying to figure out what sells best.

During a Q&A session with British law lords investigating media ownership issues, details about what News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch thinks about the volume of celebrity copy came from Rebekah Wade, editor of the Sun, Britain’s top-selling paper. (The Sun is published by News International, part of News Corp.)

Wade says Murdoch calls her regularly and often discusses her love of celebrity coverage that sometimes leaves him scratching his head and wondering what all the fuss is about.

“Mr Murdoch is often dismayed by the amount of celebrity coverage I put in the paper and particularly on ‘Big Brother‘ (the reality television show),” she says. “He can’t understand why I devote so much space to ‘Big Brother’.”

Murdoch is not alone. During his session with the British law lords, Pierre Lesourd, general manager for the UK and Ireland at AFP, which was founded in 1835, says that whether or not to pursue celebrity content is a divisive issue.

“Inside the AFP it is a big debate,” he says. Given France’s strict privacy rules and the possibility that the country’s president Nicolas Sarkozy may have married his new
girlfriend and former model Carla Bruni, it is not surprising that such dilemmas are in the spotlight. The trouble is, clients simply want more and more celebrity content, says Lesourd.

“Sometimes it is difficult to fix a limit of what is news and what is not news and that throws us back onto the PR’s turf,” he said.

To underscore his point, Lesourd said that although AFP generates millions of photographs, the most downloaded image for the agency in 2007 was …. you guessed it, one of Britain’s Prince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton.

(Reuters file photo)

From our Washington antitrust correspondent Diane Bartz

There’s Google culture (toys, massages, free snacks) and Washington culture (cubicles, working, more working).

So which will prevail when Google opens its new Washington office? Let’s see: 

First, reporters on a press tour of the new facility are asked to agree to an electronic non-disclosure agreement. Er, no. Reporters decline. (Washington 1, Google 0). 

There are big, cool screens showing actual Google searches from around the world. Fascinating. (Washington 1, Google 1) 

Then, we’re told of the efforts to make the office environmentally friendly: glueless, partially recycled carpet; rainwater collected on the roof; and donations to charity for employees who do not drive. Cool. (Washington 1, Google 2) 

There’s a massage chair facing a big window. But there’s no one in it since, let’s face it, this is Washington. We hate relaxation. It makes us tense. (Washington 2, Google 2). 

But now let’s go to the Mother’s Room, for women who need to use a breast pump during the work day. Yeah, it’s better than going to a bathroom stall like most Washington moms, but the stuffed animals should be replaced by magazines with articles about avoiding the mommy track. No employees are nursing, however. So, score unchanged.

There’s loud, fun rock music blasting from the cafeteria. We go there and find, huh, it’s empty! There’s no one having a snack. Only an employee of the catering company, washing up. In fact, the only food we see anyone take is a cup of coffee. Very Washington. (Washington 3, Google 2).

Then there’s the playroom, with a ping pong table, foosball table (the sides marked “Democrats” and “Republicans”), yoga mats and the video game Guitar Hero. The room is empty. Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich picks up the guitar to demonstrate it. But he’s quickly stymied. “How do you turn this on?” he asks an assistant, who is also puzzled. They give up. (Washington 79, Google 2).    

(Photo: Reuters)

Pity the poor lawmaker.

Lobbyists from America’s richest and most influential companies are walking the halls of Congress arguing for the need to preserve American innovation.

Lobbyists for high-tech firms like Intel and Cisco say the best way to do that would be for senators to pass a patent bill that will reduce the number of bad patents. But pharmaceutical companies and smaller tech firms say the bill itself weakens patent protection and poses a major threat to American competitiveness.

The debate quickly deteriorates into arcane talk of offshore patent trolls, inequitable conduct, prior art and obviousness.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the patent reform on Sept. 7, and the Senate is supposed to take it up “in the next few weeks,” according to Cisco’s General Counsel Mark Chandler.

The push for reform aims to address high tech’s irritation at patent trolls — a reference to lawyers who buy patents and file infringement lawsuits, often against high tech companies whose products can use hundreds of patented gadgets.

Cisco’s Chandler says his company has even seen patent trolls move offshore, a sort of outsourcing of patent trolling.

How will the Senate vote? Your best bet is look at which companies are in a senator’s home state for a clue.
—by Diane Bartz

(Photo: Reuters)