Bizwatch

Watch the Hands
Will oil unite Russia and China in a way that communism never did? Yukos watchers assumed that the Russian oil titan, neutered by massive tax bills and the jailing of its CEO, would end up in the hands of the Russian government. But last week Russia’s Energy Minister, Viktor Khristenko, announced that a 20% stake in the new business may be sold to China’s state-oil company CNPC.

INDICATORS
Symptoms Return
The British Medical Journal published details of clinical trials by Eli Lilly of its antidepressant Prozac, which suggested that the company may have withheld evidence of a link between the drug and violent behavior. The documents had reportedly gone missing during a 1994 civil suit against the company, but were sent to the journal anonymously and are now being reviewed by U.S. drug regulators.

The Year In Spam
The U.S.’s year-old CAN-SPAM laws, meant to curb unsolicited e-mail, have had little impact, according to antispam company MX Logic, which estimates that 77% of all e-mail is spam. Feedback by users of America Online show that 2003’s favorite spam subjects, Oprah Winfrey, teens and Viagra, were overtaken in 2004 by ID-theft scams, mortgage deals and substitutes for the withdrawn arthritis painkiller Vioxx.

In late December, the Russian government shut out rival bidders for Yukos’ core oil division, the million-barrel-a-day Yuganskneftegaz. Then state oil firm Rosneft snapped it up, using a shell company, for a bargain $9.4 billion. That drew catcalls even from Vladimir Putin’s own economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov. Managers from Rosneft turned up on New Year’s Eve at Yuganskneftegaz’s Siberian HQ to claim the keys.

Meanwhile, in Houston, Deutsche Bank is challenging the temporary bankruptcy protection won earlier by Yukos lawyers hoping to stave off the sale. The bank argues that Texas law has no place in a Russian tax dispute. The ruling prompted Putin to crack: “I am not even sure the judge knows where Russia is,” but a procedural hearing is set for this week. Yukos’ lawyers say that even if the sale is a done deal, the company would seek damages against anyone helping in the sale of assets they insist are under protection of the bankruptcy court.

But who to sue? Mike Lake, a spokesman for Yukos’ Houston law firm Fulbright and Jaworski, said, “It’s like following the bean under the walnut shell. You never know where it will wind up.” — With reporting by Cathy Booth Thomas

Samsung’s a no-Show
Mobile phones rang a merry tune this Christmas — especially stylish varieties like NEC’s “clamshell,” Britain’s top seller. Good looks and funky features helped South Korea’s Samsung Electronics grab 13.8% of the global market in the third quarter of 2004, ousting Motorola as the world’s No. 2 behind Nokia. But Samsung doesn’t want to show off about it. The company announced that, for fear of copycats, it will no longer demonstrate its cutting-edge handsets at trade shows like the CeBIT fair in Hanover in March. Samsung values “protecting state-of-the-art technologies and innovative designs over winning design contests,” says executive director Yoon Ji-hong. Rivals are perplexed. “We haven’t perceived a problem,” says Marianne Holmlund, communications director of Nokia. So how will people learn about Samsung’s new phones? If you figure that out, send us a text message.