Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with word provide. 7 news.

CANADA'S non-bank asset-backed commercial paper market will start trading for the first time in four months after a deal was struck between investors holding about C$33 billion (US$33.3 billion) of the short-term debt. The group, led by Toronto lawyer Purdy Crawford, agreed yesterday to swap the commercial paper for longer-term notes, ending a suspension in trading prompted by investor concern about ties to US subprime mortgages. "I am confident that this plan will provide most holders of outstanding commercial paper with the opportunity to receive the full repayment of principal by holding restructured notes to maturity," Crawford said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg News yesterday. The Canadian market for asset-backed commercial paper sold by non-bank dealers ground to a halt in August after Coventree Inc and other trusts failed to renew maturing debt. Banks refused to provide backup financing, freezing the market and putting funds at risk of collapsing, even

SICHUAN Changhong Electric Co, China's second-biggest TV maker, has grabbed the lion's share of government-financed home appliance sales in rural areas. China promised to give farmers subsidies, about 13 percent, for buying household electrical appliances, in a bid to stimulate sluggish rural consumption and reduce the rising trade surplus, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce said over the weekend. "We are a major player in the deal and we occupy at least 50 percent shares of the TV sales (in the subsided sales in the rural areas)," Chen Ning, Changhong's vice president, told Shanghai Daily yesterday. Changhong will provide TVs, which costs less than 1,500 yuan (US$202) each, and some mobile phones for the subsidized purchase program. The pilot program will be launched in Shandong, Henan and Sichuan, the three major agricultural provinces, according to Chen. Farmers in the provinces can buy color TV sets, refrigerators and mobile phones with

SHANDA Interactive Entertainment, Intel Corp and Sichuan Changhong Electric have established an alliance to develop the market of online games on Web-linked TVs, the three sides said yesterday in Shanghai. The companies launched an online table tennis game, available both on computer and TV platforms, to catch the sport game booms ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games next year. According to the agreements, Shanda will provide content including games, Intel will provide related chip and chipset technology, while Changhong - China's second biggest TV maker - will produce TVs with Internet access and built-in hard disk storage, the companies said. "Shanda is proud to become content provider and the three sides will jointly promote the games including the new table tennis game X-Up," said Tom Zhang, Shanda's senior vice president. The project has similarities to Shanda's previous EZ-Center plan, which allowed users to access Internet and games on TV with a

A major rival is gearing up a campaign against the state's first public electricity cooperative. The San Joaquin Valley Power Authority is poised to provide power to more than 115,000 customers across the San Joaquin Valley. But Pacific Gas &...

"Alltel Wireless announced in September that it had reached a deal with SpinVox to provide the voice-to-SMS conversion capability…"

General Dynamics of Falls Church said last week that it has agreed to provide six portable combat operations centers to upper-level Marine Corps commands under a $38 million modification of an existing contract.

Almost a year ago, a largely positive Questor editor chose six companies that he thought would, combined, provide decent returns.