FACTBOX: Quotes from tech & media execs
(Reuters) - Reuters has invited executives from the world of technology, media and telecoms to talk about their businesses and issues surrounding their industries.
Here is a selection of quotations taken from the event, which was held in New York, Paris and Tokyo:
ENRIQUE SALEM, COO OF SYMANTEC CORP (SYMC.O)
On rising danger of information theft from cell phones:
"I expect that there will be some high-profile attack at some point. One of the things that has happened is, I've been doing this now for 20-plus years, and all the security breaches used to be kids showing off to their friends, right? Trying to get famous ... It's no longer that. It's now about how do I get onto your computer and try to steal information that I can use to make money."
JOHN CHEN, CEO OF SYBASE INC (SY.N)
On telephone texting and messaging:
"It is the way the newer generation communicates. They don't do no email... If you want to do business with the next generations, you better be text capable."
BRIAN HALLA, CEO OF NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CORP (NSM.N)
On buying the all-electric Tesla roadster:
"I would rather drive a tank, but I think it is the right thing to do."
On the need for alternative energy:
"Any time you go out to your car on a hot summer day and you grab the handle and it's hot, you can think of that as wasted energy because somebody didn't capture it. That's one of the reasons you are paying $4 a gallon for gas."
RICK SIMONSON, CFO OF NOKIA (NOK1V.HE) (NOK.N)
"It seems since last summer people have been trying to call the bottom for financials. It seems they haven't quite been found yet in terms of the restructuring and the capital raising that has to go on there. It seems to me we're still going to be in a period through 2008 of where a lot of the financial sector's going to have to continue to look at its capital needs and continue to raise capital."
When asked if Nokia would consider an acquisition of Yahoo Inc
(YHOO.O):
"We've not been involved obviously in Yahoo. We're focused on closing the acquisition with Navteq on our basic first move on scale ... We're not out in the desert trying to invent a search algorithm that's better than Google (GOOG.O) or Yahoo's for instance. They've got some scale there we don't have."
DAVID GOULDEN, CFO OF EMC CORP (EMC.N)
When asked if EMC will reduce its 86 percent stake in VMware Inc (VMW.N):
"I'm reluctant to talk about it because the more you talk about it, the more people think it might happen."
SOL TRUJILLO, CEO OF TELSTRA (TLS.AX)
On regulation:
"In Australia, we have the worst regulatory climate in the world."
On building a fiber high-speed network:
"It will be the single largest construction program ever in the history of Australia. I am not exaggerating, it's a fact. There aren't enough people on the continent to get it done in and of themselves."
On telecoms and Cheerios breakfast cereal:
"Telecoms is like Cheerios. It is a mature industry but still has growth if you can differentiate yourself. General Mills saved Cheerios by adding honey and developing many different flavors over the years."
LARS HINRICHS, CEO OF XING (OBCGn.DE)
On membership and critical mass:
"In Frankfurt and Munich, more than 12 percent of the entire population are members. This is definitely critical mass."
On dating Web sites:
"If you are a success, you should be out of business."
MARK ZALESKI, CEO OF DAILYMOTION
On perception of company:
"People would not give us the time of day a year ago. Now we are getting all the attention."
On global economy:
"There is enough cash around. It is looking for a good home."
ERIK WACHTMEISTER, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF A SMALL WORLD
On a stock market listing:
"If the market was super hot, we would be considering a flotation. But we are not expecting the markets to take off in the next 12 months."
JOE ROBINSON, CEO OF A SMALL WORLD
On expanding membership:
"We would destroy the company if we grew too fast."
(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)
