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Breaking news on Yahoo today... Thailand declares martial law this morning http://news.yahoo.com/thailands-army-declares-martial-law-224020589.html "Quote" BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's army declared martial law in a surprise announcement in Bangkok before dawn on Tuesday, intensifying the turbulent nation's deepening political crisis. It was not immediately clear whether a coup d'etat was underway. The move came after six months of anti-government demonstrations aimed at ousting the government and one day after the Southeast Asian country's caretaker prime minister refused to step down. The army said in a statement that it had taken the action to "keep peace and order" and soldiers entered several private television stations that are sympathetic to protesters. A ticker on Chanel 5, an army station, however, denied the military was taking over, saying "the invocation of martial law is not a coup." Thailand's army has staged at 11 successful coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932. "Unquote"
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I've been receiving a number of spam mails from my friends via yahoo account. Seems that quite a number of them kena. It seems that its the server kena hack rather than mailbox password compromised, as one of my friend used complex password containing "#*" also kena while another used all numbers safe and sound. Anyone kena?
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Verizon plans to announce deal early Monday, ending months of speculation ENLARGE Verizon has finalized its $4.8 billion deal for Yahoo that is expected to be announced early Monday. PHOTO: REUTERS By RYAN KNUTSON and DEEPA SEETHARAMAN Updated July 24, 2016 7:55 p.m. ET46 COMMENTS Verizon Communications Inc. has agreed to pay $4.8 billion to acquire Yahoo Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter, ending a drawn-out auction process for the beleaguered internet company. The price tag, which includes Yahoo’s core internet business and some real estate, is a remarkable fall for the Silicon Valley web pioneer that once had a market capitalization of more than $125 billion at the height of the dot-com boom. For New York-based Verizon, the deal simply adds another piece to the digital media and advertising business it is trying to build. The deal is expected to be announced early Monday. The news was earlier reported by Recode and Bloomberg. Verizon plans to keep the Yahoo brand, according to a person familiar with its plans. ENLARGE Yahoo’s chief executive, Marissa Mayer, is unlikely to have a prominent role—if any—under Verizon, people familiar with the matter said. She stands to make more than $50 million in compensation if she is terminated as a result of the sale, after earning over $100 million in cash and equity. When the bidding began in April, Verizon was the immediate front-runner with a market capitalization of roughly $228 billion and a plan for how to plug Yahoo into its upstart digital media business, which includes AOL properties it acquired last year for $4.4 billion. Verizon’s competition came primarily from private-equity firms such as Bain Capital, Vista Equity Partners, TPG and Advent International Inc., as well as a group led by Quicken Loans founderDan Gilbert. AT&T Inc. joined the bidding process later, but it wasn’t seen as a serious contender, people familiar with the matter said. Verizon in June submitted a bid of $3 billion, but that didn’t include Yahoo’s real estate and came before last week’s final round of bidding. Advertisement Verizon is building a portfolio of online content and aiming to monetize it via advertising. Its current assets include Huffington Post and TechCrunch, which it acquired in last year’s AOL deal, and its own mobile video app, called go90. Acquiring Yahoo will bring in millions more viewers from Yahoo sites like Finance, Sports and News. PREVIOUSLY A Look Back at Yahoo’s History Verizon to Acquire Yahoo for $4.8 Billion (July 24) Yahoo Posts Another Big Loss (July 18) Yahoo’s Mayer Stumbled After Secret Truce With Investor (June 17) Verizon Bids $3 Billion in Second Round (June 7) Yahoo Strikes Board Deal With Activist (April 27) Yahoo’s Troubles Mount as Bidding Begins (April 18) Verizon Tops Pack of Yahoo Suitors(April 17) Yahoo to Cut 15% of Staff, Explore Strategic Options (Feb. 2) Yahoo Shelves Alibaba Spinoff (Dec. 10, 2015) Yahoo’s Board Weighs Sale (Dec. 1, 2015) Yahoo’s Mayer Faces Morale Challenge(Nov. 23, 2015) Verizon also hopes to plug data derived from smartphones into AOL, and now Yahoo’s, digital advertising systems, and it is aiming to build a competitor to online advertising giantsFacebook Inc. andAlphabet Inc.’s Google. But a combined Yahoo and AOL would be far outpaced by its now far-larger rivals. Google and Facebook will account for more than half of the $69 billion U.S. digital ad market this year, according to estimates by data firm eMarketer. Yahoo’s share is expected to be 3.4%; Verizon properties including AOL hold an even-smaller 1.8% of the market, according to eMarketer. Yahoo’s hold on the market is also slipping. In 2014, Yahoo generated $2.54 billion in revenue from U.S. digital ads. That is expected to be $2.32 billion in 2016, or 8.7% lower, according to eMarketer. “The headwinds for all large players not named Google and Facebook are very real,” said Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser.“Noticeable growth only has a chance to come with ongoing investment, whether M&A or internal.” Last week, Yahoo said second-quarter revenue, minus commissions paid to partners for web traffic, fell 19%. This marked the sixth decline in the past seven periods and the steepest slump under Ms. Mayer. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company also said display ad prices fell 15% year-over-year in the second quarter, while search ad prices fell 8%. During a conference call with analysts, executives said video ad prices were under pressure because of an influx of video ad supply and “uncertainty” around the Yahoo sale process. Ms. Mayer also struck a different tone. While past calls were focused on growth, Ms. Mayer spent considerable time touting the company’s lower cost structure. Yahoo’s head count has shrunk about 15% this year to 8,800 employees. “The pace of cost cutting is significant,” wrote Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner in a July 19 note. “We suspect that there will be a price to be paid in the future for these fast, deep cuts, reflected in lower revenue growth.” Analysts are divided on the value of Yahoo’s core business. The decline in search revenue prompted Credit Suisse to cut its valuation of Yahoo’s core business to $7 billion, down from $8 billion. But that is more robust than Mr. Kirjner’s estimate of $3.4 billion. The Verizon deal is the first major step toward unwinding Yahoo. Next up is a trove of about 3,000 patents, which Yahoo is selling in a separate auction, that is expected to fetch more than $1 billion. The patents date back to Yahoo’s initial public offering in 1996 and cover key areas such as e-commerce, online advertising and search, including its original search technology. Yahoo also will need to figure out what to do with its stakes in Yahoo Japan Corp., majority-owned by SoftBank Group Corp., and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., considered to make up the majority of Yahoo’s roughly $36 billion market value today.
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January 6, 2016 Board of Directors of Yahoo! Inc. 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, California 94089 cc: Maynard J. Webb, Chairman Marissa Mayer, Chief Executive Officer Larry Sonsini, Esq., Legal Counsel Dear Board Members, The past year has been an extremely frustrating one for shareholders of Yahoo! Inc. (“Yahoo” or the “Company”). We are sure that you, the Board of Directors (the “Board”), must also be frustrated. Despite reasonable intentions, in the end, the proposed spin-off of Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba Group Holding Limited (“Alibaba”) into Aabaco Holdings, Inc. (“Aabaco”) turned out to be a failed effort due to a changing tax landscape and serious concerns over the potential for massive tax liability. We believe you ultimately made the right decision by suspending the spin-off of Aabaco. Also frustrating for us, and likely for you, has been the continued downward spiral of the operating and financial performance of Yahoo’s core Search and Display advertising businesses (the “Core Business”). Despite over three years of effort and billions spent on acquisitions, the management team that was hired to turn around the Core Business has failed to produce acceptable results, in turn, causing massive declines in profitability and cash flow. It appears that investors have lost all confidence in management and the Board. As of Tuesday’s close, the value of the “Yahoo Stub” (defined as Yahoo’s market value less the value of its shares in Alibaba) has collapsed and is currently trading near zero. The bulk of Yahoo’s current market value almost entirely derives from an extraordinary investment Yahoo made over ten years ago in Alibaba, and the good fortune that Alibaba’s management team has executed well such that this investment today is worth over $30 billion. This compares to Yahoo’s current market capitalization of approximately $30.5 billion. The current valuation of Yahoo implies either a massive tax liability on Yahoo’s minority equity interests in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan Corporation (“Yahoo Japan”) or that the remaining operating assets of Yahoo are worthless, or some combination of the two. While we agree that the failed separation has been frustrating, we are confident that a separation of these assets can be accomplished through either a sale of the Core Business or a spin of the Core Business. Either of these outcomes would result in a much more tax efficient separation than the market currently implies. Unfortunately, it appears that shareholders have no confidence that management and the Board will be able to execute on a separation of these assets or improve the performance of the Core Business. We are confident that both of these objectives are achievable, but will require a change in leadership and strategy. Yahoo’s current management has had over three years to demonstrate progress towards improving the Core Business, but despite these efforts, the Core Business continues to be plagued with deteriorating financial performance and an accelerating number of executive leadership departures. Annual operating costs have ballooned, increasing by approximately $500 million despite revenue that has been declining. In addition, the Company has spent over $2.3 billion on acquisitions. Unfortunately, most of these investments have been misguided, poorly overseen, and, ultimately, shut down. Even with these massive investments, the trajectory is decidedly negative. As shown in the table below, EBITDA continues to decline quarter-after-quarter while spending continues at an alarming pace. If nothing else, the results of the past three years, which follow several other failed attempts to turnaround the business theretofore, should demonstrate to you that turning around this business is extremely difficult. To be successful, dramatically different thinking is required, together with significant changes across all aspects of the business starting at the board level, and including executive leadership. New leadership will have to develop and implement a plan to balance priorities between growth and profitability. This will mean prioritizing and investing in certain parts of the business while at the same time deeply reducing unnecessary costs, selling or exiting many unprofitable businesses and research projects, and overhauling the incentives and compensation programs to instill sound business behavior. Over the past 13 years, we have been involved in similar turnaround efforts with many of our portfolio companies. Certainly on paper, there could be a viable plan to significantly restructure Yahoo, shift direction under new leadership and attempt, once again, to reverse the current trends of declining revenues, increasing costs, and plummeting profits. We, and you, understand that businesses are not operated on paper and that leadership skill and experience is required for complex turnarounds as well as day-to-day management. We understand that executing such a significant restructuring at an extremely high profile public company while reporting quarterly results is challenging. That is why it is necessary for the Board to remain open-minded regarding the future of Yahoo. The Board must be able to assess and compare a stand-alone spin-off and restructuring of the Core Business, as described above, versus the value that could be received today through a competitive sale process resulting in a sale of the Core Business to a strategic or financial buyer. We are highly confident that there are interested and credible buyers for Yahoo’s Core Business. It is our understanding that even after Yahoo announced its plan to spin-off, instead of sell, the Core Business, several interested parties subsequently reached out to Yahoo’s management and Board expressing interest in buying the Core Business. Yet, unfortunately, according to several credible media reports, Yahoo has thus far ignored this inbound interest. This is highly concerning to us because when recently asked specifically on CNBC, Maynard Webb, Yahoo’s Chairman, stated that if Yahoo received inbound interest from potential strategic or financial buyers the Board would engage with those parties: “The Board has fiduciary obligation to engage with any legitimate person that comes forward with a good offer. The Board will always do its fiduciary obligations when something like that occurs.” - Maynard Webb, December 9, 2015 This is unacceptable. By making the above statement, while simultaneously ignoring serious interest, you are sending potentially destructive mixed messages. In order to ensure the best possible outcome for shareholders, it is imperative that you clearly communicate your receptiveness to discussions with parties who demonstrate an interest in an acquisition of the Core Business. Those parties can then confidently commit the time needed to make a bid. Only in this way can you truly compare the potential value received in a sale of the Core Business versus a substantial stand-alone restructuring of the Core Business. For over a year, we have attempted to work constructively with management and the Board of Yahoo. We have tried extremely hard to work “behind the scenes.” We have grown increasingly frustrated. It took significant effort for us to convince you it was the right choice to suspend the Aabaco spin-off. Unfortunately, instead of heeding our advice and concurrently announcing that you would explore a sale of the Core Business, you have now hid behind a plan to spin-off the Core Business and Yahoo Japan without fully understanding the alternative options. We have had numerous conversations with you for over a year where we expressed our extreme concern with the trajectory of the Core Business. We told you that, aside from separating the minority equity interests, the performance and lack of turnaround execution on the Core Business was our primary concern and focus. You assured us for over a year that you had a plan for execution and that you were confident that 2014 would be a low point for EBITDA. We explained over and over again that we did not believe your actions, or lack thereof, would achieve the desired result of stabilizing the business. Unfortunately, it appears we have been right, and each quarter is worse than the last. Your solution to just announce a change in direction of the spin and that it will require another year for shareholders to wait while the existing leadership continues to destroy value is not acceptable. The Board must accept that significant changes are desperately needed. This would include changes in management, changes in Board composition, and changes in strategy and execution. If the Board is willing to embrace the need for significant change and pursue a strategy along the lines of what we have proposed above, we are hopeful we can work constructively together and make changes to the Board through a mutually agreeable resolution. This is clearly the preferable route. If the Board is unwilling to accept the need for significant change, then an election contest may very well be needed so that shareholders can replace a majority of the Board with directors who will represent their best interests and approach the situation with an open mind and a fresh perspective. The new Board can then assess the state of the existing business, including a review of management’s strengths and weaknesses, so that the Board can best represent shareholders in analyzing a viable turnaround plan compared with potential offers for the Core Business. We look forward to our continued discussions. Respectfully, Jeffrey C. Smith Managing Member Starboard Value LP
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Marissa Mayer has repeatedly said reviving growth at Yahoo Inc.would take multiple years. But many insiders have lost patience, saying the embattled chief executive has no clear sense of direction and has misled investors and advertisers about the company’s progress. In recent months, a crisis of morale has gripped Yahoo, as dozens of executives who had been instrumental to Ms. Mayer’s turnaround plan have left for jobs elsewhere. Ms. Mayer called a meeting with senior executives in August and asked them to sign a written agreement to stay with the company for at least three more years, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Finance chief Ken Goldman was one of the first to pledge his commitment, but some executives left the room unsure they could make such a promise, one of the people said. In January, Ms. Mayer expects to complete the spinoff of shares inAlibaba Holding Group Ltd., putting the focus squarely on Yahoo’s core business. Sales from that business continue to shrink, from $4.5 billion in 2012 when Ms. Mayer arrived to $4.4 billion last year and even less expected for 2015.Under Ms. Mayer, Yahoo’s forays into mobile software, online video and search have cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars but yielded no meaningful growth in total users or revenue. Ms. Mayer said last month the company would adopt another strategy to“reset” the company’s focus, without providing details.The CEO has hired management consultant McKinsey & Co. to look for areas of the company to cut, said a person familiar with the matter. Forbes and Recode earlier reported aspects of Yahoo’s troubles. The stagnation prompted activist investor Starboard Value LP last week to call on the company to halt its Alibaba spinoff and instead find a buyer for its core business. Yahoo has failed to get prior approval of its plan from the Internal Revenue Service, raising the risk that the agency could later challenge the spinoff’s tax-free status. On an October earnings call Ms. Mayer said the company feels strongly the deal meets requirements for tax-free status. A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to make Ms. Mayer available for an interview. She pointed to earnings calls in which Ms. Mayer has defended the progress she has made in adding new lines of revenue from mobile ads and other areas. The company declined to comment further.When the Ms. Mayer is forced to deliver bad news, she employs what she calls a “jiu-jitsu move”—trying to create a diversion by producing tantalizing information, according to people who have worked closely with her. For example, Ms. Mayer created an accounting metric called “Mavens” designed to spotlight the growing parts of Yahoo. The grouping includes revenue from mobile, video, native and social ads but excludes Yahoo’s largest portion of revenue—its shrinking business of display ads on desktop computers. Analysts say much of Mavens growth comes at the expense of Yahoo’s desktop business, since many advertisers are shifting their ad spend from older formats that are more expensive and considered less effective. “The Mavens number was ridiculous because the vast majority of what they are generating was not new revenue,” said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research LLC. When Yahoo announced its $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr Inc. in May 2013, Ms. Mayer said that adding the blogging site’s 300 million users would put Yahoo over the 1 billion mark. That year, Ms. Mayer led an overhaul of the methodology it used to measure its audience across desktop computers and mobile devices, according to people involved in the project. The CEO weighed in on debates about different techniques, and she often leaned on the method that produced the larger number, said one of the people. In October 2014, more than a year after Ms. Mayer’s prediction, Yahoo said it crossed 1 billion monthly users, more than half of whom were on mobile devices. That was also the first time Yahoo relied on a new methodology to track users, the people said. On a call with analysts, Ms. Mayer said Yahoo used a different metric but didn’t disclose the methodology. As her strategy has shifted, Ms. Mayer has variously cast Yahoo as a challenger to Netflix Inc. in online video content and as a threat to Google Inc. in Web search, but has made little progress toward either goal. Yahoo spent more than $100 million over the past two years producing original video content, excluding the cost of employees, according to people familiar with the matter. Yahoo Screen, a portal for professional content from media partners such as Walt Disney Co.’s ABC and The Wall Street Journal as well as Yahoo-produced content, had 25 million unique video viewers, about the same number it had early 2014, according to comScore, whose data excludes mobile users. Yahoo wrote off a $42 million expensefor the cost of online shows including “Community” in the third quarter. Yahoo’s focus and investments appear to be shifting to search. An internal project called Yahoo Index aims to build a new search engine geared toward mobile phones, people familiar with the company have said. Yahoo relies on partners to generate search queries, sell ads and to capture users. Perhaps the most significant partner for Yahoo to secure in search,Apple Inc., appears to be elusive. Though Ms. Mayer has stated she is open to negotiating with the iPhone maker to become the default search provider for Apple’s mobile Safari browser, no discussions have occurred, according to people familiar with the matter.
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https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/comment--smarter-citizen-journalism-without-stomp-031312260.html
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Amazing when you consider that many fit, able-bodied young gung ho kids do fail such courses in doves. Guess it is not only the punishing physical part but the more important mental determination that sees this 34-yo vet passing it. Incredible... From Yahoo!News: http://news.yahoo.com/army-amputee-complet...-225232180.html Army amputee completes air assault school By KRISTIN M. HALL | Associated Press
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Is "zng-ing" (modifying) your car in Singapore necessarily a bad thing? In mid-November, the Parliament passed amendments to the Road Traffic Act which made for stiffer penalties against vehicles that are illegally modified. This enhanced penalty means the court can impound illegally-modified vehicles for up to three months and repeat offenders might even have to serve a jail term. Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo was quoted saying that
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Folks, few years ago, there was this wonderful website-Yahoo Auction, which facilitated selling of 1st-hand or pre-owned goods within Singapore, meetup at MRT stations for transaction, without a need to pay a single cent for admin. The web-traffic was excellent too. But this great website has closed down few years back. Do you know of any good website which is equivalent to Yahoo Auction? I think ebay is not as user-friendly.
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Been trying to login Yahoo Mail to send important message, but there is a pop up message saying "Yahoo Mail is now faster.......................................................................... ...... Click Yes, or No." Either way also cannot jalan. What happened??? :angry: :angry: :angry: Anyone facing same issues.
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Finally! after the long weeks of hot afternoon sun the rain is back!! and it back with a vengeance, raining cats an dogs here in the east.. i think sure flood some where..
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they recommend expensive "holiday spot"...expensive "eating spot"....etc etc....computer got virus...bring to computer shop...those behind the ariticles all seem to be having alot of "$$$$"....even what they call cheap isn't really that "cheap" !!! anyone notice or feel the same ????
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COMMENT Member of Parliament for Tampines group representation constituency Baey Yam Keng recently had to apologise for his comments with regards to Chinese scholar Sun Xu's remarks that "there are more dogs than humans in Singapore." Sun studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His remarks set off a storm of protests among Singaporeans, especially online. Baey added to the controversy when he said in a New Paper report that Singaporeans also "need to reflect" on their own behaviour. The paper reported: "Mr Baey weighed in on the issue during an interview with The New Paper published last Wednesday. He said people should not jump to the conclusion that all foreign students are like Mr Sun and that Singaporeans also 'need to reflect' and ask whether 'we (have behaved) the way they described'." It was like throwing a matchstick into a tinderbox, and Singaporeans turned their anger to Baey. The MP later issued an apology, in Parliament, for his remarks. "I do not think that we can just treat all the negative sentiments towards foreigners as noise," he said. Ng Bin Hong, in a letter to the Today newspaper on 5 March, expressed disappointment at Baey's apology. "Mr Baey, in urging us to examine if our society is walking in a healthy direction, was one of the few voices acknowledging the social problem we face today," Ng said. "His comments did not undermine Singaporeans but, rather, cautioned against discrimination and bigoted behaviour. It is unfortunate that he ultimately apologised because of irrational, populist sentiments." One would suspect that few Singaporeans would agree with Ng, especially given the prevailing sentiments on the issue of foreigners in our midst. Acknowledge sentiments towards foreigners What the government should realise, however, is that such sentiments towards foreigners are real. More importantly, these should be addressed more thoroughly and effectively. And to be fair, the government has tried to do so
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From Yahoo! News: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporesc...-104456912.html NTU student accused of sexual harassment By debchoo | SingaporeScene
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Something to read about the man who refuse to give up fighting. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporesc...-050517946.html
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Ok TGIF can relak abit liao Read this from Yahoo! News found it interesting so like to share with cryptozoology freaks like myself: From Yahoo!: http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/canad...-012241654.html Canada's Loch Ness Monster Caught on Tape? By Lauren Sher | ABC News Blogs
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Anyone interested to join my newly formed league? MCF BPL Fantasy League/ Group ID: 13303 Password :mcf
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http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporesc...-184231332.html If the outcome for this General Election was based purely on rally attendances, the Opposition would win hands down. An estimated 2,500 people, many of whom were hardcore party supporters, turned up for the People's Action Party's (PAP) first rally for the 2011 General Election at the field beside Buangkok MRT station on Thursday evening. That figure pales in comparison to the rallies for the Worker's Party in Hougang (estimated 20,000), in Geylang East for National Solidarity Party (estimated 5,000), in Clementi stadium for Reform Party (estimated 4,000) and near Commonwealth MRT for Singapore Democratic Party (estimated 10,000). Supporters there with flags and banners to support the PAP team. (Yahoo Photo/Marianne) Supporters there with flags and banners to support the PAP team. (Yahoo Photo/Marianne) Present at the PAP rally were candidates contesting Pasir Ris-Punggol Group Representation Constituency (GRC), Punggol East Single Member Constituency (SMC) and Sengkang West SMC. Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean stumbled early on in his speech, after he wrongly addressed the audience as a "Siglap crowd." He quickly made amends and address his audience as from "Sengkang West". On the topic of Singapore's cash reserves, DPM Teo -- who is leading the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC team -- talked about the purpose of the reserve and how it helped Singaporeans tide over the financial downturn in the last five years. "Now, however, the opposition parties seem to have forgotten why we need the reserves... and they now want to raid the reserves for all kinds of clever ideas," he said. "To them, 60 billion dollars is small change," said the DPM before rhetorically asking the audience, "Do you know how many zeros there are in 60 billion? That to the government, is not small change." Michael Palmer, the PAP candidate for Punggol East also impressed residents when he spoke fluent Mandarin. "If you elect the PAP team for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, Punggol East SMC, the Pasir Ris Punggol Town Council will continue to see and manage the facilities of both Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC and the newly carved out Punggol East SMC," said the 43-year-old lawyer. He also announced that he will be appointed the town council chairman if elected and this appointment would ensure a seamless continuation of service without interruptions or any transition periods. Palmer also asked voters to think carefully about the three-cornered challenge posed by Desmond Lim from the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) and Workers' Party Lee Li Lian for Punggol East SMC. "They have not worked the ground but appeared seven weeks before the Polling Day. Mr Lim said then (in 2006) that even if he did not win, he would continue to work the ground until the next election. After the election, we did not see Mr Lim for the next four-and-a-half years," said Palmer. Spotted in the crowd was former army chief and PAP candidate Chan Chun Sing whose Tanjong Pagar GRC was the only ward not contested. He was seen walking around alone surveying trying to gain a different perspective from his "backstage view". "I would say that a majority of Singaporeans are very logical and considered people. To make you vote, people can say things to stir your emotions and those things said may not be of substance," he said. A spectator who declined to be named told Yahoo! Singapore she was asked to attend the PAP rally to lend support. When asked who her employer was, she said "PCF", referring to the PAP Community Foundation organization known for it's pre-school kindergartens. A fair number of youths were also seen at the rally listening attentively to the various speeches. Nan, a 22-year-old student, said she had been a resident around the area since she was born. "I'm very excited about this election because of the opposition. I'm not very experienced though," said the first-time voter.