Insights

The federal government is accepting submissions for its $100 million mobile black spot program promised during the election campaign. It aims to attract another $100 million in private and other government investment to deliver better coverage in regional areas. Submissions close February 28. communications.gov.au/mobile_coverage

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull released the NBN Strategic Review last week. While validating his mixed-technology model, it surprised all in its analysis of how long it would take to build the original fibre-to-the-premises model - only two years more. Many will ask, writes Tony Brown, why not just do it? bit.ly/18PJ3xy

The pundits are in agreement: 2014 will be the year that the market for wearable devices takes off. But if you think wearable devices are limited to things like the popular Nike FuelBand and the much publicised Google Glass, think again. Californian software developer EyeMynd claims to have developed a "Brain Operating System" that "allows anyone to interact with their electronic device just by thinking what they want to occur".

The local sharemarket fell for the seventh time in the past eight sessions, joining a regional slide before the US Federal Reserve's meeting this week and after a measure of factory activity in China unexpectedly fell to a three-month low.

Newly listed Nine Entertainment Co has enjoyed a boost in revenue, due largely to the Ashes Test cricket series between Australia and England, while Seven West Media has the biggest share of the metropolitan free-to-air television advertising market.

Companies are failing to accurately disclose the value of their assets in financial reports, prompting a number of inquiries by the corporate regulator.

Coal-hauler Aurizon will write down up to $197 million in the first half after deciding to sell or scrap a large number of train locomotives and wagons, as well as reducing the size of rail projects to service mines.

As much as $US50 billion of planned coalmine developments in Queensland and NSW are at risk due to an expected slowing in prospective Chinese demand - with knock-on effects for a range of service suppliers.

Insurance Australia Group is making an aggressive move to become the country's biggest provider of commercial and motor insurance, snapping up Wesfarmers' underwriting businesses for $1.85 billion.

The average growth superannuation fund returned 16.3 per cent in the year to November, according to a survey by analyst Morningstar, capping a sweet period for the industry in which returns have reached 16-year highs. But recent rockiness on the sharemarket sliced the monthly average return for growth funds to 0.7 per cent, a slower rate of growth than previous months. Growth funds are Australia's most common super fund type, with 61 to 80 per cent invested in the growth assets of shares and property. The median growth fund's longer-term annualised returns were 18.5 per cent (one year), 9.2 per cent (three years), 9.5 per cent (five years), and 7.1 per cent (10 years).

Small businesses operating in the cash economy are being targeted, with tax authorities tracking the credit card transactions of almost 1 million businesses.

Cooper Basin oil and gas explorer and developer Senex spooked investors on Monday with what appears to have been an ill-thought-out plan to expand by acquisition, through the intended purchase of fellow mid-size explorer AWE.

Former NSW premier, Nick Greiner, has a collection of boardroom seats that would rival the surfboard collection of Billabong founder, Gordon Merchant.

It could be a tale of two insurers. Just days after one-time Insurance Australia Group stalker QBE Insurance issued another confidence-shaking profit downgrade, IAG makes a $1.85 billion move on the insurance unit of Perth conglomerate Wesfarmers.

It's a fair bet that when chief executive Richard Goyder received the first of several unsolicited approaches from insurance companies looking to buy Wesfarmers' insurance underwriting business, he figured his ship had come in.

A partnership between American and Israeli universities, backed by New York City's government, aims to establish the leading technology educational institution in the world by combining the best know-how from academic and commercial worlds.