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San Francisco, Calif — Feb 03, `08 — Yahoo! would consider a business alliance with Google as one way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, Reuters reported citing a source familiar with Yahoo’s strategy said on Sunday.

The report further said, “a second source close to Yahoo said it had received a procession of preliminary contacts by media, technology, telephone and financial companies. But the source said they were unaware whether any alternative bid was in the offing.

Few natural bidders exist beside Google that could engage in a bidding war, and Google would be unlikely to win approval from antitrust regulators, some Wall Street analysts said on Friday.

Yahoo!’s efforts to find an alternative bidder could simply be a measure to pressure Microsoft to boost its bid, which valued Yahoo at $44.6 billion when first announced on Friday.” More at Reuters.

Phoenix, AZ — Feb 01, `08 — Wal-Mart is actively working to open its first small-scale grocery stores in Arizona, according to city planning officials, as the world’s largest retailer looks to fend off competition from British supermarket rival Tesco, reports Reuters.

Tesco entered the US marketplace last year, opening Fresh & Easy  stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. The company is seeking to woo U.S. shoppers with smaller convenience stores that emphasize ready-to-eat meals and fresh produce.

Wal-Mart, whose No. 2 British supermarket chain Asda competes with No. 1 Tesco in the United Kingdom, has long been rumored to be planning a new, smaller store concept that would rival the Tesco’s stores in the States.

According to planning officials for four different cities in Arizona, Wal-Mart is now refining plans it submitted to launch convenience store-sized markets — some close to recently opened Tesco stores — in former drug stores in four cities southeast of Phoenix. More at Reuters.

This Reuters video shows, Earthrace, a futuristic-looking bio-diesel powered boat with a net zero carbon footprint, will attempt to break the round the world speed record.

The project aims to promote awareness of the environment and the sustainable use of resources. More at Reuters.

Excerpts from Wired article “Around the World in a Boat Fueled by Human Fat“:
“This Wired article writes in detail about an engineer and sailor from New Zealand still hopes to circumnavigate the globe in world-record time at the helm of a boat powered in part by the ultimate renewable fuel - human fat.

Pete Bethune, a former oil exploration engineer, is so committed to proving bio-diesel is a viable alternative to fossil fuel that he and two other Earthrace crew members underwent liposuction. Together they stripped more than 2.5 gallons of fat from their bodies, which produced almost two gallons of fuel - enough to go 9 miles under optimum conditions.

Circumnavigating the world - a 27,600-mile journey - is the ultimate maritime challenge, and this is the second time Bethune and his crew will attempt it. The first ended disastrously in March when Earthrace collided with a fishing vessel off the coast of Guatamala. One fisherman was injured and another lost at sea; Earthrace’s insurance carrier paid the families a settlement. Earlier voyages have ended with propeller failures and when the Colombian navy fired upon the boat.” More at Wired.

Seoul, S Korea — Dec 21, `07 — South Korean prosecutors probing corruption accusations against the giant Samsung Group said on Friday they had narrowed their focus down to around 400 accounts that might be linked to an alleged slush fund, Reuters reported.

A former top legal executive with the country’s biggest conglomerate last month accused Samsung of running a 200 billion won ($212.7 million) fund to bribe public officials to avoid investigation into its operations.

“The list of accounts has become a lot shorter,” a prosecution official said by telephone. “It’s roughly about 300 or 400.” Media reports have said the number of accounts searched by prosecutors was well in excess of 1,000.

The former Samsung employee, Kim Yong-cheol, said the firm hid the illicit funds in scores of deposit accounts in the names of current and former executives.

The company, whose group sales are equivalent to about a sixth of the entire economic output of the world’s 13th largest economy, has denied any wrongdoing. More at Reuters.

“One place. One password.
Do you have to visit one site for a bill and another for your balance? Sign in with a single password and bring your checking, savings and credit card accounts together all in one place — plus your bill reminders! Get an instant view of where you’re at financially plus what’s coming up — anytime, from any computer or device with a Web connection.

With totally, wholly, completely Web-based Quicken Online you can quickly and easily see your most up-to-date account info automatically when you sign in — no matter whether you’re using Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox, or other popular Web browsers. Quicken Online is even compatible with Web-enabled mobile phones like the iPhone for true on-the-go access.”

Says Intuit about Quicken Online, which launches on January 8.

Dec 18, `07 — Intuit is looking to boost Quicken personal finance software sales by offering it as a service for $3 a month that can run on iPhone, Reuters reports.

Intuit has designed the product to appeal to younger consumers, people who may have used online banking for most of their adult lives, but do not use software to track those transactions. “Our first mission is to make sure we are solving the needs of people who are not currently using a personal finance solution,” Intuit senior vice president Rick Jensen told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. More at Reuters.

Washington — Dec 18, ‘07 — A venture led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has applied to bid in an upcoming auction of 700 MHz wireless airwaves, according to FCC’s “Accepted Applications” list released on late Tuesday, Reuters reports.

Allen was listed with an entity called Vulcan Spectrum LLC among the applicants who filed to bid in the FCC auction of 700-megahertz spectrum, which is scheduled to begin on January 24.

Allen and Vulcan Spectrum were on a list of scores of potential bidders who filed applications ahead of a December 3 FCC deadline. The auction applicants also included, Google, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm.

The FCC-run auction is expected to take several weeks, or even months, of daily, back-and-forth bidding, with the identities of the bidders kept secret. The radio waves are being returned by broadcasters as they move from analog to digital signals early in 2009. The signals can go long distances and penetrate thick walls.

FCC List of “Accepted Applications“, “Incomplete Applications” (in pdf). More at FCC (in Word).

NEW YORK — Dec 13, `07 — AMD has delayed shipment of major chip products until next year but aims to return to profitability in 2008, Chief Operating Officer Dirk Meyer said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

Reuters further writes, “AMD, the world’s No. 2 supplier of computer processors, has struggled in the last two years with market share losses and chip shipment delays. It posted four straight quarters of losses this year amid renewed competition from its far larger rival, Intel.

Meyer said AMD would ship its high-end Barcelona chip products and Phenom products in the 2008 first quarter. Speaking at a meeting with analysts, he apologized for delays and promised to do better next year. The Barcelona chip is designed for computer servers and the Phenom chip is aimed at desktop PCs.” More at Reuters.

NEW YORK — AT&T said on Tuesday it will stop selling satellite television services from DirecTV Group in the first quarter in a sign the phone company may favor EchoStar as its sole satellite partner, Reuters reports.

Reuters further writes, “Still, AT&T Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner told Reuters separately that the company has not made a final decision on the matter and could take until the second half of 2008 to decide.

AT&T has a marketing partnership with EchoStar in some markets and with DirecTV in others, and the phone company is also expanding its own video service called U-verse, which is delivered over high-speed fiber optic cables.

The company said it would stop offering DirecTV’s services to phone customers in the first quarter, while its current agreement with EchoStar extends until the end of 2008.” More at Reuters here and here.

NEW YORK — Dec 06, ‘07 — JetBlue Airways, Yahoo and Research In Motion plan to offer free, in-flight, Wi-Fi web connections for laptop computers and advanced cell phones, RIM said on Thursday, reports Reuters.

The service will allow passengers to access customized Yahoo mail and Yahoo instant messenger services on their laptops or to access corporate e-mails on Wi-Fi enabled versions of the popular Blackberry device from Rim.

According to a spokesperson for Rim the first JetBlue flight offering the service will be on December 11. more at Reuters.

WASHINGTON — Dec 04, ‘07 — US antitrust authorities said on Tuesday they have approved IBM’s purchase of software maker Cognos for $5 billion, Reuters reported.

IBM’s proposal to buy Canada-based Cognos, the last major independent maker of business intelligence software, was on a list of approved deals that the Federal Trade Commission releases periodically.

Cognos makes software that combs through vast amounts of data to analyze business trends. For example, Harrah’s Entertainment uses a Cognos program to keep frequent gamblers coming back to its casinos.

Software is IBM’s fastest-growing and most profitable division. IBM also uses software products to get customers to buy its consulting services and hardware. More at Reuters.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving toward resurrecting a proposal that would limit the size cable operators could reach on a nationwide basis, agency officials said Thursday, Nov 29, the AP and Reuters are reporting.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is circulating the proposal among his fellow commissioners for a possible vote at the agency’s next meeting, scheduled for Dec 18 and has enough support on the five-member commission to pass a measure that would bar cable companies from owning systems that have more than a 30-percent share of U.S. multichannel video subscribers, according to one FCC source.

Martin, fresh off a marathon meeting that featured a bruising battle with the cable industry, also wants commissioners to vote on a number of media ownership issues, including his proposal to allow one company to own both a newspaper and a radio or television station in the nation’s 20 largest markets.

Fearing the potential monopoly power of cable television companies, Congress in 1992 directed the FCC to establish limits on how many customers cable television companies could reach nationwide. The FCC settled on a 30 percent cap, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the rule in 2001, saying the agency had failed to adequately justify its reasoning.

The issue has remained largely dormant since then as direct broadcast satellite providers — and more recently, traditional telephone companies — have continued to cut into the market share of the nation’s major cable television companies.

The immediate impact of such a cap would appear to be negligible. Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable company, reported 26.2 million subscribers to the FCC through Sept. 30, for a nationwide market share of all pay-television subscribers of 27 percent. More at AP, Reuters.

Dec 02, ‘07 — Two UK Muslim peers who are in Sudan to lobby for a jailed British teacher to be released will meet the president on Monday, a presidential aide has said.

Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed have delayed their return to the UK and Lady Warsi said they had “made progress”. But she would not confirm the aide’s announcement of a presidential meeting.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, of Liverpool, was jailed for 15 days on Thursday for insulting religion by letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Baroness Warsi,  a Conservative peer, travelled to Sudan with Labour’s Lord Ahmed on Saturday in the wake of Gibbons’ imprisonment for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammad. Some Islamists considered the decision an insult as the Muslim Prophet is also called Mohammad.

In her first public comment since her arrest, Mrs Gibbons said she had been treated well and made a light-hearted comment that she been given so many apples that she “could set up my own stall”.

However despite her apparent good spirits, she is being held in secret due to fears for her safety after crowds of protesters marched in the capital Khartoum on Friday demanding a tougher sentence. Some called for the death penalty.

More at Reuters, BBC News.

An anaconda snake measuring over six meters and weighing 440 pound is captured in the backyard of an abandoned house in Parana, Brazil, Reuters reported on Nov 30.

Veterinarians said it was rare to find such a large anaconda in the Parana area.

Tokyo, Japan — Dec 02, ‘07 — At Tokyo’s 12th Robo-One Grand Championship match, two-legged robots jabbed, ducked, hurled balloons and even sang in their quest to become world champ, reports Reuters.

Twenty-five finalist robots put up their fists to knock one another out of a ring on Saturday, showing off some of the latest moves originated by children, homemakers and other robot fans in the world’s biggest robot market.

Hundreds of spectators clapped as robot “Arichyon,” clad in Christmas lights, sang “We wish you a Merry Christmas.” They then cheered when a robot with a penguin head toppled Arichyon over with a single punch.

Japan, home to 40 percent of the world’s robots, is also fertile ground for amateur programmers, who invest serious pocket money and hours into making the ideal biped out of server motors, cameras, sensors and wires.

To win the tournament and the title of the world’s strongest two-legged fighting robot, contestants need to be able to keep their balance while punching and dodging blows, and get up when pushed down.

“Companies can’t make money making robots like these,” said Terukazu Nishimura, chairman of the Robo-One committee. “The future of robotics depends on amateurs.”

The cost of developing robots has compelled electronics firms to pull the plug on cutting-edge robots targeting the consumer market. The most prominent example is Sony Corp’s Aibo dog robot, discontinued last year. More at Reuters.

Nov 27, ‘07 — Naomi Kim of Reuters bring us the Brookstone story, which adds 3rd dimension to the online shopping.

“Consumers looking to avoid crowded malls and the tedium of online shopping can now shop in a virtual 3-dimensional store.

Specialty retailer Brookstone Inc. opened the virtual doors to its 3-dimensional store, which combines a Second Life-like visual experience with real merchandise customers can buy.

The virtual store replicates the look and layout of a real store. Customers can move through the aisles and browse and zoom on products using a mouse and keyboard. Detailed information is available by stopping in front of an item.

“We think it really appeals to a younger audience for us, a demographic probably 25 to 40… because of the almost gaming nature of it,” said Sweeney. Brookstone.com will still offer its wares in the conventional way, but offers the 3-D store as an alternative”. More at Reuters.

Brookstone 3D Online Store (Warning: On the next screen, you have to install -never heard before- Kinset shopping browser in order to browse the 3D store).

Related Story: EveryScape Will Show You the Real World, Online!

BRUSSELS — Nov 27, ‘07 — Almost one in five European Union households has gone wireless, cutting off their landline cables to use a mobile telephone only, a study by the EU statistical office showed on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

Eurostat said that last year 18 percent of households had mobile phone access only as subscriptions for wireless handsets soared to 95 per 100 habitants in 2005 from eight in 1996.

The study showed that the number of households relying only on a mobile telephone tended to be higher in EU newcomers from central and eastern Europe — 42 percent in the Czech Republic, compared with 11 percent in Germany.

In Finland, home of mobile giant Nokia, 47 percent of households had mobile phones and no fixed lines. Still, in Sweden, where rival Ericsson is based, zero percent of households relied only on mobile telephony.

Luxembourg had the highest number of mobile subscriptions per 100 people — 158, followed by Lithuania with 127 and Italy with 122. More at Reuters, Eurostat (in pdf).

NEW YORK — News Corp’s Internet division plans to launch an online network to sell advertising across Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling empire and even to other media companies as early as the first half of next year, reports Reuters.

Reuters further reports, “Fox Interactive Media (FIM) President Peter Levinsohn told the Reuters Media Summit in New York on Monday, Nov 26, that the network, internally dubbed “FIM Serve,” is the subject of discussion across the company after first being built for its MySpace online social network.

“It could happen as early as the first half of next year,” he said. “We’re ready to go … we’re starting to have conversations outside now.”

The launch of a broader ad network follows a frenzied buying spree of privately held ad networks by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner’s AOL and Google to dominate the fastest-growing segment of the global advertising industry.

He noted that the ad network focuses on graphical display advertising and would not conflict with the company’s partnership with Google, which provides search listings.

The seeds of News Corp’s online ad push come from its work to better target MySpace users, a project which it launched over the summer called HyperTargeting. The technology mines the profiles of its 110 million global users to bring them ads more relevant to their interests.

But across the Internet, subjecting users to more marketing has drawn the ire of privacy advocates. Rival social network Facebook faced a backlash from thousands of users after it allowed marketers to place ads on user pages based on products they bought online. More at Reuters.

MADRID, Spain — Nov 27, ‘07 — A woman who stumbled on evidence of child abuse while looking for information about babies on the Internet helped Spanish police break a child pornography ring, reports Reuters.

“Police made 13 arrests in different parts of Spain after detecting thousands of images of child pornography following the woman’s tip-off, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

The woman called police after she found files with names suggesting pedophilia on an Internet file-sharing site. Investigators discovered the files contained images of two adults sexually abusing a child.” Reuters.

LONDON — Nov 27, ‘07 — In the battle of formats, High definition movie DVDs in the Blu-ray format have outsold the rival HD DVD standard in Europe this year, breaking the 1 million barrier and constituting 73 percent of all HD movie discs sold, says Reuters.

“Citing industry sales data by Media Control Gfk International, the Blu-ray disc association said in a statement on Tuesday Blu-ray movie disc sales had topped 1 million units and when counting Blu-ray gaming discs the total number produced for sale in Europe exceeded 21 million units.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console includes a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Hollywood and electronics manufacturers are hoping that new high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and more capacity, will revive the slowing home DVD market. But the launch of the next-generation DVD players has been complicated by the fact that there are two competing technologies available, Blu-ray and HD DVD.

HD DVD was developed by Toshiba while Sony backs the Blu-ray standard”. More at Reuters.

Seoul, S Korea — Nov 26, ‘07 –Reuters is reporting on a former top legal executive at Samsung Group on Monday making fresh accusations against the country’s largest conglomerate, saying it had used subsidiaries to help create a $215.8 million (200 billion won) slush fund.

Samsung has previously denied charges by , who used to run a major legal division but now says he wants to blow the whistle on corruption.

Reuters further reports, “”Samsung has created a large-scale slush fund,” Kim told a nationally-televised news conference, the second this month accusing his former employer of impropriety.

As Samsung legal counsel he saw secret documents which laid out intricate arrangements between affiliates to channel money to the illegal fund, he said. Earlier this month, Kim accused Samsung of routinely bribing prosecutors and politicians to quash investigations concerning improper company management.

Last week, South Korea’s parliament voted to allow an independent counsel to investigate the Samsung Group.

Roh, who has about three months left in office, is considering vetoing the bill, his office has said.” More at Reuters.

Targeted online advertising is set to face increased scrutiny from European Union regulators concerned about invasion of privacy, threatening the growth of a potentially big online revenue-booster for media companies. Reports, Astrid Wendlandt of Reuters.

“This is a very hot topic that can be expected to be part of our work programme next year,” Gabriele Loewnau, a senior legal adviser for the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection, said on Friday, Nov 23. The German commissioner currently heads the European Union’s advisory body on data protection matters, the so-called Article 29 Working Party.

When an individual makes an online search or purchase, the computer can remember the entry through so-called cookies and pass on the information to advertisers.

Brussels’ heightened awareness comes as more than 13,000 Facebook users have signed a petition protesting against the networking site’s new advertising system which alerts members of friends’ purchases online. Members can opt for their transactions to be kept private but critics say the option is easily missed.

Some Facebook members have even threatened to leave, complaining the new system allowed their friends to find out what they were planning to give them for Christmas. The Facebook petition was led by the civic action group MoveOn.org.

FAST GROWING

Online advertising is the fastest-growing segment of the ad industry, gaining more than 25 percent a year, or more than five times the recent average annual growth all media included.

“Online sites have to make sure they are not intruding people’s privacy, otherwise targeted advertising will backfire,” said Vincent Bonneau from French telecoms research group Idate. More at Reuters.

NEW YORK — Nov 23, ‘07 — UAL Corp, parent of the No. 2 U.S. carrier United Airlines, is keen for a possible merger, according to an article in the Dec 3 edition of BusinessWeek that cited industry experts, says Reuters.

Reuters further writes, “Pardus Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund, which owns a stake in both UAL and Delta Air Lines is pushing for a merger of the second and third largest U.S. carriers, according to recent media reports.

United and its parent UAL are in a real jam and a sale may be the best option for the airline, which is saddled with relatively high debt and wafer thin profit margins said the BusinessWeek report.

United, along with many of its peers, filed for bankruptcy following the September 11 attacks in 2001. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2006. The report contends that United’s extended pause on fleet expansion is an indication that the company is eager for a deal.

Industry experts believe that a Delta deal with Northwest Airlines is more likely than one with United, as the two companies belong to the same international alliance and have complimentary route structures, according to the report”. More at Reuters.

SINGAPORE — Nov 23, ‘07 — Singapore’s Media Development Authority, which regulates and censors media and the arts, has scored an unexpected hit on YouTube with a rap video about the city-state’s media ambitions, says Reuters.

The YouTube posting has received more than 14,600 hits — and a string of snide postings on the video site MDA Senior Management Rap. The government body aims to promote the growth of the media industry, to promote “core values” and safeguard consumer interests, its Web site says. It hopes the rap video will showcase its potential to be “a vibrant media city”.

But critics say this ambition does not rhyme with Singapore’s regular censorship of films and theatre and the many defamation lawsuits its government have launched against foreign media.

In the video, middle-aged executives are seen moving and shaking to a rap tune, mouthing lines from a corporate brochure.

“William Hung is more entertaining,” said one of the YouTube postings, referring to the goofy singer made famous in American Idol. Reuters.

SEOUL — Nov 22, ‘07 — South Korea’s Samsung Electronics said on Thursday it plans to invest $2.21 billion (2.06 trillion won) to expand its eighth-generation liquid crystal display (LCD) line, Reuters reported.

“Samsung, which had been cooperating with Japan’s Sony for its No. 8 line, is making the investment on its own for this phase, a Samsung official said.” Reuters.

ROME — The United Nations’ food aid agency has called on budding film-makers to help it raise awareness of hunger and bring the reality of abject poverty and suffering to the “YouTube” generation, Reuters reports.

The World Food Program (WFP) launched a contest on Wednesday for “edgy 30 or 60 second video(s) that will make the online community buzz about global hunger”, it said.

“For those of us doing the day-in, day-out backbreaking work of getting food to hungry people, it’s sometimes discouraging how few people understand that hunger stalks and kills a child every five seconds,” said WFP communications director Nancy Roman.

The five best films will be posted on the WFP’s YouTube site, with the overall winner receiving a trip to one of the agency’s relief operations.

Filmmakers stand a better chance of winning if they get play on blogs or networking sites like Facebook or MySpace before the competition’s July 2008 deadline, WFP said.

The agency has posted its own video at its site YouTube.com/hungerbytes, which shows footage of people in eating competitions bolting down hotdogs and plates of spaghetti, accompanied by The Beatles’ song “Piggies”.

At the end of the video, the text reads: “850 million go to bed hungry every night … Share.” More at Reuters.