Qwest working up MCI offer

Qwest Communications International spent last weekend weighing proposals to make another US$8 billion bid for MCI, executives close to the company said yesterday.

The New York Times reports (22 Feb.) that Qwest, which lost an auction for MCI to Verizon Communications last week despite making a higher offer, is hoping to break up that deal and get a seat at the negotiating table.

The deliberations come as MCI is under increasing pressure from some shareholders to reconsider its decision to accept Verizon's US$6.75 billion cash and stock bid over Qwest's US$8 billion offer, reports the paper, adding that several shareholders have sued MCI, contending that it failed to fulfill its fiduciary duty by not fully considering Qwest's offer and "by depriving MCI's public stockholders of maximum value to which they are entitled."

The paper says Qwest, which said last week that it intended to submit a new bid, has also been meeting with MCI shareholders. People who have been briefed on the talks said that no offer from Qwest was expected in the next couple of days while it watched the shareholder lawsuits unfold.

Qwest is considering how to develop a bid that includes protections for MCI shareholders against a sudden drop in its stock price. Qwest's shares trade near US$4 while Verizon's are near US$36.00. MCI's shares rose last week on hopes that a bidding war could lead to a higher price.

Meanwhile, the NYT reports that MCI's management and its lawyers held several conference calls to discuss whether they should publicly explain why they chose Verizon's bid.

Apple resellers, consumers sue Apple

A group of Apple Computer resellers and consumers has banded together to file a class action suit against the company.

The New York Times reports (21 Feb.) that in the suit, filed in the California Superior Court in San Francisco, the resellers and consumers accuse Apple of not honoring warranties, misappropriating trade secrets from its resellers, unlawful business practices and packaging old kit as new, among other charges.

Apple, which recently filed suit against three online journalists it claimed had leaked Apple's secrets, now finds itself on the receiving end of such a suit, with the resellers claiming the company has been using confidential reseller information in order to boost sales at Apple's own stores and cut the resellers out,reports the paper.

The paper further reports that the resellers also claim that Apple ensured its own stores' shelves were stocked more plentifully and ahead of resellers'. Apple also stands accused of deliberately undercutting the resellers' prices and failing to extend warranties while its products were being repaired, according to reports.

U.S. first arrest for spim

A US teenager has become the first person to be arrested on suspicion of sending unsolicited instant messages--or spim.

The New York Times reports (21 Feb.) that the teenager, Anthony Greco, 18, was lured from New York to Los Angeles under the pretence of a business meeting. He was arrested upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport last Wednesday.

Greco allegedly sent 1.5 million messages advertising pornography and mortgages. According to reports, the recipients of the messages were all members of the MySpace.com online networking service.

In a further twist upon the scam, the paper reports that Greco had allegedly threatened to share his methods for spamming members of the group if MySpace.com didn't sign an exclusive marketing deal that would have legitimised the messages he was sending via the service.

Greco believed he was flying to Los Angeles to cement that agreement with MySpace President Tom Anderson.

MySpace.com launched IM for its members in December 2003. Reports claim Greco began spamming members using the service in autumn 2004.

The NYT reports that an Assistant US Attorney confirmed the arrest was the first criminal case brought against an individual sending spam over IM, but warned there may well be more to come.

Experts have warned in recent years that spim will be the next area of development for those looking to further exploit access to users' desktops and bombard them with unwanted messages, but its growth has been slow, says the paper.

The immediacy of instant messaging and its growing popularity with businesses and home users means spam via the medium could theoretically become even more obtrusive than email spam, the paper adds.

Wireless iPod coming?

A Motorola executive has hinted that Apple will deliver a wireless iPod.

The Register says (21 Feb.) that this is hardly a surprise, as wireless transmission technology fulfills the promise of the portable music player, making this solitary, anti-social device into the social hardware it should be.

Motorola told The Register that there were iPods that will ship soon with Bluetooth technology.

The Register says that iPod owners already can listen to their songs without wires in their car, using a third-party, add-in radio attachment such as the Griffin iTrip. At MacWorld Expo last month, Bluetooth add-ons were launched from two companies, Belkin and TEN, but none of them permit the full potential of the technology to meet the need to share music.

Toshiba's new president

Toshiba has just named Corporate Executive Vice President Atsutoshi Nishida, who oversees its reviving personal computer operations, as its new president, taking over from Tadashi Okamura who becomes chairman.

The New York Times/Reuters 21 February report says that the change at the top of Japan's
second-largest electronics conglomerate will be officially confirmed after a shareholders'
meeting in June, the company said after a board meeting.

The PC division of Toshiba, the world's third-largest notebook computer maker, has been hit hard in recent years by the aggressive pricing policies of US rivals Dell and Hewlett-Packard, says the NYT., but according to the paper,
under Nishida, 61 the unit is on course to turn profitable for the current business year ending on 31March, helped by outsourcing to Taiwanese contract manufacturers and a focus on high-margin models with advanced audiovisual functions.

Okamura, 66, has been at the helm of Toshiba, whose products range from nuclear power systems to hard disk drives used in Apple Computer's iPod portable music player, since 2000.

Nishida, who joined Toshiba in 1975, has also held senior positions in the company's North American and European operations and has been head of the PC division since January 2004, reports the NYT.

BT:wireless IP home revolution forecast

British Telecom (BT) has told the inaugural 21st Century Communications World Forum in London, Reynolds that the market is seeing the beginnings of the wired home revolution, or more likely the wireless IP home revolution.

The Register says (21 Feb.) that a BT executivew told the forum that "the network will sit at the heart of society. It will be the nervous system that fuels the economy, government, business and human relationships in a way it never has before."

The company told thje forum about its strategy to phase out the UK's public switched telephone network (PSTN), replacing it with a multi-service internet protocol (IP) based network which will carry both voice and data services. As well as paving the way for a string of new hi-tech applications 21CN is expected to deliver cash savings of 1 billion pounds a year to BT by 2009.

According to The Register, BT representatives accepted that broadband telephony - VoIP - posed a real threat to established telcos such as BT and that "embracing the IP future" required huge investment and new skills. Some operators had decided to ride out this period of change, strip investments back to maintenance levels and adopt a wait and see approach.

Not BT, says the Register. Instead, it believed a radical approach backed by investment was the key, telling the forum that if it was the ability to merge multiple information formats on a single platform that was driving the desire for convergence at a device level, the availability of carrier-class IP networks, multi-service networks and software-driven switching, were fuelling the agenda for fundamental change in the industry.

Microsoft v EC: peace unlikely

There is little hope of an early settlement of Microsoft's legal dispute with the European Commission, according to The Register and Bloomberg in a 21 March report.

The Register reports that in March last year the EC fined Microsoft €500m for anti-competitive behaviour and ordered it to offer a version of its operating system without a bundled media player. Microsoft is appealing the decision and is due back in court in October or November this year, according to Bloomberg.

The report says that the judge who will hear the next stage of the case, told Bloomberg he had heard no hints either that the EC would withdraw the case or that Microsoft was willing to settle. In December Microsoft lost a hearing to delay the impact of any penalties until the appeal was heard.

Both sides have submitted their first round of written evidence. The court is also deciding which companies and organisations should offer evidence. So far the court has received 10 requests, and it will decide in the next few weeks who should give evidence, says the report.

The Register/Bloomberg say that Microsoft could also ask for the case to be fast-tracked and heard within a year but it has not done so. Legal also told the newswire that it was possible to split an EC ruling - so part could be upheld by judges and part could be rejected.

Nissan's smart cars

A car that swerves back into lanes on its own and a video system that makes parking a breeze were part of technological features on display by the Japanese automaker Nissan Motor in Tokyo.

The New York Times/AP report that the technology that reporters tried out in test drives Monday at a research center outside Tokyo is part of Nissan's efforts to make driving safer. Similar smart-car features are in the works at most of the world's top automakers, including Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda, as well as General Motors of the United States and others.

The paper says that one of the features shown was a more sophisticated version of an existing warning system -- already available in Nissan luxury cars in the United States and Japan -- that buzzes when the car veers out of the lane.

Lane Departure Prevention combines a camera and computerised devices that control braking for front and rear wheels that nudge the car in the right direction. No decision has been made on when the new system will be available.The feature turns off when you hit the turn signal, so drivers will be able to change lanes or make turns without the system kicking in.

The paper also reported that Nissan also showed a system to make squeezing into parking spots easier, with four cameras in the front, back and side-mirrors that relay live video. Nissan's Around View Monitor shows
what's surrounding the car on a display attached to the dashboard. Images from all sides are shown the way they appear from above -- with the vehicle displayed as a computer graphic in the middle of the screen.

Nissan also showed a computerised system that controls the steering of front and rear wheels to stabilise driving when a car switches directions quickly, the NYT reported.

Shanda Entertainment buys into China's Sina

Chinese internet media company Sina says that up-and-coming online games company Shanda Interactive Entertainment's purchase of a 20 percent stake in its business should have no effect on its operations.

The New York Times/AP rerport (21 Feb.) that the surprise acquisition gives Shanghai-based Shanda, China's biggest online games company, a 19.5 percent stake in Sina and would make it Sina's biggest shareholder.

Sina's board of directors are reviewing the acquisition.

One of China's biggest internet service providers, Sina offers news and other online content, mobile services, games, email, classified listings, e-commerce and other services, reports the NYT.

The paper said that Shanda acquired 9.83 million Sina shares through open market purchases with its controlling shareholder, Skyline Media, for US$230.4 million, according to the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily reported.

The Chinese daily, according to the NYT., said the purchases came amid unconfirmed reports that US internet giant Yahoo might be considering buying Sina.