Google best fit for Napster - Motley Fool

The Motley Fool, an independent investment website, believes that of all the potential suitors for Napster, Google may be the best fit. MP3 player maker Creative, mobile phone companies and satellite radio operator XM are among the firms that have been touted as possible purchasers of the digital music company, which has appointed a bank to investigate its options amid renewed takeover interest. But The Motley Fool believes that if Google lets the chance to buy Napster pass, then 'it blows the perfect opportunity to matter in music'. ...more

Government investigates outsourced data security

Following an undercover investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches the Information Commissioner has launched an official investigation into data security standards in offshore call centres. The program found that call centre staff were willing to sell credit card and password information on individual customers for a few pounds. The details were bought from a call centre that serviced the billing systems for a British mobile phone network operator. ...more

Reviving HP has IBM in its sights

Hewlett Packard is continuing its climb back from the doldrums of a couple of years ago and now may be about to overtake IBM as the world's biggest computer company. HP's net revenues for the third quarter of its financial year were $21.9 billion, it has revealed, representing growth of 5 per cent over the equivalent quarter this year. ...more

Napster could go offshore

A story is doing the rounds on the Net about an enterprising Canadian who intends to set up a Napster clone on an offshore island. 21-year-old Matt Goyer says he wants to establish a business on the island of Sealand, near Folkestone, which is basically a lump of rock in the sea left over from World War II. It doesn't belong to the UK or any other country and is being developed as a server farm by a company called HavenCo to host Web sites that might be deemed illegal in their home nations. ...more

Sony rethinks European manufacturing plans

The strength of the pound, accentuated by a sliding Euro, is forcing Sony to review its strategy for the production of electrical appliances in Europe. The Euro has fallen 11.3 per cent against the Japanese yen so far this year, meaning that profits in Europe are worth less when converted into yen. ...more