EMI rejects Warner takeover proposal

EMI has rejected an 'inadequate' ?2 billion takeover proposal from Warner Music. The company's board said that the proposed offer is not in the best interest of EMI shareholders, given the 'prolonged regulatory uncertainty' that would ensue, not to mention 'unacceptable operational risk at a critical time'. It also believes that Warner has undervalued EMI, both in terms of the value of EMI itself and in terms of the synergies available from a combination' with Warner. ...more

SCO drops old suit against IBM, but claims copyright infringement instead

SCO made a two-step shuffle in a Utah court room on Friday, dropping its claims against IBM of misappropriating its trade secrets and adding a claim of copyright infringement. The court met to discuss whether SCO had met a court order to provide IBM with the documentation it requested to build its defence. IBM's lawyer told the court 'SCO abandons any claim that IBM misappropriated its trade secrets, concedes that SCO has no evidence that IBM improperly disclosed UNIX System V code, and acknowledges that SCO's contract case is grounded solely on the proposition that IBM improperly disclosed portions of IBM's own AIX or Dynix products, which SCO claims to be derivatives of UNIX System V. ...more

AOL and Time Warner given green light by EU

European competition officials have given the all clear for the proposed merger between AOL and Time Warner with a number of conditions. Industry experts had predicted the merger would go ahead after the EMI/Time Warner merger broke down under opposition from the EU. The new company will have a combined stock market value of $245bn, benefiting from AOL's ISP dominance and Time Warner's media content production and broadband cable networks. ...more

No more cash - in Singapore

Imagine a world without money - no more trying to find the exact change for a bus fare and no queuing at the cash machine. Well for the Singaporean people, the idea of a cashless society is creeping ever closer. Their government has recently announced that measures will be introduced so that e-money will be acceptable tender by 2008, with all merchants legally required to accept electronic payment via electronic devices, such as mobile phones and hand-held computers. ...more

Jukebox goes online

A manufacturer of vintage, 50s-style jukeboxes has built a new model that gets its music not from vinyl records or CDs but streamed over the Internet. Rock-Ola's E-Rock has been developed inconjunction with Ecast's Location-Based Broadband Network, which delivers licensed music, video and games to public access consoles across the US. The E-Rock's 19in touch screen display gives access to Ecast's ever-expanding library, currently comprising more than 130,000 songs licensed from the five major record labels and 'many' independents. ...more