IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 20 December
20-12-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo to settle illegal gambling charges | Netsuite shares to open at unexpected high
The Irish Independent reports that search giant Google is struggling to turn its brand name into a verb in China. "G-O-O-G-L-E is not a normal Chinese spelling and people don't pronounce it right," Kai-fu Lee, Google's president for Greater China, said in an interview in Beijing. "Most people call us 'go go'." California-based Google has less than half of Baidu.com's 61 percent market share in China.
The Financial Times reports that shares in Netsuite, whose initial public offering has become the software industry's most prominent since the launch of VMware, are set to open at an unexpectedly high level on Thursday, following a surge in interest that prompted the company to price the stock at double its most conservative estimate of a week ago. Netsuite late on Wednesday put a price on the shares of USD26, lifting the proceeds from the offering to more than USD160 million and valuing the company at USD1.55 billion.
The paper also says that manufacturers of high-definition DVD players are slashing prices in an urgent pre-Christmas attempt to break the deadlock between two rival formats. Price cuts in the weeks before Christmas have seen the cost of Blu-ray players fall below USD300 for the first time in the US, while HD-DVD players are now available for under USD200. The cost of key manufacturing components for the Sony-supported Blu-ray players and Toshiba's HD-DVD hardware will fall below USD150 early in 2008, analysts at Understanding & Solutions, an entertainment consultancy, forecast on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal says that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have agreed to pay USD31.5 million in fines to resolve claims they promoted illegal gambling. The US Justice department said it had agreed to the fines with the three high-tech companies for "corporate conduct the government found in violation of the Federal Wire Wager Act, federal wagering excise tax laws, and various states' statutes and municipal laws prohibiting gambling."
The paper also notes that Microsoft and Viacom's new wide-ranging partnership, which includes Viacom's use of an ad platform owned by Microsoft, is a tactical win for the tech giant as it tries to slow Google's expansion. The agreement contains various content-sharing arrangements, but it centres on Viacom using Microsoft's online advertising system for placing ads on the media giant's 300 websites. The companies share an interest in fighting Google as it expands beyond its core business of internet search into other forms of online advertising, including ads in videos. The deal is a tactical win for Microsoft as it tries to slow that expansion.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 