Microsoft

WASHINGTON -- The record $1.36 billion fine Microsoft Corp. must pay the European Union will not buy the software company much peace. Yesterday's penalty, which amounts to almost one-third of Microsoft's last quarterly profit, officially closes a nine-year antitrust battle with European regulators that has cost the company $2.5 billion in fines. But those regulators are still pursuing two new investigations into the software giant's business practices. They also loom as an obstacle to Microsoft's proposed takeover of Yahoo Inc., which would need approval in Brussels, Belgium, and Washington.

HOUSTON -- Don't look now, but the third volley in the second browser war is about to be fired, and it's packing an impressive payload. Mozilla, the folks developing the Firefox Web browser, has released a beta version of Firefox 3.0 that is solid enough to become your main browser right now, even before it is formally finished. Not only does it seem to be very stable, but it fixes several problems that bothered Firefox 2.0 users. For those unfamiliar with Firefox, it is an open-source project derived from the original Netscape browser.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A week after saying he wouldn't get into a bidding war for Yahoo Inc., Rupert Murdoch is emerging as a potential white knight for the Internet company as it tries to fend off Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited takeover bid, according to people familiar with the talks. Murdoch's News Corp. is working on an offer to merge its Internet business, which includes social-networking site MySpace, with Yahoo in exchange for a major stake in the company, according to people who have been briefed on the discussions.

Now that Yahoo Inc. has formally rejected Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion buyout bid, the question swirling around the biggest tech industry merger ever proposed is this: Just how much is Microsoft willing to pay? Even though Yahoo executives turned down Microsoft's offer of $31 a share, saying it "substantially undervalues" the company, they didn't reject the idea of a merger, and Microsoft gave no indication it was going away. "Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties," Microsoft said in a statement yesterday after receiving Yahoo's rejection letter.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Yahoo Inc.'s board of directors plans to reject Microsoft Corp.'s week-old $44.6 billion takeover offer, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday, marking the latest move in a chess match over the future of the Internet pioneer. Yahoo's board plans to notify Microsoft formally in a letter tomorrow that it has determined that the $31 a share price takes advantage of a recent slump in the stock, fails to reflect the true value of the company and neglects to offset the risk to Yahoo if regulators overturn the merger, the person said.

Elizabeth Kasameyer has always loved taking photographs, but only recently did she find a satisfying way to share them: She pays $25 a year to use Flickr - Yahoo's photo-sharing Web site. By signing up for the online service, Kasameyer joined a revolution that some call "cloud computing" and others have dubbed the "big switch." With the spread of broadband Internet, Flickr and other Web-based services are becoming increasingly popular. As a result, home and business computing are moving from individual PCs to huge networks owned by companies such as IBM, Google and Yahoo.

Having spent 40-plus years as a touch typist - and at least 15 years on computers running Windows or Mac software - I pay more attention than most to keyboards and mice. Like all important tools, they can increase your productivity, but they can also be dangerous - through faulty design, carelessness by the user or both. Extensive keyboard and mouse use can hasten the onset of repetitive stress injury, so like others who work with tools for a living, I try to be careful. And I'm not averse to spending money for good equipment.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Coming soon to a GPS near you: just about everything but the kitchen sink. Garmin International Inc. unveiled a new portable navigator with speech recognition last week, allowing users to get travel directions by simply asking for them. The Nuvi 880 also ties into new services offered by Microsoft Corp., allowing users to get stock quotes, news, movie listings, traffic conditions, fuel prices and other information through their portable navigator. The unit is Garmin's first Global Positioning System device with speech recognition.

Microsoft has given up its nine-year fight against antitrust regulators in Europe, saying yesterday that it would not challenge a court judgment from last month and would share technical information with rivals on terms the software giant had long resisted. European regulators and some software groups in Europe hailed the deal as a breakthrough opening the door to freer competition, especially in the market for the server software that powers corporate data centers and the Internet. The agreement was struck in Europe, but it will have consequences worldwide because the terms for licensing Microsoft's intellectual property will be extended to competitors in the United States and in other markets.

Maryland has joined nine other states and the District of Columbia in asking a federal court for a five-year extension of its oversight of Microsoft Corp., which began in 2002 as part of a landmark antitrust settlement and is set to expire next month. In a filing late Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Maryland and the other states - California, New York, Louisiana, Florida, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, and Massachusetts - called Microsoft "an entrenched monopolist" and said more oversight was needed for market challengers to gain competitive footing.