Biz Watch | TIME
You’ve Got Google
The world’s leading search engine sent a message to Yahoo, MSN Hotmail and other Web-based free e-mail services: you’ve got competition. Google confirmed rumors it was testing Gmail, a free service that will not only allow subscribers to send and receive e-mail, but also tap the firm’s trademark keyword search facility to retrieve e-mails. The gee-whiz feature: 1 GB of free storage — between 250 and 500 times more than at Yahoo and Hotmail. That means bulky holiday snaps won’t easily overwhelm Gmail’s In box.
“MSN and Yahoo have to respond,” warns Hellen Omwando, analyst at Forrester Research. “Consumers know they’re very limited with current free offerings.” But Gmail will come with a catch: the service will scan messages for frequently used words, and use the information to send users context-specific ads. It might only
| INDICATORS Don’t Call Back French cell-phone operator Orange announced the departure of CEO Solomon Trujillo after just a year in the job. The move comes amid structural change at Orange ‘s parent, France Télécom. Numbers Crunch All That Fuss For Nothing |
Don’t Call Back
French cell-phone operator Orange announced the departure of CEO Solomon Trujillo after just a year in the job. The move comes amid structural change at Orange ‘s parent, France Télécom.
Numbers Crunch
U.S. accounting rulemaker the Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed companies begin reporting stock options as an expense in their accounts. If approved by the U.S. Congress, the change could drastically cut company earnings from 2005.
All That Fuss For Nothing
A month after the government controversially sanctioned planting Britain ‘s first genetically modified crops, German firm Bayer CropScience pulled out of the venture, citing excess red tape.
Numbers Crunch
U.S. accounting rulemaker the Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed companies begin reporting stock options as an expense in their accounts. If approved by the U.S. Congress, the change could drastically cut company earnings from 2005.
be a machine doing the scouring, but “there is a guaranteed segment of consumers who will be turned off by this,” says Omwando. Google is also late to the game. Almost two-thirds of all Internet users in Europe , for instance, already have two or more e-mail addresses. With an IPO coming soon, Google will hope users give it a try.
Paean From The Penitentiary
W hat was Mikhail Khodorkovsky thinking? The former chief executive of Russia’s oil giant Yukos, in jail since last October on tax evasion and fraud charges, wrote an essay for a Moscow newspaper, apologizing for becoming rich instead of safeguarding liberal values, and praising President Vladimir Putin as “more liberal and democratic than 70% of our population.” Yukos stock jumped on hopes the recant — reminiscent of Stalin-era confessions — might be part of a deal to free Khodorkovsky. Fat chance. Although authorities indicated they would allow Yukos to keep disputed Siberian licenses, the Prosecutor General posted charges against Khodorkovsky’s associate Platon Lebedev on its website. “Khodorkovsky is deluding himself if he thinks he can mend fences with Putin,” says political analyst Dmitri Furman. It can’t hurt to try — By Peter Gumbel. With reporting by Yuri Zarakhovich
Someone’s Paying The Price
Global music-industry trade body IFPI filed the first suits against online piracy outside the U.S. , targeting 250 alleged file sharers in four countries. And British music group EMI blamed the effect of illegal downloads when it cut 1,500 staff and one-fifth of its artists.
ncG1vNJzZmismaKyb6%2FOpmaaqpOdtrexjm9tbW5lbX9wrsizZLCZpJi1bn%2BWaA%3D%3D