Price limit for roaming calls in Europe is closer
Officials from the European Union's 27 member countries took an important step Thursday toward sharply reducing the "roaming" fees that telecommunications providers charge cellphone users calling across borders.

No regulations planned for radio ID tags, EU says
Viviane Reding, European commissioner for Internet and communications, said she was confident that the tracking devices could be made to protect consumer privacy.

Delays threaten Galileo project, EU warns
Transportation Commissioner Jacques Barrot has written a letter of ultimatum to the companies building the system, asking for explanation why the project had been delayed by a year and warning them to fulfill their commitments or risk losing out on the project.

Putin decrees creation of a media and Internet regulator
President Vladimir Putin has decreed the creation of an agency to regulate the media and the Internet, sparking fears among some Russian journalists of a bid to extend tight publishing controls to the relatively free Web.

Google sets limits on keeping search records
It said that it would start to make those logs anonymous after 18 months to 24 months, making it much harder to connect search records to a person.

Avon comes calling with new campaign
The cosmetics company Avon wants to ring billions of doorbells at the same time with the largest campaign in its 121-year history.

Mediaset preparing bid for Dutch TV company
The acquisition would give Mediaset a chance to grow abroad at a time when legislators are preparing a law that could force Mediaset to move one of its domestic channels to satellite transmission and limit advertising on the other two.

Informing case against Yahoo is dropped in Hong Kong
Investigators said there was not enough evidence to show that Yahoo's Hong Kong branch provided private information that helped convict a Chinese reporter accused of leaking state secrets.

Deutsche Telekom cutting rates to make T-Mobile more competitive
The telecoms concern is struggling to revive growth in its home market, where Vodafone's Arcor and Telecom Italia are gaining.

Judge drops charges against former Hewlett-Packard chief
Patricia Dunn and three other defendants will avoid jail time in the investigation into HP's boardroom spy scandal.
- HP chief wants to forget the past

China overtakes U.S. as Skype's top market

Skype, the Internet telephone service owned by eBay, said Thursday that China had passed the United States to become its biggest market in terms of subscribers as Asia takes on more importance to its business.

"China has increasingly become very important for our business, and we see it as a main driver for us," said Scott Bagby, new market development director at Skype.

Asia accounts for 30 percent of Skype's 171 million global subscribers, up from 20 percent last year, said Kelly Poon, market development manager for Greater China. Skype operates in China under a partnership with Tom Online. $@

Ericsson purchases remainder of Mobeon

STOCKHOLM:

Ericsson agreed to buy all of Mobeon for an undisclosed sum to add Internet Protocol voicemail and video mail services and to expand its multimedia division.

Mobeon brings "the latest IP generation messaging system prepared for both voice and video mail," said Ericsson's multimedia division chief, Jan Wareby. Ericsson already held a 21 percent stake in Mobeon.

$@(Bloomberg, Reuters)

AOL ends takeover bid

STOCKHOLM AOL has withdrawn its cash offer for the Swedish online marketing specialist TradeDoubler after failing to acquire enough shares by the bid deadline.

AOL, a unit of Time Warner, in January offered to buy TradeDoubler in a cash deal that valued the company at around $900 million.

While TradeDoubler's board of directors recommended that shareholders accept the bid, AOL said it had only been able to acquire "a limited number of shares" by the deadline Wednesday, falling short of the 90 percent required to determine ownership.

AOL had hoped TradeDoubler would help it to improve its Internet advertising presence in Europe and make it a bigger player on the Continent.

TradeDoubler's board said the company still had a "very exciting and attractive future ahead as an independent company." $@(AP)

Newspaper ads slip

NEW YORK: Ad revenues at U.S. newspapers edged down 0.3 percent last year as gains in online revenues were not enough to compensate for a worsening downturn in print ads.

The Newspaper Association of America reported that overall print advertising fell 1.7 percent last year to $46.6 billion. Online advertising rose 31.5 percent to $2.7 billion. $@(AP)

Vodafone Group

reached an agreement with Essar Group over their Indian venture. The deal moves Vodafone closer to closing its $11.1 billion purchase of a 67 percent stake in Hutchison Essar. Essar's vice chairman, Ravi Ruia, will be chairman of the venture, to be renamed Vodafone Essar. Arun Sarin, Vodafone's chief executive, will be vice chairman. $@(Bloomberg)

TDK

has unveiled plans to effectively take over the hard disk drive business of rival Alps Electric, creating the world's only independent maker of hard drive heads. $@(Reuters)