The End User: The wisdom of the crowd
In honor of May Day, the column's readers do the writer's work with their suggestions, comments and critiques.

Bancrofts won't get higher bid for Dow Jones than Rupert Murdoch's
The question is whether they would sell it to him at any price.

Sweden selling stake in TeliaSonera
The new center-right government said after taking office last year that it planned to sell its entire 45.3 percent stake in the telecom company as part of a drive to privatize state assets to pay off the national debt.

EU gives Germany deadline over changing telecommunications law
The European Union's executive arm has long threatened to take Berlin to court over a law that gives Deutsche Telekom a de facto monopoly on a fiber optic DSL Internet network.

Cablevision nears $23 billion sale
The deal would return control of the cable TV provider, which also owns iconic New York properties like Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, to the company's founding family.

Qwest cautious as telephone rivals rush into TV
The company's chief executive said shareholders did not want him to commit to a major spending project until demand for video services became clearer.

Hewlett-Packard signs nanotechnology deal
Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday that it had signed its first nanotechnology licensing deal for a process that may make it possible to manufacture more powerful semiconductors inexpensively.

Taiwan chip makers say downturn has ended
After a dismal first quarter, UMC and TSMC report rising forward orders as clients exhaust their stockpiles.

Xerox software helps amateurs adjust colors
Plain-speech commands like "brighter yellow" are translated into language a printer can understand.

Google rejects liability in $1 billion Viacom suit
Responding to Viacom's $1 billion copyright infringement suit over video clips on YouTube, Google says it will not back off, declaring that the law is on its side.

Fujitsu, the Japanese computer maker, on Wednesday offered to buy GFI Informatique of France for €419 million, or $569 million, to add clients like Vodafone Group and trim a reliance on its domestic market.

The company is offering €8.5 for each GFI share and €3.15 for each warrant of the computer consultant, Fujitsu said in a statement. The company said its offer was conditional upon receiving at least 66.67 percent acceptances.

The planned acquisition comes after Fujitsu spent $280 million in the past eight months buying companies in the U.S. and Germany to expand sales outside Japan.

GFI builds computer networks and provides consulting services for France Télécom, BNP Paribas and Telefónica, among others.

Hewlett-Packard signed its first nanotechnology licensing deal for a process that may make it possible to manufacture more powerful semiconductors inexpensively.

Nanolithosolutions has developed a tool based on Hewlett-Packard's approach to nanoimprint lithography, a method for stamping out patterns for wires that make up computer chips, the companies said. Terms were not disclosed. HP holds an equity stake in Nanolithosolutions.

This is the first deal related to the nanotechnology work done at the company's Quantum Science Research group over the past 12 years, the company said.

European Union lawmakers are close to a compromise on a law to limit prices for international calls by mobile phone users.

A proposed agreement between the European Parliament and national telecommunications ministers would allow customers that have calling packages to keep the plans without being automatically enrolled into a new EU tariff. Other customers would get the EU rates, said Paul Rübig, who is steering the regulation through Parliament.

"It was a good solution," said Rübig, a member of Parliament from Austria. "We made a lot of progress."

The full Parliament will vote on the measure May 10 and national ministers will decide June 7.

Reliance Communications, one of the largest mobile phone services companies in India, said it would retail cellphones at about half the prevailing prices to allow more lower income users to enter the world's fastest growing wireless services market.

Reliance, which runs a nationwide network based on code division multiple access, or CDMA, technology, will sell three handsets priced between 777 rupees, or $19, and 888 rupees compared with nearly 1,500 rupees for the cheapest cellphone available in the market.

Many retailers sell recycled handsets at less than 1,000 rupees, but are unable to offer quality support and after sales service to buyers.

The British software supplier Northgate Information Solutions said it had agreed to buy a 60.4 percent stake in Arinso International for €228.4 million, a move that will prompt a mandatory offer for the whole of the Belgian company.

Arinso, a human resource services provider, said the two had signed a conditional agreement to buy nine million shares from the Arinso founder and chief executive, Jos Sluys, for €18.75 plus five new Northgate shares.

Arinso said the deal would value the company at about €375 million.

A new computer game lets you make peace in the Middle East. Called "PeaceMaker" and manufactured by Israeli and U.S. programmers in the United States, the game allows you to play the part of the Israeli prime minister or the Palestinian president and make diplomatic, security and economic decisions. "The secret is to opt for the middle route, to walk between the drops and not make radical decisions," said one of the developers, Asi Burak of Israel.