Le Monde board reaches a deal on new leadership for French daily
Pierre Jeantet, 60, currently the second-highest ranking executive in the group, has been proposed as chairman of the group, while Bruno Patino, 42, current president of the magazine Télérama and president of Le Monde interactif, has been proposed as vice chairman.

GE and Pearson explore Dow Jones bid, but topping News Corp. will be hard
General Electric, the parent of NBC, and Pearson, the publisher of The Financial Times, are exploring a joint bid for Dow Jones, people familiar with the talks have said, but News Corp.'s $60-a-share offer is, as one put it, "a very high threshold."

New advertising partnership targets law firms
Television advertising has long been frowned on in the legal profession, as it can conjure images of ambulance-chasing personal injury lawyers and even, in some cases. But a new partnership between a prominent U.S. legal directory and an Internet-based advertising agency is attempting to overcome these negatives.

Kinder, not killer, video games
By the fall season, software developers will start introducing new offerings designed to nudge players to bond with Grandma, balance their hormones and eat their peas.

Blockbuster will rent high-definition DVDs only in the Blu-ray format
This could be the first step in resolving a format war that has kept confused consumers from rushing to buy new DVD players until they can determine which format will dominate the market.

Channel 4, little brother of BBC, struggles to make ends meet
To attract viewers, several recent shows have gone too far for the comfort of British royals and regulators.

As some grow weary of Web, online sales lose momentum
In the last year, online growth has slowed sharply in major sectors like books, tickets and office supplies.

EBay moving to speed growth of its auctions
Under pressure from analysts and investors for faster growth in its core auctions business, eBay is making a series of upgrades intended to make the site more friendly to buyers.

EBay reports progress against fraud
Measures against scams and counterfeit goods introduced in January have yielded results, the company says.
- Google cancels Boston event after eBay yanks its ads

Google cancels Boston event after eBay yanks its ads
After Google organized a party to compete with eBay's annual sellers' convention in Boston, the online auction service retaliated.

Money transfers by text message: A new service begins
Anam, a Dublin-based company that specializes in new styles of mobile phone messages, is offering a service they say could revolutionize money transfers.

Thoof attempts to improve on Web site linkages
The goal of the Web site is to engender democracy by making it simple to share accurate information.

Kellogg scales back ads for sugary cereals aimed at children
The Kellogg Company said it would phase out advertising products to children under age 12 that did not meet specific nutrition guidelines.

Wall Street panel to propose guidelines for e-mail
The goal is to clarify how rules last updated in 1998 should apply to messages sent by way of written electronic communications, including internal and external exchanges.

Kodak says its new technology doubles digital cameras' sensitivity to light
Analysts say the new system could mean much better images from camera phones and point-and-shoot cameras in low-light situations.

Bebo and Apple set deal to sell music online
A new partnership between the online social networking site Bebo and Apple's iTunes store will encourage fans to buy digital music, not pirate it.

The iPhone is missing a keyboard
The downside is that typing is done by pecking on the screen with thumbs or fingers, something hardly anyone outside of Apple has experienced yet.

Shake-up at The Wall Street Journal
The reorganization is designed to integrate print and online news operations as well as simplify the paper's international news structure.

Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture of the French defense contractor Thales and Finmeccanica of Italy, said Monday it had won a €229 million satellite order from the European Space Agency.

Thales Alenia Space was chosen as the main contractor for the Sentinel-1 satellite, the first in a series of five that will observe the earth's environment, Thales said in an e-mailed statement. The orbiter is scheduled for launching in 2011.

The satellite is part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security program, or GMES, co-funded by the European Space Agency and the European Union, Thales said.

MyStrands, a U.S.-based technology company whose products help users select content from the Internet, has raised $25 million in fresh capital amid growing interest in so-called recommendation systems.

Antonio Asensio, executive vice president of Grupo Zeta, a leading publishing group in Spain, led a group of investors injecting new money into the business. Investment in MyStrands, which is based in Corvallis, Oregon, now stands at $31 million.

The company designs systems that allow it to analyze users' choices of music or video and use the information to make recommendations. Its products, which can be used on computers, telephones and other terminals that are connected to the Internet, form part of a growing market for technology that suggests products users may like, based on their habits and those of others.

The investment in MyStrands follows Ebay's $75 million purchase last month of Stumbleupon, which also makes recommendation systems.

CyberSource, an electronic payment and risk management company, said Monday it had agreed to buy Authorize.Net Holdings for around $565 million in stock and cash. CyberSource, which has about 20,000 customers, said the acquisition would position it to further capitalize on the growing Web-based payment sector. Authorize.Net provides Internet-based payment technology to more than 175,000 customers in the small-business sector.

Apple said Monday that the battery on its new iPhone would let users talk three hours longer than had been expected. The battery will provide as much as eight hours of talk time, up from five, Steve Jobs, the Apple chief executive, said in a statement. The iPhone also will offer six hours of Internet use, seven hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback.

China Telecom, the biggest fixed-line telephone carrier in China, said Monday it would buy three units from its parent to increase sales of voice and Internet services between China and other countries. China Telecom will pay 1.41 billion yuan, or $185 million, to buy China Telecom (Hong Kong) International, China Telecom (USA) and China Telecom System Integration from its parent, China Telecommunications Corporation, the Hong Kong-listed unit said in a statement.