Sarkozy lays out plan for Internet tax
Internet, phone and commercial-broadcasting companies would be taxed to replace the funding lost when a prime-time television advertising ban goes into effect.

Oracle's fourth-quarter profit climbed 27% on strong software sales
The company's net income rose to $2.04 billion, beating expectations, as strong software sales eased investor concerns about softening demand.
- Research in Motion first-quarter profit rises but falls short of expectations

Research in Motion first-quarter profit rises but falls short of expectations
The maker of BlackBerry phones, Research In Motion, reported a higher first-quarter profit on Wednesday, but its shares dropped sharply in after-hours trading after the results and the company's outlook fell short of analyst expectations.

3 Italia offer challenges mobile-TV assumptions
While analysts try to figure out whether people are ready to pay to watch their favorite programming on a tiny screen, the Italian company will offer six channels for free.

Reliance to finance Bollywood 'royalty'
Reliance Big Entertainment will provide $250 million to $300 million in the first year to fund new ventures of the Bachchan family, which includes three of Bollywood's biggest stars.
- Bollywood does Tinseltown

U.S. losing edge in the high-tech race
The number of high-tech jobs in fields like semiconductors, software, computer design and the Internet, remains below 2001 levels, AeA, a technology industry trade association, reported.

Disney.com getting a makeover -- again
The effort is the second retrofitting of Disney.com in as many years, reflecting the difficulty the media giant has encountered online and the whiplash-fast pace at which the medium is evolving.

Japan-style game shows coming to U.S. TV
Human Tetris. Slip 'n' Slide bowling. These stunts are trademarks of Japanese game shows — and they're about to be introduced to American television viewers.

Nokia deal aimed at opening up mobile software
By acquiring the part of Symbian it does not already own, Nokia is hoping to counter inroads into cellphone software made by Google, Microsoft and Apple.

"Grand Theft Auto" settlement dwarfed by plaintiffs' legal bill
Claims in the civil case over embedded sex scenes that were visible only with the use of outside software will cost less than $30,000 to settle. The plaintiffs' lawyers want $1.3 million in fees.

Acceptance, not dominance, for Google News
While news organizations worry about what Google is doing to their business, the company is far from achieving the kind of dominant position in news that it has in other areas.

Technology companies join forces to create online ID cards
Microsoft, Google and PayPal, a unit of eBay, are among the founders of an industry organization that is hoping to solve the problem of password overload among computer users.