Biz Watch

Open Windows, Shut the Door
After five years in the ring with Microsoft, E.U. competition regulators finally landed a punch against the software heavyweight last week. Brussels levied a record €497 million fine against Microsoft for anticompetitive practices, granting rivals access to information on its Windows operating system and ordering the firm to offer a second version stripped of its proprietary Media Player. Microsoft is appealing — a process that could take up to five years — but even if the new rules kick in as early as this summer, the firm will be allowed to sell the Media Player version of Windows for the same amount as the stripped one. Will consumers pay the same price for less?

Manufacturers like Dell — which outside the U.S. includes only Microsoft’s Media Player in its PCs — aren’t answering yet. David Smith, U.S.-based analyst at tech researchers Gartner, says: Given a choice between two things that cost the same, one

INDICATORS
Strong Signals
Belgian phone company Belgacom sold €3.3 billion worth of shares in the largest IPO in the country’s history, and the biggest in Europe for three years.

Coke’s Well Goes Dry
Coca-Cola postponed plans to relaunch Dasani in the U.K. after the purified tap water drink was found to contain illegal levels of cancer-causing chemicals. Plans to roll out the brand in France and Germany have also been shelved.

Ashes To Ashes
Citing the slump in recorded music sales, a U.S. credit-rating agency downgraded $55 million worth of bonds issued by David Bowie in 1997 to one notch above junk status. Buyers are repaid out of the rock star’s future royalties.

Coke’s Well Goes Dry
Coca-Cola postponed plans to relaunch Dasani in the U.K. after the purified tap water drink was found to contain illegal levels of cancer-causing chemicals. Plans to roll out the brand in France and Germany have also been shelved.

with greater functionality, why choose the other? Smith says Microsoft’s offer to bolt rivals’ media software onto Windows would have benefited consumers. As it stands, it’s hard to see how Europe ‘s PC shoppers will gain from half a decade of regulatory wrestling.

See Also: A Hard Line on Software

Creating Another Monster
Where’s the fastest place to get good career advice? It might soon be the Monster Network, an online, searchable Rolodex from job-posting leader Monster.com. Tapping the viral power of networking services like Friendster.com (which links people who have mutual friends), the new Monster site aims to get the firm’s 40 million worldwide registered users talking to one another. If you’re a programmer in Paris with a technical problem, you can find a friend of a friend in Seattle who can help — and maybe provide a job lead. Already 1.4 million have signed on, though only a few thousand have coughed up the $25 registration fee plus $3-per-month charge. Networking sites are still primarily a U.S. phenomenon, but Monster.com has 3 million registered users in 15 European countries. Will they pay up? CEO Jeffrey Taylor thinks so: Unlike Friendster, we’re providing a network with a purpose. — By Jim Ledbetter

All Bets Are Offshore
The tiny state of Antigua and Barbuda scored a victory at the World Trade Organization when the WTO outlawed a U.S. ban on online gambling. The Caribbean islands have claimed a significant chunk of the $6 billion global Internet gambling market; the U.S. will appeal.