Japan's Matsushita has agreed to a US$1.15 billion deal to sell to Vivendi Universal of France its 7.66 percent stake in a holding company that owns Universal Music Group, the two companies said yesterday. The deal raises to 100 percent Vivendi's ownership of Universal Studios Holding I Corp, which as well as owning the world's biggest music company also holds game developer Universal Interactive and 20 percent of NBC Universal. NBC Universal in turn owns motion picture maker Universal Studios. The remaining 80 percent of the company is held by US General Electric, which bought the stake from Vivendi in 2004 as the French company floundered in debt. Universal Studios Holding I is also sitting on US$3.7 billion of net cash, Vivendi Universal said in a statement in Paris.
■ Oil
Shell posts record profit
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell yesterday announced a record profit of US$22.94 billion for last year, the biggest annual profit ever posted for a British-listed company. As soaring crude prices boosted oil companies, profits of Royal Dutch Shell increased by nearly a third on last year. The results follow a year in which the cost of crude jumped from below US$45 a barrel to break the US$70 mark. Most of Shell's profits come from finding and extracting oil, and then selling it on to the markets. Analysts said Shell's profits showed that the unification of company structures last year between its British and Dutch wings had been a success. In view of "difficulties" arising from the situation in countries like Iraq and Nigeria Shell had also invested in "innovative" methods of exploration, including in Canada and South America to find more outlets.
■ Electronics
Man sues Apple over iPod
A Louisiana man claims in a lawsuit that Apple's iPod music player can cause hearing loss in people who use it. Apple has sold more than 42 million of the devices since they went on sale in 2001, including 14 million in the fourth quarter last year. The devices can produce sounds of more than 115 decibels, a volume that can damage the hearing of a person exposed to the sound for more than 28 seconds per day, according to the complaint. The iPod players are "inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of hearing loss," according to the complaint, filed on Tuesday in US District Court in San Jose, California, on behalf of John Kiel Patterson of Louisiana.
■ Internet security
Kama Sutra worm strikes
Internet security experts on Wednesday urged computer users to update their anti-virus software before a new worm nicknamed Kama Sutra unleashes its payload today. The computer worm, also known as Nyxem-D and MyWife.E, attaches itself to e-mails and tries to trick users into opening it by telling them it contains pornographic images. The worm is thought to have infected as many as 500,000 computers, mostly in India, Peru, Turkey and Italy according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for security company F-Secure Corp. The worm is programmed to activate on the third day of every month. It can freeze the mouse and keyboard on a recipient's computer and overwrite files on the hard drive to make them inaccessible.
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