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■ Investment
Macquarie deal faces probe
Macquarie Bank Ltd's acquisition of Taiwan Broadband Communications Co (台灣寬頻) faces the scrutiny of the Investment Commission, the Economic Daily News reported, without saying where it got the information. The Investment Commission may rule the deal, which was approved by the Fair Trade Commission last month, exceeds the allowed ceiling on foreign investment in cable television operators, the Taipei-based paper said. Macquarie Bank, Australia's largest investment bank, and its media unit Macquarie Media Group Ltd agreed in December to buy Taiwan Broadband for A$1.19 billion (US$848 million). The Taiwanese company is the nation's third-biggest cable television operator. Taiwan has set a ceiling of 60 percent for combined direct and indirect holdings by foreign funds in a local cable television operator. Sydney-based Macquarie avoided the ceiling in its acquisition by arranging for a local investor to hold preferred stock in Taiwan Broadband.

■ Automakers
Toyota to expand hybrids
Toyota Motor Corp plans to offer hybrid systems in all classes of vehicles by 2012 as it quadruples worldwide sales of gasoline-electric vehicles to 1 million units a year, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said. The carmaker aims to lower the extra price consumers pay for a hybrid version of a vehicle to ?300,000 (US$2,500) from the current ?500,000, the paper said, without saying where it got the information. Toyota expects hybrids to make up 10 percent of total new car sales by 2012 from 3 percent last year, the newspaper said. It will introduce a hybrid version of the Crown sedan in 2008 and Vitz subcompact in 2010 or later, the paper said.

■ Plumbing
`Green toilets' spark ire
Philadelphia's plumbers are seeing red about an attempt to install "green toilets" in a new high-rise building, saying their work may dry up. Plumbers Union Local 690 has come out against the installation of waterless urinals in the Comcast Center, a 300m building that will be the city's tallest when completed next year. Jeanne Leonard, a spokeswoman for Liberty Property Trust, the building's developer, said the urinals had been used in many other buildings around the country and would cut water use by 6 million liters a year.

■ Software
Microsoft's EU hearing ends
Microsoft Corp said on Friday it had made a breakthrough on the final day of hearings with EU regulators after an independent monitor outlined what it could do to stave off fines of 2 million euros (US$2.4 million) a day. However, EU officials and Microsoft rivals doubted the significance of the move. The European Committee for Interoperable Systems, said the issues had not changed. "Two years on, Microsoft's technical documentation remains incomplete, inaccurate and unusable," it said in a statement. Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith told reporters as he left the hearing that he was "very encouraged" by Professor Neil Barrett's plan to move forward and said it was the most positive step since last December, when the company was threatened with the fines. EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said the company still has to comply with the 2004 antitrust order to share technical information with rivals to help them make software compatible with Microsoft Windows. He said regulators would weigh all the information they had heard before deciding whether to levy fines.

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