■TECHNOLOGY
Elan complaint probed
Elan Microelectronics Corp’s (義隆電子) patent-infringement claims against Apple Inc over touch-screen devices including the iPad and iPhone will be reviewed by a US trade agency that could order imports halted. The US International Trade Commission in Washington on Friday said it would investigate the complaint filed last month against Apple. Notice of the commission’s decision was posted on the agency’s Web site. Elan, a Taiwanese designer of integrated circuits, claims Apple’s iPhone 3G and 3Gs, iPod touch, iPad players, Mac computers and Magic Mouse wireless mouse violate a US patent.
■TECHNOLOGY
HTC ‘drops’ Palm bid
HTC Corp (宏達電) and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) declined to comment on a report that HTC pulled out of talks to acquire Palm Inc, leaving Lenovo as the main bidder from Asia. HTC declined to make a bid for Palm, the Sunnyvale, California-based maker of the Pre handset and WebOS platform, because the deal lacked synergies, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter it didn’t identify. Lenovo remains as the only major Asian bidder because talks with Huawei Technologies Co (華為) stalled, it said.
■TECHNOLOGY
Bookseller adds features
US bookstore giant Barnes & Noble added Web surfing and games to its electronic reader on Friday as rivals move to break the momentum of Apple’s freshly launched iPad tablet computer. Barnes & Noble updated its Nook devices with features that included letting users browse complete works instead of just getting summaries of the content of digital books they are considering buying. Amazon, meanwhile, will make its Kindle electronic book reader available at US retail giant Target later this year in a deal that marks the first time the device will be available anywhere other than the Amazon.com Web site.
■INTERNET
Twitter buys Cloudhopper
Twitter announced on Friday that it had bought Cloudhopper, a small SMS technology company, in the second acquisition by the popular micro-blogging service this month. The Seattle-based Cloudhopper is a messaging infrastructure firm that helps Twitter connect directly to mobile carrier networks around the world, Twitter said in a blog post. Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
■ENERGY
Reliance profit up 30%
India’s largest private sector firm, Reliance Industries, said on Friday its sales more than doubled but net profit rose only 30 percent in the quarter to March due to pressure on its refining margins. The oil and gas giant said net profit was 47.10 billion rupees (US$1.02 billion) for the three months ended March, from Rs36.2 billion a year ago, while turnover jumped 125 percent to Rs602 billion.
■PRINTERS
Xerox forecasts profit
Xerox Corp, the largest maker of high-speed color printers, forecast second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as customers renew spending on printing and office services. Per-share profit this quarter, excluding some costs, will be at least US$0.20, Xerox said in a statement on Friday. That compares with the average analyst estimate of US$0.18 in a Bloomberg survey. First-quarter profit and sales also exceeded analysts’ projections. Xerox said that full-year profit would be at the high end of its forecast.
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