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World Business Quick Take

■ Microsoft
European rivals file suit
Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software maker, faces a second antitrust probe in Europe after a group of telephone, computer and consumer-electronics companies asked regulators to block alleged illegal efforts to extend its monopoly, the Wall Street Journal said, citing the company, regulators and antitrust experts. The new complaint alleges that Microsoft used Windows XP, the latest version of its monopoly operating-system software, to illegally bundle new products such as new music and video-editing software, with the aim to protect its operating-system monopoly and gain access to new markets, according to the Journal.

■ AOL board
Turner may leave position
Ted Turner, AOL Time Warner Inc's largest individual shareholder, told NBC's Today Show he isn't sure he will stay on the media company's board and that he had failed to diversify his financial holdings. "I had all my eggs in one basket," AOL Time Warner's stock, Turner said on the program. "And that led to my financial undoing." Turner, who is stepping down as AOL Time Warner's vice chairman in May, lost US$7 billion to US$8 billion because the company's shares have fallen in the two years since America Online Inc. acquired Time Warner Inc. The founder of Turner Broadcasting System Inc, who has donated US$500 million so far of a US$1 billion pledge to the UN, said his biggest regret is that he is unable to give away as much money to charity. He added that he will make his decision about whether to stay on the board at "the appropriate time."

■ Trade deficit
Britain touches record
Britain last year notched up its worst trade deficit since records began in 1697, as falling demand from the struggling global economy squeezed exports. The trade gap expanded to an unprecedented pounds sterling 34.3 billion last year, according to official figures released Monday, as recession-hit manufacturers cut output and laid off workers to cope with falling orders. Although statisticians said the trade picture improved slightly in December, opposition spokesmen and business groups seized on the data to question the health of the economy, and raise the pressure on the chancellor, Gordon Brown. "The 2002 trade figures are yet another damaging addition to this government's downgraded economic reputation," said shadow trade secretary, Tim Yeo. The Liberal Democrats' spokesman, Matthew Taylor, accused the chancellor of being "in denial" about the true state of the economy.

■ Computers
Legend alters agreement
Legend Holdings Ltd, China's biggest personal computer maker, denied a report it plans to pull out of a Internet venture with AOL Time Warner Inc, the largest US media company, and won't say if it plans to change terms. ENet.com.cn, citing unidentified people close to the matter, said that Legend would pull out of the Internet access venture, which is still awaiting government approval more than a year after it was set up. The report was reposted on Web site Sina.com. Legend won't pull out of the venture and terms of the deal have "not yet" been changed, Legend spokesman Leon Xie said. When asked whether Legend was planning to changes to the venture, Xie said: "I can't answer that right now."
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