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World Business Quick Take

■ Telecom
DoCoMo upgrades phones
NTT DoCoMo Inc and rival Japanese cellular phone companies will later this year sell handsets with built-in digital still cameras that have resolution of more than 1 megapixel, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without saying where it obtained the information. NTT DoCoMo and rivals KDDI Corp and J-Phone Co, the local arm of Vodafone Group Plc, are introducing the handsets with higher quality cameras to boost sales, the report said. Among handset makers, Sharp Corp, which supplies 1-megapixel camera phones to NTT DoCoMo and J-Phone, plans to release handsets incorporating 2-megapixel cameras, the Nikkei report said. After October, NTT DoCoMo will start offering camera phones of greater than 1-megapixel quality supplied by NEC Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, the paper said.

■ Music industry
Blackstone to buy EMI
EMI Group Plc, the world's third-largest record company, may be bought by private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP in a transaction worth about ?2.5 billion (US$4 billion), the Sunday Times said, without saying where it got the information. EMI, whose artists include Coldplay and Norah Jones, has held talks with Blackstone and several other buyout firms as it considers its "strategic options," the paper said. Shares of EMI fell ?0.035 to ?1.425 Friday, giving the London-based company a market value of ?1.12 billion. Blackstone also would have to take on the company's ?1 billion of borrowings, the Sunday Times said.

■ Motorcycles
Honda expands Asia ops
Honda Motor Co set up research and development units in India and Vietnam to find out what color schemes and other design features appeal to local consumers, as it seeks to boost motorcycle sales in those markets, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said, without saying where the information came from. Honda R&D Co formed a subsidiary in New Delhi, India with a staff of 10, and a unit in Hanoi, Vietnam with 5 employees, to help develop new motorcycle models for the two countries, the paper reported. India's motorcycle market will probably grow 10 percent to 5.5 million bikes in the year ending next March, the report said. Honda has 26 percent of motorcycle sales in China, India and five Southeast Asian countries -- the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia -- where combined sales rose 18 percent to 21.7 million bikes last year, the paper said.

■ Internet
Microsoft warns of worm
Microsoft Corp is warning its customers about a computer worm that exploits a flaw in its Internet Explorer browser. A security bulletin on the company's Web site says Microsoft started investigating a "mass mailer worm," dubbed W32/Mimail(at)MM, late Friday morning. The worm spreads through e-mail if recipients open an attached zip file -- used to condense information so it can move faster over the Internet -- then open an HTML file inside the zip file, the bulletin said. The worm exploits a vulnerability the company addressed in a security bulletin issued April 23, the bulletin said. On Saturday, Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall said if someone opens the e-mail, the zip file and the HTML file, the virus is sent to all e-mail addresses the worm finds on that computer. "The damage is simply an annoying e-mail," Sundwall said.
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