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World Business Quick Take

■ Software
HP reassures Linux users
Clearing a legal cloud around the Linux operating system, computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) was to announce yesterday it will protect its customers from the SCO Group Inc's intellectual property claims if the software is running on HP equipment. HP's indemnification program stems from recent threats by SCO, which claims that some of its intellectual property has seeped into Linux. SCO has threatened to sue companies that deploy Linux unless they pay a licensing fee. The notion has angered advocates of Linux, which was developed over the past decade by a global community of programmers who redistribute their code on the condition that it be redistributed freely.

■ Entertainment
Disney closes Tokyo studio
Walt Disney Co said on Tuesday it would close its animation unit in Tokyo, shutting an office with 103 employees because production needs had decreased. The studio, which has created a number of films based on characters from the Winnie the Pooh children's books, will close after it finishes the current project, The Heffalump Movie, the company said in a statement. "Our experience working in Japan for the past 14 years has been outstanding, primarily because of the world-class artists and executives who have produced exceptional animation," it said. "However, after reviewing our business plans and production requirements, we determined we no longer can support this additional production capacity."

■ Music industry
Bertelsmann wants Sony
The German media giant Bertelsmann wants to talk with Japanese electronics group Sony about a possible merger of their respective music businesses, BMG and Sony Music, the Financial Times Deutschland reported yesterday. FT Deutschland quoted Bertelsmann sources as saying the German group's management had agreed on Monday to approach Sony. "Everyone is looking to see what the best options are," the sources were quoted as saying. A possible tie-up with Sony is Bertelsmann's answer to a takeover bid by British rival EMI for Warner Music, part of AOL Time Warner. Bertelsmann itself had originally been negotiating to merge BMG with Warner Music, but those talks stalled on differences over valuation and strategy. "It's clear we need an alternative," FT Deutschland quoted high-ranking company sources as saying.

■ Fast food
McDonald's Japan cuts jobs
McDonald's Co (Japan) Ltd will trim 130 jobs, or 15 percent of its head office staff, through voluntary retirement this year, the hamburger chain's holding company said yesterday. The program, which is open to 630 of the company's 883 head office staff aged 40 or older, is intended to streamline its management, McDonald's Holdings Co (Japan) said in a statement. "The cuts only represent some 2.6 percent of our total staff," said McDonald's Holdings spokesman Kenji Kaniya. The program does not affect the company's restaurant workers. McDonald's Holdings posted a ?2.34 billion (US$20.8 million) net loss in the year to December, its first red ink in 29 years in Japan. McDonald's Co (Japan), founded in 1971, has since become the nation's largest fast food restaurant and the biggest unit of the US hamburger giant overseas, with 3,788 restaurants nationwide.

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