World Business Quick Take

■ Internet
Microsoft tackles music
The marketplace for legal online music services is about to get more crowded with Microsoft entering the fray. The tech behemoth plans to introduce a song-downloading service next year that will compete with similar offerings from Apple Computer, Roxio's Napster and others. A company spokeswoman declined to provide further details. The company's dominant Windows operating system gives Microsoft powerful leverage, and its deep pockets could allow it to undercut competitors. In addition, Microsoft's Windows Media Player is already pervasive, and can be easily adapted to facilitate an online music store. Apple said it has sold more than 17 million songs for US$0.99 each since it launched its iTunes Music Store in April.

■ Life Insurance
`Death futures' regulated
Trading "death futures," the buying and selling of other people's life insurance policies, is set to come under regulatory control, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said yesterday. The MAS is seeking to regulate the trading of life insurance policies and limit their sale to sophisticated investors. The contract allows a person, likely elderly, to cash out his insurance policy by selling it to an investor. Purchasers realize a return when the original policyholder dies and the death benefit is paid out. The MAS said it was not opposed in principle to a legitimate secondary market for life and endowment policies in Singapore, but these were "complex" products that bore "significant risks."

■ Software
Sun signs Chinese pact
Sun Microsystems said Monday it had struck a desktop-computing-software licensing agreement with China Standard Software, a consortium created by two government ministries in China. The agreement, which Sun officials said could lead to making Sun's Linux desktop operating system and StarOffice office automation application the standard personal computer software in the world's most populous country, is the first major win for the computer maker, which is a bitter rival of Microsoft in the software market. Sun did not disclose any dollar amounts for the contract, which involves both the Chinese Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

■ Electronics
Casio, Hitachi work together
Japanese makers Casio and Hitachi announced an agreement yesterday to tie up in the development and production of mobile phones at home and overseas. Under the accord, the two companies are to form a joint venture in April with capital of ?3 billion (US$28 million) with 350 employees. The venture, controlled 51 percent by Casio and the remaining 49 percent by Hitachi, will handle the development, design procurement and production of mobile phones. "The agreement is intended to bring greater efficiency in the development of handsets and operational stability, as well as promote this business overseas," the two companies said in a joint statement. With the venture, the two companies aim to cut production and development costs of mobile phones, they said, adding that they would continue using the Casio and Hitachi brandnames respectively for retailing.