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World Business Quick Take

■ Software
Adobe to buy Macromedia
Software company Adobe Systems Incorporated announced yesterday an agreement to buy Macromedia with shares for about US$3.4 billion. Under the terms of the deal, which has been approved by both boards of directors, Macromedia stockholders will receive 0.69 shares of Adobe common stock for every share of Macromedia common stock in a tax-free exchange. Based on Adobe's and Macromedia's closing prices on Friday, this represents a price of US$41.86 per share of Macromedia common stock. When the deal has been completed, Macromedia stockholders will own about 18 percent of the combined company, the announcement said.

■ Banking
New notes harder to copy
South Korea will introduce new banknotes next year that are more difficult to copy in a campaign against counterfeiting, the central bank said yesterday. Counterfeiting cases have risen sharply recently, increasing by 50 percent a year from 1998 to last year, the Bank of Korea said in a statement. In the first quarter of this year alone, the bank said there were 3,153 cases -- more than quadruple the number in the first three months of last year. New 5,000 won (US$4.89) bills will be introduced in the first half of next year, with other notes to follow in 2007. The banknotes will be smaller in size to conform with currencies in other countries, and will also incorporate anti-forgery technology such as holograms and color-shifting ink.

■ Electronics
Toshiba to launch new TVs
Toshiba Corp targets increasing its share of Japan's market for liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions to 15 percent this business year by introducing new models, said Satoshi Niikura, an executive at the Tokyo-based company's digital media network unit. Toshiba yesterday unveiled its first LCD television with a built-in hard-disk drive, which can store programs, movies and other content. Companies such as Hitachi Ltd already have similar products. Toshiba has a venture with Hitachi and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co to make LCD panels used in televisions, and a separate venture with Canon Inc to make flat-panel televisions using SED technology, which can offer clearer pictures and lower energy consumption than LCD and plasma display televisions.

■ Airlines
Northwest plans China route
US-based Northwest Airlines will reopen its non-stop Shanghai-Detroit route "in the near future," and hopes to add other direct flights between Chinese cities and the US, state press said yesterday. According to Philip Haan, Northwest Airlines vice president, more direct routes between China and the US should increase the company's competitiveness in the Chinese market, Xinhua news agency said. Northwest once flew direct flights from Beijing and Shanghai to Detroit, but the two flights were canceled two years ago, company employees said. Northwest currently flies from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to the US via Tokyo. Last July, civil aviation authorities in China and the US agreed to increase the number of flights between the two countries from 54 flights a week to 249 flights a week within six years.

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