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World Business Quick Take

■ Telecoms
NTT DoCoMo buys KTF
Japan's NTT DoCoMo will buy a 10 percent stake in South Korea's KT Freetel Ltd worth 564.9 billion won (US$554.5 million) as the two wireless telecommunications providers enter a strategic alliance agreement, KTF said yesterday. The amount represents 20.2 million shares of KTF, including 17.7 million new shares and the rest in treasury stock. NTT DoCoMo will pay 28,000 won for each share, a nearly 16 percent premium over the company's closing price yesterday.

■ Investment
Firm sorry over tax evasion
Lone Star, a US-based investment fund, has apologized for tax delinquency and pledged to pay some US$140 million in back taxes to the South Korean government, news reports said yesterday. Ellis Short, vice chairman in charge of Lone Star's European and Asian operations, made the rare apology during his low-publicity visit to South Korea's National Tax Service on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency said. Lone Star is among the five unspecified foreign investment funds under probe for tax evasion charges, according to the Korean Times newspaper.

■ Finance
Australian bank bids for LSE
Macquarie Bank Ltd, Australia's largest investment bank, yesterday made a £1.48 billion (US$2.6 billion) offer for the London Stock Exchange, matching a previous offer which the exchange rejected as too small. The bid was announced by Macquarie London Exchange Investments Limited, a newly formed English company established for the purpose of acquiring the exchange. The LSE, which has been trying to shrug off constant speculation of a takeover after also drawing interest from Euronext NV and Deutsche Boerse AG, said it had no immediate comment on the approach.

■ Internet
Google spotlights artists
Online search engine leader Google Inc will begin giving some musical artists the star treatment by spotlighting links to their songs, lyrics and other related material at the top of the results page. The music section, which was scheduled to debut yesterday, is designed to provide a more direct route to the content that most music fans want to see when they inquire about a singer or band, said Marissa Mayer, Google's director of Internet products. Among other things, Google's music section will provide lists of all the songs recorded on a specific album and also will point to places where the music can be legally downloaded.

■ Entertainment
MTV to challenge Apple
Music media giant MTV Networks is teaming up with Microsoft for a music download service that it hopes will challenge market leader Apple's iTunes, the companies said on Wednesday. The partners said that the service, to be called Urge, will debut early next year. It will be tightly integrated into the next version of Windows Media Player and offer more than 2 million songs for sale individually or as part of a subscription package. The service will also offer music over online radio. Microsoft will build the technology behind Urge, which MTV, a unit of Viacom, will own, operate and promote across its music television networks and sister companies. The service will not be compatible with Apple's iPod, which accounts for 75 percent of the market, the companies said.

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