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World Business Quick Take

■ PUBLISHING
No higher bid: Murdoch
News Corp chief executive Rupert Murdoch says he won't raise last week's US$5 billion bid for Dow Jones and Co. But the executive editor of BusinessWeek magazine on Thursday predicted Murdoch will up the offer and acquire the owner of the Wall Street Journal by year's end. Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, sitting on stage with BusinessWeek's John Byrne, refused to comment other than to acknowledge: "We're more accustomed to publishing the headlines than being in them."

■ AUTOMAKERS
Magna denies Chrysler bid
The co-chief executive of Canadian auto group Magna International said on Thursday that his company was not interested in fully taking over DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler unit. "We're only interested in a minority stake," co-chief executive Siegfried Wolf was quoted as saying by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview posted on its Web site. Wolf added Magna and DaimlerChrysler are in advanced talks on a possible deal. "Our offer has been sent to DaimlerChrysler, who are reviewing the bid," he said.

■ INTERNET
Joost announces funding
Joost, an Internet-based TV service being launched by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, said it has raised US$45 million from five investors including CBS Corp and Viacom Inc and an influential Hong Kong telecommunications executive. Index Ventures, a European venture capital firm, and Sequoia Capital were the lead contributors to the investment. The fifth participant is Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (黃浦和記) and Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd (長江實業), who invested in Joost through his charitable foundation, the Li Ka-shing Foundation. Joost declined to say on Thursday whether this is its first round of venture capital funding.

■ TRADE
China's surplus increases
China's monthly trade surplus more than doubled in April to nearly US$17 billion, the government said yesterday, adding to pressure on Beijing ahead of closely watched talks with Washington on its swollen trade gap. The April trade gap of US$16.88 billion was below February's US$23.7 billion -- the second-highest level on record -- but in line with steady increases in monthly trade surpluses over the past year. The government reported a monthly trade surplus of just US$6.9 billion in March. The April figure raised the country's accumulated trade surplus so far this year to US$63 billion, the customs agency said. China reported a global trade surplus last year of US$177.5 billion.

■ BANKING
Greens pan Chinese banks
Green groups have slammed Chinese banks for increasing investments in environmentally hazardous and controversial projects both in developing nations around the world and at home. Friends of the Earth and BankTrack, a network that monitors the financial sector, cite logging activities in Suriname and Indonesia, a controversial iron ore mine in Gabon and a potentially polluting nickel mine in Papua New Guinea as examples of projects funded by Chinese banks. A dam in Sudan that will displace 50,000 people when it straddles the Nile river is also being built with money from Chinese banks, the organizations said in a report. China's Three Gorges Dam project was also noted.


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