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■ TAKEOVERS
United Test buyout likely
Private equity firms TPG Capital LLP and Affinity Equity Partners are likely to succeed in their S$2.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) bid for Singapore chip tester United Test and Assembly Center Lt (UTAC), a media report said yesterday. Shareholders who had previously opposed the deal have recently indicated their approval through proxy votes to be counted after a shareholder meeting today when the deal will be considered, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

■ INTERNET
Google not in clear yet
Australia's consumer watchdog yesterday agreed to drop legal action against two Google subsidiaries, but vowed to pursue the Internet giant's parent company for allegedly misleading Web users. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched a legal action alleging that Google Inc, Google Australia, Google Ireland and the magazine Trading Post misled Web users by misidentifying sponsored links. The regulator agreed in the Federal Court in Sydney yesterday to drop Google's Irish and Australian subsiduaries from the action. The ACCC alleges Google failed to distinguish between paid advertisements and "organic" results generated by the search engine.

■ Banking
Bank to merge subsidiaries
US investment bank Bear Stearns said on Wednesday it was merging two mortgage subsidiaries and cutting 310 jobs to better deal with market conditions related to the ailing housing sector. In the year to date, Bear Stearns has slashed its workforce in mortgage businesses by 40 percent in moves to weather a broader credit crunch stemming from a crisis in the subprime mortgage sector. Bear Stearns said the merger of Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage and Encore Credit into a single unit "will allow the firm to right-size the business to current market conditions and increase efficiency."

■ Computing
EU starts IBM probe
The European Commission on Wednesday announced an in-depth probe into US computer giant IBM's proposed takeover of Swedish software firm Telelogic, fearing it could harm competition in the software sector. "Both IBM and Telelogic are active in the market for software development tools," the Commission, the EU's competition regulator, said in a statement. Preliminary investigations found that the proposed US$745 million takeover bid raises "serious doubts ... given the strong market position that IBM would achieve for certain types of software development tools, in particular so-called `software modelling and requirements management' tools," the EU's executive arm said.

■ Telecoms
Firms link up for Linux
ARM Holdings, Texas Instruments, Samsung Electronics and four other companies will work together to develop Linux-based software that makes it easier for mobile phones to access the Internet. The programs will be given to developers and used by makers of phones and electronics based on ARM processors, ARM said yesterday in a statement. The companies will use the Linux operating system and other open-source technology to create the software for developers, letting programmers bring video, graphics and Internet features to large-screen mobile devices.
Agencies";

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