The way was cleared last week for the $111 billion mega merger between America Online and Time Warner. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the deal after the two groups agreed to a series of concessions aimed at protecting competition in the high-speed Internet access market. Among the concessions is an undertaking to open the new company's cable system to competitors across the US. Only one hurdle now remains for the deal which was announced almost a year ago - the completion of a review by the Federal Communications Commission.
The merger will bring together Time Warner's Time, CNN, Warner Bros, People, HBO, Sports Illustrated, Cartoon Network, Warner Music Group, Fortune, Entertainment Weekly, and Looney Tunes with America Online's AOL, CompuServe, Netscape, ICQ instant messaging, Digital City, and AOL Moviefone.
Computer voting soon: The Government is considering using electronic voting in the next general election, it was revealed on Friday. £500,000 will be spent next year in the first phase of the system which is already in use in the Netherlands and in the German cities of Cologne and Dusseldorf. Announcing the project Minister Noel Dempsey said it will make it easier to vote, provide results within hours, improve efficiency and will "support a positive image of the country in the use of information technology".
Free computers: Intel has begun distributing free computers to all its employees around the world. The chip maker employs 3,000 people in Ireland and 70,000 worldwide. Each regular part-time and full-time worker will receive a high-performance PC, including a printer, keyboard, mouse, monitor, camera pack, the use of an ISP and technical support. Intel originally announced its new initiative in March of this year and has rolled the programme out in the Philippines; with Ireland being the first location in Europe to start the programme.
Watching over EU: The European Commission is to issue recommendations on how to fight crime on the Internet. Member-states are to be advised in the hope that consumer and industry reluctance to do business on the Web will be combated. One measure would be to establish links between the 15 EU members to monitor and react swiftly to crimes, such as credit card theft, committed online. The recommendations will be released on Thursday.
When credit is due: Authorities in the US are looking for a computer hacker who put thousands of stolen credit-card numbers on the Web after an extortion demand was not met. More than 55,000 numbers were stolen from creditcards.com and about 25,000 of them were posted online when the $100,000 payment was not made, a creditcards.com spokesman said on Wednesday.
Offline: As one of their busiest times of the year arrives, Irish online retailers have been warned that their services are not up to scratch. A study by e-business consulting firm Plaut found that four out of seven sites surveyed did not provide a quality service or an adequate returns and cancellations system. The remaining three sites provided a good service but none of these sites was considered to have provided an excellent service overall.
Talk about revolution: Despite the so-called digital revolution, only five per cent of the world's adult population are active Web users, according to an eMarketer report. This statistic means that 229.8 million people over the age of 14 are using the Internet for one hour a week or more. This figure is expected to rise to 640.2 million by 2004, but this still only represents 14 per cent of the world's adult population.
Bad ID: A court in the US has shut down a website which helped produce fake driver's licenses and identification cards. The Federal Trade Commission brought a complaint against the site's owner earlier this month, saying fake IDs made from the site could be used for underage drinking, voter or passport fraud and identity theft.
In brief... Microsoft on Friday said its second quarter earnings could be 6 per cent lower than expected. . . Demand remains very strong for all types of e-business, web and multimedia skills in Ireland according to the third national salary report in this specialist area by NewMediaCV. . . Ask Jeeves laid off 25 per cent of its work force last week. . . An Internet directory magazine, ie directory, was launched on Saturday. . .