Man Convicted Under Antispam Law
Date: 17 January 2007
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
A California man who defrauded users of AOL by sending e-mail messages requesting credit data became the first defendant found guilty by a jury under a 2003 federal law barring Internet ”spam.”
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Ex-Fund Trader Sentenced to Probation
Date: 17 January 2007
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
A former Millennium Partners mutual fund trader who pleaded guilty to improper trading in 2003 avoided a prison term after cooperating with a New York State investigation of the mutual fund industry.
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G.M. Discloses Talks for Deal in Malaysia
Date: 17 January 2007
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The General Motors Corporation has been in talks with Proton Holdings, the Malaysian carmaker that is looking to sell a stake.
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Goldmans Sachs Agrees to Acquire Insurance Brokerage Firm
Date: 17 January 2007
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The Goldman Sachs Group’s buyout unit has agreed to acquire the insurance brokerage firm USI Holdings for about $1.4 billion including debt.
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Icahn Takes Aim at Drug and Housing Companies
Date: 17 January 2007
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn has built up stakes in two companies, according to regulatory filings yesterday, because he believes the shares are undervalued.
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China: Music Deal for Emi and Web Site
Date: 17 January 2007
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The EMI Group, which lost a copyright infringement lawsuit against Baidu.com, a Chinese Internet search site, will drop its appeal of the case and work with the company to win advertising by offering free online samples of its music. Baidu, based in Beijing, will sell online ads for a section of its Web site featuring streaming samples of EMI’s Chinese-language music, the company said. EMI and Baidu will share the ad revenue, they said, without providing details. EMI is planning to drop out of an infringement lawsuit brought against Baidu by record companies on claims the Web site violated copyright by offering links to illegally copied music on nonaffiliated sites.
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Clinton Campaign: Illness, Not Obama, Delayed News Conference
Date: 16 January 2007
By Patrick Healy
Patrick Healy
Yes, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would’ve have been asked all about Barack Obama today if she’d held her news conference on Iraq this afternoon, as initially planned. But that’s not the reason it was postponed.
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Senate Passes Disclosure Measure
Date: 17 January 2007
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The measure would prevent lawmakers from anonymously inserting special projects or tax breaks for companies into spending legislation.
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Britain: 12 Jurors or Better
Date: 17 January 2007
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The manager of Gutshot, a private poker club in London, was convicted of violating Britain’s gambling laws after a jury of 12 decided that poker was a game of chance, not pure skill. The manager, Derek Kelly, had argued that he did not need a gambling license because the laws cover games of chance like roulette and blackjack and not skill-based games like chess, or, he said, poker. Prosecutors argued that shuffling a deck of cards was enough to make poker a game of both chance and skill, which falls under the government’s interpretation of “chance.” During the weeklong trial, Mr. Kelly’s competitors, reporters and men who described themselves only as “interested parties” jockeyed for a seat at the East London courthouse to hear expert players discuss the skills needed to play games like Texas Hold ’Em.
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Germany: Investor Confidence Rises
Date: 17 January 2007
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
German investor confidence rose more than forecast, reaching a six-month high in January, despite a higher sales tax and a slowdown in export markets. The index of investor and analyst expectations for economic growth in six months, compiled by the ZEW Center for European Economic Research, rose to minus 3.6 from minus 19 in December. The report adds to signs that cooling growth in the German economy may be limited even after the country raised the value-added tax, a sales tax, to 19 percent from 16 percent. The confidence indicator has shown a negative reading, with pessimists outnumbering optimists, in every month since August.
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