BUSINESS BRIEFS
Yahoo switches music patrons to Rhapsody
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Yahoo Inc. will cease operating its online music subscription service and switch its customers to RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody music service as part of a new deal between the companies that calls for Yahoo to promote Rhapsody on its site.
Terms of the deal, to be formally announced today, were not disclosed. The move is part of Yahoo's overhaul of its online music offerings.
Scott Moore, Yahoo's head of media, said the partnership would allow Yahoo to focus its energies more on free, ad-supported music and other media offerings.
DOT-COM WEEKLY REVIVED ONLINE
SAN FRANCISCO — An icon of the dot-com era is making a comeback of sorts.
Today the Industry Standard launched in an online-only format, with news and analysis on the Internet economy and a social networking twist.
The resurrection comes 10 years after the weekly's initial print launch in 1998. The magazine folded just three years later in the wake of massive layoffs in the dot-com sector and a precipitous fall in ad revenues.
At its height in 2000, the self-proclaimed "newsmagazine of the Internet economy" garnered revenues of $140 million and boasted more advertising pages than any other consumer magazine.
A year later, as the dot-com bubble burst all around it, yearly revenue had dropped to $40 million, and it closed its doors in August 2001.
WEB SITE OFFERS N. KOREAN GOODS
SEOUL, South Korea — Fancy a sleek made-in-North Korea sport utility vehicle? How about a pair of boxing gloves from the famously pugnacious communist country? They're potentially just a click away.
North Korea, known more for nuclear saber-rattling than its consumer products, is offering overseas shoppers the chance to buy hundreds of its goods via the Internet.
Those who keep a close eye on North Korea say the move is likely a bid by the perpetually impoverished country to earn cash and also raise awareness about what it has to offer.
The Web site — available in Korean, English, Chinese, Russian and Japanese — also sells bikes, commemorative stamps, roller skates and tae kwon do uniforms.
BANK GETS OK FOR S. AFRICA STAKE
BEIJING — China's biggest bank said yesterday it has received approval to buy a 20 percent stake in South Africa's biggest lender, the latest big-ticket overseas expansion by Chinese investors.
The deal between state-owned Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and Standard Bank Group Ltd. is one of China's biggest foreign corporate acquisitions to date.
"The Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission has approved the plan by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to take the stake," the bank said in a statement on its Web site.
The statement did not provide financial details of the deal, but the official Xinhua News Agency said it was worth $5.46 billion.
