House Republicans were quick to embrace a federal commission's report urging Congress not to stunt the growth of the Internet by levying taxes against e-commerce.
The report, submitted to the House Commerce Committee by a 19-member advisory commission, warned that taxation could have a chilling effect the growth of Net businesses and drag down the entire economy. Commission members were not unanimous in that opinion, however, and it tended to break along party lines -- Democrats favoring taxes and Republicans opposed.
"I heartily endorse the majority proposals," Representative Tom Bliley (R-Virginia) told the Associated Press. "If there's one recurring theme in that record, it is that taxation and regulation could kill the goose that's laid the golden egg."
Virginia's Republican governor, Jim Gilmore, who chaired the advisory panel, urged that the anti-tax position be adopted, even though it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for a formal recommendation to Congress.
A lot of Democrats, a few Republicans, and most traditional retailers are against giving online businesses a free ride, arguing that e-commerce should be taxed like any business and that failing to do so will cost the government billions of dollars in sales tax revenue.
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Redmond's PR blitz: Bill Gates, peering myopically through those tortoise-shell glasses, is taking his message straight to you, Mr. and Mrs. America: "We're Microsoft. Let us innovate."
Without specifically mentioning his lousy week -- the antitrust decision, the tumbling stock, and the resulting dent made in his personal fortune -- Microsoft's first lord set about burnishing his company's bruised public image, appearing in an ad where he talks about the past -- and the future.
"Twenty-five years ago, my friends and I started with nothing but an idea that we could harness the power of the PC to improve people's lives," Gates intones earnestly, looking directly into the camera. "Since then, it's become a tool that has transformed our economy and had a profound effect on how we live and how our children learn.
"Now our goal at Microsoft is to create the next generation of software, to keep innovating and improving what we can do for you."
If only that dunderheaded judge could get that through his thick skull, eh?
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Activision cutting jobs: The computer and video-game maker is calling it a restructuring, aimed at aligning its products with the latest consoles as well as the Internet, but the underlying message is this: Jobs will be lost.
Activision officials did not say how many people will be laid off, only that the company will take a charge of $66 million as part of the restructuring.
Activision said it will consolidate its Expert Software unit with its Head Games unit, discontinuing several Expert product lines and terminating most, if not all, of Expert's employees.
The company expects to report revenue growth of 36 percent for the fiscal year which ended March 31, as well as earnings-per-share growth of 20 percent.
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Money talks: Two Healtheon/WebMD directors -- including cofounder Jim Clark -- have asked the company to let them buy a combined $220 million in stock, a sign, analysts say, of faith in the online health-services network whose shares have been flagging.
"This is a sign that Jim Clark and John Doerr still believe in the underlying values of the company," said Stephen DeNelsky, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston.
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BMG push continues: A day after signing a deal with Microsoft to provide security software for its digital music service, BMG said it has inked agreements with a number of other technology firms to help get that service up and running by summer.
Reuters contributed to this report.
