AOL Time Warner said Tuesday it would raise the monthly price of its flagship service's unlimited use plan by $1.95.
Shares of the company (AOL) climbed $1 to $57.60 Tuesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock is up about 74 percent since the beginning of the year, outperforming most other Internet stocks.
It's the first price increase in three years for the plan, which gives subscribers unlimited access to AOL's services.
The fee will rise to $23.90 from $21.95 with the July billing cycle. The price of AOL's other option, which limits access to a set number of hours, will not change.
The company has been hinting at a price increase for some time, and some analysts had said the move might be necessary for AOL Time Warner to meet its aggressive year-end growth targets in the wake of a slowdown in the overall advertising climate and growing economic uncertainty.
Company executives have maintained that a price hike was not needed to meet its year-end targets of $40 billion in revenues and $11 billion in cash flow.
AOL said that the price increase will help fund improvements in the AOL service.
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Software piracy up in Asia: Asia was the only region where software piracy spurted last year, but governments intent on expanding their technology sectors are stepping up efforts to curb the trend, an anti-piracy watchdog said.
Asia's software piracy rate rose to 51 percent in 2000 from 47 percent the previous year. The region accounts for the largest piracy losses at nearly $4.1 billion, or 35 percent of the total.
The study by the Business Software Alliance, a group representing the world's largest software manufacturers, showed piracy losses nearing $11.8 billion worldwide in 2000.
Estimates indicate that one in every three business software applications was a bogus copy. North America accounted for the third highest piracy losses totalling $2.9 billion and Western Europe stood at $3.1 billion.
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Softbank's biotech venture: Softbank Finance, a wholly owned financial unit of Japan's top Internet investor Softbank, said it would enter the growing biotech industry by setting up a joint venture for developing genome-related firms.
Yoshitaka Kitao, president of Softbank Finance, said that his company and Scientia Health Group, a U.S. incubator of biotechnology firms, have agreed to set up Scientia Japan, in which Softbank Finance would hold a 51 percent stake.
He said he expected the market to be worth far more than a government estimate of 25 trillion yen ($203.9 billion) in the next several years.
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Lycos Europe open to takeover: Shares in Lycos Europe gained 10 percent after the firm said it was open to a possible takeover by Terra Lycos or Bertelsmann.
"As long as it is good for the company, I think it would be fine," said Christoph Mohn, Lycos Europe's chief executive.
Terra Lycos (which owns Wired News) already has 29.6 percent of Lycos Europe, while Bertelsmann holds about 18.4 percent of the company's shares.
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Fears allayed, sale proceeds: ASM Lithography NV, a Dutch semiconductor equipment maker, said it had acquired U.S. Silicon Valley Group.
ASML won approval from the U.S. government earlier this month to take over SVG, based on ASML agreeing to sell off its Tinsley optical unit. The Pentagon worried that Tinsley's technology, some of it used for spy satellites, could fall into the wrong hands.
SVG (SVGI) shareholders are due to receive 1.286 new ASML shares for each SVG share.
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RadioShack gets its man: RadioShack has hired Michael Newman, an executive of lingerie retailer Intimate Brands, as senior vice president and chief financial officer.
Before joining RadioShack (RSH), Newman was Intimate Brands' vice president and chief financial officer, the company said. He succeeds Dwain Hughes, who died earlier this year.
Newman's appointment comes as RadioShack tries to reposition itself to overcome the prevailing tough retailing conditions and boost its lagging sales.
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Iomega chief resigns: Bruce Albertson, chief executive and president of Iomega, resigned after he and the boardo of directors continued to disagree on a course for the computer hardware maker.
Albertson, a protege of GE chairman and chief executive Jack Welch, was lured out of retirement in late 1999 to take the helm at Iomega (IOM).
Reuters and AP contributed to this report.
