Government-controlled Telekom Malaysia signed a deal with the country's second-largest mobile phone operator, clearing the way for the two to merge their cell phone operations.
Under the sale and purchase agreement, Malaysian Celcom will buy the entire equity interest of TM Cellular -- Telekom's mobile operations -- for $442 million by issuing 635.5 million new shares at 69.5 cents each to Telekom.
When the deal is complete, Telekom's shareholding in Celcom will increase to 47.9 percent, triggering a mandatory general offer for the remaining Celcom shares at 72 cents each, the price Telekom promised Celcom shareholders if the deal was completed before Oct. 29.
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New Blue financing: IBM said it was offering cheap financing terms to large and medium-size companies as it tries to stimulate year-end business.
IBM (IBM) said it is offering a 90-day deferral program and would extend the low-rate financing it offers to large customers to midsize customers as well, lowering the minimum payment to qualify for low rates on certain software purchases to $25,000 from $100,000.
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PDA not a focus: Dell CEO Michael Dell said the company would launch a personal digital assistant in the United States soon but saw limited near-term growth opportunities in that market.
"It's not nearly at the strategic importance for us of servers and storage or services, but it is a developing market -- a relatively small market today," he said.
Dell gave no specific time frame for the launch.
He stressed Dell's (DELL) target of eventually doubling revenues would depend heavily on expanding in computer servers, data storage and services.
Dell was in Japan to unveil a compact desktop computer, half the size of its previously smallest model and little bigger than a large hardcover book, which will initially target the space-conscious Japanese market.
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Roll-up join-up: Two British companies said they would join forces to become a world leader in the technology of glowing plastics, which by 2005 should yield the first roll-up computer screens and TVs.
Cambridge Display Technology announced the acquisition of the Oxford-based research activities of rival Opsys, giving it control of another major method to create organic light emitting diodes. Financial details were not disclosed.
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Gory game for Halloween: Blood and gore reign supreme in "BloodRayne," the new horror-shooting-slashing game released just in time for Halloween.
The bloodshed is hardly surprising as Rayne, the heroine of this Terminal Reality game, is half human and half vampire. Cool and sexy, she's also adept at slicing and dicing her victims, thanks to attributes such as superhuman speed, enhanced vision, hinged wristbands that hold 3-foot jagged-edge swords, and a set of spike-heeled shoes that are in fact stilettos.
AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
