Stepping up the heated battle between online search and services companies, Yahoo and Adobe Systems have joined forces to tap each others' customers and put web search features into Adobe's popular Acrobat Reader software.
The broad strategic relationship is the latest maneuver by Yahoo (YHOO) against chief rivals Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) in the fight to become the gateway for search and web access on as many desktops as possible.
For Adobe (ADBE), the partnership will add online features to one of the software maker's core products, Acrobat. The program is used by more than 500 million people and has become a common format for viewing documents over the web and in e-mail attachments.
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Don't call me, I'll call you: Sprint said it is coming out with a suite of services aimed at helping companies better manage cell phones and PDAs they issue to employees, including a feature that will remotely erase sensitive information from devices that are lost or stolen.
The "managed mobility" package offered by Sprint (FON) will also help information technology departments in medium and large companies keep a better eye on the use of wireless gadgets and automatically upgrade software without employees' having to bring in the devices.
The program also will allow companies with several cell phones to purchase pools of minutes as opposed to having to monitor and pay for dozens of individual calling plans.
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Getting ready to sell: The future suddenly looks shaky for online DVD rental pioneer Netflix -- a plucky home entertainment upstart that managed to hold its ground after retailing giants Wal-Mart and Blockbuster invaded its turf.
Convinced Amazon.com (AMZN) is ready to join the fray, Netflix is girding for a fierce price war that figures to make or break the Los Gatos, California-based company.
Netflix (NFLX) is betting an upcoming 18 percent reduction in its monthly service fee will lure millions of new subscribers, extending its reign as king of online DVD rentals even though its profits are expected to disintegrate amid the stiffer competition.
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Porn to go: Mobile phone users around the world will spend $1 billion a year on pornography sent to their handsets by 2008, which may boost the wireless services sector much as it fueled growth in the fixed-line internet, a market research firm said.
In the United States, consumers will be dishing out some $90 million for adult entertainment in four years' time.
Mobile operators, which are struggling to drive up data traffic as a new source of revenue, have so far been reluctant to cash in on the opportunity, although many industry experts consider pornography to have been the first profitable service offered on the fixed-line internet in the second half of the 1990s.
Excluding portals of U.S.-based mobile operators, which fear possible repercussions if pornographic content becomes accessible to children, half of all wireless data traffic consists of adult content.
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Compiled by David Cohn. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
