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Northwest Digest
Cingular's proposed purchase of AT&T Wireless gets support

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Powell is backing the planned deal on the condition the companies sell some assets, such as airwave licenses, said the person, who asked not to be identified. The sales would be aimed at ensuring the companies don't control too much of the wireless market in some locations.

Atlanta-based Cingular needs approval from the FCC and the Department of Justice before it can close a deal, which would create the biggest U.S. mobile-phone operator. The FCC's four other commissioners may make a final decision within a few weeks, Powell said in an interview. He declined to disclose his proposed decision.

Aerospace

China trip may help Airbus

Boeing rival Airbus may announce a sale to China during a visit by President Jacques Chirac this week, his spokesman said.

Chirac will be accompanied by 52 executives on the trip beginning Friday, including Airbus CEO Noel Forgeard.

The visit may lead to "the signing of many contracts between French companies and China," said Jerome Bonnafont, Chirac's chief spokesman.

Airbus, which overtook Boeing in plane deliveries for the first time last year, said it may participate in a news conference Sunday in Beijing.

Microsoft

Judge Legal to hear appeal
 
Microsoft will challenge the European Union's antitrust ruling before Judge Hubert Legal, who helped overturn the EU's veto of Schneider Electric's takeover of Legrand in 2002, people familiar with the matter said.

Legal, 50, a judge at the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg since 2001, will lead a five-judge panel hearing the software maker's appeal against the EU's regulatory arm, said people who declined to be identified. The European Commission in March said Microsoft uses its Windows product, which powers more than 90 percent of the world's PCs, to quash competition.

Legal "is not scared about sanctioning the commission," said Marc Pittie, a lawyer at Bredin Prat in Brussels who represented Schneider. "It's a good thing for the Microsoft case because he's experienced in asking lawyers tough questions."

Columbia Banking System

Company adds Oregon bank

Columbia Banking System said it completed its acquisition of Bank of Astoria, a commercial bank with five branches along the Oregon coast, on Friday.

Tacoma-based Columbia said yesterday that Astoria shareholders received $18.2 million in cash and almost 1.28 million Columbia shares, worth about $30.5 million at Friday's closing price.

The purchase provides an Oregon foothold for Columbia, which operates 34 Washington branch offices in Pierce, King, Kitsap, Cowlitz and Thurston counties.

Ultimate Jukebox

NetMusic joins in merger

Seattle-based Ultimate Jukebox and NetMusic of Peqannock, N.J., said yesterday that they have merged into a company that will focus on distributing digital music through a network of Web sites and digital jukeboxes. NetMusic, online at www.netmusic.com, started in 1995 as a directory of music-related information and now sells digital music tracks and compact discs. Ultimate Jukebox offers digital jukeboxes for bars and restaurants. The company's corporate headquarters will be in New Jersey, with a satellite office in Seattle.

Combimatrix

Stake in drug developer

Combimatrix, a Mukilteo-based maker of computer chips for genetic analysis, has invested $4 million in return for a one-third ownership stake in Leuchemix, a privately held cancer-drug developer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Combimatrix Chief Executive Amit Kumar will join the Leuchemix board.

Compiled from Bloomberg News and Seattle Times business staff