Microsoft incentives aimed at small businesses

Microsoft unveiled a new rebate and free-service offer for its small-business accounting software Monday, aimed at luring customers away from rival Intuit before tax season.

Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business division, said the $10 million marketing campaign is part of a larger effort to gain share in software and services tailored to small businesses, a market estimated at tens of billions of dollars.

The company plans to offer a $100 rebate for Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006, which lists for around $180, and one year of free technical support to help customers move to digital bookkeeping or shift from a rival product.

Microsoft has failed in the past to unseat Intuit's QuickBooks accounting software, while more recent rivals such as Salesforce.com and Google have built competing businesses with services delivered over the Internet.

Justice Dept. clears Flarion purchase

Qualcomm, the world's second-largest maker of chips for mobile telephones, said the Justice Department has cleared its purchase of Flarion Technologies after an antitrust review.

The purchase should close in a few days, San Diego-based Qualcomm said Monday.

Qualcomm said in August it was buying the closely held Bedminster, N.J., company for $600 million in cash and stock to gain wireless technology used in new high-speed Internet services.

The price could rise by $205 million if Flarion meets certain milestones.

Flarion makes equipment using a system called orthogonal frequency division multiplex access, or OFDMA, for wireless networks. Wi-Max, a new high-speed wireless Internet technology, is partly based on that system, and some companies may have to pay royalties on Flarion's patents, Qualcomm President Steven Altman said in August.

China wants to end preferential tax treatment for foreign companies because it doesn't follow international practice and has had "negative effects" on the domestic economy, Wang Li, the deputy tax commissioner, said in Beijing today.

"There is an urgent need for integration of the enterprise laws for foreign enterprises and domestic enterprises," Wang told reporters.

Foreign companies are subject to an average 15 percent tax rate, less than half the 33 percent paid by Chinese companies.

China pledged to equalize tax treatment for foreign and domestic companies when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Overseas investors have urged the government to delay or scrap changes to a system that helped to make the country the world's largest recipient of foreign direct investment.

General Electric, BP and Siemens are among 54 companies that lobbied the Chinese government to postpone ending foreign tax benefits, Chinese media have reported.

Compiled from Reuters and Bloomberg News