Microsoft lost EU case by 1 vote

Microsoft may have made a mistake by settling antitrust charges with the European Union last year after losing an EU court ruling. The software maker didn't know it was one vote away from winning.

Judges voted 7-6 against Microsoft last Sept. 17, according to two people with direct knowledge of the outcome.

They declined to be identified because EU court votes are confidential.

Microsoft should have appealed to try to end the European Commission's case for once and for all, said Toan Tran, an analyst at Morningstar in Chicago.

Microsoft had sought to overturn a $719 million fine stemming from a 2004 decision that it failed to offer rivals access to some data.

The company didn't know about the divided vote until May, according to a person familiar with Microsoft's case.

Retail

Issue-focused paper to be at Starbucks

On Thursday, Starbucks will begin offering a free paper from the magazine Good in its stores. Called the Good Sheet, each week it will tackle one election topic, like carbon emissions, health care or education. Starbucks hopes it will get people talking.

"We had been looking at ways to bring a little bit of those conversation-starters into the Starbucks environment," said Terry Davenport, the senior vice president for marketing at Starbucks.

Good has an editorial emphasis on philanthropy and activism. Some of that is translated into the Good Sheet, a folded piece of newsprint that presents information and statistics in a big graphic.

The sheet on health care, for example, gives a history of government health-care programs, statistics about health-care spending, and suggestions about solutions, including notes on those that John McCain and Barack Obama endorse.

Starbucks has timed the introduction for election season, and will feature a new Good sheet for 11 weeks.

The Good sheet features one advertiser an issue, which covers the cost of the sheet. Starbucks has not paid Good for the sheets.

Online ads

Advertisers oppose Google-Yahoo deal

The U.S. Association of National Advertisers has asked the Justice Department to block a proposed partnership between Google and Yahoo, saying it may drive up the price of search advertising.

The agreement may also decrease competition and boost the amount of power Yahoo and Google have over the market, the New York-based trade group said Sunday on its Web site. The group represents companies such as General Motors.

Under the accord, Yahoo will show Google ads, which command a higher price, along with promotions it sells on its own. Google will share a percentage of the revenue with Yahoo.

The deal will help advertisers better target their ads, which will be priced by competitive auction, Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich said Sunday.

Google will proceed with the agreement by early October, Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said last month. The companies said in June they would give the Justice Department 3 1/2 months to review the partnership, even though they indicated it wasn't legally necessary.

Internet

Traffic grows at a slower pace

International Internet traffic kept growing in the last year, but at a slower rate than before, and carriers more than kept pace by adding more capacity.

The findings by TeleGeography Research are important because some U.S. Internet-service providers say they are struggling with the expansion of online traffic, and are imposing monthly download limits on heavy users.

TeleGeography said traffic grew 53 percent from mid-2007 to mid-2008, down from a growth rate of 61 percent in the previous 12 months.

Growth on long-haul lines in the U.S. was even slower, at 47 percent. The big increase came in regions where the Internet is less mature. Traffic between the U.S. and Latin America more than doubled.

Meanwhile, international Internet capacity on ocean-spanning optical fibers increased 62 percent. On average, Internet traffic now uses just 29 percent of the available bandwidth.

Compiled from Bloomberg News, The New York Times and The Associated Press