LONDON – Broadband industry analyst, Point Topic reported yesterday that Britain now has the largest number of broadband users in Europe overtaking France with 9.8 million users. France has 9.7 million users, while Germany has 8.4 million, according to the report.

The UK added 2.8 million high-speed Internet lines in the first three quarters of this year as compared to 2.2 million in France. The increase in numbers was primarily due to competitive prices offered by rivals as well as BT’s pledge to wire 99 percent homes with broadband connections.

But Ponit Topic says that the coming year could see a slowdown in the rate of connections as the NTL and Telewest merger goes ahead, meaning that the two companies would now be in a position to strengthen their customer base effectively.

The report also said that globally there was an increase of 25 percent in broadband connections in the first nine months, which now stood at 190.3 million. The United States continues to be the most wired country in the world with 40.9 million connections. China with 35 million connections occupies the second spot, with Japan and South Korea taking up the next two places.

But Ponit Topic says that big European nations are catching up rapidly with the Asian giants and this trend is set to continue into the next year as well. However, Britain was found to be lagging in the local-loop unbundling (LLU) sector as France had 2.5 million unbundled lines as compared to the UK’s 122,000.

LONDON: The U.K. High Court has ordered 10 internet service providers (ISPs) to hand over surfing details of 150 customers, who have been accused of illegally sharing software. The order follows a year-long investigation carried out by software anti-piracy organisation Federation Against Software Theft (Fast).

Among the ISPS to receive the order are BT, NTL, Telewest and Tiscali.

Judge Raynor in giving the order felt there was “an overwhelming case” for ordering such customer details to be released. ISPs can release customer details only after a court order under the Data Protection Act.

The ISPs will be required to provide names, addresses and other personal details of the accused over the next two weeks.

An undercover investigator for Fast had identified the people suspected to have been involved in the illegal activity and as most of them use false names of email IDs on the net, Fast approached the High Court to direct the ISPs to hand over the information they have of these people. It said once it gets the information, it will approach the police and Crown Prosecution Service to initiate action against the 150.

John Lovelock, director general of Fast said his organisation can easily take down links, but this does not tackle the root causes of software piracy, because the links will reappear elsewhere in a matter of hours. “Instead, we plan to take action a lot further, making an example of the perpetrators to stop them from stealing and passing on the intellectual property of our members for good.”

Fast contends that the150 individuals have violated copy right law by uploading software and sharing it online. It did not say which software was being distributed by the alleged file sharers, adding it was a mixture. If the charges are proven, these people can get a maximum punishment of up to two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.

Meanwhile, anti-piracy trade group the Business Software Alliance says nearly a quarter of software products used in Britain are unlicensed, counterfeit or pirated copies.

Lovelock said Fast will now target businesses, which indulge in such illegal activities.

LONDON: Britain’s power network operator National Grid Plc. said chief executive Roger Urwin will retire at the end of 2006. He will be succeeded by the company’s present gas distribution and business services unit head Steve Holliday.

Holliday had joined National Grid in 2001 and had been responsible for the electricity and gas distribution businesses immediately after the Lattice Group merged with the company in 2002.

Holliday, 49, said he had been working with Urwin for five years and he is very closely identified with the company’s present strategy. “I don’t expect any major changes there at all. We believe that we’ve got it about right,” he added.

In a statement, the company said Urwin, 59, had been putting off his retirement to ensure that there is a smooth transition and that it handles the Transmission Price Review in an effective manner. He has been the company’s CEO since 2002.

The price review is being carried out by Ofgem, the energy sector regulator, and it is expected to facilitate additional investments in the network.

Beginning the new financial year, Holliday will assume the position of group deputy chief executive.

National Grid’s chairman Sir John Parker said, “Roger has led National Grid through transformational change and delivered an outstanding track record of success and value creation.”

The deal provides for Pixar’s creative heads Ed Catmull and John Lasseter to assume control over the world’s most famous cartoon studio, where Mickey Mouse was born. Pixar’s chief executive Steve Jobs, who also heads Apple Computer Company, will join Disney’s board of directors.

It is proposed that Disney’s animation studio, where the classic “Snow White” was conceived and made, will be combined with Pixar animation operations under Catmull’s leadership. However, the two companies will maintain separate studios.

The deal is similar to the one Disney had signed while acquiring ESPN cable sports network in 1996, said Disney’s chief executive Robert Iger.

Iger said he found it necessary to have a relationship with Pixar in order to take Disney animation to greatness.

Disney’s chief financial officer Tom Staggs told analysts that the company would continue to have double-digit earnings growth through 2008, when the Pixar deal is expected to become accretive. Pixar has over $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet, making the net value of the transaction about $6.3 billion, he said.

Boards of Disney and Pixar have approved the deal, which provides for 2.3 Disney shares for each Pixar share. Jobs owns a 50.6 per cent of Pixar, which would translate into about 6 per cent of Disney’s shares, which will mean he will be the largest individual shareholder in the company.

Jobs had bought the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd from Star Wars creator George Lucas in 1986 for $10 million, bringing along both Catmull and Lasseter. The unit later became Pixar. It has a continuous sequence of box office successes since then, which grossed more than $3.2 billion. These movies include Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc.

Catmull, currently president of Pixar, will become president of Pixar and Disney animation studios. Lasseter, under contract until 2011, will be the principal creative director of the Walt Disney Imagineering group, which designs theme park attractions.

Disney and Pixar had become partners in 1991 under a deal to share production costs and profits, with Disney distributing the films made by Pixar. The two companies had a second deal, but the relations somewhat soured in 2003 after Disney refused to allow Pixar to own the films it makes. However, when Iger became CEO in October last year, he persuaded Jobs to agree to the merger.

Jobs said Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies and two different sets of shareholders.

Disney has been lagging behind in recent years as it failed to produce any blockbuster animated movies. Iger, who took over from Michael Eisner, who was at loggerheads with Jobs, has said a strong Disney depends on a strong animation department. He said along with this deal, he would look at other media platforms and international expansion.

LOS ANGELES – Nike Inc chairman and founder Phillip Knight has said that CEO William Perez had handed in his papers and Nike’s board of directors had accepted his resignation on Friday. Perez had only been in charge of the athletic goods company for 13 months, but had many clashes with Knight over several issues during the period.

Nike said that company co-President Mark Parker will take over from Perez. In a conference call with analysts, Knight elaborated that Perez was unable to “wrap his arms around this company.” He felt that Nike was operating at 80 percent efficiency under his stewardship, “Basically the distance between the company that Bill managed in the packaged goods business and Nike and the kind of new athletic equipment business was too great for him to make that leap,” he said.

Perez had previously headed S.C. Johnson & Son Inc, a household products company. Nike said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Perez would be given at least $4.5 million as salary and bonuses and that they would be buying his home and compensating the remodeling expenses.

Knight chose Perez when he decided to hand over the running over of the day-to-day affairs of the Beaverton-based company to someone else. But Perez was unable to jell in with Nike’s plans and had opposing plans regarding the direction that the company should take, “It was too much a difference in industries, too much a difference in companies, too much a difference in brands and too much a difference in culture,” Knight confirmed.

Perez himself acknowledged that the differences between him and Knight were irreparable and that the two of them “weren’t entirely aligned on some aspects of how to best lead the company’s long-term growth. It became obvious to me that the long-term interests of the company would be best served by my resignation.” Nike shares dipped $1.03 to $83.17 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

LONDON: The Guardian Media Group in planning a strategic review of its business, which may see the company divesting its Auto Trader magazine division and Smooth FM radio station, which may fetch the company nearly 1 billion pounds, according to newspaper reports. Guardian Media Group publishes the Guardian and the Observer newspapers, besides other publications.

The reports quoted unnamed company officials as saying the most likely outcome of the review will be the disposal of Trader Media, the unit that houses Auto Trader and some 60 other magazine titles.

The Observer too said the company is about to appoint advisers to undertake the review. The company is owned by the not-for-profit Scott Trust.

The sources indicated that the company is not keen to commit investments needed to improve Trader Media’s profitability. Latest financial results had shown an increase in the operating profits of the division from 74 million pounds to 117 million pounds in 2005 on sales of 305 million pounds.

The trustees of the Scott Trust are bound to preserve the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian. The newspaper saw a facelift in September with a Berliner format, and the revamp cost the company 80 million pounds. In December, the Observer too underwent such a revamp.

The chief executive of the company Sir Bob Phillis has announced his decision to step down in view of his ill health and the company is in search of a new chief executive.

LONDON – Mortgage lending in the last month of 2005 was up by 25 percent as compared to the corresponding figures in December 2004, according to the latest report released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The total mortgage lending in December was pegged at 26.3 billion. “Confidence in the housing market was supported by the realization that short-term interest rates had peaked and the downward trend in fixed-term rates throughout much of the year, resulting in stable house prices,” said Michael Coogan, the CML’s director general.

“The second half of 2005 was characterized by strengthening housing market activity and increased mortgage lending. We expect this trend to continue into 2006 as mortgage approvals continue to rise.” However, the December figure was still six percent less than that of the November.

Analysts said that this was typical year-end slide. The CML report also said that despite fears of a huge dip mortgage lending totaled 287.5 billion in 2005, just 1 percent less than the 291.2 billion recorded in 2004. “The commentators who thought lending would fall sharply in 2005 based on the performance of the first half of the year were wrong,” Mr. Coogan said.

A concurrent release by the British Bankers’ Association said that the net mortgage lending in December increased by 5.4 billion; the biggest monthly increase since June 2004. Unsecured borrowing in the form of personal loans rose by 300 million as festive shoppers borrowed about 200 million on their credit cards.

But this figure was still below the half-yearly average of 500 million. “Mortgage lending strengthened in the final months of the year, but in sharp contrast, unsecured lending continued to be subdued,” said David Dooks, the BBA’s director of statistics.

LONDON: Caudwell Group, the holding company for mobile phone retail chain Phones 4U and cellular phone distributor 20:20 Logistics, may finally get acquired by a bidder. Its founder, multi-billionaire John Caudwell, says he has received strong bids from private equity groups and that he would finalise on a deal in a few months.

Caudwell, who founded the company in1987, had put it on block in November last year, wanting to exit the business and take up a new one and also charity.

The company is a major player in the telecoms services sector and in the distribution and repair of cellular phones. It is roughly valued around 800 million pounds.

Except saying that the potential bidders are mostly private equity groups, Caudwell did not name any of the suitors. The process has reached the second round after a pre-selection of the bidders.

The company turned out sterling performance in 2005. It announced Thursday earnings before interest, tax and amortization of 149 million pounds on sales of 2.12 billion pounds. Analysts had predicted the company’s profits to be around 115 million pounds and revenue of more than 2 billion pounds.

Nearly half of Phones4U’s new contract customers opted for 3G phones in 2005, giving it a 30 per cent share of the market over the year. New connections went up 12 per cent overall — 42 per cent up in the fourth quarter.

The company said 20:20 Logistics, the world’s largest mobile phone distributor, saw its profits go up 41 per cent during the year.

Caudwell, one-time auto-parts salesman, who graduated to sell mobile phones and founded the empire, buying 26 phones from Motorola, has said he is planning to circumnavigate the globe by s yacht once the deal is through. He is, however, not going to budge if the bids are too low, he has clarified. He hopes that the latest figures will weigh on the bidders in quoting a reasonable sale price.

FRANKFURT: German media company Bertelsmann AG is actively toying with the idea of leading the German side to a proposed Franco-German project to create a global search engine to counter the influence of U.S.-dominated Google and Yahoo, as envisioned by French president Jacques Chirac.

The project, called Quaero, was mooted by Chirac in his new year message as a Europe’s response to the U.S. challenge. The French side is known to have committed 150 million euros for the project through the new Agency for Industrial Innovation, set up on the recommendation of Jean-Louis Beffa, chairman of glass and ceramic group, Saint-Gobain. Thomson, the media services and equipment group, is expected to lead the French side, along with the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

In Germany, Beffa’s counterpart is said to be Heinrich von Pierer, chairman of Siemens, who is close to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

A unit of Bertelsmann’s service division Arvato, Empolis GmbH, is evaluating whether cooperation is in the interests of the company. According to sources, the company is close to signing up as Germany’s official leader in the project early this week. Guetersloh, Germany-based Bertelsmann is Europe’s largest media company.

Chirac had outlined the proposal as one based on public and private resources in France and Germany with a view to close the gap in research and development between Europe and the U.S. Quaero, means “I search” in Latin.

The proposal envisages creation of a search engine for the general public that can sort through audio, images and video as well as text. Search engines now rely on written descriptions of audio, images and video, which could cause inaccurate results. The system will have technical capabilities to transcribe audio automatically as well as image and video recognition.

It is reported that Thomson would want to make use of Quaero to offer an in-built search facility on the set-top boxes it makes, plus supplying applications to its television and film company clients. Bertelsmann too would be wanting to create similar applications.

France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are members of the consortium formed for the project.