EC issues objection to Oracle takeover of Sun

In today's podcast: EC issues objection to Oracle takeover of Sun; HTC sees smartphone revenue shrink; and Google, Author's Guild miss deadline for revised deal.

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The European Commission on Monday issued its formal "statement of objections" over Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, saying the deal would harm competition in the database market. Oracle responded that it would "vigorously oppose" the Commission, saying its position reflects "a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics." The U.S. Department of Justice, which has already approved the deal, also weighed in, saying it studied the deal carefully and concluded that it is "unlikely to be anticompetitive." The statement of objections was rumored to be imminent last week, and follows the Commission's decision in September to launch an in-depth probe of Oracle's planned Sun acquisition.

High Tech Computer, which developed the first smartphone based on Google's Android mobile operating system, saw revenue decline in the third quarter due to increased competition and weak sales in Europe. The company's revenue fell 10 percent year on year to NT$34 billion (or US$1 billion) and its net profit dropped to NT$5.7 billion from NT$7 billion. Increased competition in the smartphone market and the launch of the iPhone 3GS in particular have hurt many smartphone makers, analysts say. Apple slashed the price of the iPhone 3G to US$99 when it launched the iPhone 3GS in June, and put a low, $199 price tag on the new handset. The move helped Apple report record high quarterly revenue of $9.87 billion in its most recent quarter as iPhone and Mac computer shipments hit all-time highs.

Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) need more time to revise the proposed settlement of the copyright infringement lawsuits the author and publisher organizations brought against Google over its Book Search program. Google and the plaintiffs were supposed to file the revised agreement with the court on Monday, but instead they have asked the judge to give them until the end of the week. Google, the Authors Guild and the AAP have been "working diligently" on the revised agreement and expect to have it ready "no later" than this Friday, wrote Authors Guild attorney Michael Boni in a letter to the judge on behalf of all parties. The brief letter doesn't address why Google and the plaintiffs couldn't complete the revision in time for today's deadline.

A Chinese government watchdog has ordered Yahoo China to clean pornographic content from a photo-sharing site it hosted, a reminder of the regulatory challenges often faced by foreign Internet companies in China. The government-linked Internet Society of China on Friday said Yahoo China and other local Web sites had "violated social morals" by allowing porn to appear on their domains. The same group censured Google earlier this year in a row over pornographic search results that ultimately led authorities to block Google.com and Google Apps for a few hours across China. The criticism of Yahoo China, also called China Yahoo, gave no hint that such escalation was likely.

...And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.