DOJ investigates handset exclusivity

In today's podcast: DOJ investigates handset exclusivity; EMC raises Data Domain bid; and Yahoo expands Searchpad beta.

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The U.S. Department of Justice has begun to look into the way that large operators form exclusivity agreements for popular handsets, media reports say. The DOJ is said to be looking broadly at ways that large telecom operators including AT&T and Verizon may be acting anticompetitively. Other issues include ways that operators restrict the kinds of services that can be offered on their networks. Public interest groups applauded the news of a potential investigation. If the DOJ does launch an official investigation, some say, it will be a direct result of the change at the White House, and not because of any specific new kinds of deals or services. Congress's Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing last month to discuss the effect that long-term exclusivity deals have on the wireless market and particularly on people living in rural areas. Smaller rural operators argue that exclusive handset deals turn rural customers into second-class citizens because in some cases they have no option to buy the latest and most popular phones.

Yahoo will expand the number of people who can test its Search Pad service today. Searchpad is an online notebook for saving and sharing notes, links and Web site content when conducting research using the company's search engine.

Yahoo will make it available to people in fifteen countries including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia. The company has refined and broadened the service's features since unveiling it in February. Content can now be shared via Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo's social bookmarking service Delicious, in addition to e-mail. Seachpad is about more than social bookmarking, though, so Yahoo doesn't foresee it replacing Delicious.

EMC has increased its offer to acquire storage vendor Data Domain from 1.8 billion dollars to 2.1 billion, hoping to shove aside original bidder NetApp. EMC said its all-cash offer is "clearly superior" to NetApp's proposal of 1.9 billion dollars in stock and cash. NetApp said it will carefully weigh its options. In the past, Data Domain's board of directors has recommended that shareholders reject EMC's offers.

And finally, the Palm Pre smartphone will be available in Europe before Christmas. Telefonica's O2 brand will carry the Pre in the U.K., Germany and Ireland, while operator Movistar will offer it in Spain. Both operators already sell the iPhone. The companies have not yet set prices for the Pre.

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