Business news with words agreed+commission+phone. 3 news.

MICROSOFT Corp has agreed to obey key parts of a 2004 antitrust ruling upheld by an appeals court last month, EU regulators said yesterday, cutting royalties for server software rivals and handing information over to open source developers. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said she reached the deal in a phone call with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in the early hours of the morning, and hoped that "this dark chapter" was now behind them. "As of today, the major issues concerning compliance have been resolved," Kroes said, but cautioned that Microsoft was not completely in the clear because it has ongoing obligations, and the company "should bear this in mind." Kroes said she was sad that it took so long before Microsoft obeyed, years when consumers suffered through lack of choice as rivals were held back from developing better software. "It is a victory day for the consumer ... not the Commission," she said. If the software

BRUSSELS, Belgium Microsoft Corp. agreed to obey key parts of a 2004 antitrust ruling upheld by an appeals court last month, EU regulators said Monday, cutting royalties for rivals and handing information over to open source developers. The world's largest software company said separately that it would not appeal the decision, dropping a challenge a European Commission order that found it guilty of monopoly abuse three years ago. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes reached the deal in a phone call with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in the early hours of the morning, she said, adding th

DEUTSCHE Telekom AG agreed to buy the Dutch wireless and Internet unit of France Telecom SA yesterday for 1.33 billion euros (US$1.9 billion) including debt to gain 2.1 million clients. The cash purchase by Deutsche Telekom, Europe's biggest phone company, may be closed as soon as October 1. Approvals have been obtained, including authorization from the European Commission, France Telecom said in a statement yesterday. Savings after restructuring costs will reach 1 billion euros, Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom said in a separate statement. The purchase is the second for the Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile division since Rene Obermann became chief executive officer in November. Deutsche Telekom this month agreed to buy SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc in the United States for US$1.6 billion. The Dutch purchase will allow Deutsche Telekom to leapfrog Vodafone Group Plc to become the second biggest mobile-phone company in the Netherlands. France Telecom, the largest French phone company, said in December its Dutch mobile unit, Orange Netherlands, was too small. Orange had 11.9 percent of the Dutch wireless market at the end of 2006, compared with 15 percent for T-Mobile and 22.4 percent for Newbury, England-based Vodafone, according to Credit Suisse Group estimates. Royal KPN NV, the largest Dutch phone company, led with 50.7 percent. Deutsche Telekom made its offer for Orange Netherlands in June, and has since been awaiting the outcome of discussions with the Dutch company's workers' council. European regulators approved the deal August 20. Also in June, France Telecom agreed to buy Deutsche Telekom's Ya.com Spanish Web operations to focus on faster-growing wireless markets such as Egypt and Romania. Obermann is relying on an expansion of T-Mobile, which accounts for half of the former monopoly's sales, to make up for a four-year slump in fixed-line phone revenue in Germany. Deutsche Telekom expects the purchase will lead to savings of about 1 billion euros, "with around half of this being generated in the first six years, in particular from network integration and reduced marketing expenses," Deutsche Telekom said in its statement.