Live and on-demand concerts and comedy shows will be the foundation of a new joint venture for delivering entertainment via the internet, satellite, wireless and other platforms.
The joint venture involves America Online, XM Satellite and Anschutz's AEG unit, which owns sports and entertainment arenas and produces concerts and other shows.
Formation of the company, called Network Live, follows AOL's success in delivering seven separate feeds from the Live 8 concerts -- all without any meltdowns. Some 5 million people viewed the July 2 shows online, and AOL broke its own records with a peak of 175,000 simultaneous users.
Revenues will come from ads and licensing fees, with no current plans to charge for shows on a pay-per-view basis. AOL already offers free concerts and other video programs on the internet, both live and on demand, and the new venture will expand on the numbers and types.
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Waste not, want not: The United Nations is working toward a world agreement on the scrapping of metal-intensive mobile phones that could impact the cost of making them.
The U.N., the scrap industry and mobile phone makers and operators are working together as part of the U.N. Basel Convention on the control and disposal of waste. The Bureau of International Recycling, a Brussels-based body, said a comprehensive worldwide framework is needed to collect, process and dispose of such waste.
The EU already has in place a system for disposal whereby phone makers bear the brunt of the cost. Neither the U.N. nor the scrap industry would provide figures for the costs that might result from the wider agreement.
Mobile phones contain valuable metals such as platinum, gold, copper, aluminum and magnesium as well as plastics.
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Etching ahead: Applied Materials, the world's biggest supplier of tools used to make microchips, introduced an upgraded line of etching equipment aimed at fast-growing consumer electronics markets.
The new etch line will allow memory chip producers to build flash memories that, for example, would allow Apple Computer (AAPL) to quadruple capacity of its 1-GB iPod that can now store 240 to 300 songs.
The upgraded line of etch equipment, which expands the usable area of silicon wafers aims to boost Applied's (AMAT) share of a segment where it ranks No. 3 behind bigger players Lam Research (LRCX) and Tokyo Electron.
The chip equipment industry is set to decline by roughly 12 percent after a banner year in 2004, according to industry forecasts. The market is projected to recover modestly in 2006 but not see double-digit growth return until 2007 and 2008.
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Movin' on up: Health-care products maker Abbott Laboratories said its second-quarter earnings rose 38 percent from last year, helped by stronger sales of diagnostic products and two arthritis drugs.
The company also said it would realign its global manufacturing operations, including laying off an unspecified number of workers. The effort is expected to result in charges of $215 million in the second half of the year.
Once implemented, Abbott said the cost cutting would yield more than $200 million in annual cost savings and clear the way for additional research-and-development spending.
The company reaffirmed earnings guidance for 2005 of $2.47 to $2.53 per share, excluding certain items. For the third quarter, Abbott is targeting operating profit of 56 cents to 58 cents per share.
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Compiled by David Cohn. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
