Monday, June 25, 2001		Latest in IT world

SABEER BHATIA, co-founder of the hugely popular Internet e-mail service Hotmail, has joined the ranks of hi-tech entrepreneurs hit by the ‘dotcom’ bust. In a quiet online burial, Bhatia has announced the closure of Arzoo.com, his nine-month-old venture that aimed to be a global platform for piece-meal software projects, matching corporate buyers with moonlighters, part-timers and freelance experts. Arzoo, named after an Urdu word for ‘heart's desire’ apparently turned into an unfulfilled wish for the 32-year-old Bhatia. ‘Even though our blue-chip beta customers liked our service, they have postponed their purchasing decision to either later this year or sometime next year,’ Bhatia said in a note posted on the Web site. "For a small company like ours, we cannot survive on promises of future purchase," Bhatia said. Fremont, California-based Arzoo, was partially funded by Japanese Internet investor Softbank Corp, and its clients included global corporations.

Fake Viagra on Net

A man in eastern China discovered the true power of the Internet, selling 4,00,000 fake Viagra pills to unwitting online customers before the police stopped the scam. Mo Yunbiao set up an underground factory in the town of Jiangkou in China's eastern province of Zhejiang to counterfeit the anti-impotence pill and sell the product through his virtual shop, the Beijing Youth Daily said. Alerted by disgruntled consumers nationwide, police investigated the case but not before Mo could flee, the newspaper said. The police is searching for him. The authorities seized an additional 1,00,000 of the fake blue pills before they were sold and Mo priced these at five yuan ($0.60) through his online shop.

Gates still richest

Tech titans saw fortunes evaporate with the Nasdaq in the past year but wily investor Warren Buffett showed he can still make enough money to become the second-richest man in the world, Forbes business magazine said last week. Microsoft Corp. Chairman and co-founder Bill Gates is still the richest person on the planet — for the seventh year in a row — even though his net worth dropped from $63 billion to $58.7 billion. But Buffett, who chooses his investments the old-fashioned way -- by looking at a company's bottom line — increased his wealth by $4 billion to $32.3 billion pushing him from fourth into second place on Forbes' list of world's billionaires. Gates' number 2 at Microsoft, Paul Allen, retained third place with a net wealth of $30.4 billion. The Nasdaq composite index has fallen 60 per cent from its high in March of 2000 and with it the potential wealth of the hi-tech entrepreneurs who drove the dot-com market boom in the last few years. One big casualty was Gates' rival, Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison, who dropped from second to fourth place on the list as his wealth plunged from $58 billion to $26 billion last August.

Sega’s non-game plans

Japanese game maker Sega Corp said it would tap into non-gaming fields and aim for 10 billion yen ($81.40 million) in sales in 2004 as it seeks to boost profitability by leveraging its entertainment expertise. The move reflects Sega's efforts to expand its horizons in the software sector after its high-profile pullout from its unprofitable Dreamcast game console business earlier this year. Munehiro Umemura, a general manager for Sega's future entertainment division, told a news conference that Sega's computer graphics technology, know-how in content development and in managing arcade facilities should present opportunities.

— Reuters