Expedia slaps Google with antitrust complaint - San Francisco Chronicle

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Expedia slaps Google with antitrust complaint - San Francisco Chronicle Mar 31st 2012, 03:06 ANTITRUST Expedia action targets Google Expedia filed an antitrust complaint against Google with European Union regulators, adding to earlier grievances brought against the world's largest search-engine operator by Microsoft. The complaint by the online travel company "details specific business and search practices by Google that constitute a violation of European Union competition and consumer protection laws," Expedia said in a statement, which didn't provide specifics of the allegations. INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS Michaels Stores files with SEC Michaels Stores, the arts and crafts retailer owned by Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, filed to raise $500 million in an initial public offering. Michaels didn't specify the number of shares it plans to sell or the price range in a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount is typically a placeholder used to calculate fees and may change. ECONOMY Jobless rates fall in most states Unemployment rates fell last month in most U.S. states, including in some hit hardest during the recession. The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates declined in 29 states and rose in eight. Rates were unchanged in 13 states and Washington, D.C. The improvement was broader in the previous month: rates fell in 45 states in January. Still, job growth was more widespread than in previous months. Employers added jobs in 42 states, the most in almost a year. Ohio, Texas and New York reported the biggest job gains. California's rate is still high at 10.9 percent. But it has dropped from 12 percent a year ago. MOBILE PHONES SIM card talks hit impasse Apple's and Nokia's proposals for smaller SIM cards face a second round of debate after talks stalled following the Finnish mobile-phone company's threat to withhold its patents. A two-day meeting in France to adopt a standard from competing proposals by Apple and Nokia finished without reaching a decision, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute said. The tiny smart cards that identify wireless subscribers are standardized to reduce industry costs and give consumers freedom to switch handsets and networks. Smaller versions permit the design of thinner phones. Nokia said before the meeting that it would not permit its patents to be used in the Apple standard, said Mark Durrant, a spokesman for Nokia. This article appeared on page D - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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