TOKYO (Reuters) - Softbank Corp. and Yahoo Japan Corp. said on Monday they had formed a company to broadcast television programmes via the Internet, taking advantage of the growing number of Japanese users on advanced, high-speed Internet connections.

The two companies said the joint venture, TV Bank Corp., would operate a new streaming video service called "Yahoo!Doga", which aims to be a portal site for about 100,000 different programmes including movies, sports and music shows as well as drama series from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

Doga means "moving image" in Japanese.

Shares of Softbank surged 8 percent to close at a five-year high of 11,700 yen on the news, which was released during afternoon trade. Shares of Yahoo Japan, of which Softbank owns 42 percent, rallied 5.04 percent to 146,000 yen.

The service will likely ratchet up the pressure on Japanese broadcasters to change their business models to integrate the Internet in the broadband era. Japan is one of the world's most advanced broadband markets and offers the cheapest Internet access in the world.

"Japan has the infrastructure for this kind of service, so it would be a shame not to use it," Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son told a news conference.

"We think the way to go is to not try to control one broadcaster but work with all of them," he said, referring to recent attempts by Internet companies Rakuten Inc. and Livedoor Co. to take over television networks.

Son said the service was in a trial phase and would be officially launched next March.

TV Asahi Corp. has signed on as a content partner. Softbank is in discussions with other television networks, including Fuji Television Network Inc.

Softbank needs to sign on the television networks because they control much of both the television and movie businesses in Japan, unlike in the United States, where Hollywood studios control the lion's share of desirable content.

Some of the content would be sponsored by advertisers, while some would be provided on a pay-per-view basis.

Bill and Melinda Gates issued the following statement after learning that Time Magazine has named them and Bono Persons of the Year for 2005

BEIJING (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc. said on Monday it may not raise its small stake in China's top search engine Baidu.com, even as competition rises in the fast growing sector.

"We have a very small stake in the company, which is a strategic investment that was made a while back, but as far as I know there aren't any plans beyond that," Daniel Alegre, the director of international Websearch & Syndication, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

Google owns 2.6 percent of Baidu, and was believed to be seeking to boost its stake prior to the Chinese company's hugely successful initial public offering in August.

The comments come after Baidu's chief executive said last month that the company planned to remain independent, and was not interested in finding a major foreign investor.

In contrast, rival Yahoo Inc. paid $1 billion for 40 percent of Chinese Web auctioneer Alibaba.com earlier this year, taking on eBay and Baidu.com as it extends its reach in the world's second-biggest Internet market.

Google for its part hired former Microsoft Inc. executive Li Kaifu and Johnny Chou, an executive at former local telecoms heavyweight UTStarcom, to spearhead its China operations.

"We are focussed on building products that are very tailored to the Chinese market and tapping into the tremendous engineering pool that China has," said Google's Alegre.

Google also has partnerships with local Internet companies like NetEase.com Inc..

With Internet users expected to hit 120 million by the end of this year, China could surpass the United States in five years.

(US$=8.07 yuan)

 Trademark holders and government bodies can start claiming their European identities on the Internet from 10 a.m. British time on Wednesday, when the registers open for the new ".eu" domain name aimed at boosting European e-commerce.

The first steps towards a European Internet domain were taken in 1999 and later supported by the European Commission to encourage cross-border electronic commerce within the Union.

"This is the first time we see a geographic top level domain shared by multiple countries. It creates an e-commerce trading block the EU hopes to benefit by," said David Saias, vice president of sales for Register.com, one of the big registrar companies with which requests for domain names can be filed.

New EU member states such as Poland, which want a bigger presence on the Web, can use the ".eu" domain to be more visible and easier to find, he said.

But even in the traditional EU nations such as Germany, many companies currently register their Internet name under the national ".de" name instead of the ".com" space which is associated with American or global organisations.

If successful, the ".eu" domain could become the de facto domain for all European organisations, which would make it easier for companies and consumers to find and approach companies outside their home countries, Saias said.

"This '.eu' domain is a geographic marketing tool," he said.

For the first two months, close to 500 registrar companies will take down claims only for registered trademarks, public bodies and geographical locations in the European Union.

Companies, trade names, business identifiers and literary works can be registered for two months after that.

Starting April 7, all individuals within the 25 European Union member states can start filing their requests, said the not-for-profit EURid organisation which keeps the database for the .eu domain names.

The European Union had demanded a "sunrise period" before open registration to avoid "cybersquatting," which could result in trademarks being registered by parties other than their owners or companies having to pay massive amounts to buy their Internet domain names from speculators.

During the sunrise period, evidence of prior rights such as trademarks will be checked by PricewaterhouseCoopers

In an open letter to the Time Warner Inc. (TWX) (TWX) board, investor Carl Icahn questioned the company's agreement to sell 5% of its AOL Internet unit to Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG), warning that the move may be "short sighted" and a "blatant breach of fiduciary duty."

In a press release Monday, Icahn, the founder of equity group Icahn Partners LP and known as an activist investor, said, "I...question whether Google is the best partner for unlocking the value of the AOL asset." Now this is interesting.