For most people out there, Bill Gates is best known as the founder and face of Microsoft. For years he guided and helped Microsoft become the company it is today and establish it's self as one of the most dominant tech companies in history. For his troubles Gates earned the reward of being crowed the richest man in the world and this is how other people know him.

For 13 years Bill Gates dominated the Forbes rich list and was constantly named the worlds richest man year in year out. He became the worlds first "centi-billionaire" with a wealth of just over $100 billion dollars back in 1999. This figure has since fallen sharply with Microsoft's stock value shrinking.

His dominance at the top came to an end in 2008 when investor Warren Buffett dethroned him with a wealth of $62 billion dollars. Gates' wealth was some $58 billion. Mr Gates would regain the crown the next year and until this week was still the worlds richest person.

Now Forbes are reporting that Mexican Telecom Tychoon, Carlos Slim Helu has narrowly knocked Gates from his throne to become the new richest person in the world. When I say narrowly I mean by $500 million dollars. An insignificant amount to these guys, but it puts their wealth into perspective for the rest of us. In the last year his wealth sky rocketed by more than $18 billion to $53.5 billion. A number which has taken him from third on last years list to first on this years.

Although Gates has lost the top spot he still gained $13 billion last year after Microsoft's shares rose by 50 percent. He is now worth $53 billion. Warren Buffett has sunk to third place with just $47 billion to his name, a jump of $10 billion on the previous year.

Other noteworthy names include the Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page who each share 24th place on the list with $17.5 billion each to their names. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos took spot 43 on the list with $12.3 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbergon on the other hand came in at a lowly 212th place with just $4 billion to his name. Still he's only 25 so he has years to get to the top.

The green light has been given by the EU for France Telecom (Orange) and Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) to merge their business operations in the UK. Integration between the two corporations can commence immediately. As part of the merger Orange and T-Mobile have to ensure that the transition does not impact their respective customers in an adverse way. In other words the merger has to go as smoothly as possible. The two companies will also free them selves of 2x15Mhz of their 1800Mhz GSM spectrum by the end of 2011. Their merger will create the biggest mobile operator in the UK, serving 29.5 million customers.

Both the T-Mobile and Orange brands will continue to be used for at least the next 18 months. The merger is expected to offer consumers better network coverage, enhanced 2G and 3G services as well as the removal of some 5,000 masts according to The Guardian, which will no longer be required due to the consolidation of both companies masts under one brand. As separate operations Orange and T-Mobile have their own masts which are often situated near one another.

Tim Höttges, CFO of Deutsche Telekom welcomed the decision by the EU and said "This is excellent news, for our customers, for our highly committed teams in the UK and for our shareholders. Now the way is clear for pooling our resources to create an outstanding high-speed mobile broadband network in one of the most competitive markets in Europe. This joint venture company is based on a significant potential of synergies which create substantial value for the two shareholders and translate directly into customer benefits. Our teams in the UK will be rolling up their sleeves to roll out these benefits."

The board of the merged companies will consist of equal representation from T-Mobile and Orange and will consist of, Tim Höttges as the board chairman, Gervais Pellissier Depute CEO and CFO of France Telecom will take the roll after two years. Other names on the board include, Tom Alexander, CEO of Orange UK and Richard Moat, CEO of T-Mobile UK who will become CEO of the merged companies.

It remains to be seen if the merger will mean lower prices for consumers. The UK is one of the most competitive markets in Europe for mobile operators and profits are said to be low. The joint venture between T-Mobile and Orange should bring operating costs down, but that doesn't mean that any savings will be passed on to consumers.

Yesterday Ebay announced in a press release that it had completed the sale of it's VOIP service Skype after agreeing a settlement with its original creators Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. The sale went ahead for 2.75 billion dollars to an investment group led by Silver Lake and includes Joltid Limited and other affiliated organisations. Under the ownership of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, Joltid were the original owners and creators of Skype until they sold it off to Ebay for around $2.6 billion during 2005.

As part of the deal, Ebay will still hold a 30% equity investment in Skype. Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis will hold a 14 percent stake and rights to the Global Index PS2P technology that their company Joltid holds IP for. This technology is integral to the operation of Skype but during the buyout Ebay failed to ensure control or legitimate access to the technology. This resulted in Jolid threadening legal action as Ebay were using their IP without permission.

However now that everything has been settled the deal to sell Skype has gone forward. Ebay have received $1.9 billion in hard cash and a note form the buyer in the principal amount of $125 million. Ebay also purchased senior debt securities with a face value of $50 million as part of a Skype debt financing.

Microsoft today announced that revenue for the last quarter was down 14 percent on the same period last year, however despite the fall they still raked in the measly sum of $12.92 billion in revenue. Breaking it down further, operating income stood at $4.48 billion, net income stood at $3.56 billion while shares stand at $0.40 per share, all of which represent declines of 25, 18 and 17 percent respectively.

Despite the falls Microsoft stated that they are very pleased with their $3.56 billion in profit for the last quarter. Chris Liddell chief financial officer for Microsoft said, "We are very pleased with our performance this quarter and particularly by the strong consumer demand for Windows". He continued by saying "We also maintained our cost discipline, which allowed us to drive strong earnings performance despite continued tough overall economic conditions".

With development costs for Windows 7 out the way Microsoft is hoping the strong consumer interest for Windows 7 will pave the way for increased profits for the next quarter and thereafter. Windows 7 although only released yesterday looks set to be a success for Microsoft, there is a buzz about it that consumers haven't experienced for a while where Microsoft OSs go. Windows 7 had a hugely successful pre-order campaign, was ranked first in Amazons sales charts and looks set to be a big success for Microsoft.

Further information regarding Microsoft's last quarter performance can be found via Microsoft's Investor Relations site.

If you are at your work desk right now, twiddling your thumbs and thinking that you will sign into your favourite social network site such as Facebook or Twitter, just to express how loathsome your day has been, then you might want to think again before you do so. This is because you could be breaching the rules of your work place.

According to a study performed by Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing company, 54% of US businesses block their employees from accessing sites such as Twitter and Facebook during office hours. The study that was released last week found that 19% of companies allow access to social network sites for business use only, while 16% allowed a limited amount of time to be spent on using such sites for personal use during office hours. The study also found that of the 1,400 Congress of Industrial Organizations questioned only 10% said their companies allowed unrestricted access to social networking sites.

Social networking has exploded in popularity in just the last four years and looks set to become even more popular. Some businesses have cottoned onto quite quickly the way in which the world now communicates and actively use social networking sites to baluster the position of the products and services they provide or to check a prospective employee out before they offer them that job they're after. However there is no disputing the fact that when some employees spend up to two working hours a day on the likes of Twitter, Facebook et al, productivity is bound to take a hit.

"Using social networking sites may divert employees' attention away from more pressing priorities, so it's understandable that some companies limit access. For some professions, however, these sites can be leveraged as effective business tools, which may be why about one in five companies allows their use for work-related purposes." said Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, in a statement.

Necules Research who also conducted a similar study back in July found that productivity drops around 1.5% in businesses that allow unrestricted access to social networking sites and that 77% of workers interviewed admit to using Facebook during working hours and some 87% of workers had no business reason for using the their favoured Social Networking site.

Original source: Wiredblog.com

Julius Genachowski, chief of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a plan that he believes should be put into action that would keep traffic on the Internet free and unobstructed regardless of what [legal] data is being transmitted.

The plans would in effect make it illegal for all ISPs within the US to block, slow down or throttle bandwidth of its customers' whether from a fixed machine such as a desktop or a mobile device such as a cell/mobile phone. The plan proposes that all data transmitted by consumers whether to or from PCs should be unhindered while it traverses the Internet to it's final destination. This would mean that if you downloaded a lot of video content, you would no longer face speed limitations on your service should you go over a monthly bandwidth cap.

Currently some ISPs will throttle bandwidth or slow your Internet down (that you pay for) should you go over a certain bandwidth limit or cap. Under the new proposals operators would no longer be able to prevent customers from accessing lawful content, applications or services on the Internet. However given that all content should be treated equally the ISPs argue it would make it difficult for them to manage and protect their networks and consumers from harmful content. It could (and probably would) hamper their ability to provide a reasonable service to all their customers of a certain geographical area, if a few customers in that area are hogging all the network's resources. 

Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA said "We believe that this kind of regulation is unnecessary in the competitive wireless space as it would prevent carriers from managing their networks, such as curtailing viruses and other harmful content, to the benefit of their consumers".

However those that support the plan (Google and Amazon are among them) argue it would help people to be more creative, innovative and help people make better connections with each other and companies. This was backed up by Genachowski as he stated "Greater transparency will give consumers the confidence of knowing that they're getting the service they've paid for, enable innovators to make their offerings work effectively over the Internet, and allow policy makers to ensure that broadband providers are preserving the Internet as a level playing field."

Genachowski has stated that during October the FCC will issue a 'Notice of Proposed Rule making' at it's meeting. The FCC will also be seeking ideas and comments from anyone who is interested in contributing to the proposed rules. The FCC also launched a Web site to encourage the public to participate in the matter.

What's clear from all of this is that morally speaking the consumer should get what they pay for and they should be allowed unhindered access to content on the net if it is legal and from a device of there choosing. That's part of what living in a 'free country' is all about. However the stance of the ISPs' is that they believe the government should not be telling them how to operate their networks and services - who can blame them.

No consumer likes it when an ISP limits the service they are paying for, but it is a fact that some people do take advantage of the services ISPs' provide and can have a detrimental impact on those that use the service fairly and reasonably. One thing is for sure, we haven't heard the end of this debate and it is likely to wrangle on for some time yet as both sides will probably need to make compromises, particularly where mobile services are concerned.

Sources: Cnet, The Wall Street Journal

In a press release, Amazon has announced that it is to launch it's own-brand of consumer electronics named AmazonBasics. This range of products has been created to offer customers "exceptional value". Initially AmazonBasics will only be available in the US through Amazon.com, however the product range is expected to be rolled out to international sites in the coming months. Paul Ryder, vice president of Consumer Electronics for Amazon.com as quoted in the press release said,

"We saw an opportunity to create a line of consumer electronics basics that combine quality and low prices for an overall focus on value. We drew on our history of developing other private-label brands and combined that with our mission to give customers the ultimate in selection and value. AmazonBasics is the result. We will continue to gather input from customers and evaluate opportunities for new products under the AmazonBasics brand. We aim to offer our customers as wide a selection as possible, and we think AmazonBasics makes a great addition to the brands we already carry."

A quick look at the AmazonBasics portion of Amazon.com will reveal HDMI, USB, Ethernet, Firewire and Optical cables as the products currently on sale along with blank dvd/cd media however this range of goods will obviously be expanded upon in the coming months.

There has been no official word as yet, but I suspect that we could be seeing USB Pen Drives, SD Cards, card readers and USB hubs as part of the products on sale in the coming months as e-tailers in my experience seem to love branding these sort of items as their own. I guess it's because they're cheap for the consumer and will sell by the shed load. Only time will tell though if Amazon do start selling these items under the AmazonBasics brand.

Amazon is no stranger to releasing its own products either. The Kindle Amazon's e-book reader has been on sale in the US for a while now, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see AmazonBasics branded accessories for it in the future as it would make sense for Amazon to support one brand it owns with another brand it owns. Though this is pure speculation on my part of course.

AmazonBasics site.