| » AT&T announced that it had agreed to buy T-MobileUSA from Deutsche Telekom in a $39 billion deal. If approved by regulators the acquisition will create a behemoth in America’s wireless telecoms market, far larger than either Verizon Wireless or Sprint Nextel. The inevitable concerns were raised about the pernicious effects that such a dominant player could have on competition and prices. Sprint Nextel said it would oppose the deal. See article » Britain’s telecoms regulator laid out the conditions for an auction of spectrum for a fourth-generation mobile service. Ofcom said it would impose limits on the minimum and maximum amounts of mobile-phone frequencies in the bidding, set to take place early next year, in order to retain at least four big wireless operators in Britain and ensure healthy competition among them. See article » Google claimed that China was again interfering with its service in the country. This time the problem centres on Gmail, with numerous frustrations reported by users. China has stepped up its censorship of the internet in recent weeks, after the uprisings in the Middle East and an anonymous campaign calling for a Chinese “jasmine revolution”. See article
Back to the drawing board  »Google’s plan to put millions more books online was dealt a blow when a federal judge threw out a 2008 agreement on copyright reached with the associations that represent authors and publishers. The judge ruled that the settlement circumvented copyright law and would “further entrench” Google’s dominance in internet searches. He suggested that the parties should revise their deal. » Amazon opened an online store selling apps for Google’s Android smartphone operating system. However, Apple claims that Amazon’s “Appstore” infringes its own trademark “App Store”, and has filed a lawsuit. » Led by the Bank of Japan, the central banks of the G7 countries undertook their first co-ordinated intervention in currency markets for more than a decade to stabilise a soaring yen. The yen had reached a record high against the dollar amid speculation that Japanese companies would tap their huge foreign assets to help pay for reconstruction and insurance costs after the recent earthquake and tsunami.
Steady as she goes » George Osborne unveiled his budget to the House of Commons. Stung by criticism that the government lacked a strategy for boosting the economy, the British chancellor described his budget as pro-growth and made a further reduction to corporation tax. Mr Osborne also cancelled a planned rise in fuel duty and cut petrol tax by a penny, all paid for by a ٠ billion ($3.4 billion) levy on oil companies.
See article  » Speculation mounted that the European Central Bank would raise interest rates in April for the first time since 2008 when Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB’s president, said he had “nothing to add” to his policy statement earlier this month, which warned that “strong vigilance” was required to fight inflation in the euro zone. Mario Draghi, the governor of Italy’s central bank and a possible successor to Mr Trichet, whose term ends in October, said the ECB was “prepared to act in a firm and timely manner” on inflation. » Meanwhile, Britain’s inflation rate rose again, to 4.4% in February, to reach its highest level since October 2008. » Germany’s highest civil court ruled that Deutsche Bank had failed to advise a client about the true risk of a complex swap transaction in 2005, and ordered it to pay €541,000 ($769,000) in damages. The swap involved a bet on the difference between two-year and ten-year interest rates. As well as finding that Deutsche Bank did not adequately explain the transaction, the court said there was a conflict of interest as it was both advising and, in effect, betting against its client. The judgment may affect 24 other cases against Deutsche Bank. See article » Bank of America revealed that the Federal Reserve had blocked its plan for a “modest” increase in its dividend to shareholders in the second half of this year. The Fed’s objections came after another round of stress tests on banks, the results of which have not been divulged.
The club of Rome » Italy’s government considered measures to block a foreign takeover of Parmalat, a milk and food company deemed to be of “strategic” value to Italy, when Lactalis, a French dairy group which includes the Seriously Strong and President cheese brands in its portfolio, revealed it had amassed a 29% stake. Lactalis’s interest in Parmalat, which was restructured after a spectacular bankruptcy in 2003, comes soon after the Italian Bulgari family sold its celebrated jewellery empire to France’s LVMH. See article | 
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