Merck to buyout biotech co in $1.1bn all cash deal
San Francisco: Global Pharmaceutical giant Merck has agreed to pay $1.1bn to buy Sirna Therapeutics, a tiny biotechnology San Francisco-based company developing drugs based on new technology at the heart of last month's Nobel Prize for medicine award.

Merck's $13-per-share offer for the firm is almost is at a 102 pc premium over Sirna's closing Nasdaq Stock Market price of $6.45. Sirna is developing drugs using so-called RNA interference technology.

There are at least a half-dozen biotechnology companies developing drugs that silence genes by interfering with the messenger-carrying RNA, a technique discovered by this year's Nobel winners, Andrew Fire of Stanford University and Craig Mello at the University of Massachusetts. There are eight US and European patents specifically related to the technology.

Sirna's stock surged 98 pc to $12.74 in after-hours trading. The stock's high for the past year is $8.52, set in April.

Merck's stock fell 45 cents to $45.64 at the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange and remained unchanged in after-hours trading.
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Emirates cancels orders from Airbus
Dubai: The largest Arab airline, Emirates has cancelled an order for as many as 20 long-range Airbus A340-600 aircraft, ending a delay in the delivery of the aircraft pending enhancements. The airline declined to explain the reason for the cancellation.

Dubai-based Emirates ordered 12 of the four-engine planes and options for eight more in '03 for delivery in May. Emirates delayed the delivery in March after Airbus proposed making an enhanced version of the high-gross-weight variant of the plane.

The Dubai government-owned carrier is also reviewing its order for 43 of Airbus' new A380, 555-seat aircraft after a delivery delay of almost two years.

Emirates has critical of Airbus, which is running behind schedule after encountering problems in installing wiring in the A380 planes.
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Microsoft crackdown on dealers selling counterfeit software
Amsterdam: In its largest enforcement effort till now Microsoft has started 55 legal actions around the world against dealers accused of selling counterfeit software online. The legal actions include 15 in the US, 10 in Germany, 10 in the Netherlands, five in France and five in Britain, as well as proceedings in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Korea, Mexico and Poland.

The cases are against sellers who the company says have misused their eBay or other online auction site accounts to sell counterfeit software. Microsoft said it had sent warnings for infringing behaviour to many of the defendants before taking the legal action.
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