Google apologises to Sohu.com in software dispute
Beijing: Google Inc has apologised to Chinese rival Sohu.com after it complained that its data was used by Google in a new Internet tool.

Sohu.com Inc complained that Google's tool for inputting Chinese characters appeared to copy material from Sohu's Sogou search engine. Chinese Web surfers pointed out similarities shortly after the release of the Google tool.

Google said in a statement that it was willing to face up to its mistake, and offer an apology to users and to the Sohu company.

Web portals in China are reacting quickly to competitive threats.

Inputting the nonphonetic ideograms in which Chinese is written is a time-consuming chore, and a system that offers more convenience could help a site draw traffic from competitors.

Google's tool, the Pinyin Input Method Editor, is an easier way for a user to input characters in Pinyin, a phonetic system for writing characters in Roman letters. It also suggests possible characters after just a few letters are typed.
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Citigroup likely to buy hedge fund firm Old Lane
New York: Citigroup Inc may acquire Old Lane LP, a hedge fund firm for more than $600 million. Old Lane was co-founded by Vikram Pandit, a former Morgan Stanley executive.

If a purchase is completed, Pandit would become chief executive of Citigroup's alternative investments unit, media reports said.

Citigroup's alternative investments unit has been without a chief executive since the departure of Michael Carpenter in March 2006.

Lewis Kaden, Citigroup's chief administrative officer, has been overseeing the unit on an interim basis. The unit at year end oversaw $49.2 billion of assets, including $10.7 billion of Citigroup's own assets.

Old Lane is expected to have more than $4 billion of assets under management, according to reports.
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