AOL`s German Web business sold for $870m

Telecom Italia will buy Time Warner`s AOL Germany Internet access business for 675 million euros ($870 million) in cash, according to a report at ITNewsOnline.

The companies are expected to close the transaction in four to six months, after receiving the customary regulatory approvals.

"Once its acquisition of AOL Germany`s Internet access business closes, Telecom Italia will be Germany`s second-largest broadband provider, with more than 3.2 million total subscribers, including nearly two million broadband customers," adds the report.

Search engine giant Google has confirmed it will set up a political action committee (PAC) designed expressly to raise money for political candidates and causes.

The top priority for Google NetPAC, as the company has named it, will be swaying "critical decisions affecting Internet freedom, innovation, and competition," says Alan Davidson, Google`s Washington policy counsel.

The News.Com report adds Google has followed in the footsteps of other IT companies like Microsoft, Intel and Oracle, who already count PAC donations as part of their political strategy.

An ex-MI6 spy officer, Richard Tomlinson, has defied the UK`s secret services by posting the first chapter of his spy novel online, according to Britain`s The Register.

Tomlinson was fired from the foreign arm of British secret intelligence in 1995, and spent a year in a maximum security prison for publishing a book about his time in the organisation.

But the article reports he has fought back against what he claims is intimidation by his old employers with the publication of chapter one of "The Golden Chain" on his blog.

Online music service Napster said on Monday it hired UBS Investment bank to help it look at strategic alternatives, which could include the sale of the company.

"The company said the move was in response to what it said was recent third-party interest, though it has not set a timetable for completing the evaluation," states a Reuters report at News.Com.

Napster CEO Chris Gorog has said: "Our goal is to enhance shareholder value, which could potentially lead to a new strategic partnership or the sale of the company."