CheckFree sold for $4.2bn

Fiserv, a provider of information management systems and services, is buying online banking and billing company CheckFree for about $4.2 billion in cash, the companies said yesterday, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Officials said there would be cost savings from combining the companies, which serve banks and other financial institutions, but they did not indicate how many, if any, jobs might be shed. The two companies employ 27 000 people, including 900 CheckFree employees who work at offices in Dublin.

Peter J Kight, CheckFree's chairman and chief executive, declined to say whether there were any other bidders for the company. Executives said CheckFree and Fiserv had been in discussions for several months.

FirstEnergy announced it has added MasterCard credit and debit cards to its list of online payment options so customers can automatically pay their monthly electric bills, according to PR News Wire.

The offering, available to customers of FirstEnergy's seven electric utility operating companies, lets customers track payments via their monthly credit or debit card statement.

"Our online credit and debit card payment options give our customers another convenient way to manage their bills with all the protections and benefits of using a payment card," said Tom Clark, VP of Customer Service & Service Area Development for FirstEnergy. "We are pleased to be able to expand this popular programme to MasterCard users."

Automatic audio ads that co-opt the user's speakers to automatically play sounds and music are often intrusive and annoying and can even disrupt the workplace, reports E-Commerce Times.

The oft-cursed technique begs the question of whether advertisers can actually sell goods to a startled audience left leaping from their chairs and desperately seeking the mute button. "Automatic audio ads are failing miserably," says Jean-Pierre Khoueiri, CEO of Internet advertising and search engine optimisation specialists Constant Click.

It isn't only the "gotcha" scare that turns unsuspecting users off to audio ads; it is a combination of poor taste, bad timing and terrible tact. "Ads are generally off topic and often poorly made," says Khoueiri.