2004-12-30
I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report.
The Russian oil company, Yukos, continued its legal battle with
the Russian government in two-thousand-four. The government reported
this year that Yukos owed more than twenty-seven thousand million
dollars in taxes. Russian officials ordered Yukos to pay the debt by
selling one of its businesses – Yuganskneftegaz. It is the main oil
producing business of Yukos.
Yukos sought protection from its
creditors in a court in the United States. Judge Letitia Clark
barred the sale of Yuganskneftegaz for ten days. She also barred
Russia's largest natural gas company, Gazprom, from buying the
company.
But within days, a Russian business, the Baikal Finance Group,
bought Yuganskneftegaz. The group paid about nine thousand three
hundred million dollars.
Soon after, officials of Baikal Finance Group offered to sell
their company to the Russian company Rosneft Oil. Last week, it was
announced that Gazprom would join with Rosneft in January. The
Russian government is the majority owner of Gazprom.
Lawyers for Yukos say the offer to buy Yuganskneftegaz is
illegal. They say Gazprom is using companies it controls to seize
the most valuable part of Yukos.
A decision was reached in another court case last week. The
European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg ruled against
Microsoft Corporation in a dispute with the European Union. The
court ordered Microsoft to pay about six hundred sixty-six million
dollars. It also ordered the company to change the way its sells
software products in Europe.
Software is the group of commands that makes a computer work.
Microsoft connects its software products to its operating system,
Windows. About ninety percent of all computers use Windows.
The European Commission on Competition ruled in March that
combining, or bundling, software was unfair. It ordered Microsoft to
provide a version of Windows without other Microsoft software
products. The company is appealing the ruling.
And, we started the year by reporting on the decreasing value of
the American dollar. Since then, the dollar has dropped to a record
low against the main money in Europe, the euro. The dollar also has
lost about four percent of its value against the Japanese yen.
Experts say the falling value of the dollar makes American exports
less costly.
This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario
Ritter. This is Gwen Outen.