"Symantec, seeking to broaden its software technology to battle the growing flood of junk e-mail, announced Wednesday that it is paying $370 million in cash for anti-spam company Brightmail. The deal gives Symantec a foothold in one of the hottest areas of computer security -- helping customers filter out billions of unwanted e-mail messages," reports the Mercury News.

Almost every financial thing you wanted to know about Google but were afraid to ask is here. However, there's about two megabytes of stuff, so don't try it on your mobile phone....

"Google Inc, the world's No 1 Web search provider, filed with U.S. regulators on Thursday to become a publicly listed company, saying it would sell as much as $2.7 billion in stock in a widely expected initial public offering," reports Reuters.

USA Today reports that "Wall Street is going gaga over Google, prompting some to think the frenzy over the expected — but unscheduled — initial public offering is reaching unhealthy levels that could set up many investors for disappointment. Rumors, misinformation and hopes for fast riches are swirling about the online search engine, creating an eerie flashback to the Internet IPO bubble in the late 1990s. Any more fervor could threaten the broad IPO recovery by burning investors who end up overpaying. "In the 13 years we've been researching IPOs, we've never seen a more hyped IPO," says Kathy Smith at Renaissance Capital.

"The ad for the Sportka, a hatchback sold in Europe, shows the realistic-looking orange cat climbing on top of the car and poking its head into the open moonroof, The Detroit News reported Sunday. The hatch slides closed, the cat struggles briefly and its headless body slides to the ground," reports AP.

"About 41.2 million [PCs] were shipped in the quarter, a 16.5% increase from the year-ago period, according to Framingham, Mass.-based IDC. Gartner Inc, which uses slightly different measurement methods, reported that 45.3 million units were shipped, a 13.4% increase from the previous year," reports AP.

IBM, the world's biggest computer company, increased its first quarter sales by 11% to $22.3 billion, while profits grew by 16% to $1.60 billion, though as AP reports, "much of Big Blue's revenue gains came from weakness in the dollar".