Apple Inc's antitrust case with the European Union over e-book publishing could be settled in a couple of months, European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Tuesday. The EU's antitrust chief said he hoped to resolve soon an investigation into Apple and four publishers over deals setting e-book prices."Hopefully in the coming couple of months, we will reach a settlement," Almunia told a British Chamber of Commerce conference.The European Commission is now market-testing an offer by Apple and the publishers in a bid to end the EU probe. The four are CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster, News Corp unit HarperCollins, French group Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan in Germany.
Apple Inc. (Apple), along with its subsidiaries, is engaged in designing, manufacturing and marketing mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players. Shares of AAPL traded higher by 0.1% or $0.63/share to $638.80. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $363.32 and as high as $705.07. On average, 15405500 shares of AAPL exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 24912684.
News Corporation is a diversified global media company. Shares of NWSA fell by 1.53% or $-0.385/share to $24.74. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $15.93 and as high as $25.45. On average, 14457000 shares of NWSA exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 8522378.
Source
