BUSINESS

In Brief

Microsoft Rebuffs Plea

PARIS (NYT) — Microsoft rebuffed a public appeal by Mikhail Gorbachev last week for its chairman, Bill Gates, to intervene on behalf of a Russian school principal charged with software piracy.

“Ponosov’s case is a criminal case and as such was initiated and investigated by the public prosecutor’s office in Russia,’’ a statement from Microsoft said. “We are sure that the Russian courts will make a fair decision.’’

Disney Talks

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Walt Disney Co., the second-largest U.S. media company, is in talks on making television shows in Russia with a unit of billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s holding company AFK Sistema.

Talks began in November and Sistema hopes to reach an accord on jointly making shows at a studio being built in St. Petersburg, Sistema Mass-Media Chief Executive Officer Michael Dounaev told reporters in Moscow Thursday, declining to elaborate.

Sistema Mass-Media’s has more than 3 million household subscribers for its cable television and Internet service.

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