Microsoft, Samsung in pact on PCs, appliances

SEOUL: Microsoft Corp. and South Korea's Samsung Electronics said on
Wednesday they had agreed to jointly develop and market consumer PCs and
electronic home appliances.

Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates and Chin Dae-je, president and CEO
of Samsung Electronics' digital media business, signed a memorandum of
understanding in Seoul over the deal.

Samsung said the deal had no monetary value.

"The two companies intend to work together to develop and market a new
breed of products based on Samsung hardware and Microsoft Windows
software," Gates said in a statement.

Gates is visiting several Asian nations to promote Microsoft's latest
technology.

In South Korea, his latest stop, around 56 per cent of the population, or
24.1 million people use the Internet, according to the latest data from the
Ministry of Information and Communication.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.