Ashlee Vance and Matt Berger

Dell Computer Corp. has fended off the combined might of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Compaq Computer Corp. to regain its spot as the world's leading PC vendor, according to data published Thursday by two research firms. Dell is unlikely to give up the crown any time soon, one analyst said.

Hewlett-Packard Co. claimed an early victory Tuesday in its acquisition bid for Compaq Computer Corp., saying preliminary results indicate shareholders have approved the deal.

Hewlett-Packard Co. shareholders began gathering Tuesday at The Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif., waiting anxiously to enter and cast their ballots on HP's proposed acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. The vote on the contentious US$21 billion deal arrived with a flurry of last-minute stumping by HP executives and critics of the acquisition, who have spent the last several months playing out the debate in the media.

A new virus emerged Wednesday that is the first to target Microsoft Corp.'s .Net platform for building and deploying Web services, posing an early risk for the build-out of the next-generation Internet, according to an antivirus vendor.nnCalled W32/Donut, the virus originated in the Czech Republic and targets files running in Microsoft's .Net Framework, the set of building blocks that are needed to create and execute XML (Extensible Markup Language) Web services and other applications in Windows.

Microsoft Corp. raised the curtains Monday on Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), making the latest upgrade to its Web browsing software available to users as a download from its Web site.