Tech site forced to pull banner ads containing exploit, and other brief reports ...

* Oracle proclaimed a symbolic victory last week after a majority of PeopleSoft stockholders accepted its offer of $24 a share. However, in a meeting on Saturday, PeopleSoft\'s board of directors unanimously decided that it would continue to oppose the deal at that price. Full report in the New York Times * Some research houses, including The Yankee Group, are predicting strong growth for the Web-based conferencing sector, albeit from a low base of $480m last year to an estimated $700m by the end of 2004. The main attraction of the technology is its ability to hold meetings between geographically distant people without all the clutter and equipment of video-conferencing systems. Full report in The Times * A US jury has ordered Encounters International, an online matchmaking service, to pay damages of $434 000 after it was sued by a Ukranian woman who had used the firm\'s service to meet her US husband whom she accused of beating her. Nataliya Fox accused the agency of fraud and negligence after the man introduced to her by the firm and whom she later married, attacked her, forcing her to seek help at a refuge for battered women. Full Out-Law.com report * When you think you\'ve had enough of spam, take heart. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates receives four million e-mail messages each day and most of these are spam. Full report on the IOL site