Missed Payment Stalls Hotmail

Microsoft Corp., the software giant worth an estimated $600 billion, said its free e-mail service had been partially crippled because it forgot to pay a $35 bill. Some users of Microsoft’s Hotmail service were unable to access their accounts over the Christmas weekend, said Kathy Gill, a Microsoft spokeswoman. The glitch was caused after Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft failed to pay a $35 fee to registration company Network Solutions for rights to the Internet domain name passport.com, which verifies user names and passwords for Hotmail and other services, Gill said. Hotmail has more than 52 million users around the world, but Microsoft said it is unclear how many experienced problems.