Microsoft Corp said on Friday it will stop offering a $400 rebate to new subscribers of its MSN Internet access service, an offer aimed at rapidly building its user base but one that analysts say has hit the software giant in the pocketbook. Microsoft instead will offer one free year of MSN to buyers of new personal computers, and expects the new deal will enable it to continue to add at least half a million subscribers each quarter, Bob Visse, lead product manager for MSN marketing, said in an interview. The $400 rebate for subscribers who signed a three-year contract would be halted in March, while the new offer, which expands to other PC makers a deal initially given only to buyers of machines from Dell Computer Corp was already in effect, Visse said.
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