Also

* Macerich Co., a Santa Monica real estate investment trust, said it purchased two retail centers in California for $151.3 million. The company acquired the La Cumbre Plaza in Santa Barbara and the Mall of Victor Valley in Victorville.

* Hasbro Inc. said director Steven Spielberg would head production of a live-action movie based on its Transformers robotic toys. The film, slated for release in mid-2006, will involve Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures and Spielberg’s DreamWorks Pictures, according to the toy maker. Takara Co., Transformers’ Japanese co-developer, also will participate.

* Microsoft Corp. is in talks with five or six potential buyers of its online magazine Slate. Scott Moore, general manager of MSN Network Experience, said the discussions involved several media companies but he declined to identify them. Meanwhile, Microsoft said it would hire as many as 7,000 employees worldwide in its current fiscal year.

* Skype Technologies, the company behind the peer-to-peer program Skype that lets computer users make free calls to one another anywhere in the world, plans to release a new version this year that lets users call regular phones from a computer. There was no word on how much Skype Out would cost users.