SYDNEY, Sept. 6--AsiaNet/InfoQuest CSIRO DISCOVERY... SYDNEY: A CSIRO innovation for determining gene functionquickly and with virtually 100 per cent efficiency has beengranted a US patent clarifying its leadership position in theinternational gene silencing arena. WACKER CELEBRATES... MELBOURNE: In Melbourne, the German chemical Group WACKERcelebrated the 25th anniversary of its Australian subsidiary. www.wacker.com ASIAN FOOTBALL... BANGKOK: Dutch global financial services company ING hassigned a deal to become an Official Sponsor of the AFC AsianCup 2007, the continent's national team competition. INTEGRATED RESEARCH... SYDNEY: Integrated Research, developers of PROGNOSISperformance management solutions is aiming to capture a marketopportunity with the introduction of PROGNOSIS for WebApplications. www.ir.com NOMINUM PARTNERSHIP... REDWOOD CITY, Calif: Nominum, a provider of IP addressinfrastructure solutions, has announced its partnership withTestor Technologies Development, a Beijing based provider oftechnology solutions for the Asian telecom industry. www.nominum.com RAKUTEN PURCHASE... TOKYO & NEW YORK: Rakuten, Inc. announced that it hasentered into a definitive agreement to acquire LinkShareCorporation, a privately held New York-based performance-basedmarketing firm, for a cash purchase price of approximately US$425million. (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agenciesdistributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwideclients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)