Google says 288,
Casio Graphics Calculator says 288
TI86 says 288,
Sony xperia X10 says 288.
Excel says 288
Now, five out of five say 288...hrmmm...I wonder.
The reasoning that two doesn't factor in to the answer is because of the layout. The layout given, is the way you work it out.
The fact there is no 'x' doesn't weigh into it at all as:
Multiplication can be written three different ways:
9 * x
9x
9(x)
http://library.thinkquest.org/20991/prealg/eq.html
division or multiplication are answered in order of which comes first (left to right).