In the papers 2 May

02-05-2008

by Sylvia Leatham

Half of Dublin firms' Wi-Fi networks are unsecured | Sun slides into the red

The Irish Times reports that Microsoft's main operating company in Ireland, Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited (MIOL), accounted for over 10 percent of the software giant's overall USD20.1 billion pretax profit in 2007. MIOL paid its parent EUR1.485 billion, which using the exchange rates in operation at the end of June last, when Microsoft closed its financial year, is just over 10 percent of Microsoft Corporation's pretax profit. MIOL runs Microsoft European Operations Centre, which is based in south Dublin and employs about 1,100 staff. Its main activity is providing back-office and supply-chain services to Microsoft operations in 126 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The paper also reports that more than half of Dublin city-centre businesses with their own Wi-Fi networks have left them open to hackers. A 'war walk' conducted on behalf of professional services firm Deloitte found there has been a 25 percent increase in wireless networks in Dublin's business districts since a previous survey in 2006. That study found that 56 percent of networks were not secured. This year Deloitte found 594 open networks, or 54 percent of the total.

The paper also notes that nearly 18,000 Irish hospitals, petrol stations, ATMs, industrial estates and other points of interest have been mapped and can be downloaded to satellite navigation systems from a new website. Mypois.ie is adding hundreds of new locations every couple of weeks, and for a fee of EUR50 the information can be downloaded to Garmin GPS systems.

The same paper says that people who watch digital television on their PC or mobile phone will be exempt from paying the TV licence fee, under new measures just announced. Launching a new online payment system for television licences, Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan said that digital devices such as laptops and 3G phones had been deliberately excluded from the licence scheme.

According to the Financial Times, an attempted turnaround at Sun Microsystems has suffered a dent with news that the former high-flyer has fallen back into a loss and seen its growth evaporate in the opening months of the year. Sun, a maker of servers and storage systems, reported an after-tax loss of USD34 million for the three months to the end of March. Revenues for the quarter slipped USD17 million from a year before to USD3.27 billion, about USD100 million less than Wall Street had expected. Sun said it would cut another 1,500 to 2,500 jobs in an effort to rebuild profit margins.

The Wall Street Journal says that Yahoo could announce an agreement to carry search advertisements from Google within a week, as it braces itself for the next move in Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid for the company, according to sources. Yahoo has been pursuing a broad agreement to carry search ads from Google, a move it views as a way to boost its cash flow and bolster its claim to shareholders that it is worth more than Microsoft has offered. Such an agreement could still go forward even if Microsoft announced a hostile takeover effort. While a broad search-ad pact would likely attract intense antitrust scrutiny, the options Google and Yahoo are discussing include a non-exclusive arrangement that they believe could satisfy regulators, say sources.

The paper also notes that a number of major movie studios -- including Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios -- have agreed to allow Apple's iTunes to sell movies on the same day they are released on DVD. Until now, films from most studios have not been available on iTunes until weeks after their DVD release. For consumers, new movies will cost USD14.99. According to a source, the studios will get a wholesale price close to USD16, making the product a loss leader for Apple at the moment.