Daily Digest 15 August

15-08-2008

by Deirdre McArdle

DataBackup gobbles up Backup Cheetah | Daft Media takes slice of Boards.ie

Irish firm DataBackup.ie has acquired Belfast-based data back-up firm Backup Cheetah, for an undisclosed sum. Backup Cheetah operates primarily in Northern Ireland and has a client base of just over 100 customers. These customers have been migrated onto the DataBackup network, which is based in a number of Tier 4 datacentres in Dublin. DataBackup director Tom O'Connor said the acquisition is the "first of many" on the cards in the coming months. He said DataBackup has plans to consolidate a number of smaller players in the market under its umbrella.

In another investment by an Irish firm, Daft Media has acquired a minority stake in discussion forum website Boards.ie, for an undisclosed sum. Daft Media is fast becoming one of Ireland's largest media firms. It owns the hugely popular property website Daft.ie, which has just under 1 million unique users, and also purchased Property.ie in March of this year. "We strongly believe the future of media is online and Boards.ie is well positioned to be a leading player in Irish online media. Our combined audience is over 2.1 million unique viewers every month which is larger than most TV stations in Ireland," said Eamonn Fallon, CEO of Daft Media. Boards.ie says it plans to use the cash injection to invest further in infrastructure, add more features to the website and improve the user experience, according to Gerry Shanahan, managing director, Boards.ie.

US consumers bought USD446.9 million worth of video game hardware during July, representing a 17 percent jump from the same month a year ago. That's according to figures from market researcher NPD Group, which revealed that the Nintendo DS was the top-selling gaming system in the US for the month with 608,400 units, followed by Nintendo's Wii at 555,000 units. The PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft came in a distant third and fourth, selling 224,900 units and 204,000 units, respectively.

Dublin-based firm GreenJobs, which operates the jobs website greenjobs.ie, has rolled out greenjobs.co.uk. The firm's websites advertise vacancies within the environmental industry in sectors such as renewable energy, sustainability, biomass, chemical engineering and climate change. Greenjobs was set up earlier this year and says it is Ireland's first jobs board fully dedicated to the green sector.

Smartphone shipments in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region reached 12.6 million in the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 28 percent on the year-ago tally. That's according to research from analyst firm Canalys, which showed that although there was a healthy year-on-year increase, growth has slowed from the first quarter, when a 44 percent increase was recorded. The research also revealed that 38 percent of the smartphones shipped in the quarter featured built-in GPS and 58 percent had integrated Wi-Fi. Touchscreen devices are taking off too; they represented 13 percent of the overall market.

Apple is currently working on a software fix for its new iPhone 3G in order to solve the issue of dropped phone calls that some users are experiencing, according to people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal reports that online complaints cite an unusually high number of calls dropping in mid-conversation. A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment. New iPhone software aimed at addressing the problem will reportedly be made available in the coming weeks to iPhone 3G users, who will be able to download and install it onto their devices through Apple's iTunes store.

Mobile phone giant Nokia has announced that Esko Aho is to join the firm in November of this year. Aho is to take over the role of executive vice president, corporate relations and responsibility, the position currently held by Veli Sundback, from 1 January 2009, following Sundback's retirement at the end of the year.