IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 8 January
08-01-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Dell staff learn their fate | EMC to shed jobs
The Irish Times says that Dell workers in Limerick will learn their fate on Thursday, following months of speculation over the future of the city's largest employer. Some 3,000 workers will hear from management on plans for restructuring the company at a series of meetings beginning at 9am at the Raheen facility. Look out for an update on Dell on ENN.ie this morning.
The paper also reports on the opening ceremony for the 2009 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the RDS in Dublin on Wednesday. President Mary McAleese launched the exhibition, praising students' "brainpower" and creativity and saying they were the "seed corn" of Ireland's future prosperity. The results of the competition will be announced on Friday.
The Irish Independent says that chip giant Intel's fourth-quarter sales plunged 23 percent, as reported by ENN on Wednesday.
The paper also notes that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), part of the education publishing empire built up by Barry O'Callaghan's Riverdeep, is believed to have turned down an unsolicited approach in recent months for its consumer literature business. However, the group said it is open to selling the unit, which accounts for about 4 percent of its total profits.
The Irish Examiner reports that most teaching, engineering and science courses are filled by Leaving Cert students, rather than mature students or other applicants, according to official figures. An analysis of data from the Central Applications Office, which filled more than 42,000 college places last year, shows that more than four-in-five vacancies in these categories of college programme were taken by students who sat the Leaving Certificate a few months earlier. Figures released in November showed that just under 70 percent of places on all courses in 2008 went to Leaving Cert students, while mature students, people with previous third-level experience and those with further education qualifications each made up more than 10 percent of all successful applicants.
The paper also says that EMC is to cut its global workforce by 7 percent as the data storage firm looks to curtail its costs. The company will slash 2,400 positions as part of an effort to reduce costs by about USD350 million in 2009 and USD500 million in 2010. EMC employs around 1,800 people in Ireland, mostly in Cork. It was not clear on Wednesday night if Irish operations will be affected by the announcement.
The same paper notes that the implementation of new software resulted in the disruption of telephone services at the Revenue Commissioners in Cork this week. Revenue said lines are expected to be operating as normal from Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal reports that software giant Microsoft has announced a milestone for the next version of Windows and a flurry of deals designed to boost its online search business. The company has unveiled a preliminary version of Windows 7, the next major edition of its operating system, available for consumers to test from Friday. Microsoft also announced a five-year deal with Verizon Wireless to make its internet-search service broadly available on the mobile operator's phones and a similar agreement with Dell covering its PCs. The Microsoft agreements displace an existing search deal that rival Google had with Dell and another that Google was previously negotiating with Verizon.
According to the Financial Times, Chinese PC maker Lenovo has issued a profit warning and said it would suffer a "material loss" for the last quarter of 2008. The world's fourth largest PC vendor said it would cut 2,500 jobs, or 11 percent of its global workforce, and reduce executive compensation by between 30 and 50 percent under a USD150 million restructuring plan. Along with other computer makers, Lenovo is suffering from a drop in demand for PCs, but is especially being hit hard because of its reliance on the corporate segment.
The paper also notes that Time Warner has slashed its forecasts for 2008 profits and taken a USD25 billion writedown on the value of its empire of old media properties, such as Time Inc magazines, and new media brands, including AOL. Time Warner expects just 1 percent growth in adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortisation for 2008. As late as 5 November, the company had predicted growth of 5 percent. The group revealed an accelerated deterioration of its magazine and internet divisions in the fourth quarter, reinforcing the company's plan to pare down or shed non-content assets.
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