IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 16 April
16-04-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Real-time bus info set for rollout | Facebook usage soars
The Irish Times reports that real-time arrival information at bus stops and a traffic management system that will allow buses to have priority at more than 600 junctions across Dublin will be in place from next year, according to Dublin City Council. The real-time system uses satellite technology to identify the position of approaching buses and update the arrival time on an electronic display unit. The bus priority system is funded by the Dublin Transportation Office and is due to be introduced early next year and fully implemented by the end of 2010. The real-time passenger information panels are due to be introduced in the middle of next year, but their rollout is subject to funding in next year's Budget.
The paper also reports that vehicle sat-nav systems are sending tourists to the wrong part of the Southeast. People intending to visit Fethard-on-Sea in south Wexford are accidentally ending up in Fethard, County Tipperary, a Wexford county councillor has said. Martin Murphy said new signs erected in the seaside village in Wexford simply say Fethard rather than Fethard-on-Sea. Director of Roads Services Adrian Doyle pointed out that people could enter the name of the county as well as the town into their sat-navs in order to get the right directions.
The paper also says that over a quarter of Xilinx's Dublin staff are to be made redundant, as reported by ENN on Wednesday.
The Irish Independent says that telecoms start-up National Broadband has been slapped with a EUR385,000 judgment by Dublin legal firm William Fry. The charge is a blow to the Clane-based satellite broadband and phone company, which specialises in bringing broadband to areas where wireless and cable technology are unavailable. National Broadband founder John Keating failed to return calls on the nature of the judgment. A spokeswoman for William Fry said she could not comment on how the charge had arisen, since it was an "ongoing case".
The Irish Examiner reports that Facebook usage in Ireland has soared 150 percent in the last year, with more than half a million people now using the social networking site. However, Facebook is not as popular in Ireland as Bebo, which has about 1 million users. In Ireland, 512,000 people used Facebook in February, compared with 203,000 a year earlier, according to digital analysts comScore. Facebook is now the number six-ranked website worldwide, with 275 million visitors in February, a 175 percent increase over the previous year. In Europe, the site has seen a 314 percent increase to nearly 100 million visitors.
The Financial Times says that Yahoo is seeking buyers for HotJobs, an employment site, according to sources. Yahoo bought the site in 2001 for USD436 million in cash and stock. People familiar with the company's plans said that other acquisitions could be offloaded as new CEO Carol Bartz seeks to streamline operations. Yahoo could provide details of which other divisions are up for sale when it reports its earnings on Tuesday. It is also expected to announce between 200 and 500 job cuts and some reordering of the company at the level below senior managers.
The paper also reports that a group of technology companies led by IBM, Nokia and Oracle has joined the European Commission's antitrust case against Microsoft and will testify against the company. Ecis, a technology industry group, said it had been accepted as a third party complainant in the case, joining Google and the Mozilla Foundation. The software giant is accused of abusing its dominance in the web browser market. Microsoft declined to comment on the news.
The same paper notes that Nortel Networks, the troubled Canadian telecoms equipment firm, is more likely to be broken up than to emerge intact from bankruptcy protection, according to analysts. "I am not expecting Nortel to emerge from bankruptcy, I think there will be a full break-up," said Ping Zhao, a credit analyst with New York-based CreditSights. "From the minute that Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection, revenue probably started to decline dramatically." Ronald Gruia, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, concurred. "It is becoming increasingly likely that Nortel will be broken up," he said.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Hewlett-Packard overtook Dell as the leading PC maker in the US for the first three months of 2009, according to two market trackers. Hewlett-Packard moved ahead of Dell because of surprisingly strong sales to US consumers and Dell's inability to take advantage of the opportunities, according to IDC. Gartner reported a similar change on the US leader board after stronger-than-expected sales. Worldwide, PC shipments fell 7.1 percent, according to IDC, with Gartner suggesting the decline was less severe.
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