IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 21 May
21-05-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Ireland slips down broadband poll | Craigslist: Buckmaster vs McMaster
The Irish Times reports that Ireland dropped one place last year in a league table of broadband penetration for 30 industrialised nations, according to the OECD. Ireland came in 21st at the end of 2008, with 20.57 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Denmark had the highest penetration rate, with 37.2 users per 100 inhabitants. In total, Ireland had 896,346 broadband subscribers at the end of 2008.
The paper also says that Hewlett-Packard has issued a disappointing outlook for full-year revenue and said it plans to cut another 2 percent of its workforce. Look out for more on this story in ENN's Weekly Digest on Thursday.
The paper also says that First Derivatives has recorded a 39 percent rise in full year revenues, as reported by ENN on Wednesday.
The Irish Independent says that Dublin-based directory enquiry service 11890 has pledged to create more than two new jobs for every 1,000 extra daily calls consumers make to its service. Founder Nicola Byrne said that every 500 extra calls received a day will lead to one new job at the firm, which employs nearly 100 people at call centres in Dublin and Cork. Byrne hopes the marketing drive will create about 90 new jobs at the company. The company currently handles about 20,000 calls a day.
According to the Wall Street Journal, consumer electronics giant Sony plans to halve its global suppliers over the next two years. The move is expected to help Sony, which is expecting another year of huge losses, to save at least JPY500 billion (USD5.3 billion) in purchasing costs this fiscal year. By March 2011, Sony aims to reduce the number of suppliers of parts and materials to 1,200, from the current 2,500, and to buy in bulk at lower prices. A Sony spokesman said the savings are already built into the company's earnings forecast of a net loss of JPY120 billion this year, deeper than the JPY98.9 billion loss it made the previous year.
The paper also reports that US classified ads site Craigslist has gone on the offensive by suing the attorney general of South Carolina, who had threatened to prosecute the site's executives over adult-oriented ads. The suit seeks a restraining order to prevent the attorney general, Henry McMaster, from filing criminal charges against Craigslist management. The company claims McMaster's threats violate its First Amendment and other rights. Craigslist chief Jim Buckmaster wrote on his blog that McMaster's actions were "unwarranted by the facts" and "represent an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech."
The Financial Times reports that Google is on a charm offensive to convince governments and the general public that the search giant should not be subjected to new privacy or antitrust regulation. "When markets get regulated, creative innovation is slowed. We don't think that is a good outcome," said Eric Schmidt, chief executive. "A much better outcome is for us to use good judgement. We take what we see as the consumer interest as our guiding principle." Schmidt argued that, far from abusing its huge market power, Google has benefited consumers by challenging incumbents in various markets. Schmidt was speaking at Google's Zeitgeist event this week in Hertfordshire in the UK.
The paper also says that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world's biggest contract chipmaker, is to re-employ hundreds of staff who were let go during the economic crisis. Company chairman Morris Chang told TSMC staff that the worst of the crisis was over for the company and, "although the economic crisis continues, the company's revenues are on the upturn and the second quarter will be much better than the first… We will not have further lay-offs". He said he hoped to re-hire by the end of this month those who had left -- a total of about 700 -- and would give additional compensation to those who did not wish to return.
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