The following e-mail will be sent on your behalf.

<your name> has sent the following story to you from ElectricNews.net.

The story is available from http://www.electricnews.net/article/10124344.html

In the papers 9 May
Friday, May 09 2008
by John Holden


Eircom workers vow to resist company split | Best Buy
purchases 50 percent of Carphone Warehouse

The Irish Times reports that the Houses of the
Oireachtas have issued a tender for an encryption
system after it emerged that one TD has had two laptops
stolen since the general election last June. A Leinster House
spokesman has confirmed that two deputies have reported the
theft of three laptops -- understood not to have been
encrypted -- during the life of the current Dail. The tender
covers the provision of encryption for 600 devices used by
TDs, Senators and staff. A spokesman said it had been planned
to offer encryption 18 months ago, but there was no real
demand from users, and as a result the project was put on
hold. 





The paper also says that US electronics giant Best Buy
is to open its first store in Ireland next year, following
its purchase of a 50 percent stake in Carphone
Warehouse, which operates 70 outlets in the Republic, for
STG1.1 billion. Stephen Mackeral, chief executive of Carphone
Warehouse Ireland, said the funds would be used to pay down
debt and for investment in retail expansion. Carphone
Warehouse operates 2,400 stores in nine European countries.





The paper also notes that revenues at cable and broadband
firm UPC Ireland came to EUR58.9 million in the three
months to the end of March, a rise of 4.8 percent on the same
period in 2007. The company, which owns NTL and Chorus, said
its operating cash flow rose by 30.6 percent to EUR22.6
million over the same period, while its capital expenditure
fell to EUR16.4 million from EUR25.3 million. UPC said it had
86,500 broadband subscribers in Ireland at the end of March.






The same paper notes that StatCounter, an Irish firm
that provides free web traffic analysis, has found that most
publicly quoted Irish companies are not tracking their web
traffic. A survey by the firm found that 62 percent of
companies listed on the Irish Stock Exchange do not use web
tracking software and 77 percent of IEX-quoted companies are
not using a tracker.





The Irish Independent reports that Eircom workers have
moved to resist plans by its owners to split the company into
separate divisions, claiming customers would suffer. Staff
say plans by Babcock & Brown to sell off sections of the
company would lead to increased costs for consumers,
inefficiencies and a fall-off in network investment. Members
of the Communications Workers Union voted unanimously to
resist any attempt by Eircom to break up the company into
network and retail divisions.







The Financial Times reports that Google's top
executives have issued strong public backing for a potential
advertising partnership with Yahoo. "We're very
excited to work with [Yahoo]," said Sergey Brin, Google
co-founder. The two companies shared a culture and had worked
together in the past, making a close relationship now easier,
he said. However, he stopped short of confirming that the two
firms were close to a deal. 



According to the Wall Street Journal, the attorneys general
of 49 states have reached a sweeping agreement with
Facebook that will see the social networking firm
implement new safety and privacy rules designed to protect
younger users from sexual predators and inappropriate
content. Under the terms of the agreement, Facebook will
begin to provide automatic warning messages when a child is
in danger of giving personal information to an unknown adult,
restrict the ability of users to change their listed ages,
and act more aggressively to remove inappropriate content and
groups from the site.