NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 2 February
02-02-2009
by Bryan Collins
Woolworths to be re-launched as online store | Zamano earnings on track to meet expectations
Agilent Technologies and NUI Galway have opened a new Biological Mass Spectrometry facility on the university campus. Mass spectrometry is regularly used for testing athletes for banned substances and is also one of the key enabling techniques in chemistry and biology. Researchers in NUI Galway will use the facility to progress their research in areas such as cancer, infectious diseases and pain research. The facility is equipped with the latest accurate-mass quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) and triple quadrupole (QQQ) mass spectrometer platforms from Agilent. These will also be used to showcase new instruments to Agilent customers.
The British retailer Woolworths is to be re-launched as an online store, after home shopping retailer Shop Direct purchased the brand for an undisclosed fee. Declining sales forced Woolworths into administration towards the end of 2008 and saw 27,000 people lose their jobs, including 500 in Northern Ireland. Shop Direct, which also own the Kays and Marshall Ward brands, will re-launch the 100-year old Woolworths brand this summer.
Mobile services provider Zamano expects EBITDA (earnings before interested, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of EUR4.8 million for the 12 months to 31 December 2008. This is broadly in line with market expectations while the company's net debt guidance of EUR7.5 million is better than expected. The mobile services provider said it has achieved good growth in the US arm of its business and will provide an update on 2009 trading when it releases final results for 2008 in March.
Wi-Fi service provider Bitbuzz increased its total number of registered users by 64 percent to 143,000 during 2008. The company also installed a further 24 Wi-Fi hotspots around the country, bringing its total to 180. During 2008 Bitbuzz also signed two significant contracts: it reached an agreement with O2 to provide the mobile operator's iPhone customers with free unlimited access to Bitbuzz Wi-Fi hotspots, and also signed a EUR200,000 five-year deal with Travelodge to provide Wi-Fi services in its 11 hotels around Ireland.
The finalists of the second Babelgum Online Film Festival are available for public screening and voting. The film festival is unique in that it allows simultaneous mobile and fixed internet viewing and voting of the submissions. Over 600 indie films, animations and documentaries are available on Babelgum's internet television platform. The festival culminates with an awards ceremony chaired by Spike Lee in April. There are five EUR20,000 cash prizes, split between the overall winner and winners of the short film, animation, mini masterpiece and documentary categories.
The amount of money spent on online video ads will grow by 22.5 percent in 2009. That is according to AccuStream iMedia Research. The company claims that spending growth will rise to 28.2 percent in 2010. It also said spending reached USD2.1 billion in 2008 and that CPMs on premium pre-roll videos averaged USD35 in the same year. However, some analysts claim AccuStream's spending numbers are far higher than most other estimates. eMarketer, for example, put online video ad spending at USD587 million in 2008 but acknowledged AccuStream is "highly inclusive and counts all online-video-related infrastructure in its estimates".
Irish software company Havok has appointed Mike Walsh as worldwide head of sales. Walsh will assume responsibility for the overall management of the sales hubs of Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. He has nearly 20 years' experience in professional sales in the gaming industry and has worked with industry technology companies like SGI, Alias and Softimage. Havok employs over 100 employees in six locations across four continents and its software is used in games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Spore, Halo 3, Assassin's Creed and Guitar Hero III.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 