ROUNDUPS
For the record 11 February
11-02-2003
by Ralph Averbuch
O2 says it now has more than a half million customers in the UK | Kevin Mitnick's Web site compromised by attack
O2's sister UK company has exceeded half a million customers. In the last year O2 UK more than doubled its on-line subscriber base, of which O2 claims almost half are high-value contract customers. In addition, O2's supporting Web site is now the company's most successful channel for value-added services such as ring-tones, paid-for alerts and premium rate services.
The director of Cavan building firm Kingspan, Brendan Murtagh, has upped his share in Alphyra to 3.4 percent. He bought 245,900 shares in the e-payments business in two lots of 220,000 and 25,900, paying EUR2.68 per share, bringing his holding to 1,109 million shares.
Apple dropped 260 staff in the last three months of 2002 as it closed manufacturing operations in Singapore and shifted strategy in its PowerSchool education unit. Apple, as with other PC makers, has seen sales drop amid weak consumer demand for personal computers. The company has also been hit by a drop in education sales as well as by lower sales of its high-end PowerMac systems.
Infamous computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, only weeks past his federal probation term banning him from using a PC, has suffered a break-in on his new security consulting company's Web site - Defensive Thinking. He admitted that this was the second break-in. Hackers found a way into the computer running the firm's Web site and left a message, "Welcome back to freedom, Mr. Kevin," adding, "it was fun and easy to break into your box."
Microsoft says it is going to cut the price on some best-selling titles for its Xbox video game console. The news comes just a week after rival Nintendo cut its own game and hardware prices in an effort to spur sales.
A French criminal court has acquitted former president of US Internet giant Yahoo of condoning war crimes by selling Nazi memorabilia. The court found Timothy Koogle did not condone or praise Nazism and that Yahoo had not shed favorable light on the policies of Adolf Hitler by selling objects from the Third Reich. Koogle, who left Yahoo in 2001, could have faced up to five years in jail and a fine of EUR45,700. The trial began after three French Jewish and anti-Semitism groups complained about items being auctioned on the portal in October 2001.
A survey says India's software exports are enjoying high growth despite the global economic downturn that has forced many companies to cut IT spending. India's software exports increased 28 percent to 340 billion rupees, or USD6.9 billion, between April to December 2002. The survey was carried out by the National Association of Software and Services Companies.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 