In the papers 26 March

26-03-2007

by Jonathan Farrelly

Irish R&D spending hit EUR1.5bn last year | Elevation Partners linked to Take-Two takeover

The Irish Independent says that Irish companies likely spent a record EUR1.5 billion on research and development last year. The prediction comes in Forfas Ireland's report on R&D spending, which shows that firms spent EUR1.33 billion on R&D in 2005, up 10 percent on the previous year. "Preliminary estimates for business R&D spending in 2006 indicate a further strong climb, with R&D expenditure growth expected to quicken to 17.3 percent to stand at an estimated EUR1.56 billion," the report said.

The paper also says that internet users have been given a warning about online security and the pitfalls of handing out personal information on the web by Garreth Griffith, head of security for eBay in the UK and Ireland. Internet thieves are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the methods they use to extract information, according to Griffith, who pointed out that between 2 percent and 5 percent of phishing attempts were successful.

The Financial Times says that chip maker Intel is expected to test political opposition in the US to high-tech exports with its plans to build a manufacturing plant in China. Paul Otellini, Intel chief executive, is expected to announce details of a USD2.5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Dalian in north-east China at a press conference in Beijing on Monday. The site would be its first such facility in Asia and its largest single investment in the region. The move would underline the growing importance of China to Intel as well as bringing to the fore US sensitivities over exports of key technologies.

According to the Wall Street Journal, IBM scientists plan to unveil a prototype chip that uses optical connections to increase the speed of moving data among chips to eight times that of previous technologies. The chip's speed, clocked at 160 billion bits of data per second, would allow a high-definition movie to be transmitted over a short distance in a fraction of a second, compared with the half-hour it takes over home broadband connections, IBM said. The technology could pave the way for devices that almost instantly transmit a digital X-ray to a doctor's hand-held screen, a seismic analysis to an oil engineer's workstation or movies around home networks.

The same paper says that a US federal judge is to issue a permanent injunction against Vonage Holdings, barring the VoIP provider from using patented technology owned by Verizon Communications. Verizon sued Vonage in June, saying it infringed on several internet telephony patents it holds, including technologies that connect internet calls to ordinary phone networks and those that allow features such as call forwarding. Verizon claimed it lost hundreds of thousands of customers to Vonage while it used Verizon's patents.

According to the Sunday Tribune, computer manufacturing giant Dell liquidated Irish-registered companies with assets of USD10.5 billion last December. The company refused to comment on whether the assets were moved outside Ireland, but tax experts have suggested that it may have transferred them to the Netherlands, which introduced aggressive new tax laws at the start of this year.

The same paper says that RTE has no plans for preventing foreign internet users viewing television programmes on its website for free, even though under the new broadcasting bill Irish viewers may have to pay a license fee to do so legally.

The Sunday Independent reports that the VHI has been forced to call in consulting group Accenture to assist in the development of a new computerised administration system. Amid reports that the project has already consumed up to half its EUR40 million budget, the health insurer declined to comment on the development cost of the Inpatient Assessment System (IAS).

The Sunday Times states that Orbiscom, the Irish payments software company, has moved into operating profitability. According to the accounts, "The group and company are projecting positive cash flows and further profits for a period of at least one year from the approval of these financial statements (9 February 2007)."

The Sunday Business Post says that Elevation Partners, the US private equity firm backed by U2's Bono, has been linked to a takeover of Take-Two Interactive Software, the maker of the Grand Theft Auto video games. The news comes after a statement was released last week announcing that the company was considering a sale.

The same paper reports that interactive advertising firm Emuse has raised more than EUR9 million in funding. The investment was led by IFG International Trust, although it is not clear if the investment was made on behalf of individual investors.

The same paper reveals that Asavie, a Dublin firm whose technology allows workers to access office information on mobile phones, has raised EUR1.2 million in funding and signed a major deal with O2. The company raised the funding from private investors and Enterprise Ireland. O2 is now selling Asavie's technology, called AccessMyLan, as part of its mobile office suite, allowing customers to remotely access data.

Finally, the same paper states that technology firm Kainos Software made a pre-tax profit of STG41,000 in the financial year to the end of March 2006. The firm has 170 staff in Dublin and Belfast.