For the record 30 April

30-04-2007

by Maxim Kelly

E-gold indicted by Grand Jury | New PR service for Irish tech start-ups

Mobile operator Three has opened up direct access to Google on its handsets. The search page will be free to use for Three customers and sits alongside Yahoo and Windows Live Messenger. However, Three customers wishing to click through to their searched website will need a mobile broadband add-on, available for EUR5.99 per month for 100Mb of data.

Any Question Answered (AQA), the mobile phone service that answers questions by text, celebrated its third birthday on Monday. "Within a year of launching in Ireland we've answered over 100,000 questions, growing twice as quickly as when we launched in the UK," said Marketing Director Paul Cockerton. "We're recruiting more Irish researchers as the volume grows, and will have over 1,700 researchers throughout Britain and Ireland before the end of the year."

Shamrock Rovers FC has diversified into the educational software market. The Dublin-based soccer club is marketing 'Skills For Success Shamrock Rovers Primary 7-11 Science, Shamrock Rovers Home Edition' software on its website. The CD-Rom includes football games and 400 science questions on ten topics.

Broadband operator Magnet has made four appointments to its channel team. Ailish O'Connor is the new channel sales manager, and Eamon Dolan is channel development manager. Sonya Corcoran and Yvonne Guerin have both been appointed channel sales support executives.

IT security firm Sophos reports that the owners of digital currency firm E-gold have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington DC. Sophos said the US Secret Service is investigating claims that the company and its owners have been operating an unregulated financial network that catered to cybercriminals' money laundering.

Public relations agency Simpson Financial & Technology PR has launched a new service for early stage tech firms to looking to raise their media profile while seeking BES (business expansion scheme) or venture capital funding. "Many early stage tech firms will benefit from [improved] profile to interest investors in advance of fund raising," said company founder Ronnie Simpson. "The problem is that they often can't afford or don't want to buy into a six-to-twelve month PR programme. And the big PR agencies are too busy or don't have the experience to handle it. We have developed a specific service whereby tech firms can buy four or five days from us to highlight their offering to the market." Simpson said PR services will cost between EUR5,000 and EUR10,000 depending on requirements. The Government recently increased BES limits per company to EUR2 million, and individual personal contributions to EUR150,000.