IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 8 May
08-05-2007
by Deirdre McArdle
Data Protection Commissioner issues guidelines on schools' use of biometrics to monitor students | MySpace nears deal to acquire Photobucket
The Irish Independent reports that the Data Protection Commissioner has issued guidelines saying that the high-tech fingerprinting of students in schools and colleges cannot be compulsory and may only be done with students' consent. The move by the Data Protection Commissioner was prompted by the growing number of educational institutions using biometric data to monitor student attendance and to improve school security. Biometric data can be created from physical or physiological characteristics of a person, such as a fingerprint, retina, face, or voice pattern.
The same paper reports that workers at Siemens AG plan an internet survey to decide whether a company manager or an outside candidate should become their new chief executive officer. This novel move follows a bribery probe in Germany which forced Siemens incumbent Klaus Kleinfeld to step down. A group that represents 6,000 Siemens AG employees who own shares in the company will launch the survey on its website at the end of the week, according to Manfred Meiler, who heads the group.
The paper also says that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has sold its 7.5 percent stake in Australian company Fairfax Media for around AUD380 million (EUR230 million), according to both companies. Reasons for the sale were not given, but the move comes less than a week after Murdoch launched a USD5 billion bid for Dow Jones & Co, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and Dow Jones Newswires, as he seeks to expand his global media empire in the US.
The Wall Street Journal reports that MySpace.com has signed a preliminary deal to acquire the photo-sharing website Photobucket.com for about USD250 million in cash, according to a person familiar with the situation. An acquisition of the site is seen as important to MySpace as most of the photos that appear on MySpace pages are hosted on Photobucket.
The paper also reports that Sun Microsystems will use its JavaOne conference in San Francisco to announce JavaFX, a family of products that will include an operating system and related software and services for mobile phones. Sun says that JavaFX Mobile software can be used to design sophisticated handsets like the iPhone, which Apple plans to begin selling in June. Exact pricing for JavaFX Mobile was not revealed.
According to the Financial Times, India's finance minister has approved Vodafone's bid to control Hutchison Essar. The ministerial approval clears the last big hurdle in the protracted battle for India's fourth-largest mobile operator. P. Chidambaram signed the deal on Friday, a week after India's foreign investment regulator gave its consent to Vodafone's USD11 billion bid for Hutchison Essar, people familiar with the situation said.
The same paper says that Australian-based IBA Healthcare looks set to win the long-drawn-out battle to buy struggling healthcare software group Isoft, after share trading in the Australian firm was halted to allow it to persuade investors to back plans for a STG0.569-per-share offer. Isoft has been in takeover talks since last October, after delays in the delivery of its software for the STG12.4 billion upgrade of the National Health Service's information technology project (NPfIT) triggered a series of profit warnings.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 