NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 17 May
17-05-2007
by Charlie Taylor
Salesforce sees 55 percent jump in quarterly revenues | Motorola acquires Modulus Video
Online Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) provider Salesforce.com announced a 55 percent rise in revenues to USD162.4 million for its first quarter of 2008 versus the same three-month period a year ago. The Software-as-a-Service (Saas) company said that subscription and support revenues totalled USD147.7 million, an increase of 56 percent on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 12 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Professional services and other revenues were USD14.7 million, up 44 percent on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 21 percent versus the preceding quarter. Net paying customers rose by 2,500 during the quarter to approximately 32,300, up 42 percent on the same quarter last year. Salesforce raised its full year revenue projections from between USD710 million and USD720 million to between USD722 million and USD728 million.
Louth resident, Patrick McCormack has been named eBay.ie Seller of the Year 2007 for his online computer business, 'dr.computer-biz'. The 25 year old from Omeath was presented with the award by eBay Ireland's managing director John McElligott at the Irish Internet Association's 2007 National Congress in Killiney, Dublin. McCorkmack walked away with EUR4,000 that will be paid into his PayPal account, an eBay.ie home office package (including a Sony Vaio Laptop, Windows Office Business software start-up package and a Skype headset) plus a trip for two, travelling in June, to the eBay Live event in Boston. Three runners-up were also announced. Dublin-woman, Sheena Musthy won top prize in the 'New Seller' category for 'cloonfadda', her online bead business for jewellery making, while Cork resident Katja Jade was named winner in the 'Existing Seller' category for 'naturalmineralcosmetics', her makeup business, while Galway woman, Collette Davison's online boating and fishing accessories business, 'd_boats', won the 'Business Seller' category.
Targeted advertising needs to be re-evaluated for the mobile internet, or so claims John Doyle, product manager for Irish mobile personalisation firm ChangingWorlds. Speaking at the Mobile Advertising and Marketing Conference in London on Thursday, Doyle described the necessity of implicit behavioural profiling to ensure the success of mobile advertising and the need to readdress the definition of targeted advertising in the mobile environment. In his presentation, Doyle described how intelligent profiling is essential in order to deliver mobile advertising that's "relevant, attention grabbing" and that will illicit a response that can be measured. "Advertising is another form of content that must be highly personalised over mobile and not just using basic demographic profiling. Highly targeted and relevant adverts far beyond the level achieved in traditional methods of advertising must be realised," said Doyle.
Motorola has announced that it is to acquire Modulus Video, a firm which specialises in developing MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding compression systems for IPTV, cable, broadcast and satellite, for an undisclosed sum. Modulus Video has partnered with Motorola for over two years bringing encoding solutions to customers. Motorola said the deal will complement its recent acquisitions of Broadbus, Kreatel, Tut Systems and Netopia in the creation and delivery of an integrated, end-to-end video delivery system for multiple network architectures.
Digital photo stories that have been produced and directed by school children from the Liberties, will be premiered at an event in Dublin's Digital Hub on Wednesday, 23 May. The stories, which are based on fictional storylines developed by the children, uses Microsoft Photo Story and other digital media tools to bring the tales to life. Over 320 students and 44 teachers from 12 schools in the Liberties took part in the project during the 2006/2007 term. The project was delivered as part of The Digital Hub's learning programme.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 