IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 29 May
29-05-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Three challenges Ofcom's move to cut charges | MySpace to get ability to track online donations to candidates
The Irish Times reports that the IE Domain Registry saw only a 15 percent drop in profits to EUR734,058 for 2006, despite making wholesale price cuts of 26 percent. In an annual report, the registry said that net growth in registration of new domains was 30 percent, with 22,590 new dot-ie (.ie) addresses registered during the year. Revenue from registrations fell 2 percent to EUR2,309,332.
The paper also says that shareholders in gambling software firm Cryptologic have paved the way for the company to shift its headquarters to the Republic. As noted earlier this month, the EUR77 million a year group is moving its corporate headquarters to Dublin from Toronto, Canada, and is expected to set up here in early June. The final stage requires the company to get approval from the Ontario superior court, and the hearing is due to go ahead on Wednesday.
The paper also notes that Sanyo Electric has swung to an annual operating profit. Read the details of Sanyo's results on ENN.
The Irish Examiner says that the Irish arm of Hermes SoftLab posted a 28 percent increase in sales last year, as reported by ENN.
According to the Financial Times, mobile operator Three is challenging plans by UK regulators to force it to charge substantially less for connecting calls to its network, saying the changes threaten its path to profitability. Last week Three lodged an appeal with the Competition Appeal Tribunal against a decision by telecoms watchdog Ofcom which would require the operator to cut its charges by 45 percent. Three CEO Kevin Russell accused Ofcom of making an "absurd" and anti-competitive decision that he said would result in it subsidising Britain's established big four mobile operators: O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile.
The paper also says that News Corporation will soon be able to track and monitor online donations made to presidential candidates through its MySpace subsidiary. The social networking site is working with all of the prospective candidates in the US presidential election, giving tutorials on how to create effective personal profile pages and offering a "viral fundraising tool" that can be used to raise money from grassroots supporters. MySpace is relaunching and improving the tool, and with the new version it will be able to track how much money has been pledged to each candidate. MySpace said it had not decided whether it would monitor donations made via the tool.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Federal Trade Commission will conduct the government antitrust review of Google's proposed USD3.1 billion purchase of internet advertising company DoubleClick, according to a source. The FTC on Friday made a "second request" to Google for additional information to assess any possible overlapping lines of business, the source said. The issuance of a second request is a signal that the FTC is taking a hard look at the deal but it does not mean that the deal will be blocked, as most such reviews end without action.
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