IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 1 June
01-06-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
CNG shares surge on takeover approaches | Top ten spammer is arrested
The Irish Times reports that more than 17,000 vacancies in the IT sector remain unfilled, according to a survey by Dublin City University. The study says the number of vacancies has doubled in the past two years. Professor Michael Ryan said the figures suggest that the future IT skills gap in the economy is likely to be even wider than predicted by the reports of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs and other bodies. "In the longer term, we need to grow our own supply of experts in the core IT areas on which we will depend," said Prof Ryan.
The paper also says that internet users might notice a decrease in junk e-mail after the arrest of a man described as one of the world's "most prolific spammers". Robert Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised computers, known as bot nets, to send out millions of spam e-mails. "He's one of the top ten spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, senior director of Microsoft's Worldwide Internet Safety Program. "He's a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day."
The same paper says that top TV programmes are holding onto their US audiences even when the shows are recorded and played back on digital video recorders (DVRs), but new data confirms that users are fast-forwarding through some of the commercials. Nielsen Media Research said 58 percent of households with DVRs watched prime-time broadcast television live, with the other 42 percent recording the shows.
The paper also notes that Halifax has launched an internet banking service, as reported by ENN on Thursday.
The paper also says that private individuals may soon be able to register their full name as a dot-ie (.ie) address. The IE Domain Registry will soon put a proposal to its re-sellers that will allow for the registration of this more intuitive form of names. Currently individuals can register their initials followed by two digits of their choosing, e.g. Joe Bloggs can register jb07.ie, although there are some exemptions to the rule. Only eight people have chosen to register such a domain.
The same paper reports that thousands of Eircom customers who were overcharged as a result of a software fault will have to wait until next month to be repaid. An initial investigation by the company has established that 100,000 customers were affected by the fault. About 500,000 calls made to 30,000 phone lines between 24 April and 17 May are involved, or about 0.3 percent of all calls made over the Eircom network during the period.
The Irish Independent reports that shares in CNG Travel surged 26 percent on Thursday when it emerged that the firm has received two takeover approaches that could scupper a STG9.15 million management buyout offer. Last week, the company announced a STG0.145 a share MBO offer. The independent CNG directors said on Thursday that they have received indicative counter-offers from two unnamed parties of not less than STG0.165 a share. These would put a valuation of at least STG10.4 million on the company.
The paper also says that European regulators should have the power to split telecoms operators from the networks they control if the firms are found to have significant market power, the European Commission is about to suggest. The new rules would include additional power for the Commission to select its own solutions to competition problems in a domestic telecoms market if it feels that a national regulator has not done enough. The Commission will also seek the authority to impose remedies on telecoms firms that are not behaving in a competitive way, Commissioner Viviane Reding will say in a speech on Friday, according to reports.
The Irish Examiner says that Motorola is planning to cut an additional 4,000 jobs this year. Read more on this story on ENN.
According to the Financial Times, the bribery scandal at Siemens is continuing to cause reverberations, with Lothar Pauly, a former senior executive at the German engineering group, resigning from Deutsche Telekom. Pauly was head of the telecoms business at the heart of the bribery investigation at Siemens for a year until 2005 before he switched to become head of Deutsche Telekom's business service unit, T-Systems. He has not commented on his reasons for resigning, but his lawyer said that Pauly "denies any wrongdoing or knowledge of any bribery if indeed any took place".
The Wall Street Journal reports that revenue for the global semiconductor industry is expected to grow 2.5 percent in 2007, lower than previous expectations, according to market research firm Gartner. Citing more "severe" declines in average selling prices for dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips and continued price competition in the microprocessor market, Gartner predicts worldwide semiconductor revenue will total USD269.2 billion in 2007, up 2.5 percent from 2006. Gartner had previously projected 2007 revenue would increase 6.4 percent.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 