IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 4 December
04-12-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Notebooks could spell Christmas cheer for PC makers | AT&T to exit pay-phone business
The Irish Times reports that Dublin-based financial software group Norkom is to spend EUR11.4 million expanding its research and development activities, a move that will create 111 new jobs in Ireland over the next three years. Read the full story as reported by ENN on Monday.
The Irish Independent says that education publisher HM Riverdeep has sold Houghton Mifflin's college textbook division for USD750 million to rival Cengage Learning. The deal comes 11 months after Riverdeep, headed by Irish entrepreneur Barry O'Callaghan, merged with Houghton Mifflin in a EUR3.37 billion deal to form HM Riverdeep.
The Irish Examiner reports that internet giant Yahoo has warned users to watch out for spam e-mails telling recipients they have won thousands, if not millions of euro in a fake lottery. The mails, bearing the Yahoo masthead, tell the recipient they have won the money through the website's internet lottery, which is organised by the Yahoo Awards and Windows Live.
According to the Financial Times, brisk sales of laptops could provide an extra dose of holiday cheer to PC makers this year as falling prices bring notebooks within reach of more Christmas shoppers. Some analysts believe Apple and Hewlett-Packard could reap the biggest gains from growing demand for laptops, which have emerged as a key source of new growth for computer makers. "Everybody is aiming at the consumer [this year] and they're all aiming with good-looking notebooks," says Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.
The paper also says that Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the two largest US cable network operators, said they would not bid in a forthcoming auction of prized 700MHz wireless spectrum, easing investor concerns about the prospect of another costly round of capital expenditure. Comcast said it had "many strategic options" as a member of a cable industry consortium that acquired wireless spectrum in a Federal Communications Commission auction last year. Meanwhile, Glenn Britt, Time Warner Cable chief executive, told investors in New York on Monday that the company would not be taking part in the auction, due to begin in January.
The Wall Street Journal reports that telecoms giant AT&T is getting out of the 129-year-old pay-phone business. AT&T operates 65,000 pay phones in the 13 US states formerly served by the local phone company SBC Communications, which acquired the old Ma Bell in 2005 and took its name. AT&T said its pay phones will be phased out during the coming year. A company spokeswoman declined to say how much revenue the pay-phone business generates, but the number is small and declining.
The paper also says that Samsung Electronics and Toshiba have agreed to a cross-license pact covering premium NAND flash memory chips. The world's two largest makers of NAND flash memory chips by shipments will develop, produce and sell products from next year, using each other's original source technology. NAND flash memory chips are widely used in consumer electronics.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 