IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 8 January
08-01-2008
by Sylvia Leatham
Samsung to enter low-end mobile market | UK to make CD copying legal
The Irish Times reports that Prime Active Capital, the investment firm led by financier Peter Lynch, has taken majority control over a chain of mobile phone stores set up in the US state of Georgia by his former Eircom colleague Robert Haulbrook. Having invested USD5 million last October to take a 49 percent stake in Haulbrook's company, Cellular Center LLC, Prime Active Capital revealed on Monday that it has increased its stake to 80 percent.
The paper also notes that CEC Unet, a Beijing-based e-payments and media firm backed by U2 manager Paul McGuinness, has secured a deal to sell phone top-up services for China Mobile in Beijing, host of this year's Olympic Games. CEC Unet, formerly known as Sun 3C Media, has moved away from TV shopping to concentrate on China's booming mobile phone business.
The Irish Independent reports that special cameras are set to capture the birth of an elephant at Dublin Zoo, with live images to be broadcast on the internet. Officials have installed high-tech CCTV cameras in the elephant enclosure in the Phoenix Park to follow expectant Indian elephant Yasmin's labour and delivery in March. Technology firm DNA IT solutions has been employed to put two cameras in her enclosure to deliver high quality images.
The Financial Times reports that chip giant Intel on Monday met a deadline to respond to antitrust charges from the European Commission. The Commission said it had received a formal reply to allegations that Intel attempted to drive smaller rival AMD out of the market by selling its chips below cost and offering big rebates to customers. The charges were made in July 2007 after an investigation following a complaint by AMD. Intel refused to divulge details of its response. "We filed the response, we also asked for an oral hearing. We are not characterising the response in any way," said Chuck Mulloy, Intel spokesman.
The paper also notes that Samsung Electronics plans to enter the lower-end market for mobile handsets, to compete more effectively with market leader Nokia. The Korean conglomerate will offer handsets with colour screens for USD40-USD50, after previously focusing on higher-end markets where it could secure profitability. Samsung stuck to this premium strategy for years but began to lower its price range last year. Its average selling price fell to USD151 in the third quarter, down from USD176 in 2006.
According to the same paper, copying compact discs on to computers or MP3 players will become legal for the first time under UK government proposals to be published on Tuesday, in a move that the music industry has warned could "open the floodgates" to further file-sharing. Millions of people already copy their favourite albums on to their MP3 players or PCs without necessarily knowing that they are breaking the law. But this commonplace activity will no longer be illegal under the changes suggested by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. The Association of Independent Music has warned that the move could open the floodgates to "uncontrolled and unstoppable" private copying and sharing from person to person.
The Wall Street Journal says that US online Christmas shoppers spent more than USD29 billion, up 19 percent from a year ago, according to ComScore. That increase is down from a jump of 26 percent for the comparable holiday period in 2006. ComScore said 10 December was the heaviest online spending day of the season, clocking in at USD881 million. Videogames, consoles and accessories was the fastest-growing online retail category, jumping 129 percent from the 2006 holiday season.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 