IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 15 January
15-01-2008
by Sylvia Leatham
Iona to close Beijing office | Sprint Nextel to cut US jobs
The Irish Times reports that Iona Technologies is to close its office in Beijing, China, as part of a cost-cutting drive announced last week. Iona had carried out research and development in China as well as sales and other supporting functions. The office is mostly staffed by Chinese nationals. It is not expected the company will cut significant numbers of staff at its Irish or US offices.
The paper also says that IBM has posted a better-than-expected 24 percent rise in preliminary fourth-quarter earnings. Read more on this story on ENN.
The Irish Independent reports that telco Perlico reduced its annual losses by 30 percent before being bought out by Vodafone last November. Accounts just filed show Perlico lost about EUR10 million in 2006. Notes with the accounts state that "the budgeted projections for the company indicate that profitability will be achieved in the forseeable future". By the end of 2006, Perlico's total net assets stood at EUR13.9 million.
The paper also notes that Gardai have interviewed a teacher after discovering thousands of images of young children on his computer. Intelligence supplied by Eastern European police led Gardai to the teacher's home in north county Dublin. Detectives seized a computer and a number of hard-disk drives from the house and have begun a detailed examination of the material.
The Financial Times reports that chip giant Samsung Electronics has said net profit for 2007 fell 6 percent to SKW7,425 billion as lower chip prices overshadowed the performance of the flat panel display and telecoms businesses. However, the result was better than analysts had predicted, and the South Korean firm gave an optimistic outlook for 2008, as memory chip prices are expected to rebound in the second half, while its display and telecoms divisions continue to perform well.
According to the Wall Street Journal, US mobile telecoms firm Sprint Nextel plans extensive layoffs as newly-installed CEO Dan Hesse seeks to show investors a new commitment to efficiency and cost discipline, sources say. The scale of the layoffs is not clear, but they are likely to be in the range of a few thousand. The company, which has about 60,000 employees, cut 5,000 staff last year.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 