IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 23 January
23-01-2008
by Sylvia Leatham
Eircom says roadworks to blame for line faults in Cork | China's Baidu to launch in Japan
The Irish Times reports that an O2 survey of SME managers has found that of those who own laptops, 14 percent use a mobile broadband service. Read the full story as reported by ENN on Tuesday.
The Irish Examiner reports on 'vishing', the latest technique used by criminals to trick people into parting with their bank details. Crooks send text messages to mobile users supposedly alerting them to "security problems" with their debit and credit card accounts. The message urges the user to call a hotline and to disclose their card number and PIN during the call.
The paper also says that the impact of impending job cuts at Yahoo on workers at its Dublin European base is still unclear. Reports are now predicting that Yahoo is about to cut around 700 jobs worldwide. Initial speculation had been for cuts in the region of 1,500 to 2,500 jobs. Details are expected to emerge on 29 January, when the company announces its fourth quarter results.
The paper also says that Eircom has blamed contractors working on a EUR2 million road project for cutting phone services to dozens of customers for almost two months. Cork city council appointed contractors McGinty O'Shea to carry out work in the College Road area. Workers apparently damaged several hundred metres of Eircom cabling while digging in early December. Eircom described the damage as severe and said its crews had worked on repairs right up until Christmas Eve. Some residential customers are still without a phone service.
According to the Financial Times, US chipmaker Texas Instruments saw strength in its analogue and digital signal processing semiconductors in the fourth quarter, producing revenues in line with Wall Street expectations. Dallas-based TI reported revenues of USD3.56 billion, slightly below the USD3.58 billion midpoint of its updated forecast in December. Earnings per share of USD0.54, which included a USD0.01 tax benefit, were slightly ahead of the analyst consensus of USD0.52.
The paper also says that Baidu, China's leading internet search provider, will on Wednesday launch a Japanese-language service in Japan, marking its first major overseas venture. Baidu is set to compete against Yahoo Japan and Google Japan, which together have a near-duopoly on the search engine market.
The Wall Street Journal reports that mobile games publisher Glu Mobile has made a tender offer to acquire fellow games firm Superscape Group, in a deal valued at USD36 million. In an interview, Glu CEO Greg Ballard said the deal will solidify the company's position as the number two publisher of mobile games in North America behind Electronic Arts' EA Mobile. Ballard said Superscape is ranked fifth in the mobile games market share in North America.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 