IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 12 February
12-02-2008
by Sylvia Leatham
Huawei rails against US objections to 3Com deal | LG and Omnifone to launch music handset
The Irish Times reports that Motorola has teamed up with BT Ireland to make a joint bid for a government contract to build a broadband system in rural areas, after Motorola's joint venture with the Irish Farmers' Association dropped out of the process. Neither Motorola nor BT Ireland would comment on their new partnership, which is one of three groups that remain in the bidding process. The other bidders are Eircom and Three Ireland. The Motorola-IFA group pulled out of the process some time after it was shortlisted last November, but the reasons for their withdrawal are unknown.
The paper also says that Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has launched the makeITsecure campaign. Read the full story on ENN.
The Financial Times reports that Korean handset maker LG and Omnifone, a UK-based mobile music start-up, will on Tuesday attempt to upstage Nokia's flagship music strategy by unveiling a rival handset and music package, which is set to beat the Finnish handset maker to market. Customers who buy the LG handset will get free, unlimited access to a library of around 1.5 million songs for 12 to 18 months and be able to keep favourite tracks at the end of this time. Called MusicStation Max, the package will be on sale before June, several months ahead of a similar launch by Nokia.
The paper also says that Huawei Technologies, the Chinese firm participating in the planned buy-out of US telecoms equipment maker 3Com, has angrily rounded on US politicians who claim the deal could endanger national security. Xu Zhijun, chief marketing officer at Huawei, told the newspaper the concerns expressed by some US lawmakers were "bullshit". He added there was no need to change the terms of the USD2.2 billion deal, under which US private equity firm Bain Capital is seeking to buy 83.5 percent of 3Com, with Huawei taking the remaining 16.5 percent. The deal has sparked concerns in the US because 3Com supplies intrusion prevention technology to the US Defense Department.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has agreed to acquire Danger, the maker of the technology behind T-Mobile's popular Sidekick phone. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Microsoft said the acquisition will align Danger's expertise in the mobile consumer space with Microsoft's focus on expanding its mobile offerings.
The paper also says that Research In Motion experienced a significant outage of its BlackBerry wireless e-mail service on Monday, its second major North American disruption in the past 12 months. The cause of the outage, which affected customers across the country for several hours, remained unknown on Monday evening. Coming 10 months after a similar e-mail blackout, the latest incident could undermine the BlackBerry's reputation for dependable service, which has won it strong loyalty.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 