IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 16 April
16-04-2008
by Sylvia Leatham
Start-up Cuill gets EUR25m in funding | MySpace plans aggression expansion
The Irish Times reports on an investment of EUR16.4 million into a new Science Foundation Ireland sensor research programme. Read the full story on ENN.
The Irish Independent says that start-up Cuill has received EUR25 million in equity financing from an American private equity house. Although little is known of the firm and it has not yet formally launched, it is being touted as a serious contender to Google. "Our team is using breakthroughs in search architecture and technological advances to create a new paradigm in search, and we now have the resources to reach the next level in pure search," said founder and CEO, Louth man Tom Costello.
The Irish Examiner reports that more than 75 percent of workers with net access use the web for personal reasons during office hours, according to a survey by Eircom. Read the full story on ENN.
The Wall Street Journal reports that MySpace is planning an aggressive expansion into markets outside the US, a move that will help boost revenue and profits in coming years, according to a company executive. "Every single market we're going [into], we're seeing significant growth in revenues across the board," said Travis Katz, senior vice president in charge of MySpace's international business. Katz was speaking in Seoul on Tuesday, at the launch of a Korean-language MySpace site. He said Italy, Brazil, Germany and China are among the fastest-growing countries for MySpace in terms of users.
The paper also says that Microsoft intends to increase the amount it lends small business customers for purchases by as much as 60 percent. The move -- coming amid a historically tight credit market and at a time when other tech giants are considering selling their financing units -- raises the risk for Microsoft, which says the number of defaulting loans will likely rise and that its exposure to bad credit is "approaching materiality". Microsoft said it expects to issue USD1.25 billion in loans in 2008, compared with the USD780 million in financing it extended in 2007.
The Financial Times says that Carphone Warehouse has warned that investment and adverse currency movements will push net debt and capital expenditure far higher than City estimates. The telecoms group expects net debt for the year to March 2008 to be about STG850 million, compared with a previous forecast of STG660 million, because of a STG120 million currency-related charge and a STG50 million charge from higher subscriber acquisition costs.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 