In The Papers 9 September

09-09-2008

by Sylvia Leatham

IMO warns against online self-diagnosis | Technical glitch brings LSE to a halt

The Irish Times reports that the president of the Irish Medical Organisation has reported a "considerable increase" in the number of patients researching illnesses on the internet before seeing a doctor. Warning of the limitations of online self-diagnosis, Dr Martin Daly said that while the internet was a useful tool, it was important that any information be interpreted by a professional medic. "Doctors should not feel pressured by information brought to them from the internet by patients. In a significant proportion of cases, either there has been a misinterpretation of correct information or there's information disseminated on the internet purporting to be gold-standard information when in fact it's not," said Dr Daly.

The paper also says that a technical glitch brought share trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to a halt for seven hours on Monday, wiping out most of the trading day on what should have been one of the busiest sessions of the year, following the US government's bail-out of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The LSE said the outage -- the worst since early 2000 -- was caused by a failure in the electronic connections that link the systems that receive and display orders to buy and sell shares on the market. The Johannesburg stock exchange, which also uses the LSE's trading platform, was also forced to halt trading.

The paper also notes that on Monday search giant Google celebrated the 10th anniversary of its incorporation as a company and the hiring of its first employee. Last year the company became the world's most valuable brand, according to market research firm Millward Brown. In 2004, Google opened an office in Ireland to act as its operations centre for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This office now employs more than 1,600 staff.

The paper also says that online auction firm eBay has strengthened by EUR40 million the balance sheet of the Irish entity that owns the intellectual property rights for its internet telephony unit, Skype. Recently filed accounts for Dublin-based Skype Ltd, whose ultimate parent is eBay in California, show that the company's immediate parent in Luxembourg made a capital contribution of EUR25 million to the business last June and a contribution of EUR15 million in January. Skype Ltd incurred a pretax loss of EUR40.09 million in 2007, after a major increase in research and development spending.

The same paper says that Boston Scientific is to invest EUR50 million in strategic research and development at its Galway facility, as reported by ENN on Monday.

The paper also reports that Irish company Mapflow has launched software for the iPhone that will allow US commuters to car-pool more easily. The application, called Avego, enables passengers and drivers to be matched up in real-time; Mapflow describes it as a "cross between car-pooling, public transport and eBay." The service will be formally launched at the DemoFall 08 technology conference in San Diego, California, on Tuesday morning. Last year, Mapflow received a USD5.1 million investment from US backer SOSventures Investments to develop Avego.

The Irish Independent reports that a private sector grant has been launched in a bid to encourage more students at disadvantaged inner city Dublin schools to study maths and science. A EUR50,000 donation has been made to TCD's Trinity Access Programme through the Trinity Business Alumni Network to provide intensive maths tuition for Leaving Cert students and additional support resources.

The Wall Street Journal reports that an entrepreneur's quest to use satellites to bring broadband internet services to poorer countries is nearing liftoff with a major investment from some big names, including Google. On Tuesday, O3b Networks Ltd, founded and run by 38-year-old telecommunications entrepreneur Greg Wyler, is expected to announce plans to launch as many as 16 satellites that could provide service to Africa, the Middle East and parts of Latin America by the end of 2010. The undertaking, expected to cost about USD650 million, has initial backing of about USD60 million from investors that include HSBC Holdings, Allen & Company, and Liberty Global, in addition to Google. "This is about opening the internet up to the other 3 billion people [on the planet]", said Wyler.

In other news of Google, the same paper says the internet giant will begin brokering some television ads on cable networks owned by NBC Universal. The deal allows Google customers to buy ads on six NBC-owned cable networks. It represents the first time Google will act as a middleman for ads sold through a TV network. The high-profile partnership could give Google's effort to crack the TV ad market some momentum.

The Financial Times says that over 40 percent of large businesses have cut their IT budgets this year because of the global economic slowdown, according to a new report. Research house Forrester found that 43 percent of companies have already cut their overall IT budgets in 2008, while 24 percent have put discretionary IT spending on hold. Although the overall figures indicate a reduction in IT spending, the report highlighted wide differences between countries, sectors and types of IT spending. "Some industries are like ground zero for financial problems, such as financial services, construction and autos. The further you move away from those industries, the less severe the problems are," said John McCarthy, an analyst at Forrester.

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