Daily Digest 15 September

15-09-2008

by Emmet Cole

First Derivatives acquires US firm for USD20m | Smart meter trial for ESB customers

Newry-based financial services software firm First Derivatives has announced the purchase of Market Research Partners (MRP), a US-based technology marketing company headquartered in Philadelphia, for USD20 million. The deal involves an initial cash payment of USD4.5 million, followed by a further USD1.5 million through the issue of First Derivatives ordinary shares. An additional payment of up to USD14 million in cash and shares will be paid subject to MRP achieving profit targets over the next two years.

Following a launch on Monday morning by Energy Minister Eamon Ryan, more than 60,000 ESB customers will receive a letter inviting them to participate in the first phase of a planned national roll-out of smart meters -- devices that monitor and record patterns in electricity usage. The Commission for Energy Regulation scheme is being introduced to improve operation of the electricity system and reduce carbon emissions by end-users. Up to 21,000 ESB customers will get a smart meter installed in their home as part of a behaviour and technology trial, in advance of a national roll-out of the scheme.

Good, if somewhat surprising, news for Irish mobile users on Monday, with the release of a ComReg information point showing that Irish retail mobile pricing is on a par with, or lower than, the EU average. However, the document also noted that roaming charges are sometimes billed on a per-minute basis, rather than per second -- which leads to users being charged for unused service portions. The announcement coincides with news that ComReg has updated its interactive price comparison website www.callcosts.ie with a new mobile roaming price comparison utility that allows consumers to guesstimate their mobile costs whilst roaming.

Buy4Now, the online shopping company, has announced the sale of its US business and a capital restructuring of the company in a deal valued at over USD15 million. As part of the deal, Buy4Now's US business has been acquired by US group MyWebGrocer for an undisclosed sum. Buy4Now's founder and principal shareholder, Ali Murdoch, has resigned as chief executive and director, but will retain a 10 percent shareholding in the company. Michael Veale, co-founder and sales director of Buy4Now, will take over as CEO.

Under a contract worth more than EUR5 million, Dublin-based animation production company Jam Media is to make a new cartoon series called 'Badly Drawn Roy'. The pre-teen cartoon series is half funded by the BBC, with additional funding coming from the Section 481 government tax incentive for film and television, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, the Irish Film Board and RTE. The cartoon is expected to air on RTE in early 2010.

Elsewhere, an Irish software company has been selected as one of the top five European security start-ups in the Global Security Challenge (GSC) -- an international competition designed to highlight the world's most promising security technologies. Beyond Encryption Technologies will now compete as a semi-finalist for the European leg of the GSC on 24 September.

Meanwhile, business process management solutions provider Singularity has announced an initiative with Nortel to develop Unified Messaging (UM) enabled business process solutions. Aimed at the telecommunications, health and financial sectors, the solution will see UM capabilities embedded in business process automation software.

Mobile data specialist ChangingWorlds has opened a new office in Brazil to boost the company's activities in Central and Latin America. According to the company, mobile communications services have been the fastest-growing segment of the Latin American telecommunications industry -- a situation it hopes to exploit with its range of mobile data solutions.

Dublin-based PR agency Thinkhouse will launch a virtual version of its real-life office in late October, the company has announced. Thinkhouse's "Google Lively Lounge" will use Google's new virtual world software to create an online version of the agency's real life office. Thinkhouse is no stranger to the virtual world of online offices, having launched a presence in Second Life in 2006.

Sigmar Recruitement has announced the appointment of Mark Tucker as a recruitment consultant. Tucker joins from Rescon IT, where he worked as an IT recruitment consultant.

Social networking site Facebook has more than doubled in size in Ireland in under 12 months, according to a new report from the Irish Computer Society. In October 2007, 131,660 Irish people were using Facebook. This week, that figure reached 308,200. The report also revealed that that 69 percent of Facebook users are aged 25 or over.