In The Papers 22 September

22-09-2008

by Sylvia Leatham

Dublin to bid for European City of Science | Vodafone gets closer to controlling Vodacom

The Irish Times reports that Dublin's proposal to become the European City of Science in 2012 will be put forward in Strasbourg on Monday by Minister of State for Science Jimmy Devins and Dublin's Lord Mayor, Eibhlin Byrne. Dublin is competing with Vienna and the winning city will host the Euroscience Open Forum in 2012. The venture is supported by former president Mary Robinson and 17 other public figures including Nobel laureates, scientists, politicians and business leaders. Speaking before the official submission ceremony, Dr Devins said that winning the bid would help investment in science in Ireland. "A successful bid will provide a timely platform to showcase the best of science and research being carried out here," he said.

The Irish Independent says that state-of-the-art Gatso vans -- mobile speed detection vehicles -- will hit the nation's roads from Monday. The vans are fitted with high-tech devices which were not available in the vehicles they are replacing. Senior Gardai believe they will make the Traffic Corps more effective. The vans will be deployed at targeted locations where serious road accidents have taken place over the past few years. The scheme will be expanded further later this year.

The Irish Examiner notes that e-mail filtering company Maildistiller has launched a monthly Irish 'spam index'. Maildistiller claims that stemming the tide of spam is the fastest-growing business imperative in Ireland.

According to the Financial Times, Vodafone is edging closer to securing control of Vodacom, South Africa's largest mobile operator. Vodafone, which already owns 50 percent of Vodacom, is hoping to increase its stake to 62.5 percent through a deal with Telkom, South Africa's leading fixed-line phone company. An audacious attempt to challenge Vodafone's plans by Globacom, a Nigerian mobile operator, looks set to fail. In May, Vodafone made an offer to Telkom to buy 12.5 percent of Vodacom for USD2.5 billion. Globacom subsequently held informal discussions with Telkom about two potential transactions. However, Telkom is now only holding formal talks with Vodafone.

The paper also says that shudders from the credit crisis have reached the online and media industries, with research showing that internet advertising in the UK is facing a slowdown after five years of breakneck growth. Research published by Enders, a media analyst group, pared back growth rates for the UK online ads market to 18.5 percent for 2008. Enders estimates that display adverts will grow by 9.8 percent, and classifieds by 7.8 percent -- representing a "collapse" on last year's equivalents of 30.5 percent and 54 percent, respectively. In contrast, search ads will grow by 25.4 percent this year, Enders forecasts, because they give a quicker and easier return on investment.

The Wall Street Journal says that SanDisk, a maker of flash data storage card products, and the four major music companies plan to announce a new physical music format called slotMusic. The format is be introduced in mid-October at US retail outlets. Each unit will contain an album, plus extras, on a compact memory card that can be played on mobile phones, PCs and some portable MP3 players. The cards are inserted into vacant slots on phones and other devices. The music will be in the MP3 format, with no digital locks that prevent copying. An adapter will be included to allow users to transfer their music to PCs via USB slots. The initial batch of releases is to comprise 29 albums, from all four of the big music companies.

The Sunday Times writes that Dell employees in Limerick are expected to get reassurance from president of global operations Mike Cannon when he visits the plant this week. The 3,000 workers at Dell's Limerick operations are concerned for their jobs after it emerged that the computer maker was reviewing global operations. There has been talk of scaling back the plant gradually over a couple of years, but sources say that any such plans will happen in the medium term, rather than the short term.

However, the paper reports that there is no such reprieve expected for employees at Tyco Sensormatic, which is also reviewing its operations. The review is expected to lead to the loss of 250 jobs in Cork after IDA talks to save the plant were reported to have failed.

The Sunday Business Post reports that French electronics company Sagem will supply smart metering equipment to ESB. The company won the contract out of a pool of 13 bidders. The value of the deal has not yet been disclosed. The new meters are part of a pilot scheme that will see 6,000 homes get the meters installed. Smart metering will cost the ESB about EUR1 billion to implement nationwide, which the company may recoup from customers.

The same paper briefly reports that Panasonic has been awarded a EUR400,000 contract to supply the defence Forces with specialised laptops, including tablet PCs.

The paper also says that venture capital firm Pentech has raised some EUR57 million to invest in the software sector in the UK and Ireland. Pentech's 2002 fund invested in Automsoft and Aircraft Management Technologies. The global downturn has not affected the fund raising, founding partner Eddie Anderson said, with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, the European Investment Fund and F&C Private Equity Trust among those who came on board.

The same paper reports that Insero has signed a deal with Britain's RG Group. The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, involves the mobile solutions company installing its site access technology at a number of construction sites operated by RG Group. Information is collected on heath and safety, and site access control, through handhelds and then sent to the Insero server. This data can then be accessed by clients through a web-based interface.

The paper also writes that Clare-based Tierney's Office Automation has generated new business revenues of EUR1 million since April. The company hit the magic number after it developed new software that would allow hotels to link booking and accounting technology. Some 80 percent of the company's business comes from the leisure sector. The intermediary software links Hotellinx booking software, which the company acts as a re-seller for, with accounting packages such as Sage.

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