In The Papers 24 September

24-09-2008

by Sylvia Leatham

Netezza chooses Dundalk for new facility | Microsoft tries to kill pirates with kindness

The Irish Times reports that the pool of third-level graduates available through the Dundalk Institute of Technology was a significant factor in the area being chosen as the location for the European operations centre of US company Netezza, according to company executives. Senior vice-president Patrick J Scannell Jnr said the town "is a centre of excellence for talent because of its proximity to universities and DKIT . Just as we do in the US, we are right next to a technical university." Dundalk will also house Netezza's European financial headquarters, which will create 65 jobs over the next five years. Netezza provides data warehouse equipment which helps store, retrieve and analyse large amounts of data.

The paper also says that EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding has proposed a cut in roaming charges for sending text messages, as reported by ENN on Tuesday.

The Irish Independent says that leading US scientists have praised what they called a "visionary programme" mounted by FAS in the states. The Science Challenge initiative will see 42 graduates, post-graduates and apprentices travel to the US for a six-month internship programme. Professor Denis Headon, founding president of Biolink USA-Ireland, said the programme would encourage international business to locate in Ireland and would help ensure Ireland was recognised as a knowledge-based society.

The paper also notes that security firm Global Secure Systems (GSS) has said revelations that a BBC mailing list was hacked highlights the dangers of workers using business email addresses for personal use. "Whilst it's likely that many of the people who signed up to this list were using their personal email addresses, it's a sure-fire bet that some were using their business addresses," said David Hobson, GSS managing director. He said the BBC email list break-in shows why companies should, wherever possible, mandate that staff do not use their company mailbox for personal email. "If one or more members of staff at a company had signed up to the BBC mailing list in question, then that employee has effectively opened the company's IT resource up to a spam and/or malware attack," said Hobson.

The same paper says that UK regulators are claiming that low-income mobile phone users could be threatened by an EU plan to reduce some fees, because it may lead to charges for receiving calls. The European Commission intends to force mobile operators to cut the charges for completing calls on their networks by 70 percent. Reducing this fee, known as the mobile termination rate, may cause operators to compensate by charging customers for receiving calls, the UK government said. The UK response comes as pressure on the Commission builds to change the proposal.

The Irish Examiner reports on the launch of the first mobile phone to use Google's Android software. Read more on this story on ENN.

The paper also says that the head of Dell's global operations will on Wednesday visit the company's Limerick plant, amid concerns about the long-term future of the facility, which employs 3,000 people. Michael Cannon, a close confidante of Michael Dell, drew up the plan to sell off Dell's nine plants around the world and to outsource manufacturing to cut costs. Cannon during his visit will have discussions with the head of Dell in Ireland, Nicky Hartery, who leaves the company at the end of this month, and his successor, Sean Corkery.

According to the Financial Times, Microsoft has slashed the Chinese price of its Office suite for home users by more than 70 percent, with the aim of persuading consumers in the piracy-plagued market that licensed programs can be affordable. The promotion brings the cost of Office Home and Student 2007 in China to just USD29 -- less than one-seventh of the retail price Microsoft was recommending for the suite of word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation software just three months ago. Microsoft's Windows operating system and Office suite are ubiquitous in China, but the majority of users have long relied on pirated copies.

The paper also notes that mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson has unveiled plans for an unlimited music download service that will compete with a similar proposal by Nokia. By the end of the year, Nordic firm Telenor will become the first mobile operator to sell Sony Ericsson's unlimited digital music service to consumers. In going head to head with Nokia, Sony Ericsson is seeking to differentiate itself by allowing consumers who buy mobiles with this music service to transfer some of their songs to other devices. Nokia's music service, due to launch on 2 October, comes with digital rights management (DRM) technology that ties downloaded songs to an individual mobile and PC.

The same paper reports that Yahoo's new board on Tuesday cleared the way for a fresh round of discussions with Time Warner over the future of its AOL unit, potentially reigniting the talks for a combination of the two internet businesses that stalled earlier this year. The green light for the discussions came as Yahoo's directors met for the first time since activist investor Carl Icahn was granted access to the boardroom. According to one person familiar with the company's thinking, the Yahoo board approved a new round of discussions with AOL, although active deal negotiations are not underway at this stage.

The Wall Street Journal says that, in a sign of the growing interest in outsourcing more computer processing, IBM is opening four more cloud computing centres. The new centres -- in South Korea, Vietnam, India and Brazil -- will bring to 13 the number of such facilities IBM has built worldwide. IBM has said it is interested in building up its capabilities in cloud centres -- installations of industrial-strength computer servers that can handle processing tasks for customers on demand or multiple clients at a time. IBM declined to say how much the new centres cost.

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