NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 24 October
24-10-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
Cavan gets 70 highly-skilled jobs | Xerox to slash 3,000 jobs
Cavan got a jobs boost on Friday with the news that Pauwels Trafo Ireland (PTI) in Cavan Town is to create 70 new high quality jobs over two years in a EUR12 million investment to expand its manufacturing facility. The firm manufactures wind transformers for western European markets. PTI is a subsidiary of Pauwels International of Belgium, a leading manufacturer of three-phase transformers, which is owned by Crompton Greaves, one of India's largest private sector enterprises.
Another subsidiary of Crompton Greaves, Microsol, has announced a separate R&D investment at its Dublin operation. Microsol supplies state-of-the-art information and control technology and services to power utility companies to manage their transmission and distribution electricity networks. The new R&D is for the development of a Bay Control Unit, which is an electronic control and monitoring instrument for use in electricity substations.
Libraries across Limerick have been updated with facilities that will make it easier for elderly people and those with disabilities to access library services. As well as a wide selection of large print and talking books, the 24 libraries in Limerick now offer facilities such as voice dictation, text readers, homepage reader technology and virtual and Braille keyboards. A promotional campaign to highlight the assistive technologies is available at the library branches. The campaign involves the production of an instructional DVD on the new technologies and the loaning of laptops within each library to enable people to access internet services using their Wi-Fi/3G networks.
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe is to unveil a EUR31.6 million national nanoscience consortium -- INSPIRE (Integrated NanoScience Platform for Ireland) -- comprising 10 third level institutions. INSPIRE's objective is to raise Ireland's capability in the areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology research even further. It will allow researchers in all of its 10 institutions to share state-of-the-art equipment in cutting-edge collaborative research. It will also implement a national graduate programme. The consortium will be officially launched by Minister O'Keeffe on 30 October.
Dublin-based PopCap Games, a developer and publisher of casual games, has announced that it will launch a new installment of its flagship franchise Bejeweled. Called Bejeweled Twist, the new game has been in development for over three years. The firm has refused to give away details of the game but has said it is to unveil the new installment at a gala event at Seattle's Experience Music Project Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame on Monday evening. The game will initially be available via web download from www.popcap.com and PopCap has confirmed that local language versions of the game will also follow. Bejewled has proven to be widely successful for PopCap Games; over 25 million copies have been sold across all platforms.
Following Yahoo's announcement that it is to cut 10 percent (approximately 1,500) of its staff worldwide, Xerox has said it plans to cut 3,000 jobs globally. The company broke the news as it released its quarterly earnings. Xerox posted a 2 percent increase in profit in the July-September quarter, earning USD258 million, or USD0.29 per share. Despite this slight jump in profit, the firm said a slowdown in orders from large US companies has dragged down its profit margins, causing the printer and copier maker to announce the latest batch of restructuring redundancies. Xerox has slashed 8,800 jobs since 2005, including 1,500 so far this year.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 