NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 3 November
03-11-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
Tanaiste promotes Irish ICT sector in US | IBM stops top exec's Apple move
Tanaiste Mary Coughlan on Monday set off on a week-long promotional visit to the US, during which she will meet with target companies in the ICT, healthcare, medical devices, pharmaceutical and financial services sectors. The visit will include stops in Boston, San Antonio, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Chicago. "The message I am taking to the US this week is clear. Ireland, despite the global economic downturn, is open for business. We have a young, highly skilled and highly educated workforce and we have the right set of flexible policy measures in place to help US corporations achieve their global ambition," she said.
On Monday, hotel chain Marriott International announced it was to establish its second operation in Cork, creating 220 new high-quality jobs over five years. The new centre will be responsible for handling reservation and customer inquiry calls originating from Ireland, the UK and Continental Europe. The centre is expected to handle approximately 1,500,000 calls by the end of 2009.
Irish firm Commercial Wireless, which distributes mobile communications devices, has launched its eMerit solution in the UK. The eMerit payment solution allows users to make credit card transactions using a Blackberry device. The solution, which claims to be first of its kind in the world, was developed by Commercial Wireless with its UK partner, mobile technology firm Tracktech. Commercial Wireless plans to launch eMerit in Ireland within the next six months. "The launch of eMerit represents an important development for us as a company, in that we are setting up a wholly new line of business. We have built our reputation over the years as a distributor of mobile devices and are now expanding into the area of mobile payment applications," said Derek McDonald, CEO, Commercial Wireless.
Irish business solutions provider C Infinity has signed a deal with Hewlett-Packard that will see it receive EUR500,000 worth of high-end blade server technology and services from HP over the next three years. The deal means C Infinity will be able to make the full range of HP enterprise class server features, such as off-site storage, available to Irish companies.
The amount of malicious software, or malware, on computers is growing, according to Microsoft's latest Security Intelligence report. During the first half of the year the amount of malware found on PCs rose by 43 percent. However, over 90 percent of the vulnerabilities affected applications, while only about 10 percent impacted operating systems, said Microsoft. The company claims improvements in security for its Windows Vista operating system and security updates to the previous Windows XP system had made such software a less attractive target for attackers. Instead, attackers have shifted their attention to security holes in individual programs.
Court documents have revealed that IBM has sued a top executive to prevent him from jumping ship to Apple. IBM said Mark Papermaster, who was vice president of the company's Blade Development unit until last week, signed a non-compete agreement with IBM that prevents him from accepting a job with a competitor until one year after leaving the company. In a suit filed at the United States District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, IBM said Papermaster was one of its top 300 managers and had access to a wide range of the company's intellectual property and trade secrets. Neither Papermaster nor Apple has commented on the issue yet.
US electronics giant Circuit City has announced it is to close 155 stores across the US, as it struggles to return to profitability. The firm has around 700 stores around the country, and the move will see 17 percent of its US workforce lose their jobs. With consumer spending down, the electronics giant has seen earnings drop substantially. The firm is also facing increasing competition from main rival Best Buy, which has boosted its market share in the past few months. In March this year, Best Buy invested USD2.1 billion in a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse, which will see the opening of its first Best Buy stores in the UK next year.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 