NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 6 November
06-11-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
Yang tells Microsoft to buy Yahoo | UPC Ireland sees broadband subs jump 28pc
Following the collapse of the Google/Yahoo advertising deal, Yahoo chief Jerry Yang took to the stage at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco on Thursday and told attendees "to this day the best thing for Microsoft to do is buy Yahoo. I don't think that is a bad idea at all, at the right price, whatever that price is. We're willing to sell the company." Back in May Yang rejected a USD33 per share offer from Microsoft to buy Yahoo; Yahoo shares closed at USD14 on Wednesday.
UPC Ireland, parent company of NTL and Chorus, has posted revenues of USD275 million for the nine months to the end of September, representing growth of 23 percent from USD224 million in the year-ago period. The company said its operating profits rose to USD105 million from USD70 million, an almost 50 percent increase. UPC now has 94,000 subscribers to its broadband service, up 28 percent from this time last year, and 23,300 people have signed up to its phone service. The group's US parent, Liberty Global, posted revenues of just under USD8 billion by the end of the third quarter, up 22 percent from USD6.5 billion in 2007. The company reported a net loss of USD309 million by the end of September, compared with profit of USD40 million last year.
Games retailer Gamestop is to open its third Limerick store on Friday and has announced plans to open a further four stores around the country in the near future. The expansion will create 25 new jobs. The retailer currently has 56 stores throughout Ireland and the UK, and over 5,500 worldwide.
In conjunction with Microsoft, Darklight has launched the Imagine Cup Short Film Competition. To enter the competition, participants have to submit a three-minute script or storyboard responding to the statement: "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today." Irish finalists will be brought to Egypt to participate in the Imagine Cup World Finals, where they will be required to make a short film inspired by their winning idea. First prize is USD8,000. For more details on the 2009 Imagine Cup Short Film Competition, click here.
Following on from the successful launch of the Tocco, Samsung has released the catchily titled L700, a handset which features Irish as a language option and predictive text in Irish. The device launched in Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse stores in purple and black on 1 November and retails from EUR99 on pre-pay. From 1 December the phone will also be available in silver and pink in Three Ireland stores. "Next year every new phone Samsung launches in the Irish market will have Gael Fon available on it," said Gary Twohig, country manager of Samsung Ireland.
Spam accounted for 88 percent of all e-mails heading for Irish inboxes this week, according to the latest figures from IT Force. The company analysed over 1,037,608 e-mails received by its clients and established that over 916,594 of them were unsolicited. The most prevalent viruses during the month were: Trojan.Goldun-305, Trojan.Dropper-15457, Trojan.Agent-56129, Worm.Mydoom.M and Worm.SomeFool.D.
The highly-anticipated game LittleBigPlanet from Sony will be available for the PlayStation 3 from Friday. LittleBigPlanet not only enables players to play the game, but also provides them with the tools to create their own levels and share them with others on the PlayStation Network (PSN). LittleBigPlanet had sparked some controversy at the end of October when Sony announced it was postponing the game's release after it emerged that a background music track on the game contained two phrases from the Qur'an. It recalled all copies of the game that had been sent to retailers and developed a new version of the game, removing the music track.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 