NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 14 April
14-04-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
OpenHydro signs major US deal | Trade mission bags EUR3m
Irish tidal energy company OpenHydro has secured a major contract to develop a tidal energy pilot project for Snohomish County Public Utility District, the 12th largest publicly owned power utility in the US. The project, which has received a grant from the US Department of Energy Advanced Water Power Projects, involves the installation of up to three tidal turbines in the Puget Sound, which will be connected to the electricity grid via subsea cables. OpenHydro will install the turbines using its purpose-built installation barge, the OpenHydro Installer. Financial details of the deal were not released. The announcement was made at Stanford University in the US, where the Irish Technology Leaders Silicon Valley Awards are taking place. Tanaiste Mary Coughlan, who is attending the awards, is currently in the US on a trade mission to seek US foreign direct investment.
In more news of the US trade mission, Minister Coughlan has revealed that EUR3 million in new export deals have been secured by a number of Enterprise Ireland client companies in the US. Documatics, a Cork-based provider of advanced document-management software technology, signed a deal to provide its document-management platform to Boston-based GE Sensing. SensorPro, a Limerick-based provider of web-based online survey tools, announced a partnership with Redwood City-based StrongMail Systems. In addition, Cork-based Cubic Telecom signed a deal with Qik. "The diversity of Irish companies forging deals with US partners and being recognised for their outstanding technology is highly impressive. From software services to semiconductors and alternative energy, Ireland continues to distinguish itself as a centre of innovation excellence," said Minister Coughlan.
Forty-five percent of senior executives in small and medium-sized businesses work from home at least one day a month, up from 25 percent in 2004. That's according to a survey by O2 Ireland, which revealed that a further 28 percent work from home at least four days per month, while 22 percent say they expect to increase their teleworking over the next year. The survey showed that 15 percent of respondents work from home in order to catch up on work or meet deadlines. Twelve percent say they telework in order to concentrate without distraction on major projects such as new business proposals or writing reports. The study surveyed over 300 senior managers in businesses nationwide employing between 1 and 250 people.
The European Union has commenced legal action against Britain for not applying EU data privacy rules that would restrict advertising tracker Phorm from watching how users surf the web. Phorm analyses internet users' behaviour so it can display ads that might appeal to them. The European Commission said Britain should outlaw internet traffic interception and monitoring unless users give their consent that their behaviour can be tracked and analysed. EU regulators sent a first legal warning to Britain on Tuesday asking that it explain or change the way it interprets EU rules because it currently allows interception when it is unintentional or when a tracker has "reasonable grounds" to believe that consent was given. Britain has two months to reply. Phorm has so far worked with three internet operators -- BT Group, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse's TalkTalk. Neither Phorm nor the operators have commented.
Storage giant EMC has released a new line of high-end Symmetrix storage products that are based on a modular design that can scale up to support the largest virtual datacentre infrastructure. The Symmetrix V-Max and V-Max SE storage system are based on a new Virtual Matrix Architecture that EMC claims can scale up to hundreds of thousands of terabytes of storage, and is capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of virtual machines.
Electronics giant Philips has posted a EUR57 million net loss for the first quarter of 2009, down significantly from a net profit of EUR294 million posted during the same period in 2008. The firm also saw sales plummet 17 percent to EUR5.1 billion. "In the first quarter of 2009 we have seen a significant further deterioration of our markets," said CEO Gerard Kleisterlee, in a statement. He said the effects were felt most strongly in businesses, like Philips, which cater to the consumer market and to the construction and car industries. Kleisterlee isn't optimistic about the upcoming quarter, saying he expects more of the same.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 