NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 27 May
27-05-2009
by Emmet Cole
Eircom sees profit plunge | VoiceSage creates 25 new jobs
Eircom's third quarter results show an operating profit of EUR69 million, down 27 percent from last year's EUR95 million. Meanwhile, revenue fell 5 percent to EUR488 million. The company lost 22,000 telephone customers in the quarter, but garnered an extra 19,000 broadband subscribers. On the plus side, profits at Eircom subsidiary Meteor jumped 17 percent to EUR35 million; however revenue at the mobile operator slipped 2 percent to EUR117 million. In line with the experiences of rival mobile operators Vodafone and O2, Meteor's average monthly revenue per user fell 6 percent to EUR37.52 over a year.
VoiceSage -- a Cork-based voice messaging technology company -- opened new offices in Dun Laoghaire on Wednesday, as part of a EUR7 million investment that will see the creation of 25 new jobs. The positions will be in software engineering, research and development and customer support. VoiceSage has had a successful couple of years reporting growth of over 300 percent in each of the past two years.
Fresh on the heels of its overall Net Visionary Award last week, Irish music video site Muzu.tv has signed a deal with Warner Music. The company now has deals with all four major labels making it the darling of corporate music entertainment worldwide. The partnership with Warner will see Warner Music video content available on Muzu.tv across the UK and Ireland. Muzu.tv users will be given unlimited, on-demand access to thousands of videos from Warner Music's roster. Warner Music UK and Muzu.tv will share revenues generated by advertising through the site and its video player. As part of the deal Warner Music UK will also adopt Muzu.tv as a promotional platform for events such as video premieres and exclusives and embed the Muzu.tv video player into selected artist websites and social networking profiles.
Havok has announced that its 'Cloth' physics product will feature for the first time in the newly launched game 'UFC 2009 Undisputed' by games developer THQ. The Cloth animation system enabled THQ's creative team to realistically depict the behaviour of character garments and environmental cloth, bringing what the company describes as "new levels of interactivity and stunning visual effects" to the combat game. Cloth gives games developers the ability to create realistic soft materials inside games -- from free-flowing locks of hair to swinging robes. Havok renewed its licensing agreement with international game developer THQ last year.
Microsoft's Zune music and entertainment service is to be extended to new platforms and markets this year, according to the company. Zune's video service will be extended to Xbox Live internationally in the autumn, bringing Zune to more than 17 million Xbox Live subscribers. Zune will also partner the Xbox Live Video Marketplace, bringing TV and films to the platform. This is the first time Microsoft has marketed the Zune entertainment service in Europe and is a key step in Microsoft's strategy to offer Zune across TV, PC and mobile devices. Microsoft also confirmed that a 'next generation' of its portable media player, Zune HD will be made available in the US (only) from this autumn. Zune HD is a portable media player with built-in HD radio receiver, HD video output capabilities, OLED touch screen, Wi-Fi and web browser.
Irish convenience store retailer Gala has launched a new website, designed by DV4. The new website includes an extranet offering a range of online resources including interactive video presentations, print applications, recipes and market information, built to assist Gala management and retailers in their day-to-day marketing and sales activities. A bespoke print application enables individual Gala retailers to print out customised pricing and promotional labels from pre-designed templates and has resulted in significantly faster and more cost-effective printing solutions, according to the company. DV4 is currently working on an interactive recipe book for the Gala website and will also provide ongoing website support over the next 12 months.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 