IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 2 July
02-07-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Bidding war looms for T-Mobile UK | Facebook mulls privacy settings change
The Irish Times reports that Dublin-based Solaris Mobile, which has invested EUR150 million in launching a satellite to support mobile data services, has confirmed that the satellite payload which it launched from Kazakhstan last month does not comply with its original specifications. Solaris Mobile has filed a claim with its insurers for the full insured value of the payload. Solaris expects that it should still be able to provide some of the services it was planning to offer, but on a limited basis. The company is confident that it will be able to meet commitments made to the EU, which involve providing mobile satellite services to the European market using the S-band spectrum.
The paper also reports that PayPal International, a Dublin-based subsidiary of eBay-owned PayPal, posted a profit of USD1.7 million for 2008, down from USD17 million a year earlier. In 2007, PayPal International earned an exceptional amount of USD6.9 million from the disposal of its investment in PayPal Europe, which relocated its headquarters from Ireland to Luxembourg in July of that year. During 2007 PayPal International moved into the role of holding company. It holds investments in various PayPal subsidiaries, as well as excess group cash funds.
The Irish Independent says that Three Ireland has grown its mobile broadband subscriber base to more than 150,000, according to the company. The firm has roughly a 40 percent share of Ireland's mobile broadband market.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the music industry has won a victory in federal court against Usenet.com, a company that allows users to exchange files such as articles and songs on different newsgroups. The ruling, from the Southern District of New York, gives the industry more ammunition to go after companies that facilitate unauthorised distribution of songs. Judge Harold Baer Jr found Usenet.com liable for several types of copyright infringement and referred the case to a magistrate to determine a remedy, which could include fines and an order to cease infringing activity.
The paper also says that stock in software firm LogMeIn went up 25 percent on its first day of stockmarket trading. The stock closed at USD20.02 a share on the Nasdaq, up from its initial public offering price of USD16 a share. A total of 6.7 million shares sold at the high end of its expected price range. LogMeIn provides remote-access software that allows users to log in and control any internet-connected device, no matter where it is located.
The Financial Times reports that a bidding war for T-Mobile UK is on the cards after it emerged that Telefonica is looking at the case for buying the mobile operator. The news follows reports that Vodafone is mulling a bid for T-Mobile. If a Vodafone deal goes ahead, Telefonica's O2 could lose its top position in the British mobile market. Deutsche Telekom is considering selling T-Mobile UK, which analysts value at EUR3 billion to EUR4 billion, following several years of under-performance. Separately, it emerged that France Telecom is considering the merits of forming a joint venture between Orange, its UK mobile business, and T-Mobile UK.
The same paper notes that Facebook is to begin encouraging users to make more of their personal information public to everyone on the web, a shift that moves the company into more direct competition with micro-blogging site Twitter. On Wednesday, Facebook held a conference call to discuss new changes to privacy controls on the site, and said that in the coming weeks Facebook would ask each of its 225 million members to reset their privacy settings. As part of the change, Facebook will trial different transitions tools. Some of these will offer a recommended batch of settings, which will make much more information viewable to anyone on the web than what is currently made public by default. The recommended setting will make public a user's profile picture album, hometown and current city, bio, work and education information, and all the content a user publishes in their 'stream'.
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