NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 16 July
16-07-2009
by Emmet Ryan
Nokia feels the snip | Employees Facebooking on company time
It's not just Ireland that's feeling the snip on Thursday. Finland has its own woes to worry about following Nokia's latest results. The handset maker has revealed that second quarter earnings fell a significant 66 percent to EUR380 million, compared to EUR1.1 billion for the same period last year. The dip was partially due to a 15 percent decrease in handset sales. The news drove the Finnish mobile giant's shares down 8.38 percent to EUR10.17 in Helsinki.
Vodafone showed a competitive streak on Thursday with the announcement that it will offer Vodafone at Home landline and fixed-line broadband for a minimum of 20 percent less than the equivalent Eircom bundle. In addition, the telecoms firm said its pay-monthly mobile customers will benefit from an extra 10 percent deduction when they choose Vodafone at Home, giving them overall savings of up to 30 percent.
Mobile services firm Zamano has announced that its profits before tax for the first half of 2009 will likely be in line with market expectations. In a trading update released on Thursday Zamano said it expects a pre-tax profit for the six months of EUR2.3 million. This is despite an expected fall in revenue, which the firm said would be offset by lower operating costs.
Micro-blogging website Twitter expects to finally start making money towards the end of this year, according to documents, dated February of this year, published by TechCrunch. The documents, which were published following negotiations with Twitter, show that the micro-blogging site aims to make USD400,000 in revenue in the third quarter of this year, and USD4 million in the fourth quarter. Within four years Twitter hopes to post revenue of USD1.54 billion, have 5,200 employees, and perhaps most importantly, make USD111 million in net profit, according to TechCrunch. The figures present a rare glimpse at financial plans for the website, and were reportedly sent to TechCrunch by a hacker.
Some of Ireland’s most promising footballers have received European Computer Driving Licence qualifications. The Irish Computer Society and its training branch ICS Skills held a special ceremony on Wednesday honouring 30 young athletes who received their ECDL as part of the FAS/FAI Youth Soccer Training Courses. Former Ireland goalkeeper Packie Bonner and Conor Lenihan, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment presented the awards. "Regardless of how you fare on the football field, this course fully prepares you be leaders and mentors in your community," said Bonner.
A quarter of Irish workers spend 2 hours a day on social networks while in the office, according to new research by marketing agency Simply Zesty. The study of 300 people found that 25 percent of respondents spend as much as 2 hours or more per day on social networks at work, compared to 9 percent of respondents who claimed that they weren't able to access such websites in the office. Mobile access to social media is on the rise, according to the survey, which found that 73 percent of people are accessing Facebook and sites of its ilk through a mobile device. The report found businesses are also embracing the social sphere with 58 percent of respondents claiming their firms use blogs.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 