NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 24 July
24-07-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
Customer numbers down at Vodafone | PayPal to open up to developers
Mobile operator Vodafone Ireland had 2.13 million customers by the end of the second quarter, a drop of 46,000 from the same period last year. The company's fixed line and DSL subscriber base stood at 84,791 at the end of the quarter, bringing Vodafone's overall customer base to 2.21 million. Meanwhile, average mobile blended monthly ARPU decreased by 7.4 percent to EUR38.60 since the same period in 2008. The drop in ARPU is put down to a series of price reductions Vodafone says it has offered customers over the past year. This week Vodafone signed a customer transfer deal with BT Ireland, which will see BT transfer its consumer and small business fixed line and broadband accounts to Vodafone.
Irish Internet Association (IIA) CEO Fergal O'Bryne has announced he is to leave the association and take up the position of CEO of remote video technology firm Sonru.com. O'Byrne will officially step down at the IIA's AGM on 10 September after four years on the job. The IIA is currently looking for candidates to fill the CEO role. Meanwhile, in more appointments news, Kathryn D'Arcy, director of the Irish Software Association, has reportedly left her position with immediate effect. D'Arcy took over from Shane Dempsey at the beginning of 2009.
During 2008 Enterprise Ireland partnership funds invested EUR34 million in 104 investments, according to the Enterprise Ireland Seed and Venture Capital report for 2008. These investments are spread across all sectors, with a particular focus on communications, life sciences and software.
Following Microsoft's disappointing financial results, shares in the software behemoth dropped 7.7 percent in pre-market trading on Friday. The firm's results, which included a revenue drop of 17 percent, were well below Wall Street analysts' expectations and reflected the significant slowdown in software sales as PC shipments declined globally.
In more news of results, storage giant EMC has posted second-quarter revenue of USD3.26 billion, down 11 percent from the year-ago period, but up 3 percent on the previous quarter. Net income came in at USD205.2 million, or USD0.10 per diluted share, compared with USD360.1 million, or USD0.17 per diluted share, in 2008. Looking ahead, the firm expects consolidated revenues for 2009 to be USD13.8 billion, including USD200 million of revenues from its recent acquisition of Data Domain. EMC employs 1,600 people in two sites in Ireland -- Cork and Dublin.
E-payment firm PayPal is poised to open up its online payment service to third parties in a move that would allow developers to embed PayPal's payment service in apps and collect fees for goods and online services rendered. The e-payment subsidiary of eBay said the service is to be available from 3 November, and will include a set of APIs (application programming interface) so that third parties can embed the PayPal service into applications.
Finnish mobile giant Nokia is to acquire certain assets of German mobile software firm Cellity for an undisclosed sum. Cellity is a private firm that employs 14 people based in Hamburg. Cellity offers a solution to collect and securely store users' contacts in one place. Nokia is to acquire the Cellity team, with an aim to strengthening its experience in the area of social networking. Cellity's current service, which will not transfer to Nokia, will be discontinued. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2009. After closing, Cellity staff will become part of Nokia's Services unit.
In more news of acquisitions, software giant Oracle is to buy privately held GoldenGate Software. San Francisco-based GoldenGate produces software that helps businesses analyse large amounts of information in databases as well as programs that help banks detect fraudulent activities. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 