IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 7 September
07-09-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Lime/Cable files suit against Digicel | Intel's 'Yes' campaign criticised
The Irish Times reports that Lime/Cable Wireless, a Caribbean rival of Digicel, has filed a USD43.77 million lawsuit in the Jamaican Supreme Court. The suit alleges overcharging by Digicel since 2003 with regard to fixed-to-mobile (FTM) termination rates. In 2003, Digicel informed Lime that retail FTM calls were to be charged to customers on a per-minute rather than a per-second basis. Prior to that, Lime had been paying FTM termination rates on a per-second basis. According to Lime, this resulted in significantly higher payments due to the fact that calls were then rounded up to the nearest minute.
The paper also says that the speeches and homilies made by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Ireland are now available online. The Irish Bishops' Conference said the speeches are now available at www.catholicbishops.ie, to mark the late pope's visit to Ireland 30 years ago this month.
The same paper reports that a conference has heard repeated calls for the Government to prevent Intel and Ryanair from spending as much as EUR1 million on promoting a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum. The event which was organised by the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) and Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM), both of which are backing a No vote in the referendum. Speaking at the conference, Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins said: "There is a monumental hypocrisy here in the sense that the media and the pro-Lisbon establishment have not raised a single question about the fact that Ryanair and Intel are spending up to a million euro between them on their Yes campaigns. If they were private companies on the No side, there would be a massive outcry and demands for enquiries."
The Irish Examiner notes that 3D images of Dublin and Cardiff are now available on Google Earth.
In other news of Google, the Financial Times says the internet search giant is to make concessions to European publishers and authors, in an effort to stem criticism over its landmark digital books settlement in the US. Google has agreed to have two non-US representatives on the governing board of the registry that will administer the settlement, according to a letter sent to 16 EU publishers' representatives. The letter also promises that Google will consult European publishers before cataloguing some European works in its digital library.
The Sunday Tribune reports that breakdowns in the online reporting system at the Financial Regulator last spring caused delays in the filing of 2008 annual returns for life insurance companies by as much as two months, which delayed publication of the regulator's "blue book" of insurance statistical return. The new system was unable to accept uploads in April, pushing the filing deadline. Once the system was live, validation errors meant many firms were unable to upload files, causing further delays. The regulator unofficially allowed late filings into the middle of June, sources said. The blue book was originally scheduled for publication on 1 September, but will now come out later this month.
The same paper reports that operators in the Irish gambling industry believe an end to the US internet gaming ban could be on the way. Betfair last week called in advisers Credit Suisse to ready itself for a possible boom in the sector ahead of the move, and the European online gambling market is seeing a flurry of acquisition activity among operators with the US market in mind. PartyGaming has just bought US poker business World Poker Tour Enterprises. Irish-based casino software company Cryptologic said with the right legal circumstances in place, it would consider partnerships with companies in the US.
The Tribune also writes that the tax affairs of Nortel's Irish arm are set to be examined after a EUR2.1 billion tax demand was served on the bankrupt telecoms group by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The demand is expected to seriously damage Nortel's creditors' chances, owed around EUR2.8 billion, of recovering any money. There is speculation the issue relates to a complex transfer pricing scheme involving subsidiaries in Ireland, Britain, France, Canada and the US. This involves the sale and pricing of goods and services between different companies in the same group. Nortel has been operating in Ireland since 1973 and employs around 300 people at its Galway plant.
The Sunday Times reports that Skype's founders are set for a legal battle with the company's new owners over the core technology behind the service. When eBay bought Skype in 2005 for USD2.6 billion, it did not buy the core technology but licensed it from Joltid, owned by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom. The Skype founders claim eBay executives began to alter the code used in the technology, which breached the licence. Last week, a private investment group agreed to pay USD1.9 billion for a majority stake in Skype.
The Sunday Business Post writes that Irish start-up InnisTech acquired technology from Microsoft by paying EUR2.4 million worth of shares. The technology, developed in-house by Microsoft, is designed to enable software developers to protect and license their intellectual property. Microsoft decided last year to spin the product out to an independent firm, and InnisTech's acquisition was announced earlier this year but financial details were not disclosed.
The same paper reports that Dublin-based mobile software company Saadian Technologies moved into profitability and recorded a 45 percent rise in turnover last year. According to the company's accounts, turnover in the year ending 31 December 2008 reached EUR1.3 million, but cost of sales rose marginally, from EUR431,000 in 2007 to EUR443,000 last year. Administrative expenses also rose, from EUR582,000 to EUR730,000. The year ended with a net profit of EUR113,000, following a net loss of EUR88,000 in 2007. Saadian now has accumulated losses of EUR2 million.
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