NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 14 September
14-09-2009
by Emmet Ryan
STT set to buy Eircom | Twitter for business: the Irish verdict
Eircom is set to undergo its fifth change of ownership since 1999, after Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) reached a deal with current owners Eircom Holdings (formerly Babcock and Brown Capital). The deal values the former telecoms incumbent at EUR3.94 billion and STT will be taking on the Irish firm's EUR3.87 billion debt. The offer values Eircom at a 20.2 percent premium on its closing price on 24 June, the last closing price posted before STT made its initial offer. The employee share ownership trust (ESOT), which has a 35 percent stake in Eircom, has agreed to the deal.
The takeover of Eircom prompted plenty of reaction from politicians on Monday. Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan said he was pleased with the deal. "I welcome this morning's recommendation by Eircom Holdings to accept the offer from Singapore Technologies Telemedia to acquire Eircom. I believe the announcement can give rise to many benefits for eircom and for the Irish telecommunications sector," said Minister Ryan. The opposition was less enthusiastic: Fine Gael's Communications spokesman Simon Coveney said past sales of the firm had negative consequences. He said he was hopeful the STT deal would be different as Eircom is a telecoms firm and not a venture capitalist business. Meanwhile Labour's Communications spokesperson Liz McManus said the deal would only be positive if it improved the delivery of services to consumers.
Magnet Networks also weighed in on the sale. The firm's chief executive Mark Kellett said this was an opportunity for ComReg to take a more assertive regulatory stance with Eircom. "Eircom's previous owners followed a policy of legal attrition when it came to ComReg’s efforts to regulate the market. To date, this has stymied market reform...This will be the fifth time that ComReg has been granted the chance to engage with a new owner and it is our hope that they immediately initiate a fruitful dialogue with STT."
Staying with the telecommunications sector and Dublin-based i-conX Solutions has opened an office in Australia to support its entry into the Asia-Pacific market. The firm provides an interconnect billing service, which is a way of managing the complexities of charges when multiple operators are involved. Key staff from Dublin will be relocated to the new office in Sydney to help support the drive into the new market.
Small Irish businesses consider Twitter a useful customer relationship tool, but say it stops short of helping them to generate sales. That's according to a survey conducted by online network IGOpeople, which revealed that 38 percent of small Irish firms believe Twitter is most useful for keeping an eye on what's being said about their own brand or their competitors. Twenty-eight percent said tweeting is most useful for making contacts, while 26 percent see Twitter as an opportunity to interact with new and existing customers. Just 3 percent of respondents said Twitter is useful in generating new sales. When asked about the downsides of using Twitter for business 45 percent of respondents said it too time consuming while 20 percent said it is too 'noisy' (it can be hard to pick out the 'useful' tweets from the large volumes of 'useless' ones).
A team of schoolchildren from Greystones is currently representing Ireland at the F1 in Schools World Championships in London. Team Koni Kats, from St David's Secondary School, are participating in the contest which challenges students to design, build, and race model Formula 1 cars. The competition concludes on 17 September.
Dublin Port Company has implemented SMS technology from Irish-owned software company Saadian to boost speed of communications and improve emergency response. The port, which is the largest in Ireland, has almost 15,000 ship movements carrying over 25 million tonnes of goods as well as almost 1.3 million ferry and cruise passengers annually. Saadian's PagerSMS application will help Dublin Port Company to alert its 160 staff and other security and harbour personnel in the event of an emergency. It will also be used for day-to-day communications on weather reports and sea tides.
Internet telephony firm ShoreTel has announced the appointment of Barry Dillon as the new country manager for Ireland. As country manager, Dillon is responsible for expanding ShoreTel's presence in the voice over IP and unified communications markets.
Infrastructure software firm CA is to acquire NetQoS, a management software firm, in a USD200 million deal. CA said the acquisition would help improve its ability to deliver services to clients. At the time of the announcement, NetQoS had over half of the Fortune 100 as clients.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 