IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 17 September
17-09-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
Skype sale jolted by copyright suit | Google captures reCaptcha
The Irish Times reports that Galway-based CF Tooling saw profits increase by 21 percent last year to almost EUR5 million, according to accounts filed with the Companies' Registration Office. CF manufactures server racks, computer casings and other products for high-tech multinationals. Its key clients include IBM and EMC. CF ended the year with a total of EUR20.3 million in retained profits, a 31 percent increase on the EUR15.6 million it had retained at the end of 2007.
The Irish Independent reports that social networking site Facebook has reached a milestone of 300 million users worldwide. Read more on this story on ENN.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Dell and its financing unit agreed to pay USD4 million to settle charges in New York that it misled consumers about financing terms, warranties and rebates. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said that along with the financial penalties, Dell would be required to make changes to its advertising, sales and financing practices. According to the court's decision, Dell also deprived customers of technical support by failing to provide on-site repair to entitled customers and discouraging some from seeking technical support. The New York charges were separate from Dell's 46-state settlement in January.
The paper also reports that Joltid, a company owned by Skype's founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, has filed a copyright suit against eBay and a group of investors that plan to buy Skype from eBay. The lawsuit could complicate the deal eBay struck with a group of private investors to buy Skype for USD1.9 billion. Joltid has been embroiled in an intellectual property dispute with Skype since March. At the crux of the dispute is a peer-to-peer technology called "global index" that is owned by Joltid. That technology is also used at the core of Skype's software, which routes calls over the Internet instead of traditional phone lines.
Still in the Wall Street Journal, software giant Oracle has posted a 4 percent year-on-year rise in its fiscal first quarter profits. Profits came in at USD1.12 billion, or USD0.22 a share, up from USD1.08 billion, or USD0.21 a share, a year earlier. However, revenues were hurt by the continuing reluctance of companies to invest in technology. Revenue declined to USD5.05 billion from USD5.33 billion. Oracle is currently awaiting regulatory approval in Europe for its USD7.4 billion deal to buy Sun Microsystems. In a conference call, Safra Catz, one of two Oracle presidents, reiterated a prediction that Sun's business will boost Oracle's profits by USD1.5 billion in the first full year after the deal closes.
The Financial Times reports that Google has acquired reCaptcha, a company that provides security questions that help prevent website fraud and spam, and also assists with the digitisation of books and newspapers. The acquisition serves two purposes for Google -- strengthening its range of security products, and also providing a new asset in the internet giant's effort to digitise books and newspapers. Financial terms of the deal were not released.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 