Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest Issue No. 484
24-09-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
Google books deal needs some editing | Acquisition woes ahead for Dell, Oracle?
New jobs are cause for hope
There was a rare slice of good news on the jobs front this week with three significant announcements. First up, Offaly firm Automotive Technology Systems and Research (ATSR) said it will invest EUR1 million in expanding its business, creating up to 30 new highly-skilled jobs over the next two years. ATSR develops and produces controlling systems for emergency vehicles including ambulances, fire engines and police cars. The company plans to plough the money into increasing its research and development (R&D) efforts in Ireland as well as expanding its marketing activity in the North American market. On Wednesday, Digital Reach Group, a mobile internet specialist, officially opened for business, pledging to create at least 20 high-tech jobs at its base in Dublin. DRG.ie aims to tap into the rapidly growing mobile internet market, creating a number of services to target the sector. Meanwhile, security software firm McAfee has revealed plans to create 120 new jobs, bringing to 290 the number of people it employs in Cork. The jobs are to be in a new sales operation for its Europe, Middle East and Africa division, which is based in Little Island, Cork. Current employees handle software development and localisation, as well as accounts and other administration. Though the jobs themselves aren't technical posts, the fact that McAfee, one of the world's most successful tech firms, has chosen to expand its operations in Ireland must be seen as a positive sign.
Mobile market feels effects of downturn
The global downturn continues to have a detrimental effect on the mobile phone market with shipments in Europe falling by 6 percent in the second quarter, down to 42 million from 44.6 million in the year-ago quarter, according to figures from IDC. The increasing popularity of smartphones was evident during the quarter with shipments of the converged devices jumping by 25 percent over the year, compared to a decline of 12 percent in shipments of traditional mobile phones. Apple, Samsung and LG were the top performers for the quarter. Second-placed Samsung shipped 12 million handsets during the three-month period, a 12 percent increase on the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, fourth-placed LG had an impressive quarter with shipments rising by 71 percent over the year to 4.8 million. Apple, in fifth place on the table, saw unprecedented growth of 600 percent, shipping 1.4 million iPhones. Joining it in fifth position was BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, which sold 1.2 million devices during the quarter to claim a 3 percent market share. Sony Ericsson, which held third spot, shipped 5.1 million phones during the quarter, a drop of 18 percent year-on-year. Leader Nokia also had a poor quarter, shipping 15.3 million devices, representing a 19 percent decline on last year. Its market share dropped to 36 percent: rival Samsung is nipping at its heels with 29 percent share.
Google books deal needs some editing
It's been quite an eventful week for Google and its books settlement. Late last week the US Department of Justice filed a number of objections to the deal citing potential copyright and anti-trust issues. While the Open Book Alliance, which includes Amazon.com, Microsoft and Yahoo, were quick to declare the settlement dead, the DoJ itself hadn't gone that far. In its filing, the department outlined the benefits of the deal saying it could "breathe life into millions of works that are now effectively off limits to the public" and that it could "open the door to new research opportunities." Google responded by saying it was looking at the DoJ's objections and would look to address them as the court proceedings progressed. The final hearing on the settlement had been due on 7 October; however, the parties -- Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers -- are now asking for more time so that they can better prepare themselves. The books settlement was agreed last October following two years of negotiation. The deal would allow Google to scan out-of-print books with unknown copyright holders and make them available at public libraries, universities and other institutions, and to buy online. There has been widespread criticism of the deal from publishers, competitors, library groups and academics.
Acquisition woes for Dell, Oracle?
As it strives to broaden its reach to technology services, Dell acquired Perot Systems for USD3.9 billion this week. The PC maker has agreed to pay USD30 per share for Perot, a 68 percent premium over the stock's closing price on 18 September. Perot Systems, founded by Texan billionaire and former US Presidential candidate Ross Perot, provides IT services for companies and reported revenue of USD2.8 billion last year. Dell hopes to complete the deal by January. Once the acquisition is complete, Perot Systems will become Dell's services unit and be led by Peter Altabef, the current Perot Systems chief executive officer. The move will push Dell more directly into competition with rivals Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Analysts, by and large, have been cautious about the deal, suggesting that Perot's 23,000 employees could cause a huge integration headache for Dell, which is un-used to an acquisition that large. Meanwhile, one technology giant that is facing its own acquisition headache is Oracle. CEO Larry Ellison has claimed that Sun Microsystems is losing USD100 million per month, while European regulators examine the software giant's acquisition of the hardware supplier. US regulators approved Oracle's USD7.4 billion bid for Sun in August, but in September Brussels said it was scrutinising the deal. They are examining whether Oracle's control over MySQL, an open-source Sun product, would stymie competition in the database software industry. Ellison expressed frustration in the delay, but said he was confident the Sun deal would be approved.
Yahoo launches people power campaign
Yahoo has taken the bull by the horns and launched its largest marketing campaign in the history of the company as it strives boost its brand globally. The internet firm is to spend over USD100 million on the campaign. "It's You!" is the campaign tagline, reflecting the campaign's focus on personalisation. The company is also expected to unveil new tools to help users customise Yahoo products like Yahoo.com. Yahoo recently revamped its homepage to make it more user-friendly and the firm has also made changes to its search and web mail services to enable more personalisation. The campaign will officially begin on Monday, and its focus will include the US, Canada, Britain, France, Brazil and India. In Europe, the campaign is aimed at increasing the amount of time users spend on Yahoo, and acquiring more market share. In the meantime, Yahoo rival Google has announced a major revamp of the DoubleClick ad exchange it acquired last year. The move is regarded as an important step in Google's plan to extend its advertising business into the market for graphical, display ads. The search giant will now combine the DoubleClick exchange with its own advertising system and technology. While Google controls more than 70 percent of the US market for search ads, usually consisting of a few words and a link, it trails Yahoo and others in direct revenue from pictorial ads.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 