NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 28 September
28-09-2009
by Emmet Ryan
Letterkenny gets 80 new tech jobs | Xerox buys ACS for USD6.4 billion
Software company SITA is to create 80 new jobs in Letterkenny, Donegal. The new positions, which were announced by the Tanaiste Mary Coughlan on Monday, will primarily be in the areas of Java programming and quality assurance. The new jobs, which will be brought in over the next year, will bring the total number of staff at the plant to 150. SITA specialises in air transport communications and IT solutions. Both graduates and staff with experience in the sector will be hired as part of the expansion.
Photocopier maker Xerox is making a move into the outsourcing and data management market with the acquisition of IT services Affiliated Computer Services (ACS). The cash and stock deal is worth USD6.4 billion. "Acquiring ACS helps us expand our business and benefit from stronger revenue and earnings growth," said Xerox CEO Ursula M. Burns said in a statement. The deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010, is priced at a 33.6 percent premium to ACS's Friday closing price and comes quickly on the heels of Dell's acquisition of IT services firm Perot Systems.
Wireless services firm iPass is to partner with Eircom to deliver its services to 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around Ireland. iPass said te partnership was formed in response to enterprise customer demand for coverage in and around Ireland's major cities and airports including Dublin, Cork and Limerick. iPass has a global network of hotspots covering 555 airports and 137,000 Wi-Fi hotspots. "With iPass, people coming to Ireland will be able to conveniently log on and get high-speed, reliable internet access no matter where they are, be it coffee shops, train stations, pubs or airports -- especially Dublin Airport, the largest in Ireland," said Eamonn Condon, Head of Broadband Operations, Eircom.
The chief executives of 12 Irish 'clean technology' companies are visiting Silicon Valley this week as part of Enterprise Ireland's first dedicated clean tech trade mission. The aim of the visit is to help the firms develop connections with top players in the region and develop business links. Enterprise Ireland has 144 client companies in the clean tech sector, employing almost 3,400 people. Clean tech is a group of technologies that are more energy efficient and focus on being kinder to the environment.
IT and management consultancy firm BearingPoint Ireland, has been appointed as a channel partner for SAP Business All-in-One. BearingPoint is already a long standing global implementation partner of SAP in Ireland but the new agreement allows the firm to sell SAP software directly in Ireland for the first time to SMEs. SAP Business All-in-One is aimed at medium sized businesses employing between 30 and 1,000 people. It provides integrated enterprise resource planning systems to help companies run areas like human resources and logistics. BearingPoint employs 200 staff in Dublin.
Samsung Ireland has launched a new mobile handset called the Ping. The phone is available in pink, green or grey and comes with a full QWERTY keyboard. The device is also equipped with social networking features, allowing direct access to sites such as Facebook ad Flickr.
Apple continued to set new landmarks on Monday as the App store passed the 2 billion download mark. The store now has more than 85,000 applications available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple claims to have sold more than 50 million iPhones and iPod Touch in 77 countries since the devices were launched.
In related news the potential sales for the iPhone are set to rise after China Unicom, the country's second largest mobile carrier, confirmed it will begin to sell the Apple handset in China for a retail price of 5,000 Yuan (EUR500). The phone will be used to launch China Unicom's 3G service, and will hit shelves in October.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 