IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 29 January
29-01-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Receiver appointed to Cognotec | ComReg head gets EU job
The Irish Independent reports that efforts are being made to save up to 65 jobs at Cognotec, the foreign exchange systems software firm. Barclays Bank has appointed Kieran Wallace of KPMG as receiver to Cognotec Holdings, Cognotec Ireland and Cognotec Ltd. The head of the company, Brian MacCaba, said he hoped to sell the business as a going concern. The group has substantial contracts in place but has experienced cash-flow difficulties due to cutbacks in the financial services industry.
The Irish Times says that Seagate is to create 95 jobs in Northern Ireland, as reported by ENN on Thursday.
The paper also reports that Ireland's chief communications regulator, John Doherty, has been elected founding chairman of a new European body charged with deepening the co-ordination of telecoms and internet regulation throughout the EU. Doherty will chair the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications for one year. He will continue his work as chairman of ComReg while holding this part-time position.
The paper also reports on the much-anticipated launch of the Apple iPad. Read more on this story on ENN.
The same paper reports that IT spending by businesses is set for a modest increase, according to new research, which found that the recession has made firms increasingly appreciate the contribution that technology makes to their success. Some 72 percent of business and IT executives surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit said they place greater value on the IT function than they did before the downturn. The survey also found that 42 percent of organisations plan to increase selective spending on IT projects, with 11 percent saying they will allocate more money to IT across the board. The research polled 557 senior executives in Ireland, the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
The paper also notes that Eircom Ltd paid EUR1.2 million in severance payments to directors in the year to the end of June 2009, according to company accounts just filed. A spokesman for Eircom said this figure related to a number of directors who stepped down during the 12-month period. Seven directors resigned from Eircom during the financial year, including former chief executive Rex Comb, and fellow Australians Peter O'Connell and Rob Topfer. The others were Pierre Danone, Con Scanlon, John Conroy and John Fanning.
The same paper notes that shareholders in troubled e-payments group Payzone will meet in Dublin for an extraordinary general meeting on 10 February. Payzone's net assets are less than half its called-up share capital, which under Irish company law requires an EGM to be held.
According to the Financial Times, Samsung Electronics returned to profitability at the operational level in its last quarter. The company swung to an operating profit of SKW3,700 billion in the fourth quarter, compared to an operating loss of SKW740 billion a year ago. Fourth-quarter sales reached SKW39,240 billion. The company said it expects profits to improve in the current quarter on the back of higher memory chip prices and lower marketing costs.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft's profit soared 60 percent during the second fiscal quarter ended 31 December, thanks to consumer demand for Windows 7. Second-quarter profit jumped to USD6.66 billion, or USD0.74 a share, from USD4.17 billion, or USD0.47 a share, a year ago. Revenue grew to USD19.02 billion from USD16.63 billion. Microsoft executives said they had not yet seen a return to strong spending by businesses on Microsoft products, although they said they still expect a recovery sometime in 2010.
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