NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 1 February
01-02-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Ryanair posts narrower loss | Irish, UK gov agree on digital TV
Budget airline Ryanair has posted a narrower quarterly loss and raised its guidance for full-year net profit. The online travel operator said its third quarter loss of EUR11 million was down from a loss of EUR102 million in the same quarter last year, marginally ahead of expectations. Revenues rose by 1 percent to EUR612 million, as 14 percent traffic growth was largely offset by a 12 percent decline in average fares. In a statement, Ryanair said: "We expect this slightly better yield performance to continue into Q4 and accordingly we now believe the full year yield decline will be closer to 15 percent rather than the 20 percent previously guided." The company raised its full year net profit guidance to EUR275 million, from the previously guided lower end of the range of EUR200 million to EUR300 million.
The Irish and UK governments have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in relation to digital television. The MOU, aimed at ensuring a smooth transition to the digital switchover and the switch-off of analogue services in Northern Ireland and Ireland, provides a framework for continuing co-operation on broadcasting issues on the island of Ireland. The document commits the two governments to facilitating the widespread availability of RTE services in Northern Ireland and BBC services in Ireland on a free-to-air basis. It will also ensure the continuing widespread availability of the Irish language channel TG4 in Northern Ireland following the digital switchover.
A deal between An Post and document software provider Adobe could pave the way for paperless, trusted transactions between Irish businesses. Post.Trust, An Post's Certification Services Provider subsidiary, has become a partner in the global Adobe Certified Document Services Program. The program enables the creation of electronic documents embedded with digital signatures, which can replace paper documents with handwritten signatures. An Post is launching two desktop electronic document signing solutions -- Post.Trust I.D, aimed at low-volume users, and SpeediSign, targeted at 'power users'.
Northern Ireland's First Derivatives, a provider of software for the financial services industry, has signed a strategic alliance with BrokerEdge to distribute its Delta products to the Singapore and Malaysian markets. The Delta product suite provides real-time trading, CEP, market and reference data, and accounting and risk management applications for financial institutions. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Kindle maker Amazon and book publisher Macmillan have resolved their spat over pricing for electronic books. The pair fell out because Macmillan insisted on charging between USD12.99 and USD14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and hardcover releases. Amazon temporarily suspended its sales of Macmillan titles for the Kindle e-reader because the e-commerce giant sells most of its new releases for USD9.99. After failing to come to an agreement, Amazon gave in to Macmillan's pricing and has started listing its titles for sale again. In a note on its website, Amazon told customers: "We want you to know that ultimately […] we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books."
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 