IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 5 February
05-02-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
European Tech Tour coming to Dublin | DoJ still unhappy with Google books deal
The Irish Times reports that BT in Ireland made its first-ever profit in the year to the end of March 2009, according to accounts covering BT Communications Ireland Group, BT Net Ireland and BT Communications Ireland Ltd. When read together, the accounts show a pretax profit of EUR2.13 million compared to a pretax loss of EUR21.3 million for the previous year. Chris Clark, managing director of BT Ireland, said the group had been focusing on "changing the shape of the business strategically and driving cost out of the business".
The paper also says that a new Finance Bill introduces a number of business tax changes that experts believe will help multinationals operating in the Republic. The new rules will expand the existing intellectual property regime to definitively include software and to clarify the nature of "know-how". As part of the package, the period for which multinationals will be able to write off the cost of acquiring IP against taxable profits will be reduced from 15 to 10 years. The bill also targets royalties, extending the scope of exemptions from withholding tax, a move which should again benefit multinationals in particular.
The same paper reports that Eircom is to introduce new measures to stop spam from being distributed on its network, in order to avoid blacklisting by anti-spam groups. Eircom and several other Irish ISPs, including UPC, BT Ireland, Vodafone, O2 and Clearwire, were recently blacklisted by the German anti-spam organisation UCE-Protect Network. UCE-Protect's blacklist works by blocking an entire range of IP addresses belonging to an ISP, which can lead to some of that ISP's customers having legitimate e-mails blocked. Declan Ivory, general manager of Eircom Net, said the company was taking steps to be removed from UCE-Protect's blacklist. Eircom is also implementing technical processes to prevent spam from spreading in order to avoid becoming blacklisted in the first place.
The paper also says that Dublin firm Anacapa Holdings has won a contract with Burger King to provide Wi-Fi in 2,200 restaurants in 12 European countries. It is expected the free service will be available in Irish branches of Burger King by the end of March. Anacapa, which operates under the name Free-hotspot.com, offers internet access in 4,000 locations in 21 countries in Europe. Anacapa gets revenue by serving ads before the user begins an internet session and sharing this revenue with the premises owner.
The paper also says that Irish firms are being invited to apply for a place on the European Tech Tour 2010, an event that helps match growing IT companies with venture capitalists and corporate firms that have investment capital of EUR10 billion at their disposal. Accepted candidates will have the chance to present to the audience, which includes executives from blue-chip technology companies, venture capital firms and investment bankers. Applications must be submitted by 15 February. The event takes place in Dublin from 27 to 29 April. For more information see www.techtour.com.
The Irish Independent says the Irish arm of Cable & Wireless posted bottom-line losses of more than EUR12 million for the year ended March 2009. Accounts just filed with the Companies' Office show Cable & Wireless's total losses in the Irish market were more than EUR21 million at the end of the last financial year. Turnover at Cable & Wireless (Ireland) fell only marginally, coming in at EUR14.2 million. The company was hit by a litany of large costs, including EUR2.4 million for "dilapidation expenses" following an office move, prompting a deterioration in operating losses from EUR4.5 million in 2008 to EUR7.6 million last year.
The paper also notes that Vodafone Group service revenue rose 11 percent to STG10.7 billion for the quarter ended in December, although organic service revenue slipped 1.2 percent. Group revenue from data services was 17.7 percent higher year-on-year and passed the STG1 billion mark for the first time. Fixed-line revenue was up 10 percent at STG862 million. Vodafone Ireland said it added 35,000 new fixed line and mobile customers during the fourth quarter, as reported by ENN.
According to the Financial Times, the US Department of Justice has said it is still not satisfied with Google's digital books agreement with authors and publishers, despite "substantial progress" on amendments to the settlement. The DoJ said on Thursday that copyright and antitrust issues remained. "The amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement," the DoJ said. "It is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation." The DoJ said it remained committed to working with the parties to help them come up with a solution where copyright holders could allow the digital use of their works by Google and others.
The Wall Street Journal says that Panasonic bounced back to a profit in its fiscal third quarter, on the back of cost reductions and a consumer stimulus programme in Japan. For the October to December period, Panasonic said net profit was JPY32.26 billion (USD360 million) compared with a loss of JPY63.12 billion in the same period a year earlier. On an operating basis, profit nearly quadrupled to JPY101 billion. Revenue was up 0.4 percent to JPY1.887 trillion in the quarter.
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