IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 17 February
17-02-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
CyberSource to invest in Northern Ireland | Voda criticises Google's net ad dominance
The Irish Independent says that thousands of Irish people may be putting their health at risk by buying medicines online, as reported by ENN on Tuesday.
The Irish Examiner reports that Irish firm Azotel is partnering with WAV, one of the largest distributors to the wireless broadband operator market in the US and Canada. Read more on this story on ENN.
The Irish Times reports that almost half of second-level maths teachers are not qualified in that subject. Read more on this story on ENN.
The paper also says that US e-payment group CyberSource is to invest a further STG2.8 million in its Northern Ireland operations. The group, which set up a research and development centre in Belfast two years ago, employs 31 people but hopes to grow that number to 60 within the next year. CyberSource said its Belfast team will design and develop cutting-edge technologies based on Java software.
The paper also says that the Irish operations of US software firm VMware posted a pretax profit of USD9.28 million on revenues of USD884.8 million in 2008, according to accounts just filed with the Companies Registration Office. VMware International Ltd had an average of 221 staff in Ballincollig, Cork, during 2008.
The same paper reports on events at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Speaking at the event, Google chief Eric Schmidt urged mobile operators to invest in the next generation of networks. The firm demonstrated some of its future technologies, including text recognition, using a phone's camera for search and using a phone as a translator for voice conversations. Google also showed off video using Adobe's Flash platform on its Android operating system, opening it up to online video and gaming. For more from the Congress, see ENN.
In other news of Google, the Financial Times says that Vodafone has hit out at the company's dominance of the internet search advertising market. CEO Vittorio Colao used a speech at the Mobile World Congress to urge policymakers to consider whether action was needed to tackle Google's dominance. Colao complained about how Google obtained at least 70 to 80 percent of the cash generated from internet search advertising. While he stopped short of advocating any remedies to curb Google's dominance, he said policymakers should consider how to ensure consumer choice and avoid concentration of market power "before it is too late". Colao also addressed the issue of 'net neutrality', saying that Vodafone should have the right to obtain payments from content owners who want to distribute bandwidth-heavy material over its network.
According to the Wall Street Journal, online auction giant eBay is soon to launch an international service to help internet shoppers in six European countries tap into the company's US, UK and German online marketplaces. The international platform will serve shoppers in Russia, Greece, Norway, Czech Republic, Denmark and Sweden. Each country will have a dedicated website in their local language within the next four to six weeks. However, internet users in those countries will not be able to use the new service to sell their own products.
The paper also notes that Yahoo investor Ron Burkle is to leave the internet company's board after the next annual stockholders' meeting, in order to devote more time to other business interests. Burkle, who heads the buyout firm Yucaipa, has had a seat on Yahoo's board since 2001.
Free! "In the papers" email newsletter -- get the full text to your in-box every business day. Email itp@enn.ie with 'subscribe' in the subject line.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 