IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 26 February
26-02-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
Palm shares fall on earnings forecast | BBC to reassess website strategy
The Irish Times reports that Eircom saw revenues drop by 9 percent during the last six months of 2009, as reported by ENN.
The paper also reports on Dublin-based clinical research group Icon, which announced fourth-quarter profit after tax of USD30.9 million, an increase from USD21 million a year earlier. For the year as a whole, net profit jumped more than 20 percent to USD94.3 million. Revenues rose 3 percent to USD888 million over the year. Icon tests new medicines for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies.
The same paper says cable provider UPC Ireland saw broadband subscribers reach 148,100 by the end of December 2009, compared with 101,900 a year earlier. See more on UPC's results on ENN.
The paper also reports on a new EUR600,000 investment by the AIB Seed Capital Fund in software company Onformonics. The Dublin-based company is headed by Conor McGoveran, formerly of Realex Payments, and develops software to assist companies with regulatory compliance and identification of risk. The company is targeting customers including credit card processors, technology service providers, retailers and payment processors.
According to the same paper, the Irish Venture Capital Association expressed concern that Government spending cuts at agencies like Enterprise Ireland could slow the emergence of future innovative companies, as noted by ENN.
The Irish Times also reports on the upcoming trial of a high-definition video link between Killina Presentation Secondary School in Tullamore, Co Offaly and research labs in the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in Atlanta in the US. The link is expected to go live by mid April. It will allow the Irish students to go on 'virtual field trips' to GTRI's labs, and is part of the Direct To Discover programme, which aims to rejuvenate interest in science.
According to the Irish Examiner, travel agents may introduce charges in order to deter people from tapping into their expertise and then booking holidays through the internet. "Charges may have to be introduced here. We want to deal with genuine people. We don't want people who will use travel agents as a source of knowledge and then go googling themselves," said Pat Dawson, the newly elected president of the Irish Travel Agents' Association. Dawson said that US travel agents introduced these charges a number of years ago.
The Financial Times reports that smartphone maker Palm is in trouble again with a drop of over 13 percent in the value of its shares on Thursday, after the company announced that third quarter and full-year earnings would be "well below" previous forecasts. The news is reportedly a body blow to Palm management which has focused on a turnaround strategy based on the sale of its new smartphone the Palm Pre and its sibling the Palm Pixi. Sales of both handsets in the US market have been poor, despite positive reviews of the new phone software, Palm OS.
The Guardian reports on speculation that the BBC plans to axe two radio stations and halve the size of its popular website as part of the corporation's strategic review, to be released next month. It's also reported that the website will lose 25 percent of its existing staff numbers and a 25 percent reduction in its annual budget of STG112 million. There are further suggestions that the BBC website, which has come under criticism from commercial news rivals, will increase the number of links to other web-based news sources.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 