NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 16 March
16-03-2010
by Cian Ginty
KeepITsafe buys Rock Solid unit | Q1 creates Belfast jobs
Irish online backup company KeepITsafe has acquired the online backup division of Rock Solid Systems for an undisclosed sum. Under the terms of the agreement, KeepITsafe will take over Rock Solid's clients and move them to its own platform. The acquisition will see keepITsafe gain an additional EUR250,000 in annual revenue and take on a further three staff members, the company said in a statement.
Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said security software company Q1 Labs is to create 50 jobs in Belfast. The announcement was made on the second day of an Invest Northern Ireland strategic mission to the US. Q1 Labs is to set up its European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) headquarters in Belfast.
Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) helped raise more than EUR4 million in angel funding for early stage Irish companies in 2009. The network is a joint initiative between InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland. HBAN said the 21 firms it supported last year were from a range of industries, including software development, mobile security solutions, medical devices, life sciences and biotechnology. It added that approximately EUR3.6 million was raised through the angel investor networks operated by four regional business innovation centres located in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Waterford, while EUR800,000 was raised through angel investment syndicates coordinated by HBAN.
Irish companies Redmere and SiSaf were revealed as winners at the Irish Technology Leadership Group Awards at Stanford University, Palo Alto. Redmere won the Innovation Award, while SiSaf won the Most Promising Technology Award. Dublin-based Redmere said its chip technology removes up to 80 percent of the copper and PVC content used in high-definition video/data cables by placing a self-powered chip in cables. The chip, it said, allows for cables that are ultra thin, and also extends the potential length of HDMI cables. SiSaf, based in Belfast, is developing a proprietary drug delivery product for skin applications.
Dublin-based web content management company Terminalfour has secured a contract for a new Aer Lingus website. Terminalfour said the airline required a website that could provide fully integrated marketing campaigns, enhance SEO strategies and enable last-minute special offers. It said the previous system was restrictive in terms of content publishing. Terminalfour claims its content management solution will increase international traffic to Aerlingus.com, which accounts for 75 percent of all the airline's bookings.
EMC has appointed Jeremy Burton as executive vice president and chief marketing officer. Burton, who has been in the IT industry for 20 years, joins EMC from Serena Software, where he was president and chief executive officer. He has also worked at Oracle, Symantec and Veritas. EMC led the worldwide storage software market in total revenue for the eighth consecutive year in 2009, according to the most recent IDC Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker. The company employs over 1,600 people in Ireland, with a manufacturing facility at Ovens, Cork, and a Dublin-based sales office.
Wicklow-based energy services company Crowley Carbon said it is to release an iPhone app aimed at energy reduction for its clients. The company said the app, named Danu after the Celtic goddess of wisdom, provides companies with the experience of over 150 global experts in every area of energy efficiency, calling it a "Google for energy efficiency". The app is to be launched next week at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland's Energy Show in the RDS in Dublin. It free app won't be available through the App Store but provided direct to Crowley Carbon customers.
Salesforce.com has released a developer preview of Salesforce Chatter, which allows third-party developers to add social apps to Saleforce software products. The cloud computing company said the new tool will allow developers to instantly add social features such as profiles, status updates, and real-time feeds to any Force.com app. In the developer preview, 5,000 developers will receive a Chatter-enabled development environment to begin building social apps on the platform. To support this Salesforce is also launching Chatter DevZone, a community where developers can communicate with each other and share ideas.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 