IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 8 April
08-04-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
US online ad spend in recovery | Server industry goes boom
The Irish Times reports that the Minister for Education has signalled her support for the return of bonus points for higher level mathematics in the Leaving Cert, as noted by ENN on Wednesday.
The paper also says that AOL is to sell or close Bebo this year. Read more on this story on ENN.
The Irish Independent reports on the announcement of 175 new job vacancies in the tech sector and the creation of 17 new R&D jobs by nanoscience research institute CRANN. Read more on both of these stories on ENN.
The Wall Street Journal says that that US online advertising spending started to recover during the second half of 2009. Internet ad spend reached USD6.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Spending during the fourth quarter increased 2.6 percent from the same period in 2008. "The worst of the economic impact on internet advertising is over and the seeds of growth have been planted," said David Silverman, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Total online ad spending for the year 2009 dropped 3.4 percent to USD22.7 billion.
The paper also notes that the US Federal Trade Commission appears to be preparing the way for an antitrust challenge to Google's proposed purchase of mobile ad firm AdMob. According to sources, the FTC has gathered an internal litigation team to prepare for a possible effort to block the deal and also sent letters to AdMob's competitors asking them to testify in sworn statements about the potential impact of the purchase. In addition, the agency has briefed Congress on its concerns about the deal, sources said.
The same paper notes that the US Federal Communications Commission has begun the work of relaunching its broadband strategy, after a court threw out its earlier effort to police broadband traffic. The court ruling that the FCC has limited authority under current law to tell internet providers how to manage their networks has put portions of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's National Broadband Plan at risk. Internet content companies like Google want the government to assure net neutrality. Broadband providers say that heavy regulation of web pricing or traffic management would reduce their ability to make a return on their investments in their networks. The court's decision means internet service providers can now block sites anytime, but the ISPs say they aren't planning to change how they run their networks due to a fear of a public backlash.
According to the Financial Times, the global server industry is witnessing a once-in-a-decade flourishing sales growth, boosted by economic recovery, big technological advances and soaring data-handling needs. JPMorgan analysts recently more than doubled their estimates for server revenue growth in 2010 from 6.2 percent to 14.3 percent, calling it "a unique phenomenon in IT hardware". IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Oracle, Intel and AMD have all rushed to bring out a range of server products.
The paper also says that most of the major reforms envisaged in the UK government's Digital Britain initiative have been abandoned as ministers turn their attention to fighting the general election. The government was preparing on Wednesday night to ditch proposals to fund regional television news in its digital economy bill. Several other measures have been dropped because of Tory opposition, industry resistance or lack of legislative time. The one significant reform to survive is a crackdown on online piracy, but the plans bear little resemblance to the government's original proposals. MPs were due to approve the bill on Wednesday night.
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