NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 20 April
20-04-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
LinkedIn sees Irish growth | Irish fantasy sports site unveiled
Business networking site LinkedIn could see its Irish user base exceed 300,000 this year, according to Ad2One, the site's Irish ad agency. The site had 194,000 Irish users at the end of 2009.
Apple is gearing up to launch the 3G version of its tablet device, the iPad, on 30 April in the US. The Wi-Fi version of the device went on sale in the US on 3 April, and it has since shipped over 500,000 units. Apple will also be releasing international iPad pricing and details on 10 May.
The Irish Times Spotlight event, which was due to take place on Friday, 23 April, featuring Guy Kawasaki as the keynote speaker has been cancelled due to continuing travel restrictions. The Irish Times said the event will be rescheduled for a later date
Ubecha.com, an Irish fantasy sports betting website has launched. It claims to be a cross between a fantasy sports site, a betting site and a social networking site. The firm has signed a FIFA World Cup deal with Setanta Sports Ireland.
Thirty-seven percent of companies check out potential employees on sites like Facebook and Twitter, according to a survey by Eurocom Worldwide. In addition, 37 percent of the companies surveyed have a corporate blog, up slightly on last year's 33 percent. Read more here.
IBM has posted first quarter revenue of USD22.9 billion, up 5 percent on the year-ago period. Net income rose 13 percent to USD2.6 billion. Big Blue also raised in 2010 earnings outlook to USD11.20 per share, up from a previous estimate of USD11.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 