IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 29 April
29-04-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Dixons to open airport outlets | Eircom warns of tough times ahead
The Irish Times reports that Google is the 'most reputable' firm in Ireland, according to a study by Corporate Reputations, as noted by ENN on Wednesday.
The Irish Independent says that UK electrical retailer Dixons is to open outlets at Dublin Airport, at the existing terminal and the new Terminal 2, which is due to open in November. The paper understands that the chain, which also owns Currys and PC World, plans to open an outlet in the existing terminal building within weeks. It has acquired space that was previously used directly by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) for the sale of electrical items. The retailer will also occupy a 207-square-metre store in T2 when it opens later this year.
The paper also says that Eircom boss Paul Donovan has warned employees of "difficult choices" in coming months and said that the company needs to move "even faster and deeper" to cut its costs amid mounting competitive pressure and its "extraordinarily high debt burden". The company recently started a voluntary leaving scheme that aims to axe 1,200 of its workforce by March 2011. To date, 800 staff have left under the scheme. Donovan told the paper that the group was attempting to "accelerate" the process prior to Eircom's financial year-end in June. He said the average payout per employee leaving under the scheme is EUR150,000 but said such terms wouldn't be available in a future voluntary scheme. "In the future we won't be able to have schemes as generous as these," he said, adding that there was no target for job losses beyond the 1,200 and that compulsory redundancies were not being considered.
The Irish Examiner says that two research programmes at the University of Limerick have received substantial funding from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). One of the projects, led by Professor Andrew Fowler from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, is for the investigation of the growth of thin layers of bacteria which grow on solid surfaces and which can have both harmful and beneficial effects. The other research project, being undertaken by Dr Michael Connolly of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, is in the area of optical fibre network technologies. For more on the SFI funding, see ENN.
The paper also reports on the winner of UCC’s inaugural Invention of the Year Awards -- EEG seizure detection technology for investigating brain injury and seizures in newborn babies. The project was a collaboration between UCC's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the School of Medicine. It won joint first prize at the awards, along with a semiconductor device research project on variable barrier transistors developed at the Tyndall National Institute at UCC.
The same paper says that state bodies, private investors and a Cork-based venture capital firm are in line for a share of a EUR33 million windfall following the sale of a Limerick firm to a US multinational. The University of Limerick will receive EUR2 million from the sale of Stokes Bio to California-based biotech firm Life Technologies. Enterprise Ireland will receive more than EUR3 million. Cork venture capital firm Kernel Capital is set to receive just over EUR12 million from the sale of its 37 percent stake in the Limerick company. Stokes Bio is dedicated to the development and application of microfluidic technology, which helps to improve and enhance life sciences research and molecular diagnostics.
According to the Wall Street Journal, AOL posted a 58 percent drop in first-quarter earnings and said its broad restructuring is hurting its advertising revenue and will dampen growth prospects for the remainder of the year. AOL reported a profit of USD34.7 million, or USD0.32 a share, down from USD82.7 million, or USD0.78 a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 23 percent to USD664.3 million. AOL said it cut USD139 million in costs during the first quarter, slashing its workforce to 5,000 employees from 7,000, restructuring its sales team and exiting "a number of unprofitable international markets and product offerings". The company said it is not expecting to see growth in its domestic display ad revenue until 2011.
The Financial Times says that Palm has lost its battle to survive as an independent company, accepting a buyout deal from HP that values the smartphone maker at USD1.2 billion. HP says it plans to put new smartphone operating system Web OS at the centre of its own mobile device plans, challenging Apple and Microsoft. HP will ramp up spending on research and development and marketing for Palm products to achieve the level of sales that the company could not do on its own, promised Todd Bradley, head of HP's personal systems group and a former Palm chief executive.
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