IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 30 June
30-06-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Ireland ranks 17th among digital economies | IFDS acquires Dublin's Percana
The Irish Times reports that Ireland has retained its place among the top 20 digital economies of the world, according to an annual ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Ireland climbed one place to 17th in the 2010 EIU digital economy list, swapping places with Germany. Sweden overtook Denmark to top the rankings. As well as examining countries' ICT infrastructure, the EIU took into account the quality of broadband connectivity, usage of 3G and 4G networks and the percentage of younger people in third-level education. Ireland scored 7.82 out of a possible 10, according to the study. Ireland's worst score was for connectivity, but it scored well on consumer and business adoption of digital technology.
The Irish Independent notes that Dublin-based software and outsourcing group Percana has been acquired by International Financial Data Services (IFDS) for an undisclosed sum. IFDS originally acquired a minority stake in Percana in 2008. Percana manages life and pension products on behalf of clients and employs over 250 people in Dublin. Percana executive chairman Paul O'Kane said the acquisition of the group by IFDS would enable it to achieve "ambitious growth targets", while IFDS chief executive Paul O'Neill said the life assurance market was a "key growth area".
According to the Financial Times, the US government has forced a fibre-optics company to abandon a planned joint venture with China's Tangshan Caofeidian Investment Corporation because it believes the link-up would threaten national security. Emcore, which is based in New Mexico and makes components for fibre optics and solar panels, said it had withdrawn a voluntary filing with the Committee on Foreign Investment (Cfius) after the executive branch panel said it had "regulatory concerns" over the venture. The government told lawyers working on that deal it was concerned about the group's proximity to a naval airbase. However, one source said the government was also worried about the Chinese company's potential access to tungsten, a metal used in missiles.
The paper also notes that Spanish telco Telefonica has raised its offer to buy Portugal Telecom out of Vivo, their Brazilian mobile phone joint venture, by 10 percent to EUR7.15 billion. The Spanish group increased its bid in a last-ditch attempt to persuade Portugal Telecom's shareholders to vote in favour of the offer at a special investor meeting on Wednesday. Telefonica is hoping the new offer will attract support from at least some of Portugal Telecom's Portuguese shareholders, as well as international investors. Telefonica is seeking exclusive control of Vivo, Brazil's largest mobile operator, as part of efforts to improve Telefonica's faltering position in Brazil.
The Wall Street Journal reports that video service Hulu has announced a new paid subscription service for watching TV shows on computers, mobile devices and televisions. Called Hulu Plus, the offering will initially be available only to invited subscribers for USD9.99 a month. The paid service comes on top of TV episodes that are already free to watch on Hulu.com. The paid service would add multiple seasons of older shows no longer on the air, as well as all the episodes from current seasons of many shows from the three media companies that own Hulu -- NBC Universal, News Corp and Walt Disney.
The same paper reports that Cisco is to begin selling a tablet device called Cius (pronounced 'see-us'), targeting business customers rather than consumers. The networking giant said the portable device will be tailored for communications applications, such as high-definition video and videoconferencing. Features include front and rear cameras, a seven-inch display and connectivity via Wi-Fi or mobile networks. The 1.15-pound device can be plugged into a docking device that includes a handset and speaker-phone capabilities. The Cius will use Google's Android operating system and Intel's Atom microprocessor chip. Customer trials of the device are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2010. Pricing has not been established, but a Cisco spokeswoman said the device will cost less than USD1,000.
Free! "In the papers" email newsletter -- get the full text to your in-box every business day. Email itp@enn.ie with 'subscribe' in the subject line.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 