IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 29 October
29-10-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Bank of Ireland to phase out Laser cards | Chartbusters set to appoint liquidator
The Irish Times reports on the Dublin Web Summit, saying there was a notable sense of optimism about the internet industry in Ireland at the opening of the event. YouTube chief executive Chad Hurley and Lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman were joined by numerous entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who all spoke about the challenges and opportunities for start-ups. Five Irish start-ups pitched for a chance to win the 'Spark of Genius' award, which comes with a prize fund of EUR30,000 in goods and services for the winning company.
The paper also says that Bank of Ireland is to issue current account customers with Visa debit cards from next year, marking the end of its involvement in the Laser card system. A spokesperson for Laser said the move would force the company to consider its future. The bank will begin sending replacement debit cards to customers in the third quarter of 2011. Quentin Teggin, head of consumer segments at the bank, said the move will give its customers greater access to international and online purchases. BoI's move will leave AIB, National Irish Bank and EBS as the only Laser issuers in Ireland.
The paper also notes that DVD rental chain Chartbusters is understood to be preparing to appoint a liquidator to wind up the business. The company operates about 20 stores and employs an estimated 170 full- and part-time staff in the Republic. The High Court put the business into examinership early last year.
The same paper says that Enterprise Equity and Irish Technology Capital (ITC) have formed a partnership to raise USD100 million in venture capital that will accelerate the expansion of Irish firms into the US. John Hartnett, founder and chief executive of ITC, said the two investment firms were currently fundraising but had "identified funds" that would contribute to the USD100 million total. Enterprise Equity is an Irish venture capital firm which has invested EUR50 million in more than 70 companies in the last decade. ITC is an off-shoot of the Irish Technology Leadership Group, a group of Irish and Irish-American tech executives in Silicon Valley.
The paper also notes that chipmaker Nvidia has said a new supercomputer built in China is the world's fastest and is powered by over 7,000 of its graphics processor units. The supercomputer was built by the National University of Defense Technology and is located at the National Supercomputing Centre in Tianjin. It has sustained performance equivalent to 2.5 petaflops and is 30 percent faster than the world's second most powerful supercomputer, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
The same paper notes that Ray Nolan, the founder of online accommodation booking company Web Reservations International, has been appointed chairman of flight comparison site Skyscanner.net.
The paper also says that Dublin software firm Dial2Do has won the best new service award at the 2010 Broadband InfoVision Awards, for its HandsFree Assistant product which allows users to carry out tasks on their smartphones using voice commands.
The paper also reports that accounts just filed for mobile operator O2 Ireland show a healthy pre-tax profit of EUR203 million for last year, up from EUR155 million in 2008. Despite the economic downturn, O2 finished the year with just a 1 percent slippage in customer numbers, while it overtook Vodafone in the market for bill-paying customers. The increase in profits is down to a sharp reduction in costs. Staff numbers were reduced by about 170 to just over 1,030.
The Irish Independent reports that TV and broadband provider UPC saw its losses widen to EUR78.8 million last year, from EUR63.6 million in 2008, as the company continued to plough money into a network upgrade project. Turnover at the group rose just over 4 percent to EUR250.2 million. Revenue from its television and broadband services dipped slightly to EUR223.4 million from EUR223.5 million a year earlier, while revenue from telephone services jumped 61 percent to EUR26.7 million.
The Irish Examiner says that the government's Committee on the Uptake of Information Technology in Agriculture and Rural Communities (CUITA) has reported that computer usage among farmers has been steadily increasing across all age groups. The report found that, contrary to common belief, age was not found to be as significant a barrier as had been thought.
The paper also says that a general increase in global IT spend over the coming months could significantly benefit the jobs market here, a conference has heard. "About half of the losses in exportable services employment in 2009 occurred in the foreign-owned 'IT, consultancy and computer services sector', whose mass market-orientated sales appeared to suffer more than did the niche sales of the indigenous segment of the sector. That global IT spending appears to be on the rebound in 2010 provides some grounds for optimism," said Professor Frank Barry of Trinity College Dublin's School of Business. Prof Barry was addressing the Turning Globalisation to National Advantage: Economic Policy Lessons from Ireland's Experience conference.
The Financial Times notes that Microsoft's results showed stronger sales across the board for its latest quarter. The company posted a 25 percent jump in revenues to USD16.2 billion, ahead of the USD15.8 billion analysts had been expecting. Stronger sales of the latest versions of Windows PC and Office were behind the increase. Net income rose 51 percent to USD5.4 billion, with earnings per share increasing to USD0.62 from USD0.40 a year earlier. Profits beat expectations of USD0.55 a share thanks to higher sales growth and stronger margins on the back of operating cost controls.
The paper also says that US mobile phone handset maker Motorola has said the growing popularity of its Droid devices fuelled its first quarter of sales growth since 2006. The USD3 million operating profit came a quarter earlier than expected. Sales rose 13 percent to USD4.9 billion from the third quarter of 2009. Net income surged to USD109 million, or USD0.05 a share, from USD12 million, or USD0.01, in the same period a year ago. The mobile unit still posted a net loss, but analysts and investors were impressed by a strong performance in both the US and Chinese markets.
According to the Wall Street Journal, SAP has shifted strategies in a long-running legal battle against Oracle, moving to head off what it called an attempt by Oracle to create a "media circus" around the role of a former SAP chief executive who has been named to run Hewlett-Packard. The German software company said it will no longer contest Oracle's allegations that it contributed to acts of copyright infringement committed by a discontinued unit called TomorrowNow. The shift follows public statements by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison that blasted former SAP CEO Leo Apotheker, recently named HP's next CEO. Ellison accused him of personally "overseeing an industrial espionage scheme."
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