IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 3 November
03-11-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Irish software firms seek VC investment | Betfair to create up to 100 Dublin jobs
The Irish Times reports that 24 Irish software and life sciences companies pitched for international investment in London on Tuesday before nearly 100 venture capital firms. The event, jointly organised by Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Venture Capital Association, was an attempt to create syndicated investment deals between international venture capitalists and their Irish counterparts. The firms that made pitches included Heystaks, which designs search engine software, and medical devices firms BiancaMed, Biosensia, Crescent Diagnostics, Embricon, Marvao Medical and Neuravi.
The paper also says that online sports betting firm Betfair has announced plans to create up to 100 jobs at a new office in Dublin. Betfair said it intends to open a new data centre and relocate some of its UK customer operations teams to Ireland early next year. The company has already commenced a recruitment process to fill the posts. It said existing staff in the UK would also have the option to relocate to Dublin, but it was not yet clear exactly how many people would be interested in taking up this option.
In more jobs news, the Irish Independent notes that 30 new jobs will be created at international insurance company Global Indemnity over the next five years, when it opens a new IT centre in Cavan. The jobs will be for technical staff in IT development.
The paper also notes that consultancy firm Ernst & Young plans to create more than 300 Irish jobs over the next 18 months. Half of the new employees will be graduates with degrees in engineering, IT, legal, business, accounting and finance.
The same paper notes that Google is suing the US government, saying it was unfairly excluded from a USD58 million deal to revamp email systems at the Department of the Interior. In the lawsuit, Google says the terms of the five-year contract rule out its products and favour rival Microsoft.
The Irish Examiner says that Dublin-based wireless chip firm DecaWave has secured a EUR2 million investment from Cork-based venture capital firm Kernel Capital. The company's main product, ScenSor, helps to track the location of objects and people using wireless sensors. The investment funds will be used to drive growth for ScenSor technology.
According to the Wall Street Journal, an Oracle attorney painted SAP as a scheming rival that intentionally took its intellectual property, in opening arguments on Tuesday in a copyright infringement trial. SAP fired back at its rival, with a lawyer for the business software company describing Oracle as a greedy bully seeking greater restitution than it is owed. Separately, Oracle has agreed to pay USD1 billion to buy Art Technology Group , a move that helps the company expand into online and mobile e-commerce, ramping up competition with SAP and IBM.
The paper also says that Electronic Arts' loss shrank in its second quarter, as the videogame publisher's cost-cutting measures helped counterbalance a drop in revenue. EA posted a loss of USD201 million, or USD0.61 a share, for the period, compared with a loss of USD391 million, or USD1.21 a share, a year earlier. Sales contracted 23 percent to USD884 million, though EA said demand for its 'FIFA' soccer and 'Sims' branded games was strong. Looking ahead, the company said it expects third-quarter earnings of USD0.50 to USD0.60 a share on revenue of USD1.375 billion to USD1.5 billion, excluding items.
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