Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest Issue No. 546
16-12-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
Nortel patents auction: a game changer? | Gawker hack has knock-on effect
Good week at the office for Irish firms
It's been an announcement-filled week for Irish firms with deals, acquisitions and financial results generating a positive vibe. First up, Dublin-based food technology company Odenberg is to be sold for up to EUR57.5 million to Norway's Tomra Systems. Odenberg is owned by ACT Venture Capital in Dublin and members of the Van den Bergh family in Belgium, and employs 120 people at its base in Citywest, Dublin.
In another acquisition, Dublin's Insure.ie has been snapped up by insurance broker AON for an undisclosed sum. AON on Tuesday announced the acquisition of the Mike Murphy Insurance group, which includes online brokerage Insure.ie. The Mike Murphy Insurance group is a family business employing about 80 people in Sandyford, Dublin. Staying with insurance sector news, newly established software company OnePlace announced it is about to sign a major contract with a large, as yet unnamed, Irish insurance company. OnePlace was spun out of Wicklow-based Ability Software with assistance from CorporateSpinouts.com.
In other news of deals, Dublin-based Zutec, which sells web-based software for building and asset management, said that over the past three months it has won contracts worth more than EUR2 million in Australia and the Middle East. These include a EUR1.3 million contract from the consortium managing the passenger terminal at the new Doha International airport in Qatar, a contract with Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth, and an agreement as part of the development of Victoria's new Royal Children's Hospital.
Meanwhile, online payments firm Realex Payments reported a 9 percent annual increase in pre-tax profits to EUR783,000 in the year to the end of April 2010. Revenues grew 8 percent to EUR7 million. The company said the average transaction it processed in November was EUR252, up from EUR182 in November 2009. The volume of payments processed increased by 26 percent in November, during which Realex said it processed over EUR1 billion in transactions.
Jobs continue to flow steadily into Ireland
Following a healthy spell for new jobs last week, we had more good news on the jobs front over the past seven days. Last week, PC maker Dell announced it was to create 100 new Irish jobs, while this week, rival firm Hewlett-Packard revealed its plans to create 105 jobs in Galway. Over 70 of the new positions are to be filled immediately, with the remainder to be rolled out over the next three years. The jobs will be based within the company's global IT division in Ballybrit, Galway, which supports HP's Enterprise Business unit. HP described all of the jobs as technical and said they will be in the areas of data architecture, application development and software engineering. HP employs over 4,000 people in Galway, Dublin, Kildare and Belfast.
Also in Galway, Japanese medical device company Goodman Medical announced on Thursday that it is to create more than 100 high-end jobs over the next five years. The new jobs are part of a EUR1.1 million investment by the company, and the new positions will be in manufacturing, sales and marketing, and research and development.
Meanwhile, Cork-based tech firm Avego announced it is to double staff numbers at its head office as part of an ongoing expansion drive. The company, a global provider of software and hardware used in the making of passenger transport, announced Tuesday that it is currently recruiting for 35 new positions at its headquarters in Kinsale. The jobs will be created over the next three years, as the firm embarks on a major research and development programme.
Separately in Cork, news was reported this week that a yet-to-be-named US cloud computing firm plans to create up to 200 new jobs in the city. According to the Irish Examiner, the company will announce in the new year that it is to set up its European hub in Mahon, Cork.
Nortel patents auction: a game changer?
Competition in the smartphone market could be kicked up a notch as both Apple and Google eye some of the 4,000 patents being auctioned off by bankrupt telecommunications firm Nortel Networks. The pair are reportedly focusing on the 4G, or Long Term Evolution (LTE), related patents, which would allow them to bring their smartphone operating systems -- iOS and Android -- to the next level. With far superior speeds than 3G, 4G networks would support more powerful applications such as those in the gaming, video or social networking sphere.
A report in the Vancouver Sun suggests that Nortel's patents are worth about USD1 billion in total, money Nortel requires to pay off its many creditors. Within the mobile industry, patents are a powerful asset and can generate serious revenue for their owner. As the mobile market became more crowded this year, with relatively new entrants like Apple and Google making a real impact, we've seen a huge number of patent infringement cases between the big players come to the fore. Patents, such as those being sold off by Nortel, are seen as an incredibly valuable asset, and well worth fighting for. Final bids for the 4G patents are expected with the next few weeks.
According to Reuters, the outcome of the auction could well shift the balance of power within the thriving smartphone market. With their deep pockets, Google and Apple are in prime position to outbid more established players like Nokia, Motorola or RIM, and the winner could gain a real strategic advantage in the next generation of smartphones. 4G-enabled phones are due for launch during 2011. Yankee Group predicted that though 4G will be slow to take off, once it does its impact will be "swift and profound".
Gawker hack has knock-on effect
A hack of Gawker.com's commentators boards last weekend has had a ripple effect on a number of other popular sites including Twitter, LinkedIn, Yahoo and online game World of Warcraft. The hackers reportedly gained entry into Gawker Media's database and accessed information about more around 1.5 million registered users of sites like Gizmodo and Jezebel, as well as Gawker.com. "Our user databases appear to have been compromised," the company said in a statement. "The passwords were encrypted. But simple ones may be vulnerable to a brute-force attack. You should change your Gawker password and on any other sites on which you've used the same passwords." Other companies like LinkedIn and Blizzard, which owns the WoW game, have also issued password resets to customers they believe might have been affected.
The attack highlighted again the lax attitude internet users still have to choosing secure passwords. According to a report in The Guardian, analysis of around 200,000 of the stolen passwords shows that the most common were "123456" and "password", followed by "12345678". Other popular passwords included "qwerty" and, strangely, "monkey". Worryingly, research from security firm Sophos recently suggested that 33 percent of people use the same password for every website they register with.
Tech news website TheNextWeb is reporting that a group called Gnosis was behind the Gawker hack. The FBI is reportedly investigating the incident.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 