IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 15 February
15-02-2011
by Sylvia Leatham
Fidelity Investments to create 100 jobs | Maxroam announces Ryanair deal
The Irish Times reports that if recent Atlantic storms had been fully harnessed, each kilometre of the western seaboard could have generated about EUR350,000 worth of wave power, according to the Marine Renewables Industry Association. Spokesman Peter Coyle values each 18 metre wave that hit the west coast early this month at EUR2,000 in energy value, based on it being a kilometre wide. Some 150 such waves in any given hour of a storm could feed an ocean energy device with 25 percent efficiency in terms of captured power.
The paper also says that Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin has apologised for adopting a Chinese accent at a technology industry meeting in Dublin on Monday morning. During a meeting of the Dublin Web Summit, Martin said: "Whenever I met Chinese ministers or officials, particularly as enterprise minister, there was one sort of overriding refrain from them or demand. And they kept on saying to me, you Irish, very good at software. And they identified Ireland as a software centre." His adoption of a foreign accent in making the remarks was widely criticised on Twitter and online forums and viewed on YouTube. Martin said he had been making a "serious point" but should not have made the comment in the manner he did.
The same paper says that Dublin's long-awaited integrated ticketing system for transport should be available by the end of the summer. Tim Gaston, director of the integrated ticketing project at the Railway Procurement Agency, said they were in the final stages of the trial of the system, which had worked well to date. Gaston said the model for the system was London's Oyster Card system.
The paper also reports that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said the company's partnership with Nokia will accelerate the adoption of its mobile operating system. "The last year has certainly seen a lot of change for our industry," he said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. "It's clear today that the mobile industry is moving from a device battle to a platform battle." He said Nokia's Windows-based phones would drive volume for Windows Phones and he expected the company to deliver "phenomenal" Windows handsets.
Separately at the Mobile World Congress, Irish telco Maxroam said it was teaming up with Ryanair to offer passengers cheaper roaming rates when abroad, the paper reports. Meanwhile, Twitter chief Dick Costolo told attendees that the micro-blogging site was already making money, but denied that talks with Google could result in a USD10 billion takeover. Asked if Google could afford a USD10 billion acquisition, Costolo said: "I don't know where these things come from, it's just a rumour."
The Irish Examiner says that financial services firm Fidelity Investments will create 100 jobs in Galway and Dublin, following an EUR11 million investment. The company said Ireland is a proven market for them and it expects to continue to develop here. It said the quality of the Irish workforce, the success of Fidelity's existing operations in Ireland and the research carried out in Irish universities were key factors in the company's decision to expand here. Fidelity is looking for highly skilled technology professionals to focus on investment management and corporate enterprise technology solutions for its global operations.
The Financial Times reports that Finland could face up to 6,000 job cuts as a result of Nokia's new alliance with Microsoft, union leaders have warned. Antti Rinne, chairman of Pro, the Finnish labour union, predicted that job losses could reach 6,000, with most concentrated among research and development workers. Rinne stressed that the union had not yet received any firm details from Nokia of what cuts would be made and said the estimate was based on the number of people working on the company's Symbian and MeeGo operating systems -- both of which look set to be gradually sidelined.
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