IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 16 March
16-03-2011
by Sylvia Leatham
Google buys Irish video company | Just-Eat secures new funding round
The Irish Times reports that Google has acquired Green Parrot Pictures, an Irish video tech company spun out of Trinity College Dublin by Prof Anil Kokaram. Google's YouTube said it would use Green Parrot's technology to improve the quality of video uploaded by users to the site. "Their technology helps make videos look better while at the same time using less bandwidth and improving playback speed," said Jeremy Doig, director of video technology with Google. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The Irish Independent reports that Ireland is punching above its weight when it comes to high-tech start-ups, with 80 of the fastest growing companies in Europe located here, according to the managing director of Fidelity Growth Partners Europe. The Fidelity boss was among the speakers at Raglan Capital's Business Breakfast M&A Seminar in Dublin on Tuesday. About 280 entrepreneurs, investment bankers and venture capitalists attended the event.
The paper also says that Dublin software firm Ergo has been awarded a contract to provide NAMA with a management system for its huge portfolio of loans, the largest amount of such assets held in Ireland. The value of the contract was not disclosed.
The Irish Examiner reports that business and tourism leaders in Waterford are angry with the country's tourist agencies after the city was omitted from a map on the Meet in Ireland website. The site offers information and resources to facilitate and support the organisation of corporate events in Ireland, and information on the site was compiled by Failte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. The map of Ireland on the site shows Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Kilkenny, but not Waterford or Wexford.
The paper also notes that takeaway ordering service Just-Eat has finalised a financing round of USD48 million, co-led by venture capitalists Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures, and backed by existing investor Index Ventures.
The paper also says that Eircom has delivered ICT infrastructure to the Convention Centre Dublin, using a platform based on Cisco, Microsoft and HP solutions.
According to the Financial Times, Microsoft is to stop making new versions of the Zune music player. The failure of the Zune hardware marks an admission, after four versions of the device in five years, that Microsoft never dented the iPod's dominant market share. Microsoft refused to comment on the fate of the Zune device, but sought to shift the focus to its software strategy, which involves linking Zune to other platforms, particularly smartphones and games consoles.
The Wall Street Journal says that Google is working on a potential partnership with e-payments company VeriFone Systems, as part of its strategy to allow shoppers to use their mobile devices to pay for goods in retail stores, according to sources. VeriFone makes point-of-sale terminals that stores use to process credit-card payments. As part of the potential tie-up with Google, VeriFone's terminals would be able to accept payments from mobile devices that are embedded with near-field-communication (NFC) technology.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 