IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 25 October
25-10-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Arm results disappoint market | Intel settles Transmeta lawsuit
The Irish Times reports that ACT Venture Capital will realise more than USD25 million from the sale of Belfast software firm Meridio Holdings to Autonomy Corporation. Meridio, which makes software for electronic document and records management, was spun out of IT services firm Kainos in June 2001. ACT said it will receive some USD20 million initially from the Autonomy transaction and it expects an additional USD5 million on foot of a 12-month earn-out provision.
The paper also says that the former managing director of Dublin firm eSpatial Solutions has agreed to pay EUR350,000 to his former employer after acknowledging he had breached a non-compete clause. The firm, which provides online maps to customers, brought legal action against Liam McGeown, a founder of the company, last year, three years after his departure from the firm. Following his departure from eSpatial, McGeown had established a US company called Acquis.
The paper also says that the Taoiseach has confirmed that Ireland will follow Britain in establishing electronic border controls in the near future, and this will ultimately involve Irish citizens having to carry a passport when travelling to Britain by air or sea. However, Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan later said that the common travel area between Ireland and Britain would not be affected by the introduction of the new system.
The Irish Independent reports that online retailer Amazon quadrupled its profits in the three months to 30 September to USD80 million, as reported by ENN on Wednesday.
The Financial Times reports that shares in Arm Holdings slid in early London trading on Thursday after the chip designer blamed a weak dollar and backlogs in its Physical IP division for third-quarter results missing market expectations. Revenues for the period to 30 September were STG62.8 million, down from STG64.8 million a year ago, and far short of analysts' expectations of STG68 million. Licensing at the Physical IP division dropped 30 percent to STG6.2 million and revenues fell 17 percent to STG4 million.
The Wall Street Journal says that Intel has agreed to a USD250 million settlement with Transmeta. The deal settles patent-infringement charges Transmeta levelled against Intel in 2006. Intel agreed to pay Transmeta USD150 million upfront and USD20 million a year for the next five years and to drop claims against Transmeta. Transmeta's suit against Intel alleged that some of the chip giant's most popular chips violated 10 Transmeta patents on features that include controlling power consumption in computers. Intel countersued Transmeta in January, accusing the smaller rival of infringing seven Intel patents.
Separately, the paper notes that Intel is opening a USD3 billion chip factory in Arizona on Thursday that is expected to be the first to employ the next generation of chipmaking technology. New production processes shrink the size of transistors in chips, boosting their performance and capacity for storing data. Intel says its new plant is already in high-volume production of chips with circuit dimensions rated at 45 nanometres, down from 65 nanometres for existing plants operated by Intel and other companies.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 