IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 19 June
19-06-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Dell's Irish staff receive assurances | BC Partners closes in on purchase of Intelsat
The Irish Times reports that e-learning firm ThirdForce has won shareholder approval for its USD18 million acquisition of rival MindLeaders.com. Read the full story as reported by ENN on Monday.
The paper also says that chipmaker Intel and the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) will co-fund research into independent living solutions for older people. Read more on this story on ENN.
The Irish Independent reports that HM Riverdeep (HMR), the education publishing company controlled by Barry O'Callaghan, plans to set up a new holding company for the business in the "less onerous" corporate regulatory regime of the Cayman Islands. HMR, formed from Riverdeep's reverse takeover of Houghton Mifflin last year, will ask shareholders to approve the setting up of a holding company called Education Media and Publishing Group at an extraordinary general meeting to be held on 9 July.
The same paper says that the long-running row over the future of Eircom's Stephen's Green headquarters has been admitted to the High Court. The dispute began last year when Eircom tried to sell on its EUR4.2 million lease for the site to a company controlled by developers David Courtney and Jerry O'Reilly, but landlords the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) resisted the change of tenants. The telco has now moved the dispute to the Four Courts, claiming that the RCSI's refusal to agree to the new tenants is "unreasonable".
The paper also says that Dell employees have been assured that any future redundancies will be part of regular cut-backs and attrition. Earlier this month, the US firm said it would cut its global workforce by 10 percent over the coming year, but no decision has been made about how many jobs will be shed in Ireland, where it employs 4,500 people. A spokeswoman for Dell said no decision had yet been made with regard to the Irish workforce, but the newspaper has learned that employees in the Raheen Industrial Estate in Limerick were told at a recent meeting they have no reason to fear for the safety of their jobs.
The Financial Times says that BC Partners, the UK private equity firm, is close to announcing the purchase of Intelsat for about USD16 billion, including debt. BC Partners outbid several strategic buyers in a heated auction for the Bermuda-based fleet of satellites. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to the same paper, industrial action at Deutsche Telekom edged towards an end on Monday after the telecoms firm agreed to extend job guarantees for about 50,000 staff until 2012, one year longer than management had previously proposed. The deal on guarantees signalled that the parties were moving towards a final agreement that could end the first strike to hit the German operator since its privatisation more than a decade ago.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Electronic Arts has revamped its organisation to be more responsive to trends in the videogame industry, as part of an overhaul by new chief executive John Riccitiello. The company said it had divided responsibility for its expanding portfolio of games into four groups, focused on its lucrative Sims franchise, sports games, simple "casual" games and a broad category encompassing non-sports games such as racing game "Need for Speed" and World War II battle game "Medal of Honor."
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 