IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 9 July
09-07-2007
by Jonathan Farrelly
News Corp sets up video-gaming league | Sony cuts price of PlayStation 3
The Irish Independent reports that Science Foundation Ireland director general Frank Gannon has been awarded the Diplome d'Honneur from the Federation of European Biochemical Societies. The award recognises his exceptional contribution to European science. Prof Gannon -- originally from Sligo -- joined SFI last week; before that he led the European Molecular Biology Organisation in Heidelberg, Germany.
The paper also says that Irish hotel chains are now fitting their minibar fridges with motion and weight sensors. Online travel site TripAdvisor has warned travellers that even just pulling out a can of Coke to check how cold it is or moving items around in order to store your own items could cost you money. A spokesman for the Irish Hotels Federation confirmed that some hotels in Ireland are retro-fitting their minibars with electronic sensors and motion detectors, but he claimed it was in order to "increase efficiency" and eliminate the need for chambermaids to manually check whether items had been taken, rather than to catch customers out.
The Irish Examiner notes that residents of Clonlara, on the outskirts of Limerick, are objecting to the proposed erection of mobile phone mast by Three Ireland.
The Financial Times says that Sony has cut the price of the PlayStation 3 by USD100, or 17 percent, in the United States, a move that should boost the video game console's flagging sales. The PS3, which includes a 60GB hard drive and a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player, will now cost USD500, or USD20 more than the most expensive version of Microsoft's Xbox 360. The PS3 still costs twice that of Nintendo's Wii console.
According to the same paper, News Corp has set up a video-gaming league. The Championship Gaming Series will make its debut on DirecTV satellite television in the US on Monday night, live and in high definition. News Corp-controlled BSkyB and Star TV will cover games involving teams in UK and Asian cities this year, culminating in a televised world championship in November. Video-game contests are popular in Korea, where there are two 24-hour TV networks dedicated to the sport, but analysts are sceptical that video-gaming can take off as a spectator sport in the West.
According to the Wall Street Journal, AMD has made a USD7.5 million investment in Transmeta Corp, a developer of microprocessor technology, in exchange for Transmeta preferred stock. The investment comes as AMD has been grappling with weak prices for its microprocessors and stiffer competition from larger rival Intel.
The paper also notes that Philips Electronics has said it considers its US-based subsidiary MedQuist a non-core business and is reviewing all options for its 70 percent stake in the medical-transcription and billing-services company. Philips paid a total of EUR1.3 billion in 2000 for the stake. MedQuist has been under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Analysts say Philips is likely seeking a buyer for its stake, now valued at EUR250 million.
The Sunday Business Post reports that Irish company Silicon and Software Systems (S3) has announced that it has increased its employee numbers by over 25 percent at its Cork design centre. There are now over 50 staff at the centre, which is based at the IDA Business and Technology Park in Cork, and the company has a total staff of about 300. A spokeswoman for the company said that the Cork expansion was a response to increased demand for S3's design capabilities, software products and professional services.
The same paper reports that Ireland's media and gaming industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in IT. Internationally, the global video-game software industry is worth over USD20 billion a year and is growing annually at a rate of 25 percent, according to industry figures. Orla Sheridan, home and entertainment division manager with Microsoft Ireland, estimated that the Irish market was worth "hundreds of millions" of euro, with a growth rate of between 60 and 70 percent each year.
The same paper also says that XenSource, a multinational provider of virtualisation solutions, has announced partnership deals with five Irish re-sellers. The XenSource technology means companies can save on server room space and operate more efficiently, according to Robert Whelan, technical director at Data Solutions, the company which distributes the XenSource technology in Ireland.
The same paper reports that two Irish software industry veterans, Bernard Hensey and Alex Campbell, have joined forces to form a new software company, NewCode Technologies. The firm is developing technology to update older applications to new, more advanced standards. NewCode has hired four staff and set up headquarters in the Midlands Innovation and Research Centre (MIRC) at the Athlone Institute of Technology.
The paper also says that last week Dublin City Council killed off any hope of building a low cost wireless broadband service for ordinary citizens. One of its committees decided not to recommend the adoption of a long-standing proposal to roll out a free, or cheap, Wi-Fi service to Dubliners. It said that Brussels might view it as undue interference in a competitive market. Councillors had been saying that the city might follow US and European cities in introducing subsidised Wi-Fi zones, but now it is saying that Brussels might not allow it.
The Sunday Independent states that Vodafone, O2 and Three Ireland are to go head-to-head in a ferocious price war to win customers for the fast-growing mobile broadband business. It is thought that there are now well over 40,000 mobile broadband customers in Ireland. The principal use of mobile broadband is to attach laptops or PDAs to the internet, and one mobile company estimates that up to 300,000 home-owners could switch to mobile broadband instead of using existing fixed-line services.
The Sunday Tribune reports that mobile operator Three has a market share of less than 3 percent. There are 4.7 million 2G and 3G mobile subscriptions in the Republic and Three Ireland's nearest rival, Eircom-owned Meteor, has just over 840,000 subscribers. The Hutchison Whampoa-owned multimedia company has a fairly paltry 130,000 subscriptions here, yet is expected to contribute to the European Three Group's half-year target of EBITDA breakeven for the first half of 2007.
The Sunday Times says that more than 75 percent of Eircom's unionised employees are thought to have voted for strike action in the ongoing row over an unpaid wage increase, according to union sources. The official results of the Communication Workers Union ballot of its 5,000 members won't be known until Monday afternoon, but union officials say they are confident that a large majority have supported industrial action. Eircom has not had a strike in almost 30 years.
Finally, the same paper says that Europe's biggest price-comparison site, Moneysupermarket.com, could be worth as much as EUR1.9 billion when it floats on the stock market at the end of this month, in the biggest share offer to retail investors in seven years. According to research undertaken by Credit Suisse, the investment bank leading the float, the firm is valued at between EUR1.4 billion and EUR1.9 billion after plans to raise EUR265 million in new money are taken into account.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 