NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 12 July
12-07-2007
by Emmet Ryan
Yahoo completes Right Media acquisition | Meteor announces free weekend calls for bill-pay customers
Yahoo has completed the acquisition of internet advertising firm Right Media. "We are pleased to have closed our Right Media acquisition so quickly and are excited to welcome Right Media's talented employees to the Yahoo family," said Jerry Yang, chief executive and co-founder, of Yahoo. The acquisition follows Yahoo's 20 percent investment in Right Media in October 2006. Yahoo bought out the remainder of the firm for around USD650 million.
Meteor has launched a new service providing free weekend calls to any mobile on any network, as well as landline numbers. The service is available to customers of Meteor's bill-pay service. "Now Meteor bill-pay customers can call who they want any time at the weekend regardless of what network they are calling as well as landlines," said Michael Hayes, Meteor's marketing director.
Sony is to launch a slimmer model of its PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld game player in September in a bid to catch up with rival Nintendo. Both Sony and Nintendo released their latest handheld devices, the PSP and DS, in 2004 but the DS has been winning over the market recently. Nintendo sold 23.6 million DS units worldwide in the year ended March 2007, outpacing PSP shipments of 8.4 million.
Nokia has introduced Skype Internet-calling software for its N800 Wi-Fi tablet. The N800, which does not connect to any cellular network, was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Current owners of the device can download the software to enable Skype at Nokia's website.
There are still plenty of hurdles to cross before Europe has a truly competitive telecoms market according to a new report by the European Commission. The Commission's report found that in many cases, the solutions which national regulators impose in order to remedy a lack of competition vary, leading to the risk of a fragmentation of the internal telecoms market to the detriment of consumers and operators with pan-European business activities. "Close cooperation between the European Commission and national regulators is crucial for building a truly dynamic and fully functioning single telecoms market," said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 