IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 31 July
31-07-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Xerox warns of Irish job cuts | BSkyB asks High Court to restrain Satellite and Television Ltd
The Irish Times reports that Xerox has warned employees at its Irish operation that the outsourcing deal with IBM Global Services, which comes into effect at the beginning of September, will result in job cuts at its Dublin offices. In early July, Xerox announced the outsourcing deal, saying there would be no job losses and staff would transfer to IBM under the same terms and conditions they currently enjoyed, while continuing to work at the same location. However, on Monday night, a joint Xerox/IBM statement said that the two companies believed that "changes will be effected through, for example, attrition, redeployment, and, if necessary, redundancy".
The paper also says that O2 Ireland has reported that average revenue per user increased in the second quarter to the end of June to EUR46.70. Read the full story on ENN.
The same paper says that ComReg has found that Eircom is favouring its retail operation over other licensed operators in relation to repairing faults, as noted by ENN on Monday.
The Irish Independent reports that BSkyB has alleged that an Irish company has been supplying hotels with a satellite system that grants "unauthorised" access to Sky's TV network. BSkyB is asking the big business division of the High Court to restrain Satellite and Television Ltd from supplying equipment which could help anyone receive unauthorised programmes or transmissions. Documents lodged with the court allege that Satellite and Television has installed such devices in some rooms in the Mercer and Lynch hotel chains.
In other news of BSkyB, the Financial Times says that the British broadcasting firm has announced an agreed takeover of Amstrad, the company founded and owned by Sir Alan Sugar. If approved by Amstrad's other shareholders, the STG125 million deal will see James Murdoch, son and presumed heir of his father Rupert's News Corp realm, subsume the pioneering electronic goods supplier into his STG12 billion media company. BSkyB is already the principal customer for Amstrad's main product, set-top boxes for satellite television receivers.
The same paper says that taste in music has become far more diverse because of the internet, which is revolutionising the way consumers buy songs, according to new research. More than half of internet users surveyed by Entertainment Media Research and law firm Olswang said they surfed social networking sites such as MySpace and YouTube specifically to come across new songs. Up to three-quarters of MySpace users said they had at least occasionally come across music that they subsequently wanted to obtain for themselves when listening to the taste of others. Almost a third bought CDs or legal downloads of those songs.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Dutch telecommunications operator KPN has said it will launch a management-backed cash bid of EUR766 million for IT services company Getronics. The offer came after Getronics recently said discussions it was having about being bought by an unidentified US company had fallen through. KPN had previously held exploratory talks with Getronics. KPN said it will also pay EUR263 million for Getronics bonds and EUR171 million for Getronics debt, bringing the total bid to EUR1.2 billion.
The paper also says that Telefonica's second-quarter net profit more than doubled, boosted by a EUR1.3 billion capital gain from the sale of radio operator Airwave, as well as strong domestic operations. Telefonica, the largest telecommunications company in Spain and Latin America by market capitalisation, said net profit rose to EUR2.57 billion from EUR1.14 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose 6.5 percent to EUR14.08 billion from EUR13.22 billion. The company raised its full-year targets for revenue growth and operating income.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 