In the papers 19 February

19-02-2007

by Jonathan Farrelly

Activision to buy Irish software firm Demonware | Motorola exec departs for Dell

The Irish Independent reports that the Irish Blood Transfusion Service is looking for help in extracting information from its IT systems because some of it is written in French. The newspaper says that the IBTS is to buy a solution that will extract data from the different IT systems in use throughout the organisation. One computer expert who looked at the current system in place said it makes for "scary reading". Among the current problems are that the IBTS cannot cross-reference vital data and some of the existing program is in a foreign language.

The paper also says that the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science has heard that by 2030, cars controlled by artificial intelligence will be a desirable reality and a great improvement on those guided by humans. The comment was made by Dr Sebastian Thrun of Stanford University in California, who led the team that designed Stanley, a modified Volkswagen Touareg that won a USD2 million prize for self-driving vehicles organised by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US government.

The Financial Times reports that Yahoo Japan, the country's largest web portal, is to list shares on the Jasdaq exchange in order to boost liquidity and increase the opportunities for retail investors to trade the stock. Although the company intends to retain its listing on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, brokers said that the company's ability to remain listed there was in some doubt for technical reasons. "Yahoo Japan is potentially using this Jasdaq listing as a way of calming investors," said a communications analyst.

The Wall Street Journal says that the head of Motorola's beleaguered mobile device division has left amid growing tensions to take a position at Dell. Ron Garriques was once viewed as a possible successor to Motorola chief Ed Zander. Garriques is the highest-level departure from Motorola since it came under fire for falling profit and a slumping share price. Last month, Zander acknowledged that fourth-quarter results were "unacceptable", blaming miscalculations on pricing and product line-up.

The Sunday Tribune states that Dublin-based internet production Balcony TV has been caught up in the war between YouTube and content owners including media conglomerate Viacom. The Dublin firm has had its entire catalogue of short videos removed from YouTube without explanation and apparently in error. Balcony TV received an e-mail three weeks ago from Google-owned YouTube saying Viacom had informed it of a copyright infringement relating to a video of Dublin band the Dirty 9s, and gradually the entire back catalogue was removed. YouTube cited provisions of the US digital copyright law in taking the action.

The same paper also says that thousands of Irish companies are in technical breach of company law because the Companies Registration Office (CRO) has suspended publication of its gazette because of fear of opening it up to attack again. The site had been attacked by hackers in December and may not be published again until April. Under Irish law companies are obliged to notify their document filings in the gazette within six weeks of submitting them to the CRO. According to Fine Gael's enterprise spokesperson, Phil Hogan, companies have been left in an outrageous situation where they cannot comply with the law because of "technology incompetence on the part of a state agency."

The Sunday Tribune also reports that one out of every five mobile handsets will be capable of receiving TV signals in three years, according to Dublin-based consumer electronics firm S3. John Maguire, head of S3's consumer mobile business, said the biggest opportunities for mobile TV will come as so-called Tablet devices with mobile chipsets become used more in the mainstream.

The paper also reveals that a pilot project called the Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP) plans to test a digital rights management system that will tell search engine 'spiders' what content is available for access and use. Participants include Independent News and Media, Reed Elsevier, Agence France-Presse, Macmillan, John Wiley & Sons and Media 24, under the auspices of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), the European Publishers Council and the International Publishers Association.

The Sunday Independent writes that one of the top three US computer games publishers, Activision, has emerged as the buyer of Irish games software firm Demonware. No figure for the deal is available, but it is thought that it could well exceed EUR15 million. Demonware was formed by Trinity College graduates Dylan Collins and Sean Blanchfield in 2002.

The paper also says that Vodafone will team up with global banking firm Citigroup to trial a money transfer system among Ireland's Polish community later this year. It will initially roll out to the 100,000 Polish customers on Vodafone's Irish network and will allow customers to transfer money home at the touch of a button on their mobile phone. If successful, it will become available to 400,000 resident non-nationals from Asia, Eastern Europe and South America.

The Sunday Times reports that French media conglomerate Vivendi is thought to be in advanced talks with IDA Ireland in order to establish a base in Cork for its games unit that could lead to the creation of 500 jobs. Preliminary figures for 2006, unveiled last month, show that Vivendi's revenues for its games divisions soared 25 percent on the previous year to EUR804 million as group sales topped EUR20 billion.

The Sunday Business Post states that Digicel will need to generate USD240 million in cash a year to pay interest on a new bank debt, according to financial sources. Denis O'Brien said last week that he would raise a USD1.4 billion bond and set up a company called Digicel Group to buy all the shares in Digicel. After the deal, Digicel Group will have a total debt of USD2.7 billion, which will attract interest of almost USD240 million a year, or around 9 percent per annum.

The same paper also says that Business Objects Software, a French software firm which is incorporated in Dublin, made a pre-tax profit of EUR49 million in Ireland in 2005. The firm had a turnover of EUR365.2 million in 2005, an increase of almost 26 percent on the 2004 figure of EUR290.2 million. The firm made a pre-tax loss of almost EUR9.2 million in 2004, but went into the black in 2005 due to increased turnover.

The same paper notes that Dublin-based Digisource, a firm owned by the Folens publishing family, has sold its US operations in a deal thought to be worth several million euro. The terms of the deal are not known, but the US operation, Digisource Inc, accounted for most of Digisource's annual sales of about EUR19 million. The firm operated in digital printing and had moved into packaging mobile phones and accessories. Digisource Inc is based in Texas and has a large contract with Motorola.

The Sunday Business Post also reveals that Bernie Cullinan has stepped down as deputy chief executive of foreign exchange technology company Cognotec after less than four months in the position. Cullinan left Cognotec last week amid a restructuring that has resulted in the firm laying off 40 of its 200 staff. Almost 30 of the layoffs are from the company's 145 staff in Dublin, with the remainder from its operations overseas.

The paper also says that Adwalker, the AIM-quoted Irish firm that makes electronic sandwich boards, is in talks with eMusic, the world's number two music download service, to allow on-the-spot downloads from its units. The company is expected to sign a deal this week that will allow owners of iPods or other music devices to download songs through the electronic equipment used by Adwalker agents.

Finally, the paper states that Dublin software firm Havok provided the technology behind the disaster movie Poseidon, which has been nominated for an Oscar for special effects. Havok's software has previously been used to create more realistic effects in the films Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Kingdom of Heaven, Troy and The Matrix.