In the papers 26 February

26-02-2007

by Jonathan Farrelly

AIB warns of phishing attack | Green Grid to tackle energy consumption

The Irish Independent reports that AIB has warned customers to ignore a bogus e-mail that claims their online bank accounts have expired. Although the e-mail looks authentic, an AIB spokesman has confirmed that it is phishing attack.

The paper also says that the Revenue Commissioners are going high-tech to take on internet traders who fail to pay tax. Revenue has joined forces with counterparts in Poland and Britain to develop a computer system that is able to track online purchases and sales to ensure traders pay tax. "It's an EU initiative we're taking part in. It is difficult using traditional methods to police trade that is entirely internet trade," said Revenue spokesman Dave Coleman.

According to the Financial Times, Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson has offered SKR9.8 billion (USD1.38 billion) for Norway's Tandberg Television, beating an earlier rival takeover bid. Ericsson said it was offering USD17.23 a share for Tandberg, an 18.2 percent premium to its volume-weighted average price over the last three months and 10.4 percent above the price offered by US communications firm Arris Group. The acquisition is part of Ericsson's move into internet protocol television (IPTV), the company said.

The paper also reports that the record USD1.52 billion patent infringement award against Microsoft highlights a legal morass that is starting to threaten many areas of new technology where companies are competing to develop new ideas, according to US legal experts. The judgment -- which found that Microsoft had breached two patents owned by Alcatel-Lucent -- points to the danger posed by overlapping patents, where several companies have claims to different aspects of a widely used technology, these experts added.

The Wall Street Journal says that the Green Grid, a tech industry group, is set to reveal plans to address the increasing power consumption of server systems and the data centres that use them. Among members of the group are Advanced Micro Devices, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Microsoft and Intel. One of Green Grid's main aims is to come up with more accurate data to measure power efficiency in computer rooms.

The paper also reports that the bankrupt German handset business of Taiwan's BenQ Corp will be split up and sold, according to its insolvency administrator. "There is no longer a realistic chance of it being sold as a whole," spokesman Martin Prager said, confirming a report in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Munich-based BenQ Mobile filed for insolvency protection in September, a year after the Taiwanese firm took over the struggling unit from Siemens and began an unsuccessful bid to turn it around. Prager would not comment on the newspaper's report that splitting up the firm would mean that almost all of the 3,000 jobs at the firm would be lost for good.

The Sunday Times writes that Saon, the online recruitment firm owned by Denis O'Brien and Leslie Buckley, is close to buying MyJobGroup. The group has set up online recruitment sites for job markets in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Coventry, while it also has domain names registered for a string of other regional cities in England. "If our plans for the business are realised, MyJob will become a very substantial part of our business," said Saon chief executive Ken Fitzpatrick.

The Sunday Independent reports that Ireland's plummeting competitiveness has prompted almost half of the chief executives of the biggest companies in the country to consider outsourcing some of their business to cheaper locations abroad. Some 46.7 percent of respondents revealed that they had thought about shifting business away from Ireland, with 48.9 percent dismissing the idea. The news comes after a number of significant job losses as high-tech firms Motorola, Pfizer, FCI, and Elva have all reduced staff numbers. Vodafone is also looking to chop staff levels.

The Sunday Business Post reveals that OpenHydro, a Dublin firm that owns the worldwide rights to tidal turbine technology, has hired Davy Stockbrokers to raise up to EUR50 million in funding.

The same paper reports that Digicel, the Caribbean mobile operator owned by Denis O'Brien, had revenues of USD948 million last year and its subscriber base surged to 4.1 million people. Credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings said that Digicel's operating performance "continues to be strong". The ratings agency also expects Digicel's finances to improve even further this year as its operations in Haiti and Trinidad & Tobago grow.

The Sunday Business Post also states that entrepreneur Gilbert Little is a key shareholder in Acision, the company formed from the Irish buyout of a division of LogicaCMG for STG265 million (EUR395 million). Little was the founder of Aldiscon, the Irish firm that pioneered text messaging in 1997 and was bought by Logica for more than EUR70 million. Little and Larry Quinn, a long-term associate and former managing director of Aldiscon, masterminded the Acision deal that returned the messaging firm to Irish owners.

The paper also reveals that Bank of Ireland's implementation of a major retail banking system in the UK is running over 18 months behind schedule, according to sources at the bank. IT staff believe that Alnova, a book-keeping system in which the bank has invested tens of millions of euro, will never be implemented. Bank of Ireland has denied that there are any problems and a spokesman said "As we have implemented aspects of Alnova already and are working on further developments, a write-off of investment does not arise."

The same paper says that ACT Venture Capital, the Dublin funder headed by Niall Carroll, has invested several million euro in a British firm that makes technology to put television on mobile phones. ACT invested in Frontier Silicon, a firm that was founded in 2001 and has raised more than EUR60 million to finance its development and expansion. Frontier has more than 200 staff and its customers include major consumer electronics firms Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Hitachi, JVC, Philips and Sanyo.

The paper also states that now energy management is popular again, Sean Giblin has big plans for his energy management firm, Cylon. The firm's technology is used by large organisations to monitor the use of energy in their buildings. Sales increased to almost EUR4.6 million in 2005, up from about EUR4.4 million in 2004. Cylon is targeting sales of EUR8.5 million this year and EUR11 million by 2009. Giblin said he was confident the targets could be met.

Finally, the Sunday Business Post reports that Anam Mobile, a Dublin firm that makes mobile phone messaging software, made a loss of about EUR3.5 million last year, according to new accounts. The company had an accumulated loss of EUR9.7 million at the end of March last year, compared to a loss of EUR6.2 million a year earlier. Despite the increased loss, Anam was in a strong financial position, with shareholder funds of EUR9.5 million at the end of March. It had EUR2.9 million in cash on its balance sheet, up from less than EUR80,000 a year earlier.