IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 23 January
23-01-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Intel says Ireland won't suffer job cuts | Ring calls for payphones to be saved
The Irish Times reports on the official launch of the Government's National Broadband Scheme, as reported by ENN on Thursday.
The paper also reports that travel software firm OpenJaw Technologies has seen its business grow in the past year, and is expecting that growth to continue. The Dublin-based company, established in 2002, added 35 new jobs in the past year and is expecting to grow revenues in 2009 from the EUR9 million recorded last year. OpenJaw supplies technology to help travel companies connect to suppliers such as airlines, rental companies and hotels.
The same paper says that the number of people affected by data loss is set to increase this year, according to KPMG's Data Loss Barometer, with up to 190 million people around the world expected to be hit. This compares with 92 million in 2008, with 47.8 million affected by data loss in the three months ending November 2008 alone. "Data loss poses a threat to all companies, and can have a significant impact on brand, reputation and customer trust across all sectors and different types of businesses," said Mike Daughton, partner with KPMG's business performance and IT advisory in Dublin.
The paper also notes that Irish telecoms software firm Openmind Networks has won a contract with Vodafone Egypt to supply its Traffic Control product, which gives operators greater control over the routing of messages on their network.
The same paper notes that Iona Technologies co-founder Dr Sean Baker has been appointed a non-executive director of online financial trading firm Delta Index. Dr Baker will oversee the company's technology division and developments of its online trading applications. Last summer, Delta announced it was investing EUR3 million in its XDeal technology platform to enable expansion overseas with support for multiple currencies, languages and products.
The Irish Independent says that Irish workers at two of the world's biggest high-tech firms have so far been spared the worst of global job cuts at both operations. Chip giant Intel said Ireland would not be affected by its decision to shut older factories around the world, with the loss of up to 6,000 jobs. However, the company confirmed that the Irish site was involved in a global evaluation of proposals to cut a further 1,000 manufacturing and related staff jobs. Meanwhile, software giant Microsoft confirmed that its Irish operation would suffer only a "small number" of the 5,000 job cuts the company is making worldwide, as reported by ENN on Thursday.
The paper also says that mobile phone company Nokia's fourth-quarter net income slumped to the lowest level since 2001, and revenue fell by a fifth. Read more on Nokia's results on ENN.
The paper also notes that cable TV firm UPC is capitalising on a fall in local ad prices to launch its first ever terrestrial TV ads. Framed around the tagline 'Line Rental is Dead', UPC's campaign is designed to lure customers to the group's broadband and telephone offerings.
The Irish Examiner says that while Ireland substantially increased its real spend on research and development during the boom years, it is still behind the European average. Ireland spends an average of 1.35 percent of its gross domestic product on R&D, lower than the EU average of 1.84 percent. We are rated 16th in the world for R&D investment.
The paper also says that nearly half of all public telephone kiosks around the country are to be cut off in the coming months. Eircom has said it will disconnect and remove 2,151 of the remaining 4,850 public payphones dotted around the country, starting in April. An Eircom spokeswoman said usage of payphones had plummeted by more than 80 percent over the past five years. Michael Ring, Fine Gael's Community and Rural Affairs spokesman, denounced the move as an attack on the poor and on rural Ireland.
The paper also says that farmers who apply online to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for schemes such as the single payment tend to have fewer errors in their submissions than those who do so using the traditional paper system. "For example, less than half of one percent of single payment applications submitted online through Agfood.ie had errors, compared to about 5 percent of those on paper," said Minister Brendan Smith. "These farmers avoided possible delays, and the effort of follow-up contact to resolve errors."
According to the Financial Times, memory chip giant Samsung Electronics has posted its first-ever quarterly loss, as the global economic downturn sapped demand for key products such as chips, mobile phones and flat panel displays. The company reported a KRW22.2 billion (USD16.16 million) net loss in the October-to-December period, compared with a KRW2,210 billion profit a year ago. Sales rose from KRW14,480 billion to KRW18,450 billion. The South Korean firm expects to suffer further losses in the first quarter, as prices of chips and flat screens are not likely to recover any time soon and its handset division faces stiffer competition in the shrinking market.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has announced a 68 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit, dragged down in part by its investment in AOL, but sales were strong despite the worsening economy. The search giant recorded net income of USD382 million, or USD1.21 a share, down from USD1.21 billion, or USD3.79 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 18 percent, down from a 31 percent rise in the third quarter, to USD5.7 billion. Profit was affected by a USD1.1 billion impairment charge on its investments in AOL and wireless firm Clearwire. The results suggest that Google's search ad business and cost-cutting campaign are helping it weather the recession better than other internet companies.
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