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Statistics released on Sunday from the Semiconductor Industry Association showed that global sales of semiconductors reached USD139 billion in 2001. The figures mark a drop of more than 30 percent over the previous year's USD204 billion in sales. But in a good sign for the industry, the SIA figures show that sales were flat between the third and fourth quarters, marking an end to three straight quarters of decline. Worldwide sales of semiconductors in the fourth quarter 2001 were unchanged from the third quarter at USD30.5 billion. "Product comparisons show a number of improving trends in the fourth quarter," said SIA president George Scalise.
Motorola's Broadband Communications Sector and Nortel Networks have agreed to create and deliver an integrated voice over IP (VoIP) solution for the broadband-cable market. This non-exclusive agreement is intended to help simplify deployment of VoIP equipment by broadband network operators worldwide and spread the delivery of new services to their subscribers.
The board of Computacenter plc confirmed on Monday that it is in discussions with the BT Group, in respect of a strategic partnership to provide support for desktop computing equipment and supply of IT hardware products to the BT Group in the UK.
MoreSoft Computers has signed a strategic partnership with Korean software company, Izzardsoft, to distribute and market its products in Ireland. IzzardSoft has a specialised range of educational software called the Nesper suite of products.
The worldwide security software market is expected to reach USD4.3 billion in 2002, an 18 percent increase over revenue of USD3.6 billion in 2001, according to Dataquest, a unit of Gartner. Leading security software investments in 2001 were the telecommunications and communications industries. In 2002, government, education, information technology and financial services are expected to increase security software spending while telecommunications, communications and services are projected to cut back.
Reuters, the news, information and technology group, has launched an on-line information service for the electricity and gas sector in the European energy market. The new service, Reuters European Electricity and Gas (REEG), delivers news and market analyses as well as over the counter (OTC) and exchange prices on a pan-European and local level to the energy market. It is part of the new corporate and media services customer segment within Reuters.
Cable and Wireless plc, the telecommunications group, announced that it and its wholly owned subsidiary, Digital Island Inc., have completed the acquisition from Exodus Communications Inc., in an all-cash transaction, of selected assets and a majority of the business activities of Exodus. This follows the approval of the US transaction by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware granted on 17 January 2002. Together with the Exodus assets in the UK, Germany and Japan, the acquisition of which is being finalised, the total enterprise value of the transaction will be approximately USD750 million.
Noel Treacy T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, officially launched the Technology Transfer Initiative at the National University of Ireland, Galway. It is the first project to be carried out under the aegis of the Atlantic University Alliance, an inter-regional University network that also involves University College Cork and the University of Limerick. The initiative will act as a support structure for Irish indigenous companies and will be a gateway for Irish companies into universities.
NSP Technologies, the developer of on-line recruitment productivity tool Matchmaker, announced on Monday that pProgressive Placements Ltd has successfully installed its software.
Unitech Systems has completed a EUR1.4 million technology systems consolidation project for the Hibernian Insurance Group. The company was hired to develop the centralised IT infrastructure which required the consolidation of a range of differing technology applications, such as Oracle 11i Financials, Filenet and Cogos Datawarehouse.
Xpert Technology has become Compaq Computer's first systems reseller in Ireland to be appointed as a SAN system integrator (SSI), which is Compaq's highest level of storage accreditation.
Cape Clear Software, a provider of Web services technology, has announced full support for Microsoft Visual Studio.NET in the latest release of its CapeConnect Web Services platform. CapeConnect 3.5 extends Cape Clear's existing support by including native interoperability with the latest release candidate for Microsoft .NET framework and Microsoft VisualStudio.NET. CapeConnect 3.5 is currently available as a Beta release, with a full commercial release expected by the end of February 2002.
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