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The Irish Times reports on Eircom's interim results announced on Monday. Eircom plans to offer a high-speed Internet service based on digital subscriber line (DSL) technology in the first half of 2001, the paper said, but the company is awaiting a decision from the telecoms regulator on whether Eircom can offer broadcast and interactive television. Eircom's plans to float the multimedia business have been put on hold pending sale discussions for the fixed line and mobile businesses. The paper also reports that Eircom may not distribute the entire EUR5.1 billion from the planned Eircell sale to shareholders, but that some proceeds of the sale may be retained "for unspecified purposes."
The paper also reports that Fran Rooney, chief of Irish security software firm Baltimore Technologies, now owns nearly STG23 million in Baltimore shares, including more than 600,000 shares which he purchased at the reduced rate of STG1.50 apiece. Baltimore's shares closed in London at STG3.35 on Monday, down STG.06.
The Gardai have uncovered an elaborate software counterfeiting operation headquartered in an isolated farmhouse in Co. Carlow, according to a report in the Irish Independent. The paper reports that a swoop on the building uncovered an operation that had produced "millions" of pirated CDs, DVDs and PlayStation games over the last two years. The two-month investigation culminated with a raid on the building, which held about IEP500,000 in pirated material and elaborate video and CD-making facilities.
The Irish Independent also reports on technical problems on the east and south-east coasts with the Esat Digifone mobile network, including missing test messages, dropped calls and difficulty in reaching certain numbers. A Digifone spokesperson told the paper that the company had not received any complaints and was not aware of the problems. But the paper said it had learned that urgent maintenance work is ongoing on the network -- the work had been scheduled for January and February but was brought forward to November and December.
The Wall Street Journal reports that DoubleClick is laying off employees in all divisions, including its media, technology and data departments. The company would say only that its cuts entailed less than 10 percent of its 2,100-person workforce, or between 150 and 170 jobs. The cuts are the first for the five-year-old company, the paper reported, and follow similar cutbacks at rivals 24/7 and Engage Technologies as Internet advertising has lost some of its steam in the US. DoubleClick has also suffered due to its massive and perhaps ill-judged USD1.7 billion purchase of Abacus, an aggregator of US consumer data. DoubleClick has not been able to maximise the Abacus data due to a backlash from privacy advocates.
The Wall Street Journal also reports on a controversy surrounding an announcement from RecordTV, an on-line movie service that is being sued by the Motion Picture Association of America, and Bertelsmann mediaSystems. A new release from RecordTV said that RecordTV had had discussions with Bertelsmann mediaSystems about licensing RecordTV technology. But Bertelsmann denies any plans to use the technology and told the Wall Street Journal that it is now taking action against the employee who had had unauthorised discussions with RecordTV. Giovanni Giamminola, the Bertelsmann employee quoted in the RecordTV news release, told ElectricNews.Net he had no comment about the situation.
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