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The Irish Independent reports that Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) has introduced a virtual reality tour of college accommodation for students. Students who log on to the Institute's auxiliary services Web site can choose from a range of apartments on offer before contacting the Institute's accommodation office. John Rockett, accommodation operations manager at WIT, said that this year, the misery for students of trudging the streets in search of suitable accommodation will be "more or less eliminated."
The Irish Times reports that Vivendi Universal's chief executive, Jean-Rene Fourtou, has issued an open letter to shareholders and employees underlining his confidence in his ability to tackle the troubled media group's cash crisis. Last week, Fourtou announced details of Vivendi's EUR12.3 billion first-half net loss, which led to a 45 percent drop in the group's share price. In the letter, Fourtou said he now had the necessary EUR1 billion emergency credit lines from a consortium of banks to cover immediate debt service and said that another EUR2 billion was in the pipeline.
According to the Financial Times, WorldCom has stressed that most of the telecoms group's directors and creditors still back chief executive John Sidgmore as he attempts to restructure the bankrupt company. A report in Saturday's Washington Post had claimed that directors Max Bobbitt and Stiles Kellett were urging that Sidgmore be fired. However, a WorldCom spokesman said on Sunday, "John has the support of the majority of the board and the vast majority of creditors. He and the new management team are really focused on restructuring the company."
The same paper reports that Deutsche Telekom's reaffirmation of its plan to cut its net debt to EUR50 billion by the end of 2003 is being viewed by analysts as a sign that it will pursue a partial or outright sale of VoiceStream, its US mobile arm. The debt reduction plan was outlined last week by interim chief executive Helmut Sihler. Analysts believe that a sale of VoiceStream, which is said to have drawn an informal EUR10 billion cash offer from a US rival, would be the only way to cover the shortfall.
The paper also says that shares in Irish electronic payments group Alphyra fell last week after its auditor said it had conducted a review of the interim results but had declined to give an opinion on the financial information. Auditor BDO Simpson Xavier said it could not express an opinion because its review stopped short of the full oversight of an audit and provided "a lower level of assurance than an audit." The review did not include a close look at internal procedures such as tests of controls and verification of assets, liabilities and transactions. The company described the review as a routine statement that should not concern investors.
The Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors and Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers are reviewing dozens of transactions by AOL Time Warner's America Online unit. The issues under review seem to involve instances where America Online's dealmakers used a practice known as "round-tripping," according to people familiar with the situation.
The paper also reports that Hewlett-Packard is launching a low-priced personal computer for business customers that uses a microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices. AMD has struggled for years to convince big PC makers to use its Athlon chip in machines aimed at the business market, where customers are particularly concerned about reliability and compatibility with Intel's technology. H-P says its new Compaq D315, which uses an Athlon XP processor, will start at USD549 and will mainly be targeted at SMEs in the US.
The Sunday Tribune reports that Vodafone consulted the European Commission on what it saw as a bias toward new entrants in Ireland's award of its third generation mobile licences. The company, which last week failed to accept the 3G licence it was awarded, is expected to decide within two weeks whether to opt for the licence, the paper said.
The paper also reports that sponsored kiosks are to appear in Irish hospitals to let new parents e-mail pictures of their newborns to friends and family. The scheme, headed by Web site operator baby.ie, has already seen one kiosk installed in the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street in Dublin, and others are due to be established.
The same paper reports that Orbiscom has reduced its staff numbers from 110 to 55 since March and closed a number of international offices, including its Toronto office last week. The paper quotes the company's new CEO Greg Lawless, who says the restructuring has now been completed.
The Sunday Times reports that, according to industry sources, Hutchison Whampoa will be hard pressed to meet its stated deadline at the end of this year to sign up UK customers for 3, its 3G service. The paper says that at least one top executive at the company has recently left, and that there are continuing problems in solving technical issues of the so-called "handover" problem, or the transfer of calls from 3G to 2G networks. Without resolution of the glitches, 3G customers are likely to face dropped calls.
Saturday's Irish Times reported that Dell is set to create more than 100 jobs in Bray, County Wicklow. The company will create over 100 full-time jobs at its call centre in Bray and dozens more temporary positions at its manufacturing facility in Limerick, according to Paul Bell, head of European operations. Bell said the company was adding extra sales and technical support staff at its call centre in Bray following strong revenue growth over the past few quarters. Many of the jobs would be in highly skilled positions at Dell's new multilingual centre, which offers technical support services for the firm's server and storage products, he added. Dell already employs almost 4,500 staff in Bray, Dublin and Limerick.
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