|
Police in Northern Ireland have seized more than 100 computers in a crackdown on child pornography, according to the Irish Examiner newspaper. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Care Unit has searched over 40 premises over the last two weeks, following a tip-off from the FBI. PSNI detectives also seized 7,000 items of software for further examination. The swoops are believed to have been concentrated on people whose work brings them into contact with children.
On-line travel company Lastminute.com is reportedly preparing to axe up to 70 staff, according to the Sunday Times. Last week, the company said it would report quarterly profitability in mid-November and announced an outsourcing deal that would reduce its future cost base by around STG2 million. Commenting on the deal, a spokesperson told the paper, "We don't have any figures on how many will be made redundant. There's going to be employees who'll lose their jobs but some will be able to re-apply and move elsewhere in the firm."
UK mobile phone operator Virgin Mobile may be planning a bid for Telia's mobile phone arm in Finland, Britain's Independent newspaper reports. The paper said Virgin Mobile was considering lodging a STG63 million bid for Telia Mobile, which Swedish telecoms group Telia is obliged to sell under the terms of its merger with Finnish telecoms firm Sonera. A spokesman for Telia refused to comment on the report.
The European Commission has approved the acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting business by IBM. IBM announced its purchase of PwC's global management consulting and technology business in July. An analysis of the transaction by the Commission showed that IBM's share of the IT services market will not be significantly altered by the deal and that consumers will still have sufficient choice and innovation in the sector. The Commission, concluding that the operation will not result in the creation or strengthening of any dominant position, has decided to clear the transaction.
Internet search engine Google has launched an expanded test version of its search engine, . The new search tool replaces an earlier test version introduced in April, as reported by ElectricNews.net. The service searches 4,000 English-language sources for news and information from Web sites around the world. Results are grouped by topic and ranked on the basis of freshness, the credibility of the source, and the number of sources that have published a story on that item. The search results are compiled solely by computer algorithms without human intervention.
Popular music-swapping service KaZaA has raised its profile in a new deal with Internet service provider Tiscali. KaZaA's owner Sharman Networks plans to announce a partnership with the Italian ISP that will see KaZaA advertising Tiscali's high-speed Internet access. In exchange, Tiscali, which has approximately 7 million customers in 15 countries, will pay Sharman a "bounty" for each KaZaA user who signs up for its high-speed service.
Nintendo confirmed this week that it has sold its 49 percent stake in British video game developer Rare to Microsoft. The financial terms of the deal were not revealed. Microsoft will use the company to boost sales of Xbox games. Rare produced best-selling games like Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong Country for Nintendo exclusively.
|
