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Betdaq chief executive Aidan Donnelly is believed to have purchased the assets of Worldport | NTL Ireland reported pre-tax losses of EUR24.2m in 2001
The Irish Independent reports that former Betdaq chief executive Aidan Donnelly is believed to have purchased the assets of Worldport, the Web-hosting company that went into liquidation last year. Donnelly reportedly paid over EUR3.5 million for the assets, and sources say his partner in the new business is former Worldport executive Bernard Geoghegan. The company will offer a range of telecommunications services, including co-location facilities and IT consulting.
The same paper reports that telecommunications firm Nevada Tele.com has cut 16 jobs in Dublin and 44 in its Belfast office. Read the full story at ElectricNews.Net.
As noted by ElectricNews.net on Wednesday, the paper says that Ericsson Ireland was beaten out by Nokia for a multi-million euro contract for the rollout of part of Vodafone Ireland's 3G network.
The Irish Independent also writes that Hewlett-Packard is set to cut 1,800 more jobs than initially anticipated. Previously, the firm had plans to cut 15,000 jobs following its merger with Compaq. read the full story on ElectricNews.Net.
The same paper says that Microsoft has announced the loss of 15 jobs at its Irish .NET operation, as reported by ElectricNews.net on Wednesday.
The paper also notes that recruitment Web site Monster.ie is to spend EUR50,000 on an advertising campaign that makes fun of the recent road sign controversy in Dublin.
The Irish Times reports that NTL Communications Ireland reported pre-tax losses of EUR24.2 million in the year to 31 December 2001, widening from EUR11.9 million in the previous year. The steep rise in pre-tax losses was caused by an increase in operating expenditure, which jumped to EUR89.3 million during 2001, up from EUR77 million in 2000. Citing papers filed with the Company's Registration Office, the newspaper says turnover at the firm, which provides TV services to Dublin, Galway and Waterford, rose to EUR69.6 million for the year, up from EUR66.1 million in 2000.
The paper also reports that indigenous investment in Irish high-tech companies increased last year, according to the Irish Venture Capital Association. Read the full story as reported by ElectricNews.net on Wednesday.
The same paper notes that Siemens is offering capital investment to wireless telephony start-ups in the Republic through its Siemens Mobile Acceleration (SMAC) fund, as noted by ElectricNews.net on Tuesday.
According to the Financial Times, Mobilkom Austria has launched Europe's first national 3G network. The company, which has more than 50 percent of Austria's mobile telephony market, has so far spent EUR72 million on its 3G network. The UMTS service, which will be rolled out commercially as soon as handsets become available, offers 25 percent national coverage initially. Mobilkom expects to have 1,000 base stations offering 40 percent coverage throughout the country by the end of the year.
The same paper reports that troubled French telecoms equipment group Alcatel is selling a 6.1 percent stake in defence electronics company Thales, in a bid to raise some EUR340 million. Alcatel will retain 9.7 percent of Thales and remain the biggest shareholder in the company after the French state, which owns 33 percent. Shares in Alcatel rose 8.5 percent on the news in morning trading in Paris to reach EUR2.56.
The Wall Street Journal says that Nortel Networks expects its third-quarter revenue to fall by around 15 percent compared with the second quarter. Nortel also said it expects a "marginally larger" loss, excluding certain charges, in Q3 compared with Q2. The company, which blamed its adjusted forecast on deteriorating US telecoms-equipment spending and reduced spending on wireless networks in Asia, announced a plan to consolidate its shares in order to avoid a delisting by the New York Stock Exchange.
The same paper reports that Mitsubishi Electric is in discussions that could lead to a merger of its memory-chip business with Elpida Memory. People familiar with the talks said Elpida, a joint venture owned by NEC and Hitachi, was in negotiations to buy Mitsubishi's dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip business by the end of the year. The combined company would become the world's No. 4 maker of memory chips, after Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor and Micron Technology.
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