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In the papers 07 September 
Friday, September 07 2001
by Paula Mythen


Dermot Desmond's on-line betting venture Betdaq to launch | Vodafone says 3G
mobile networks will not be as fast as planned





The Irish Times reports that Betdaq, a Dermot Desmond backed international
betting exchange is set to go live Friday morning. Betdaq will offer its members
a bet brokerage service where there will be no limits on the size of any order.
The company's technology will match individual parties together rather than
offering its own odds.



The same paper reports that senior academics in Northern Ireland say that
government-sponsored Internet awareness schemes are ineffective, and claim small
firms could be losing out on e-commerce opportunities because of this. New
research shows that small to medium-sized businesses in the North are badly
lagging behind their UK counterparts when it comes to e-commerce and e-business
performance. According to the University of Ulster, a "digital divide" has
emerged between companies and individuals who have embraced Internet
technologies, and those who have been left behind. The survey showed that a high
percentage, 88 percent, of companies in Northern Ireland have access to the
Internet, but few are using it for business purposes.



The paper also reports that Intel's Irish voluntary redundancy programme has been
heavily over-subscribed according to the company. Strong demand will enable the
company to increase the number of redundancies above the original 170 figure, if
necessary. A spokesman confirmed yesterday the company had met its target and had
refused some applicants.



The Irish Times also reports that Castlebar-based Volex, a manufacturer of
computer cable assembly systems announced that it would shed 44 jobs, and that
Eircom is to open a EUR20 million data-hosting centre in Dublin. The 30,000
square feet data facility located at Citywest Business Park is expected to become
operational next week, and will target Irish companies and multinationals. The
company will offer a full range of the managed services required to create,
manage and maintain a firm's information technology infrastructure and Web
presence.



The Times also reports that Riverdeep on Thursday announced the acquisition of
the education division of The Learning Company, a US publisher of school
education software. Riverdeep has agreed to pay USD40 million in stock and assume
USD20 million in debt in exchange for the education assets of The Learning
Company, owned by Gores Technology Group of Los Angeles.



Most papers report on Intel's comments that its third-quarter business will be
within expectations, but at the lower end of the reported USD6.2 billion to
USD6.8 billion range. Intel said the results would be slightly below the midpoint
of that range, which was announced in July. "Intel's microprocessor business
continues to follow seasonal patterns while the flash and communications
businesses remain in line with the company's expectations at the beginning of the
quarter," the company said. 



Most papers also report that Vodafone has cut the speed at which it plans to
transmit data over its next-generation mobile phone networks. The lower data
speed means the third-generation (3G) networks will be better suited to business
applications, such as accessing corporate intranets from laptop computers, than
some promised consumer services, such as downloading video clips on to
pocket-sized devices.

 

The Irish Independent reports that German software-maker SAP, which employs about
280 people in Ireland, suffered a 10 percent fall in its share price on Thursday
while Oracle's shares dipped by 8 percent.



The same paper reports that Meteor must add on 65,000 customers in the next six
months if it is to meet its target of 100,000 subscribers in its first year of
operation. While Meteor said it is taking 25 percent of all new mobile customers
here, analysts said, because penetration in Ireland is now at 70 percent, this
will make the 65,000 target difficult. According to the latest figures from the
company, it now has just over 35,000 customers. This puts it behind both Digifone
and Eircell with 997,000 and 1.5 million subscribers respectively. Announcing its
figures, Meteor also said it has introduced a new lower rate for SMS messaging of
IEP0.07 and that calls from to any '085' number will also cost IEP0.07.



The Financial Times reports that shares in Motorola plunged 15 percent on
Thursday as the company said that it expects no improvement in third-quarter
sales and is axing a further 2,000 jobs as it tries to cut costs and stem losses.
The latest cuts will come in the global telecoms solutions division, bring the
total number of job cuts to 32,000. The job reductions will be spread between the
division's domestic and overseas operations. In better news, Motorola did confirm
that sales and profitability in its personal communications sector (PCS), which
takes in its cellular phone business, and in the commercial, government and
industrial systems arm were showing an improvement. 



The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple Computer's Chief Financial Officer
Fred Anderson reiterated Thursday that the company's retail unit is still on
track to break even in its December quarter and post a slight profit in fiscal
2002. Although he declined to comment further on the company's current fiscal
fourth quarter, he did say that Apple gives an outlook once a quarter and if
investors don't hear from Apple it's "good news."



The same paper also reports that National Semiconductor late Thursday posted a
first-quarter loss that met its lowered earnings forecast. The company also
warned of a second-quarter loss but said it expects sales to increase in the
quarter, suggesting the worst may be over for the chip maker. Net loss for the
first quarter ended Aug. 26 came to USD54.6 million, or USD0.31 a share, compared
with a net profit of USD144.2 million, or USD0.74 a share, in the year-earlier
period. Revenue dropped 47 percent to USD339.3 million from USD401.2 million in
the fiscal fourth quarter of 2001. The company said it ended the first quarter
with more than USD790 million in cash and minimal amounts of debt.