ireland.com - The Irish Times

Eircom asks Government for broadband subsidy deal
EIRCOM HAS confirmed making a proposal to Government under which it would provide high-speed broadband to the nine "gateway" towns and cities identified in the National Spatial Strategy, provided the State lends some financial support. p

Ryanair praises France to the skies
RYANAIR'S EXPERIENCE of doing business in France has been "superb", the airline's deputy chief executive Michael Cawley told a conference in Dublin yesterday on doing business in Provence. p

NTR in €63m American energy deal
UTILITY AND waste management specialist NTR looks set to seek other acquisitions in the US to follow the €63 million deal it announced yesterday. p

Musgrave profits increase 16% to €94m
MUSGRAVE GROUP enjoyed a 16 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to €94 million last year, as it recorded sales of €4.9 billion, up 6 per cent on the year before. The group paid a dividend of €16.5 million to its shareholders, most of whom are members of the eponymous extended Cork family. p

Other Stories

Permanent TSB moves to tighten its lending criteria
CONTINUING FINANCIAL volatility has prompted Permanent TSB to follow other lenders in the British market and tighten its lending to buy-to-let residential property investors. p
Death of former business editor Bill Murdoch
THE DEATH has occurred of Bill Murdoch a former Business Editor of The Irish Times . He was 72. p
New €30m investment to create 50 jobs in Dungarvan
THE DECISION by British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to invest €30 million in a new facility that will create 50 jobs at its plant in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, was yesterday hailed as a further vote of confidence in the local management and staff. p
Cheques should be phased out by 2016, says payments group
"OBSOLETE" CHEQUES should completely disappear from Ireland by 2016, the Irish Payments Services Organisation (Ipso), a body that represents the main banks, will say today. p
Merrill Lynch sued in China over ISTC
THE €820 million collapse of specialist Dublin lender International Securities Trading Corporation (ISTC) has been felt as far away as China where litigation has started over investor losses in a bond issued by the company. p
Samsung chief slips corruption charge
SOUTH KOREAN prosecutors have defended a controversial decision not to arrest the chairman of giant conglomerate Samsung on corruption charges, saying it would cause "too much disruption" to the faltering Korean economy. p
Spread-betting company applies for IEX listing
THE FINANCIAL spread-betting company Worldspreads has applied to list its stock on the Dublin junior market, the IEX, where it is scheduled to begin trading on Thursday, May 15th. p
Mazda chief says CO2-based tax policy 'lacked discipline'
RECENT MOVES by European governments, including Ireland, towards taxing vehicles on their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has been criticised as "political opportunism" by the chief executive of Mazda Europe. p
Treasury Holdings firm wins Louth land deal case
DROCARNE LTD, a subsidiary company of Treasury Holdings, has secured a High Court order compelling the owner of 125 acres in Co Louth to adhere to a December 2000 agreement to make the lands available to Drocarne for a major development. p
Bad news from Wall Street spoils early gains
DUBLIN REPORT BARRY O'HALLORAN Iseq: 6,115.04 (+0.73) Settlement date: April 22nd THE DUBLIN market made good ground yesterday morning, with leading stocks adding to gains made on Wednesday, dealers said. p
In short
Other financial stories in brief p

Agenda

Belfast offers IFSC its own back office
The North will get much-needed financial jobs and the South will be able to draw on a deeper talent pool, writes Simon Carswell p
Cross-Border finance: new rules
BRIAN COWEN has paved the way for a cross-Border financial services industry by relaxing the "minimum activities" rules for IFSC and financial sector jobs in the Republic. p
Pall hangs over shopping mall
SHEILA O'FLANAGAN PLATFORM: IT TOOK a long time for the powers that be to decide what would finally happen to Stack A in the IFSC. There was talk of a museum, an aquarium, a cultural centre and a theatre but eventually last November it opened, not entirely surprisingly, as a shopping mall. p
Shop and awe
THE FRIDAY INTERVIEW Chris Martin, chief executive, Musgrave Group THE DOTS on the Competition Authority's retail map of Ireland show Musgrave's muscle is building. Although the wholesale group and its retail brands may not have the might of Tesco, they are becoming more powerful. p
China wins in a race to bottom line
Trade with China was worth €6bn last year so Ireland tends to soft-pedal rights issues, writes Clifford Coonan in Beijing p
Ireland's exports need to get in the zone
PAUL TANSEY ECONOMICS: THE CONTINUING slide of sterling and the dollar against the euro is destroying the profitability of Irish firms facing competition from British and US producers in both domestic and foreign markets. p

Personal Finance

After the crunch - the pinch
House prices may be falling, but home loans are becoming dearer and harder to come by, writes Caroline Madden p
Torn between renting and buying
TO BUY or not to buy, that is the question. Uncertainty over the property market has created a dilemma for potential first-time buyers - whether to buy or rent accommodation. p
Corporate results fail to comfort
AN INVESTOR'S VIEW CROESUS A STEADY stream of corporate financial reports contines to hit the newswires, particularly from US-quoted companies which are obliged to report each quarter. p
Solar power stocks shine
Oppenheim Investment Managers had another stellar month and Irish Life made a comeback, writes Caroline Madden p
GE's earnings shock is a warning light for US corporate profits
CHARLIE FELL SERIOUS MONEY The debt-fuelled economy is in recession, input costs are rising and exports are slowing p
Waterford taking the taxpayer's biscuit
MARGARET E WARD CENTS & NONSENSE EVERYONE HAS their favourite - Jaffa cakes, ginger biscuits, chocolate chip cookies - and their own unique way of eating them. Some of us like to nibble around the edges or pick the chocolate off the top while others twist them apartso they can savour one portion at a time. p
Cancel credit cards with care
Q&A DOMINIC COYLE Q I have dealt with my bank for over 20 years. I cancelled my credit card in December 2007 and transferred the balance, which was attracting interest of 18.5 per cent, to a provider which charges me 0 per cent interest on balance transfers and transactions for the first six months. Even after this, the interest rate, at 8.5 per cent, is less than half what we were paying to our credit card in 2007. p

Technology

Carrying the torch for PCs
Bill Amelio, CEO of PC maker Lenovo, is striving to make the Chinese firm a global brand, he tells John Collins p
Swifter, higher, bloggier
"SWIFTER, HIGHER, stronger" was how Pierre de Coubertin described the Olympic ideal a century ago, after resurrecting the games of the ancient Greeks. And now we could add "bloggier", thanks to modern geeks. p
Eircom split is high-wire act
Former state telecom monopolies are being broken up to boost broadband competition, reports John Collins p
Light is right for many PC users
KARLIN LILLINGTON NET RESULTS ONE OF the most painful technology anecdotes I've ever read popped up on the Newsweek magazine website a couple of weeks ago. p
Programming for children
DANNY O'BRIEN WIRED IT WAS my daughter's fifth birthday a few weeks ago. Of course, my preferred gift to her would be a bowl of gruel and a character-building exhortation to go work for a living. Sadly, America, and Silicon Valley in particular, looks fondly on its younger members and I'm afraid she was a little spoilt with technological gadgets this year. p
Digisoft has sold 1.5m licences for TV software
DIGISOFT.TV HAS sold more than 1.5 million licences for its Java-based software which enables high-definition revenue-generating applications to be run on television set-top boxes. p
Shaky economy 'can benefit' IT firms
THE GLOBAL economy may be shaky, but it isn't in recession and offers plenty of opportunity for technology companies, say Mark Hurd, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer. p
Tralee IT establishes data research centre with MIT
THE WIRELESS and mobility group at the Institute of Technology Tralee has scored a mini-coup by establishing a new research centre in association with the Forum for Supply Chain Innovation at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. p
Shift is portable but pricey
MIKE BUTCHER INBOX THESE DAYS if you're not mobile in business you don't exist. The Blackberry remains king of mobile business but the latest addition to the mobile computing pack is the HTC Shift, a costly "ultramobile" PC (UMPC). p
In short
Other technology stories in brief p

Recruitment & Management

Agency workers' deal is on cards
Once the envy of full-time employees, agency workers are now at bottom of the labour market, writes Gerald Flynn p
How to manage the media to best effect
Chief executives can personify their firms, which makes their media image vital, writes Eoghan McDermott p
Hard work to be own boss
CAROLINE MADDEN BUSINESS 2000 Entrepreneurs typically enjoy their work but many also sacrifice a lot of their free time p
The Irish Times Business 2000: 11th edition
The Business 2000 column provides information for business studies teachers and students on the current business climate. p

Back Page

Barometer is pointing to a big recruitment freeze
ONE MORE THING CIARAN HANCOCK IRELAND'S BIGGEST recruitment firm CPL issued a profit warning this week and we should all be worried. Forget what the economists, politicians and bankers have to say - there are few better baromoters for activity than recruiters. p
Ryanair and the Sarkozys 'kiss and make up'
ONE MORE THING CIARAN HANCOCK RYANAIR HAS patched up relations between itself, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, a business conference in Dublin was told yesterday. p
Figures make good reading
ONE MORE THING CIARAN HANCOCK BOOK RETAILER Hughes & Hughes appears to have turned a corner with its book shop at London City Airport, its first overseas foray. p
Choker for brokers
ONE MORE THING CIARAN HANCOCK BANK OF Scotland this week joined the club of mortgage providers cutting its commission to brokers. Commission payments will range from 0.5 per cent to 0.7 per cent from May, roughly half the previous level. p
Oasis increases its storage capacity
ONE MORE THING CIARAN HANCOCK THE NEW owners of Irish storage group Oasis Group have wasted no time in inking an acquisition. p
Fountainhead for B2B
UNDER THE RADAR LORRAINE SCROOPE thesourcepool.com She may be still two years shy of her 30th birthday, but Lorraine Scroope is getting ready to roll out her third business next week, along with her business partner Ralph Hosford. p

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