Una Fox, vice-president of technology at Disney
A digest of the top business technology news stories from the past week.
Diaspora network ITLG kick starts ‘Women in Leadership Group’
The Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) has launched a new ‘Women in Leadership Group’ to complement its growing network of technology leaders.
The objectives of the group will be to create mentoring opportunities for female graduates who are pursuing technology careers, mentor matching for female entrepreneurs and for women who are seeking corporate leadership roles, and to provide support, guidance, and insight for female-led technology start-ups.
The group will be led by Una Fox, vice-president of technology at Disney.
Dutch consumer authority fines Ryanair €370,000 over website rules
Budget airline Ryanair has landed a €370,000 fine from the Dutch consumer authority Consumentenautoriteit for breaking European airline rules regarding online ticket sales. Ryanair, however, disputes the finding and says it will appeal.
“The decision of the Dutch consumer authority is littered with errors,” said Ryanair’s Robin Kiely. “Ryanair will appeal this unfounded decision and confirms that its website fully complies with all EU and Dutch consumer protection regulations.”
Yahoo! acquires Jybe, welcomes back five former employees
Internet giant Yahoo! has acquired personalised recommendation firm Jybe, and with it five former Yahoo! employees. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
“As part of this acquisition, we’re welcoming an extremely talented group of engineers and data scientists who will join Yahoo!’s platform organisation, focused on targeting and personalisation,” Jay Rossiter, SVP, Cloud Platform Group, wrote on Yahoo!’s blog.
“This will be a ‘coming home’ for the team – all five are former Yahoos. Arnab Bhattacharjee was the VP of Yahoo! Search Technology (YST), one of the most well-respected engineering and platforms groups in the company. He returns together with former key members of the YST and Hadoop teams – Tim Converse, Christian Kunz, Sameer Paranjpye, and Karthik Krishnamurthy.”
While the Jybe app has closed, Rossiter said Yahoo! is confident Jybe’s data- and science-driven experience will supercharge its efforts to build great products and experiences for Yahoo! users.
IBM wraps up acquisition of Star Analytics’ software portfolio
Technology giant IBM has completed its acquisition of Star Analytics’ software portfolio to enhance its business analytics initiatives. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Star Analytics is a privately held business analytics company with headquarters in Redwood City, California. Under the deal, clients should be able to easily access financial information stored in their applications, allowing them to make more informed decisions much more quickly.
All Star Analytics employees will now join IBM’s Software Group.
Adobe’s CTO Kevin Lynch resigns for Apple VP job
Adobe Systems’ CTO Kevin Lynch left the company at the end of last week to take up a job at consumer tech giant Apple, as its vice-president of technologies.
Lynch will report to Apple’s senior vice-president Bob Mansfield, CNET reported.
Adobe said it won’t replace Lynch but will instead assign the CTO’s responsibilities to Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen and senior vice-president Bryan Lamkin.
CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello resigns
Electronic Arts (EA) CEO John Riccitiello will resign from his position with the video-game manufacturer, as well as step down as a member of its board of directors, on 30 March. The company did not provide a reason, but in a statement said EA is likely to miss financial targets for the current quarter.
EA’s board of directors has appointed Larry Probst as executive chairman while the company seeks a new CEO.
EA’s fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2013 results are scheduled to be released on 7 May.
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