An overview of the week in deals in the Irish technology sector, including Realex’s deal with online gaming operator 32Red.
Realex wins big in deal with online casino 32Red
Realex has secured a major online payments deal with a leading online gaming operator, 32Red, the AIM-listed company behind more than 350 casino games that is licensed in Gibraltar. Realex will power 32Red’s card-processing requirements. The company needed to source a new payments partner who could meet the same level of service that they commit to providing their customers. The deal involves Realex Payments providing payment processing for 32Red across a variety of products, currencies, regions and card types.
Xeretec acquires Dublin documents firm
UK-based Xeretec Office Systems Limited has completed the acquisition of Dublin company Digital Documents Direct (3D) to create a stg£23-million international document technology reseller group. The newly formed 3D Xeretec will be the Irish branch of the growing Xeretec Group. As a result of this acquisition, Xeretec is now the largest document technology mono-branded reseller in the UK and Ireland, and will offer the entire range of Xerox products, services and software across both regions.
The Xeretec headquarters will remain in Wokingham and the 3D Xeretec customers will be served directly from the company’s existing Dublin and Galway offices, with technical service provision remaining with Xerox, through Dectek. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Elanco takes over Pfizer’s Sligo manufacturing plant
A manufacturing facility in Co Sligo used by Pfizer for the production of animal vaccines is set to be transferred to Elanco, the animal-health division of Eli Lilly. The transfer comes under the terms of a deal Elanco has agreed with Pfizer to acquire the European rights to a portfolio of certain Pfizer animal-health products for an undisclosed sum. As part of that deal, Elanco will acquire the Sligo plant. Also under the terms of the deal, all Sligo Pfizer employees will be offered positions with Elanco, the company said. The products produced at the Sligo facility include vaccines, parasiticides and feed additives, which are used in both the farm animal and pet markets.
Google opens new apps store for businesses
In a move aimed at fuelling the momentum so far with 2m businesses now adopting Google Apps, the internet giant has opened a new Apps Marketplace chock-full of third party cloud apps like payroll and productivity software.
The Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps customers to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps.
Twitter’s nemesis arrives as a Whispurr rather than a bang
A new social-networking player has entered the scene to take on micro-messaging player Twitter with a service that enables macro-messages of 300 characters. The Whispurr social-networking service promises to bridge the online world with the offline world. According to Conor Devine, director of Whispurr.com, macro-messaging is a 300-character message which can be sent online by a real-time ‘whisp’ or via Whispurr’s free SMS message to a mobile-phone service.
