An overview of the week in deals in the Irish technology sector, including Yahoo! and Twitter’s content-sharing partnership.
Yahoo! and Twitter enter content-sharing partnership
Internet portal Yahoo! has entered into a partnership with Twitter to integrate the popular microblogging service into its own offerings through search and beyond. With Yahoo!’s search engine, users will now be able to find tweets in real-time search results but Twitter will also be integrated into Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Sports and its homepage, allowing users to share its content straight onto Twitter – in other words the ability to tweet from within all of Yahoo’s services.
Microsoft and Amazon.com in patent deal that covers Kindle, Linux
Software giant Microsoft and the world’s largest online retailer Amazon.com have signed a patent cross-licence agreement that will give each company access to the other’s patent portfolios, including Kindle e-readers and software components. The agreement covers a broad range of products and technology, including coverage for Amazon’s popular e-reading device, Kindle, which employs both open source and Amazon’s proprietary software components, and Amazon’s use of Linux-based servers. Although specific terms of the agreement are confidential, Microsoft indicated that Amazon.com will pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount of money under the agreement.
O’Brien to net €500m in cash from Digicel Pacific sale
The telecoms tycoon Denis O’Brien stands to make more than €500 million in cash from the sale of his Digicel Pacific (DPL) to its sister company, Digicel Group. An update on the financial performance of the Digicel Group contained details of the deal, under which it will acquire more than 51pc of DPL, with the option for the remainder to be purchased at a later date. The transaction will value equity in DPL at US$825 million. O’Brien owns 84pc of DPL, with the remainder of the company being held by third-party investors and management.
Abtran invests in UCC lab to drive next-gen BPO systems
Successful Cork business process outsourcing (BPO) player Abtran has formed a research partnership with the Cork Constraint Computation Centre (4C) at UCC to develop next-generation BPO systems. The project is being funded through the Innovation Partnership Programme which involves financial investment by Abtran and funding from Enterprise Ireland and forms part of Abtran’s ongoing €6-million investment in a new Learning & Innovation Centre at the Irish company’s Cork headquarters where 800 staff are now employed.
Dairygold invests €250k in mobile handheld deal
Mobile technology company VisionID has just completed a €250,000 deal to provide Dairygold Agri stores with Motorola handheld computers and wireless infrastructure which will track and trace all stock in their 39 agri business outlets throughout Munster. The Tipperary-based high-tech company hopes this deal, and other imminent signings, will help it boost its workforce by up to 20pc by the end of this year.
Dublin subsidiary of French bank invests €220k in disaster recovery
A payment protection insurer that is a subsidiary of the French Credit Agricole Group has signed a deal with Irish tech firm IT Focus to invest €220,000 in a disaster recovery and managed-service solution. The company has implemented a disaster-recovery solution and managed-service solution to reduce business risk, deliver high availability and be better prepared for disaster recovery.
HP in state-of-the-art photo printing deal with Tesco
Retail giant Tesco is to roll out HP ML1000D dry lab technology across 140 Tesco Extra stores beginning in April. The expansion of the companies’ photo business relationship will allow all Tesco customers to access HP photo technology in-store and print photographs in a variety of sizes.
