The technology business week: Enterprise Ireland’s export push, tech industry dominates Irish exports


6 Aug 2013

A digest of the top business technology news stories from the past week.

Enterprise Ireland in global push to grow exports by €250m a year and create 1,200 jobs

Enterprise Ireland is to recruit 20 new people in key markets, such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), as part of a strategy to increase exports by Irish companies by €250m, resulting in 1,200 additional jobs in Ireland.

The 20 new executives will be recruited locally on fixed-term contracts.

The plan represents a 14pc increase in the number of Enterprise Ireland staff in overseas offices.

The move is calculated to directly support the creation of 1,200 jobs in Ireland by boosting exports by €250m annually.

The measure is part of a number of steps taken as part of the Irish Government’s Action Plan for Jobs.

Technology industry commands bulk of Irish exports

The Irish Exporters Association has compiled a list of the top 15 ICT exporters in Ireland that shows Microsoft, Google, Dell, Oracle and Intel are the top technology exporters in Ireland.

The Irish Exporters Association published its annual report two weeks ago showing that technology, pharma and life sciences companies dominated the top 20 list of exporters out of Ireland.

“Long-term stalwart of the Irish software scene Microsoft led the charge with a 35pc growth in its exports bringing its total exports for the past year to €13.7bn and moving up to take the No 1 ranked Irish exporter in this year’s top 250 survey,” said John Whelan, CEO of the Irish Exporters Association.

IEDR: 24pc increase in non-renewals indicates insolvencies in Irish economy

The .ie Domain Registry (IEDR) reported that the total number of domains registered stood at 182,284, up 5.3pc on last year. However, there was no disguising the troubled state of the economy reflected in a 24pc increase in non-renewals, which IEDR CEO David Curtin believes is due to insolvencies of Irish firms.

The not-for-profit domain registry said that there was a total volume growth of 19.3pc in new .ie domain registrations.

The organisation said that members funds have increased as a result to €3.6m.

Registration fee income came in at €2.6m for the year and the IEDR reported an operating profit after tax of €282,706.

The IEDR’s share of the domain market stood at 45.8pc and the company will use the members funds to improve the safety and resilience of the national domain name for Ireland.

New domain registrations were down 15pc to 33,484, which CEO David Curtin told Siliconrepublic.com reflected the struggling economy.

Microsoft to pay out US$10m to Windows 8 architect Sinofsky

Former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky is in line for a US$10m payoff from Microsoft, provided he doesn’t work for tech rivals like Google or Apple before 2014.

Sinofsky was removed from his role as Windows chief last year just after the launch of Windows 8.

Sinofsky is banned from working from quite a substantial list of companies for at least the next year, including Oracle, EMC, VMware, Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon.

According to the SEC filing, he is also banned from trying to persuade tech giants like IBM, Dell, Intel and Nokia to cease being Microsoft customers.

According to the deal, Sinofsky will receive a package consisting of 418,000 share options worth US$10m that are due to vest mid-2016.

Dell board’s special committee allows founder to sweeten the deal

The special committee of the board of directors of Dell have agreed to allow Michael Dell and his partner Silver Lake Partners improve on their offer to shareholders to take the company private.

It emerged last week that Michael Dell is to improve his offer to US$24.9bn with a special dividend.

Dell and Silver Lake Management are offering a dividend of 13 cents a share on top of an already increased US$13.75 per share bid to buy out the company Michael Dell started in a college dorm in 1984.

A third quarter dividend of eight cents per share which was already in place will also be paid.

Dell and Silver Lake originally offered US$13.65 a share but their plans were affected with renowned corporate raider Carl Icahn came in with his own offer, including a US$14 per share buyback.

Apple shifts technologies SVP from exec team – will work on ‘special projects’

Bob Mansfield is no longer on Apple’s executive team as senior vice-president (SVP) of technologies and is now working on “special projects” at the company.

Reports emerged recently that, without explanation, Mansfield’s biography had been removed from Apple’s executive profiles page.

Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling then said Mansfield will no longer be on Apple’s executive team but will remain at the consumer tech giant to work on “special projects” and reporting to Tim Cook, CEO.

Shanghai skyline image via Shutterstock

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