A digest of the top business technology news stories from the past week.
Irish tech firm S3 passes the test stress-free with Sky Deutschland
Sky Deutschland has selected technology made by Dublin-based digital TV services firm S3 to test its ability to deliver multiscreen TV services. S3’s technology lets Sky in Germany stress test its services across 64 devices at a time.
S3’s StormTest Development Center HS64 technology allows Sky to routinely test the robustness of new software releases and product upgrades by simulating real-world usage conditions and capture key performance metrics.
“As we evolve our digital TV platform on a daily basis it is important that we can execute stress, reliability, performance and monitoring testing efficiently on a large number of set-top boxes simultaneously and with different releases at the same time,” said Sky Deutschland’s CPE director Stefan Kastl. “With StormTest Development Center HS64, we now have the ability to do so across all our DTH and cable set-top boxes.”
Most next-generation executives foresee video in workplace – Cisco survey
Most next-generation executives intend to depend on video to deliver new products and services, as well as connect with staff, suppliers, customers and prospects, a new Cisco survey suggests.
The 2013 Cisco Global Young Executives’ Video Attitudes Survey provides insight into what management track leaders aged 34 and under think about business-class video, which is designed to deliver high-quality, reliable and secure video to users.
The survey findings reveal that three out of five young executives say they will rely more heavily on business-class video during the next five to 10 years, and 87pc believe video has a significant and positive impact on an organisation.
The respondents cited benefits to using video in the workplace, such as cost savings, overcoming language barriers, enhancing telecommuters’ experience, and even attracting top talent.
E-commerce mogul Jeff Bezos buys The Washington Post for US$250m
Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, has bought one of America’s most iconic newspaper titles The Washington Post and its affiliated titles for US$250m.
The acquisition is being made purely by Bezos and has nothing to do with Amazon. In a letter to the employees of The Washington Post, Bezos said the newspaper’s values will remain the same, with the same leadership team, but in order to navigate a landscape transformed by digital, the newspaper will have to experiment.
The acquisition is expected to close in around 60 days and will see Bezos acquire the newspaper and its name from the Graham family, who ran the newspaper business for at least four generations.
AOL to make video advertising as ‘easy’ as e-commerce with Adap.tv acquisition
AOL has entered into an agreement to splash out US$405m in cash and stocks to snap up Adap.tv – the programmatic video advertising platform for brands, agencies and publishers.
AOL believes the acquisition of the start-up – its biggest ever – will help the internet giant plot an aggressive mission to take a global lead in premium and programmatic video advertising.
“AOL is a leader in online video and the combination of AOL and Adap.tv will create the leading video platform in the industry,” said Tim Armstrong, chairman and CEO, AOL.
He said the Adap.tv founders and team are on a mission to make advertising as “easy” as e-commerce. Joining forces, he said the two companies will now “aggressively” pursue that vision.
Groupon revenues up 7pc to US$608.7m, appoints Lefkofsky CEO
Daily deals site Groupon has reported a 7pc increase in second-quarter revenues to US$608.7m and has appointed Eric Lefkofsky as its new CEO.
Ted Leonsis has been appointed chairman of the board.
Profits were down, however, from US$433.2m last year to US$384.7m in the second quarter.
Gross billings, which reflects the value of transactions via Groupon between consumers and merchants, grew 10pc to US$1.4bn.
Digital TV image via Shutterstock
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