A digest of the top business and technology news stories from the past week.
Majority recommend Ireland for investment
Recently published research carried out among members of Integra International found more than 70pc of them would recommend Ireland as a location for investment and 38pc believed the global economy would begin to recover in 2011.
Irish Chartered Accountants and Recovery firm Hughes Blake has published research it carried out amongst members of Integra International, the global association of independent accounting and financial consulting firms, who are in Dublin for their Global Conference.
The research found that 71.6pc of Hughes Blake members would recommend Ireland as a location for investment, 55.6pc do not believe that the country’s reputation has suffered any more than other countries and cost competitiveness and workforce quality rank highly in the pole.
More than 200 delegates who advise up to 40,000 businesses around the globe are in attendance of the conference.
Intel prepares for massive attack on tablet market
The company whose processors spearheaded the PC revolution is determined not to be left out of the sudden rise and rise of tablet computers. Intel has revealed a new processor called the Oak Trail.
With Oak Trail, Intel hopes to make some much-needed headway into the tablet market, even though the microprocessor is not scheduled to begin shipping until early 2011.
First announced by Intel in June this year — two months after Apple launched the iPad — Oak Trail is a System On a Chip (SOC) solution designed exclusively for tablets. Based on published reports, Oak Trail will consume as much as 50pc less power than previous processors from the company and also will offer full high-definition video.
More important, Oak Trail will work on three operating system platforms — Android from Google, Windows 7 from Microsoft and MeeGo from Nokia — potentially expanding the universe of tablet devices in which the Intel processor might be used.
Apple reports US$20bn quarter – ships 14m iPhones, 4m iPads
Apple has reaped a US$4.3bn profit on fourth-quarter revenues of US$20.34bn after smashing previous records in the numbers of iPhones, iPads and MacBook devices.
These results compare to revenue of US$12.21bn and net quarterly profit of US$2.53bn in the fourth quarter last year.
Gross margin was 36.9pc compared to 41.8pc in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57pc of the quarter’s revenue.
Nokia announces net sales of €10.3bn
Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has announced its net sales for the third quarter of 2010.
The mobile phone giant’s third quarter 2010 net sales increased 5pc to €10.3bn, compared with €9.8bn in the third quarter 2009, and increased 3pc compared with €10.0bn in the second quarter 2010.
While the company released their third quarter net results, Nokia also announced that they will be making up to 1,800 job cuts.
Yahoo! reports €1.6bn revenues for third quarter
Yahoo! delivered a US$189m profit on third quarter revenues of US$1.6bn for its third quarter. The profit – up 107pc on last year – was helped by the sale of HotJobs.
Excluding restructuring charges of US$17m in the third quarter of 2009 and US$6m in the third quarter of 2010, income from operations increased 80pc year over year.
Net earnings per diluted share for the third quarter of 2010 was US$0.29, compared to US$0.13 in the third quarter of 2009, a 126pc increase.
Net earnings per diluted share for the third quarter of 2010 included a benefit of US$0.13 per diluted share related to the gain on sale of HotJobs, and net earnings per diluted share for the third quarter of 2009 included a benefit of US$0.04 per diluted share related to the gain on sale of Yahoo!’s direct investment in Alibaba.com.
Microsoft’s top software architect Ray Ozzie steps down
The chief software architect at Microsoft Ray Ozzie is to resign from the company shortly, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer revealed in an internal memo to all staff at the software giant.
Ballmer said that Ozzie conceived, incubated and shepherded Windows Azure to be the platform that will drive Microsoft’s growth for years to come.
He said he has no plans to replace Ozzie in the role of chief software architect and said Ozzie will remain with Microsoft to transition the teams and ongoing projects within the company.
CEO of O2 Ireland steps down
Telefonica O2 Ireland’s CEO Danuta Gray has announced she will step down from this role, effective from the end of November. She will be replaced by Stephen Shurrock, consumer sales director of O2 UK.
Added to Shurrock’s new role as CEO, he will also join the board of Telefonica Europe.
Gray will retain her connections with the business, taking a part-time position as non-executive chairman of Telefonica O2 Ireland along with undertaking an advisory role within Telefonica Europe on behalf of Matthew Key, CEO.
