Julie Sinnamon, Enterprise Ireland's designate CEO
A digest of the top business technology news stories from the past week.
Enterprise Ireland appoints its first female CEO – say hello to Julie Sinnamon
Julie Sinnamon has been appointed CEO designate of Enterprise Ireland following a rigorous recruitment process. She replaces outgoing CEO Frank Ryan.
Sinnamon’s career spans lengthy stints at both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, where she gained considerable experience in a variety of industry sectors and international markets. Most recently, she was executive director for Global Business Development in Enterprise Ireland.
Her appointment as CEO of Enterprise Ireland takes effect on 3 November 2013.
Android VP Hugo Barra waves bye-bye to Google, heads for Xiaomi
Hugo Barra, who had been vice-president for Android product management at Google, has left the company to lend his Android knowledge to the smartphone maker Xiaomi and help it grow its product portfolio globally.
Barra has confirmed the move on his Google+ profile.
“In a few weeks, I’ll be joining the Xiaomi team in China to help them expand their incredible product portfolio and business globally – as vice-president, Xiaomi Global,” Barra wrote.
HMV brand to be extended across 26 Xtra-vision stores in Ireland
Hilco Capital, the company that rescued both HMV in the UK and Ireland and Xtra-vision in Ireland, is to put the HMV brand on 26 Xtra-vision stores across Ireland by the end of September.
As part of its plan, Hilco is to open four standalone HMV stores: on Henry Street and in Liffey Valley shopping centre in Dublin, as well as the Crescent in Limerick this week, followed by Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin on 14 September.
The stores that are to be dual branded are: Artane Castle, Dublin, Ashleaf SC Dublin, Athlone, Ballina, Blackpool, Douglas, Carlow, Drogheda, Dundalk, Ennis, Galway, Navan, Nenagh, Thurles SC, Tullamore, Sligo and Omagh in Northern Ireland.
Peats closes flagship Dublin store, 22 jobs lost
Poor trading conditions in the past 15 months have led to the closure of Peats World of Electronics in Dublin last week and the loss of 22 jobs.
Peats had closed a number of stores last year but kept its flagship store on Parnell Street open.
“Unfortunately, the sector in which we operate has been disproportionately adversely affected by the economic downturn and despite the best efforts of myself and my fellow directors, including a remodelling of the business last year, we simply cannot continue in this climate,” said Ben Peat, chairman of Peats.
Apple acquires Swedish video compression firm AlgoTrim – report
Apple has reportedly acquired AlgoTrim, a Sweden-based specialist in algorithms for compressing images and video.
According to Swedish publication Rapidus, AlgoTrim has developed algorithms for lossless compression of processing instructions in operating systems and applications. Apart from speeding up processing, the compression reduces the use of flash memory, in, for example, RISC-processors.
According to the report, all of AlgoTrim’s shares were acquired by an anonymous Delaware-based holding company called Wedgwood Industries.
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