Tech business week: John Herlihy’s new job, and Edward Snowden gets EU support

2 Nov 2015

In tech business news this week, LinkedIn names John Herlihy as its new MD of EMEA, and Virgin Media rolls out one-click parental controls.

LinkedIn names former Google Ireland head John Herlihy as new VP

John Herlihy has been named LinkedIn’s new VP, taking on the role of MD in EMEA as well, following on from his role as head of Google Ireland in recent years. Herlihy spent the last decade at Google, where he was VP of SMB sales and head of Google Ireland.

He stepped down from his position back in April, the culmination of a spell that saw him grow the Irish arm of the tech giant’s business from 50 employees to 2,500.

Virgin Media to roll out ‘one click’ parental controls across Ireland

Virgin Media, which has 20pc of the broadband market in Ireland, will on Monday roll out a new ‘one click’ opt-in parental control setting that blanket covers all devices in the home with age-appropriate content settings. With one click, parents who want to restrict access to websites containing age-inappropriate content can do so and all smartphones, PCs, smart TVs and personal devices like iPod Touch media players will be restricted from accessing content that contains things like violence, hate, racism, adult and pornographic content. When they wish to switch back to enabling access to restricted content they just flick the switch.

Edward Snowden gains EU support as MEPs vote in favour of whistleblower

The European Parliament has voted to drop all criminal charges against rogue NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The vote, a narrow 285 to 281 margin, recognises Snowden’s status as a “human rights defender”.

Digital nation fail: 91pc of Irish businesses still can’t do e-commerce

Stark findings have revealed how Irish businesses are in danger of being left behind, with 91pc of SMEs unable to process sales online and 54pc with websites that are not optimised for mobile. More than a third of Irish SMEs still do not even have a website, according to a survey of firms by the IE Domain Registry (IEDR).

Demystifying the funding process, a guide for women entrepreneurs

An event for early-stage female entrepreneurs to learn both the complexities and ease with which start-ups can get funding is being run at DCU.

The DCU Ryan Academy is partnering with Anne Ravanona to run a one-day meet-up for female entrepreneurs, called ‘Demystifying the Funding Process’, as a way of promoting investment into a greater demographic of start-ups. The event is the launch of Global Invest Her in Ireland, of which Ravanona is CEO, and it runs on 26 November.

Hostelworld valued at €245m in IPO in Dublin and London

Hostelworld, the online site for tourist accommodation founded by Ray Nolan in 1999, has been valued at €245m after announcing the pricing of its IPO on the London and Irish Stock Exchanges.

The shares were listed on both exchanges with a price set at 185p per share.

The offer, which will see some 71.4m shares listed, is set to raise £125.4m (€173.7m) for the company.

Young man reading news on his smartphone image via Shutterstock

Brigid O Gorman is a former sub-editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com