AllThingsD » Ireland

Ireland Gives Facebook's International Privacy and Data Protection a Passing Grade

Liz Gannes — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:36:36 +0000

The Irish Data Protection Commission today concluded that Facebook has “a positive approach and commitment” to protecting the privacy of its international users, though it did get Facebook to agree to provide further notifications and improve its policies in a few areas.

You might be surprised that what Ireland has to say about regulating Facebook privacy is terribly important — but it actually is. Because Facebook’s international headquarters are in Dublin, this local commission oversees Facebook’s compliance in all regions other than the U.S. and Canada.

Facebook agreed to make changes in time for a follow-up Irish Data Protection Commission audit in July 2012. As presented in a Facebook Europe blog post, they include:

Creating additional notifications explaining photo tagging using facial recognition (which has been a particularly contentious feature in Europe)
Reducing data retention and logging for people who are not logged into Facebook (so-called “logged-out cookies” and alleged “shadow profiles” of non-members have been another reason for recent outcry)
Telling users more about how to control when their information is given to Facebook platform applications

As compared to Facebook’s recent settlement with the American Federal Trade Commission, the Irish audit seems to be about more up-to-date privacy issues (much of the FTC stuff dated back to 2009). The FTC settlement is also a longer-term arrangement, with Facebook agreeing to 20 years of privacy audits. And Mark Zuckerberg didn’t give Ireland a formal apology, admitting to making “a bunch of mistakes.”

(Image copyright Peter Gerken and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons license)

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

From U.S. to Germany to China–BoomTown Goes Around the (Digital) World in a Week

Kara Swisher — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 01:22:34 +0000

It’s a big, wide and very digital world out there and that’s why I’m headed around the globe–quite literally–for the next week.

First stop, due east of San Francisco, where I arrived today in Munich, Germany, to moderate several sessions for Hubert Burda Media’s annual DLD conference.

That includes interviewing a whole lot of players I see all the time in Silicon Valley, including investor Reid Hoffman, Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer and Google sales majordomo Nikesh Arora, as well as the two hottest start-up leaders on the Web, Groupon’s Andrew Mason and Dennis Crowley of Foursquare.

And while there are even more U.S. techies here–many on their way to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland–I like DLD because it gives me a chance to meet a lot of European entrepreneurs and also grok a different and global perspective on tech, media and more.

It starts Sunday.

Then, from here, even farther east. I head for Hong Kong, where I’ll be meeting my All Things Digital other half, Walt Mossberg and ATD’s secret brain Lia Lorenzano to meet with our Dow Jones partners and scope out a possible AsiaD conference in China in the fall.

We’ve had our international aspirations before that did not pan out–see one of the many videos I did for a possible EuroD in 2007, while we visited Dublin, Ireland–so nothing’s certain.

But we’re hoping we can pull off some kind of international conference in 2011, one of the many parts of the expansion of our D offerings, including more events and many additions to our reporting staff on the ATD Web site this fall.

I will be posting videos from both places, including another episode of “Where in the World Are Walt & Kara?”

Until then, enjoy this one from Dublin Castle in 2007:

[ See post to watch video ]

Don't Like to Listen to Music on the Go? Sony Has a Music Subscription Service for You

Peter Kafka — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:21:46 +0000

Hey! What if there were a subscription service that let you listen to any music you wanted, whenever you wanted?

Oh. That’s right. There are plenty of those already (Rhapsody, Napster, MOG, Rdio, Thumbplay, Spotify, etc.), though none of them have ever really broken through in a mainstream way.

Still, here’s one more: “Music Unlimited” from Sony, which launches in the U.K. and Ireland today, and is supposed to go worldwide next year.

In short, it appears to be like every other subscription service on the market, only much more limited.

That’s because while Sony gives customers access to some six million songs, via cloud-based streaming, it doesn’t allow them to take their music with them, on their phones.

That’s supposed to change eventually, but even when it does, Sony isn’t promising you’ll be able to listen to your tunes on an iPhone. A press release simply says the service “will also become available on a wide range of Sony’s portable devices, as well as on [Google's] Android-based mobile devices.”

And to be clear, it’s not as if Sony is giving this stuff away: It wants the same 10 pounds a month for its ”Premium” plan that Spotify charges its U.K. customers. And again, to beat this into the ground: Spotify lets you listen to whatever you want on your phone–that’s pretty much the whole point of these things.

If you’re still reading, you may want to click through to this AP story, in which Sony tries to argue that this is the kind of thing that will help it compete with Apple again. Personally, I think you’re better off looking at pictures of vintage Walkmans.

LivingSocial CEO Has Big Plans Now that Amazon Is in His Back Pocket

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:07:27 +0000

Groupon’s co-founder and CEO Andrew Mason has stolen the spotlight recently, by appearing on the “Today Show” and being interviewed on “Charlie Rose.”

But it’s hard not to make news when you turn down a $6 billion buyout offer from Google.

Meanwhile, Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial.com, has remained relatively quiet. As the head of the second-largest company in the local, group-buying space, it wasn’t because he didn’t have anything to talk about.

Just about 24 hours before Groupon’s rejection leaked out, LivingSocial announced it had secured $175 million from Amazon, and $183 million in total new investments. In that same release, the Washington, D.C.-based company confirmed that it was booking revenues of more than $1 million a day on average and is projected to book well over $500 million in revenue in 2011.

To be sure, Groupon and LivingSocial are pulling away from the pack when it comes to defining the nascent daily-deals market. O’Shaughnessy, who claims that the two have 90 percent market share combined, said: “I think the idea conceptually that you can buy things online and go interact with merchants in offline is starting to take hold and be widespread. But it’s really been less than two years…It’s definitely the first couple of innings right now.”

Here’s our interview with O’Shaughnessy:

eMoney: Give me an update on where your business is today.

O’Shaughnessy: As of yesterday [Dec. 16], we were in 136 markets. We launched five new markets yesterday. We tend to do them in batches, and five or eight will go out at once. Overall, we’ve been averaging a market a day.

What about up-to-date figures on uniques?

We are at more than 10 million, or I think the last number we said publicly was 12 million. That’s primarily Canada and the U.S. that are signed up for the daily deal. We are in five countries today. [LivingSocial is in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia.]

What’s the competition like internationally?

Groupon has been acquisitive, and they’ve become established in lots of places. The U.S. is the most mature by a large margin, and there’s some countries with a few players that have established themselves, and finally, there’s some countries out there that’s a fairly green-field environment.

It’s fairly established that Groupon is No. 1, and LivingSocial is No. 2. But there’s a huge debate about who is No. 3?

There’s a pretty big gap. One of the things I’ve said is that it’s a pretty easy business to get into. All you have to do is know how to process a payment, and have a brother-in-law that has a restaurant that is willing to participate. But it’s a hard business to scale.

We have a competitive spreadsheet with 200 names on it, and if you do a couple of filters on how many deals someone has run, starting with 100, the vast majority drop off. And then if you up it to 500, you are up to the top two. It’s a pretty big drop-off.

Six months ago, we [Groupon and LivingSocial] collectively had 90 percent market share, and last month that was still true.

In that time, the market got bigger, and some others have grown for sure, but our market share has grown quite a bit. The signal-to-noise ratio is off, relative to who is doing what.

Is that what gives you confidence?

That’s one data point to look at, but what gives me confidence is what I see and I know we do every day. The degree of effort that goes into it and how many things can go wrong when you are managing merchant relationships, that’s what gives me the confidence.

What about the critics who say there’s no loyalty in this business–a consumer will always go with the provider who has the best deal for the business they want to visit.

There’s some loyalty that’s there, and I think people buy through us pretty regularly. They know that it’s going to be a merchant that’s vetted, and we work really hard at that. We are a good solid legit company that’s able to deliver. People place value on that. The brand matters, and enhancing user trust is an important thing.

What about the critics who say the margin will erode over time?

I think that the erosion of margins is just like any single other business if you stop innovating and do the same thing over and over. If we continue to innovate and provide additional value to merchants, the value per dollar increases. I don’t tend to be hugely concerned about the margin front.

The conduit has been 50 percent off a service, but there’s additional value we can provide to merchant communities and consumer communities. Overall, we aren’t not going to do the same thing over and over.

Can you give me an example?

We’ve started working with merchants in completely different ways, and sometimes we are going and operating events. We just did something called “tubbing and tasting,” where we worked with three merchants.

You could pick 10 to 12 Saturdays, and you’d meet in Midtown Manhattan, where a coach bus would take you to a snow hill, where you’d go snow tubbing. At the lodge, there was a bonfire and s’mores, and a beer tasting with a bunch of microbrews.

In that circumstance, we worked with three merchants–a coach company, a ski mountain and a brewery–in an entirely different way than how they associate with folks. I think it cost $60 and it sold out virtually every Saturday in January and February. I don’t see anyone else doing that, by finding unique hand-picked, curated ways to work with local businesses.

So, how will you be working with Amazon?

Right now, our first step is focusing on getting the relationship from a financial perspective locked down, and we’ll figure it out at a later point.

I assume the funding will go toward expansion?

We will be very aggressive on additional market launches as we build up our brand and user base. It’s very much a global game, and this is a global opportunity. We’ve gone from one country to five, and we’ll likely continue to expand globally.

A lot of this year was laying a foundation and the building blocks, and adding more value for the merchants, like LivingSocial Escapes. It’s on fire right now. It’s a weekend getaway, or a “staycation.” They are curated packages that are within a short driving distance from where you live. We also have LivingSocial Family Edition, which has things parents can do with their kids.

Your plans include tripling your employee count next year to 1,800 and more than doubling the number of cities you are in to 300?

We will continue to be pretty aggressive. Earlier this year, we were in six markets and we added 130 markets this year. We are a little more mature and one would hope that means we could move faster next year. We were around 30 employees, and over 600 now. It’s been a pretty crazy ramp-up.

The timing of your investment was so closely timed to Groupon-Google’s negotiations.

I’m a firm believer that we can’t control what other people do. Obviously, the deal we did with Amazon takes time to put together. We had decided awhile ago, if we want to become the biggest player in local commerce, we should be aligned with the biggest e-commerce company. That’s a lot of [what was] driving it. The timing was very coincidental.

So, no regrets?

No, not at all. We are thrilled and excited and expect to gain more market share over the coming year.

LivingSocial Gets $175 Million Amazon Investment (Like BoomTown Said)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:59:09 +0000

Amazon will invest $175 million in LivingSocial, the No. 2 player in the fast-growing social buying space.

(The press release is below.)

BoomTown reported yesterday that the massive investment was in the works.

The online retail giant’s big bet on the Washington, D.C.-based start-up comes in the wake of ongoing acquisition talks between Google and Groupon, the category leader in the local deals business.

While it appears to be a reaction to those discussions, sources said Amazon and LivingSocial have been talking for some time about a variety of deals between them.

Sources said the Amazon investment put a very hefty valuation of over one billion dollars on LivingSocial.

Interest in LivingSocial has heightened of late, given the $6 billion in cash, stock and earnouts that BoomTown has reported Google is considering ponying up to purchase Chicago-based Groupon, and grab ahold of its 12 million users across the globe and $500 million in annual revenue.

But LivingSocial–which has been thriving even in Groupon’s flashier shadow–has 10 million subscribers worldwide in more than 120 markets and five countries, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia.

And, as LivingSocial noted when it announced its acquisition of Australia’s Jump On It recently, it is currently booking an average of more than $1 million a day and is projected to book well more than $500 million in revenue in 2011.

And that is what has attracted Amazon, which has almost no profile in this lucrative local space, despite some attempts at its own solution. It bought a small and quirky daily deals site, Woot, for $110 million in June.

But sources said that, rather than sell, LivingSocial management wanted to keep the company independent, and thinks a sale of Groupon will give it a huge opportunity for growth.

Why? Well, even though Groupoogle or Goopon are fun to say, the inevitable regulatory review could drag on, resulting in a slowing down of innovation in the bigger Google culture and the distinct possibility of newly rich Groupon execs flying the coop (in private planes).

More investment money should help LivingSocial move ahead faster. Sources also said there is likely to be deep integration between its and Amazon’s services.

LivingSocial announced in April that it had raised $14 million in a Series C round, after grabbing $25 million in a Series B venture funding only a month before. And it has raised $10 million on top of that since 2008.

Sources estimated at the time that the valuation for LivingSocial was several hundred million dollars.

The newest round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners; earlier investors include U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and former AOL head Steve Case.

Lightspeed also invested $8 million more on top of Amazon’s funding.

Here is the official press release:

LivingSocial Announces $175 Million Investment by Amazon.com

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/–LivingSocial (www.livingsocial.com) has secured a $175 million investment from Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN). LivingSocial has also secured an additional $8 million investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners. LivingSocial will use this investment to maintain a steady drumbeat of worldwide launches and overall business growth while continuing to serve more than 10 million subscribers across the U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia in more than 120 locations. Because of LivingSocial’s rapid expansion, the company is currently booking revenues of more than $1 million a day on average and is projected to book well over $500 million in revenue in 2011.

“To be the biggest player in the local commerce space there is no one better to work with than Amazon,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial. “As the social shopping space continues to heat up, LivingSocial is committed to staying focused on providing the high level of quality that consumers and merchants have come to expect when working with us.”

As the online source to find amazing experiences at an unbeatable value, LivingSocial lets anyone experience the hottest restaurants, shops, activities and services in their area. The company has dedicated area experts on the ground in every location working directly with business owners, and constantly researching the best in local adventures to bring a savings of 50% to 70% for consumers.

Recently, LivingSocial expanded its business by acquiring adventure company Urban Escapes, and launching three new verticals including LivingSocial Family Edition, Campus Deals and LivingSocial Escapes, a travel site that offers unbeatable savings on curated adventures. In addition, the company continues a regular flow of launches–on average one per day–and has expanded its reach in Australia with a controlling stake in Jump On It, making it live in five countries.

Amazon Poised to Make a Major Strategic Investment in LivingSocial to Counter Groupoogle (or Goopon?) Threat

Kara Swisher — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:15:57 +0000

With the red-hot acquisition dance between Google and Groupon sucking up all the attention, it’s easy once again to ignore the No. 2 player in the fast-growing social buying space–LivingSocial.

But not everyone is–according to sources close to the situation, the Washington, D.C.-based company that also focuses on local deals is in advanced talks for a major strategic investment–as high as $150 million–by online retail giant Amazon, at a very hefty valuation of over one billion dollars.

Sources said there will also be a deep operating partnership between the pair, as part of the deal.

Sources said the investment negotiations with Amazon is not complete yet, of course, and could fall apart.

But interest in LivingSocial has heightened of late, given the $6 billion in cash, stock and earnouts that BoomTown has reported that Google is considering ponying up to purchase the category leader, Chicago-based Groupon, and grab ahold of its 12 million users across the globe and $500 million in annual revenue.

And, as the start-up noted when LivingSocial announced its acquisition of Jump On It recently, it is currently booking an average of more than $1 million a day and is projected to book well more than $500 million in revenue in 2011.

That is what is apparently attracting Amazon, which has almost no profile in this lucrative local space, despite some attempts at its own solution. It bought a small and quirky daily deals site Woot, for $110 million in June.

But, rather than sell, sources said LivingSocial management wants to keep the company independent, and thinks a sale of Groupon will give it a huge opportunity for growth.

More investment money should help.

LivingSocial announced in April that it had raised $14 million in a Series C round, after grabbing $25 million in a Series B venture financing only a month before. And it raised $10 million on top of that since 2008.

Sources estimated at the time that the valuation for LivingSocial was several hundred million dollars.

The newest round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners; Earlier investors U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and former AOL head Steve Case.

A report of the Amazon interest in LivingSocial was first posted several weeks ago in a in VentureBeat, a day before BoomTown first broke the news of the Groupon and Google discussions.

Both Amazon and LivingSocial declined to comment.

But here is an October video interview I did with LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy on a recent visit to Silicon Valley.

The entrepreneur has worked at AOL, as well as at Case’s Revolution Health in Washington, before moving on to the local deals start-up.

Enjoy:

[ See post to watch video ]

Okay, It's Not Just Buh-Bye at Yahoo–Here Are Two Hires!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 10:00:10 +0000

While it seems BoomTown is all about the who’s-leaving-Yahoo-now posts, it’s not so!

Case in point: Here are two folks the Silicon Valley Internet giant has just hired.

First, as announced in its Yodel Anecdotal blog yesterday, David Rice will join Yahoo (YHOO) as VP of Product for Media.

That means he will be managing the “strategy and execution for our News, Sports, Finance, Entertainment, Lifestyles, and Games product teams.”

Rice is from online video company Metacafe, where he was COO. He is also an ex-Yahoo, who worked as part of its international product team from 2005 to 2007.

Next is James Wildman, who will become managing director and VP of sales for Yahoo’s U.K. and Ireland unit.

He’ll start in January, after departing his job as managing director of Virgin Media’s ids advertising and media company.

iPhone 4 Hits 17 More Countries Friday

John Paczkowski — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:05:11 +0000

The iPhone 4’s international roll-out begins in earnest this week. Come Friday, July 30, the device will go on sale in 17 more countries–Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Left off the roll-out roll call, much to the dismay of its citizens, is South Korea, where regulatory issues are reportedly slowing things down. By September, the iPhone 4 should be in stores in 87 countries, making its global roll-out Apple’s fastest ever.

Hello World: Apple iPad Goes International on May 28

John Paczkowski — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:08:14 +0000

The international launch of the Apple iPad, which was delayed due to strong demand in the the U.S., will finally begin later this month.

Apple (AAPL) will start accepting pre-orders for both the 3G and Wi-Fi models on Monday, May 10. And on May 28, Apple will begin shipping units in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.

The launch will continue in July when the iPad arrives in nine additional countries: Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore.

Apple has already sold more than one million iPads in the U.S. since the launch of the Wi-Fi-only model on April 3 and the 3G version on April 30. Given these sales figures and Apple’s supply issues to date, it will be interesting to see how the international rollout goes.

Intel Ex-Chief Hoping to Help Ireland Rebound

Don Clark — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:30:39 +0000

After Japanese competitors nearly sunk Intel (INTC) in the 1980s, Craig Barrett helped the chip maker rebuild its manufacturing prowess. Now he’s going to lend Ireland a hand.

The former Intel CEO and chairman, who retired from the company in May, on Tuesday is being named chairman of a non-profit collection of executives called the Irish Technology Leadership Group. In that role, Barrett plans to work with other business and political leaders to restore the country’s competitiveness on the international high-tech scene.

Why Ireland? Barrett has at least three connections with the Emerald Isle.

For one, Barrett’s grandmother hailed from County Tyrone, part of Northern Ireland. As Intel’s former manufacturing honcho, Barrett also was closely involved with Intel’s decision to turn Ireland into one of its major manufacturing centers, after the U.S. and Israel. Intel started with what Barrett calls “a little motherboard place” near Dublin, later adding sophisticated fabs–the massive manufacturing plants that fabricate chips using silicon wafers–at Leixlip.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Dell Polishes Off Polish Ops

John Paczkowski — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:07:34 +0000

Dell is unloading another PC factory. The company is selling off its two-year-old computer manufacturing plant in Lodz, Poland, to Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, for an undisclosed sum. The facility’s 1,600 employees will keep their jobs and continue to crank out Dell boxes under an outsourcing agreement written into the deal.

For Dell (DELL), which has closed its factories in Ireland and North Carolina this year, this move is one more step toward its goal of slashing $4 billion from its annual operating costs by early 2011. Said company spokesman David Frink: “[This] is part of our ongoing effort to become more efficient. The intent is to leverage the capabilities of (third-party manufacturers) so we can direct our resources to other areas of our supply chain so we can innovate and add value.”

PREVIOUSLY:

How to See a Handball: Watch France Cheat Its Way Into the World Cup

Peter Kafka — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:51:43 +0000

In the U.S., this is no big deal, but in much of the world this is now the sports equivalent of the Zapruder film: French soccer star Thierry Henry cheating, via a handball, and propelling his team past Ireland and into next year’s World Cup.

The Web is full of chatter about yesterday’s game, but video is hard to come by. Again, this appears to be a case of Google’s (GOOG) YouTube flexing its ContentID system on behalf of copyright owners, in this case the European sports marketing company Sportfive.

This is a theoretical victory for content creators, who want to be able to control how and where their stuff appears on the Web. But since there doesn’t seem to be an approved video, it’s not really a solution. If it’s a story that’s attracting most of the world’s attention, someone’s going to find it, somewhere.

For instance, a bit of searching did yield these two, at least for now: A high-quality YouTube version of what appears to be a French broadcast, via the Los Angeles Times, and what appears to be a German highlight reel, via DailyMotion and FootyTube, which consistently has great soccer highlights, legal or not (thanks to Zen Web Solutions for the reminder).

France v Ireland Republic
by histormac

A Tour of Facebook's London Office (Plus Another "No Comment," but in a Charming Accent)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:01:58 +0000

On BoomTown’s trip to London earlier this week, along with a visit to Spotify, I stopped by the U.K. and Ireland offices of Facebook for a look-see.

Located just off once-swinging Carnaby Street–which is now essentially a place to shop for hip stuff–it’s a very small operation, mostly dedicated to advertising sales.

But I did run into some engineers too, at what is Facebook’s most important international outpost.

Still, while recently surpassing 300 million members worldwide, the Silicon Valley-based social networking site has been careful not to open offices all over the globe, a misstep that too many other U.S. Internet companies have made time and again.

Plus, I got a very fine stiff-upper-lip British version of “no comment” that I do love to hear from Facebook PR–this time from Sophy Silver, who did an excellent job of showing me around.

Here’s the video, as well as my tour in June of Facebook’s new HQ in Palo Alto, Calif., below that:

[ See post to watch video ]

Gmail Exits Beta

John Paczkowski — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:00:54 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Palm Pre in Europe by Christmas

John Paczkowski — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:00:08 +0000

Now that sales of the Pre in the states have tapered off to a point where supply and demand are roughly in parity, Palm is gearing up to bring the handset to Europe. In a statement issued this morning, the company said Telefónica’s O2 subsidiary will carry the Pre in the U.K., Germany and Ireland, while its Movistar brand will offer it in Spain. The Pre will arrive at market in those countries in time for the winter holidays. That likely means October, which will give Telefonica enough time to maximize orders in the run-up to Christmas. Telefónica declined to give a price or to say how long its exclusive deal with Palm will last.

For Telefonica, which, through O2 and Movistar, is already the exclusive carrier of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone in the U.K. and Spain, the deal is another coup. As Mathew Key, chairman of Telefónica Europe, noted in a gloating press release, “Telefónica is fast becoming the home of the smartphone.”

And for Palm (PALM), well, it’s another big step on the road to recovery. As CEO Jon Rubinstein said earlier this year, “We’ve been fighting the battle with basically both hands tied behind our back for the past year and half. Now we’re getting on the playing field, and we’re going to be extremely competitive. But it’s the beginning.”

Pink Slips at Big Blue?

John Paczkowski — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:45:25 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

There Once Was a Man Named Dell, Who Told 1,900 Workers “Go to Hell," Redux

John Paczkowski — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:45:49 +0000

Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” is looking more and more like Bloom County’s Bill the Cat these days and Dell’s decision to shutter its plant in the Irish city of Limerick certainly won’t improve matters. According to report by Forfas, the country’s policy advisory body for enterprise and science, the closure will cost the region almost 9,500 jobs–nearly four times the 2,510 that will be lost by the closure itself. Some 6,600 positions are likely to be lost at companies supplying goods and services to Dell (DELL), the report said. “[It] is a realistic figure, unfortunately,” said Labour Deputy Jan O’Sullivan. “That has been the ball-park figure that has been predicted for some time. We are all aware that two to three companies are directly dependent on Dell.”

A devastating blow to Ireland and one that’s expected to take as much as $158 million out of the local economy.

There Once Was a Man Named Dell, Who Told 1,900 Workers “Go to Hell," Redux

John Paczkowski — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:45:49 +0000

A devastating blow to Ireland and one that’s expected to take as much as $158 million out of the local economy.

Walt and Katie Report From The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

Walt Mossberg — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:00:56 +0000

Walt Mossberg and Katie Boehret were at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, and sent back this report on some of the highlights of the show.

[ See post to watch video ]

Palm–Without Me

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:32:02 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

There Once Was a Man Named Dell, Who Told 1,900 Workers "Go To Hell"…

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:37:16 +0000

Dell is Ireland’s biggest exporter and its second largest corporate employer.

But perhaps not for much longer. This morning, the company said it plans to sack 1,900 workers at its flagship manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland, and transfer production to an existing facility in Lodz, Poland. “We are proud of our 18-year tenure as a major manufacturer in Ireland,” said Sean Corkery, Dell vice-president of operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa. “This is a difficult decision, but the right one for Dell to become even more competitive, and deliver greater value to customers in the region.”

The right decision for Dell (DELL), perhaps, but the wrong one for Ireland. In recent years, Dell has accounted for approximately five percent of the country’s GDP. And according to economists, each Dell job underpins another four to five jobs in Ireland. A devastating blow for a country that’s seen its economic fortunes transformed by the IT industry over the last decade.

As one worker at Dell’s Limerick plant said, “Lads, it’s a jobs massacre.”

There Once Was a Man Named Dell, Who Told 1,900 Workers "Go To Hell"…

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:37:16 +0000

Dell is Ireland’s biggest exporter and its second largest corporate employer.

As one worker at Dell’s Limerick plant said, “Lads, it’s a jobs massacre.”

Amazon to Investors: We Wish You a Lousy Xmas

John Paczkowski — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:00:21 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Yahoo and Bebo Get Cozy–But Just in the U.K. and Ireland (for Now)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:02:05 +0000

I know new Yahoo Eurohead Toby Coppel thinks I am too mean to his overlords in Sunnyvale and even emails me about it (I can take it!).

But I am going to surprise him by telling him that I think he is so very clever today.

Why? He signed the obvious deal with social network Bebo to sell its display ads in the United Kingdom and Ireland, renew its search deal and add its excellent Answers product and market a branded toolbar.

Could this be a first kiss in a possible bigger deal, such as a Yahoo acquisition of Bebo, which has been rumored? The fact of the matter is that this pair, despite reports, have never held such talks.

That said, such a purchase would be a good one for Yahoo. Provided, of course, that its CEO Jerry Yang got it into his mind to do something bold and initiate a possible game-changer. (Sorry, Toby, I know you think I am being mean again, but the truth hurts!)

While Yahoo cannot hope to buy either MySpace or Facebook (too pricey), what it could do with a smaller, less expensive and internationally oriented site like Bebo, especially when integrated with some of Yahoo’s better properties, could be interesting and even invigorating for the company.

Bebo, which runs behind powerhouses MySpace and Facebook in the U.S., is a little engine that could in Britain and Ireland, where it dominates the market with 11.6 million members.

The ad deal is exclusive and, while the parties did not say so in their joint statement, is likely to be along the lines of those handing-out-the-candy-to-social-networks guaranteed ad arrangements both Facebook and MySpace have signed (with Microsoft and Google, respectively). This is Yahoo’s first plunge into this game.

Under terms of the deal, Yahoo will sell Bebo’s display ads in the U.K. and Ireland, leaving Bebo to concentrate more on ad sales for its innovative original entertainment offerings, like its “KateModern” and the more recently announced “Sofia’s Diary.”

Yahoo’s own most innovative property, Answers, a community-based knowledge service, will be integrated into Bebo. And the pair will develop and distribute the Bebo toolbar, which will let its users get info about their Bebo accounts when not on the site. Yahoo also renewed its deal to provide search on Bebo.

Neither Coppel, who is managing director of Yahoo Europe, nor Joanna Shield, Bebo’s president of international, were available for an interview, so I politely refuse to quote from their meaningless press release statements.

Still, here’s a post I did about Coppel (pictured here, as he refused to be the subject of my withering video camera lens) after a visit on a recent trip to London, as well as a post I did of Shields and her sharp team at Bebo there too (as well as a video posted below).

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Monday Morning Quarterback: The AOL Ad Black Hole Edition

Kara Swisher — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:10:28 +0000

AOL=Ads Online Loser?

What can we say about AOL’s ad miss, reported in the New York Times today by Miguel Helft, except to quote an email I got from a former AOL executive today: “Ad sales and no surprises were the reason these guys were supposedly brought in.”

Oops. Indeed, more analysis of this issue tomorrow, but it’s not a very good sign for AOL head Randy Falco, the television guy brought in to inject a dose of ad savvy to the service.

AOL has had by necessity to move its business from a subscription model to one supported by ad sales, hoping to take advantage of the 90 million visitors to its sites every month.

Not quite yet, it seems. AOL execs are calling a recent decline in growth of its ad revenue, which was 40% in the previous quarter and is 16% in the most recent (compared to overall online ads in the U.S. that are expected to increase close to 29% this year), temporary and due to vast changes being made in its offerings.

Well, renovation must hurt, because AOL also lost ad market share year over year.

Another big destination, Yahoo, is suffering from the same problem, with a falloff in ad growth and also market share (only Google, which is a horse of a different color from a portal perspective, is gaining). The culprits are small sites gaining ads, as well as savvier marketers looking for better results.

Top O’ the Blogging to You!

Walt and I are considering a European edition of our D: All Things Digital conference, which we are calling EuroD, as you might know from my various posts from our trip to the Emerald Isle recently to scope out sites.

While there, we met the Irish Times’ very sharp tech reporter, John Collins, to talk about the project. He did a nice story then and last week did a very nice post about BoomTown, too.

Here is one of the many videos I did from there with Walt, where we visit Dublin Castle and Walt turns into a tour guide:

MIT Geeks Continue to Invent Scary Geeky Stuff

And here is a great video by The Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Saranow about some new stuff being created at MIT’s Media Lab’s Computing Culture Group.

Projects include an energy-consuming meter worn on the thigh that shocks you when you use too much (for those, its inventor notes, “with global-warming guilt”) and a jacket that also delivers a jolt to those who seek to mug its wearer. Ouch all around!