RIM BUYS NEWBAY IN $100m DEAL - Irish software firm NewBay has been acquired by Canadian smartphone maker Research in Motion in a $100 million deal, writes the Irish Times. NewBay staff were informed of the company’s purchase by the Blackberry maker yesterday. It is understood that RIM intends to keep NewBay’s software development centre in Dublin, which employs about 200 staff. It will be the first facility for the Canadian firm in Ireland. NewBay develops software for use on mobile phones which enables users to create and share digital content such as pictures and videos, as well as updating social networks. It signed deals for its software with a number of major networks including T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica O2, France Telecom Orange, US Cellular, ATT, Telstra and Verizon. At the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona earlier this year, it announced a deal with electronics maker LG to have its software pre-installed on certain devices. The company says its flagship LifeCache software is used by 80 million subscribers worldwide.
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19 ANGLO STAFF ON OVER €175,000 - Anglo Irish Bank is keeping some of the senior executives who engaged in boom-time lending on salaries of €175,000 each because they have insider knowledge of the 'old' Anglo. It emerged yesterday that 22 of the 50 most senior staff who were in charge when Anglo made disastrous lending decisions are still at the bank, says the Irish Independent. Nineteen of them are receiving salaries of more than €175,000 each. Sources stressed, however, that there were arguments for keeping the executives on board. The long-serving managers have intimate knowledge of 'old' Anglo that can be helpful to the new management as it tries to work out 'legacy' issues and deal with difficult accounts. Sources also pointed out that while some of the 22 held important titles in 'old' Anglo, they did not have significant control or autonomy in a bank that was dominated by a very small number of individuals. Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore told the Dail yesterday that the Government would not stand over the "feather-bedding" of staff in any bank.
Referring to Anglo, he said: "There were 50 people at senior level -- 28 of them are gone. The Government is continuing with the programme to wind down that bank." But the winding down could take up to 10 years - although Anglo chairman Alan Dukes has said recently that he hopes to do this in three to four years.
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MUSGRAVE WAS TRYING TO GET HOLD OF SUPERQUINN FOR YEARS, SAYS MARTIN - Musgrave chief executive Chris Martin said the company has been trying to get its hands on Superquinn for "many years". The group said that now it has received Competition Authority approval for the takeover of Superquinn, the challenge is to determine where the brand is going to go. "It gives significant presence to Musgrave in Dublin," he said. The company has no plans, however, to expand Superquinn in the Cork region, writes the Irish Examiner. Mr Martin said that Superquinn was a business that was "significantly challenged", adding that for "every euro of turnover, there was a euro of debt." He said that Superquinn is just 12% of Musgrave’s retail sales in Ireland. He also highlighted how the Musgrave brand, Daybreak, is now half the size of Superquinn. Musgrave is expected to announce its plans for Superquinn on Tuesday. Speaking at the Irish Examiner-sponsored Cork Chamber business breakfast yesterday, Mr Martin said he will now attempt to stabilise the business.
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NEWS CORP INVESTORS CALL FOR JAMES MURDOCH'S HEAD - James Murdoch faced further calls to quit News Corporation's board yesterday after a shareholder activist group representing £100 billion in assets said he was causing the company "significant reputational damage". The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF), the majority of whose 54 members own shares in the US-based News Corp, called for an overhaul of the board, and added that Mr Murdoch's continued presence on the board was "no longer in shareholders' interest". News Corp declined to comment yesterday. Mr Murdoch runs News Corp's operations in Europe. In the wake of the phone hacking scandal, the LAPFF circulated a briefing paper to its members advising they oppose his re-election to the board. It also demanded a "genuinely independent chair" criticising Rupert Murdoch holding both that and the chief executive role. News Corp investors will vote on whether to re-elect the Murdochs at the company's annual general meeting in California later this month. The LAPFF said its members "want a line drawn under the hacking". Yet the forum's chairman, Ian Greenwood, said it would only be possible to move on "if the board accepts the need to demonstrate real accountability. That requires a change in the structure and make-up of the board".
