Thames Tech Wire - May 4, 2005

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THAMES TECH WIRE - May 4, 2005
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o Survey: HDTV Will Drive Europe's Switch to Digital TV
o EU Backs Plan to Counter Google Online-Library Project
o Report: Number of European 1st-Qtr Buy-Outs Falls 32%
o U.K. Leads Europe in Radio Frequency Identity Trials
o CheckFree Acquires Accurate Software for £29.2 Million
o Briefly Noted: Rabobank-RaboDirect.ie, "Mobile Only"
Households in Ireland
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o Survey: HDTV Will Drive Europe's Switch to Digital TV

London -- According to a new survey by market analysis firm Jupiter
Research, the move to digital TV in Europe will be driven by high-
definition TV (HDTV) -- as opposed to services such as video-on-
demand and digital video recorders. About 24% of the survey's
respondents ranked HDTV's picture quality as the most important
factor in their decision to switch from analogue to digital. To many
analysts' surprise, only 10% of the respondents cited services like
video-on-demand as the chief reason behind their decision. "The
flexible viewing options enabled by DVR and video-on-demand are
less exciting for consumers than many in the industry believe," said
Jupiter analyst Ian Fogg. "Quality television is critical to drive digital
TV growth, but today European digital television delivers just a
standard definition picture, and is the poor sibling of world television."
http://www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/home
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o EU Backs Plan to Counter Google Online-Library Project

Brussels -- After receiving a motion signed by 19 national libraries, the
EU announced that it would support the launch of a European digital
library to rival a similar project run by U.S.-based Internet giant
Google. Last December, Google agreed to work with the University of
Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, the New York Public Library and the
University of Oxford to digitise millions of books and documents,
making them available free of charge online. A number of European
lawmakers and academics, however, criticised the project, claiming it
would apt to ignore works not written in English. France, Germany,
Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain all signed the motion to create a
European library to meet the threat of what French National Library
President Jean-Noel Jeanneney recently described as "the risk of a
crushing American domination in the definition of how future
generations conceive the world".
http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/050503101705.s4kimgal
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o Report: Number of European 1st-Qtr Buy-Outs Falls 32%

London -- The latest report by Incisive Media Plc shows that buy-out
activity in Europe slowed in the first quarter of 2005, with the number
of deals dropping by 32% to 98, and their overall value falling by 14%
to approximately 19.3 billion (£13.2 billion). Year on year, the number
of deals fell by just 3%, while overall deal value in the first quarter
increased by 40% compared to the same quarter last year. "It is not
uncommon for the first quarter of the year to see a drop in deal
volumes, following the race for many investors to complete
transactions before the preceding year end," the company said. The
report predicted that the market would begin to recover over the
coming quarters on the basis of the size of some of the buy-outs in the
offing.
http://www.incisivemedia.com/
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o U.K. Leads Europe in Radio Frequency Identity Trials

London -- A new study by market analysis firm IDTechEX shows that
the U.K. is conducting more trials for radio frequency identity (RFID)
tags than any other country in Europe. In fact, the U.K., which accounts
for more than 10% of the overall European RFID market, is second
only to the U.S. when it comes to total number of trials. IDTechEX said
RFID had made particular inroads in the U.K. retail sector. "There is a
very competitive retail environment in the U.K.," said IDTechEX RFID
Specialist Peter Harrop. "Retailers are keen to use RFID for
competitive advantage because they have few own-branded products
compared with their counterparts in Europe, where managing the
supply chain is easier."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P4A82340B
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o CheckFree Acquires Accurate Software for £29.2 Million

Atlanta -- CheckFree, a U.S.-based provider of financial electronic
commerce services and products, announced that it has paid £29.2
million in cash to acquire Accurate Software, a U.K.-based provider of
reconciliation, exception management, workflow and business
intelligence technology. Accurate will become part of CheckFree's
software division to expand the company's global presence and client
base, and drive product innovation in operational risk management
software products for banks, securities firms and corporations. The
acquisition of Accurate will boost CheckFree's revenue by £1.6 million
during the fourth quarter, the company said.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050503/cltu018.html?.v=8
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o Briefly Noted:

(Dublin) RaboDirect, a subsidiary of the Dutch online bank Rabobank,
announced that it has launched Ireland's first completely online bank.
Rabobank, which entered the Irish market in 1994 and acquired ACC
Bank in 2002, said it would target Irish consumers with a purely
Internet bank called RaboDirect.ie. Initially, the site will offer a no-fee,
no-charge deposit account with interest rates of 3%, nearly 10 times the
standard rate. The bank said it would also offer investments in the
managed funds market with accounts with Robeco and Merrill Lynch
that can be opened with around 100 euro.
http://www.rabobank.nl/info/execute/node?node_id=263624

(Dublin) According to a new study commissioned by Irish watchdog
ComReg, approximately 24% of Irish homes are now "mobile only".
The report, conducted by Amarach Consulting, showed that mobile
subscription levels continue to exceed household fixed-line penetration
in the residential market. The report also found that younger
demographic age groups, lower income groups and singles were most
likely to live in "mobile only" households, or those without fixed-line
subscriptions.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G1976540B

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