European Tech Wire

Dolby Installs Digital Systems in Italian Multiplex

Wootton Bassett, England -- Dolby Laboratories announced that an
Italian multiplex has installed five of its Dolby Digital Cinema
projection systems in the largest European installation of digital-cinema
systems in a single theatre. The systems were installed at the Furlan
Group's new CineCity multiplex in Padova. Dolby said it has now
installed more than 100 of its digital-cinema systems worldwide.
http://shorterlink.com/?KDIOSJ

U.K. Mobile Operator O2 Teams Up with Buongiorno

London -- U.K.-based wireless network operator O2 announced that it
has partnered with Buongiorno, an Italy-based provider of multimedia
mobile content, to launch a mobile TV sports talk show for O2's U.K.
subscribers. "Soccer Addicts" will be a weekly four-minute-long show
that incorporates both in-studio hosts and guests and video, picture and
text contributions from viewers. The first episode is set for wireless
broadcast on Dec. 19.
http://shorterlink.com/?D9L23P

European Parliament Approves New Data-Retention Law

Brussels -- The European Parliament announced that it has approved a
new data-retention law that will require telecommunications companies
to keep phone data and Internet logs for at least six months.
Specifically, the law will allow each EU member state to decide how
long data should be retained, so long as it is between six and 24
months. Parliament voted 387-204, with 29 abstentions, in favour of
the bill, which is likely to go into effect sometime next year. The
controversial legislation, part of the EU's new anti-terrorism
programme, has drawn fire from both the telecommunications industry
and civil-liberty advocates. The former has questioned the feasibility
and cost of the law, while the latter has questioned the impact it will
have on personal privacy.
http://shorterlink.com/?G4KUFP

U.K.-Based GUS Acquires U.S.-Based PriceGrabber.com

London -- Aiming to expand its Internet capabilities, GUS Plc, a U.K.-
based retail and business-services group and owner of Argos and
Experian, announced that it has acquired PriceGrabber.com, a U.S.-
based online price-comparison service, for approximately £273 million
($485 million). Based in California, PriceGrabber.com is currently the
third-largest Internet shopping search engine in the U.S., representing
more than 9,000 online retailers. "When combined with the
complementary skills, expertise and scale of Experian, in both
interactive and marketing, we are very excited about the future growth
prospects for PriceGrabber.com," said Experian CEO Don Robert.
GUS said it expected PriceGrabber.com's sales and profits to grow by
about 50% this year.
http://shorterlink.com/?DQ43R3

France Telecom Makes Counterbid for Belgium's Telindus

Paris -- According to Belgian watchdog CBFA, France Telecom has
tabled a 15.80-euro-per-share counterbid for Telindus Group NV, a
Belgium-based telecommunications-services company. Belgacom, the
largest telecommunications company in Belgium, has already made a
hostile, 13.50-euro-per-share offer for Telindus, which has urged
shareholders to reject the bid for being too low. Telindus, which
provides communications networks and Internet telephony services,
said only that it was still "reviewing all its options", while France
Telecom has decline to comment.
http://www.telindus.com/
http://www.cbfa.be/eng/index.asp

Report: Brits Download More Music than Anyone in Europe

London -- According to a new report by Motorola, people in the U.K.
download more music than anyone else in Europe. The report found
that Brits spend, on average, about 75 pence per month on music
downloads, roughly three times the amount spent per capita in
Germany, Italy or France. "There is a strong feeling in Britain that
digital music, mobile phones, digital TV and the Internet should be
with us wherever we go," Motorola said. "Of the 1,000 people
surveyed, almost half (48%) said having their communications and
entertainment services with them all the time would make it easier to
keep in touch with family, while 34% felt it would make life simpler
and 27% said it would make life more fun."
http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/2554/

Seagate Technology to Invest £83 Million in Northern Ireland

Belfast -- Seagate Technology, a California-based maker of hard disc
drives, announced that it is investing £83 million in two factories in
Northern Ireland. Seagate said the investment, which is expected to
create at least 300 new jobs, included more than £24.8 million in
support from Invest Northern Ireland. Seagate has two facilities in
Northern Ireland. At the Springtown wafer fabrication facility, the
company develops and manufactures recording heads, which write
information onto and read information from the recording disc inside a
computer's hard drive. The company's Limavady facility produces
nickel-plated aluminium substrates, the core material on which
computer hard disc drives read, write and store digital information.
http://shorterlink.com/?BWEBAI

HP to Buy Germany-Based Online Photo Service Pixaco

Palo Alto, California -- Looking to extend the reach of its online photo
services throughout Europe, Hewlett-Packard announced that it has
agreed to acquire bilderservice.de, which operates Germany-based
online photo site Pixaco. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The move follows HP's purchase of online photo site Snapfish earlier
this year. The company said it planned to extend many of Snapfish's
capabilities to the Pixaco service, including several printing, sharing
and photo-storage functions. HP also plans to create more partnerships
with European retailers, in much the same way that Snapfish works
with more than two dozen retailers in the U.S. Snapfish currently has
20 million registered users in the U.S. and U.K., while two-year-old
Pixaco has customers in 11 countries.
http://shorterlink.com/?4PWI2J

Worldwide RFID Spending Up 39% in 2005, Report Says

Stamford, Connecticut -- According to a new report from market
research firm Gartner, worldwide spending on radio frequency
identification (RFID) technology used for data collection and asset
tracking is expected to come to more than 419 million euro ($504
million) this year -- a 39% increase compared to last year. Gartner
predicts that, by 2010, worldwide RFID spending to come to nearly 2.5
billion euro ($3 billion). "Businesses are beginning to discover business
value in places where they cannot use bar coding, which will be the
force that moves RFID forward," said Gartner Research Vice President
Jeff Woods. "As the innovators' trials become public, broader
deployments across emerging sectors, not just consumer goods and
retail, will become evident in 2006 and 2007."
http://shorterlink.com/?2TWTFU

L-3 Acquires Germany-Based SAM for 125 Million Euro

Frankfurt -- L-3 Communications announced that it has acquired SAM
Electronics GmbH, a Germany-based manufacturer of maritime
electrical and electronic systems, for approximately 125 million euro
($150 million). L-3 acquired the 100% stake in SAM and its subsidiary
companies from EquiVest Partners, a partner fund of MPC Global
Equity I. New York-based L-3 Communications, which has annual
sales of approximately 5.8 billion euro ($7 billion) and employs nearly
44,000 people, is a group composed of 64 individual companies
primarily concerned with military-type business activities. L-3 said it
expected to close the deal in the first half of next year, pending
regulatory approval.
http://www.sam-electronics.de/home.html