Clune’s €350m pay day; ‘Blanch’ back on the market; and tolls rise by up to 30c

Serial tech entrepreneur Terry Clune is set for a near €350 million pay day on a company he established just under eight years ago as cross-border payroll software business Immedis is sold to US group UKG, writes Barry O’Halloran.

Just two and a half years after buying the Blanchardstown Centre for €750 million, Goldman Sachs has put it back on the market with a guide price that is expected to be less than what it paid Blackstone for the shopping centre, writes Ronald Quinlan.

The growing political pressure on the Government to cut taxes in the upcoming budget is one of the key risks to Ireland’s public finances, the budgetary watchdog, Ifac, has said. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

It comes as the World Bank warns that weak growth, persistently high inflation and record debt levels have left the global economy in “a precarious position”.

Helping offshore energy developers factor the impact on nature into their planning process

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Google Pixel 8a review: It follows predecessors by removing unnecessary features while still being useful

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Interruptions undermine workplace focus and productivity

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It seems an improbable odyssey for London to ever become the new Silicon Valley

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Commuters juggling cost of living pressures face another blow as a six-month freeze on higher motorway toll charges expires at the end of this month. Gordon Deegan and Conor Pope examine what it will mean.

Avilease, which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has emerged as a possible suitor for Standard Chartered’s Irish based aircraft leasing business that was signalled as being on the market at the start of the year.

Sarah O’Connor bemoans the corporatisation of digital nomadism as the reality of tax, immigration, cybersecurity and labour laws has collided with the promise of being able to work from anywhere.

Meanwhile a survey of 350 multinational companies employing 10 million people between them has found that roughly half of them are planning to cut office space in the next three years as they adapt to the rise of homeworking since the pandemic.

A separate survey by recruiter Robert Walters finds that concern about any job security, never mind remote working, has pushed a third of Irish white-collar workers to size up Plan B jobs as redundancies in the tech sector continue.

Revenue at the former Jurys Inn group of hotels, now branded Leonardo, more than doubled last year to €48.32 million as the business recovered from the Covid impact on the tourism industry. Gordon Deegan reports.

Finally, Patrick McGee puts Apple’s new Vision Pro mixed reality headset through its paces even as he wonders how long it might be before the $3,500 technology become a mass market product.

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