A round up of today's other business news in brief
Automattic buys start-up PollDaddy
Sligo start-up PollDaddy has been acquired by Automattic, the company behind the WordPress blogging platform which has more than four million users.
Founded last year, PollDaddy allows bloggers and other website owners to host polls and surveys on their sites. To date, more than one million polls have been created using it and 195 million votes have been collected.
High-profile users include Wired magazine, RTÉ and the popular technology news blog, TechCrunch.
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. PollDaddy will still provide support for other blogs and social networks as well as being integrated into WordPress.
New line of Apple MacBooks unveiled
Apple has unveiled its new line of MacBook notebook computers, which it modestly claims "redefine notebook design" while also being the most environmentally friendly laptops. The cases of the new MacBook and 15in MacBook Pro are crafted from a single block of aluminium, resulting in thinner, more durable designs.
Budget good and bad, adviser says
This week's Budget did plenty to "anchor the tenancy of multinational technology companies in Ireland", but did little to "address the critical question of where new jobs and wealth is going to be created", according to a leading funding adviser.
Neil Pope, director of Who42, said not increasing corporation tax, enhancing the RD tax credit and increasing spending on scientific research will appeal to the multinationals.
But he said funding was the main issue for start-ups and consideration should be given to a measure like Barack Obama's small business emergency rescue plan proposal, which includes a government-run emergency lending facility.
Phishers use bank crisis for scams
The global banking crisis is proving a boon for online scammers, according to security software firm Eset.
Phishers, who send spam e-mails trying to get internet users to reveal usernames and bank account passwords, are tailoring their mails to the financial crisis.
The e-mails look like they are coming from respected financial institutions that have recently acquired a bank or other financial institution and ask the recipients to update, validate or confirm their account information.
Eset says its Smart Security software includes an e-mail spam filter that recognises such threats.
Silverlight Two released
Microsoft has released version two of its Silverlight software, which enables rich applications and streaming media such as video to be viewed through a web browser.
One of the early adopters of Silverlight is Ryanair, which uses it to provide a graphical representation of its routes and destinations in Europe.
