A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Smurfit Kappa company to shed 30 jobs
More than half of the 55 staff at a west Dublin plant owned by cardboard company Smurfit Kappa will lose their jobs after it was announced yesterday that the plant will close by the end of the year.
About 25 workers from the Killeen Corrugated Products plant in Ballyfermot will be relocated to other Smurfit Kappa sites in Dublin, said a company spokesman, while up to 30 others will be made redundant.
The announcement came as a surprise to the workers, according to a statement from the union Siptu, after staff had agreed to "efficiencies" and changed working conditions after the loss of 53 jobs from the plant in March. Smurfit Kappa blamed the job losses on falling demand for some of its cardboard boxes.
Siptu said that workers were told that packaging orders were down from major customers including Magners and Bulmers cider. Bulmers has blamed the terrible summer weather for slow sales of its product.
Smurfit Kappa employs some 40,000 people in its worldwide operations and has several other sites in Dublin which will absorb some of Killeen's former workers. Up to 30 workers would be offered redundancy packages, said a Smurfit Kappa spokesman.
IN&M buys back more of its shares
Independent News & Media has continued its share buyback programme with the purchase of 448,066 shares. IN&M paid between €3.09 and €3.015 for the stock, which will be held in treasury. Shares in the company closed at €3.09 last night, up four cent on the day.
American Airlines seeks damages
American Airlines, the world's largest airline, said yesterday it was seeking damages from internet search engine Google for selling search words involving its name.
The dispute relates to Google's practice of selling search terms such as "American Airlines" or "AA.com" to other companies for advertising. American Airlines, a unit of AMR, said it does not want to prevent the display of search terms, but wants Google to stop selling its trademarks and related terms.
"We are seeking relief for the damages such practices are creating," the company said in a statement, but did not estimate the amount of damages. Google said its position had been "validated by decisions in previous trademark cases". - (Reuters)
Takeover bid for OMX intensifies
A takeover battle for OMX broke out yesterday after Borse Dubai made a $4 billion (€2.96 million) cash bid for the Nordic market operator, trumping a $3.7 billion offer from Nasdaq.
The US exchange said it remained committed to OMX and is expected to increase its offer as early as next week.
Borse Dubai's move capped a dramatic eight days in which it conducted a daytime raid on August 9th to acquire up to 28.4 per cent of OMX. It already held a 4.9 per cent stake.
The move triggered an inquiry by Sweden's Financial Supervisory Authority, the financial regulator, which is continuing. - (Financial Times service)
China to address product safety
Wu Yi, a Chinese vice-premier, has been appointed to head a top-level leadership group to address the issue of food and product safety in the wake of almost daily revelations about the hazards of locally made goods.
Millions of products, including children's toys and toothpaste, have been recalled from the US and Europe in recent months. - (Financial Times service)
