TikTok’s Irish move, Ryanair’s Italian clash and a verdict on the Oura ring

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

The company behind video app TikTok plans to open a data centre in Ireland. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

TikTok, the video app that has exploded in popularity this year, is to invest $500 million (€420 million) in a data centre in Ireland and create "hundreds of jobs" locally. The company, which is in talks with Microsoft to sell its US operations, plans to store its European users' data at the centre, Charlie Taylor reports.

Ryanair has clashed with Italy's air travel regulator Enac, which has threatened to ground the airline's flights for what it says are breaches of Covid-19 safeguards. Ryanair says it has complied fully with all anti-virus measures set by the Italian government, Barry O'Halloran reports.

In her Net Results column, Karlin Lillington explores the fallout from the at times stuttering performance of tech giant CEOs at last week's Congress hearing.

In her weekly tech review, Ciara O'Brien examines the Oura ring, a wearable health tracker that pinpoints sedentary lifestyles and bad sleeping patterns – and maybe even the first signs of Covid-19 too.

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And is your wifi slow and buggy? The reason could be anything from thick walls to third floors to the location of your modem.

Meanwhile, Mastercard, which earlier this year announced plans to create 1,500 additional new jobs locally, recorded a huge surge in revenues and profits at its Irish unit last year. Charlie Taylor reports.

Bank of Ireland is to cut more than 1,400 jobs in the coming years, it said on Wednesday. The Financial Services Union has sharply criticised the bank for launching a voluntary redundancy scheme with a September 23rd closing date, saying the deadline is "totally insensitive". Joe Brennan reports.

Irish food safety and traceability company Identigen, which became known for its horse meat testing capabilities during the 2013 food industry scandal, has been acquired by Merck subsidiary MSD Animal Health in a multimillion-euro deal. Charlie Taylor reports.

Finally, in Innovation, Olive Keogh talks to some of the entrepreneurs to graduate from the latest social enterprise incubator run by the Irish Social Business Campus.Stay up to date with all our business news: sign up to our business news alerts and our Business Today daily email news digest.

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery is an Irish Times journalist writing about media, advertising and other business topics