Galway-based tech firm nets €4.8m for business

A small Galway-based technology company has sold its share in a political monitoring business, along with associated software, for €4.8 million. Eirnet Technologies developed and provided technology and software services to a UK company, Political Wizard, which monitors proceedings at Westminster, London, for clients with political interests.

Eirnet developed a system for receiving approximately 4,000 pages per day from Hansard (the official record of parliamentary proceedings), and the software for scanning these pages for material of interest to clients of Political Wizard.

The Galway firm had a 50 per cent interest in the business, the other half being owned by Parliamentary Monitoring Services, a London business in operation since the 1970s and which sourced and dealt with the clients of Political Wizard.

Political Wizard had an annual revenue of approximately €1.2 million, which was shared equally by the two partners.

Parliamentary Monitoring Services received £1.5 million for its share of the business while Eirnet got the equivalent of £3.2 million for its share plus associated software.

The purchaser was Dods Parliamentary Communications, a subsidiary of UK-based publishing and media plc, Huveaux, which is engaged in an aggressive programme of expansion.

Eirnet was formed in 2000 and tried a number of business plans before developing the Political Wizard technology. More recently it has developed technology for receiving and searching transcripts from the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Court of Justice. This capacity has also been purchased by Dods.

However, Eirnet has retained the right to use the software behind the Political Wizard business and will now work to develop it in areas where Eirnet would not be in competition with Dods.

Michael Furey, chief executive, and Brendan McLaughlin, finance director, own more than 50 per cent of Eirnet. Other shareholders include the Western Development Commission, Enterprise Ireland, and the Millennium Fund. Mr Furey said the business had reached a certain limit and needed an injection of funds or to be purchased by a bigger concern, so its full potential could be achieved.

Eirnet employs 12 people at its office in Galway City.