A round-up of other finance stories in brief
Google at odds with EU over data retention
Google will tell EU officials it needs to hold on to users' search data for up to two years for security and commercial reasons after being warned it could be violating European privacy laws by doing so.
Google last week received a letter from an EU privacy policy advisory group, which asked the company to justify its data retention practices.
"I will tell the working party that Google needs to hold on to its log database to protect itself and the system from attacks and refine and improve the effectiveness of our search results," said Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel.
He said Google, at its own initiative, had decided in March to limit the time it kept data on users' searches to 18-24 months. He called on rivals Yahoo and Microsoft to clarify their data retention practices and policies.
Sheridan named as ICAI president
The Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) has named Vincent Sheridan, chief executive of VHI Healthcare, as its new president.
Mr Sheridan will succeed Martin Wilson following an announcement at the group agm earlier this week.
Dodds supports Titanic application
Northern Ireland Tourism Minister Nigel Dodds yesterday gave his support for an application by Belfast's Titanic Signature Project for £25 million (€37 million) worth of lottery funds.
The announcement comes a day after the Northern Ireland Executive agreed, subject to the successful grant of lottery funds, to provide up to £32.5 million in funding over three years for the £90-million project, which envisages an iconic building located at the head of the Titanic and Olympic Slipways in the heart of Belfast's Titanic Quarter.
Lundin moves on zinc mine takeover
Lundin Mining, owner of the Galmoy zinc mine in Co Kilkenny, said yesterday it had sent details of its proposed takeover of Tenke Mining to shareholders.
The takeover is subject to approval by shareholders of both companies at separate meetings on June 18th.
Wax Digital opens Irish sales office
UK electronic procurement specialists Wax Digital is to open its first overseas sales office in Dublin. The Irish operation will be headed by Pat Chambers who previously set up JBA Ireland and grew it to annual revenues of €6 million.
O'Reilly's director package doubled
Exploration group Providence Resources more than doubled the amount it paid its chief executive Tony O'Reilly jnr last year, with his remuneration alone accounting for more than half of the amount paid out by the company in directors' salaries.
Mr O'Reilly jnr received a total pay package of €485,000, up from €171,000 in 2005. Meanwhile Stephen Carroll, Providence's finance director, saw his total pay increase by only 1.3 per cent in the same period, to €152,000.
HSBC cuts Ryanair share price target
HSBC yesterday cut its share price target for Ryanair by 8 per cent, to €6.60, citing the well-flagged decline in the yield environment. Airline analyst Jonathan Wober said that, following comments from the company earlier this month, the bank had lowered its forecast for average fares in the year to the end of March 2008 by two percentage points. It is now forecasting a 3 per cent decline in average fares, to €42.80.
