A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
US company acquires LeCayla
LeCayla, a Dublin software start-up chaired by Iona Technologies founder Chris Horn, has been acquired by US firm OpSource in an all-share deal.
The value of the deal has not been disclosed by either side. LeCayla, which employs 11 staff full time, was founded in 2004 by chief executive Conor Halpin, who had worked with Iona in the late 1990s.
It received funding from Trinity Venture Capital and Enterprise Ireland. The firm's software enables other software companies to bill customers based on usage, which supports the new "software as a service" model that is becoming increasingly popular.
OpSource is a privately held firm based in California. Mr Halpin said all of LeCayla's staff would be retained.
As part of the acquisition, OpSource will move its European headquarters from London to Dublin.
Trintech buys California firm
Trintech Group has bought Movaris, a business-software company based in San Jose, California, for $5 million (€3.4 million) in cash and other considerations, including 1.25 million Trintech American depositary shares, or the equivalent value in cash.
The transaction is expected to close this month. - (Bloomberg)
Boston Scientific 'infringed patent'
Boston Scientific has announced that a US district court jury in Texas found its Taxus drug-eluting stents infringed a patent by Dr Bruce Saffran and awarded damages of $431 million (€295 million).
The jury in Marshall, Texas, found the Natick, Massachusetts-based medical device maker's Taxus Express and Taxus Liberte drug-eluting stent products infringed the doctor's patent.
No injunction against the products, some of which are made in Galway, was requested. Boston Scientific said it planned to appeal the verdict on the grounds that it was unsupported by the evidence and the law.- (Reuters)
Ryanair to set up new Spanish base
Ryanair plans to set up a base at Reus, Spain, creating the 26th hub airport in the carrier's network. Ryanair will spend $140 million (€95 million) on buying two new aircraft and doubling the number of routes at Reus in northeastern Spain to 12, it said. - (Bloomberg)
Surge in cost of renting slows
Last year's surge in housing rents slowed in the closing months of 2007 as extra properties flooded the market, the latest figures show.
Rent increases peaked last August at 12.1 per cent, but slowed to 4.3 per cent in the three months to January, according to a report by property website Daft.ie.
The report shows that the supply of available rental properties is up by 50 per cent in Dublin and by 100 per cent in the rest of the Republic.
Reacting to the news yesterday, Goodbody Stockbrokers economist Dermot O'Leary said the figures indicated that rent growth would slow over the coming months.
EcoSecurities signs up 100th project
EcoSecurities, the Dublin-based greenhouse gas offsets trader, said yesterday it had signed up its 100th emission reduction project.
The company, whose board includes Tom Byrne, former head of corporate finance at stockbroking firm Davy, finances greenhouse gas reduction projects, and then trades the offsets from the projects.
