IT services company Ergo has made its biggest acquisition to date, buying Limerick-based Asystec in a €25 million deal. Charlie Taylor has more details on the transaction, which will create one of the largest privately owned Irish IT services company in the Republic.
Mark Paul is worried about the future of Irish pubs, which he believes has been put into jeopardy by the pandemic. He suggests in his Caveat column that unless Covid-19 fizzles out soon, the pubs that do survive it could find themselves struggling in a market that has changed forever.
Brexit and a pandemic-related surge in ecommerce triggered a 1,400 per cent jump in customs declarations being processed by Revenue last year, reports Eoin Burke-Kennedy. Revenue noted that on November 30th last alone, four days after Black Friday, it processed a record-breaking 300,000 import declarations.
Eoin also writes thatfemale participation in the workforce has been undermined – perhaps permanently – by the pandemic, according to US economist and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Mary Daly.
In his Economics column, John FitzGerald considers the merits of devolving taxing powers to the North, arguing that there may be an element of poisoned chalice in such a strategy.
As the fallout of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes's fraud conviction continues to settle, we consider the epic rise and fall of the high-profile entrepreneur. Hustle, hype and greed were all part of the story.
Another year of Zoom calls is upon us, leading Olive Keogh to ask if zooming out and listening might be more useful for communication. She notes research showing that voice-only calls can be more effective when it comes to task-oriented or problem-solving conversations and that video conferencing can get in the way of collective intelligence.
Our Wild Goose this week is Eoghan Geoghegan who is based in Santa Monica in California and says he never tires of looking at the Pacific Ocean on his doorstep. The Dublin and Wexford tells Barbara McCarthy how he started off with his employer as an intern and worked his way up.
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