HP is to create 50 new jobs in Co Galway as part of a new €11million expansion project in the region while online retailer Buy.com is to take on 40 employees.

HP announced this morning that it is to establish two new IDA-supported highly strategic research and development and projects at its Ballybrit facility.

One of the projects will involve the establishment of a centre of expertise for cloud computing services, while the second one is focused on setting up a research and development (R&D) group focused on process innovation.

Announcing the expansion this morning, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan said the decision to establish the projects in Co Galway were a ‘vote of confidence in facility’s capabilities.”

HP is one of the largest multinational companies in Ireland, with over 4,000 people employed across its core business groups in Leixlip, Dublin, Galway and Belfast.

In a separate announcement, online retailer Buy.com said it is to establish a European Operations Centre in Galway city centre, leading to the creation of 40 highly skilled positions over four years.

Recruitment is to commence immediately for positions in multilingual customer support, online sales and marketing, finance and software design and development.

The new facility will be located at Mayoralty House, Flood Street, in the centre of the city.

Sajan, a Wisconsin-based software company has established a new subsidiary which will be headquartered in Dublin.

The firm, which develops on-demand translation technology, said the new entity, which is called Sajan Software Limited, will house and support cloud-based translation technologies.

About 35 jobs are to be created mainly in R&D and sales, the firm said.

It added that after reviewing a number of possible locations it selected Dublin as its new headquarters because of Ireland’s reputation as “a business-friendly country” and it closeness to European customers.

“The launch of Sajan Software represents Sajan’s longstanding commitment to the future of cloud-based translation technology,” said Vern Hanzlik, president of the newly established subsidiary.

Today’s announcement has been welcomed by IDA Ireland.

“The establishment by Sajan of a headquarter operation of this nature demonstrates the strength of Ireland’s reputation as a location for software investments, linguistics and translation,” said IDA chief executive Barry O’Leary.”

“Sajan Software Ltd is to play a strategic role in Sajan’s overall operation and Ireland will be a vital element in this strategic role,” he added.

Sajan’s expansion into Europe builds on its recent move into India. In December 2008, the company opened an office dedicated to software research, development, quality assurance and operations in New Delhi.

The company, which was established in 1997, currently employs about 90 people at its global headquarters in River Falls, Wisconsin.

In more good news on the jobs front, Newsweaver is to create 33 new jobs in Cork. The Bandon-based internet services firm will also invest EUR700,000 in research and development as part of the expansion.

The firm provides software that allows companies to publish and send newsletters to their customers. Newsweaver’s clients include the UN, Shell, AIB, Bupa and Philips.

Imagine Communications is investing €100 million in the nationwide roll-out of a next-generation wireless broadband network.

Based on WiMax technology the service will launch commercially on October 27th and will be available to 250,000 homes in Dublin, Wexford, Sligo, Tralee and Athlone by mid-November.

Imagine plans to provide coverage in an additional 15 towns and rural areas each month. The company said it will have coverage of 90 per cent of the country by 2012.

Imagine says it will create an additional 200 jobs as a result of launching the service.

Pricing details for the service were not provided at yesterday’s launch in Dublin but Imagine’s chief executive Seán Bolger said the broadband and telephone service would be 50 per cent cheaper than similar services from Eircom.

Mr Bolger said the initial €100 million consisted of a mixture of debt and equity with Motorola providing technical support.

Intel, which has been championing WiMax globally, is also supporting the Irish launch.

“The proposition is very simple – we are providing a fourth-generation network for Ireland delivering European broadband speeds at European prices,” said Mr Bolger.

Highly critical of the current state of broadband quality, cost and availability Mr Bolger said there was significant pent-up demand for the service which will initially be available at speeds of 7Mbits/sec.

“The state of the Irish infrastructure is such that there is a deficit in broadband,” said Mr Bolger.

“The quality of the access network is very bad so you are getting poor quality broadband and you are paying a very high price for it. Obviously the situation with Eircom where it has failed to invest in the infrastructure has left us where we are and the lack of effective regulation has prevented investment.”

The service will be available in homes and businesses as a replacement for fixed-line broadband services but also supports mobile access.

Imagine operates the Gaelic Telecom brand in association with the GAA. It has 17,000 business customers, 115,000 residential phone customers and 80,000 broadband customers.

In April 2008 Imagine acquired wireless broadband provider Irish Broadband from its major shareholders NTR and Kilsaran Concrete in a €47 million deal which largely consisted of Imagine taking on the loss-making provider’s debt.

Irish Broadband’s existing network of high sites and towers is being used as the base for the launch of the WiMax service.

The 69 full-time workers and 50 part-time workers at the plant were told of the decision at a meeting last week.

The company, which makes security electronic devices, was formerly Tyco Electronics.

Its wireless division, including the Cork operation, was taken over by Harris in May.

In a statement, Harris says that following a review carried out locally the decision to phase out operations and close the Little Island plant next June, has been taken.

A redundancy package, which has been described as generous, has been agreed.

The US multi-national said the decision was taken because of existing capabilities elsewhere in the company.

IT firm Citrix is to create 20 new jobs at its Dublin base, it was announced today.

The jobs will be created at Citrix Systems Ireland, customer technical support headquarters for the EMEA region. The new hiring round will bring to around 120 the number of people employed at the centre.

“To support the overall business we have to scale up our operation, not just in the traditional Technical Support areas, but significantly in engineering,” said John Kelly, Citrix Director of Technical Support (EMEA).

“We are therefore seeking the best technical talent we can find and we have a number of new key roles we need to fill immediately including Technical Support engineers, Escalation Engineers as well as Technical Relationship Managers,” Mr Kelly said.

“We are also keen to hear from engineers with software development skills and an interest in working with the global leader and the most trusted name in application delivery infrastructure.”

Citrix Systems is a leading provider of virtualization, networking and cloud computing solutions for more than 230,000 organizations worldwide. Founded in 1989, annual revenue in 2008 was $1.6bn (€1.08bn).

Online payments company PayPal plans to add 100 new jobs in customer service and operations in Blanchardstown in Dublin.
PayPal, which is owned by online auction company eBay, already employs more than 950 people at the Blanchardstown site.
The new positions are for people fluent in English and a second European language.
The Dublin centre manages all direct customer contact for PayPal’s businesses across Europe.
The company expects that more than half of its growth over the next three years will be from outside the US.

Finnish company Tecnotree, formerly Tecnoman, is seeking 80 redundancies from its workforce of 141 in Shannon. According to a statement made to the Finnish stock exchange, the company is seeking the redundancies due to the current economic climate and reduced demand for its products and services. Tecnotree supplies business and operations support systems for telecom operators. The firm plans to remain in Shannon, despite its reduced workforce.

GE Money to cut 130 jobs in Shannon

50 jobs are expected to be lost at the GE Money company in Shannon, and a further 15 at its base in Dublin, as a result of company restructuring.

The company is involved in the sale of financial products including insurance, mortgages, car and personal loans, financial brokerage and equipment finance leasing.

178 people are employed by the company in the Shannon Free Zone, and staff have been told that a number of jobs will be affected by a decision to restructure its business.

This will mean the discontinuation of a number of products handled by GE Capital Solutions, and the transfer of other products and operations to GE Money Ireland.

A 30-day consultation process has begun with staff who are affected by the changes, and they say they hope to redeploy as many as possible where vacancies exist in the company.

The company says they need to restructure their Irish business in response to the economic environment, which has remained challenging and where the outlook is unclear, but added that they are committed to keeping a significant operation in Shannon.

They say the restructuring announcement will have no impact on existing mortgages, personal loans, care finance agreements and insurance policies held in Ireland.

30 jobs are to go before the end of the year at Condron Concrete, producers of concrete pipes in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

Some of the jobs will go at the end of the month, while others will go nearer to Christmas, leaving a staff of 29.

The news comes as a further blow to the town’s economy, with the Boston Scientific plant already due for closure next month.

The Cathaoirleach of Tullamore Town Council, Cllr Tommy McKeigue, said that the losses were due to the downturn in construction and the cuts in road building projects.

He added that the council would now have to increase its efforts to attract investment to Tullamore.

Waterford specialist pharmaceuticals firm EirGen Pharma is to invest €3.3m in a major expansion programme, which will generate 20 new jobs over the next two years.

This will bring total employment at the plant to 40 and will see the firm expand its research and development and manufacturing operations in Waterford. The expansion is being supported by Enterprise Ireland.

EirGen focuses on the development and supply of niche highly potent drugs, mainly used in cancer treatment. It was established in 2005.

The company said its main focus for future export growth is on building on its current market success in the US and Europe and on expanding in new growth markets in Japan, Latin America, Asia and South Africa.