Industry news

Serco, the international service company, has announced that it has been awarded a number of contracts providing a range of operational support, engineering and training services, known as Multi-Activity Contracts (MACs). The contracts to the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) and Naval Air Command have a combined total potential value to Serco of £130m.

Serco has successfully rebid its RAF Northolt MAC, providing aviation and engineering facilities and logistics support at this major RAF airport, including maintenance and associated support of 32 (The Royal) Squadron, and at various satellite stations in and around London. The contract commences in April 2012, is for a threeyear period with options to extend by up to a further four years and would have a total value to Serco of approximately £70m over the full seven years.

West Midlands Police, along with Surrey Police Force, has issued a tender to deliver a "cutting edge approach" through a seven year shared service deal.

The forces are hoping others will come on board the initiative which could see spending rise to £3.5bn.

RealNetworks, Inc. has announced that it has signed an agreement to sell a significant number of its patents and its next generation video codec software to Intel Corporation for a purchase price of $120 million. Under terms of the sale, RealNetworks retains certain rights to continue to use the patents in current and future products.

"Selling these patents to Intel unlocks some of the substantial and unrealized value of RealNetworks assets," said Thomas Nielsen, RealNetworks President and CEO. "It represents an extraordinary opportunity for us to generate additional capital to boost investments in new businesses and markets while still protecting our existing business.

"RealNetworks is pleased Intel has agreed to acquire our next generation video codec software and team," said Nielsen. "Intel has a strong reputation as a technology innovator, and we believe they are well positioned to build on the development work and investment we've made in this area."

Illumina Inc. is granting investors the right to buy shares at half the price in a so-called poison- pill defense, following Roche Holding AG’s hostile $5.7 billion bid for the maker of gene-mapping tools.

Shareholders will receive one preferred stock purchase right as a dividend for each common share held as of the close of business Feb. 6, San Diego-based Illumina said in a statement. Investors will also have the right to purchase $550 in common shares for $275, or, assuming a price of $55 a share, 10 common shares at that price. The rights won’t be exercisable initially, Illumina said. The strategy can block an unwanted bid by making it prohibitively expensive.

A mixed global economic outlook, high levels of volatility, weak consumer demand, and ongoing corporate uncertainty continue to impact outsourcing demand and consulting growth, according to the KPMG 4Q11 Sourcing Advisory Pulse Survey of KPMG field advisors and leading global business and IT service providers.

The study also found that organisations engaged in outsourcing are recognizing the need to invest in IT-enabled solutions, but must overhaul business and operating models to fully exploit the technologies' potential.

"Buyers are placing great emphasis on investing in IT, but given the economic uncertainty, all efforts undertaken will occur under watchful, cost conscious eyes," said Stan Lepeak, global research director in KPMG's Management Consulting Group. "Buyers and providers are smarter, more experienced, and less likely to enter into larger and more risky deals, and evolutionary innovations such as cloud computing and targeted BPO are changing the nature of what constitutes outsourcing."

Some 73 percent of advisors and 79 percent of providers polled cited the weak economy as likely having the biggest impact on buyer businesses and operations, especially in Europe.

Monaghan Mushrooms has signed a two-year deal with Belfast IT and business process outsourcing firm Equiniti ICS. The contract concerns off-shore software development support and will be delivered from centres in Northern Ireland and India. Outsourcing is expected to play a major part in the growth of the Irish mushroom producer.

npower has created 200 new positions in the north east, and hopes to fill them by the end of March. The call centre jobs are available in: Peterlee, Houghton le Spring and Thornaby.

Paul Robinson, head of npower’s contact centres, said: “We have noticed a significant increase in demand from our customers which is why we are growing our contact centres. These jobs are designed to bolster our team and ensure we can deliver the very best service to customers. We hope to attract a wide variety of applicants from across the region. This is also great news for the North East with the creation of 200 new jobs at a time when a number of organisations are reducing the size of their workforces.”

The company that owns Harvester, O’Neills and Toby Carvery is rolling out cloud computing across the whole group. Mitchells & Butlers, the largest restaurant and pub operator in the UK, has partnered with Fujitsu to extend networked SaaS to its 1,600 branches.

Mike Sackman, chief information officer at Mitchells & Butlers said:

"Customers will be able to book tables, and place orders including takeaways from their smartphones, and access public wifi in our branches. There is a revolution in what our customers want to be able to do with their own technology. We will also be able to offer much more personalised promotion and marketing to them."

Rhapsody has acquired Napster's European operation, marking the music streaming service's first move beyond the US market and kicking off a battle with Spotify.

The US service, which has only been available to American customers for the past 11 years, has reached a deal to acquire Napster International's subscription music business.

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, will see Rhapsody launch in the UK and Germany under the Napster brand name and take the fight to the increasingly popular Spotify.

Outsourcing company Capita has confirmed it is to create a further 40 jobs at its contact centre in Moray.

The new roles come on top of 100 jobs announced by the company in November, as they expand their operations in Forres.

The latest posts range from customer services to senior management positions.