Stay up to date with all our business news: sign up to our Business Today daily email news digest.
PwC’s Irish business has been dragged into the fallout over the leaking of confidential information by a former partner at the Big Four accountancy network’s Australian unit. Former PwC Australia tax partner Peter-John Collins, who was banned in January from practising as a tax agent after sharing confidential information about Canberra’s plans to clamp down on multinational tax avoidance, sought to tap PwC Ireland’s contacts with technology companies in the United States to share his insights. Joe Brennan has the details.
A decline in the number of houses changing hands in the first three months of the year failed to arrest a steep rise in sales prices as the median price for a house for a home in Ireland climbed to €305,000 in the first quarter, analysis of the Property Price Register (PPR) has revealed, writes Ian Curran. This represents an 8.9 per cent increase in the median sales price in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022, according to a new report from property tech start-up Geowox.
The fast-fade of Vice and Buzzfeed News, both seen as ways to engage younger adults in news and issues, is hardly surprising in this context. But we cannot afford to misinterpret such failures, and the challenges all media organisations face, as mere business issues, argues Karlin Lillington in her weekly column. They’re deep-seated, challenging societal issues, eating away at democracy, and likely to worsen if younger generations continue to drift away.
“Refreshing and sophisticated,” is how Rachel Byrne, co-founder of brewing company, Zingibeer, describes their launch product which is a modern take on old fashioned ginger beer, writes Olive Keogh. “Zingibeer is made with fermented ginger, lemon zest and botanicals which gives it a strong flavour profile and makes it a great alternative to beer and to cider, which some people find too sweet,” adds Byrne who set up the company with her dad, Kevin, in 2021.
Cantillon, our resident sage, wonders at how reputation rankings can be a funny thing and sees a relentless force running into tan immovable object when Pepper Finance found itself in front of Circuit Court judge Mary O’Malley Costello.
Free electrons is something that all of us could do with at the moment, given the size of the average electricity bill lately. A global programme, aptly Free Electrons, is a ‘global utility accelerator’ which sees seven of the world’s leading electricity generators and suppliers get together to pick the brains of the best energy tech start-ups, reports Neil Briscoe, The ESB is one of the seven utilities involved and this year, it’s hosting a Free Electrons “boot camp” in Dublin, the second time that the programme has been held here.
When Geoffrey Hinton had an ethical objection to his employer Google working with the US military in 2018, he didn’t join in public protests or put his name on the open complaint letter signed by more than 4,000 of his colleagues. Instead, he just spoke to Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder. “He said he was a bit upset about it too. And so they’re not pursuing it,” Hinton said in an interview at the time. However, he has now quit Google and Madhumita Murgia and Richard Waters find out why.
If you’ve been following the progression of Google’s Pixel line of smartphones, you’ll know how it goes: first there is the flagship device announcement, the top-of-the-line device that comes with an equally top-of-the-range price. Then, a few months later, the budget device follows, offering fewer features but a lower price tag. Over time, those devices have increasingly punched above the weight of their price tag. Ciara O’Brien gives it a whirl.
On this week’s Inside Business podcast with Ciarán Hancock we revisit our conversation with entrepreneur Barry Connolly. Barry scooped the award for Business Person of the Year in February at the fifth annual Irish Times Business Awards. He is co-founder of nutrition bar ‘Fulfil’, which was sold in April of last year for a reported €160 million to confectionery giant Ferrero. He joined Ciaran for a wide-ranging chat about his life and career, along with some valuable advice for all budding entrepreneurs.
