JAPANESE games company Nintendo has shunned Australia's largest consumer electronics retailer Harvey Norman after it sought margins on the hugely anticipated Wii console (below) to be launched soon.

One Nintendo executive is reported to have describe the terms Harvey Norman was seeking as "ridiculous".

In Australia consumer electronic manufacturers are typically asked to give Harvey Norman a floor margin of 17% on a product or service. On top of that it also demands an additional margin of around 25% for meeting targets.

The loss of Nintendo sales to Harvey Norman is likely to be a big blow. The Wii console is expected to be a big seller at Christmas.

Harvey Norman recently reported an 18.1% per cent rise in first quarter sales to A$1.25bn.

Harvey Norman also operates a handful of stores in Ireland.

FORMER ARCON FIRM'S PROFITS SOAR AFTER SALE LUNDIN MINING, the Canadian company that last year acquired the former Arcon-owned Galmoy zinc mine in Kilkenny, has said that its third quarter profit more than tripled to almost $31m on the back of soaring ore prices. Sales doubled to $98.9m from $48.7m.

Lundin is among metals producers benefiting from record copper and zinc prices this year as global demand exceeds production. Zinc, used to galvanize steel, averaged $3,350 a tonne during the third quarter, nearly triple the 2005 third quarter. The average copper price more than doubled. Lundin's stock has more than tripled in the past twelve months. Last month the company completed a 1.2bn merger with Eurozinc Mining.

IN&M TAKES TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES TO CORK Independent News & Media has expanded its directory publishing business with the launch of a Cork version of its Independent Directory. It is part of a plan to roll out full-colour classified telephone directories throughout the country. The Cork edition will be distributed to 165,000 homes in the region. The Dublin version has been distributed in and around the capital for the past 17 years.

VODAFONE CONSOLIDATES DATA CENTRE BUSINESS Vodafone has consolidated its data centres in Europe around three sites, including one in Dublin, which the company estimates will yield savings of up to 150m within three years.

The is part of a groupwide cost-cutting exercise including large-scale redundancies at its UK headquarters and a series of outsourcing deals which will see about 2,500 Vodafone employees transfer to technology providers IBM and EDS under the terms of a new IT services contract.

Vodafone's chief technology officer Steve Pusey said the consolidation of the data centres, from 12 sites to three, was a key part of that cost-cutting drive and has been completed six months ahead of schedule.

"Bringing together our European IT operations to create central hubs is an important part of our commitment to leverage the group's global scale, " he said.

The Irish data centre, in the Dublin suburb of Clonshaugh, stores and processes information for both Irish customers and Vodafone users based in Northern Europe . Vodafone has similar sites in Germany and Italy .