LONDON, December 16 /PRNewswire/ -- As the energy regulator Ofgem announces today (Tuesday) that households continue to pay too much for fuel, the UK's biggest union, Unite, says that the time for talking to the energy companies must now come to an end.

The time for tough talk at the greedy energy companies is over. The energy profiteers must not be given yet more time to delay while hard-pressed households are being told that they must pay sky high heating costs, said Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite.

Energy companies in this country have seen their profits leap by an incredible 538 per cent in the last five years. That is money they have used to line shareholders' and executives' pockets, yet all consumers have had is price pain.

LONGMONT, Colorado, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Product Success Drives Investor Interest

Rebit Inc., the company dedicated to relieving the burden of backup for PC users, today announced that it has successfully closed its Series B round of financing, for a total of US$5.7 million. Participating institutional venture capital investors in the Series B round are Access Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures, and Highway 12 Ventures. Additionally, one private individual who helped finance the company in its early stage is also an investor in the Series B round.

SAN FRANCISCO, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Former VISA EVP to Lend Savvy to Innovative Online Payments Provider

Paymo, the trusted mobile payments network that allows consumers anywhere in the world to buy online and pay with their mobile phone, today announced that former VISA executive Jon Prideaux has joined the company as a senior advisor, responsible for helping the company develop a global standard for payments made through mobile phone accounts.

LONDON, December 16 /PRNewswire/ -- A new performance standard for critical offshore operations will help North Sea oil and gas drilling operators comply with tough new environmental requirements, Castrol Offshore said today.

Under rules set by the North-East Atlantic regulator, OSPAR, the range of the UK Offshore Chemical Notification scheme is being extended from 1st January 2009 to include all greases used to lubricate jack-up open gearing - that raise and lower platforms from and into the sea.

It means the impact of all greases will have to be established before use. Lubricants containing hazardous components may be excluded from use while many components used in existing greases will attract attention from the authorities.

SAN FRANCISCO, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- The More Than 70 Percent of the Online Population Who Don't Have Credit Cards Will be Able to Shop Online and Charge Purchases Directly To Their Mobile Phone Bill

Paymo, the trusted mobile payments network that allows consumers anywhere in the world to buy online and pay with their mobile phone, today announced that its innovative payments platform is now available in 39 markets around the world, allowing online merchants everywhere to sell to more than 3 billion mobile consumers worldwide.

FRANKLIN, Wisconsin, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Massachusetts Homeland Security Region V and Chester County, Pennsylvania, Expand Use of RAPTOR System to Manage Skills and Certifications of First Responders

CHICAGO, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Agreement includes algorithmic trading solution RTD Tango

RTS Realtime Systems Group (RTS), a leading trading solutions provider, announced that Acción Traders, an Amsterdam-based independent trading company, has begun deploying additional RTS technology for its arbitrage trading operations. The agreement provides Acción Traders with RTS' algorithmic trading platform, RTD Tango, along with direct market access (DMA) to a key liquidity pool.

Acción Traders, a proprietary trading firm formerly known as Binck Securities, has selected RTS' algorithmic trading solution RTD Tango to support the firm's growing algorithmic trading operations.

BELLEVUE, Washington, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Release Supports More Architectures; Increases Manageability to Further Improve Total Cost of Ownership

PALO ALTO, California, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --

Nexenta Systems, dedicated to providing Enterprise Class Storage for Everyone, and VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program member, today announced it has released VM Data Center 1.1, a module which plugs into the NexentaStor Enterprise Edition ZFS based NAS and iSCSI solution. VMware provides TAP program members with tools to develop products that are complementary to VMware virtualization software and help deliver high-value solutions to our joint customers.

ESSEN, Germany, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Gas Upstream Important Growth Area

E.ON Ruhrgas AG was delighted last weekend to be awarded the Rhourde Yacoub exploration permit in the 7th Algerian Licence Round. This award is a very exciting development for E.ON Ruhrgas, which we hope will provide the foundation for a mutually beneficial and broad cooperation between ourselves, the Ministry of Energy and Sonatrach. We see very significant exploration potential in the permit that could give rise to long-term gas supplies for E.ON Ruhrgas customers in Europe, said Dr. Bernhard Reutersberg, CEO of E.ON Ruhrgas.