KAPOOR’S TANGLED TOWER March 31, 2010 A £19.1m sculpture designed by Turner Prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor has been chosen as the monument to mark the London 2012 Olympic Games. The 115m tall piece, named the ArcelorMittal Orbit, will be 22m higher than New York’s Statue of Liberty. London mayor Boris Johnson, described it as “a super-sized mutant trombone.”
Ofcom feels the heat over sports ruling March 31, 2010 OFCOM faced a fierce backlash to its landmark ruling yesterday as broadcasters and sporting bodies rounded on the embattled regulator. BSkyB vowed to carry out its threat to fight the ruling through the courts, hiring high powered City law firm Herbert Smith. The decision means the wholesale prices Sky is allowed to charge rivals including [...]
Sky will have to play defensively March 31, 2010 PERHAPS Sky should have remembered the advice of Marx brother Chico when it bet the house on premiership football rights back in 1992: “If you win today, you’ll only lose tomorrow. A sure thing is no fun.” Having had the premium sports TV space to itself for the last eight years, the media regulator is [...]
Lords warn on trading rules March 31, 2010 POLITICIANS yesterday raised fears that European Union plans to regulate trading tools used by hedge funds and banks could create new institutions that are “too big to fail”. The European Commission proposes to tighten rules on over-the-counter derivatives by forcing more trades to be conducted through central clearing houses. Clearing houses provide stability because they [...]
Northern Rock head is making a small fortune March 31, 2010 THE head of nationalised bank Northern Rock was paid an astounding £1.3m in 2009, despite the group recording a loss of £257m last year. Gary Hoffman’s basic £700,000 salary was boosted by pension payments and the second tranche of a 1.2m compensation package for incentives lost when he left Barclays in 2008, according to the [...]
BANK OF ENGLAND BOFFIN KNOCKS THE SPOTS OFF THE COMPETITION March 31, 2010 WHEN it comes to pepping up weighty speeches with witty references to popular culture, the boffins from the Bank of England aren’t exactly known for being trailblazers. But Andrew Haldane, the Bank’s executive director for financial stability, tore his peers’ stuffy image to shreds in a speech in Hong Kong this week by managing to [...]
Sports Direct pulls bid for Blacks Leisure March 31, 2010 SPORTS Direct yesterday said it would not bid for Blacks Leisure because it couldn’t be sure that suppliers would support such a move, ending an increasingly hostile takeover battle. Sports Direct, controlled by Newcastle United soccer club boss Mike Ashley, said it was aware certain key suppliers would not support a takeover and said that [...]
Pinewood strikes upbeat tone despite profit slump March 31, 2010 PINEWOOD Shepperton, whose studios provided the backdrop for films such as the Bond saga and recent release The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus yesterday insisted its prospects are strong despite posting a 24 per cent fall in profits for the year. The firm saw its pre-tax profit slip to £4.5m for the year to December, compared [...]
Barclays seals purchase of Citi credit card arm March 31, 2010 BARCLAYS has successfully completed its acquisition of rival Citibank’s Italian credit card business, allowing it to take control of the divison’s 197,000-odd credit card accounts and €234m (£208.3m) of assets. Barclays said yesterday that its path had been cleared to complete the deal, originally announced last month, following receipt of competition clearance and consultation with [...]
US jobs data disappoints March 31, 2010 THE American private sector shed a net 23,000 jobs last month, according to the worse than expected Automatic Data Processing (APD) employment survey published yesterday, days ahead of the non-farm payrolls data tomorrow. The March figure was only a fraction better than the 24,000 jobs lost in February. The poor figure saw equity indices lose [...]