Amazon profits soar thanks to book reader January 29, 2010 AMAZON profits surged by 71 per cent in the final three months of 2009. The online bookseller said its Kindle electronic book reader had driven the sales boom. The device – Amazon’s bestselling product – will face competition from Apple’s new iPad, which was unveiled this week. Overall sales at Amazon – which now offers [...]
House prices start 2010 with a lift January 28, 2010 HOUSE prices jumped bye 1.2 per cent in January compared with the previous month, according to figures from the Nationwide Building Society. The average UK home costs £163,481, following the ninth monthly property price rise in a row. Nationwide’s chief economist, Martin Gahbauer said figures which showed the UK economy had come out of of [...]
Debenhams appoints new chairman January 28, 2010 DEBENHAMS has appointed Nigel Northridge as its new chairman to replace John Lovering. The company said Northridge – currently chairman of betting group Paddy power – will step up to the role on 1 April Lovering had chaired the retailer since 2003 and led its flotation on the London Stock Exchange in 2006. Northridge is [...]
EasyJet lands EMI Music executive January 28, 2010 EasyJet has appointed EMI Music executive Chris Kennedy as its new finance director. Kennedy, chief investment officer and president of EMI Music’s corporate development unit, will replace interim chief financial officer Mark Adams. The budget airline has been trying to fill the role for nine months after the airline’s previous chief financial officer, Jeff Carr, [...]
Tories: We won’t split big banks January 28, 2010 TORY Treasury chief George Osborne yesterday moved to reassure bankers that his party had no plans to break up large banks. Speaking at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Osborne made it clear that the party had no intention of backing a return to the 1930s Glass-Steagall Act that at the time prevented [...]
Second term for Bernanke January 28, 2010 THE US SENATE yesterday approved Ben Bernanke’s nomination to a second four-year term running the world’s most powerful central bank despite deep misgivings over his perceived policy missteps. The Senate voted 70-30 to confirm Bernanke in his post again as chairman of the US Federal Reserve, America’s central bank. However, the Fed chief suffered the [...]
It’s hard not to be gloomy on the UK January 28, 2010 THERE has long been a huge gap in Britain between London and the South East and the rest of the country. The former is powered by private sector growth; the latter depends ever-more on the public sector. The latest figures, calculated by Jörg Radeke of the Centre for Economics and Business Research using Treasury data, [...]
FIRST LADY OF FOOTY IS A HIT WITH HER FANS January 28, 2010 OFF to the majestic surroundings of the Royal Courts of Justice last night for the annual Quoted Company of the Year awards – where the organisers had either pulled out all the stops to secure the services of the evening’s hostess, or had enjoyed a remarkable stroke of good fortune. Happily for the sporting fans [...]
Greece: no bailout needed January 28, 2010 GREECE has asked no country for a bailout and is the victim of speculators intent on attacking a “weak link” in the eurozone, its leader said yesterday as the premium on its debt hit a new high. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, said [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 28, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES VEKSELBERG FACES RECORD FINE IN OERLIKON CASE Swiss authorities are seeking to impose a record SFr120m ($114m) fine on Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg and two Austrian investors for allegedly breaching reporting rules in building stakes in the troubled Oerlikon industrial group. The fine – which was announced on Thursday – was immediately rejected [...]