Taxman launches snitch site September 24, 2009 TAX body HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has launched a new website to help people snitch on businesses they believe may be dodging tax. HMRC said it has launched a new facility allowing people to “raise their concerns online” about firms and individuals that might be “cheating the system”. The push for informants, which comes [...]
Waitrose draws up plans to open 300 small stores September 24, 2009 UPMARKET grocer Waitrose yesterday unveiled plans to take a bigger share of the convenience store market, saying it could open up to 300 smaller format stores, stepping up its challenge to top end rival Marks & Spencer . Waitrose, part of the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership, also said it would open more stores in motorway [...]
RIM earnings fall as it trims its forecasts September 24, 2009 BLACKBERRY maker Research In Motion said yesterday that profits had dropped as it gave an outlook short of analyst forecasts heading into the holiday shopping season. RIM said its quarterly profit dropped 3.5 per cent and that it added only 3.8m new subscribers, at the low end of the forecast it had provided in June.That [...]
PEDAL POWER September 24, 2009 CYCLING nut and London Mayor Boris Johnson is kicking off his Cycle Fridays scheme today with six routes, three of which run to the City. The Friday routes, where you are escorted by safety-conscious marshals, will roll on until 2 October. To get into the City you can leave from Mile End, Finsbury Park and [...]
INM to test O’Brien demands September 24, 2009 Independent News & Media (IN&M) said yesterday it will hold an extraordinary meeting on 3 November to vote on calls from shareholder Denis O’Brien that the group’s chairman Brian Hillery resign, but it dismissed most of his other demands. A second O’Brien resolution on whether its South African business, INM Outdoor, should be sold will [...]
BT in next generation push September 24, 2009 BT has unveiled ambitious plans to double the number of homes that are able to receive 24 megabit broadband by spring 2011. Currently 40 per cent of UK homes and business are reached by the telecoms group’s fast copper network, but it said that number will rise to 75 per cent under the plans. The [...]
Ten Alps launches B2B portal September 24, 2009 Sir Bob Geldof’s media company, Ten Alps, yesterday launched an online business portal, Link 2, which gives users access to content to its 400 business-to-business magazines and directories, plus video and breaking news. Adrian Dunleavy, chief executive of Ten Alps’s communications division, said that the firm is targeting “new online revenue opportunities and a more [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 24, 2009 F&C Commercial Property TrustThe trust has appointed John Stephen, currently an independent non-executive director, as its new chairman, effective from 31 October. Stephen will replace Peter Niven, pictured, who steps down as chairman after four years and will remain on the board as a non-executive director. Niven is also a director of Resolution, which recently [...]
IT COULD BE YOU: LOTTO FOR SALE September 24, 2009 CITY advisers have been appointed to find buyers for a majority stake in Camelot, the group that runs the National Lottery. At least four out of Camelot’s five shareholders, representing an 80 per cent stake in the group, are interested in selling their stakes which are valued at a total of more than £300m. The [...]
G20 MEETS IN PITTSBURGH September 24, 2009 US PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday welcomed world leaders to the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. The assembled dignitaries plan to thrash out a deal to try and prevent a repeat of the banking crisis that has devastated the global economy.