Spinvox in sale talks December 13, 2009 SPINVOX, the speech-recognition technology firm, is reportedly close to accepting a $150m (£92m) takeover offer from an American rival. Nuance Communications, which is Nasdaq listed, is rumoured to be in talks with the company, which has been dogged by allegations of financial mismanagement and claims its technology is not up to scratch. A sale of [...]
Germany to double its borrowing December 13, 2009 GERMANY will more than double net new borrowing next year and also increase public spending, in a new draft budget due to be approved on Wednesday. The first budget of the new centre-right German government will see a record €85.8bn (£77.1bn) in new borrowing next year, and total new debt is expected to approach €100bn. [...]
Stricken banks pull in the profits for Odey December 13, 2009 CRISPIN Odey, the hedge fund manager who made a killing over the course of the crisis by shorting stricken City banks, is set to pay himself a windfall of over £30m this year after profits at his firm soared by almost a quarter. Odey Asset Management is today expected to file accounts showing that it [...]
Households are saving extra cash December 13, 2009 ONE in twenty British households are now in negative equity, following the dramatic slip in the housing market. The Bank of England’s Quarterly bulletin, published today, reveals the proportion of those in negative equity rose from one per cent in 2007, to five per cent this year. Though not as severe as the 11 per [...]
Economics legend dies December 13, 2009 PAUL A. Samuelson, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in economics, died yesterday aged 94. An undergraduate at the University of Chicago and a graduate student at Harvard University, his 1941 PhD thesis, the “Foundations of Economic Analysis” is widely acknowledged for transforming and laying the foundations of modern economics. Samuelson taught from [...]
Hands in year long plan to sue Citigroup December 13, 2009 TERRA Firma’s £2bn lawsuit against Citigroup, which it accuses of lying during its buyout of music giant EMI two years ago, had been in the pipeline for 12 months. The private equity group led by Guy Hands finally decided to strike after Citi rejected a refinancing deal that would see £1bn of loans to EMI [...]
Stitzer set to woo investors December 13, 2009 CADBURY chief executive Todd Stitzer will today tell shareholders why they should not accept a hostile takeover from Kraft Foods as speculation mounted that the British confectioner is in talks with Hershey over a rival offer. Hershey is widely understood to be holding talks with Cadbury about a possible friendly takeover. At an eagerly anticipated [...]
$3.5bn Dubai repayment due December 13, 2009 DUBAI faces the first major hurdle in its struggle to resolve its debt crisis today as the $3.5bn (£2.2bn) bond by state-owned firm Nakheel expires. Last night there was no indication whether the Islamic bond, or sukuk, would be repaid on time. But the sukuk closed higher at 54 cents to the dollar on Friday [...]
London’s best sales growth for 3 years December 13, 2009 LONDON enjoyed its best sales growth since October 2006, with central London retail sales for November 13.3 per cent higher on a like-for-like basis than a year ago, according to the latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) out today. “These are great figures,” said Stephen Robertson, BRC’s director general. “These figures show that [...]
Bankers destroy value December 13, 2009 Bankers destroy £7 of value for every pound they create, according to new research by the New Economics Foundation. The research into the social value of different jobs concluded that hospital cleaners, for example, create more then £10 in value for every £1 they receive in pay. Advertising executives and tax accountants destroy even more [...]