Playtech slowed by William Hill July 21, 2009 Online gambling software provider Playtech yesterday issued a profit warning after its joint venture with William Hill made a slower than expected start to the year. Playtech, which is one of the biggest firms on Aim and which last year took a 29 per cent stake in William Hill Online, said the joint venture was [...]
Governator agrees state budget July 21, 2009 California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers yesterday agreed to close a $26.3bn (£15.9bn) deficit in the state’s budget in a deal that includes $15.5bn in spending cuts, they said. The government of the most populous US state, also the world’s eighth-largest economy is facing the massive shortfall because of a plunge in revenues caused by [...]
UK is the spot for distress July 21, 2009 The UK has consistently had the most distressed companies in western Europe over the past two years, according to a report by Close Brothers. The UK has had nearly a quarter of all distressed companies so far this year, compared with 14 per cent in Germany, 12 per cent in Italy and six per cent [...]
Mastering the art of flirtation is essential in and out of the office July 20, 2009 IRATHER expected Elizabeth Clark, the author of the new manual Flirting for Dummies, to sound ditzy. Or glitzy. Or flirty. Or anything other than the down-to-earth, brisk and businesslike woman that answered the phone. It was my mistake to assume she would be otherwise. I fell into the very trap Clark, a corporate training expert, [...]
BT BOSS CAN’T GET BROADBAND AT HOME July 20, 2009 ARE YOU unable to get broadband access at home because of your postcode? Well, it turns out that you are in good company. Not even BT chairman Sir Michael Rake is able to access broadband in the usual way from his Hambledon Valley home, and is instead forced to be a guinea pig for the [...]
TORIES WILL PROBE POWER OF BIG BANKS July 20, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland could be carved up under a Conservative government, shadow chancellor George Osborne signalled yesterday. Speaking as he set out his vision of the future of financial regulation, Osborne said the Tories would task the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission with probing whether consolidation [...]
FSA warns on banking bonuses July 20, 2009 BANKS that have offered their staff a guaranteed bonus for longer than a year could be hit with heavy penalties, the head of the Financial Services Authority has warned, as the embattled City watchdog launches a crackdown to prove it has the teeth to regulate big institutions. In a letter sent to over 40 chief [...]
GM examines final Opel bids July 20, 2009 GENERAL Motors, the ailing US carmaker, is mulling over three takeover offers for its European business and is in talks with the UK and German governments to nail down the final terms of a deal. The bids include one by a consortium of Canadian car parts firm Magna and Russian-controlled Sberbank, one by Belgian private [...]
Tories ahead, but more work still needed July 20, 2009 IN the main, yesterday’s Tory White Paper was a success. George Osborne is right to want to abolish the FSA and make the Bank of England responsible for financial stability. I’m delighted the Tories won’t be proposing a separation of investment and retail banks any time soon, and that any break-up of Lloyds or RBS [...]
Halliburton profits take hit July 20, 2009 US oilfield services giant Halliburton saw its second-quarter profit plunge 48 per cent yesterday as weak exploration and production activity, particularly in the US, hit its results. The group said net profit came in at $262m (£159m), down from the $504m the company made in the same period last year. Sales slipped 22 per cent [...]