Afilias IPO: Irish web domain company takes the plunge with new listing October 21, 2014 Afilias, the Dublin-based internet service provider, yesterday defied the stock market gloom to launch a $100m (£62m) listing. The flotation, which is being led by mid-market broker Numis, will see the company list on Aim, the junior stock market next month. The company has the second largest number of domain names in the world and [...]
Coca-Cola losing its fizz after trimming earning expectations October 21, 2014 THE FIZZ went out of Coca-Cola yesterday after it was forced to cut full-year earning forecasts on the back of lower quarterly profits. Shares fell nearly six per cent to their lowest level since the financial crisis after it trimmed forecasts for the rest of this year. The soft drinks maker, which is aiming to [...]
McDonald’s hit by falling sales across globe October 21, 2014 MCDONALDS’ sales weakened across the world last quarter as consumers were put off by the fast-food chain’s spiralling prices. Same-store sales across Europe dipped 1.4 per cent in the third quarter, while in the US they declined 3.3 per cent, amid an increasingly heated battle to attract price-conscious diners. Quarterly profits fell by 30 per [...]
Lloyds’ Antonio Horta-Osorio has a dig at economists at Institute of Chartered Accountants event October 21, 2014 Antonio Horta-Osorio knows how to play an audience. At last night’s Institute of Chartered Accountants event at KPMG, the Lloyds boss charmed the accountants in the room… by throwing economists to the lions. “Sadly I’m not an accountant myself,” he started “But I’ve never let that hold me back! “To be fair though, it’s probably [...]
After tourist gets trapped in Waterstones, Airbnb teams up to offer a night’s stay in Piccadilly store October 21, 2014 When the story of David Willis, the man who was stuck in a Waterstones store at night, emerged last week, team Airbnb smelled an opportunity. Why not offer a night’s stay in the store? Luckily Waterstones’ retail director Rik McShane agreed. “Amidst the story were a great many messages from people exclaiming how much they [...]
Techcrunch Disrupt: Mike Butcher and Morten Lund‘s make-up selfie October 21, 2014 Techcrunch Disrupt came to a close last night, and with it the City’s hosting of mini-Silicon Valley. Tweeters were almost united in their favourite talk of the conference – between early Skype investor and Danish VC, Morten Lund and TechCrunch editor Mike Butcher. This is their pre-stage snazzy selfie.
BAE takes flight in cyber security sector with $233m bid for SilverSky October 21, 2014 Defence firm BAE Systems is looking to expand into the cyber security sector with a $232.5m (£144.2m) bid for SilverSky. SilverSky, owned by US company Perimeter Internetworking, is a cloud-based security services provider with 5,500 customers in the financial services, retail, healthcare, energy, critical infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. It is focused mainly on the US [...]
Full steam ahead at Eurostar as passengers and revenue rise October 21, 2014 Eurostar has announced that both its passenger numbers and sales revenue for the year are up, the 10th consecutive year this has been the case. The rail provider is also adding new routes. 2.8m people used the high-speed service in summer 2014 compared to 2.7m the year before. Sales revenue increased from £207m to £211m, [...]
Car insurance price decline is over, says AA October 21, 2014 CAR INSURANCE premiums rose in the third quarter of 2014 for the first time since 2012, according to the latest AA British Insurance Premium Index. The index revealed that the Shoparound average quote for a comprehensive car insurance, which is an average of the five cheapest premiums found for a nationwide basket of “customers”, increased by [...]
Index expecting $10bn EU startup October 21, 2014 LONDON’S top venture capitalists expect the European startup scene to continue turning out hit tech firms, with a partner at Index Ventures predicting Europe will produce a $10bn (£6.2bn) firm within three years. “We will likely see a couple of European $10bn exits in the next two or three years. The pipeline of European companies [...]