I recreated all my favourite TV tropes, from crawling through pipes to being two kids in a trenchcoat
Japan Tobacco to sell £798m drink business to Suntory Beverage & Food May 25, 2015 Suntory Beverage & Food announced yesterday its intention to purchase Japan Tobacco Inc.’s drink and vending and machine businesses for close to ¥150bn (£798m). As part of the deal, Japan Tobacco which owns the Camel and Amber Leaf cigarette brands in the UK, will offload its shares in its subsidiaries Japan Beverage Holdings and JT [...]
Vatican Bank profits soar but it turns down wealth accumulation May 25, 2015 Scandal-hit lender the Vatican Bank yesterday reported surging profits for 2014, as its leaders continue to try to turn the troubled institution around. The bank, formally known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), made €69.3m (£49m) in the year, up from €2.7m in 2013. Of that profit, €15.3m is retained by the bank with [...]
BlackBerry announces more job cuts as reorganisation takes hold May 25, 2015 BlackBerry has announced that it will make job cuts as it consolidates. However, the struggling Canadian smartphone maker declined to say how many jobs would go, and where specifically the cuts would fall. A statement from the firm said: “We have made the decision to consolidate our device software, hardware and applications business, impacting a [...]
Taiwanese insurer Fubon Life Insurance snaps up site of Madame Tussauds May 25, 2015 Top tourist attraction Madame Tussauds Marylebone site has been snapped up by a Taiwanese insurer in a multi-million pound deal. Fubon Life Insurance bought the premises, which has been home to the waxwork museum for about 130 years, for £348.8m according to media reports. It's located on Marylebone Road near Regents Park and displays waxworks figures of [...]
After banning Uber in Guangzhou, the Chinese government is starting its own online taxi service in the city May 25, 2015 The Chinese city of Guangzhou may have banned Uber, but that hasn’t stopped its municipal government setting up its own, strikingly similar, online taxi company. The new company will be named Ruyue, which means “by appointment”. Uber was shut down in the city a matter of weeks ago, after authorities raided its offices, murmuring about [...]
Patrick Drahi’s Altice and John Malone’s Charter Communications are fighting to take over Time Warner Cable May 25, 2015 Time Warner Cable (TWC), one of the biggest US cable companies, could become the subject of a takeover clash. John Malone, a US cable tycoon who owns Charter Communications, and France’s Altice are vying to buy TWC for $48bn (£31bn), sources told the Financial Times. Discussions are said to be ongoing through the weekend, with [...]
Germany denies reports Greece could get a parallel currency May 22, 2015 Germany's finance ministry has denied reports it was considering offering Greece its own parallel currency. Earlier today Germany's finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was said to have raised the possibility of offering it a parallel currency during a recent meeting, according to a a report by Bloomberg. This prompted speculation that Germany was preparing for the cash strapped country's [...]
Plus500 suspends shares after it suffers a shorting attack May 22, 2015 Beleaguered spread-betting firm Plus500 today suspended trading in its shares on London's junior market, following a sell-off sparked by a hedge fund's blog post which said it was shorting the company's stock. US hedge fund Cable Car said it was shorting the trading platform with a price target of 76 pence per share. This sent the [...]
UK government faces legal action from British American Tobacco and Philip Morris over plain packaging law May 22, 2015 The UK government is facing legal action from two of the world's biggest tobacco companies over its new “plain packaging” law. British American Tobacco and Philip Morris have filed law suits with the High Court, claiming the regulation breaches EU and English property trademark laws. Marc Firestone, senior vice president of Philip Morris, [...]
Young landlords are revitalising Britain’s ailing pub industry May 22, 2015 Over the last three years young pub landlords breathed new life into Britain's ailing pub industry, helping it bounce back from a painful period of decline. Youthful landlords have tapped into the nation's penchant for pub food, helping the sector's sales rise by 23 per cent in the three years to March 2015, according to data published [...]