Real Madrid top Deloitte Football Money League as Champions League revamp boosts Premier League’s rivals
US spending aids Pearson November 2, 2005 Pearson, the publishing group, enjoyed a strong third quarter as the American government ploughed funds into education. The group that publishes the Financial Times posted a 20 per cent increase in operating profit as sales moved ahead 10 per cent in the nine months to 30 September. Its key education division posted a 13 per [...]
Co-op will vote against BSkyB at AGM November 2, 2005 Pay TV broadcaster BSkyB suffered a fresh blow to its share buyback plans after shareholder Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) announced it would vote against the proposal at what is expected to be a stormy AGM this Friday. The insurer, which joins a growing list of institutional investors who have threatened to scupper the plan, said [...]
AOL’s co-founder Case quits Time Warner November 1, 2005 The curtain came down yesterday on what some consider to be one of the biggest corporate mistakes of recent times as Steve Case, co-founder of AOL, quit the board of Time Warner. Case was instrumental in brokering a deal in 2000 that saw AOL merge with Time Warner creating the world’s largest media company in [...]
L&G blocks Sky’s plan for buyback October 31, 2005 BSkyB is set for a stormy Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday after major shareholder Legal & General (L&G) came out publicly over the weekend against the company’s share buyback plan. There is a history of acrimony between BSkyB and L&G — the fund manager voted against a buyback plan last year. Shareholder News Corp, [...]
Bad news as poor growth hits Reuters October 28, 2005 Shares in Reuters fell by more than 5 per cent yesterday as City followers were unimpressed with the media company’s failure to raise its second half growth forecasts. The company’s stock fell as much as 20p to 346p in early trading before recovering slightly. The data and news provider reported an underlying 1 per cent [...]
Eutelsat’s IPO abandoned October 28, 2005 Eutelsat, the world’s third largest satellite operator, dramatically abandoned its planned initial public offering (IPO) on the Paris Euronext late last night, citing volatile European stock markets. The news comes after Eutelsat was forced to slash its IPO valuation by 20 per cent to around €2.7bn (£1.83bn) on Tuesday, because investors thought its price was [...]
£1.7m success for Rooney’s off-field team October 28, 2005 The success of footballer Wayne Rooney seems to be reflected in his management company Formation Group, which reported a strong set of full-year results. The sports marketing and management business reported an 11 per cent increase in pre-tax profits before amortisation to £1.7m for the 12 months to 31 August on sales of £14.9m compared [...]
Firms’ shock at tips October 26, 2005 Reporting by City Slickers James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul at the Daily Mirror caused companies to put out apologetic statements, a court heard yesterday. The former Mirror financial journalists are accused of using their City Slickers column to manipulate share prices. On day six of the trial at Southwark Crown Court jurors were told how [...]
Berliner falls to Monty October 26, 2005 A media company run by former Mirror Group chief executive David Montgomery has snapped up Berlin’s biggest-selling broadsheet newspaper. Mecom, together with Anglo American private equity group Veronis Suhler Stevenson, has bought the Berliner Zeitung, whose circulation is 185,000, as well as Berlin’s top tabloid paper, Berliner Kurier, whose circulation is 121,000. Talks with the [...]
M&A work boosts Huntsworth income October 19, 2005 PR group Huntsworth has reported that income in its core public relations and healthcare division has risen above last year’s. The company, which owns investor and financial PR companies Citigate Dewe Rogerson and Hudson Sandler, saw like-for-like income rise 3.7 per cent in the six months to 30 June. Rising stock markets and the increased [...]