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 [...]
More upheavals at Highbury House October 19, 2005 Mike Frey has left troubled magazine publisher Highbury House Communications just 18 days after his appointment as chief operating officer. In a brief statement yesterday the company, headed by former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, said Frey, who had at one stage been due to take over as chief executive, had “left the company by mutual [...]
BSkyB makes its move into broadband October 17, 2005 Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is getting ready to make its play against cable rivals by acquiring high-speed internet provider Easynet this week for around £150m. The purchase will allow the broadcaster to offer what observers call the “triple play” of services into the home: broadband, video-ondemand and telephony, setting it in direct competition against rivals such [...]