Google and Samsung sign up for a 10-year patent licensing deal January 26, 2014 Google and Samsung Electronics, which are frequently involved in patent infringement lawsuits but not against each other, yesterday announced they have reached a global patent cross-licensing agreement. The deal covers patents currently owned by the companies, as well as any filed in the next 10 years, the companies said in a release. Financial terms were [...]
Dubai shares lead losses across region as UAE reassures on Sheikh January 26, 2014 Shares in Dubai and Abu Dhabi tumbled yesterday, leading a region-wide decline and following news that the President of the United Arab Emirates had suffered a stroke. Dubai’s bourse, which has been driven to hefty gains by local retail investors, fell 2.2 per cent – recording its biggest one-day loss in more than two months [...]
Santander floats US car finance arm as private investors sell up January 23, 2014 SANTANDER Consumer USA successfully floated yesterday as the parent banking group and a range of private equity firms sold stakes in the unit. The initial public offering sold 21.6 per cent of the car finance unit in a deal valuing the whole business at $8.3bn (£5bn). Banco Santander sold a four per cent stake and [...]
Floats are stacking up on Aim as pallet maker RM2 makes debut January 6, 2014 PALLET manufacturer RM2 joined the junior stock market yesterday after raising £137.2m to finance its expansion plans. The IPO is one of the biggest floats of the past year on the Alternative Investment Market. RM2 designs, makes and supplies pallets for transporting goods, using materials it claims are much stronger than the traditional wooden designs. [...]
Japanese business conditions up – but is this as good as it gets for Abenomics? December 16, 2013 The Bank of Japan's Tankan survey has shown a further improvement in business conditions in the fourth quarter. However, the pace of improvement has flagging pointing to a slowdown in GDP growth, according to Capital Economics. The headline index of business conditions for large manufacturers rose from +12 in the third quarter to +16 in [...]
Bottom Line: Bubble fears will always haunt Dubai floats December 3, 2013 PEOPLE have short memories. Except, that is, about situations where they’ve lost a lot of money. Since the financial crisis there are a lot more investors in the market who’ve been burnt before – and they’ll never forget that time Dubai property prices fell over 50 per cent between 2008 and 2010. So it’s no [...]
Funding for Lending use triples but businesses see much less than households December 2, 2013 Use of the Bank of England's Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) tripled in the third quarter. Net lending jumped to £5.8bn, against £1.6bn in the second quarter – the biggest quarterly net lending flow since the scheme was introduced last summer. The Bank's latest data show that 21 banks and building societies took out £5.5bn [...]
Iceland moves back into white goods market with online tie-up November 27, 2013 FROZEN food specialist Iceland is moving back into white goods by starting an online appliances store in partnership with DRL Limited – the parent company that launched Appliances Online more than 10 years ago. Iceland stopped selling non-food products in 2009 when chief executive Malcolm Walker decided to close its in-store electricals showrooms and use the [...]
Osborne targets budget surplus September 30, 2013 GEORGE Osborne yesterday promised a future Conservative government would attempt to run a budget surplus by 2020, indicating that his party’s commitment to austerity is here to stay. The chancellor told his party’s annual conference in Manchester that, assuming the economic recovery continues, he would seek to ensure the government’s income is more than its [...]
Airbnb doubles bookings June 19, 2012 US home rental site Airbnb said yesterday it had seen a dramatic rise in bookings in the last five months. The number of nights booked on its site has doubled to 10m as the number of properties listed also doubled to 200,000. Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s chief executive, has highlighted international expansion as the reason for [...]