Britons top list for most spent on music apps February 19, 2014 BOOMING demand for mobile apps helped global spend on digital entertainment jump by 30 per cent last year, according to new figures released yesterday. Consumers spent $57bn (£34bn) on digital games, apps and online movies in 2013, up from $44bn the previous year, research analysts IHS Global Insight and App Annie said. Mobile apps – [...]
ITV takes a controlling stake in Teen Wolf producer DiGa Vision February 19, 2014 BROADCASTER ITV has taken a controlling stake in DiGa Vision, producer of US television series Teen Wolf. ITV yesterday announced that it will make a cash payment for a 51 per cent stake in DiGa Vision with a put and call option to buy the remainder of the company in between three and six years. [...]
Monitise’s results fail to impress February 19, 2014 MOBILE payments company Monitise yesterday blamed a rise in operating costs as it unveiled a loss for the second half of the year. The company reported a loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £10.2m for the six months to the end of December, compared with a £14.7m loss a year earlier. However, revenue [...]
App used to help buy a house as Barclays and Savills strike a deal February 19, 2014 AN APP has been used to help purchase a house for the first time, following a new partnership between Barclays and Savills Auctions. Barclays Pingit app was used by a homeowner to put a £23,000 deposit on a house in Mitcham, South London this month. The partnership will enable Savills Auctions customers to make a [...]
Ultra Electronics buys 3 Phoenix February 19, 2014 Defence and security company Ultra Electronics has purchased Virginia-based 3 Phoenix. The purchase price will consist of an initial cash consideration of $70m (£42m), alongside additional payments of up to $17m which will depend upon earnings growth over the following three years. The acquisition of 3 Phoenix is expected to boost Ultra Electronics’s earnings by [...]
Galliford Try sees record first half February 19, 2014 Building firm Galliford Try recorded an 18 per cent jump in both revenue and profit before tax in the second half of 2013, it said yesterday. Revenues jumped from £678.3m in the first six months of last year, up to £803.5m in the second half. Profits rose by almost £6m to £38.1m during the same period. [...]
Cerberus in talks with Safeway February 19, 2014 Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is currently in talks with US supermarket chain Safeway about a possible transaction, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday. Cerberus was one of the buyout firms that approached Safeway last year about a possible deal, Reuters said. Safeway said earlier yesterday it was in talks about possibly [...]
Insurers should do more to help customers save February 19, 2014 THE CONSUMER body Which? has called on insurers to do more to help customers save money when they renew their policies. The group found that consumers would like more information on pricing when deciding which policy to buy, including details about the price they have been paying for the previous year’s insurance. Which? executive director, Richard [...]
Central bank official: There’s no Eurozone threat from deflation February 19, 2014 A SENIOR European Central Bank (ECB) official yesterday brushed off suggestions that the Eurozone could suffer a period of deflation, going as far as to suggest that low inflation and a relatively strong euro could self-correct this year. Austrian central bank chief Ewald Nowotny also said it was not in the ECB’s remit to perform US-style [...]
Five-year low for confidence of China firms February 19, 2014 CHINESE business confidence slumped to the lowest recorded level in half a decade this month, according to a major survey. MNI’s China business indicator stands at only 50.2 for February, indicating that only a very narrow majority of executives in the country’s listed firms are optimistic about the economic climate. Any figure below 50 would suggest [...]