Malone restarts decade-long Murdoch feud February 5, 2013 LIBERTY Global’s interest in Virgin Media, announced yesterday, has reignited a rivalry between tycoons Rupert Murdoch and John Malone which dates back a decade. Buying Virgin Media will put Malone in direct competition with BSkyB, which Murdoch’s News Corp owns 39 per cent of. The two firms are battling for control of the growing pay-TV [...]
Virgin Media in $20bn sale to US billionaire February 5, 2013 VIRGIN MEDIA, Britain’s second-biggest broadband provider, will announce its sale to US tycoon John Malone’s Liberty Global as early as today, after a deal worth around $20bn (£12.8bn) was signed late last night in New York. The telecoms group, which offers pay-TV, broadband, landline and mobile services, announced talks yesterday morning, pointing to “a possible [...]
Four-play isn’t enough: Virgin should make this deal February 5, 2013 JOHN Malone’s bid makes good sense for Virgin Media. Born of the pioneering consolidation of UK cable and mobile firms to build Britain’s first quadruple-play media firm (providing broadband internet, fixed-line telephone, mobile telephone and television services), the resulting company has acknowledged it remains vulnerable to a larger-scale consolidation by its rivals. Joining a global [...]
Banks that stand to gain from pair of blockbuster tech deals February 5, 2013 BANKS working on Dell and Virgin Media’s multi-billion dollar deals are set for welcome advisory fees after a dearth of M&A activity in recent years, although one name in particular was conspicuous by its absence yesterday. Morgan Stanley had been a long-time adviser to Dell, having worked on many of the PC manufacturers biggest deals, [...]
BP given new $34bn bill for Gulf oil spill February 5, 2013 BP said yesterday it has been presented with a bill of at least $34bn (£21.7bn) from US states and local governments over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The figure, which BP says is based on “seriously flawed” methodology, would move the total cost of the disaster to more than $90bn. The announcement came [...]
Munich Re profits quadruple after dearth of catastrophes February 5, 2013 THE WORLD’S largest reinsurer yesterday reported an enormous jump in year-end profits following a quiet year for catastrophes. Munich Re smashed analysts’ already high expectations to announce a net profit of €3.2bn (£2.74bn) for 2012, up from €712m for the year before. Reinsurers help spread the risk of primary insurers and their profitability relies heavily [...]
Analyst Views | Has BP left its 2012 woes behind? February 5, 2013 RICHARD HUNTER HARGREAVES LANSDOWN The agreement on Rosneft leaves BP with exposure to the Russian region without some of the previous distractions, the dividend policy is progressive and the general streamlining of its operations form a strong base. SAM WAHAB SEYMOUR PIERCE BP has agreed divestments of $37.8bn since 2010, a year earlier than planned. [...]
BG warns on production goal for 2015 February 5, 2013 ENERGY firm BG Group warned yesterday that it would not hit its 2015 production target of more than 1m barrels of oil equivalent a day. In November, shares in the FTSE 100 explorer plummeted as it warned that this year’s output would be flat, largely due to delays to projects. New chief executive Chris Finlayson [...]
Boeing seeks Dreamliner test flight February 5, 2013 Boeing has asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for permission to conduct test flights of its 787 Dreamliner, suggesting the company is making progress in finding a solution to the battery problems that grounded the entire 787 fleet last month. The flight could test a potential fix for the problem. Yet passenger flights could still [...]
Glaxo to publish more trial data February 5, 2013 Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, which paid $3bn (£1.9bn) last year to settle charges that it gave misleading information on its medicines, said yesterday it would publish more of its clinical research data. When the company agreed to the fines last July, government officials called it the largest healthcare fraud case in US history, involving Glaxo drugs such [...]