At last: some competition for the BBC’s iPlayer September 3, 2009 WHEN the BBC released its iPlayer at the tail-end of 2007, few expected it to be such a runaway success. But according to Ofcom, a staggering 15 per cent of consumers with a broadband connection – or some 5.2m people – now regularly use the iPlayer to catch up with BBC shows. To put these [...]
Go-Ahead on track despite profit slump September 3, 2009 TRANSPORT group Go-Ahead said yesterday that it does not expect the economy to recover until 2011, but that its business is healthy enough to keep it on track until then. The firm, which operates bus companies and runs three London rail franchises, saw full year pre-tax profit fall 60 per cent from last year, to [...]
HIGH SPIRITS September 3, 2009 DRINKS maker Pernod Ricard yesterday posted a 12.5 per cent rise in annual profits to €945m (£829m), boosted by its acquisition of Vin & Spirit, the maker of Absolut vodka. Sales increased by nine per cent to €7.2bn. The world’s second biggest drinks maker, known for its anise flavoured liquor, warned of a tough 2009 [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 3, 2009 Pinsent MasonsThe law firm has appointed Raymond Beven as a London-based partner, responsible for leading the transport team within the firm’s projects and international construction group. Beven will be tasked with working across a broad transport portfolio including airports, rail and ports and projects in the Middle East, Caspian region and Europe. He joins from [...]
Eckoh set for board fireworks September 3, 2009 Shareholders in speech recognition technology provider Eckoh are today due to vote at a general meeting on proposals put forward by the firm’s largest shareholder, OCS Management, which is trying to wrest control of the board. OCS has repeatedly criticised the firm’s performance and wishes to elect its own representative, chairman of Tissue Regenix John [...]
Online poker wins for Playtech September 3, 2009 Online casino and poker software firm Playtech yesterday posted a 36.5 per cent rise in first-half pre-tax profit and said its William Hill joint venture was back on track, despite warning in July it was not progressing as well as expected. The group made a pre-tax profit of €32.8m for the six months to end [...]
Galliford Try wins contracts September 3, 2009 Housebuilder Galliford Try announced yesterday that it had secured several health sector contracts worth a total £48.6m The contracts will see Galliford become the principal supply chain partner to design and build three new healthcare centres for NHS Grampian in Scotland. It has also secured three contracts in Liverpool and will be refurbishing wards at [...]
Bovis Homes raises 60m in cash call September 3, 2009 HOUSEBUILDER Bovis Homes yesterday launched a £60m share placing to take advantage of depressed land values. Bovis said that its recent half year results showed it had maintained a net cash position of £7m despite the economic turmoil and it was beginning to see a number of opportunities to acquire land for development. The group [...]
Daimler and Porsche set to scale back working hours to offset sales slump September 3, 2009 GERMAN car-making giants Daimler and Porsche are to cut back working hours at their plants in an effort to offset the impact of a slump in sales that has lasted for a year. Daimler said it would put staff at most of its German sites on short hours for the fourth quarter of the year, [...]
easyJet to quit East Midlands and cull flights from Luton due to higher taxes September 3, 2009 LOW-COST airline easyJet said yesterday that it will ground one in five Luton flights and exit East Midlands airport, with the loss of at least 160 jobs, blaming high airport costs and a rise in passenger taxes. Europe’s second-largest budget airline said it needs to switch some resources from Britain to continental Europe, and said [...]
