BRITISH AIRWAYS EXPANDS ITS CITY ROUTES February 6, 2012 BRITISH Airways is expanding its routes from London City Airport this summer, with plans to launch new flights to Menorca, Angers and Quimper in late May.
Phone maker HTC is facing tough future February 6, 2012 TAIWANESE smartphone maker HTC has yet to catch up with market dominators Apple and Samsung, posting expectations of a weak quarter ahead despite strong growth in fiscal 2011. The world’s number five smartphone maker said it expects revenues of 65bn Taiwanese dollars (£1.4bn) in the first three months of this year, down from T$101.42bn in [...]
BT Openreach cost could be capped further by Ofcom February 6, 2012 BT HAS spoken out against regulations suggested to the European Commission by media watchdog Ofcom which would see the wholesale broadband provider’s prices further capped. This marks the third time Ofcom has regulated rental costs for BT Openreach, which dominates the wholesale broadband line rental market. As they currently stand in draft form, the changes [...]
Swedish Kinnevik bids for remaining chunk of Metro February 6, 2012 SWEDISH investment firm Kinnevik has made an all cash offer for the half of Metro International it does not already own, valuing the newspaper group at around 1.15bn Swedish krona (£108m). Kinnevik, which currently owns 46.6 per cent of Metro and controls 42.4 per cent of the votes, has offered a premium of approximately 46 per [...]
Taiwanese firm is caught in pincer February 6, 2012 THE demise of Nokia happened in slow motion. Apple released its first iPhone in 2007 but it took almost four years before Nokia admitted it was “standing on a burning platform”. Even now, some believe Nokia’s new Microsoft Windows smartphone, the Lumia, could snatch the Finnish handset maker from the jaws of defeat (for the [...]
O2 extends rugby sponsorship February 6, 2012 Telecoms giant O2 has renewed its sponsorship agreement with the Rugby Football Union, which has been in place since rugby turned professional in 1995. The deal – which extends the partnership until after the 2015 Rugby World Cup – gives O2 customers priority booking for England matches at Twickenham while the telecoms company supports the [...]
Brits dominate UK album market February 6, 2012 Brit music has returned to its Spice Girls heyday, with British artists accounting for 52.7 per cent of last year’s album sales in the UK, according to Official Charts Company data, pushing the US to its lowest market share (32.7 per cent) since 1999. But while Adele and Coldplay increased Britain’s share of the UK singles market [...]
GlobeOp directors back TPG bid February 6, 2012 The independent directors of takeover target GlobeOp Financial Services have re-stated their support for an offer from US private equity giant TPG Partners after the prospect of a rival bid emerged. They said the £508m TPG bid represents “good value” after US firm SS&C Technologies, a rival to GlobeOp, said it has been performing due [...]
Retail morale is knocked by sluggish sales February 6, 2012 RETAIL sales have remained sluggish at the start of 2012, despite earlier reports that weak consumer confidence was turning a corner. Like-for-like sales were down 0.3 per cent in January compared to the same time last year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said this morning. “Customers parked their worries in December and spent, encouraged by [...]
House prices set to stagnate February 6, 2012 HOUSE prices rose in January, defying the trend of recent months, Halifax said yesterday, as it warned that values are set to stagnate this year. Average prices increased 0.6 per cent to £160,907, though they fell 0.9 per cent over the quarter and are down 1.8 per cent since January 2011. “Low interest rates have [...]
