AOL to sell or close Bebo April 7, 2010 AOL has confirmed it is looking to offload its social networking site Bebo, for which it paid $850 million (£557m) in 2008. Competition from social networking including Facebook and MySpace has left behind Bebo which has been a hit in the UK but slumped elsewhere. The company will close the site, which is targeted at [...]
Ready, Steady, Go April 6, 2010 GORDON BROWN and David Cameron hit the campaign trail yesterday, after the Prime Minister announced an election on 6 May. Brown kicked off what aides called a “kitchens and canteens” campaign by visiting shop workers at a Rochester branch of Wm Morrison. And Cameron tried to prove his party’s commitment to the NHS by visiting [...]
GREEK SCARE SENDS BOND YIELDS UP April 6, 2010 GREEK borrowing costs soared yesterday after Athens was forced to deny suggestions it had tried to renegotiate the rescue package hammered out by eurozone countries last month. The spread between Greek and German 10-year Treasuries hit 406 basis points before falling back to 377 basis points, soothed by a statement from the government insisting it [...]
Fed says rates could stay low April 6, 2010 THE Federal Reserve could keep interest rates ultra-low for even longer than investors expect if the economic outlook worsens or inflation drops, minutes from the central bank’s last meeting suggested. The minutes of the Fed’s March gathering showed lingering concern about the economy’s prospects, with policymakers indicating they were in no hurry to raise interest [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 6, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES GAZPROM TO LAUNCH RUSSIA’S BIGGEST BOND ISSUE Gazprom will seek to raise Rbs300bn ($10.2bn) in Russia’s biggest bond issue programme to date, as the gas export monopoly tries to take advantage of a booming domestic bond market to restructure its debts and raise funds for upcoming investments. Gazprom said it had mandated Gazprombank, [...]
The truth about the budget deficit April 6, 2010 Bizarre – that is the only way to describe the government’s claim that Britain’s cripplingly high budget deficit is somehow at just the “right” level and that attempting to cut it at a faster rate would jeopardise the recovery. It is one of Gordon Brown’s central claims of the election campaign, yet it has no [...]
Delay for Rio BHP tie up April 6, 2010 AUSTRALIAN competition authorities have delayed approval of a joint venture between iron ore giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton until next month. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) was expected to give the venture the go-ahead in February but then pushed the date to April. The latest delay is because the ACCC wants to [...]
Australia hikes interest rates April 6, 2010 Australia’s central bank raised its interest rate to a 14-month high of 4.25 per cent yesterday, flagging further moves ahead as the resource-rich nation rides a tide of Asian demand. The Reserve Bank of Australia hiked the rate by 25 basis points, its fifth increase in seven months. “With growth likely to be around trend [...]
Facebook bars staff share sales April 6, 2010 Facebook has banned employees from selling stock on the secondary market outside of specific trading windows as demand for the shares heats up. The social networking giant said the new rules were introduced to stop employees falling foul of US Securities and Exchange Commission mandates. A Facebook representative said the policy was designed to protect [...]
Race for RBS assets hots up as bids fly in April 6, 2010 THE main players in the battle to snap up 318 Royal Bank of Scotland branches have all tabled indicative bids, City A.M. has learned. Santander, Virgin Money and National Australia Bank, the owner of Clydesdale Bank, have all privately confirmed their interest in the state-owned assets. It is also thought Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentina (BBVA) [...]
