Tube talks go up to the wire as strike looms February 10, 2014 UNIONS and transport officials will meet today as they try to ward off a second week of strike action on the London Underground. Both sides left the resolution service Acas on Friday night without a deal but pledged to “consider their positions” over the weekend. The RMT and TSSA unions are due to walk out [...]
Shoppers from China and Gulf flock to London February 10, 2014 LONDON’S high-end retailers enjoyed a boom in spending by Chinese customers over the first weekend of February as tourists flocked to the capital for Chinese New Year, according to the latest figures from payments firm WorldPay. The company, which handles nearly half of all card transactions in the UK, recorded a 47.4 per cent increase [...]
Flappy Bird fans all atwitter after creator pulls high-flying game February 10, 2014 FLAPPY Bird creator Nguyen Ha Dong last night pulled the plug on his high-flying and addictive game after announcing, “I cannot take this anymore”. The Vietnam-based games developer, whose deceptively simple free mobile game flew to the top in popularity at the Apple App Store and Google Android Play store, tweeted earlier, “22 hours from [...]
Spain gears up to overhaul tax regime ahead of general election February 10, 2014 SPAIN’S tax system is set to be overhauled ahead of next year’s general election as the government looks to make tax collection more efficient. Although details have not yet been finalised, officials are planning to cut income and corporate tax rates, while broadening the tax based by removing exemptions. The country hopes to increase its [...]
Professor calls for full denial over Blinkx note February 9, 2014 HARVARD Business School professor Ben Edelman has called on Blinkx, the online video search engine that he claims has engaged in “deceptive tactics”, to face up to his claims and issue a categorical denial. “Blinkx has been making ambiguous and, I believe, deceptive statements about acquisitions for some time,” Edelman told City AM. “Blinkx should [...]
Bottom Line: Clouds of uncertainty remain over shares February 9, 2014 Modern tech firms often have opaque business models that lead to headscratching – just look at the multi-billion dollar buyout offers from Facebook and Google for Snapchat, a firm with no revenue, let alone profit. But just because a business model isn’t blindingly obvious, it doesn’t mean it’s without merit. Enter Blinkx, the “internet media [...]
Dyson ploughs £5m into new lab to build future household robots February 9, 2014 SIR JAMES Dyson is investing £5m in a new robotics lab at London’s Imperial College that will focus on developing the next generation of robots that “see and think” like humans. The engineer behind the bagless vacuum cleaner has been working with the university since 2005 on creating machines that use vision to navigate their [...]
Landlords fight retailer Game over rent rules February 9, 2014 LANDLORDS and computer games seller Game will head to the Court of Appeal this week to find out whether the retailer owes rent for the first three months after its collapse into administration in March 2012. Four of the country’s biggest shop landlords – Hammerson, British Land, Intu and Land Securities – argue that the [...]
Candy Crush investors set for windfall from King’s US float February 9, 2014 KING, the firm behind hit mobile phone game Candy Crush Saga, is set to return millions to investors during an expected $5bn (£3bn) initial public offering (IPO) on America’s Nasdaq later this year. The company’s chairman and seed investor, Mel Morris, who provided initial funding to the game company from the £100m sale of matchmaking [...]
Dame Alison Carnwath calls for breaks of six years for mothers February 9, 2014 COMPANIES should allow women to take up to six years off to focus on raising their families, the FTSE 100’s only woman chairman has said. In an interview with The Financial Times today, Land Securities chairman – and City A.M. awards judge – Dame Alison Carnwath said companies would find “measurable economic benefits” by holding [...]
