What the other papers say this morning – 31 January 2014 January 30, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Renault and Nissan deepen alliance Renault and Nissan will fully combine their manufacturing and research and development operations to save at least €4.3bn (£3.5bn) a year by 2016, in the most significant step toward full integration since the alliance was founded. The 15-year-old Franco-Japanese alliance, which has kept both carmakers from financial ruin, [...]
US growth rolls on to end of 2013 despite shutdown fears January 30, 2014 THE US economy weathered the federal government shutdown in the last quarter of 2013, according to official statistics revealed yesterday. On an annualised basis, the economy grew by 3.2 per cent between October and December. Increased consumption and investment held up the expansion of the economy. “Government consumption took a massive hit of 4.9 per [...]
Blinkx shares plunge 30pc on academic blog January 30, 2014 BLINKX, the online video search company spun out of Mike Lynch’s Autonomy, saw its share price plummet by 30 per cent yesterday after a Harvard professor published a blog post questioning the firm’s advertising tactics. In an article published on Tuesday Professor Benjamin Edelman claimed that Blinkx had links with companies that used “deceptive tactics” [...]
Satya Nadella eyed as next Microsoft boss January 30, 2014 MICROSOFT’S board was last night reported to be preparing to name internal executive Satya Nadella as the software company’s next chief executive. The board is also considering replacing chairman Bill Gates with lead independent director John Thompson, Bloomberg said.
Stock drops on Serco warning over earnings January 30, 2014 TROUBLED outsourcing firm Serco yesterday warned that profits would fall in 2014, overshadowing the good news that its ban on winning new government work had been lifted. The FTSE 100-quoted company was barred from winning fresh government contracts due to allegations of fraud, but yesterday the Cabinet Office said that the firm “had developed a [...]
Fat finger mistake pushes HSBC shares up 10pc in just 30 seconds January 30, 2014 SHARES in HSBC were briefly suspended yesterday after a so-called fat finger trade sent the stock soaring by almost 10 per cent in just 30 seconds. An single order placed at 11.20am for 18,049 – worth around £113.5m – was followed by hundreds more, sending shares up to 688p. The jump prompted the London Stock Exchange’s [...]
UK productivity lags global rivals January 30, 2014 THE PRODUCTIVITY of British workers has dropped by more than almost all the G7 nations since the financial crisis, even as the labour market appears to be recovering. A new international comparison by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the UK is beating only Italy in terms of productivity changes since 2007, with [...]
John Lewis makes changes to its gold-plated final salary scheme January 30, 2014 JOHN LEWIS is set to make cuts to its generous pension scheme, one of the few non-contributory final-salary schemes left in the country. The department store group, which also owns Waitrose supermarkets, launched a review of its pension scheme in March last year after revealing that the deficit had ballooned to £840m. The draft proposals [...]
Shell warns of writedowns as profits plunge January 30, 2014 ROYAL Dutch Shell’s new chief executive yesterday warned that there could be more writedowns in the oil giant’s North American shale interests, oil products and onshore Nigeria, as fourth-quarter results confirmed a mammoth decline in earnings. Ben van Beurden, who took over from Peter Voser at the start of this year, insisted that “Shell’s long-term [...]
Analyst Views: How impressed were you with Shell’s results and strategy update? January 30, 2014 NEILL MORTON | INVESTEC The headline numbers are broadly in line with the profit warning earlier this month. The chief executive’s message is pretty much what we believe the market wanted to hear. After Shell’s growth drive of recent years, it is “changing emphasis” in 2014 “to improve our returns”. LUCAS HERRMANN | DEUTSCHE BANK [...]
