Londoners face chaos on the Tube as unions mull coordinated strike January 27, 2014 A SECOND union has voted to strike on the Tube next week, leaving commuters facing 48 hours of chaos unless a compromise can be reached over Transport for London’s reforms. The TSSA said its members voted in favour of a walkout on 4-6 February followed by another strike on 11-13 February, joining the RMT union, [...]
US more open on data watch January 27, 2014 THE US is to let technology firms give customers more information on how the government collects their data, the Department of Justice said yesterday. Facebook, Apple and Google will be among those who can give out more information. If the rules are approved by a judge, they will be able to provide aggregate data on the requests [...]
Google snaps up London start up in £400m deal January 27, 2014 GOOGLE has paid £400m to take control of a London-based tech company co-founded by former chess prodigy and neuroscientist Demis Hassabis. DeepMind Technologies, which was set up by Hassabis and colleagues Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman in 2011, will work on research and development projects in artificial intelligence, which could one day be used in [...]
Lloyds probes its cashpoint and IT failings January 27, 2014 LLOYDS Banking Group yesterday launched an investigation into the IT failings that led to thousands of customers losing access to their cash on Sunday. The glitch affected debit cards and ATMs from the Lloyds, TSB, Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands. They all use the same IT systems. Paul Pester, boss of TSB, which is about [...]
Barclays plays down price war as it reveals similar fund charges January 27, 2014 BARCLAYS Stockbrokers yesterday said customers will not pick fund supermarkets based solely on price, as it revealed slightly higher tariffs for its new pricing model. The business, which has 300,000 customers, unveiled a 0.35 per cent tariff charge for customers yesterday, matching rival Fidelity. The two have both undercut market leader Hargreaves Lansdown, which will [...]
Coalition says it still has eye on cutting red tape January 27, 2014 BUSINESS growth must be the priority when regulators make decisions from now on, business minister Michael Fallon said yesterday. In a new crackdown on red tape Fallon said he is pushing hard to make departments hit the “one in, one out” rule for new regulations. But he admitted departments which are “regulatory in nature” such [...]
Business group says growth at six year peak January 27, 2014 THE LAST three months have seen the strongest economic growth in six years, according to new research ahead of today’s GDP growth figures. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) announces its new growth indicator today, suggesting the three months up to January have been the strongest since the third quarter of 2007, when the economy expanded [...]
Liberty extends its global reach with Ziggo deal January 27, 2014 LIBERTY Global cemented its latest push into Europe yesterday with a long-awaited takeover bid for Dutch cable operator Ziggo, which values the firm at €10bn (£8.25bn). Liberty said the deal represents a 38 per cent premium to Ziggo’s share price on 18 March, the day before the US media giant began its pursuit by taking [...]
Vodafone sent tumbling after AT&T backs off January 27, 2014 US MOBILE giant AT&T yesterday backed away from a long-rumoured bid for Vodafone, sending the telecoms group shares lower as it promised to stay away for at least six months. In a brief statement released at the request of the UK’s takeover panel, AT&T said it “does not intend to make an offer for Vodafone”. [...]
Bottom Line: Takeover off the table – but only for now January 27, 2014 IN THE US, where AT&T is based, there is no regulatory obligation for firms to comment on rumours or speculation that might link them to a bid. Often, the first the market will know of a deal is after a definitive merger agreement has been signed – in fact, even if talks are ongoing, a firm [...]
