Kickstarter funds temporary Temple March 16, 2015 A CROWDFUNDING-backed art project by Burning Man artist David Best lit up the skies of Northern Ireland yesterday after investors helped to raise more than £30,000 last year to fund the project. Temple, as the timber installation is called, was partially funded through popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The installation is the brainchild of Best and [...]
City skills shortage: Almost two vacancies for each jobseeker March 16, 2015 Finance firms’ growth is being held back by a lack of workers, recruiter Robert Walters warned today. It has 10,560 vacancies on its books, but just 6,090 jobseekers to fill it. The burgeoning economic recovery has encouraged workers to look at moving jobs – Robert Walters has seen a 48 per cent rise in potential movers [...]
Holcim-Lafarge merger on hold over price issue March 16, 2015 THE MEGA-MERGER planned between French cement manufacturer Lafarge and its Swiss rival Holcim has been put on hold while the two firms renegotiate the terms of the deal. Holcim confirmed yesterday that “the combination agreement can no longer be pursued in its present form”. When the deal was announced in April 2014, it was described [...]
Vaping bars replace travel agents as high street sees drastic revamp March 16, 2015 OUR online shopping habits – and the rise of e-smoking – are changing the face of the high street, a new study out yesterday revealed. In the past year, huge numbers of mobile phone shops, pawnbrokers and cheque-cashing businesses, clothes stores, travel agents and recruitment agencies have closed. In their place vaping bars, parcel packaging [...]
CRH feeling the strain ahead of meeting to vote on acquisition March 16, 2015 THE DISRUPTION to Holcim and Lafarge’s proposed merger will have an impact across the market, perhaps nowhere more so than at Irish building materials firm CRH. In February, it was announced that CRH was to buy the assets that Holcim and Lafarge were discarding, in a deal worth €6.5bn (£4.6bn). Given that the merger has now [...]
Elliott names trio it wants for Alliance board March 16, 2015 ACTIVIST investor Elliott Advisors set out its stall against the management of FTSE100 investment group Alliance Trust yesterday, naming the three industry veterans it wants to add to the firm’s board. Elliott argues that Alliance has underperformed against its peers, and it says that adding the three to the board will help to sharpen management’s focus [...]
Ryanair charters towards launch of first flights to United States March 16, 2015 IRISH airline Ryanair has its eyes set on America and will begin pursuing transatlantic possibilities, the company reported yesterday. The flight service known for its “no-frills, low-cost” currently operates in 30 countries in Europe and North Africa, and is looking to expand to 12 to 14 cities in the United States. “European consumers want lower [...]
Investors get break from Quindell woes as board recommends offer March 16, 2015 SHARES in the embattled insurance outsourcer Quindell surged yesterday, closing up 22 per cent on the news its board was due to recommend a £640m takeover offer. The offer from law firm Slater & Gordon marks a reversal of fortunes for investors who have seen their shares pummelled since a report by short-seller Gotham City, [...]
UK information requests from Facebook rise 16pc to 4,416 March 16, 2015 Whitehall is making more requests for citizens’ personal information, Facebook reported yesterday. The social media giant’s Global Government Requests Report for the second half of 2014 said: “The vast majority of these requests relate to criminal cases, such as robberies or kidnappings.” Requested data ranged from “basic subscriber information, such as name and length of [...]
Mummy, where has the sun gone? March 16, 2015 WATCHERS of the sky are in for a treat on Friday as a total eclipse of the sun plunges Britain and many other places into darkness. And in a rare coincidence, Friday will also see two other rare if less spectacular celestial events: a Supermoon and the spring equinox.
