London helps Winkworth December 10, 2012 REAL estate agency Winkworth warned yesterday that rising stamp duty on the priciest homes has quelled demand for properties worth more than £2m. The firm said in a trading update that it will meet forecasts, in spite of a sales drought at the very top of the market. The rest of London is doing well, [...]
Shanks inks smashing deal with Heineken December 10, 2012 Waste manager Shanks has won a contract with Heineken to recycle about 9m brown beer bottles, some 15,000 tons of glass, for an undisclosed sum. The brewer has traditionally sold its beers in both green and brown bottles, but the latter will now be phased out.
Financial Times bid weighed up by Bloomberg December 10, 2012 NEW York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is weighing up whether to make a bid for The Financial Times Group, which includes the namesake paper and a half interest in The Economist magazine, the New York Times reported, citing three people close to the mayor. Pearson, the publisher of FT, is about to lose two of [...]
Twitter faces Companies House penalty for missing deadlines December 10, 2012 TWITTER will be slapped with an automatic fine for failing to file its UK accounts on time, Companies House said yesterday. The social network, whose Twitter UK Limited and TweetDeck Limited subsidiaries are registered in the UK, had been due to post its 2011 accounts by the end of September. But the internet giant is [...]
Imagination increases offer for tech firm to top a rival buyer December 10, 2012 BRITISH microprocessing firm Imagination Technologies has increased its offer to acquire the operating business of MIPS Technologies to $80m (£50m) after a rival firm topped its bid. Mobile chip designer CEVA made a $75m bid for MIPS in November, outweighing Imagination’s $60m original offer in November. Imagination said yesterday it had signed a higher revised [...]
Lynch in new challenge to HP December 10, 2012 MIKE Lynch, the British founder of Autonomy, said yesterday that he had not heard from Hewlett-Packard (HP), almost a month after HP accused former Autonomy bosses of account irregularities. HP wrote off over $5bn (£3.1bn) over the purchase of Autonomy, but Lynch, who denies the claims, said he believes in “innovation in all areas except [...]
No end to jobs boom in final months of 2012 December 10, 2012 THE LABOUR market continued its boom into November, with private sector demand more than offsetting public sector slack. Placements and vacancies rose at accelerated rates in the second to last month of the year, according to a survey by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation released yesterday. The bullish data came despite many analysts [...]
Surveyors point to broadly flat housing market in November December 10, 2012 THE HOUSING market muddled along in November, with mild falls in house prices, but improvements on other market measures. Prices slid at a slightly faster rate than in October, according to data out today from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, as indicated by a score of minus nine on their headline price index – [...]
OECD economists predict UK to show firmer growth in 2013 December 10, 2012 UK GROWTH is set to be firmer, if not rapid, in 2013, according to data out yesterday. The UK’s composite leading indicator, which is supposed to signpost turning points in economic cycles, saw another month of slight improvement, increasing from 100.3 in September to 100.5 in October. This 0.23 per cent increase follows on the heels [...]
After-tax profits dive across US business in weak third quarter December 10, 2012 US MANUFACTURERS, miners and wholesale traders all saw their profitability drop off in the third quarter, though professional services firms enjoyed improved earnings. After-tax profits across big US manufacturers dipped from $146.1bn (£88.1bn) to hit $132.5bn in the third quarter, according to data released yesterday by the US Census Bureau. Miners saw profits sag from $16.4bn [...]
