Roche offers $5.7bn to buy gene business January 25, 2012 ROCHE Holding is offering $5.7bn (£3.6bn) in cash to buy US gene sequencing company Illumina in an unfriendly takeover bid that marks a major move by the Swiss drugmaker into the gene technology field. Gene sequencing is central to personalised medicine, which allows scientists to predict a patient’s response to a particular drug, both during [...]
Merkel: don’t dumb down the Eurozone January 25, 2012 EUROPE risks becoming little more than an interesting holiday destination if less competitive countries do not follow Germany’s example, Chancellor Angela Merkel told a packed hall in Davos yesterday. Germany’s premier warned against levelling down in order to make the Eurozone a coherent economic group. “Do we wish coherence and consistency without ambition?” she demanded, [...]
SUSTAINABILITY IS ABOUT MORE THAN THE ENVIRONMENT January 25, 2012 GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE, AVIVA SUSTAINABILITY is a word that crops up in a lot of the conversations going on at Davos. For many, it’s a shorthand for environmentalism, but for us it has to mean much more than that. Our relationships with customers can last for decades – running a sustainable business is how we [...]
Moynihan: crisis to leave scars January 25, 2012 BANK chiefs will “wear the scars” of the crisis for the rest of their lives, Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan said during a debate on the “future of capitalism” yesterday. Moynihan had jumped to defend himself from the charge that the “old industries and institutions” are incapable of producing the necessary changes post-crisis. [...]
Mandelson surprised by political shift to the right but says coalition will last January 25, 2012 THE COALITION will last out its intended term to 2015, according to Labour peer Peter Mandelson, although he added that it was “surprising” that the right, and not the left, has benefitted from the financial crisis. Mandelson was speaking at a breakfast hosted by WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell to discuss the shift in [...]
DAVOS TWEETS January 25, 2012 @Noriel 7.05pm Today new/social media day for me in Davos at the WEF: meetings with Sean Parker, Randi Zuckenberg and CEOs/founders of Scribd and Mashable @Wef 5.35pm Each one of us is made for goodness, even bankers – Archbishop Desmond Tutu @TheElders #WEF #Davos http://wef.ch/live ^ml @DrGerardLyons 2.54pm Panel of nobel economists couldn’t agree what [...]
Cameron will use Davos platform to lobby Brussels on burden of regulation January 25, 2012 PRIME Minister David Cameron will up the ante with Europe today by demanding that Brussels impose targets to bring down the burden of EU regulation on businesses. Just six weeks after vetoing an EU treaty because he could not get a single concession from other leaders, Cameron will make a “checklist” of demands on continental [...]
WHAT’S ON IN DAVOS TODAY January 25, 2012 7.30am: HSBC’s wholesale banking chief Samir Assaf is hosting a breakfast on “the southern silk road: a guide to 21st century economic growth”, featuring panellists from the International Monetary Fund, the Brazilian government and WSJ. 10.30am: Gordon Brown will chair a debate with the president of Guineau, Alpha Condé, Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan and South [...]
DAVOS DIARY January 25, 2012 IS Lord Mandelson missing the limelight? The dark prince was all over the forum like a rash yesterday, hot-footing it from one engagement to another. Before any sign of sun was showing through the thick snowclouds covering Davos yesterday, Mandy suited and booted for a breakfast hosted by WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell. Demonstrating [...]
Ericsson sees share price drop by 15pc January 25, 2012 SHARES in the Swedish telecoms company Ericsson plummeted 15 per cent yesterday – to the lowest point since 2008 – on a dismal set of fourth quarter results. Net income came in at SEK1.5bn, just a third of last year’s 4.4bn Swedish krona (£400m) and shocking analysts who were expecting to see net income nearer [...]
