HD boosts BSkyB profits January 27, 2010 BSkyB has announced it made an operating profit of £401m in the six months to December – up 3 per cent compared to 12 months earlier. The company added 172,000 new subscribers in the second quarter, growing its customer base to 9.7m – but short of its 10m target. The group posted first-half revenues of [...]
Pinsent joins JJB board as sales plunge January 27, 2010 OLYMPIC gold winning rower Matthew Pinsent has joined the board of JJB – as the troubled retailer announced a 28 per cent decline in sales. Pinsent has been appointed as a non-executive director in a bid to breathe new life into the business. Total group revenue for same store sales for the financial year plunged [...]
Apple surprises with $499 iPad January 27, 2010 APPLE last night unveiled the iPad – a gadget it said would revolutionise the way that consumers surf the internet, watch movies and TV, and read books and magazines. After months of hype, Steve Jobs, Apple chief executive, launched the tablet computer that sports a high-resolution 9.7 inch, full-colour touch screen in a conference hall [...]
Greek bonds hit by China January 27, 2010 GREEK government bonds were crushed yesterday after the finance ministry denied a report that it had hired Goldman Sachs to promote the sale of more than £20bn worth of Greek bonds to the Chinese. Traders had hoped that a major funding in China could help its budget crisis. Reports had also suggested that the government, [...]
No wonder there is no British Apple January 27, 2010 WHY isn’t there a British Apple? The sight of Steve Jobs standing up again on stage last night to unveil yet another blockbuster – this time, the iPad – is a stark reminder of how bad we have become at creating world-beating corporate giants. We’re still able to create a steady stream of small, successful [...]
Money markets face curbs January 27, 2010 US securities regulators have decided to adopt rules aimed at making money market funds a safer investment after the collapse of the Reserve Primary Fund triggered a run on the $3.24 trillion (£2 trillion) market in 2008. The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday voted to bolster the funds’ liquidity, limit their riskier investments and to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 27, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES TWITTER WORKS ON TECHNOLOGY TO EVADE CENSORS Twitter, the internet social network, is developing technology it hopes will prevent the Chinese and Iranian governments being able to censor its users. Evan Williams, the chief executive and co-founder of Twitter, which has been credited with helping anti-government protesters in Iran to organise resistance, said [...]
Bond market fears rise January 27, 2010 The threat to the economy from a sell-off in the bond markets has moved to a more dangerous phase after the Bank of England ended its government debt buy-back programme, Robert Stheeman, chief executive of the Debt Management Office, warned yesterday. In an interview with the FT, Stheeman said it created uncertainty, which could lead [...]
E*Trade sees losses narrow January 27, 2010 Online broker E*Trade Financial Corp posted its 10th-straight quarterly loss yesterday, but it was a quarter of the size of the loss in the year-earlier quarter as the company made headway on bad loans. With its exposure to mortgage-market losses declining, E*Trade said it was now positioned for “sustainable, profitable growth.” E*Trade has been careful [...]
UK offers tax breaks to oil and gas firms January 27, 2010 THE government is offering tax breaks worth hundreds of millions of pounds to offshore oil and gas companies willing to drill in deep waters west of Shetland. The move was welcomed by the industry body, Oil and Gas UK. Malcolm Webb, its chief executive, said it could result in early investment of over £2bn and [...]
