William Hill celebrates as punter loses £417,000 bet on Germany July 8, 2010 A BRITISH gambler placed the biggest World Cup bet of all time on Germany to beat Spain in the World Cup semi-final – and lost. The £417,000 wager – was placed with William Hill’s telephone betting service at odds of 10/11, meaning the punter would have walked off with just under £800,000 if Germany had [...]
Primark July 8, 2010 RECEIVED wisdom tells us that shoppers flock to quality in times of hardship. With less cash to spend, punters buy fewer items that are more likely to last. Primark’s performance would suggest otherwise. Sales in the last sixteen weeks have climbed nine per cent at constant currencies, and Shore Capital estimates like-for-likes are up seven [...]
BT and TalkTalk to fight piracy laws July 8, 2010 BT AND TalkTalk will fight controversial new anti-piracy laws in the courts, they revealed yesterday. The internet providers say the Digital Economy Act, which was rushed through parliament earlier this year, will unfairly target their users and could hurt their businesses. The “draconian” act could force ISPs to disconnect users suspected of repeatedly downloading copyrighted [...]
News Corp denies plans to offload troubled MySpace July 8, 2010 NEWS Corp has denied suggestions it is trying to offload its $580m (£383m) social network MySpace. The firm’s digital chief Jonathan Miller said there have been no discussions to sell the site, claiming reports to the contrary were “fabrications”. He said: “We are definitely not in any ongoing talks for a sale of MySpace.” Miller [...]
Phorm issues £2m of new shares for expansion in Brazil and China July 8, 2010 Personalised advertising firm Phorm yesterday announced it will issue 1m new shares to institutional investors to provide a £2m war-chest for its push into Brazil and China. The share placing was made by Mirabaud Securities. Advising on the placement – which will amount to 6.4 per cent of all shares after the issue – was [...]
More job cuts at Microsoft July 8, 2010 Microsoft is set to lay off more staff just days after humiliatingly laying to rest its Kin phone. The software giant plans to cut more jobs as early as this week. The losses will be on top of 5,000 announced last year. Sources close to the company say only a small number of jobs will [...]
Apple Mac sales rise 37 per cent July 8, 2010 New research shows sales of Apple’s Mac computers have been buoyed by the release of the iPad and a new version of its iPhone. Some analysts had speculated the devices could cannibalise Apple’s existing product range but sales in the US of its laptop and desktop computers are up 37 per cent year-on-year for the [...]
Hays has seen City jobs rise since Easter July 8, 2010 PRIVATE sector growth is offsetting cuts to public sector jobs, according to recruitment giant Hays, though fees earned in the UK fell six per cent in the last three months to to 30 June. The firm said the private sector had seen a 10 per cent growth in net fees since the last quarter, with [...]
Maersk lifts 2010 guidance July 8, 2010 DANISH group Moller-Maersk upgraded its earnings guidance for the full-year, yesterday saying its container shipping business had rebounded faster than expected. “The upgrade is due to a combination of (freight) rates and cost reductions,” chief executive Nils Smedegaard Andersen said. “We have taken $3bn out of the cost base on an annual basis, and that [...]
Spain’s diet of success July 8, 2010 HOLLAND vs SPAIN WHEN Holland take on Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final in Johannesburg they will come up against not just a highly accomplished team, but a whole culture of success. The Dutch are not short of players who have plied their trade across Europe, while the national team boast a 25-match unbeaten run. [...]
