S&P says euro crisis will drive housing lower January 17, 2013 EUROPEAN house prices are set to decline yet further in 2013, according to predictions from credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P). Spanish houses will lose around 7.8 per cent during the coming year, it forecasts, as the Eurozone debt crisis continues to hit the bloc’s fourth biggest economy. Core countries like France and the Netherlands will [...]
Big four make up lion’s share of £11bn accountancy fee income January 17, 2013 FEE income at Britain’s 60 biggest accountancy firms totalled almost £11bn last year, as the biggest firms gained work in consulting and corporate finance while the mid-tier firms fought to grow. The big four professional services firms – PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and KPMG – made up £8.35bn of the top 60 firms’ earnings, [...]
Ukraine seeks fresh IMF loans as industrial output plummets January 17, 2013 THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) is this month sending a mission to Ukraine to discuss a new loan package, after the former Soviet republic was hit with collapsing industrial activity. The IMF confirmed it would send a team on 29 January, after deputy prime minister Serhiy Arbuzov said the country wanted around $15bn (£9.4bn) credit earlier this [...]
King.com beats Zynga to steal Facebook crown January 17, 2013 BRITISH game developer King.com has leapfrogged US giant Zynga to the top of Facebook’s gaming charts. The company has seen its Candy Crush Saga puzzle game overtake FarmVille, the game that brought Zynga to prominence before it went public in December 2011. Candy Crush Saga is played by 9.7m people a day, to FarmVille’s 8.8m. [...]
Technology supplier ASML sees bookings drop as sector slows January 17, 2013 ASML, the world’s largest supplier of equipment for making microchips, said yesterday it had seen a fall in new orders during the fourth quarter of 2012, suggesting a slowdown in the market. Since ASML supplies much of the technology used to make the processors and graphics cards used in computers and smartphones, its performance is [...]
Mobile app payments company Bango soars on tie-up with O2 January 17, 2013 BRITISH mobile payments company Bango saw its shares rise almost nine per cent yesterday as the company launched a tie-up with Telefonica that will allow O2 users to pay for apps via their mobile bill. Bango is bringing the service to Telefonica’s 314m customers across the world, including UK network O2, which the Spanish telecoms [...]
Strong IT spending in UK boosts Computacenter in spite of euro January 17, 2013 IT FIRM Computacenter said yesterday strong demand for services in the UK had propelled rising revenues, even as a weak euro threatened to hit turnover. The company, which operates in more than 100 countries, said in constant currency terms its revenues had increased six per cent last year, but accounting for currency fluctuations, this was [...]
Land Securities takes control of X-Leisure as PY Gerbeau leaves January 17, 2013 UK real estate giant Land Securities yesterday took control of X-Leisure, the owner of venues including the Xscape indoor ski slopes and Brighton Marina, for £111.9m. The property giant said it had completed the deal, first outlined in December, with Capital and Regional and Area Property Partners to buy a further 42 per cent stake [...]
Mobile advert spending set to double by 2016 January 17, 2013 ADVERTISING spending on mobile phones is forecast to double in the next three years, with the market set to become worth almost $25bn (£15.6bn) by 2016. Figures from research firm Gartner claim that the increasing number of people browsing the web and using apps on smartphones and tablets mean advertising revenue will rocket from $9.6bn [...]
Google ends search for new UK home January 17, 2013 GOOGLE confirmed yesterday it has bought a 2.4 acre site at King’s Cross to develop its new British headquarters, which the internet giant expects to open in 2016. The deal, described by developers King’s Cross Central as “one of the biggest ever commercial acquisitions in the UK”, will move Google from its current offices in [...]
