All-new Swift Sport ups the fun April 10, 2012 Unless you’re of the age group that wore Frankie Says T-Shirts and espadrilles back in the 80s whilst tooling about in a Suzuki 4×4 with a Rhino logo on the tyre cover, then you’re more likely to associate the Suzuki brand name with motorcycles than motorcars. Although Suzuki has sold 6,000 Suzuki Swift Sports since [...]
Facebook to pay $1bn for firm with 13 staff April 9, 2012 SOCIAL NETWORKING giant Facebook has snapped up Instagram, a two-year-old photo-sharing application that employs just 13 staff, for $1bn (£629m) in its largest acquisition to date. The hugely popular application allows users to add filters and special effects to photos taken on their smartphones and share them through Instagram or other networking sites like Facebook, [...]
Greece falls deeper into recession as Portuguese banks ask for record ECB funds April 9, 2012 GREECE’S economic nightmare continued apace last month as industrial output plummeted again, according to figures released yesterday, while Portugal’s banks were forced to tap the European Central Bank (ECB) for a record amount of funding. Unemployment figures due out on Thursday are expected to show another rise in Greek joblessness in January – 21 per [...]
Firms won’t be forced to offer third way pensions April 9, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT will not force companies to offer new “defined ambition” pensions, minister Steve Webb said yesterday as he announced plans to find a third way for private sector workers to save for their retirements. Webb wants more businesses to offer pensions that guarantee some certainty for employees, despite the near extinction of defined benefit [...]
Facebook must beware a return to the dot.com bubble days April 9, 2012 WHILE the City was enjoying its Easter Monday off, Wall Street was out in force. The most astonishing deal signed yesterday was Facebook’s $1bn purchase of Instagram. This was the social network’s biggest purchase to date and comes as a prelude to Facebook’s flotation – but the real story was that Instagram is just 551 [...]
Microsoft buys patents from AOL for $1.1bn April 9, 2012 AOL announced yesterday it is to sell 800 of its technology patents to Microsoft for nearly $1.1bn (£690m), sending shares in the internet firm soaring by 43 per cent. The company did not say what these patents cover but they are said to include rights from its current and former businesses, spanning from Netscape and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 9, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES AstraZeneca faces calls for shake-up Some of the biggest investors in AstraZeneca are calling for a radical shake-up of the board and executive team, as a new chairman prepares to join the underperforming Anglo-Swedish pharma group. With the company trading on the lowest price/earnings multiple in the sector, some shareholders have been lobbying [...]
Bond bubble fears grow as investors query debt valuation April 9, 2012 GOVERNMENT bonds are increasingly overvalued, according to a growing majority of personal finance advisers, stoking fears that money-printing and the market’s flight to “safe haven” assets are inflating a catastrophic bond bubble. More than three quarters of 520 professional investment advisers quizzed by the CFA Society UK, their industry body, now say that government debt [...]
City jobs cull hits prime rents April 9, 2012 THE CITY jobs bloodbath has helped drag property rental prices down for the sixth month in a row, according to research out today. As banks cut headcounts and freeze pay, rents in prime London homes fell 0.1 per cent in March – and the very top of the market has been hit hardest, claims estate [...]
Clinton project picks IPO banks April 9, 2012 For-profit higher education company Laureate Education, which has former US President Bill Clinton as honorary chancellor, has picked banks to lead an initial public offering that could raise as much as $750m. Laureate has chosen Morgan Stanley and Barclays to lead the proposed offering, sources said. Citigroup is also an active bookrunner in the IPO.
