Novell finally agrees a sale, with Attachmate buying it for £2.2bn November 22, 2010 Software provider Novell has agreed to be bought by privately held Attachmate for about $2.2bn (£1.38bn). The deal will also involve Novell selling some assets to a consortium led by Microsoft. Novell shares closed 6.5 per cent higher at $5.96 after the news but were still below the deal value of $6.10 per share. The [...]
Talk Talk faces Ofcom probe over sales practices November 22, 2010 OFCOM said yesterday it was investigating whether fixed telephone line and internet services provider TalkTalk Telecom mis-sold services to customers. The communications regulator said it had received over 1,000 complaints relating to TalkTalk’s selling practices, the most common of which appeared to have been that customers were either mis-sold the fixed line telephone service or [...]
BARNIER STAYS TOUGH ON BONUSES November 22, 2010 NO member state will escape the European Union’s stringent curbs on excessive bank pay, the bloc’s financial services chief Michel Barnier said yesterday. “There will not be a margin for flexibility,” Barnier said. The EU has approved what are seen as the toughest pay curbs in the world for the financial sector. They take effect [...]
Pensions buy stake in Westfield November 22, 2010 The Australian owner of the Westfield shopping centre has sold a stake in its Stratford shopping development to Dutch and Canadian pension funds for £871.5m. Westfield Group has agreed to sell a 50 per cent stake in the retail arm of the development next to the 2012 Olympic Games site to APG and the Canadian [...]
Polo starts share buyback November 22, 2010 Polo Resources began a £208m share buyback yesterday, lengthening the odds of another acquisition attempt. The AIM-listed firm bought 40m of its own shares yesterday for 5.205p each. Polo made a £129m offer for rival Caledon Resources in April, before pulling out in July due to volatile market conditions.
US finalises health insurance law November 22, 2010 New US health insurance spending rules aimed at ensuring more customer dollars go toward medical care were finalised yesterday, ending a source of uncertainty for investors in the sector. Insurers including Aetna and WellPoint have won welcome concessions about the implementation of the new rules, which require large group health plans to allocate at least [...]
BLAIR WOOS LAWYERS WITH FOND MEMORIES November 22, 2010 CITY law firm Clifford Chance last night played host to a gathering of 250 of the City’s most prominent names in a one-off chance to hear from former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair blitzed into the event and had to run off to another engagement immediately afterwards, but in between he found time to cover [...]
Commodity prices are not all that they seem November 22, 2010 THERE’S a tiny corner of pessimism in the commodity investment world. Amid a multitude of bulls, a few bears are pointing at what they think might be the unnoticed elephant in the room: large institutional investors. With the possibility of that demand reversing, should contracts for difference (CFD) traders perhaps be a little worried? Certainly [...]
Gifts with a sense of history November 22, 2010 IT’S no coincidence that the recession has overlapped with a surge in the popularity of all things old fashioned. If our confidence in a bold, sparkling future has faltered, our interest in the aesthetics of the past – and the values of quality, provenance and craftsmanship that go with it – has rocketed upwards. 1940s-themed [...]
THE VIX INDEX HINTS AT NOT ENOUGH FEAR November 22, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT VOLATILITY on the S&P 500 (as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index) has fallen by over 30 per cent since the end of August, even as equities and other financial instruments have ground higher. That was when Ben Bernanke signalled the likelihood of additional stimulus at Jackson Hole. By purchasing US [...]
