Financial fears over another crash subside November 19, 2012 THE CITY’S fears over the prospect of being hit by another crash have subsided, according to a Bank of England report published yesterday. UK banks, insurers and investment funds have bounced back to confidence levels last seen in the first half of 2011, the survey said. Only one in five respondents consider the probability of [...]
Positive housing market figures give boost to US recovery hopes November 19, 2012 AMERICA’S ailing housing market could be on the mend, according to two positive surveys released across the pond yesterday. US homebuilder sentiment rose for a seventh consecutive month in November and hit its highest level in over six years, according to one widely-regarded survey. The National Association of Home Builders’ housing market index, conducted with [...]
Statistics office to run rule over Osborne’s QE plan in early 2013 November 19, 2012 THE OFFICE for National Statistics (ONS) has said it will not rule before January on whether the UK’s finances will be affected by a change to the handling of interest on the Bank of England’s £375bn of gilt holdings. The change could affect whether chancellor George Osborne meets politically sensitive deficit reduction targets. But an [...]
UK’s WANdisco buys out Silicon Valley company November 19, 2012 SHEFFIELD-BORN software company WANdisco yesterday announced it had bought out Silicon Valley data firm AltoStor, as the recently-listed UK outfit makes an aggressive move into the lucrative and fast-growing “Big Data” market. “It’s a real coup for the business,” chief executive David Richards told City A.M., revealing that WANdisco beat “a much bigger, established Silicon [...]
Cisco to take over Meraki in a $1.2bn cloud computing push November 19, 2012 NETWORKING equipment firm Cisco has bought San Francisco-based cloud management company Meraki for $1.2bn (£755m), in a deal that boosts the tech giant’s position in the cloud computing sector. The acquisition, announced early yesterday morning, is one of the biggest in the rapidly-expanding area. Meraki’s network technology allows companies to monitor and manage WiFi networks [...]
London tech bank sets up in California November 19, 2012 A BRITISH technology investment bank is today announcing plans to set up in California in a bid to benefit from the fast-growing firms in Silicon Valley. In a rare UK export to Silicon Valley, London-based Torch Partners, which focuses on high-growth companies in the tech, media and telecoms sectors, is set to set up in [...]
Former Brown minister Davies to chair Chime November 19, 2012 FORMER business minister and Standard Chartered chief Lord Mervyn Davies landed a new role as chairman of Chime Communications yesterday. Lord Davies, who served as Gordon Brown’s minister of state for trade, investment and small business from January 2009 until Brown left Downing Street in 2010, takes the role after Lord Bell stepped down to [...]
Profile: Lord Mervyn Davies November 19, 2012 LORD Mervyn Davies had a short tenure as a minister of state, but since Gordon Brown was voted out of Downing Street, he has had plenty to do. Baron Davies of Abersoch, to give the former chief executive of Standard Chartered his full title, is also a senior non-executive director at international drinks giant Diageo, [...]
Mail.Ru exits Zynga and Groupon November 19, 2012 Russian email-to-social networking group Mail.Ru has sold all the shares it owned in US daily deal website Groupon and Facebook game maker Zynga, the company announced yesterday. Mail.Ru has been cutting its holdings in US internet companies, including social networking site Facebook, gradually this year. As of 9 November, it owned 0.16 per cent of [...]
FFastFill driven by Asian growth November 19, 2012 Derivatives software provider FFastFill saw profits rise to £1.4m in the six months to the end of September, up from £100,000 in the same period last year, the company said yesterday. FFastFill saw its shares rise by almost four per cent as it posted a 49 per cent rise in revenues to £10.9m, driven partially [...]
