Expedia posts rise in profits February 5, 2013 ONLINE travel agency Expedia reported a rise in quarterly profit yesterday led by a 24 per cent surge in revenues. Adjusted for items, profit was $88.9m (£77.1m), or 63 cents a share, the company said last night on revenues of $975m. Gross bookings rose 19 per cent year on year. This compared to adjusted net [...]
Hollande says EU should fight in currency war February 5, 2013 FRENCH President Francois Hollande yesterday urged the Eurozone to set a medium-term target for its currency’s exchange rate, effectively bringing the EU into the currency wars. But Berlin quickly moved to slap down the suggestion that Europe would intervene in the currency market, saying the bloc should improve its competitiveness in other ways. Speaking two [...]
Cable says Funding for Lending Scheme is failing to help SMEs February 5, 2013 BANKS could be forced to publish small business lending data for each region on a weekly basis, Vince Cable will say this morning, in an effort to shame them into lending more to firms. The business secretary will argue that the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) – which gives cheap funds to banks to lend [...]
Boris wants to keep property tax in London February 5, 2013 BORIS Johnson will tonight call on the government to let London retain the tax charged on property sales in the capital, so he can use the money to stimulate housebuilding in the capital. The Mayor will tell the Chartered Institute of Housing that if City Hall took control of all the stamp duty receipts raised [...]
Malone restarts decade-long Murdoch feud February 5, 2013 LIBERTY Global’s interest in Virgin Media, announced yesterday, has reignited a rivalry between tycoons Rupert Murdoch and John Malone which dates back a decade. Buying Virgin Media will put Malone in direct competition with BSkyB, which Murdoch’s News Corp owns 39 per cent of. The two firms are battling for control of the growing pay-TV [...]
Virgin Media in $20bn sale to US billionaire February 5, 2013 VIRGIN MEDIA, Britain’s second-biggest broadband provider, will announce its sale to US tycoon John Malone’s Liberty Global as early as today, after a deal worth around $20bn (£12.8bn) was signed late last night in New York. The telecoms group, which offers pay-TV, broadband, landline and mobile services, announced talks yesterday morning, pointing to “a possible [...]
Four-play isn’t enough: Virgin should make this deal February 5, 2013 JOHN Malone’s bid makes good sense for Virgin Media. Born of the pioneering consolidation of UK cable and mobile firms to build Britain’s first quadruple-play media firm (providing broadband internet, fixed-line telephone, mobile telephone and television services), the resulting company has acknowledged it remains vulnerable to a larger-scale consolidation by its rivals. Joining a global [...]
Banks that stand to gain from pair of blockbuster tech deals February 5, 2013 BANKS working on Dell and Virgin Media’s multi-billion dollar deals are set for welcome advisory fees after a dearth of M&A activity in recent years, although one name in particular was conspicuous by its absence yesterday. Morgan Stanley had been a long-time adviser to Dell, having worked on many of the PC manufacturers biggest deals, [...]
BP given new $34bn bill for Gulf oil spill February 5, 2013 BP said yesterday it has been presented with a bill of at least $34bn (£21.7bn) from US states and local governments over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The figure, which BP says is based on “seriously flawed” methodology, would move the total cost of the disaster to more than $90bn. The announcement came [...]
Munich Re profits quadruple after dearth of catastrophes February 5, 2013 THE WORLD’S largest reinsurer yesterday reported an enormous jump in year-end profits following a quiet year for catastrophes. Munich Re smashed analysts’ already high expectations to announce a net profit of €3.2bn (£2.74bn) for 2012, up from €712m for the year before. Reinsurers help spread the risk of primary insurers and their profitability relies heavily [...]
