US bookseller launches tablet November 7, 2011 US bookseller Barnes & Noble has introduced its first ever tablet to compete with Amazon and Apple for holiday sales. Barnes & Noble will charge $249 (£155) for the Nook tablet, which is expected to hit the shelves late next week. That compares to the $199 price tag on Amazon’s new Kindle Fire, which will [...]
ENRC plan is silly, says ex director Olisa November 7, 2011 FORMER ENRC director Ken Olisa yesterday slammed as “silly” a plan by the mining company to pay $650m (£405.6m) to buy the outstanding 75 per cent of Kazakh coal producer Shubarkol Komir from its founders. “The ENRC directors were ill advised to try to do this transaction. Not because it’s a bad deal – it’s not. [...]
InvenSense files to raise up to $85m in IPO November 7, 2011 CHIPMAKER InvenSense filed with US regulators yesterday to sell fewer shares at a lower price range than it had originally expected in its initial public offering (IPO) of common stock. InvenSense, which in August delayed its IPO due to market conditions, said it would sell up to 10m common shares priced at $7.00-$8.50 (£4.37-£5.30) each. [...]
Carphone hits forecasts as it lets US go November 7, 2011 CARPHONE Warehouse yesterday confirmed it has offloaded its US joint venture for $1.3bn (£810m). The sale of the blisteringly successful mobile phone business to its partner Best Buy was tinged with regret over the failure of its UK “Big Box” joint venture. It confirmed the long expected shuttering of its 11 white goods stores after [...]
Sale is a sensible move but it’s time to break out the cava, not champagne November 7, 2011 CARPHONE took the rough with the smooth yesterday, cashing in on one success while taking the failure of another on the chin. The US sale crystallises value for Carphone shareholders – who are in for a payday – but the deal is not spectacular in and of itself. Best Buy has factored in an expected [...]
Data traffic to jump ten-fold November 7, 2011 Mobile data traffic will grow 10-fold over the next five years as demand for video on the go continues to drive growth. According to new research by Ericsson, mobile broadband subscriptions grew 60 per cent in the last year and are expected to jump from 900m now to almost 5bn in 2016. Total smartphone traffic [...]
Telecity to start paying dividend November 7, 2011 Data centre operator Telecity said yesterday demand remains strong across its European markets and said its cash flows will enable it to start paying a dividend next year. The group, whose facilities are located in Europe’s major business centres like London and Paris, is seeing growth from cloud computing and social networking. Telecity, which plans [...]
Wimpey says sales solid for autumn November 7, 2011 HOMEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey said trading in the busy autumn selling period had been stable and it is on track to meet margin targets. The UK’s second-largest volume housebuilder by market value said its current order book for future completions stood at 6,265 homes, against 5,496 homes at the same point last year. The group is [...]
Google says disputes hurt progress November 7, 2011 Google’s lawyer has accused Microsoft of using its patent portfolio to capitalise on the success of Android, and that legal disputes are hindering innovation in the technology industry. Google’s patent counsel Tim Porter told the San Francisco Chronicle that Microsoft is trying to use its extensive patent portfolio to make money after its Windows Phone [...]
Rentokil hit by slow City Link November 7, 2011 CLEANING and pest control firm Rentokil Initial missed third-quarter profit forecasts yesterday and said it was unsure if its struggling City Link delivery business would return to profit in its key Christmas period. Rentokil, which offers services from hiring work uniforms and tropical plants to catering and security, posted an adjusted pre-tax profit of £53.1m [...]
