Pay cut for Morgan Stanley chief January 24, 2013 Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman received lower pay for 2012 after profits declined but the bank showed progress in reshaping its businesses. Gorman received $6m (£3.8m) in total compensation for 2012, including $800,000 in salary, $2.6m in deferred cash and $2.6m in stock options, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday. He did [...]
Samsung posts record profits January 24, 2013 Samsung Electronics reported a record quarterly profit of $8.3bn (£5.3bn) and kept its 2013 investment plans at the previous year’s level, defying expectations that it may reduce spending amid weaker demand for computer chips. The South Korean firm said October to December operating profit increased 89 per cent from a year ago to 8.84 trillion [...]
Amazon buys voice tech firm January 24, 2013 Amazon said yesterday it had snapped up text-to-speech technology company Ivona Software, a sign that the world’s largest Internet retailer may be looking to develop more services similar to Apple’s Siri voice-based search product. Ivona’s technology already supports several features on Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet computers, such as text-to-speech, said Dave Limp, who oversees the [...]
West End ranks as the world’s priciest offices January 24, 2013 LONDON’S West End has leapfrogged Hong Kong to regain its spot as the world’s most expensive location to rent office space after rents declined in the Asian city. Property specialists DTZ’s annual Global Occupancy Costs survey published today shows that occupiers in London’s West End had to pay US$23,500 (£14,900) per workstation per annum at [...]
After a three-year wait … the Walbrook secures its first tenants January 24, 2013 THE WALBROOK Building opposite Cannon Street station has finally clinched its first two tenants, nearly three years since it was first built. Property developer Minerva, said it has secured the first deal with insurance broker, Arthur J Gallagher, which has taken offices on the ground floor and the whole of the seventh floor amounting to [...]
Tech and media demand for office space soars in the City January 24, 2013 TECHNOLOGY, media and telecoms (TMT) firms are piling into the City office market and taking up some of the slack left by a downsizing of financial services companies. Research by property experts Colliers International shows in 2012 TMT firms accounted for 30 per cent of take-up in the City market and 26 per cent in [...]
Microsoft profit dips in spite of new Windows 8 January 24, 2013 COMPUTING giant Microsoft yesterday posted a quarterly drop in profits, as slow sales of its Office software dragged down a positive start for its freshly minted Windows 8 system. Sales rose three per cent overall to $21.5bn (£13.6bn) for the three months ending December 2012, the company said last night, but profits slid to $6.4bn, [...]
Obama picks tough ex-New York attorney as next chair of the SEC January 24, 2013 PRESIDENT Obama yesterday nominated a politically independent ex-New York attorney as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US financial watchdog that monitors the country’s securities markets. Mary Jo White, currently head of law firm Debevoise & Plimpton’s litigation team, will succeed Elisse Walter, who stepped up last December when Mary [...]
Fund manager calls for reform of IPO market January 24, 2013 BANKING fees for new company share issues should be aligned with a floated group’s share price several months after the first day of dealings, Sacha Sadan, director of corporate governance at Legal & General, said yesterday. Sadan, whose firm manages £391bn of assets, said yesterday: “How come day one of the flotation is the day [...]
Empty offices look bleak now but are also a sign of optimism January 24, 2013 THE City is changing, and not just because of the skyscrapers about to reinvent its skyline. The firms that are taking office space are changing as well. The trend for insurers to cluster in EC3 around the Lloyd’s building is well-established. Equally striking has been the lack of demand in Cannon Place and the Walbrook, [...]
