Mobile banker Monitise builds up momentum October 11, 2012 FAST-GROWING mobile payments firm Monitise said yesterday it has seen continued momentum in recent months and announced that user numbers had quadrupled in the last year to 17m. The company, which David Cameron singled out in his Tory conference keynote speech on Wednesday as an example of British entrepreneurial spirit, said trading was in line [...]
Setback for Apple as court throws out injunction on Samsung phone October 11, 2012 A US appeals court yesterday overturned a preliminary injunction on the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone, dealing a setback to Apple in its battle against Google’s increasingly popular mobile software. Apple, whose shares fell two per cent yesterday, is waging war on several fronts against Google, whose Android software powers many of Samsung’s devices. [...]
Bank of America Merrill Lynch rejigs financial advisory team October 11, 2012 BANK of America Merrill Lynch has reshuffled the senior ranks of its team advising financial institutions on mergers and financing in Europe, as it renews efforts to bring in more investment banking fees from that industry. Henrietta Baldock, who had already been in charge of the European financial institutions group (FIG) since 2009, will now [...]
Siemens boss says job cuts may be necessary in cash saving drive October 11, 2012 GERMAN industrial giant Siemens opened the possibility of cutting jobs as part of a cost-saving drive to enable it to compete with its rivals, its chief executive said yesterday, with business proving tougher than expected. “As a leading company, we want to be better than the competitors. We don’t want to bob along somewhere in [...]
Maria Miller clears Global Radio’s GMG takeover in blow to Bauer October 11, 2012 GLOBAL RADIO’S takeover of GMG Radio, the owner of the Smooth and Real stations, was cleared by culture secretary Maria Miller yesterday, in a significant victory for Britain’s biggest commercial radio operator after former culture head Jeremy Hunt had ordered an investigation into the deal. The acquisition, which has an estimated value of £70m and will [...]
GlaxoSmithKline to reveal more drug secrets from clinical trials October 11, 2012 GLAXOSMITHKLINE, criticised in the past for keeping important information about its medicines to itself, is to lift the lid on more of its drug data secrets. Three months after GSK was fined $3bn (£1.8bn) for fraud in the US, where prosecutors accused it of concealing safety issues, chief executive Andrew Witty said yesterday that detailed [...]
Two thirds against shares for rights October 11, 2012 Almost two thirds of people in Britain think the government’s proposed employee-owner scheme is a bad idea, according to the results of a YouGov poll released yesterday. The scheme would allow employees to choose to receive £2,000 to £50,000 worth of shares in the company, in exchange for waiving employment rights. Support was split on [...]
DS Smith raises savings forecast October 11, 2012 DS Smith told investors yesterday that it expects to save more than expected from its acquisition of SCA Packaging, 100 days after it bought the Swedish firm. The packaging firm expects cost synergies of €100m (£80.5m) per year over the next three years of ownership – higher than the €75m per annum it predicted just after [...]
Arm loses non-exec to Samsung October 11, 2012 Cambridge-based chipmaker Arm Holdings said yesterday one of its non-executive directors is leaving the firm at the end of the year to focus on an executive role at electronics giant Samsung. Young Sohn, a veteran of Silicon Valley and the former chief executive of US semiconductor group Inphi, has sat on Arm’s board since 2007. [...]
Olympics puts off visitors but boosts income October 11, 2012 VISITS to the UK slipped in August, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed yesterday, although tourists spent considerably more than usual. Overseas residents made 3m visits to the UK in August, the data showed, five per cent down on the same month last year. However, even on the reduced number of visits earnings grew some nine per cent, [...]
