House prices soar in London July 2, 2012 House prices in London rocketed by 7.7 per cent in the year to May, the Land Registry said yesterday – far outperforming the 0.4 per cent rise seen across the UK. The most expensive property sold in May went for £18.5m in central London; the cheapest recent property was sold in Oldham for just £10,000, [...]
Euro woes prompt asset juggling July 2, 2012 BNP Paribas is considering relocating some international activities to deposit-rich markets like Belgium, according to a spokeswoman for the bank, as BNP and other French banks scramble to fill funding gaps on their balance sheet. By moving assets around its international chessboard, BNP would likely be able to reduce its own intra-group lending lines to [...]
World Bank could aid euro area July 2, 2012 The new head of the World Bank said yesterday that he was open to the possibility of the development lender advising troubled developed nations like Greece, a major shift for an institution that has focused on the world’s poor. As American Jim Yong Kim took the reins of the World Bank, he said his priority [...]
Sony snaps up cloud gaming group Gaikai July 2, 2012 SONY has spent $380m (£242m) on acquiring cloud-based gaming service Gaikai, the troubled electronics giant announced yesterday. Gaikai, bought by Sony’s video game arm Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), allows users to play high-quality games over a broadband connection without the need for downloads or powerful computers, since the games are run on remote servers “in [...]
Games consoles meet a chainsaw massacre July 2, 2012 WHAT would you rather do: harvest corn, or chainsaw a zombie in the face? That’s the question asked by the Facebook app for Gaikai, the cloud gaming company just bought for $380m (£242m) by Sony, which clearly believes the chainsaw is mightier than the scythe. It’s probably right, too. Just a few minutes of experimenting [...]
Monex adopts Schneider as European HQ July 2, 2012 FOREIGN exchange service Monex Group yesterday planted its foot firmly in Europe with the acquisition of Schneider Foreign Exchange. The $100m (£63.7m) deal makes Monex one of the largest deliverable commercial FX specialists in the world, turning over an annual $125bn in currency transactions. Schneider will be renamed Monex Europe and will be the company’s [...]
WPP expands in South Korea July 2, 2012 ADVERTISING giant WPP yesterday snapped up South Korean media planning agency Alchemedia for an undisclosed sum. Alchemedia has been valued at around 10bn won (£5.6m) and will be absorbed into WPP’s Korean arm GroupM. The purchase is the latest purchase in Sir Martin Sorrell’s shopping spree, following the takeover of French consultancy I&E and the [...]
Arqiva set for hotspot deal July 2, 2012 COMMUNICATIONS firm Arqiva has made an agreed £23.4m bid for Wi-Fi operator Spectrum Interactive, which would create one of the UK’s largest internet hotspot providers. The deal is set to put Arqiva in control of hotspots in over 2,100 locations. It will compete with the likes of BT and Virgin Media, although unlike its rivals [...]
Serco offloads German unit to look for growth July 2, 2012 OUTSOURCER Serco yesterday announced that it was disposing of the majority of its German interests in pursuit of growth elsewhere. The FTSE 100 company said the local management team would take over the German business. Serco sees little chance to extend revenues in Germany and is to focus its efforts on other territories. But the [...]
ANALYST VIEWS | WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF SERCO’S STRATEGY? July 2, 2012 KEITH BOWMAN HARGREAVES LANSDOWN With growth at Serco largely emanating from emerging markets such as Africa and Asia, a retreat from more pedestrian regions is understandable. Despite the recent half year trading update, which placed greater investor faith on the second half, consensus opinion remains favourable. TONY SHEPARD CHARLES STANlEY Serco is looking to focus [...]
