AstraZeneca’s £2bn pledge to tackle diabetes July 1, 2012 TROUBLED pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has joined forces with Bristol-Myers Squibb on its $5.3bn (£3.37bn) acquisition of diabetes drug developer Amylin, in the British-Swedish firm’s biggest deal in five years. Bristol-Myers Squibb announced on Saturday it will pay $31 per share for California-based Amylin – beating rival potential bidders Merck, Sanofi and Novartis to the prize [...]
Investcorp buys Austrian online firm Paysafecard for up to £113m July 1, 2012 INVESTCORP, a Bahrain-based investment firm, said yesterday its online portfolio unit Skrill has bought Austrian firm paysafecard.com for up to €140m (£113m), betting on growth in the online retail sector. Paysafecard provides prepaid electronic payment services and the acquisition is Investcorp’s fifth investment in Europe in the past six months, the Bahraini firm said in [...]
Aviva could axe 15 divisions as part of overhaul July 1, 2012 INSURANCE GIANT Aviva is expected to announce a radical overhaul of its business this week including proposals to sell-off or close up to a fifth of its operations. John McFarlane, the Aviva executive chairman who has also been acting as chief executive since Andrew Moss resigned, will present the findings of a month-long strategic review [...]
Lloyds-backed Cala Group builds recovery on higher house prices July 1, 2012 HOUSE builder Cala Group said today its sales and prices have both soared in the last year, despite tough conditions in the property market. Edinburgh-based Cala said sale completions rose 35 per cent to 875 in the year to the end of June, and the firm has already secured forward sales of 160 homes for [...]
France to lower growth forecast July 1, 2012 France will lower its economic growth forecasts for this year as part of a revised budget the government will present later this week to meet its public deficit targets, finance minister Pierre Moscovici said yesterday. The country’s national audit office is expected to reveal a shortfall of about €8bn (£6.5bn) today when it publishes the [...]
Failure to switch off increases work July 1, 2012 Smartphone addicts work three extra weeks a year by checking and responding to work emails from home, according to a survey by Good Technology. The study reveals a staggering 93 per cent of people continue working after leaving the office, with 38 per cent claiming their job would be impossible without mobile email. More than [...]
Investors set to grumble about Vodafone pay July 1, 2012 VODAFONE could be the next victim of the rebellion that has gripped the shareholders of a host of British companies in recent months. Investors and shareholder bodies are preparing to speak out against Vittorio Colao’s pay package, City A.M. understands, after the Vodafone chief executive’s remuneration more than doubled to £14m. Colao was paid £3m [...]
Kada Technology unveils listing on Aim as China looks to London July 1, 2012 KADA Technology is this morning due to announce its intention to float on London’s Alternative Investment Market (Aim), making it the second Chinese company in a week to unveil a UK listing. The eight-year-old business, which provides components and devices for consumer electronics and the IT industry, is heading for a market capitalisation of £100m. [...]
OLYMPIC MEDIA BUZZ LONDON 2012 PARTNERS July 1, 2012 IN ASSOCIATION with Repskan.com, City A.M. is measuring the relative Olympic media buzz around the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games partners, week by week. The leaderboard, right, reflects their ranking over the past week, in this case from Wednesday 20 June to Wednesday 27 June. The big media story of the week for sponsors [...]
Firms give kids careers advice July 1, 2012 BUSINESS leaders are joining forces to deliver speeches to children at the UK’s state schools, in an attempt to improve employment prospects. Robert Peston, business editor for BBC News, is spearheading Inspiring the Future, a scheme aimed at bringing more state school pupils into contact with potential employers and careers advice. Its existing sister scheme, [...]
