Clinton Cards profits nosedive as it negotiates a fresh credit deal October 27, 2011 CARD and gift retailer Clinton Cards posted an 83 per cent slump in full-year profit, hit by a combination of low consumer confidence and intense competition from supermarkets and the internet. The firm said it made an adjusted operating profit of £3.2m in the year to 31 July, down from £18.8m on revenues down 7.6 [...]
Virgin tanks despite jump in customers October 27, 2011 VIRGIN Media yesterday announced it has added more high-value customers but saw its shares tank as cashflow generation ran out of steam. It made net customer adds of 6,300, bouncing back from a traditionally difficult second quarter that saw 36,000 people left the service. Investors struggled to digest the results, with Virgin trading up slightly [...]
Hewlett-Packard flip-flops over PCs October 27, 2011 HEWLETT-PACKARD last night announced that it would keep its personal computer unit after all, following an extensive review of the high volume but low-margin business. The retention of the PC business marks another flip-flop in strategy as the company had said earlier that its preferred option was to spin out the business. The world’s largest [...]
Olympus faces fresh questions October 27, 2011 Pressure on scandal-hit camera-maker Olympus mounted yesterday after US patent records appeared to point to a possible conflict of interest in an investment in a cookware company. A venture capitalist who managed an Olympus fund that invested $225m (£158.4m) in the new enterprise was part-owner of a cookware patent which he transferred to the target [...]
Chipmakers across Asia hit hard by gloomy economic conditions October 27, 2011 ASIAN chipmakers, including the world’s top contract chipmaker TSMC, reported sharply worsened quarterly earnings and braced for another uncertain quarter as a weak global economy hit demand for computers. Yesterday, Taiwan’s TSMC reported a worse-than-expected 35 per cent decline in profit to £620m, its fourth straight quarterly drop. Hynix Semiconductor of South Korea, the world’s [...]
Nintendo set to report its first ever loss October 27, 2011 NINTENDO this week marked the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda, one of its most iconic titles. But the fanfare gave way to crisis yesterday as the firm said it would slip to its first ever annual loss after issuing its second profit warning this year. The former undisputed heavyweight of the video games [...]
Sony buys out Ericsson JV October 27, 2011 SONY has called time on its European joint venture with Ericsson, taking full control of their telecoms business for €1.05bn (£920m). Sony Ericsson has struggled to gain traction in a fiercely competitive smartphone market dominated by the likes of Apple and Samsung. The business will now become part of Sony’s consumer division. Analysts expect much [...]
BlackBerry outage nightmare not over as lawsuits hit RIM October 27, 2011 Consumers in the US and Canada have sued Research in Motion (RIM) for a days-long service outage on its BlackBerry devices that rippled across the world earlier this month. The system-wide failure of the service left tens of millions of frustrated BlackBerry users on five continents without email, instant messaging and browsing. The firm apologised [...]
Lufthansa’s earnings miss expectations October 27, 2011 LUFTHANSA, Europe’s biggest airline, has cut back its plans to expand capacity next year after posting weaker than expected third quarter results. Operating profit fell to €575m (£357m) from €783m a year earlier, after being hurt by the European debt crisis, turbulence in the financial markets and waning growth in the global economy, the German [...]
Go-Ahead revenues boosted by commuters taking trains October 27, 2011 BRITISH bus and rail operator Go-Ahead said first-quarter trading rose as drivers turned to public transport to avoid rising motoring costs, although it remained cautious about the medium-term wider economic outlook. Go-Ahead said revenues at its non-London bus unit, which includes services in Oxford and Brighton, were four per cent higher in the period to [...]
