Daisy Group CEO Matthew Riley lines up £500m takeover by Toscafund August 13, 2014 The chief executive of Daisy Group, the business communications services provider, has moved to take the company private just months after takeover talks with Virgin Media-owner Liberty Global collapsed. Daisy, with a market valuation of £466.5m, said it had received an approach for a possible cash offer of 190p per share from Toscafund Asset Management [...]
Credit groups in the doghouse after ads fall foul of FCA rules August 13, 2014 THE CITY regulator is investigating more than 200 cases of product promotions, such as payday loans, debt management services and credit brokers, that may breach its rules on misleading customers. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that of the 1,500 promotions it had reviewed since April, it had launched further investigation into 227 that it [...]
Amazon’s £6 card reader and mobile app signal retailer’s move to high street payments August 13, 2014 Amazon yesterday unveiled a $10 (£6) card reader and mobile app to allow high street businesses to accept card payments, marking the latest step by the online retail giant to expand its presence in the physical world. The move challenges a slew of rivals in the space, including startup Square, which popularised a payments dongle [...]
WeChat app boosts Chinese internet service portal Tencent’s profit August 13, 2014 Tencent, China’s leading internet service portal, yesterday reported a 59 per cent jump in profit during the quarter to the end of June on the back of a boom in smartphone gaming and mobile messaging. Mobile game revenue from its messaging app WeChat, and social network Mobile QQ, jumped two-thirds to 3bn yuan (£291.7m) in [...]
Ladbrokes’ online bet is a profits loser August 12, 2014 BOOKMAKER Ladbrokes yesterday posted a 49.7 per cent slump in profit during the first half of the year to 30 June after disruption hurt its online profits due to the switch to a new software developer. Britain’s second-biggest bookie after William Hill has struggled to establish its online presence and an alliance with software developer [...]
Analyst Views: What did you make of Ladbrokes’ performance during the first half of 2014? August 12, 2014 PATRICK COFFEY | BARCLAYS While the Digital performance is likely to excite the bulls, we believe these results throw up many questions which are central to the debate. Marketing as a percentage of revenue was 31 per cent in the first half. A key debate is how this marketing spend progresses and how much re-investment [...]
Just Eat profits sizzle in maiden results as mobile orders soar August 12, 2014 SHARES in the world’s largest online takeaway service, Just Eat, rocketed yesterday after it reported an almost 200 per cent jump in half-year profit as the business expanded in Britain and Denmark, its two biggest markets. Just Eat, which joined the London stock market in April, added more restaurants to its network and benefited from [...]
HP mismanaged $11bn Autonomy deal claims boss August 12, 2014 US COMPUTER firm HP has been accused of trying to “cover up both its mismanagement” of its $11.1bn (£6.6bn) Autonomy takeover in 2011, and a “ploy to falsely accuse others” by its former finance chief. Sushovan Hussain, whom HP says it will pursue in court over its claims he was “one of the chief architects of the [...]
Your call is important to EE as it tops Ofcom’s call quality survey August 12, 2014 Vodafone has been ranked bottom for call quality, according to research from industry regulator Ofcom. The regulator found that 7.4 per cent of Vodafone’s calls were unsuccessful across the UK, compared to just three per cent from rival EE, which ranked top in Ofcom’s findings, which were based on data from RootMetrics. “It’s great to [...]
BSkyB shoots for budget viewers with pay-weekly for Sky Sports August 11, 2014 BSKYB looks set to double down on its bid to capitalise on budget TV customers, a strategy that has seen rival TalkTalk soar to record user growth, as the satellite broadcaster begins offering a £10.99 seven day pass for Sky Sports on Thursday for its Now TV video streaming service. The launch comes 18 months [...]
