Vodafone chief exec Vittorio Colao clashes with BT over “re-monopolisation” of telecoms market November 10, 2015 Vodafone’s chief exec Vittorio Colao has gone head to head with BT, lashing out at the upcoming BT-EE merger, which he attacks as the “re-monopolisation” of the telecoms market. “We see attempts to re-monopolise European markets, and that isn’t good,” said Colao. His attack follows the by the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) provisional approval of the £12.5bn [...]
TalkTalk is set to ditch its dividend following recent cyber security breach November 8, 2015 Crisis hit home broadband company TalkTalk is expected to axe its dividend this week when it reports half year results on Wednesday. The company’s finances are under fierce scrutiny following a cyber security breach which compromised the personal details of over 150,000 customers. "It's more about the signal this sends,” XTB director Joshua Raymond warned on [...]
Sky Sports to offer extended Premier League highlights on demand next season November 6, 2015 Sky will offer football fans the chance to catch up with extended highlights of Premier League games throughout the week with a new on demand package. The broadcaster has secured the rights to "near-live extended highlights" from the Premier League to 2019, having already snapped up the live and online categories. Extended highlights of all 212 [...]
Visa, King and BG Group deals push global M&A over $4 trillion mark for the first time in November November 4, 2015 Visa's $23.3bn (£15.2bn) offer for Visa Europe on Monday tipped the volume of global mergers and acquisitions over the $4 trillion mark for 2015 so far – the highest it's ever hit by this point in the year. Research by Dealogic showed Visa, along with a gaggle of acquisitive tech and pharma companies, pushed global volumes 38 per cent higher [...]
BT’s share price rises after it reports adjusted pre-tax profits rise 15 per cent for the first half of the year as new customers are added October 29, 2015 BT added a record number of television customers in the second quarter, reporting a 15 per cent rise in adjusted pre-tax profits for the first half. BT's share price rose 0.8 per cent in early trading on the news. The figures BT reported adjusted profit before tax of £642m for the three months to the end [...]
FTSE 100 Index: Gold glitters and BT gets a good call to lift – London Report October 29, 2015 Gains in gold mining stocks and at BT helped to lift the FTSE 100 back towards the two-month highs it reached towards the end of last week. Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline also climbed 3.88 per cent after it posted better-than-expected earnings. Randgold and Fresnillo were the best-performing stocks on the blue-chip index, which climbed 1.1 per [...]
BT share price rises after EE merger “provisional” thumbs up from Competition and Markets Authority October 28, 2015 BT shares opened six per cent higher this morning, after the telecoms giant was given a provisional thumbs up from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on its £12.5bn bid to buy EE. The regulator said the deal is "not expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition in any market in the UK". CMA's inquiry chair John Wotton [...]
Banks come to fore as sector to report results – London Report October 25, 2015 BANKING results season is upon us, with three of the big four reporting this week. And on the economic front, third-quarter GDP figures are expected to show that the economy is slowing down due to weaker construction and manufacturing output. Corporates Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group also report in with updates, as does sector [...]
Access to faster broadband is crucial for the City to remain competitive globally October 25, 2015 The word “wayleave” might not necessarily mean very much to most readers. But this legal agreement permits the installation of broadband – an essential for any company – so that it can reach the offices and businesses that need it. As things stand, each connection requires a new agreement, and SME tenants, of which [...]
FTSE 100 underperforms European counterparts, including German Dax and French Cac October 22, 2015 Basic resources were sharply higher on Thursday, with Glencore and BHP Billiton among the risers, helping the FTSE 100 end the session slightly higher. However, the UKs main index lagged behind its European counterparts. While the FTSE 100 slipped during the day to a low of 6,321 points, it closed 0.44 per cent higher at 6,376 points. [...]