English football clubs’ shortage of success in Europe is a risk for BT May 14, 2015 Gavin Patterson’s BT, which bid a sky-high £897m for the live rights to Champions League football for the next three years, could see the attractiveness of its package diminished if English clubs continue to perform badly in the prestigious competition next year. Four Premier League teams qualify for the competition but there are fears [...]
TalkTalk chief Dido Harding pushes to split BT and Openreach as profit rises May 14, 2015 TalkTalk boss Dido Harding renewed her calls for the regulator to force BT to sell its telecoms network division Openreach yesterday, and said more competition in the market would lead to further investment. Harding made the comments while discussing TalkTalk’s results for the year to 31 March, which showed a 3.2 per cent rise [...]
BT awards chief Gavin Patterson £1.95m in shares May 13, 2015 BT chief executive Gavin Patterson yesterday took home 416,719 shares, as part of an incentive package. The shares were priced at £4.69, meaning Patterson’s bonus came to a total value of £1.95m. Other senior executives to benefit included group finance director Tony Chanmugam, who received 391,131 shares, and Luis Alvarez, the chief executive of BT [...]
Fantasy football: Can BT’s dreams of boosting growth come true? May 7, 2015 The telecom’s move into TV sports gained credibility from its £900m deal to broadcast the Champions League, but it is not without problems BT BOSS Gavin Patterson didn’t waste any time in making his presence felt at the top of the FTSE 100 company when he was appointed chief executive in 2013. Just two months [...]
BT share price up after profits rise 14 per cent May 7, 2015 BT’s share price has risen half a per cent, after the company revealed a 14 per cent jump in pre-tax profits, which rose to £2.6bn for the 12 months ending 31 March. The figures Despite the headline rise in profit, BT’s revenue fell two per cent to £17.9bn for the year and £4.6bn for the [...]
Investors await the result of General Election – London Report May 4, 2015 ALL EYES will be on the political polls this week, as the nation gears up for the General Election on Thursday. With little to separate the popularity of the leading parties, the Conservatives and Labour, many expect no party will gain a majority, while many investors and property buyers are holding off from making decisions [...]
Royal baby 2.0: London landmarks turned pink in celebration last night May 3, 2015 Last night, some of London's most famous landmarks turned pink in celebration of the birth of a girl to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Londoners were able to watch as sights such as the Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square's fountains and Blackburn Tower lit up with a shade of pink. The BT [...]
Tesco moves £90m media account to WPP’s Mediacom ending 20 years with IPG’s Initiative April 30, 2015 Tesco boss Dave Lewis has done some more kitchen-sinking, ditching the company that has been in charge of placing its advertising for the last 20 years. The beleaguered supermarket has switched its media planning and buying account – worth £90m a year – to WPP's Mediacom from IPG's Initiative after a review, MediaWeek reports. It's [...]
The Leap 100 have fallen out of love with British banks April 29, 2015 THE NARRATIVE of growing businesses struggling to find finance is familiar: post-crash, banks won’t lend and cash for expansion can be difficult to access. On the face of it, the experiences of The Leap 100 give the lie to this simplistic tale: 64 per cent say that they haven’t found it difficult to access sufficient [...]
Wimbledon champions deserve record prize money, say bosses April 28, 2015 WIMBLEDON chiefs have defended their prize money policy after confirming that players at this year’s championships are to earn more than at any tennis tournament in history. A seven per cent increase in the total pot to £26.75m is reflected in prize money for all rounds, with the men’s and women’s winners banking £1.88m each [...]