BSkyB built its empire on live football – ignoring that could cost it dear July 23, 2014 WHEN BSkyB reports its results tomorrow, most expect them to be well received. The fast-moving satellite group will likely report strong profits and growth prospects, and will have much to say about innovative new products like Sky Go, Sky Store and Now TV, all intended to make it easier to consume its broadening content. However, [...]
Bottom Line: Not such a funny old game if Sky take eyes off the ball July 21, 2014 Football can be damn expensive, these days. As a season ticket holder at one of London’s clubs (clue: the one with more league titles than the rest put together) I am well aware of how costs have escalated during the Premier League era. For fans like myself, the price of following top flight football is now [...]
BT One Phone puts BT back in mobile business July 17, 2014 BT is ambitiously launching itself back into the competitive mobile market with its One Phone mobile business service after escaping more than a decade ago when it sold off O2. The cloud-based service connects the landline and mobile calls of business users using a BT sim card. It means calls to numbers for office landlines [...]
The World Cup is over… here’s how to fill the gaping void July 15, 2014 The fat lady has finally sung, and the England squad has had plenty of time to settle back to reality. Here are some ways to keep yourself busy without Messi and co to entertain you: The Honourable WomanBBC2, Thursdays, 9pmThe Honourable Woman is the BBC’s big summer blockbuster, starring none other than Hollywood megastar Maggie [...]
BT set to launch mobile offering for businesses July 14, 2014 Telecoms giant BT will this week start paving the way for a re-entry to the consumer mobile phones market when it launches a mobile offering targeting its existing 900,000 small and medium-sized business (SME) customers. BT yesterday sent out invites for Thursday’s event at the BT Tower where it will reveal pricing and packages for [...]
Supreme Court ruling in favour of BT ends dispute over 08 charges July 9, 2014 BT was boosted yesterday by winning a court ruling over the price it is able to charge mobile operators for connecting calls to fixed-line 08 numbers. The Supreme Court found in favour of BT’s right to set prices for termination charges for mobile calls to non-geographic 08 numbers, bringing to a conclusion years of disputes [...]
Why you should get over Salesforce Tower’s name – it’s good for the City July 8, 2014 The proposal to change the name of Heron Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the City of London, to “Salesforce Tower”, has been met by more than its fair share of controversy. People have always been resistant to change, but in this case, many of the objections raised seem to be particularly short-sighted. First, [...]
BSkyB CEO Jeremy Darroch is set on change July 7, 2014 Chief executive Jeremy Darroch tells David Hellier how he is bent on encouraging even more people to fall in love with Sky Talking about the way BSkyB has changed over the years, its chief executive Jeremy Darroch says: “You don’t keep being successful by doing things in the same way.” As he speaks, [...]
Woodford backs British pharma sector with fund July 6, 2014 NEIL Woodford, one of the best-known fund managers in the City, has backed the under-siege UK pharmaceutical sector with his new fund. Woodford’s £1.6bn equity income fund, launched last week, has ploughed 8.3 per cent of the fund into Astrazeneca and 7.1 per cent into Glaxosmithkline, the UK’s biggest drug maker, making the companies the [...]
Lloyds private equity arm sells Metronet to Isis in £45m buyout June 30, 2014 The private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group has sold its stake in Manchester-based tech group Metronet (UK) to Isis Equity Partners for £45m. Lloyds Development Capital, which ploughed £11m into Metronet in 2012, had made a four times return on its equity investment after selling the stake, it said. Metronet [...]