BT cuts costs to offset revenue slide July 25, 2012 BT had to rely on deep cost cuts in the first quarter to lift core earnings 2 per cent after tough conditions in southern Europe and the financial sector hit overall revenues. Britain’s biggest fixed-line telecoms firm reported first quarter revenues down 6 per cent to £4.48bnand an outflow of normalised free cash flow of [...]
FTSE edges down as UK borrowing rises July 20, 2012 Telecoms giant Vodafone pushed the FTSE 100 lower while UK government borrowing came in above estimates this morning. The Office for National Statistics said that public sector net borrowing excluding financial sector interventions rose last month to £14.4bn from £13.9bn in June 2011. On London’s blue chip index Vodafone fell 1.3 per cent after the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 19, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES EU targets Google mobile services Europe’s antitrust enforcer is demanding that Google makes sweeping changes to its mobile services as it paves the way to serve formal charges against the company for anti-competitive behaviour should talks over a settlement collapse. The regulator is worried about how Google favours its own products in search results; [...]
FTSE tracks Wall Street losses July 11, 2012 The FTSE 100 fell in early trading tracking overnight losses on Wall Street as the US earnings season revealed corporate weaknesses. US stocks fell for a fourth day after a sales warning from engine maker Cummins came on top of earlier weak forecasts from chipmakers Applied Materials and Advanced Micro Devices. In London luxury retailer [...]
LONDON REPORT July 8, 2012 ALL eyes will be focused on the Treasury Select Committee hearing today, as deputy Bank of England governor Paul Tucker presents his side of the story in the Barclays/ Libor scandal. His appearance will be followed tomorrow by one from Marcus Agius, the former Barclays chairman. Today sees trading updates from housebuilder Bovis – expected [...]
Ofcom moves to cap BT’s wholesale prices July 5, 2012 TELECOMS giant BT could see its revenues suffer following yesterday’s proposal by Ofcom of price caps on its wholesale charges. The telecoms regulator wants to cap the fees BT charges for the lease of its telecom lines, which provide high-speed links for businesses, broadband providers and mobile services. The proposals follow a review by Ofcom, [...]
Lord Sugar unveils set-top box YouView after years of delays July 4, 2012 AFTER years of delays, new set-top box YouView was yesterday unveiled by proud chairman Lord Alan Sugar. A joint venture by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva, digital channel provider YouView will allow the user to flick back through seven days of missed TV shows as well as browse extra [...]
YouView…. Well, you might. July 4, 2012 Digital TV service YouView was finally unveiled by Lord Alan Sugar yesterday, albeit long after its slated 2010 release date. The joint venture between the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, Arqiva and TalkTalk offers a host of catch-up, on demand and streaming services and it promises more partners are ready to join. But [...]
YOUVIEW’S RIVALS July 4, 2012 Freeview Freeview might be a slightly spurious inclusion, but YouView has to convince people they need to shell out a pretty big sum to upgrade their current set-top box. Lots will stick with what they already have. Google TV Google TV has been something of a disaster in its native US, with the major networks [...]
Sir Stelios calls for Rake’s head over the fiasco July 2, 2012 EASYJET founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou yesterday weighed in to the furore surrounding the Barclays Libor-fixing scandal, calling for the head of Sir Mike Rake. Rake, the Barclays senior independent director who was yesterday promoted to deputy chairman, also serves as chairman of EasyJet. “As Mike Rake is chairman of the relevant audit sub-committee and a [...]