COLD COMFORT AS ICE GALA NETS £150K FOR ARCTIC TREKKERS March 6, 2011 BATTERSEA Power Station was transformed into a chilly Arctic cave last Thursday for an “extravagant farewell” for a team of eight wounded servicemen preparing to walk to the North Pole. The private event for 500 guests was the Ice and Diamonds send-off ball to raise money for the trekkers’ charity Walking for Wounded before the [...]
News Corp wins right to make Sky bid March 3, 2011 NEWS Corp yesterday won full approval to bid for the 61 per cent of Sky it does not already own. Culture minister Jeremy Hunt accepted an eleventh hour News Corp concession that it would spin-off Sky News into a separate, publicly-traded entity, in order to counter media plurality concerns. Hunt said he accepted the terms [...]
Ofcom sides with Virgin in the battle of the broadband March 1, 2011 OFCOM yesterday sided with Virgin in the broadband war, ruling that firms must advertise “typical” rather than “maximum” internet speeds. BT – the major loser from the ruling given its high proliferation in low-speed rural areas – said it has “real concerns” with the decision, which it said could encourage “digital exclusion”. Ofcom found that [...]
Virus hits LSE website after trading glitch February 27, 2011 THE LONDON Stock Exchange (LSE) last night said it hoped for a week of glitch free trading following last week’s high profile closure. Although it could not promise there would be no problems, it pointed to the successful reinstatement of its trading system on Friday afternoon. A spokesperson said: “The problem was fixed and the [...]
Virgin posts strongest full-year results February 17, 2011 Virgin Media added a solid number of new customers in the fourth quarter and extracted record customer spend, helping it to post its best ever full-year financial results. Virgin Media, which competes with BT and BSkyB to provide broadband, telephony and pay-TV, said it added 17,100 net new subscribers in the last three months of [...]
Revenue flat at TalkTalk as users leave February 8, 2011 TALKTALK lost 25,000 broadband subscribers in its third quarter, as problems with its labyrinthine merger continued to bite. Billing issues were at least partly responsible for the churn, which left TalkTalk with 4.22m subscribers. However, the firm said this was partly offset by an increase in average revenue per user. Customers spent an average of [...]
Hunger for mining shares sees FTSE stay above 6,000 level February 7, 2011 MINERS lifted Britain’s top share index higher yesterday, driven by record metal prices and results from Randgold. The FTSE 100 closed 53.65 points, or 0.9 per cent, firmer at 6,051.03, its highest finish since 18 January and marking the fourth gain in the past five trading days. “A fresh year high is being eyed with [...]
BT surprises the market as profits surge February 3, 2011 BT shares jumped over three per cent yesterday after the telecoms giant unveiled better than expected results, buoyed by improvements at its Global Services division. BT’s core profit rose seven per cent to £1.48bn in the last quarter of 2010, despite a three per cent sales decline, as it continued to slash costs. Global Services’ [...]
From albatross to global powerhouse February 3, 2011 WHEN Ian Livingston took the helm at BT, Global Services was a complete mess. One of the first things he had to do after becoming chief executive in 2008 was issue a dramatic profit warning due to underperforming contracts at the division, which competes with the likes of IBM for big corporate IT deals. Shareholders, [...]
Oil majors curb the FTSE 100 despite solid corporate news February 3, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index fell yesterday, hurt by Royal Dutch Shell as the oil major’s results were met with disappointment, while drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline rose after it decided to push ahead with a buyback programme. The FTSE 100 shed 16.73 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 5,983.34, after closing 0.7 per cent higher on Wednesday. The [...]