Virgin media nets more money per user October 27, 2010 Cable operator Virgin Media added fewer net new customers in the third quarter than expected but managed to extract record sums from each user. Virgin Media, which competes in Britain with BT and BSkyB in the provision of broadband, telephony and pay-TV, said it had added 14,100 net new customers in the period ending September, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 25, 2010 FIANACIAL TIMES DEBT MARKETS TAKE UNUSUAL TURN The abnormal state of credit markets came into focus yesterday as the US Treasury sold bonds with negative interest rates for the first time and Goldman Sachs prepared to sell its first 50-year debt deal. Both sales highlighted the difficult choices facing investors at a time when interest [...]
BT doubles its apprentice scheme as demand surges October 25, 2010 COMPETITION to become Alan Sugar’s apprentice may be fierce, but it is nothing compared to the fight to become a BT apprentice. While contestants on the BBC show must fight off just 15 other candidates, graduates hoping to work at the former state telecoms provider have 24,000 to worry about. The demand for places is [...]
Taxpayers will pay if BT fails October 21, 2010 TAXPAYERS will have to stump up a staggering £23bn to BT’s pension trustees if the telecoms giant ever goes bust. A landmark ruling yesterday means even BT workers who joined after the firm was privatised in 1984 will have their pension liabilities covered. The ruling will increase the government’s contingent liability but will not affect [...]
FTSE 100 hits six-month high on US and European results October 21, 2010 Britain’s leading shares surged to a six-month closing high yesterday, led by miners, as UK investors were buoyed by strong earnings in the US and Europe, but TUI Travel fell after reporting accounting errors. Europe’s largest travel firm TUI Travel slumped more than 11 per cent after it revealed its finance chief would quit and [...]
YouView gets green light from Ofcom October 19, 2010 OFCOM has effectively given the green light to a controversial video-on-demand service backed by the BBC after declining to launch a competition investigation. The YouView service – previously codenamed “Project Canvas” – is now due to launch by March next year. The platform will allow users to stream on demand content from a number of [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS October 19, 2010 LADBROKES Royal Bank of Scotland rates the betting group a “sell” with a target price of 90p. The broker says Ladbrokes is facing limited growth in betting shops as well as tighter European restrictions on internet gambling. RBS forecasts a 10 per cent growth in revenue over the next two years, but expects competition from [...]
ITEM: cuts won’t cause double-dip October 17, 2010 THE UK faces a slow economic recovery but fears of a double dip recession are overdone, one of the UK’s top forecasters will say today. The Ernst & Young Item Club – which uses the Treasury’s own economic model to make its predictions – also suggests that far from hurting the economy, Wednesday’s Comprehensive Spending [...]
Osborne gets boost from 35 top business leaders over spending cuts October 17, 2010 DOZENS of business leaders have backed George Osborne’s swingeing spending cuts, saying hesitation could cost £100bn in extra debt, more taxes and an increase in the rate of interest. A total of 35 captains of industry, including BT chief executive Ian Livingston and Asda chairman Andy Bond, penned a letter to the Daily Telegraph urging [...]
BT to hear pension fund ruling October 17, 2010 Telecoms giant BT will find out this week the size of the bill the taxpayer would have to shoulder for bailing out its pension fund if the company ever collapsed. The High Court is likely to give its ruling on the scope of the Crown guarantee covering BT’s pension fund and agreed when the company [...]