COMPANY OF THE YEAR | The Shortlist September 12, 2010 IT has been another tough year for business. The sovereign debt crisis rocked already shaky market confidence, while uncertainty has kept consumers from splashing out. It is in hard times that reputations are made, though, and over the past year the best have bounced back. Both retailers on our list have, in their different ways, [...]
Pace secures loans to snap up 2Wire September 1, 2010 PACE, the world’s largest set-top box maker, has agreed loans of $450m (£291.1m) to fund its acquisition of US broadband technology firm 2Wire. A $300m term loan and $150m of revolving credit were underwritten by HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland. An existing £35m credit line with RBS was cancelled. The acquisition, which Pace hopes [...]
Canvas called poison pill for internet TV August 31, 2010 OFCOM has received a third competition complaint about BBC-backed video-on-demand service Project Canvas. Regional broadcaster Six TV joins Virgin and Sky in claiming the joint venture will unfairly dominate the online TV market. Virgin lodged an official complaint earlier this year and now Six TV has branded the venture a “poison pill” for the local [...]
The drawbacks of defined contribution pensions August 31, 2010 IT HAS been a rocky couple of years for pension funds. Some high profile defined benefit plans, such as those of BT and British Airways, have suffered badly since the on-set of the financial crisis. But the problems that have hit defined contribution (DC) plans have not made the same waves in the media. The [...]
Battle for the next stage of TV heats up August 26, 2010 DESPITE the ubiquity of the internet, television viewing habits on both sides of the Atlantic remain doggedly traditional. However, the battle for control of the next generation of TV viewers is hotting up. Manufacturers, such as Samsung are already rolling out internet-ready TVs as they prepare for a monumental shift in viewing habits. BBC’s hugely [...]
TOP FOREX STAR TAKES TIME OUT FROM RBS August 24, 2010 A BLOW for the Royal Bank of Scotland – and, by extension, to the rest of us – as one of the most celebrated foreign exchange traders in the City hops out of the bank’s revolving door. Mark Barnes stepped up to the role of global head of forex trading at RBS last year, and [...]
Why the unconventional approach to global income can pay dividends August 24, 2010 FOR a manager of a billion-pound global fund that is more than a century old, Bruce Stout, fund manager for Murray International Investment Trust and a senior portfolio manager on the global equities team at Aberdeen Asset Management, holds few conventional views about the markets, the economy, and stock-picking. For a start, at a time [...]
Pub footie fans could spoil BT’s sports plans August 23, 2010 NEW research shows that more than a third of 18-34 year-olds who are planning to watch Premier League football on TV this season will not watch the games at home. The research, carried out by YouGov, does not bode well for BT, which has launched a new football package in a desperate bid to compete [...]
High achievers look beyond red bricks August 17, 2010 TOMORROW is a date that thousands of families across England and Wales will have indelibly committed to memory. Far from being merely another summer’s day, Thursday 19 August 2010 is A-Level “results day”, a make-or-break day for the career and life plans of thousands of 17 and 18-year-olds. For many, results day will simply confirm [...]
BT has signed up as few as 60,000 to its sports package, say insiders August 15, 2010 BT’S offering of Sky Sports 1 and 2 was hailed as a lynch-pin of the firm’s transformation into a big player in the pay-TV market. But industry insiders estimate that it has only signed up around 60,000 sports customers, despite spending tens of millions promoting the service. BT Vision has struggled to compete with the [...]