Results season begins as BT and National Express report July 26, 2009 THE company reporting season gets into full swing this week, with a slew of companies issuing numbers including BP, Shell and BT to name just three FTSE 100 giants. National Express, the rail and coach operator that recently became a takeover target after losing its franchise for the East Coast main line, reports on Thursday [...]
Pharmaceuticals inject more life into the FTSE 100’s rise July 22, 2009 THE FTSE 100 added 0.3 per cent yesterday, extending its winning streak to eight sessions thanks to modest gains on Wall Street and solid second-quarter results from drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline. At the close, the index was 12.56 points higher at 4,493.73, up 8.2 per cent over the past eight sessions. Drug maker Shire was the [...]
Vodafone to get foothold in Ireland after BT deal July 22, 2009 BT and Vodafone have signed a partnership worth €4.8m (£4.1m) which will see Vodafone become the Republic of Ireland’s second-largest fixed-line broadband provider. Under the agreement, which is still to be approved by the Irish Competition Authority, BT Ireland will transfer its 84,000 consumer and 3,000 small business customers to Vodafone, and provide the company [...]
BT BOSS CAN’T GET BROADBAND AT HOME July 20, 2009 ARE YOU unable to get broadband access at home because of your postcode? Well, it turns out that you are in good company. Not even BT chairman Sir Michael Rake is able to access broadband in the usual way from his Hambledon Valley home, and is instead forced to be a guinea pig for the [...]
MARTHA LANE FOX REVEALS SHE COULD HAVE BEEN A PRISON GUARD July 15, 2009 GORDON Brown’s new digital inclusion tsar Martha Lane Fox has had a stellar career to date, but it’s reassuring to learn that she could happily turn her hand to something else should she tire of running Lucky Voice and charitable foundation Antigone. Because Lane Fox has revealed that, in another life, she would have been… [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 15, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES SKF SEES LITTLE HOPE OF QUICK RECOVERYSKF, the world’s biggest producer of industrial bearings, has dashed hopes of a quick recovery in global manufacturing after its chief executive said a broad upturn could be several years away. Tom Johnstone told the Financial Times that even by 2011 it was impossible to say whether [...]
BT relief as an investor rebellion on exec pay fails to materialise July 15, 2009 BT has ridden out investor unrest over executive pay, after a majority of shareholders voted for its proposals at yesterday’s annual meeting. The Association of British Insurers had issued an amber top warning and investor body Pirc had urged BT shareholders to abstain from voting on the telecoms giant’s pay plans, in protest at a [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 14, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES FIRSTGREATWESTERN BACK ON TRACKA rail franchise that became notorious for large numbers of train cancellations and poor punctuality has shown sufficient improvement to be released from an intensive monitoring regime imposed by the Department for Transport. Lord Adonis, transport secretary, yesterday told the House of Lords that FirstGreatWestern had met the standards required [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 9, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMESSTRATEGIC REVAMP FOR LLOYD’SLloyd’s of London has begun the biggest strategic review it has undertaken this decade in an attempt to ensure the more than 320-year-old insurance market does not fail in exploiting the gaps in the market thrown up by the financial crisis. The institution, which deals in insurance risks from all over the [...]
TalkTalk delivers a blow to Phorm July 8, 2009 Shares in Phorm suffered another blow yesterday after the online behavioural monitoring company confirmed that telecoms retailer Talk Talk had ended their commercial agreement. The news came two days after BT said it had no plans to use Phorm’s service, sending the shares 42 per cent lower. Phorm said Carphone Warehouse subsidiary TalkTalk had not [...]