What the other papers say this morning – 09 May 2014 May 8, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Apple in talks for $3.2bn Beats deal Apple will acquire Beats’ streaming music service, which launched this year, and its audio equipment business, which includes its brand of headphones and audio equipment. The Beats management team will report to Mr Cook, sources said. Apple and Beats did not comment. The deal is likely [...]
Letters to the Editor – 09/05 – Chinese innovation, Best of Twitter May 8, 2014 Chinese innovation [Re: As Alibaba unveils its IPO plans, can China leapfrog the West in innovation? yesterday] China has a huge pool of natural resources and a vast supply of cheap labour. But the key to unlocking innovation lies in having leading higher education institutions and research. A quality deficit can in part be compensated [...]
The UK’s most frequent visitors are nowhere near its biggest spenders May 8, 2014 Almost 33m people visited Britain last year – an increase of nearly 5.6 per cent since 2012. What’s more (literally), is how much tourists spent: the amount jumped 12.7 per cent to £21bn last year, according to the Office for National Statistics. Its Top 50 tourism infographic puts the number of visits to the UK [...]
Brewers report disappointing first quarters May 7, 2014 CARLSBERG and Anheuser-Busch InBev both reported disappointing results yesterday as Carlsberg cut its earnings forecast on the back of political tensions in eastern Europe while AB InBev reported a 24 per cent drop in net profit due to increased marketing spend on the World Cup. Carlsberg, the maker of Tuborg and Kronenbourg 1664, is the [...]
Dreary April as Bric economies dip May 7, 2014 ALL FOUR of the Bric economies recorded some mild contraction in their private sectors last month, according to an influential survey of businesses released today. According to HSBC’s latest emerging markets index, firms in Brazil, Russia, India and China all reported a modest drop in business activity, with scores slightly below the neutral 50 level. It [...]
Letters to the Editor – 08/05 – Housing crisis, European defence, Best of Twitter May 7, 2014 Housing crisis [Re: An inconvenient truth about Britain’s growing housing crisis, yesterday] I’m glad you acknowledge the importance of understanding the figures when talking about the housing crisis. Empty property exaggerations are just the start. What of Labour’s posturing about landbanking, allegedly largely responsible for low building rates? As City Hall has shown, three quarters [...]
How Europe can cope without the Ukraine gas pipeline this winter May 7, 2014 Amid growing fears that Ukraine is heading towards a civil war, concerns about the security of gas supplies have risen too. Russia supplies around 25 per cent of Europe’s gas, with around 40 per cent of this coming through Ukrainian pipelines. With Russia hiking the prices Ukraine pays for gas – and of course the [...]
What you need to know before the US open May 6, 2014 Futures suggest a slightly higher open for US markets, following more optimistic export figures for March. Exports gained two per cent last month – from $190bn in February to $193.9bn – suggesting the slide seen in the first two months of the year tailed off. There’s little else in the way of data today, though, with analysts [...]
New York Report: US shares rise as Apple stocks top $600 mark May 5, 2014 US stocks ended slightly higher yesterday as data showed strength in the services sector and Apple shares rose above $600 for the first time since 2012. Limiting the day’s gains, however, were concerns over an escalation of tensions between Ukraine and pro-Russia separatists. Ukrainian forces were ambushed by separatists, triggering heavy fighting on the outskirts [...]
Blame Europe’s 70 year holiday from history for the West’s terrible decline May 5, 2014 THE US public has had it with being the world’s policeman. An April 2014 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 19 per cent wanted America to engage in a more activist foreign policy. Fully 47 per cent wished the US to conduct a less activist policy, a camp that has quadrupled in size over [...]