HSBC UK director Alan Thomson resigns over banking regulation threat as second exec ‘mulls exit’ October 7, 2014 One of HSBC's UK directors has resigned from his position ahead of new rules that strengthen the hand of regulators to penalised managers of failed banks. City A.M. understands Alan Thomson, a member of the audit and risk committees of HSBC Bank, has tendered his resignation and will leave the board in October. Sky News initially [...]
Pietersen told by Vaughan to forget dream of England recall October 6, 2014 FORMER England captain Michael Vaughan has dismissed Kevin Pietersen’s lingering hopes of earning an unlikely Test recall following a series of explosive allegations in his new book KP: The Autobiography. The South African-born batsman has alleged a bullying culture existed within the national team camp and blamed senior members of the England bowling unit as [...]
BSkyB gains shareholder approval for Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia acquisition October 6, 2014 BSkyB shareholders have given an overwhelming nod of approval to its £5.3bn bid to buy Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia. A 96 per cent majority of investors voted in favour of the deal which will see Sky become Europe’s largest pay TV operator. The vote included approval of transferring BSkyB's stake in National Geographic to 21st [...]
Liberal Democrat party conference 2014: The ties are off! Danny Alexander is up for election fight October 5, 2014 Perhaps Danny Alexander fell victim to a particularly saucy bacon sandwich in between his appearance on Sky News yesterday morning and his speech at the party’s conference just a short while later. Maybe it was a baby-kiss photo op gone wrong, or a sudden gust of wild Scottish wind that carried his on-message, fresh-out-of-the-box yellow [...]
Total Media’s Guy Sellers on the strengths of independent media agencies October 5, 2014 In an age of unprecedented consolidation in the media world, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the smaller, independent agencies must be struggling to compete, clinging on for dear life amid a flurry of dealmaking by the industry’s giants. Outfits like Total Media, however, call this assumption into question. Its income grew by 14.6 per [...]
Prezzo share price reacts as bidders offer £316m for a slice of Italian food chain October 2, 2014 Italian high street restaurant chain Prezzo yesterday confirmed that it had received preliminary proposals for a potential takeover offer. Although Prezzo cautioned that any deal was unlikely to be at a premium to its closing price on Wednesday of 135p per share, or around £316m. Shares in Prezzo yesterday jumped as much as 11 per [...]
UK finance watchdog launches probe into Tesco’s profit debacle October 1, 2014 Tesco was put under further pressure yesterday after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had launched a full investigation into the Tesco accounting scandal that had knocked £4bn off its market value. Britain’s biggest supermarket stunned the City after revealing last week that it had overstated first-half profits by £250m. The accounting error, which [...]
Tory donor Arron Banks switches to Ukip as David Cameron prepares for Conservative party conference speech October 1, 2014 The Conservative party has suffered yet another blow with the defection of party donor Arron Banks to Ukip. Banks will donate £100,000 to Nigel Farage's eurosceptic party and could stand as a Ukip candidate in the 2015 general election. An insurance entrepreneur, Banks has made significant donations to the Conservative party since David Cameron became [...]
$5m Sharethrough investment sees Sky target ad opportunity September 30, 2014 HUGE FTSE 100 media firm BSkyB revealed yesterday it had made a $5m (£3.1m) equity investment in Sharethrough, a San Francisco based online advertising technology company. The investment from BSkyB was part of a round of fundraising that raised $10m for Sharethrough, which provides native advertising services, that match ad campaigns to web pages. As [...]
So have they taken their eye off the ball? September 30, 2014 BSkyB has built a strong position in the UK media market to become the largest pay-TV provider in the country with 10.5m subscribers. Football is at the heart of its empire, but recent investments suggest it may be looking more at expanding its other divisions. Football has been key to BSkyB’s growth since its founding [...]