BT set to shake up the mobile market… again November 24, 2014 A decade after the British firm left mobile, it is back for more In the midst of what one BT insider described yesterday as a “financial mess” in the early 2000s the British telecoms giant spun off its BT Cellnet arm. The move in 2001 was quickly seen as a terrible strategic decision, [...]
As BT prepares to buy O2 or EE, Sky remains sceptical of need for mobile offering November 24, 2014 Pay TV group Sky, recently rebranded from BSkyB, remained unconvinced by the need for a mobile offering yesterday, after its biggest rival BT looked poised to buy either EE or O2 in a £10bn mobile deal. While Sky’s services include TV, broadband and fixed-line telephone in the UK, the £15.3bn group has yet to offer [...]
Blackstone rejects $2bn offer for Center Parcs as it mulls a flotation November 24, 2014 London-based private equity firm BC Partners and the Canada Pension Fund (CPP) have had $2bn (£1.27bn) joint takeover offer for Center Parcs rejected by owner Blackstone Group. US investment conglomerate Blackstone is understood to have rejected the offer because it undervalued the British holiday park operator. A report on Sky News last night said it [...]
As BT confirms it’s in talks to buy O2, would a bid for the mobile operator make sense? November 24, 2014 Kester Mann, principal operators analyst at CCS Insight, says Yes. Purchasing a mobile operator like EE or O2 would give a massive shot in the arm to BT’s multi-play ambitions, accelerating plans to offer mobile services without relying on wholesale deals. Given its existing broadband and TV assets, the company could offer a highly potent [...]
BT share price jumps as it confirms it wants to buy O2 back from Telefonica November 24, 2014 Shares in BT had risen 3.6 per cent to 393.9p in mid-afternoon as it confirmed it is in talks with Telefonica to buy its O2 UK mobile business. In a statement to the stock exchange this morning, the company said all discussions are at a "highly preliminary stage", adding that it is "continuing" to develop [...]
Web providers to store device data under privacy bill November 23, 2014 Internet providers will be forced to store details of the devices on their network and the content they access online in a push to improve national security, under new laws to be introduced by Home Secretary Theresa May. She said the new Anti-Terrorism and Security Bill was “a step forward”, but fell short of the [...]
Broadband industry slams BT’s monopoly for stifling innovation November 23, 2014 A trade group comprised of a dozen British telecoms firms, including Sky, Vodafone and TalkTalk, yesterday labelled BT’s control of national infrastructure a “monopoly position” that blocked competition and restricted innovation. The UK Competitive Telecommunications Association (UKCTA) called on Ofcom to let its members lay their own cables in BT ducts, use their own equipment [...]
A day in the life of a chef on the world’s finest yachts November 23, 2014 It sounds like a dream job, but serving food on the high seas to the world’s elite comes with its own challenges. People assume being a chef on a super-yacht – the kind you see in Hello magazine – is a dream job. In many ways they’re right, of course. But it’s not [...]
Tony Bevan at Ben Brown Fine Arts: The tree of life, death and the mind November 23, 2014 Painter Tony Bevan speaks ahead of his show at Ben Brown Fine Arts. Tony Bevan established a name for himself with blood-coloured self-portraits that snarled and gurned and twisted into the white of the canvas. Meeting him today, you’d be forgiven for asking, where are the devilish flared nostrils, the vast egg cranium [...]
Ken Clarke blames Conservative attempts to imitate Ukip for loss in Rochester and Strood November 23, 2014 Ken Clarke, the famously pro-Europe Conservative MP, has said banning EU migrants from receiving benefits would be playing into Ukip’s hands. In an interview with the Murnaghan programme on Sky News today, Clarke said policies that sought to imitate Ukip would end up making Nigel Farage’s party more credible. What's more, the former home secretary and chancellor [...]