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 [...]
Tesco share price falls on £2.5bn credit facility claims September 30, 2014 Tesco share price fell again today – though far less than in recent days – after it emerged the embattled supermarket had sought a £2.5bn banking facility to prop it up against any impact from credit ratings downgradings. The supermarket was 0.4 per cent down in early trading today, with its share price continuing [...]
George Osborne finds his Tory party conference speech a little taxing but recovers speedily September 29, 2014 Party goers at the Tory conference in Birmingham had a difficult decision last night. Should they quaff champers at The Telegraph’s shindig or shuffle to Sky’s event? The two parties went head to head from 10.30pm, with David Cameron expected to show face at the former. No doubt Osborne felt he deserved a drink following [...]
CityFibre revenue increases but rising costs up fibre firm’s losses September 29, 2014 WHOLESALE fibre operator CityFibre reported a 45.6 per cent jump in revenues during the first half of the year as it secured a number of new long-term public sector contracts for use of its network. Despite the revenue growth CityFibre’s losses widened during the six months to 30 June, rising to £3.6m from £2.96m during [...]
Merged Endemol, Shine and Core led by Laing September 29, 2014 Sky’s former director of content, Sophie Turner Laing, is in line to score the top job at the merged Endemol, Shine and Core Media group, if the deal to create world’s largest independent television production group is signed off by owners 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management.
Strike over at Air France but talks continue September 28, 2014 Air France is hoping for clearer skies ahead as a pilots’ strike that has cost the airline hundreds of millions of euros finally ended yesterday. The strike by pilots had lasted for two weeks since 15 September, and resulted in a wide range of flight cancellations and delays, that Air France estimated cost the airline [...]