Inmarsat: The London firm leading the race into outer space July 21, 2014 Inmarsat boss Rupert Pearce explains the firm’s mission. Walking past Inmarsat’s imposing head office on Old Street roundabout is probably the closest the average Londoner will ever come to travelling through space. Inmarsat oversees 11 satellites in orbit. The 35-year-old company is light years ahead of the government’s proposal, unveiled last week, to [...]
London Report: UK’s second quarter growth and minutes from Bank in focus July 21, 2014 THE first estimate of gross domestic product data for the second quarter is likely to be closely watched after hints of a rate rise later this year. The minutes of the July meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will also be of interest, for the same reason, and retail sales figures will [...]
TSB could be planning to buy the mortgage portfolio of taxpayer-owned “bad bank” July 19, 2014 TSB has expressed an interest in buying the mortgage portfolio from Britain’s so-called bad bank, made up of the remains of Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley, for £1.4bn according to Sky News. A TSB spokesperson said the bank “did not comment on rumour and speculation” but the boss of the newly-listed bank Paul Pester [...]
ITV share price soars as Liberty Global picks up £481m stake July 17, 2014 Liberty Global, the owner of large swathes of European cable TV infrastructure including Virgin Media, yesterday bought a 6.4 per cent stake in ITV from BSkyB for £481m. ITV’s shares rose 6.15 per cent yesterday on hopes that Liberty might look to make a wider bid for the rest of the broadcaster’s stock. [...]
Cyclist Tiernan-Locke gets two-year ban July 17, 2014 TEAM Sky chiefs have pledged to review their recruitment policy after sacking British cyclist Jonathan Tiernan-Locke for incurring a two-year doping ban. Tiernan-Locke was suspended and had his 2012 Tour of Britain title stripped yesterday by cycling’s world governing body the UCI following a 10-month investigation. The UCI alerted the Plymouth rider to discrepancies in [...]
MH17 plane crash: Investors sell off airline stocks, pile into gold July 17, 2014 Traders have reacted to news that a Malaysian Airlines plane has crashed in eastern Ukraine by selling off stocks, especially of airlines. Geopolitical fears over tensions between Ukraine and Russia have been resurrected, seeing investors move out of equities into traditional safe-haven assets, like gold. The precious metal is often seen as a hedge against [...]
BT One Phone puts BT back in mobile business July 17, 2014 BT is ambitiously launching itself back into the competitive mobile market with its One Phone mobile business service after escaping more than a decade ago when it sold off O2. The cloud-based service connects the landline and mobile calls of business users using a BT sim card. It means calls to numbers for office landlines [...]
ITV share price skyrockets as Liberty Global pays £481m for stake July 17, 2014 It seems to be the season for media dealmaking; as 21st Century Fox courts Time Warner, Liberty Global has paid out £481m for a minority stake in ITV. The cable company announced on Thursday that it had acquired the stake from BSkyB and now owns a 6.4 per cent share of the UK's biggest commercial [...]
Rupert Murdoch kicks off Time Warner takeover battle July 16, 2014 Rupert Murdoch has his sights on creating a $150bn (£88bn) media behemoth by shelling out $80bn for the takeover of Time Warner and merging it with his own 21st Century Fox empire, a plan that hit a roadblock last month when Time Warner rejected his advance. Shares in Time Warner jumped 17 per cent to [...]
Rupert Murdoch empire split becomes a blessing for 21st Century Fox takeover bid July 16, 2014 Exactly three years ago this weekend, Rupert Murdoch was sat plonked in front of a group of disapproving MPs. The occasion was supposed to mark a profound chastening for the media mogul, who faced an intense grilling over the hacking scandal that sensationally brought down the News of the World. Murdoch played along, putting on [...]