Icy times between fund managers and bankers January 23, 2013 ARROGANT, indolent, avaricious – and these are some of the politer adjectives applied to investment bankers and private equity firms during their ongoing stand-off with City fund managers. The permafrost between them has shown few signs of thawing since two BlackRock executives outlined in 2011 a litany of gripes about the way bankers sell new [...]
Sky powers up mobile TV service January 22, 2013 SKY has unveiled a premium version of its mobile TV service, Sky Go, that will allow Sky customers to download films such as Marvel’s Avengers Assemble (pictured) and TV programmes. The broadcaster is charging an additional £5 a month for Sky Go Extra.
The man with a will to make online music pay January 20, 2013 RIO Caraeff has chosen quite a week to visit the UK. As his New York-based music video company, Vevo, is embroiled in negotiations with Google over a potential investment that is rumoured to value it at $500m (£315m), Britain’s most prominent high street music retailer, HMV, is entering administration. Vevo, founded by record labels Universal [...]
Action, culture, and food on the Cornish coastline January 20, 2013 THERE ARE some things that, on visiting Cornwall, just have to be done. Eat a Cornish pasty? It would be rude not to. Wolf down a calorie-laden afternoon tea of scones with jam and clotted cream? Why, yes. Stand gazing at the sky from a golden beach and say: “The light is so amazing here?” [...]
E*Trade to name Idzik as chief executive January 17, 2013 E*Trade is expected to name former Barclays chief operating officer Paul Idzik as its chief executive, according to Sky News. Idzik, who left Barclays in 2008 and then headed estate agent DTZ until 2011, would be the US online retail brokerage’s fifth chief executive since 2009. E*Trade, which made a $157m profit in 2011, after [...]
Fiasco over results tests M&S’s loyalty to Tulchan January 17, 2013 THERE is little more certain in life than this: one firm’s misfortune will be seized on by rivals desperate to take advantage of another’s woes. So it is that a host of financial public relation agencies have been bending the ears of Marks & Spencer executives to test the retailer’s loyalty to its incumbent agency [...]
The London Art Fair returns – and it’s bigger than ever before January 17, 2013 WHETHER YOU’RE a serious art connoisseur or have a more general interest, make sure to head down to the London Art Fair this weekend. In recent years it has struggled to compete with the likes of Frieze but if there was ever a time to visit, it’s now. This year’s event sees 100 leading British [...]
Deutsche man flown in to add profit to charity January 15, 2013 EX-DEUTSCHE chief Graham Hodgkin has taken a more literal than usual route to cementing his reputation as a City high-flyer – by becoming the new CEO of the London Air Ambulance. Hodgkin, formerly a managing director at Deutsche Bank, reckons he is well qualified for the newly-created role, having worked in investment banking for over [...]
Murdoch takes control of Sky Deutschland January 14, 2013 RUPERT Murdoch’s News Corp tightened its grip on Sky Deutschland yesterday, saying it would raise its stake in the German pay-TV company to 54.5 per cent from just under half, buying up €347m (£288.6m) of new stock in a capital increase. The move comes as media conglomerate News Corp separates its publishing and entertainment assets [...]
Support grows for Rothschild takeover plan January 10, 2013 STAR fund manager John Duffield has joined the growing ranks of Bumi shareholders backing Nat Rothschild’s bid to take control of the company. Duffield, who founded Jupiter Fund Management before setting up defunct investment house New Star Asset Management, is understood to have thrown his weight behind Rothschild’s plan to overhaul the mining company’s board, [...]