Osborne misses a great opportunity November 29, 2011 AS ever, it was Lewis Carroll who put it best in Alice Through the Looking Glass: “The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today.” Even that could be too optimistic: reading between the lines of yesterday’s mini-Budget, it is clear that the UK is out of money to an even [...]
Murdoch set to survive at Sky says Odey November 27, 2011 JAMES Murdoch will be comfortably re-elected as a director of BSkyB at tomorrow’s annual general meeting, says one of the broadcaster’s biggest investors, despite shareholder calls for him to resign in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. Hedge fund boss Crispin Odey, who holds a 2.7 per cent stake in the satellite business, says [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 24, 2011 BSKYB Nomura rates BSkyB neutral with a £10.00 target over the Competition Commission’s bid to encourage more bidders for movie broadcast rights. The CC suggests letting third parties sell directly to Sky’s Anytime customers, and that Sky publish the dates its film contracts end. Nomura sees limited impact in these as in two recent deals [...]
Great deals meet a good cause in the Red Cross Christmas Market November 24, 2011 WHAT better way to get your Christmas shopping done than tying it in with a good cause – and a nice dose of history. Next week, the Red Cross Christmas Market at London’s Guildhall provides a fabulous, multi-dimensional chance to get the best out of the season, whether it’s art, craft or other goodies – [...]
MENSCH HITS THE HIGH STREET TO PRESENT AT HOT WOMEN CEREMONY November 23, 2011 WAS Miriam González Durántez too busy preparing for her move to US law firm Dechert to attend the Red’s Hot Women Awards yesterday? No – the wife of the deputy Prime Minister had an appointment with her children’s nursery that couldn’t be moved. And since these are the awards that celebrate the achievements of working [...]
Luiz will be world class, says AVB November 22, 2011 BAYER LEVERKUSEN vs CHELSEA CHELSEA manager Andre Villas-Boas insists error-prone defender David Luiz possesses all the attributes to become a world class centre-half. Luiz quickly established himself as a Stamford Bridge cult hero following his £21m move from Benfica last January, but his form has dipped since Villas-Boas arrived in the summer. Luiz’s eccentric performance [...]
CITY VIEWS: HOW DO YOU WATCH TV? November 22, 2011 MICHAEL DACOSTA | ABERDEEN AM “Personally I find that I am too busy to watch television, but when I am interested in a programme or movie I find that Sky+ is the easiest to use. Adverts can be very annoying so fast forwarding through them is great.” GARY FREDSON | HOMEMAKERS NATIONWIDE “I like to [...]
BSkyB external lawyers to check all journalist emails above board November 21, 2011 BSKYB, the broadcaster 39 per cent owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, has appointed external lawyers to review the emails of some of its most successful journalists to check there were no signs of illegal newsgathering. A BSkyB spokesman said yesterday the company had appointed Herbert Smith to review emails going back to 2005 in [...]
Investors prepare for Facebook’s IPO November 20, 2011 REID Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, expects Facebook to finally pull off its long-awaited IPO in the first half of next year. Mark Zuckerberg’s (pictured) company is keen to cash in on the bumper demand for tech IPOs, with the social network expected to break every record in the book when it finally lists. Its [...]
A weekend in Johannesburg November 20, 2011 THERE’S too much history in this town.” So says my tour guide Zac as we speed away from Johannesburg airport. He’s not wrong. Just 125 years old, South Africa’s largest city has developed as though on steroids. The often bloody events that mark its relatively short lifetime read like those of a much older city. [...]