New stock value for Facebook July 13, 2009 Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the Russian investment firm that invested $200m in Facebook this spring, is offering $14.77 (£9.09) a share for stock in the social network, in a deal that values it at around $6.5bn. The new valuation is lower than the $10bn valuation at which DST originally invested, as well as the $15bn [...]
Beyond Tokyo Japan offers tranquility, history and cute monkeys July 12, 2009 KYOTOWhen America was at war with Japan, it left Kyoto off of its list of air raid targets. Even as an enemy, the US realised that it would be inhuman to destroy the city, with its countless temples and winding streets that drip with history, some of it dating back to the Eighth century. Having [...]
Sky fraud probed by UK site July 9, 2009 SKY CAPITAL Holdings, the brokerage at the centre of a $140m (£87.2m) “boiler room” investigation, threatened to sue a city website that was investigating its operations, a City source told City A.M. yesterday. The news came as it emerged that as many as 400 UK retail investors may have been duped out of their money [...]
Sky Capital six in fraud charge July 8, 2009 SIX former employees of Wall Street retail brokerage Sky Capital were yesterday charged with running a $140m (£87.2m) “trans-Atlantic boiler room” to defraud investors in both the US and the UK. US prosecutors announced a criminal indictment of fraud against Sky Capital’s founder and chief executive Ross Mandell and five others, while the Securities and Exchange [...]
Penguin chops 100 UK staff July 7, 2009 CONSUMER book publisher Penguin yesterday confirmed that it will axe up to 100 jobs in its London offices as it implements a series of changes designed to position the company for the digital era. The Pearson-owned publisher has entered into a period of consultation with employees regarding the dismissal of around 10 per cent of its [...]
Open air culture July 5, 2009 NOW that we’ve been experiencing the kind of clear blue skies and sunshine that put the last few summers, erm, in the shade, we’ve got to enjoy it. Summer in the city means making the most of its open spaces, and in this day and age, that means a whole lot more than plonking down [...]
The sun has come out to play, but not everyone is celebrating June 30, 2009 YESZOE STRIMPELPOOR weather gods. They just can’t win, not in Britain anyway. The age-old refrain on these isles – when other conversation dries up – is how crap the weather is. The rain, the cold, how England is so insufferably depressing it’s a miracle anybody still lives here when Spain is just an hour’s flight [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 29, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES BT’S PENSION SCHEME TO HOLD LESS IN EQUITIESThe BT Group Pension Scheme had only enough money at the end of 2008 to pay about 57 per cent of promised benefits if the telecommunications company were to become insolvent, and said it intended to pare back sharply its future investments in equities in the [...]
Ofcom should stop persecuting BSkyB June 28, 2009 REWARDS for failure, we all agree, need to be eradicated. Everybody has had their fill of those – in the City, in government and elsewhere – who have pocketed a fortune while failing to deliver or even destroying institutions. But successful, entrepreneurial firms that have risked their owners’ capital, taken huge gambles and delivered vastly [...]
Lions have a mountain to climb to top kicking kings in Second Test June 25, 2009 SOUTH AFRICA vs. BRITISH LIONS SECOND TEST – TOMORROW, 2PM – SKY SPORTS 1 THE CURRENT incarnation of the Lions squad may be the first to have gone unbeaten against provincial opposition on a tour since 1989, but that does not really tell the full story of a month of mixed success in South Africa. [...]