BEST of the BROKERS July 22, 2012 LUFTHANSA UBS rates the airline “buy” and has raised its target price by €1 to €14. The broker thinks Lufthansa’s second quarter results on 2 August will show a benefit from the falling value of the euro, offset by fuel and restructuring costs. UBS is forecasting a slight year-on-year fall in earnings before interest and [...]
WALL ST THE WEEK AHEAD July 22, 2012 THE trend of better-than-expected earnings will be put to the test this week when investors hope Apple can exceed already high expectations and Facebook reports its first quarterly earnings. Apple accounts for a significant proportion of the overall earnings of Standard & Poor’s 500 components. S&P 500 earnings are expected to show a rise of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 19, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES EU targets Google mobile services Europe’s antitrust enforcer is demanding that Google makes sweeping changes to its mobile services as it paves the way to serve formal charges against the company for anti-competitive behaviour should talks over a settlement collapse. The regulator is worried about how Google favours its own products in search results; [...]
Nokia writes off €220m as losses deepen July 19, 2012 NOKIA reported losses of €826m (£646.7m) for the three months to July yesterday and warned of more dismal figures in the current quarter, but shares in the troubled company jumped with results not as bad as feared. The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer sold just 10.2m devices over the period, compared with 16.7m for the same [...]
Only world-leading Apple pips £31bn Olympics for brand value July 18, 2012 THE OLYMPICS is worth £30.8bn and is the second most valuable brand in the world, second only to electronics giant Apple, according to a new study. Its value has soared since the last Games in Beijing, owing to a growth in revenue of 38 per cent, which has been driven by huge increases in income [...]
UK’s CSR in £200m Samsung deal July 17, 2012 BRITISH microchip firm CSR has sold its mobile phone technology division to South Korean electronics giant Samsung for $310m (£198.2m). The Cambridge-based company said its Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS location technology – which features in Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones, as well as Apple’s iPhone and iPad – is cutting edge. But the firm decided to sell because it was [...]
Microsoft looks at Office 2013 to drive sales July 16, 2012 MICROSOFT last night unveiled a new version of Office, its flagship software suite, in an attempt to drive usage of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system and Surface tablets. The technology giant’s chief executive Steve Ballmer, called it “the most ambitious release of Office we’ve ever done” at yesterday’s press conference in San Francisco. The [...]
RIM pledges to appeal $147.2m damages order July 15, 2012 BLACKBERRY maker Research in Motion (RIM) has said it will fight an order to pay $147.2m (£94.6m) in damages for using patented technology in its smartphones. RIM was last week ordered to pay software firm Mformation Technologies the fee – $8 for each of the 18.4m BlackBerrys sold in the US since claims were filed [...]
Nokia slashes smartphone price July 15, 2012 Nokia has cut the US price of its flagship smartphone in half, barely three months after its launch, in an effort to staunch losses in market share to rivals such as Apple and Samsung Electronics. The cost of the Lumia 900 Windows phone has been reduced to $49.99 from $99 with a two-year agreement, Nokia [...]
The whole City must work to rebuild the trust destroyed by a rotten few July 15, 2012 AFTER weeks of problems in the banking sector making front pages, it’s time we start taking steps to move business back to where it belongs: the business sections of our papers (though that would, of course, be hard in the case of this newspaper). Reputation matters and it’s the driving force behind any good business. [...]