Sony sees a record $6.4bn loss on tax hit April 10, 2012 JAPAN’S Sony yesterday flagged a record $6.4bn (£4bn) annual net loss, double an earlier forecast and a fourth straight year of red ink, as it writes off deferred tax credits, heaping more pressure on its new CEO to turn around the electronics giant. Sony, which plans to axe 10,000 jobs – around six per cent [...]
As Facebook announces its $1bn purchase of Instagram, is it really worth the money? April 10, 2012 YES Steve Dinneen What could be a bigger sign of a bubble than paying $1bn for a company with no revenue model? At all. It’s not even really a company – it’s an app that makes your photos look like Polaroid snaps (Polaroid being a company that has twice filed for bankruptcy). Bonkers, right? But [...]
Best-Mex: Soho’s sizzling-hot new eaterie deserves the hype April 9, 2012 LA BODEGA NEGRA 9 Old Compton Street, W1 5JF, 020 7758 4100 FOOD ***** SERVICE ***** ATMOSPHERE ***** Cost per person without wine: £50 You know The Box? The impossible-to-get-into night-club, beloved of Keira Knightley and Jude Law and every other Soho-partying A-lister? Well, Serge Becker – who is behind The Box as well as [...]
No end in sight as Apple heads towards $1,000 April 4, 2012 APPLE’s stock continued its upward trajectory towards $1,001 yesterday after a US analyst predicted the tech giant would hit the thousand dollar milestone within the next year. Brian White at Topeka Capital Markets upgraded Apple’s price target to a staggering $1,001, saying “Apple fever is spreading like a wildfire around the world and we see [...]
Motorola in EC probe for billing Apple and Microsoft too much April 3, 2012 EU regulators are investigating whether phone maker Motorola Mobility breached antitrust rules by allegedly over-charging Microsoft and Apple for use of its patents in their products, the European Commission said yesterday. The EU regulator said it had opened two investigations into Motorola Mobility based on Microsoft’s and Apple’s grievances. The commission will investigate whether Motorola [...]
FOOD & DRINK NEWS April 3, 2012 Wine website launches Lot 18, a groovy members’ only wine website stocking everything from Château Pontet-Canet Pauillac 1995 to Francis Ford Coppola’s Inglenook Rubicon Estate Blancaneaux 2009, has recently launched in the UK. If you fancy access to wines that are a little harder to find, at good prices for a limited period, it’s probably [...]
S&P starts the quarter on a four-year high April 2, 2012 US stocks started the second quarter with a bang yesterday, with the S&P 500 climbing to a fresh four-year high as manufacturing data from the United States and China helped support the outlook for economic growth. A string of mixed indicators in recent days slowed the stock market’s advance, as investors took the figures as [...]
FOXCONN GIVING WORKERS A RAISE April 1, 2012 FOXCONN Technology Group will keep on increasing worker salaries in China and cutting the hours of work, chairman Terry Gou said yesterday. Foxconn has come under fire for poor working conditions for employees making Apple iPhones and iPads. Foxconn is building manufacturing facilities in Hainan, as well as expanding its operations in Brazil.
Advertising on mobile proving better than PC April 1, 2012 ADVERTISING on mobile devices is overtaking the success of using desktop computers for marketing, with the UK leading the charge in Europe according to a report from Marin Software, published this morning. Some 15.1 per cent of Google’s paid clicks in the UK in December came from adverts on smartphone and tablets – a 280 [...]
Apple to improve worker conditions March 29, 2012 In a landmark development for the way Western companies do business in China, Apple said yesterday it had agreed to work with partner Foxconn – which makes Apple devices – to tackle wage and working condition violations at the factories that produce its popular products. The move comes in response to one of the largest [...]