Former Blair adviser sells his PR agency April 12, 2012 TIM Allan, the former spin doctor for BSkyB who started his professional career as a press adviser to Tony Blair, has agreed to sell a majority stake in his public relations firm Portland to the global marketing group Omnicom. The deal values Portland at around £20m (depending on the group’s performance over the next three [...]
Roche sales remain flat as Illumina bid battle rages April 12, 2012 SWISS drugmaker Roche dangled the prospect of a higher offer before reluctant US bid target Illumina yesterday along with broadly flat first-quarter sales supported by its top-selling cancer drugs. Genetics specialist Illumina has rejected Roche’s $6.7bn sweetened takeover offer and has also urged investors to vote against Roche’s bid to get its own nominees on [...]
Publishing’s future hangs in the balance: This is no time to pick winners April 12, 2012 IN THE tradition of digital success leading to massive antitrust lawsuits, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) this week filed a suit against Apple and five publishers for allegedly conspiring to keep ebook prices artificially high. Apple’s epublishing rival Amazon rubbed salt on the wound by promptly cutting its Kindle ebook prices even further. But [...]
APPLE SUED OVER PRICE OF E-BOOKS April 11, 2012 THE US GOVERNMENT sued Apple and five major book publishers yesterday for colluding to fix the prices of e-books in a fight against growing competition from Amazon. The lawsuit filed in a New York district court accused Apple and publishing executives of “devising schemes” to limit Amazon’s ability to discount e-books after the online retailer’s [...]
Nokia’s shares plunge after profit warning April 11, 2012 SHARES IN NOKIA were sent into a tailspin yesterday, falling to their lowest level since 1997, after the Finnish phone maker warned that it would post losses in the first two quarters of this year. The company expects to make an operating loss of around three per cent of sales in the first quarter, which [...]
A Spice Girls revival is more likely than a Nokia one April 11, 2012 CAST your mind back to 1997. Tony Blair’s New Labour had won a landslide election, Britannia was cool and Channel 5 was going to save the television industry. For some, it is a Spice Girls song that best evokes the era or, for those with better taste, a Radiohead tune. For me, it has to [...]
WHO ELSE IS RIPE FOR A TAKEOVER? April 11, 2012 Pinterest All eyes have now shifted to picture-sharing site Pinterest, with some commentators saying the firm’s meteoric rise prompted Facebook’s Instagram bid. The female-oriented site is slick and very addictive. Tumblr If Instagram is worth $1bn, blogging site Tumblr could fetch an eye-watering sum. It is incredibly popular, hosting almost 50m blogs and attracting more [...]
Apple sweet as it hits $600bn market value April 10, 2012 THE STELLAR performance of Apple shares reached a new milestone yesterday as the firm’s market value hit $600bn (£378bn) for the first time in its history. The stock achieved a new record high of $644 in early trading, re-inforcing the technology giant’s position as America’s most valuable company. Microsoft is the only other firm to [...]
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 [...]