Tax crackdown targets foreign home owners October 31, 2011 WEALTHY UK residents with foreign property will come under increased pressure to make sure their tax returns are in order, after Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs launched a crackdown on undeclared assets. HMRC said yesterday that a new team of investigators will target around 200,000 so-called affluent taxpayers, some of whom it believes may be [...]
Samsung will target rivals in M&A spree October 31, 2011 SAMSUNG chief executive Choi Gee-sung yesterday fired a warning shot to rivals General Electric and Philips, saying he will he will aggressively target acquisitions in their sectors to compensate for his flagging chip business. He said he will target growth industries including solar cells, LEDs, biopharmaceuticals and medical equipment to complement his firm’s booming smartphone [...]
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is much more than a bookseller: He’s the Everyman entrepreneur October 30, 2011 WITH the Kindle Fire, Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos is showing the world that he’s much more than an online retailer. The original Kindle, released in 2007, was the first piece of electronic hardware Amazon ever produced, and it revolutionised the electronic book business. Wall Street analysts expect Amazon to sell about 26m Kindle devices [...]
Samsung overtakes Apple in smartphone market October 28, 2011 Samsung Electronics Co overtook Apple Inc as the world’s top smartphone maker in the July-September period with a 44 percent jump in shipments, and forecast strong sales in the current quarter in a clear warning to its rivals. Samsung only entered the smartphone market in earnest last year, but its sales have skyrocketed thanks to [...]
Sony buys out Ericsson JV October 27, 2011 SONY has called time on its European joint venture with Ericsson, taking full control of their telecoms business for €1.05bn (£920m). Sony Ericsson has struggled to gain traction in a fiercely competitive smartphone market dominated by the likes of Apple and Samsung. The business will now become part of Sony’s consumer division. Analysts expect much [...]
BlackBerry outage nightmare not over as lawsuits hit RIM October 27, 2011 Consumers in the US and Canada have sued Research in Motion (RIM) for a days-long service outage on its BlackBerry devices that rippled across the world earlier this month. The system-wide failure of the service left tens of millions of frustrated BlackBerry users on five continents without email, instant messaging and browsing. The firm apologised [...]
Amazon to open massive new London warehouse October 26, 2011 AMAZON says it will create an eighth high-tech warehouse on the outskirts on London as it prepares to increase its product range and meet an expected rise in demand for online shopping. The plans will see the retailer create up to 4,000 new jobs in the UK by Christmas next year, with its core market for [...]
Nokia: Lumia will dispel our stuffy image October 26, 2011 NOKIA yesterday unveiled the “hero” handset it hopes will allow it to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung. The Lumia 800 is the first device from the Finnish company to use Microsoft’s Window Phone 7 software, following the sweetheart deal penned by the two struggling telecoms players earlier this year. Chief executive Stephen [...]
Future lies far from Finland October 26, 2011 Nokia’s turnaround, says its chief executive Stephen Elop, is already underway: a sentiment given credence by its better than expected results last month, in which it avoided making an expected loss. Elop has admitted the firm has an image problem and its new handsets go some way to addressing that. But short of a miracle [...]
Blockbusters at the touch of a button October 26, 2011 NETFLIX, the US online film service, announced on Monday that it will be launching in the UK in 2012. The company looks set to change the way we watch movies, but already has some tough competition. Here we tell you everything you need to know. What is Netflix? Netflix is an online film service that [...]