Sports Direct shares drop as M&A boss departs February 17, 2015 Sports Direct's share price was down more than four per cent this morning after it emerged that its mergers and acquisitions boss Jeff Blue is leaving the company. Blue, a former Merril Lynch banker, was hired two years ago to spearhead takeover deals for Mike Ashley's high street behemoth. He was also standing in [...]
Hewlett-Packard packs its bags for new flagship office in the City at 1 Aldermanbury Square January 27, 2015 Hewlett-Packard is set to move hundreds of staff to a new London head office in the Square Mile. The US tech firm said yesterday it has agreed to lease the whole of 1 Aldermanbury Square near London Wall from Epic UK, the property company run by brothers Michael and Steven Elghanayan. It has taken a [...]
City Moves for 28 January 2015 | Who’s switching jobs January 27, 2015 Hamlins The law firm has announced the appointment of Charles Bezzant as partner. He will be heading up its real estate finance team, and joins from Reed Smith, where he qualified in 2000. Bezzant’s practice covers all finance aspects of property investment and development transactions. RBC Global Asset Management Royal Bank of Canada’s asset management [...]
UK fraud office ends Autonomy accounts probe January 19, 2015 THE BATTLE between Hewlett-Packard (HP) and the former executives of UK-based software company Autonomy took another turn yesterday as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) closed its probe into the firm saying there wasn’t enough evidence for a conviction. Autonomy, then a darling of the UK’s technology startup community, was sold to HP for $11.7bn (£7.7bn) [...]
HP vs Autonomy: “Insufficient evidence” to convict, says Serious Fraud Office January 19, 2015 More news on the epic battle between Hewlett-Packard (HP) and UK-based software company Autonomy. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said today it has closed its investigation into the British company, despite accusations from HP that it had committed accounting fraud. Autonomy, then a darling of the UK's technology startup community, was sold to HP for [...]
City Moves for 13 January 2015 | Who’s switching jobs January 12, 2015 Grosvenor Fund Management The investment firm has appointed Gaston Brandes as director of capital markets, Europe. He joins from UBS Global Asset Management, where he was executive director of global real estate business development. Brandes has also held roles at Franklin Templeton Investment Services. Brown Rudnick The law firm has appointed Moris Mashali as partner [...]
Pod only knows: Great storytelling podcasts, from Sarah Koenig’s Serial to Jonathan Goldstein’s WireTap December 8, 2014 Fearing the end of Serial? Don’t worry, there are plenty other great storytelling podcasts out there Thanks to Sarah Koenig, podcasts are cool again. Her unearthing of a fifteen year old murder case involving three teenagers, a mobile phone and a host of hazy details has proved an unlikely talking point for people all over [...]
Mike Lynch vs HP: Autonomy founder says he will report HP to US regulator December 2, 2014 Is another chapter about to be written in the saga of Autonomy founder Mike Lynch versus HP? Lynch has said he is planning to report the US tech giant to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), after the botched takeover during which the company took an $8.8bn (£5.6bn) writedown on Lynch's business. The battle [...]
Autonomy founder Mike Lynch steps down from Blinkx board September 25, 2014 AUTONOMY founder Mike Lynch, who is currently embroiled in a legal tussle with US tech giant HP over allegations of fraud surrounding its $11bn (£7.3bn) takeover of his firm, yesterday stood down from the board of Blinkx, the online video company spun off from Autonomy. Lynch will step down on 31 December, but has agreed [...]
Autonomy hits back at HP’s fraud allegation September 11, 2014 Autonomy founder Mike Lynch yesterday hit back at Hewlett-Packard’s allegations of fraud by publishing a file of internal documents that he claimed contradicted some of his accuser’s most damaging accusations. HP last week publicly disclosed for the first time some of the detail behind its allegations that it was forced to write down more than [...]