We mustn’t delude ourselves about the scale of the crisis Britain went through February 3, 2014 OVER the past three years, the debate over the coalition’s deficit reduction plan and the sluggishness of the subsequent recovery has dominated the agenda. On almost all sides, this debate has been framed in a way that implies that, had we adopted marginally different policies, the fallout from the crash need not have been anywhere [...]
Slashing prices hit Ryanair hard February 3, 2014 Europe's largest budget airline Ryanair has suffered a worse than expected loss for the third quarter to 31 December. The low-cost airline has posted a loss of €35m (£28.7m), against analysts estimates of €32m. The results are a far cry from the €18.1m of profit seen a year earlier. But beyond the headline figure there [...]
Blackstone rips past estimates as floats deliver January 30, 2014 WALL Street titan Blackstone shot the lights out with its quarterly results yesterday, shattering analysts’ profit expectations after prospering from a bout of multi-billion deals including the UK float of Legoland owner Merlin Entertainments. The group, which offers an array of private equity and real estate funds for the world’s biggest investors, said pre-tax profits [...]
Ukraine prime minister Azarov resigns January 28, 2014 With Ukrainian MPs set to vote on scrapping a new anti-protest law this morning – in response to the continuing unrest in the country – news that prime minister Mykola Azarov has resigned has just broken. According to Ukraine's government website, the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has reported Azarov's resignation. He said [...]
CNBC Comment: Davos cynics miss its true relevance January 28, 2014 IT’S EASY to be hysterical or snarky about the annual gathering of chief executives, politicians, economists and “thought leaders” at the World Economic Forum in Davos (which begins this week) – particularly if you’re not going. Plenty of conspiracy theorists suspect that the world’s elite is gathering in this small Swiss town to plan the [...]
Google snaps up London start up in £400m deal January 28, 2014 GOOGLE has paid £400m to take control of a London-based tech company co-founded by former chess prodigy and neuroscientist Demis Hassabis. DeepMind Technologies, which was set up by Hassabis and colleagues Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman in 2011, will work on research and development projects in artificial intelligence, which could one day be used in [...]
Google snaps up London start up in £400m deal January 27, 2014 GOOGLE has paid £400m to take control of a London-based tech company co-founded by former chess prodigy and neuroscientist Demis Hassabis. DeepMind Technologies, which was set up by Hassabis and colleagues Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman in 2011, will work on research and development projects in artificial intelligence, which could one day be used in [...]
How telematics is changing the car insurance world forever January 21, 2014 I have two siblings, a younger sister and an even younger brother. My sister is a self-confessed terrible driver who once managed to write off a car in a 20mph collision outside the Post Office in our local market town. My brother, an engineer, works at Jaguar Landrover. So whose insurance quote is higher? You [...]
CNBC Comment: Davos cynics miss its true relevance January 20, 2014 IT’S EASY to be hysterical or snarky about the annual gathering of chief executives, politicians, economists and “thought leaders” at the World Economic Forum in Davos (which begins this week) – particularly if you’re not going. Plenty of conspiracy theorists suspect that the world’s elite is gathering in this small Swiss town to plan the [...]
Hays bullish after increase in UK hires January 19, 2014 Alistair Cox sees plenty of growth to come for British jobs, but skills shortages are a worry AFTER a torrid few years for the jobs market, the boss of the country’s biggest white-collar recruiter is feeling optimistic enough about the growing signs of recovery that he’s even planning to add some staff to his own [...]