Innovation Diary: Tech City turns three: Cluster changes shape while the quango seeks scale December 8, 2013 TECH City has just turned three. There is some confusion over what this actually means, however. Tech firms have been located around Old Street roundabout since at least the 1990s, so it’s really just the anniversary of the government quango dedicated to stimulating them. Yet despite criticism (Sir James Dyson has attacked an obsession with [...]
EU antitrust probe gives green light to Nokia for handset sale December 4, 2013 EUROPEAN Union antitrust regulators have approved Nokia’s €5.44bn (£4.5bn) sale of its devices and services division to Microsoft. “The commission concluded that the transaction would not raise any competition concerns,” the European Commission said in a statement yesterday. The deal has now passed final regulatory approval, having been given the go ahead by the US [...]
City Moves for 29 November 2013 | Who’s switching jobs November 28, 2013 Colliers International The commercial real estate services firm has appointed John Knowles as a partner in its national investment team. He was most recently head of capital markets at Lambert Smith Hampton, and has also held senior positions at DTZ and Jones Lang LaSalle. BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking BNP Paribas has announced the [...]
7Digital preparing for its market debut with UBC takeover in 2014 November 25, 2013 ONLINE music store 7Digital has signed a letter of intent for a reverse takeover of UBC Media, the Aim-listed content group that yesterday reported a widening statutory loss of £620,000 during the last six months. Discussions between the two media firms are ongoing but the companies said they are looking to complete the deal by [...]
Apple awarded $290m over its patent dispute with Samsung November 21, 2013 APPLE yesterday won $290m (£179m) in a damages retrial against Samsung, as the two companies continue to battle globally over their patent holdings. The technology giants have been fighting in the courts for over two years. Last year, Apple was awarded over $1bn in damages after it convinced a jury that Samsung copied various features [...]
Management: Meet national culture November 20, 2013 A new book argues that cultural values can make or break a corporate strategy AMERICA has long been seen as a graveyard for British retailers. In 2001, Marks & Spencer sold its Brooks Brothers US chain for a third of the price it paid for it. Sainsbury’s bailed out of its Shaw’s business in 2004. [...]
US appeal court revives Apple-Samsung row November 18, 2013 A US appeals court yesterday breathed new life into Apple’s long-running attempt to secure an injunction against Samsung Electronics, ordering a California judge to reconsider imposing a permanent sales ban on some Samsung products. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that the lower court abused its discretion in denying the injunction [...]
Samsung to launch three-sided display phone November 15, 2013 Next year Samsung plans to launch a smartphone with a three-sided display, according to reports by Bloomberg. The phone will be designed so messages, emails and possibly share prices and notifications, can be read from any angle. The new handset will use an upgraded version of its Youm series of flexible OLED screens. Each side [...]
It’s time for tech firms to end their insane global patent wars November 14, 2013 IT is welcome news that a US federal court ruled last night that Google can continue to build a digital library by scanning more than 20m books. Intellectual property rules need updating for the 21st century: authors’ and owners’ property rights must be respected but what consists “fair use” needs to be reworked to account [...]
Moto G targets the low-end for Motorola November 13, 2013 MOTOROLA, Google’s mobile handset division that reported a $248m (£154m) loss last quarter, is betting that low-cost smartphones will rejuvenate its struggling business. The Moto G is Motorola’s latest effort to take back the consumer smartphone business, but it’s a device that shuns the high-end price tag of competing devices from Apple and Samsung. “You [...]