WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
MISYS PUTS NEW FINANCE IN PLACE FOR ALLSCRIPTS
Misys, the banking and healthcare software group, has refinanced the debt package it agreed in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year. The $210m (£131m) three-year deal replaces a $325m package to secure the acquisition of Allscripts, the US clinical software record provider, which was in its final stages last September. Lehman had committed to provide funding for the bid.
TALKS ON DISPOSAL OF 57 PER CENT STAKE IN EIRCOM
Eircom Holdings, formerly known as Babcock & Brown Capital (BCM), a listed Australian investment fund, has started discussions with three potential bidders in an attempt to sell its 57 per cent stake in Eircom, the former Irish state-owned telecommunications company.
UNIONS AND PUBLISHERS JOIN TO FIGHT PIRACY
Unions on both sides of the Atlantic are joining forces with media companies to lobby for tougher action against piracy, as rising unemployment levels focus their attention on the threat to members’ jobs and incomes from copyright breaches. Representatives from media unions joined rights owners at a London conference this month to co-ordinate their approach to the government’s Digital Britain report on the future of the UK’s creative industries.
ARCANDOR GAINS BERLIN LIFT
Arcandor, the troubled German retailer, took a step towards securing state aid yesterday when two leading ministers said Berlin would consider a request for it to guarantee €650m ($905m) in loans. Finance minister Peer Steinbrueck said state aid for the retailer was “absolutely not unthinkable as thousands of jobs could be lost if it went bankrupt.
THE TIMES
MPC LONE RANGER DAVID BLANCHFLOWER RIDES OUT WITH WARNING OF FALSE DAWN
The leading Bank of England official who accurately predicted the recession warns today against complacency that the worst of the slump is over and predicts a further surge of more than a million in unemployment this year.
CHINA TIGHTENS GRIP ON RARE-EARTH METALS
Japan’s increasingly frantic efforts to lead the world in green technology have put it on a collision course with the ambitions of China and dragged both government and industry into the murky realm of large-scale mineral smuggling. The robust international trade in illegally mined rare-earth metals highlights China’s near monopoly on the raw materials for environmental technology.
The Daily Telegraph
ASTRAZENECA FACES $1.3BN US LAWSUIT
Verus Pharmaceuticals, a US-based company, has filed a lawsuit against AstraZeneca seeking $1.3bn (£813m) over claims involving the development of an asthma treatment. In a statement published yesterday Verus said it had filed the complaint in the Supreme Court of the State of New York alleging “fraud, breach of contract, and conversion”.
OECD PRAISES UK’S RED TAPE REFORMS
The government’s attempt to reduce the red tape burden on business has made “significant progress”, according the OECD. But the international think tank warned in a report seen by The Daily Telegraph that there was “a risk of significant regulation overload” if the total stock of regulations was not reduced in a “systematic” way.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
SAMBERG’S PEQUOT CAPITAL TO CLOSE
Arthur Samberg, among the best-known hedge-fund managers, is closing down his firm amid an ongoing investigation into possible insider trading. “Public disclosures about the continuing investigation have cast a cloud over the firm and have become a source of personal distraction,” Samberg wrote in a letter sent to investors of his Pequot Capital Management.
EXXON SAYS OIL DEMAND STILL FLAT
Exxon Mobil’s top executive said he suspects a recent $10 a barrel jump in oil prices was due partly to investors anticipating a recovery, but that it was “too early to call” whether the US economy had turned a corner. Chairman Rex Tillerson said oil-market fundamentals hadn’t changed much since the beginning of the year.