WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
EXXON ABANDONS ITS $4BN BID FOR GHANA OIL STAKE
Following months of battle with Accra, ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest western oil company, has given up trying to acquire a share of Ghana’s giant Jubilee oil field from Kosmos, the American oil company. The $4bn deal was heavily opposed by Ghana’s government and its national oil company, which felt left out of the huge profit Kosmos stood to make.
LEVI’S LAUNCHES NEW BRAND IN CHINA
The mighty American blue jean, once a potent symbol of what was right about the US and wrong about communism, has come cap in hand in China to woo the almighty Asian consumer. Levi Strauss, icon of the US jeans culture, came to Shanghai on Wednesday to launch its new global brand, Denizen.
VOLVO TARGETS LUXURY IN CHINA
Volvo Car Corp’s new chief executive has said he planned to push the Swedish brand’s vehicles upmarket and make China its biggest market within five years. While Germany’s luxury brands are reporting rising sales and deriving a large portion of their profits from China, Volvo sold just 22,000 cars last year in the world’s largest vehicle market and aims to sell about 30,000 there in 2010.
CBS TO LAUNCH INDIAN NETWORK
Audiences from Mumbai to New Delhi could soon be watching a Bollywood version of the Hollywood gossip show Entertainment Tonight as part of a foray by the programme’s producer, US network CBS, into the country. CBS on Wednesday announced its first foray into global emerging markets as a network operator, with a tie-up with Reliance Broadcast Network, controlled by Indian industrialist Anil Ambani.
THE TIMES
SHELL PIPES HIT BY NIGERIAN OIL THIEVES
Royal Dutch Shell warned that it may be unable to meet its contractual obligations on deliveries of Nigerian crude oil, following a series of attacks on pipelines in the country’s south.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant said three separate incidents of sabotage had been recorded between August 1 and August 12 on two pipelines in the Cawthorne Channel.
ASDA PLANS DARK STORE TO CHALLENGE ONLINE GROCERS
Asda will take on Ocado in its own backyard on Monday when it opens a warehouse dedicated to internet orders that will provide a bridgehead for expansion in the South of England. The so-called dark store in Enfield, North London, will help Asda to gain market share.
The Daily Telegraph
GOOGLE IN DOCK OVER WHORE SLUR
A business consultant is taking Google to court in an attempt to force them to unmask an anonymous internet user who posted videos of her on YouTube which “called into question her chastity”. Carla Franklin, a former model, claims she suffered “personal humiliation and mental anguish” after seeing the comments, which included the word ”whore”.
TOO MANY MIDDLE-CLASS STUDENTS
Sweeping reforms to university funding will reduce the share of higher education places taken by middle-class children, Nick Clegg has signalled. He suggested that school-leavers from more affluent homes had taken a “disproportionate” number of degree places in recent years. He said the Coalition would use changes to university finance to “promote greater social mobility”.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
FORMER HP CEO DRAFTS JOB PLAN
Former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Mark Hurd is starting to look ahead again. Hurd, who resigned 6 August over business-conduct violations related to his relationship with former marketing contractor Jodie Fisher, told acquaintances this week that he has been approached with suggestions of new jobs.
CHINA LIKES GERMAN CARS
Germany’s resurgent export economy is presenting the country’s policy makers with a new worry—a growing reliance on China. Germany’s economy expanded at an annualized nine per cent rate in the second quarter, its strongest pace in more than 25 years. Driving that growth was demand for German exports, especially from China. But many economists say the cooldown in China will have an outsize effect on Germany.