BT boss Gavin Patterson misses out on £290,000 bonus after company fails to meet customer service targets May 19, 2016 BT chief executive Gavin Patterson lost out on a £290,000 bonus thanks to the company missing its customer service targets last year. Customer experience is one of the measures the telecom giant uses to set its executives’ annual bonus, BT said in its annual report published on Thursday. The poor performance led to Patterson’s overall annual [...]
Six Nations 2017: Selling jersey sponsorship for the first time is a controversial but lucrative move for France February 4, 2017 The end to a 98-year tradition was signalled last week when the French Rugby Federation (FFR) quietly slipped out that it was finally going to sell the front of the French national rugby team’s shirt to a sponsor – the last major rugby-playing nation to do so. When rugby union turned pro in the mid-1990s, [...]
Small businesses owed over £40bn in late payments, as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn slams larger firms for not playing fair April 11, 2017 More than half (52 per cent) of Britain’s smallest businesses are owed £44.6bn in late payments between them, research out today warns, just as Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to declare “war” on larger firms who make late payments to their suppliers. The survey by Zurich of more than 1,000 small-and-medium sized business owners discovered more [...]
Foreign takeovers in the UK hit record levels last year as Megabrew and BG-Shell deals completed March 7, 2017 Foreign takeovers of British companies reached record levels last year as mega-deals announced during 2015 were tied up. In 2016, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) tracked 227 foreign takeovers, the highest annual number since 2011, worth £187.4bn, the highest total value since records began in 1969. These figures were boosted by AB InBev’s £79bn [...]
Boardroom merry-go-round: Dunstone takes on exec role at TalkTalk and hands over Dixons Carphone reins to Livingston February 1, 2017 Lord Livingston will take over as chairman of Dixons Carphone from Sir Charles Dunstone, who today unveiled plans to concentrate his attentions on a new exec chairman role at telecoms firm TalkTalk. The move means a return to Dixons Carphone for the former minister for trade and investment, who was previously the finance chief at Dixons for six years. Read more: [...]
Revealed: Behind the scenes of Carillion’s annus horribilis December 21, 2017 Troubled construction giant Carillion hit the headlines again yesterday after it announced its interim chief executive Keith Cochrane will be replaced almost three months earlier than planned. When Andrew Davies, who was set to take over on 2 April 2018, starts on 22 January, he will become the company’s third chief executive in six months. [...]
Project Prosecco: Virgin Media exploring budget broadband December 11, 2016 Virgin Media is working on secret plans to launch a new budget broadband brand. Under the codename Project Prosecco, Virgin Media is considering expanding the coverage of its cable network next year with an offering that would put it squarely in competition with discount provider TalkTalk. Plans for the budget proposition, understood to still be at [...]
Carillion share price: Behind the scenes of the construction giant’s annus horribilis December 21, 2017 Troubled construction giant Carillion hit the headlines again yesterday after it announced its interim chief executive Keith Cochrane will be replaced almost three months earlier than planned. When Andrew Davies, who was set to take over on 2 April 2018, starts on 22 January, he will become the company’s third chief executive in six months. [...]
Negotiations over the largest pension deficit in the FTSE 100 could be made worse by an Openreach spin-off October 2, 2016 BT's mammoth pension scheme deficit is threatening to derail Ofcom's plans to make its broadband infrastructure arm Openreach more independent from the telecoms giant. A consultation on the future of Openreach is due to close on Tuesday after attracting over 75,000 responses. Investors and analysts are deeply concerned that separating it from BT could cause significant issues for the group when it comes to [...]
Sky gears up for launch of mobile service with price details this week November 27, 2016 Details of Sky’s long awaited move in to mobile are expected to be fleshed out this week The pay TV giant will unveil its mobile phone subscription packages designed to complete its so-called quadplay offering, meant to encourage existing customers to sign up for more services. Sky’s rivals fear it will try to undercut them [...]