Vivendi in bid for UK agency See Tickets September 4, 2011 FRENCH media conglomerate Vivendi is purchasing See Tickets for around £80m, City A.M. understands. The move follows similar action taken last year, when Vivendi acquired a 65 per cent stake in French online ticket vendors Digitick for €29m (£25.4m). Vivendi has enjoyed success with Digitick and expects online ticket sales in particular to remain lucrative [...]
There’s no logic in a punitive tax on bank bonuses February 12, 2012 LET us imagine two bankers. Let’s call them Jocelyn and Alastair. Last year they were both paid £2m. Jocelyn had a basic salary of £500,000 and a bonus of £1.5m. Alastair had a basic salary of £2m and no bonus. Who thinks that Jocelyn should pay more in tax than Alastair? Ed Miliband seems to [...]
Blavatnik ends EMI talks on Citi’s high price October 31, 2011 TALKS to sell iconic music group EMI looked shaky yesterday after the lead bidder for its recorded music arm walked away claiming that the seller, Citigroup, wanted too high a price. Len Blavatnik, the new owner of EMI’s US on-off suitor Warner Music, has tabled a $1.5bn (£930m) offer for EMI’s recorded music business, home [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 8, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES GDF SUEZ LAYS OUT FIVE YEAR PLAN GDF Suez, the world’s biggest independent power producer, is to spend up to €55bn globally over five years as it tries to double its size in Asia and cut its reliance on Europe, where it has been locked in dispute with two of its biggest state [...]
Russian billionaire readies an offer for Warner Music May 2, 2011 RUSSIAN billionaire Len Blavatnik is said to be on the verge of making a binding offer for Warner music, the record label behind Madonna and Oasis, in a deal valued at more than $3bn (£1.8bn). He will lead a consortium of bidders including the Gores brothers, the US billionaire financiers, to buy the company in [...]
To Bonaparte, with love from China January 2, 2012 THE rich and international do not tire of Paris. Though it was hardly lacking in ultra-luxe period hotels before, the city evidently needed more. And so last year saw the opening of two major hotels, The Mandarin Oriental and the Shangri-La, signifying not only Paris’s ever-ascendant position on the global luxury circuit, but an overt [...]
Ryan’s the man to take on national job November 24, 2011 IT’S been a week of intense preparation as we get ready to host league leaders Bristol on Sunday (2pm kick off, Richmond Athletic Ground). Our result against London Welsh last weekend was very disappointing for the squad; to claw our way into the lead against a very good Welsh side with only seconds remaining was [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 8, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES GRAFF PLANS $1BN HONG KONG IPO Graff Diamonds, retailer of some of the world’s most expensive jewellery, is planning a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise $1bn and value the company’s equity at about $5bn. The London-based company, known for high-end jewellery items such as 100-carat diamond tiaras, is raising capital [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 8, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES GRAFF PLANS $1BN HONG KONG IPO Graff Diamonds, retailer of some of the world’s most expensive jewellery, is planning a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise $1bn and value the company’s equity at about $5bn. The London-based company, known for high-end jewellery items such as 100-carat diamond tiaras, is raising capital [...]
News Corp in talks over MySpace sale March 29, 2011 NEWS Corp has held early-stage talks with US music video site Vevo over exchanging its ownership of beleaguered Myspace for a stake in a new venture. Rupert Murdoch’s firm has hired Allen & Co to advise it on a sale or spin-off of the former social network, now branded as an entertainment site. It is [...]