Softbank seals Sprint buyout in record for Japan October 15, 2012 JAPANESE telecoms giant Softbank confirmed yesterday it will buy a majority stake in US mobile operator Sprint Nextel in the biggest ever overseas investment from a Japanese firm. Softbank will acquire 70 per cent of the US’s third-biggest mobile operator for $20.1bn (£12.5bn), the firm’s billionaire head Masoyashi Son announced in Tokyo yesterday, standing alongside [...]
House prices fell again in January, Nationwide says February 1, 2012 HOUSE prices declined in January and barely registered any growth over the last year, according to figures out yesterday from Nationwide. Prices fell 0.2 per cent last month, repeating December’s fall and taking the 12-month growth rate down from one per cent to 0.6 per cent. Average prices now stand at £162,228, from £161,211 in [...]
House prices fell again in January, Nationwide says February 1, 2012 HOUSE prices declined in January and barely registered any growth over the last year, according to figures out yesterday from Nationwide. Prices fell 0.2 per cent last month, repeating December’s fall and taking the 12-month growth rate down from one per cent to 0.6 per cent. Average prices now stand at £162,228, from £161,211 in [...]
Is EE 4G really OMG? We get stuck in with the new LTE network November 14, 2012 You know that feeling when you simply must watch the video of a man leaping towards a frozen pool – the one where the ice doesn’t break, and the man crashes onto the ice and it’s funny because the man hurts himself – but you can’t because you’re in the middle of a shop and [...]
London report August 27, 2012 MARKET watchers will be looking to tomorrow’s Nationwide house prices report and mortgage approvals on Thursday to gauge whether the UK’s economy is pulling out of its double dip. Recent data put the number of mortgage approvals at a 15-year low and last month house prices had fallen by 0.7 per cent and 2.6 per [...]
Rentokil catches US pest firm to become world’s third-biggest September 25, 2012 PEST CONTROL firm Rentokil Initial yesterday announced it had snapped up US firm Western Exterminator for up to $115m (£70.9m), in a move that will make it the world’s third-largest company of its kind. The move continues Rentokil’s strategy of expanding into North America, Latin America and the Middle East. “This acquisition significantly increases Rentokil’s [...]
Brits take more train journeys as MPs criticise UK bus services September 13, 2012 BRITAIN’S railways have seen a surge in traffic in the last quarter – but the bus network, which carries three times the number of passengers, remains “the Cinderella of public transport”, according to MPs. More than 360m train journeys were made in the three months to 30 June, a rise of four per cent on [...]
Post-merger team unveiled at Investec September 6, 2012 INVESTEC Wealth & Investment (IW&I) yesterday unveiled a raft of fresh senior appointments as it completed the transfer of client accounts from Williams de Broë – the firm that it acquired in October last year. The Williams de Broë brand has now been officially dropped, with the two separate businesses now fully integrated. The group [...]
America decides November 6, 2012 ■ Obama edges ahead as race goes down to wire ■ Swing states are divided by the smallest of margins US VOTERS went to the polls yesterday in one of the tightest presidential elections in memory, with the race to the White House set to be decided by the slimmest of margins in a number [...]
PPI complaints soar as banks struggle under weight of claims September 11, 2012 COMPLAINTS over banks’ slow or unsatisfactory responses to PPI complaints soared over the first six months of 2012, according to data published yesterday by the financial ombudsman service (FOS). The mis-selling scandal has seen banks and other financial institutions pay billions in compensation to customers, and shows little signs of slowing down. The FOS received [...]