Australian rules may dent Murdoch’s home advantage June 20, 2012 AFTER the calamitous failure of its BSkyB bid, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has decided to advance its pay TV ambitions in his birth country, bidding A$1.97bn (£1.27bn) for Australia’s Consolidated Media Holdings. If the deal is accepted and gains the necessary regulatory approval, it will double the media giant’s stake in Foxtel, the island continent’s [...]
Topps Tiles earnings fall but it sees pick-up in recent trading May 29, 2012 TOPPS Tiles, the tiling specialist, reported a surprise bounce-back in like-for-like sales over the past seven weeks as Britons were more willing to get stuck into DIY projects during the wet weather. The company, which also trades as Tiles Clearing House, enjoyed a 4.5 per cent boost in sales in the seven weeks to 19 [...]
INNOVATION OF THE YEAR August 1, 2012 City A.M.’s Innovation of the Year category seeks out businesses that are frontrunners in their field, whether finance, marketing or product development. Our shortlist includes green technology, new media, manufacturing, a finance provider and a new approach to financial restructuring. The winner will need to show a genuinely innovative approach and demonstrate significant milestones achieved [...]
Ofcom deepens probe into BSkyB’s broadcast licence April 26, 2012 OFCOM has stepped up its probe into whether BSkyB remains “fit and proper” to hold a broadcast licence, it emerged yesterday. The investigation into whether News Corp is an appropriate dominant shareholder of the satellite broadcaster has focused so far on publicly available information, such as from newspaper reports and the Leveson inquiry. But last [...]
Suntory time in the world’s second-biggest ad market July 12, 2012 ADDICTS of HBO’s Mad Men and fans of Lost in Translation may not find Tokyo an obvious home for an advertising group with global ambitions. But that’s not what the numbers say. Japan is the second largest advertising marketplace in the world. The heirs of Madison Avenue still keep the United States a long way [...]
BSkyB beats forecasts with record profits May 2, 2012 BSKYB yesterday shrugged off the furore surrounding its parent firm News Corp to post a record profit for the nine months to March. As rumours swirled about the firm’s future following a parliamentary report criticising News Corp and owner Rupert Murdoch, BSkyB delivered operating profit of £908m. Pre-tax profit rose 27.5 per cent to £899m. [...]
M&B’s debts concern Joe Lewis camp November 22, 2011 MITCHELLS & Butlers’ largest investor Joe Lewis yesterday voiced concerns over the embattled company’s finances, despite a return to profit in its full-year results. A source close to Lewis’s investment vehicle Piedmont highlighted the sharp rise in M&B’s non-current liabilities on derivative financial instruments, which hit £235m for the full year to 24 September, up [...]
Premier League’s £3bn TV bonanza June 13, 2012 BT shot into the lucrative world of Premier League football yesterday, splashing out £738m to share domestic rights with BSkyB as the cost of broadcasting live games rocketed by an eye-watering 70 per cent. Fierce competition for the rights, believed to have involved channels such as Al Jazeera and current holders ESPN, saw the price [...]
Former Blair adviser sells his PR agency April 12, 2012 TIM Allan, the former spin doctor for BSkyB who started his professional career as a press adviser to Tony Blair, has agreed to sell a majority stake in his public relations firm Portland to the global marketing group Omnicom. The deal values Portland at around £20m (depending on the group’s performance over the next three [...]
Banks and miners lead FTSE lower June 8, 2012 Miners and banks led the FTSE down in early trading as investors shunned riskier assets and ran for cover as global economic growth stutters. The fall tracked losses on Wall Street yesterday and Asia overnight despite an initial boost after China cut its interest rates in an attempt to accelerate its growth. But US Federal [...]