COMPANY OF THE YEAR | The Shortlist September 12, 2010 IT has been another tough year for business. The sovereign debt crisis rocked already shaky market confidence, while uncertainty has kept consumers from splashing out. It is in hard times that reputations are made, though, and over the past year the best have bounced back. Both retailers on our list have, in their different ways, [...]
Shareholder hits back in M&B battle January 12, 2010 MITCHELLS and Butlers’ major shareholder yesterday launched a scathing attack on the firm’s board members in which he accused them of blowing £500m. A letter to shareholders by billionaire Joe Lewis accused the board of presiding over “a culture of obfuscation and excess” and said fresh blood was required to rescue the company. Joe Lewis’ [...]
RBS gets trio of bids for WorldPay division July 20, 2010 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has received three second round bids for its £2.6bn payment processing business WorldPay. Three private equity vehicles tabled bids before the Monday deadline, according to sources close to the matter. As expected, Advent International and Bain have teamed up, while TPG has also bid and so has Clayton, Dubilier & [...]
Taking on Sky is a risky Vision for BT August 9, 2010 INthe run up to the new football season there is a fascinating encounter taking place off the field as BT Vision tries to take on the might of BSkyB in the showing of live football. BT Vision, boosted by a ruling from the regulator on the price that Sky can sell its sports channels to [...]
Taking on Sky is a risky Vision for BT August 9, 2010 INthe run up to the new football season there is a fascinating encounter taking place off the field as BT Vision tries to take on the might of BSkyB in the showing of live football. BT Vision, boosted by a ruling from the regulator on the price that Sky can sell its sports channels to [...]
NICK BOOTHTECH TALK August 4, 2010 I’VE seen the future of British youth – it’s half man, half desk. Why? They can’t relate to anything unless it’s writ large on a glowing screen at chair level. But now the school PCs and whiteboards have been powered off, could we entice our next generation humans into the garden of real-life high definition? [...]
M&B investors should tell Lewis to get serious January 13, 2010 THE row between Mitchells and Butlers’ largest shareholder Joe Lewis and the pub group’s management shows no sign of abating, making the firm’s stock hard to value. If Lewis wants to make a bid for the company, he’d probably have to offer around 340p, making the shares – which closed at 275.5p yesterday – look [...]
BT strikes up a footy deal with BSkyB June 28, 2010 BT HAS finalised a deal with BSkyB to offer its subscribers top-flight football next season. The move, which means football fans can watch their teams on BT Vision for the first time, could rock Sky’s dominance of the pay TV market after decades controlling the lion’s share of subscribers. It follows a controversial Ofcom ruling [...]
How AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes shrugged off the global recession September 5, 2010 IF Tony Fernandes, the chief executive of pioneering low-cost carrier AirAsia, ever suffered from shyness as child, he is certainly cured of it now. The UK-educated Malaysian entrepreneur, who founded the short haul airline in 2001 and its longhaul sister AirAsia X six years later, dominates the meeting room of his West End PR agency [...]
THE TIPSTER June 6, 2010 THE FTSE 100 index was vacillating around the 5,200 level at the end of last week, eventually closing at 5,126 on Friday. But this is still some 10 per cent below the blue-chip index’s 2010 highs. However, the German Dax 30 index is only 3 per cent off its highs for the year so the [...]