Carphone ups profit target January 19, 2010 CARPHONE Warehouse yesterday upped its full-year forecasts for the second time in a matter of months after strong trading at both its retail and broadband arms during the third quarter. The FTSE 250 group, which is splitting into two businesses in March, says earnings per share to the end of March are likely to be [...]
Brown: end first past the post system February 2, 2010 GORDON Brown yesterday proposed a raft of constitutional reforms that could see the first-past-the-post voting system scrapped. Next week MPs will vote on whether there should be a referendum on switching to the Alternative Vote (AV) system after the next general election. The AV system asks voters to numerically rank candidates in order of preference [...]
England chiefs stand their ground in Haskell tug of war March 3, 2010 THE Rugby Football Union have dug their heels in over the James Haskell club-versus-country affair, reiterating the flanker will not be released to play for Stade Francais this weekend. Stade ignited the row after demanding that Haskell returns to Paris for their Top 14 clash with rivals Toulouse as England are not in Six Nations [...]
Bankruptcy in the air for JAL January 17, 2010 Japan Airlines (JAL) is expected to file for a pre-packaged bankruptcy tomorrow, similar to that used last year by General Motors. Seiji Maehara, Japan’s transport minister, has said tomorrow will be “X day” for JAL when a rehabilitation plan for the debt-laden carrier is expected to be announced. Speculation has mounted over which of its [...]
Market technology firm Fidessa beats profit expectations February 15, 2010 Fidessa said competition between exchanges and new trading venues boosted demand for its systems software, enabling it to beat profit expectations and return cash to shareholders. The British IT firm, whose systems are used by brokers and banks, has benefited from a proliferation of trading venues and the increasing competition between European exchanges and multilateral [...]
ALSO OUT THIS WEEKEND February 4, 2010 FILM ASTRO BOY The long-running Japanese comics character gets an animated outing. MALICE IN WONDERLAND The fairytale gets transposed to the UK underworld, with Danny Dyer. OIL CITY CONFIDENTIAL Punk filmmaker Julian Temple’s documentary about 70s rockers Dr Feelgood. DVD THE INVENTION OF LYING Ricky Gervais stars and directs this romcom fantasy set in a [...]
New cars to look out for in Geneva February 23, 2010 THIS time next week the Geneva International Motor Show will be underway, with the latest designs, concept cars, fresh innovations and new launches. After the travails the motoring world has suffered over the past year, including the near collapse of General Motors and the calamities recently befalling Toyota, the industry will be hoping that the [...]
ALSO OUT THIS WEEKEND January 28, 2010 FILM THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG Disney makes a return to hand-drawn animation and fairy tales. ADORATION Director Atom Egoyan’s drama stars Devon Bostick as a troubled teenager. BREATHLESS South Korean drama about a bitter debt collector who is charmed by a high school gir DVD CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS Madcap animation with [...]
Chi-X follows LSE in speedy IT overhaul September 16, 2009 AN ARMS race has broken out between the world’s top stock exchanges as they rush to revamp their computer systems in a bid to improve performance and win back business from their newer rivals. Chi-X, which launched in March 2007, will today announce an agreement with IBM to use the IT giant’s high-speed messaging technology [...]
London Stock Exchange sees drop in revenue January 21, 2010 LONDON Stock Exchange Group Plc has posted a 9 per cent fall in revenue for its third quarter and said it expected market conditions to be testing for the current quarter. LSE, like other European exchanges, has been losing market share to upstart multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) such as Chi-X and BATS since pan-European regulation [...]