BT and TalkTalk to fight piracy laws July 8, 2010 BT AND TalkTalk will fight controversial new anti-piracy laws in the courts, they revealed yesterday. The internet providers say the Digital Economy Act, which was rushed through parliament earlier this year, will unfairly target their users and could hurt their businesses. The “draconian” act could force ISPs to disconnect users suspected of repeatedly downloading copyrighted [...]
Twitter joins the Wiki war December 9, 2010 THE war between WikiLeaks’ supporters and firms desperate to avoid being associated with the controversial website hotted up yesterday, with Twitter and Facebook being drawn into the fray. The social networks have kicked accounts run by Operation Payback off their sites after the group orchestrated a number of cyber attacks on firms which have taken [...]
Two-day Tube strike starts June 23, 2010 LONDON Underground maintenance workers began a 48-hour strike at 7pm last night, after last-ditch legal action by employer Tube Lines failed. A High Court judge denied Tube Lines an injunction to stop the strike, despite arguments that the strike ballot was invalid. “We urge the RMT to pull back from taking this needless action which [...]
Civil service pay-offs capped July 6, 2010 THE government escalated its stand-off with the public sector unions yesterday, announcing plans to bring forward legislation that will slash the amount of compensation civil servants receive when they are laid off. A new bill will cap all compulsory redundancy payments at 12 months’ salary and all voluntary payments at 15 months – a far [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 11, 2010 Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity The charity has appointed fund management veteran Nichola Pease as a trustee, taking on the position held by ex-Man Group chief Stanley Fink until last month. Pease is deputy chairman of JO Hambro Capital Management, which she joined in 1998 as chief executive. She also previously helped to set up [...]
Fed’s doves will keep cash cheap December 14, 2010 INTEREST rates will stay “exceptionally low for an extended period”, the US Federal Reserve announced last night. And despite claims from home and abroad that it is fuelling a fresh bubble, the Fed will continue its lastest phase of quantitative easing (QE2), buying around $75bn (£47.5bn) of Treasury assets every month. Markets reacted to the [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 30, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BANKS WATCH BARCLAYS’ COCO PLANS Big banks on both sides of the Atlantic are weighing whether to follow Barclays as it pushes ahead with a plan to pay bonuses with innovative bonds, dubbed cocos. According to several banks present at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, the idea of using contingent convertible [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 10, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BUY-OUT GROUP GAINS CONTROL OF MADEJSKI’S LARGEST PROJECT Sir John Madejski, the property and publishing tycoon, has sold control over one of Britain’s largest commercial developments to a private equity consortium in the latest debt-driven property transaction. Benson Elliot, the private equity real estate firm, has teamed up with UK developer Stanhope to [...]
The main Events March 8, 2011 ATHLETICS 3–11 August OVERVIEW Not just one event of course but a multitude of disciplines taking in track, field, combined and road competitions, athletics is the cornerstone and focus of any Olympics. More than 2,000 athletes will taking part, including sprint superstar Usain Bolt [pictured, right] a number of Britons who have been working towards [...]
SAP’s co-chief apologises to Oracle for improperly downloading software files November 15, 2010 A CO-CHIEF executive of German software maker SAP yesterday apologized to rival Oracle for improperly downloading thousands of software files, but that didn’t bring the two companies closer to agreement on financial reparations. “I am sorry,” SAP co-chief executive officer Bill McDermott said in testimony yesterday as SAP kicked off its defense in a high [...]