Amazon tumbles as Fire burns through its profits October 25, 2011 ONLINE retailer Amazon shocked investors last night with a far weaker-than-expected outlook for the crucial holiday season quarter as it spent heavily on its new Kindle Fire tablet computer. The stock tumbled 12 per cent in extended trading as the news raised concern that Amazon was losing some of the revenue momentum that had helped [...]
Breathtaking beauty in Ecuador’s own paradise October 21, 2012 QUITO always seemed to me to be more of a stopover on the way to Ecuador’s Andean heights, Amazon forest, and the Galapagos, than a destination. Not so. This 9,000 ft high city, smack dab on the equator, has a spectacular setting of its own, surrounded by three glistening, glacier-topped volcanoes: Cotapaxi, Cayambe, and Antisana. [...]
Smartphone makers go to war May 2, 2012 The big players in the smartphone world are preparing to deploy the latest weapons in their arsenal. At the high-end of the market, the battle between Apple and Samsung is hotting up with today’s release of the Galaxy S3. Meanwhile, RIM hopes to reaffirm its role as the “best of the rest” with its first [...]
Facebook hikes IPO price amid overwhelming stock demand May 15, 2012 FACEBOOK yesterday raised the pricing range for its initial public offering (IPO) from $28-$35 to $34-$38 ahead of its listing this week. The social network said strong demand, which caused it to close its order books several days early, drove the price up. In an updated filing, Facebook said 337.4m shares will be sold – [...]
Great Portland sells £100m of London assets May 15, 2012 PROPERTY firm Great Portland Estates sold three buildings for over £100m in London’s West End and Midtown districts yesterday as it continues to recycle capital into its major London schemes. The company said it has sold 184/190 Oxford Street, Buchanan House in Holborn and a portfolio of properties at Portland Place for £106m, and 23 [...]
Happy snapping May 23, 2012 We live in a world saturated with images. More photographs have been taken in the last five years than in the rest of the history of the medium put together. Capturing the moment is as easy as whipping out your smartphone – it’s not surprising that mobiles now account for more pictures than regular cameras. [...]
Vale faces bar on Amazon mine October 2, 2011 Vale, the world’s second-largest mining company, may be unable to develop a massive new iron-ore mine in the Amazon after archeologically and environmentally sensitive caves were found at the site, the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported yesterday. The caves permeate much of the iron formations in the 3.4- billion-tonne Serra Sul deposit, Estado said. [...]
Facebook shares close just above IPO price May 18, 2012 Shares in social network firm Facebook closed just a few cents above its IPO price at $38.23 – despite jumping 12 per cent to $42 in initial trades. The eight-year-old firm listed this morning on the NASDAQ index and shares began trading at 11.30am local time (4.30pm BST), thirty minutes later than expected after the exchange [...]
Hot Tuna gets boost from Amazon October 5, 2011 Struggling surfwear manufacturer Hot Tuna said yesterday that Amazon had upped its bulk order for the year by 30 per cent, sending its shares up 10 per cent. In a trading statement Hot Tuna said sales in the US over recent months had been “minimal” and that it was pursuing sales in south east Asia. [...]
The technology paradox: It will kill jobs but rescue Britain’s economy August 5, 2012 THE LATEST GDP numbers were awful. The UK economy shrank by 0.7 per cent. But rather than embarking on political blame-games, we must face a stark fact: the economy needs a clean-out. All the fiscal and monetary levers have been pulled, and they haven’t worked. A much bigger story is at play – digital technology [...]