Tracey Emin’s “My Bed” sold for £2.5m, breaking artist’s record July 1, 2014 The famously messy bed created by contemporary artist Tracey Emin went for over £2.5m at auction today, breaking the artist's record. “My Bed”, which was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize, sold for the significant sum during the postwar and contemporary auction at Christie's in London. Consisting [...]
Carl Icahn tells Tim Cook: Apple share price dramatically undervalued October 9, 2014 Infamous activist investor Carl Icahn has published in full a letter to Apple urging Chief Tim Cook and board executives to buyback shares. Icahn tweeted yesterday about the letter to Cook hinting "Believe it will be interesting." In the letter, Icahn said Apple was "dramatically undervalued in today's market" and that "the more shares repurchased [...]
New York Report: Dow in slight rise on spate of mergers July 28, 2014 WALL STREET edged mostly higher yesterday as investors weighed soft housing data against a flurry of deal news, including the takeover of Family Dollar Stores by Dollar Tree. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 22 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 16,982.59. The S&P 500 ended the day less than a point higher at 1,978.91, [...]
Amazon brings battle with book publishers to the UK June 27, 2014 Amazon has been accused of bullying UK publishers in the latest upset between the book industry and the ecommerce giant. An investigation by the Bookseller, the industry trade magazine, found Amazon was putting UK publishers under "heavy pressure" when it came to agreeing new contract terms. Publishing houses are worried about certain terms proposed in [...]
CNBC Comment: Private equity M&A is still a risky game July 7, 2014 Deal after deal, the first six months of 2014 was a bumper period for mergers and acquisitions. But this deal fever, combined with private equity exits, has led bears to warn of a market top. Is it a matter of time before scalps are claimed, or are the players savvier this time round and [...]
Countrywide lifts forecasts as it predicts housing volumes boost October 31, 2013 BRITAIN’S biggest estate agency Countrywide increased its full-year profit forecast yesterday as it bets on a strong uplift in housing sales. The company, which raised £200m when it returned to the stock market earlier this year, has been helped by the housing market recovery, fuelled by government measures to help struggling Britons purchase their own [...]
Serco share price dips as outsourcing firm writes down value of some contracts July 3, 2014 Beleaguered outsourcing firm Serco yesterday warned that it would have to write down the value of several large loss-making contracts, which could hamper its full-year results. Shares in the FTSE 250-listed company dipped almost one per cent on the news, with UK contracts for asylum seeker housing and clinical healthcare set to be among the [...]
Lord Harris puts off Carpetright retirement plan June 24, 2014 CARPETRIGHT founder Lord Harris announced yesterday that he planned to stay on as non-executive chairman, just weeks after announcing his retirement, as the retailer reported widening losses. Lord Harris will hand over the day-to-day running of the business to a new chief executive, Wilf Walsh, next month. He had intended to step down from the [...]
City workers fuel Midtown housing boom May 12, 2014 HOUSE prices in the area dubbed Midtown have outpaced the greater London market in the first three months of the year due to a surge in demand from buyers working in the capital’s financial sector, new research out yesterday shows. According to property consultants CBRE, the price of a property in Midtown – between the [...]
Intelligent design: Oliver Bonas founder talks Hong Kong, princes and the art of letting go August 17, 2014 After a tough period during the recession, the fashion industry has bounced back with a vengeance. In the last five years, it’s grown by 22 per cent, and is now worth £26bn to our economy, according to figures out earlier this year from the British Fashion Council. Oliver Tress, founder of high street favourite Oliver [...]