NO PLAN B GEORGE IS GQ MAN OF THE YEAR September 6, 2011 BETTER LATE than never for George Osborne’s belated fortieth birthday present from Condé Nast’s UK head Nicholas Coleridge, whose glossy magazine empire last night rewarded the chancellor for his “sheer bloody mindedness”. BBC political editor Nick Robinson presented Osborne with his Politician of the Year trophy at the GQ Men of the Year Awards at [...]
Happy ending for online bookseller July 5, 2011 THE Book Depository founder Andrew Crawford says he is looking forward to working with Amazon – and he knows what he is talking about; he used to work there. The 40-year-old Irish entrepreneur was one of the key people behind Amazon’s push into the UK in the late 1990s. His first experience in book retailing [...]
Blockbusters at the touch of a button October 26, 2011 NETFLIX, the US online film service, announced on Monday that it will be launching in the UK in 2012. The company looks set to change the way we watch movies, but already has some tough competition. Here we tell you everything you need to know. What is Netflix? Netflix is an online film service that [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 1, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES PEERS IN FRESH THREAT TO BILL FOR FIXED-TERM PARLIAMENTS The coalition’s plan for fixed five-year parliamentary terms is in jeopardy, with peers threatening to vote against the legislation in the autumn for a third time. David Cameron and Nick Clegg put the promise in their coalition agreement last year in an attempt to [...]
Wall Street closes up after rocky day September 29, 2011 US stocks mostly rose in a volatile session yesterday as stronger-than-expected economic data and German approval of a beefed-up Eurozone crisis fund relieved two of the worst fears hanging over the market. But the Nasdaq was knocked lower by a brutal sell-off in US-listed Chinese stocks on news of a probe into accounting practices and [...]
World’s largest retailer struggles in US August 16, 2011 WITH annual revenues of $420bn (£256bn), Walmart is the world’s largest company by sales. So it is unsurprising that it tells us something about the global economy. Its international business, which accounts for just over a quarter of sales, is booming. International revenues grew by 16.2 per cent in the second quarter, thanks to strong [...]
Gizmos for taking films with you on the move September 14, 2011 SIZE isn’t everything” – an inaccurate platitude typically uttered by those whose equipment is lacking in some way. That’s right, folks, we’re talking about mobile media storage solutions. And in this game, the length of your battery life and the girth of your storage capacity are kingmakers. It’s no longer just music collections we want [...]
Why Ocado isn’t delivering as the markets hoped September 19, 2011 WHEN Ocado came to the market in July 2010, to some (its investors) it was a great opportunity to buy into a growth online market with a unique business model and amazing technology. The company had been going for ten years and was just about to break through the tipping point, which would lead profits [...]
The dubious rise of the Energy Man November 14, 2011 AN advert on the Tube recently caught my eye. It was for an energy drink with two versions: a his and hers. His was called Wellman; her’s Wellwoman. The Boots logo on the bottom told me that this is a humdrum, mainstream product. The ad was striking for one big reason: its extremely traditional idea [...]
Amazon plans LoveFilm buy for £200m January 3, 2011 AMAZON is planning a buy-out of the online DVD rental company LoveFilm, which would value the firm at £200m. The online retail giant already owns 42 per cent of LoveFilm after a deal in 2008 when it sold its DVD rental arm to the company. The cost of a buyout would therefore be around £116m. [...]