Yahoo and Microsoft’s marriage will be loveless July 30, 2009 AFTER 19 months of will-they, won’t-they courtship, Microsoft has finally tied a knot of sorts with Yahoo. Microsoft will merge Yahoo’s search technology into its own platform, Bing, while Yahoo will handle search ad sales. For Yahoo, however, this isn’t “happy ever after”. It has been forced into a loveless, arranged marriage because of money [...]
MPs slam railway franchise structure July 27, 2009 THE Transport Select Committee branded the railway franchise system “a mess” yesterday, calling for massive reforms on the lines, and for the nationalisation of the troubled East Coast mainline. The cross-party group of MPs said it wants the East Coast mainline – which is set to taken away from operator National Express later this year [...]
MPs slam railway franchise structure July 27, 2009 THE Transport Select Committee branded the railway franchise system “a mess” yesterday, calling for massive reforms on the lines, and for the nationalisation of the troubled East Coast mainline. The cross-party group of MPs said it wants the East Coast mainline – which is set to taken away from operator National Express later this year [...]
Mixing business with glamour and killer heels July 15, 2009 THE TOWERING WORLD OF JIMMY CHOO By Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Sagra Maceira de RosanBLOOMSBURY £18.99 PART business manual and part snoopy fashion reportage, the tale of super-brand Jimmy Choo is by turns compelling and dull. Well, it depends on the reader, actually. If your primary interest is learning about what makes companies successful, then [...]
STANLEY FINK TO BRING ARK GALA DINNER GLITZ OUT OF HEDGIE SHELL July 5, 2009 WHAT a coup for former Man group boss Stanley Fink at the weekend, as he stepped into hedgie philanthropist Arki Busson’s shoes as the chairman of children’s charity Absolute Return for Kids (ARK). Busson is best known for his engagement to actress Uma Thurman and his hefty contribution to the hedge fund social circuit with [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND PREVIEWS June 25, 2009 FILMYEAR ONE The star power of Jack Black and Michael Cera can’t save this brain-dead pre-history comedy. TENDERNESS Drama with the world’s least tender actor, Russell Crowe. DVDGRAN TORINO Clint Eastwood delivers a terrific sign-off on his acting career in this race drama. CHE – PARTS ONE AND TWO Tiresome biopic with Benicio Del Toro. [...]
Broadband for all is a worthy but pointless goal June 17, 2009 FOR ALL the hype that preceded Lord Carter’s Digital Britain Report, its central recommendation can be summed up in four dreary words: Slow broadband for all. It wouldn’t be so bad if the meagre 2Mbps connection wasn’t being part-funded with a planned £6-a-year telephone line tax; this will mainly be collected from people who live [...]
Electric Shock June 16, 2009 CAN you imagine plugging your car into a three-pin plug in the wall, leaving it for eight hours and then driving for up to 70 miles on that single charge? Well, that is what the Smart Fortwo electric drive will do for you, from a flat battery to full charge. I drove this and two [...]
The writing was always on the wall for Setanta June 11, 2009 YOU have to admire the sheer tenacity of Setanta’s founding pair, Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan. A lesser team would have let the floundering business die peacefully by now; these two are determined to keep it on life support until the bitter end. Yesterday, I spoke to several analysts to canvass opinion on the broadcaster’s [...]
City set for summer of discontent June 11, 2009 RMT boss Bob Crow threatened further industrial action last night, if London Underground (LU) refuses to meet union demands, as the City prepares itself for a summer of discontent. The City hit out at the union, saying further action would be a threat to the recession-hit capital. “The last thing the business community wants to [...]