Mergers can give you stellar profits March 14, 2010 THE financial rumour mill went into overdrive on Friday after whisperings that Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, the global media group, was thinking about buying back BSkyB, the broadcaster he helped to found in 1990. It was mooted that Murdoch might even be willing to pay up to 735p per share, a 20 [...]
Collingwood could be key if England are to salvage draw January 6, 2010 LET’S give credit where’s it’s due, South Africa have played extremely well these last two days to take this stranglehold on the third Test. Graeme Smith, in particular, batted superbly in the second innings to take the game away from England, and after losing three wickets in the crucial final hour yesterday, the tourists have [...]
First Lady of Football Brady eyeing last laugh at embattled West Ham March 22, 2010 ANYONE willing to succeed the much-loved Margaret Mountford as Alan Sugar’s sidekick on The Apprentice is clearly on first-name terms with daunting tasks, but Karren Brady may have surpassed herself with the role of vice-chairman at West Ham. Among the Premier League’s most illustrious clubs but staring down the barrel of financial ruin, they are [...]
A brilliant tale about the feminist revolution, the 1970s and today February 17, 2010 The baited breath that awaits each new book from our most polarising, arguably brilliant living writer, is palpable. Yet in recent years that breath has been let out in a deflated sigh rather than a sharp exhalation of excitement, following the publication of his more recent political writings and quasi-novels. But The Pregnant Widow is [...]
An oath can’t make lawyers more honest January 25, 2010 BIG changes are afoot in the legal world, not least those arising from the reforms which the profession is going to see under the Legal Services Act. This will include the introduction of so-called Tesco Law, which will see non-lawyers increasingly involved in the provision of legal services. In the face of this brave new [...]
Scrappage drives China car sales December 7, 2009 Car sales and production in China both exceeded the 12m mark between January and November, its state media said yesterday. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said it expects sales and output of cars to top 13m for the full year. The move indicates growing wealth in the country, which has never produced more than [...]
Why the City’s shipping supremo is battling an old rival for members March 16, 2010 THE CHIEF executive of the Baltic Exchange Jeremy Penn looks remarkably unruffled for a man who has just seen a rival come back for a second time in a concerted attempt to muscle in on his business. The head of the exchange that sets the prices for the majority of the world’s $200bn (£182bn) shipping [...]
Recovery in advertising industry isn’t here yet January 14, 2010 MECOM, the European newspaper firm led by former Mirror executive David Montgomery, yesterday said that the decline in its advertising revenues had started to slow. Ad sales in November and December were down just eight per cent, a major improvement on the 18 per cent fall in revenues over the entire year, and on the [...]
The lasting legacy of Toyota’s Prius problem will be more green cars February 9, 2010 WHAT do Salma Hayek, Prince Charles, Brad Pitt and Donny Osmond all have in common? The answer is that they are among the celebrities to have bought a Toyota Prius. Since it was unveiled in the late Nineties, the car has been the must-have status symbol for celebrities to prove their environmental credentials. This has, [...]
New rules would be bad for London January 21, 2010 HOW predictable. No sooner was Barack Obama humiliated by the Massachusetts electorate earlier this week – his left-wing candidate lost Ted Kennedy’s ultra safe seat to a radical conservative – than he announces another war on Wall Street. It is easy to forget in Britain, where Obama remains extraordinarily popular, that his administration is no [...]