Arsenal’s Hleb refutes rant at team-mate and manager July 9, 2008 Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb last night attempted to build bridges with the club by denying reports he had launched a verbal attack on his manager and team-mates. Hleb, whose expected move to Barcelona has failed to materialise, was yesterday claimed to have criticised midfielder Cesc Fabregas and Gunners boss Arsene Wenger. The Belarus international moved [...]
Auntie’s problems run deeper than executive bonuses July 11, 2008 The case of “trebles all round” for top BBC executives, after a year in which viewers were deceived and trust damaged, rightly dominated news about the Corporation’s annual report this week. But an eyebrow should be raised at the scale of the bonuses. The overall pay of director of vision Jana Bennett rose by 24 [...]
Profits crash at Southern Cross nursing July 1, 2008 Southern Cross Healthcare Group, the nursing home operator, shocked the City yesterday with a profits warning along with the departure of its finance director. Southern Cross, whose shares closed down 58.5 per cent at 130p, said occupancy levels at its homes had not grown by as much as it originally expected and trading was unlikely [...]
BT is right to take a risk on faster broadband network July 16, 2008 BT’s announcement that it will spend £1.5bn upgrading Britain’s broadband network has unnerved investors, especially as it is funding the investment by suspending its shareholder buyback programme. But it’s important to remember that, in the long term, delaying this decision would have been worse for the company. Falling Behind The firm is falling behind its [...]
City workers get creative with life drawing twenty-seven storeys up July 14, 2008 Timothy Barber joins Citigroup employees indulging their artistic sides It’s easy to forget the noise and melee of Canary Wharf’s evening rush hour when you’re standing in the light filled open space of the 27th floor of Citgroup’s headquarters. Down below, thousands of tired workers are flooding from their offices into the tube and DLR [...]
Despite the gloomy market, investors still have something to cheer about July 3, 2008 Look beyond the doom-mongering, and there is still money to be made in property, says Alex Delmar-Morgan Property is a subject close to the hearts of the British people, and many home-owners have been chuffed over the past few years to see the prices of their properties increasing at massive rates. Surely, though, even the [...]
Mykonos calls for it-boy who gave it all up July 4, 2008 He failed to buy the Groucho, but Benjamin Fry has no regrets, writes Timothy Barber Benjamin Fry, psychotherapist, TV self-help guru and author, has come a long way. He used to be Benji Fry, stalwart of a west London scene of ultra connected upstarts such as Tom Parker Bowles and Ben Elliot, who in the [...]
Harley Street might help steer ITV back to good health July 18, 2008 At least you can’t accuse ITV of not trying. The colour advertising spreads promoting its new drama Harley Street were everywhere yesterday. We will know today whether ITV has managed to engineer that increasingly rare phenomenon, a new drama hit. At least the Radio Times made it Pick of the Day and noted that while [...]
EMI appoints cleaning exec to leading job July 8, 2008 Record company EMI Group has appointed an executive with no experience of the music business to head up its record division, as part of the firm’s strategy to fill key positions with talent from outside the industry. EMI yesterday announced that Elio Leoni-Sceti, vice-president of household goods firm Reckitt Benckiser, would become chief executive of [...]
New Orange supremo in drive back to basics July 4, 2008 For a man who has spent his entire career in the telecoms industry, it seems strange that Tom Alexander, Orange UK’s newly installed chief executive, should list his first passion as racing cars. As we travel across London in the back of his chauffer driven BMW 7-series, he tells me he never expected to make [...]