Obama to send military advisers to Iraq as Isis militants seize weapons store June 19, 2014 IRAQ plunged further into chaos last night after militants from the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant (Isis) seized control of a chemical weapons facility containing a stockpile of Saddam Hussain’s old munitions. The news prompted US President Barack Obama to announce he will send up to 300 military advisers to train Iraqi forces in [...]
Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct swoops on MySale stock June 18, 2014 Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct yesterday snapped up a 4.8 per cent stake in online fashion site MySale just a day after a pricing error caused shares to tank on its stock market debut. MySale plunged 27 per cent on Tuesday after the share price was listed as 2.26p instead of 226p, leading trading programmes to [...]
Elon Musk is right to share Tesla’s patents: Now he should ditch them altogether June 18, 2014 A WAR is being waged by the litigators of Silicon Valley. Their chosen weaponry: patent law. The battle is most obvious among the tech giants. In 2011, Apple and Google spent more on patent lawsuits and purchases than they put towards research and development. And it is consumers who get stung. A report released by [...]
Five things WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell said at Cannes June 17, 2014 WPP chief exec Sir Martin Sorrell made an appearance at the Cannes Lions ad industry festival today, talking "state of the industry" at an event hosted by Wunderman. Here are the highlights, as shared by the audience on Twitter. 1. There are no such things as mergers, there are only acquisitions. via @RandomlyRuna 2. No [...]
How Mark Carney’s move from Canada cost the Bank of England over £100k June 17, 2014 The Bank of England paid £102,816 to assist governor Mark Carney and his family in their move from Ottawa, Canada, to London, according to the Bank of England's latest annual report. The ex-Goldman Sachs staffer moved over to the UK with his wife Diana and four daughters last year. He even brought with him his [...]
Siemens woos Hollande over bid to buy Alstom June 16, 2014 EXECUTIVES from Siemens and Mitsubishi are meeting President Francois Hollande today as part of their bid for French engineering firm Alstom. The country’s government has positioned itself as a key player in the acquisition process, forcing would-be buyers to please it as well as Alstom’s shareholders before any sale can go through. Hollande’s intervention first [...]
Boris predicts decade-long tech boom June 16, 2014 LONDON’S tech sector is growing by 5.1 per cent a year and will add another £12bn to the British economy over the next decade, mayor Boris Johnson said yesterday. As London Tech Week began, figures from South Mountain Economics and Bloomberg Philanthropies showed London has more people working in financial technology than any other city [...]
Hawkish Mark Carney sends pound to five-year peak against US dollar June 16, 2014 The pound pushed above $1.70 during trading yesterday, hitting this level for the first time in five years, following Bank of England governor Mark Carney’s hawkish comments last week. On Thursday night, Carney told diners at Mansion House that the Bank’s first post-crisis rate hike could come “sooner than markets currently expect”, a clear departure [...]
Mark Carney – Prepare for a rise in interest rates June 12, 2014 Bank of England governor Mark Carney shocked markets last night by revealing that interest rates might be hiked this year – a stark turnaround from his usual position of talking down the possibility. Addressing an audience of City grandees at the annual Mansion House dinner, the 49-year-old Canadian said the Bank could start to bring [...]
David Cameron: Jean-Claude Juncker election is power grab June 12, 2014 David Cameron has penned a stinging attack on Jean-Claude Juncker’s bid for the presidency of the European Commission, accusing the former Luxembourg leader of attempting “a power grab through the back door”. In an article, which appears in newspapers across the EU this morning, the Prime Minister makes clear that Juncker’s case for election, and [...]