What the other papers say this morning – 30 August 2013
FINANCIAL TIMES
NFL agrees to settle lawsuit
The US National Football League agreed yesterday to pay $765m to settle lawsuits filed by thousands of retired players who suffered debilitating health consequences from years of head trauma endured while playing the sport. The agreement allows the NFL to avoid a lengthy court battle, which could have cost the league billions of dollars.
Fears grow over Batista lifeline
Eike Batista, formerly Brazil’s richest man, is struggling to keep his oil company OGX afloat as fears grow that an $850m lifeline from Malaysia’s Petronas will be scrapped. Shares in OGX, once Brazil’s second-biggest oil company by market value, slumped as much as 21 per cent on Thursday. The stock has lost about 90 per cent this year.
Xiaomi poaches Google exec
Google has lost a top executive from its Android management team to fast-rising Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, less than six months after the head of the US company’s mobile platform stepped down.
Hugo Barra, vice-president for Android product management, resigned after five years with Google. He led the Android product team, overseeing development of the operating system and the Google apps that run on it.
THE TIMES
Tablet sale forecasts dip
Forecasts for tablet sales have been cut for the first time, albeit modestly, since the iPad went on sale three years ago. “Year-on-year growth is beginning to slow as the tablet market approaches early stages of maturity,” Jitesh Ubrani, an analyst at IDC, the market analyst, said.
Signet loses its lustre in UK
The sparkle was taken off the American owner of H Samuel and Ernest Jones after the jeweller’s British business suffered weak till receipts.Signet reported sales up 3.1 per cent to $880.2m (£567.6m) in the 13 weeks to 2 August.
The Daily Telegraph
UK gas imports hit record high
Britain’s gas imports hit 1 trillion cubic feet in the first half of this year – the highest level on record – as North Sea production dwindled and cold weather boosted demand. Government provisional figures released yesterday showed a 9.3 per cent jump in gas imports in the first six months of 2013 against the same period of 2012. The period saw renewed attention on the security of Britain’s gas supply, with the gas price spiking in late March when a key import pipeline was temporarily closed and gas storage facilities were almost depleted from the winter.