WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
BANKS SERVED LIBOR SUBPOENAS
Regulators probing alleged manipulation of a key interbank lending rate have focused their demands for information and interviews on five global banks, according to people familiar with the investigation. UBS, Bank of America, Citigroup and Barclays have received subpoenas from US regulators probing the setting of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for US dollars between 2006 and 2008.
WELLCOME TRUST OFFERS £1BN FOR OLYMPIC PARK
The Wellcome Trust has put in a £1bn offer to the government to buy up the freehold of the bulk of the Olympic Park, including the stadium, the aquatics centre, the athletics village and the media centre. According to people familiar with Wellcome’s proposal, it has been put forward by Sir William Castell, chairman of the UK-based global charitable foundation, and Danny Truell, its chief investment officer.
US SOCIAL NETWORKS WILL FACE EU PRIVACY RULES
Websites including Google and Facebook that operate from the US but target consumers in Europe will be bound to follow tighter EU privacy and data protection rules being drawn up by the EU, its justice commissioner has said. Viviane Reding told a seminar in Brussels that European citizens’ rights in regard to data collection needed to apply regardless of where the data were collected.
X MARKS THE SPOT FOR PEPSI IN COWELL TIE-UP
PepsiCo is planning a US TV and digital campaign of record cost and scope around its sponsorship of X Factor, as it seeks to use Simon Cowell’s new talent show to revive its core cola brand.
THE TIMES
KOREAN AIRLINE PUTS FAITH IN ROLLS-ROYCE
Rolls-Royce has won its first new order for the Trent 900 since the failure of one of the engines on a Qantas A380 flight last year. Asiana Airlines, the South Korean carrier, said yesterday that it had ordered Trent 900s for six A380s in a deal that is likely to be worth more than $1bn. The order will be a relief to Rolls-Royce after the Qantas incident
NOVARTIS PUTS 600 JOBS ON LINE WITH THREAT TO RESEARCH
Britain’s pharmaceutical industry suffered a fresh blow yesterday as Novartis announced plans to restructure its operations in a move that could lead to the loss of 600 jobs. The Swiss drugmaker said that it would begin negotiations with staff on the future of its research and manufacturing site at Horsham, West Sussex.
The Daily Telegraph
US HASN’T SOLVED WALL STREET’S ‘TOO BIG TO FAIL’ PROBLEM
The US is no closer to ending Wall Street’s “too big to fail” problem, according to an official report on America’s $700bn (£438bn) scheme to bail out banks and prop up the markets at the height of the financial crisis. The findings from the Congressional Oversight Panel on the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP) also concluded that the controversial bail-outs have cost the US taxpayer far less than expected.
VEVO TO LAUNCH UK SERVICE ‘IMMINENTLY’
Vevo, the world’s leading online music video service, is to launch in the UK “imminently”. Speaking at the told the Abu Dhabi Media Summit Rio Caraeff, the president and chief executive of Vevo, said the service could launch in Britain in April.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
EUROPE
URANIUM TUMBLES ON JAPAN CRISIS
The most volatile market since the Japanese earthquake isn’t Japanese or US stocks. It is uranium, which until Friday was a little-noticed pocket of the commodities markets. Trading in uranium is often sporadic, with just a few dozen transactions taking place each month, and trading on the spot market totaling about $2.5bn (£1.6bn) last year. But the earthquake and tsunami in Japan has changed all that – at least for now.
WEBSENSE PONDERS SALE OF COMPANY
Websense, a web security software firm, is exploring a sale with the aid of investment bank Qatalyst Partners, people familiar with the matter said. San Diego-based Websense has a market capitalization of $826m (£517m) and could fetch around $1bn in a sale, these people said.