Markets tumble again
31 May 2006 [0 Comments | 55 views]
Markets went a tumble again yesterday, and it took very little to spark the sell off. All the good work from last week, which saw a gradual recovery in key indexes was cancelled out, as the FTSE 100, for example, fell by 139 points and the Dow Jones Industrial average plummeted by 184 points. Perhaps, [...]
New hope glimmers for Vodafone
31 May 2006 [0 Comments | 60 views]
Hope was there, lurking in amongst all the woes revealed by Vodafone yesterday. Competition is forcing prices down, and whichever way you look at things, it’s difficult to envisage the company making the kind of margins it is used to. Except, that is if you look in one direction: because there, gleaming with optimism, is [...]
Breaking News: HMV clinches Ottakar’s purchase
31 May 2006 [0 Comments | 71 views]
Ottakar’s has accepted a £62.8mn bid from HMV, owners of Waterstones. Since the Competition Commission has already okayed a merger of the companies, it seems inevitable that Ottakar’s and Waterstones, the two top book stores in the UK, will come under the same management. Last year, the HMV bid was worth 440p a share, but [...]
London house prices soar
31 May 2006 [0 Comments | 51 views]
Foreign money has been pouring into London this year and, as a result, areas such as Chelsea have seen house prices jump by 20% since the beginning of January. Apparently, that’s the equivalent of £4,500 per week for the average property in the area. According to Knight Frank, the estate agency, Central London has seen [...]
Internet advertising growth set to continue
31 May 2006 [0 Comments | 87 views]
According to the worlds’ number one buyer of advertising, Group M, Internet advertsing is expected to take up 13.3% of the UK advertisng cake this year, outperforming national newspapers. Group M reckons that net advertsing will be worth £1.615bn, taking the Internet into third place behind, regional advertising (£2.38bn) and TV advertising worth £3.48bn. Search [...]
Tesco moves into cheap PC world
29 May 2006 [0 Comments | 105 views]
Here’s a move that will send a chill up electronic retailers across the land. Tesco is upping its involvement in the PC business, selling cheap computers – permanently. You might ask, what’s new here? PC’s are already available in Tesco- yes that’s true – sometimes. Up to now the retailer that has got clothing stores, [...]
German economy lifts
29 May 2006 [0 Comments | 71 views]
Look at the headlines of the last few weeks, and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s all doom and gloom. It would appear the world can no longer rely on the US consumer bailing us all out. What we need is for the likes of Japan and Germany to start spending. And as that’s [...]
BT buy out rumours: the line goes dead
29 May 2006 [0 Comments | 76 views]
Back in April, when private equity group Blackstone Group bought itself a 4.5% stake in Deutshe Telekom, markets were puzzled. It wasn’t Blackstone’s style- it normally went for controlling stakes. Some speculated it had ideas for introducing greater cost controls, but all in all, markets were perplexed. This weekend, for a while at least, the [...]
Arcelor finds kryptonite to Mittal’s unwanted advances
29 May 2006 [0 Comments | 66 views]
Earlier this year, a director at Mittal Steel accused Guy Dollé, the boss of the world’s second largest steel company of acting like a spoilt child. The accusation went like this: Monsieur Dollé was saying of the company he ran: ” ‘It’s my playpen and I don’t want anyone else to play with my toys [...]
Breaking news – Arcelor scuppers Mittal plans with its own merger
26 May 2006 [0 Comments | 44 views]
One way or another, it appeared Arcelor was determined not to do the deal with Mittal Steel. And this morning, maybe it pulled out the ace by announcing plans to merge with Russian steel company Severstal to create the world’s biggest steel company. This leaves Mittal Steel jilted at the altar and relegated to the [...]
