Daily Business News Round Up 22/07

The Artesian Blog takes a look at the business headlines:

Apple sales soar 15% on iPhone demand - Sales of the new iPhone helped Apple to report expectation-beating third-quarter net earnings, up almost 15 per cent to $1.2 billion.

The Californian technology company reported revenue of $8.3 billion, up 11.8 per cent, for the three months to June 27. (full story)

Morrisons and Waitrose take a bite of rivals’ market share - One retailer is based in leafy Berkshire and is famed for selling swordfish steaks and crayfish sandwiches to Middle England. The other was built up from a few shops in Bradford into a multibillion-pound group by a plain-speaking Yorkshireman.

But Waitrose and Wm Morrison — retailing’s odd couple — have become Britain’s fastest-growing supermarkets, both posting sales growth of more than 8 per cent despite catering for very different parts of the market. (full story)

UK 'is losing 52 pubs each week' - UK pubs closed at a rate of 52 per week in the first half of the year - a third more than the same period in 2008 - the British Beer & Pub Association said.

Local pubs were the most vulnerable as communities were hit by the fallout of the economic downturn, it added. (full story)


UK public borrowing doubles to June record - Britain's budget deficit reached £13bn in June, the worst on record for the month, as the erosion in tax revenues underlined the parlous state of the public finances. Although slightly lower than City forecasts, the gap compares to £7.5bn from a year earlier, fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Tuesday. (full story)

Yahoo eyeing sale of HotJobs - Internet giant Yahoo (YHOO.O) is looking to sell HotJobs and Yahoo Small Business as part of its drive to shed its non-core assets, peHUB, owned by ThomsonReuters, said, citing sources familiar to the matter.

"They have been approached by major buyout firms but they are proactively looking to sell to a strategic investor like a Careerbuilder or Monster.com," peHUB quoted a source as saying. (full story)