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The Artesian blog takes a look at the business headlines, For personalised daily news, contact ArtesianWhitbread hires ex-Boots boss as sales slide - Whitbread has hired Richard Baker, the former chief executive of Boots, as a non-executive director, sparking speculation he may succeed John Parker as boss.The company announced Mr Baker’s appointment as it revealed a 2.6 per cent fall in like-for-like sales during the first half of the year, following a steep 7.7 per cent slide in revenue at Premier Inn, the budget hotel chain. (full story)Cadbury shares soar after £10.2bn takeover approach from Toblerone maker Kraft Foods - Cadbury, the company behind Dairy Milk, has rejected a £10.2bn takeover offer from Toblerone-maker Kraft Foods, which the US company says would create jobs in Britain. Shares in Cadbury soared more than 30pc after the surprise statement from Kraft this morning. The American company said that it had approached the board of Cadbury's with an offer to pay 745p a share, split between 300p in cash and 0.2589 of Kraft's shares for each of Cadbury's. (full story)Rivals 'in battle for T-Mobile' - Vodafone and O2 have both tabled bids of about £3.5bn to buy T-Mobile UK from owner Deutsche Telecom, the Sunday Times has reported.The report says a decision was likely to be made within weeks. (full story)Discount web vouchers prove big hit - Recession-scarred consumers are embracing a thrifty habit that is likely to outlast any economic recovery: the use of online discount vouchers to save money on retail, food and other purchases. (full story)AB Foods ups forecast on strong Primark - Associated British Foods (ABF.L) nudged up its full-year earnings forecast on Monday thanks to a strong performance at its Primark discount fashion chain and its sugar business.The London-based group, 55-percent-owned by the family of Chief Executive George Weston, said it now expected "some progress" in adjusted earnings for the year ending September 12, compared with its previous forecast for a flat outcome. (full story)
This article is provided by Artesian Solutions, delivering you *intelligent* news, personalised to match your business needs.You could argue it's long over due really. After all, out of all the arts you'd put your house on literature beating music and film into the online environment and although there have been several tame attempts to publish online, this new effort from Google will surely be the one that allows the art to really take off. The fact that the concept is drawing in much more media attention than Spotify's rapid rise to web dominance or Youtube's big deal to bring back music videos to their site suggests that online literature is something that people truly care about. The power you could get from an online library is potentially staggering. The Internet is a storage space for data and the idea of being able to search, not just for specific books but specific paragraphs, maybe even sentences is quite incredible. Here at Artesian, we are proving the value of pinpointing specific information for specific needs. As more material is added to the web, this value will only increase. Whilst many are debating the pros and cons of putting literature online, there's no debating that it could well revolutionize the art, providing it with a new lease of life, as well as offering opportunities to a greater number of writers than printed literature ever could. This could well be an exciting new chapter for publishers, authors and readers a like.
The Artesian blog takes a look at the business headlines, For personalised daily news, contact Artesian
G20 to pledge stimulus until recovery assured - G20 policymakers will this weekend promise to keep economic support packages in place until recovery is certain and seek to reassure financial markets they have credible plans to withdraw the stimulus when appropriate.Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 developed and emerging nations are meeting in London on Friday and Saturday to discuss the next steps in fighting the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. (full story)
Google China chief leaves company - The man who led Google's expansion into China is leaving the company to start his own business.Lee Kai-Fu, who joined from Microsoft in 2004, will step down as president of Google in greater China in September, the company said. (full story)
easyJet to close base and cut flights after Air Passenger Duty row - A row over landing fees and the Government's "blunt holiday tax" in the form of Air Passenger Duty (APD) have prompted easyJet to cut 20pc of its flying programme at Luton and close its small East Midlands base. Andy Harrison, the low-fare airline's chief executive, said he would be diverting the aircraft to lower-cost continental airports as he attacked Luton's failure to "recognise the commercial realities of the recession" and the Government's inability to see that £10 APD on short-haul flights "costs jobs". (full story)
Financial customers deliver 9 million complaints - The UK financial services industry has been hit by nine million formal customer complaints in the past three years, new figures revealed yesterday.The Financial Services Authority figures, which have not been published before, reveal the scale of customer dissatisfaction within the UK and indicates that it is worsening. Complaints in the second half of 2008 grew by 5.8 per cent compared with three years ago to 1.48 million — equivalent to more than 8,000 every day — with banks on the receiving end of two out of every three complaints. (full story)
Oracle’s Sun deal snagged in Brussels - Oracle’s $7.4bn acquisition of Sun Microsystems hit an unexpected and potentially damaging obstacle in Brussels on Thursday as European antitrust officials opted to break with Washington in order to scrutinise the deal more closely.The more stringent stance in Brussels breaks with recent efforts by competition authorities on either side of the Atlantic to align their investigations, and is particularly notable since the deal has already been given the green light by a new US administration that has taken a tougher line on competition issues, particularly in the tech industry. (full story)
The Artesian blog takes a look at the business headlines, For personalised daily news, contact ArtesianHMV strikes deal to grab digital music sales - HMV is attempting to become a major player in the downloadable music market by taking a 50 per cent stake in the technology specialist, 7digital.The retail chain said that the deal would boost sales at HMV and Waterstone's, the book store which it also owns. (full story)Bovis unveils placing for land buys - House builder Bovis Homes (BVS.L) unveiled a placing to raise 60 million pounds on Thursday to take advantage of opportunities in the residential land market.Bovis said it is placing up to 12.1 million shares, which represent approximately 10 percent of the group's share capital. (full story)Jobs boost with new Mini models - Two new models of the Mini are to be built at BMW's plant in Oxfordshire creating up to 1,000 jobs, sources suggest.Two concept cars - one a coupe - will be unveiled on 15 September and will be produced at the company's factory in Cowley, near Oxford. (full story)Strike 'Could Threaten Choccie Supplies' - Chocolate supplies could come under threat if 1,200 Cadbury workers go ahead with their threat to strike.Unite union officials said industrial action was "certain to hit supplies of some of the most popular chocolate products in the country". (full story)Tax haven attempts to stave off crisis - The Cayman Islands, the Caribbean territory that is home to most of the world’s hedge funds, on Wednesday pledged to protect its financial sector in spite of considering harsh measures to stave off a budget crisis.The overseas territory, which is facing a ballooning deficit in the wake of the economic downturn and rising public spending, suffered a setback last week when Britain refused to allow it to take on more debt. (full story)
This article is provided by Artesian Solutions, delivering you *intelligent* news, personalised to match your business needs.When Ebay took on Skype four years a go they had big plans to revolutionize their marketplace platform, plans which never really took off. The idea was to provide video trading to users, allowing them to bargain and negotiate more openly. In amongst the finer detail of these outlines, close comparisons with the aforementioned News Corp can not be ignored.Although they probably wouldn't admit it, the ultimate ambition of the project was to rake in endless advertising money through "pay-per-call" services which could see advertisers paying between $2 and $12 per telephone call each time someone clicked on their link." This business model (relying on advertising) is all too close to the reason why Rupert Murdock has taken the bold decision to start charging for online content.The new investors in the online communication service can only have parallel ambitions (you don't pay $1.9 billion for something unless you plan to make a lot of money). With 481 million registered users the potential is endless. But, as Ebay have shown, without a successful way to monetize, the investment is doomed to failure. Although, of course, there may be differing plans in the minds of the investors, I don't think it'll be too long before charges start creeping into the Skype network somewhere along the line.
Murdock has cushioned the blow for everyone else thinking along the same lines and once a trend has started, it's not to long before everybody jumps on the bandwagon. With their staggering number of users, Skype's demands can afford to be small, but the ring fence has been hurdled, and I suspect it's only a matter of time before there's no ring fence at all.
The Artesian blog takes a look at the business headlines, For personalised daily news, contact Artesian
Brown expands youth jobs scheme - The government is pledging a further 85,000 "opportunities" to help get young people into work.Prime Minister Gordon Brown will make the announcement at a Backing Young Britain summit in Birmingham. (full story)
DSG first-quarter sales fall less than expected - DSG International, Europe's second-biggest electrical goods retailer, posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly sales drop on Wednesday and said it had agreed to sell its Polish operations.The group, which runs Currys and PC World in Britain, Elkjop in the Nordic region and UniEuro in Italy, said sales at stores open at least a year fell 6 percent in the 16 weeks to August 22, as double-digit percentage falls in UK electricals and computing sales were partly offset by strong sales in Nordic countries. (full story)eBay Raises Billion Pounds In Skype Sale - Internet auction site eBay is selling a 65% stake in its online phone business Skype for £1.2bn.A group of private equity investors have agreed to buy the controlling shareholding in the company. (full story)Sony plans to put 3D TVs in homes by end of 2010 - Sony will announce today that it is aiming to put 3D televisions in homes by the end of 2010.Sir Howard Stringer, its chief executive, is due to announce that consumers will be able to buy 3D Bravia television sets, Vaio laptops, Playstation3 games consoles and Blu-Ray disc players that are compatible with 3D technology. (full story)Make mine a half: Majestic cuts minimum purchase of wine - Majestic Wine, the chain of warehouse outlets, hopes to raise the spirits among its customers by halving their minimum purchase to six bottles per visit.The move, which was introduced yesterday, follows a successful year-long trial in its Newcastle and Darlington stores, where "customer feetback has been very positive". (full story)
The Artesian blog takes a look at the business headlines, For personalised daily news, contact ArtesianBrown calls for cap on bankers' bonuses - Gordon Brown has turned up the heat on bankers by calling for an international debate on a possible cap on bonuses in the financial sector.Mr Brown said that the countries attending the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh this month would debate whether "bonuses are, in general, too high a proportion of company revenues and profits". (full story)Disney to buy Marvel in $4bn deal - Entertainment giant Walt Disney is to buy Marvel Entertainment in a shares and cash deal valued at $4bn (£2.5bn).The deal means Disney will take over ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men. (full story)Manufacturers Worried By Lack Of Credit - Low interest rates and efforts by the Government to free up liquidity in the banking system have failed to significantly improve credit conditions, new research says.A survey of 560 companies by the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) found that credit conditions remain "very tight". (full story)
EBay to sell Skype to private investors - Internet auction and services company EBay Inc (EBAY.O) has reached a deal to sell its online telephony unit Skype to a group of private investors, the New York Times said, citing two people briefed on its plans.Andreessen Horowitz, a new venture capital firm headed by the Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, is likely to be among the investors in the group, the paper cited the people as saying. (full story)Losses at Jaguar Land Rover send parent Tata into red - Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) suffered from the continued slump in the automotive industry in the three months to the end of June, which drove parent company Tata Motors into a loss for the quarter. Yet the group is confident that with new funding and aggressive cost-cutting, it will be in a good position when the market returns to growth.Tata, which bought JLR from Ford last year in a deal worth $2.3bn (£1.4bn), swung to a 3.2bn rupee loss (£41.6m) in its first financial quarter after posting net profits of 7.2bn rupees in the corresponding period in 2008. (full story)
