News

Your daily news update straight from the City PM newsroom in London

Microsoft to launch web-based Office

July 13, 2009

MICROSOFT will release three versions of its dominant Office software that users can access over the Web, in the latest salvo in an intensifying war between Microsoft and Google. Microsoft will offer consumers free web-based versions of its Office suite of programmes, including a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. The move will see Microsoft [...]
Telegraph owner reports losses of 16m for 2008

July 13, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH Media Group (TMG) yesterday reported a pre-tax loss of £15.7m for the year ending 28 December 2008, hit by a £32.9m charge following its exit last October from a printing deal. Records at Companies House show that TMG, the publisher of the Daily Telegraph, reported a turnover of £343.4m for the year, down [...]
PwC stands firm in huge 40m discrimination case

July 13, 2009

THE accountancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said last night it would “vigorously” fight a £40m claim made by a former employee in a race discrimination case. Romanian Mihaela Popa worked for PwC between 2004 and 2006 and has already lost one industrial tribunal case with the firm. She now claims to have new evidence which she [...]
Survey says ad spend decline has slowed

July 13, 2009

THE RATE at which companies cut their advertising spend eased in the second quarter of 2009, raising hopes that the recession may have peaked, a new report said yesterday. The survey by the influential Institute of Practitioners in Advertising said the rate of decline eased for the second quarter in a row. But the report, [...]
BA PILOTS AGREE TO TAKE PAY CUT

July 13, 2009

BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) pilots agreed to a 2.6 per cent pay cut yesterday, as part of a package of measures designed to save the ailing airline £26m. The move comes as the firm’s directors prepare themselves for what is expected to be a stormy annual meeting today. The pilot’s union Balpa said 94 per cent [...]
UKFI loses 11bn on its bank stakes

July 13, 2009

UK FINANCIAL Investments (UKFI) – the company set up to manage government stakes in banks – has suffered paper losses of £10.9bn from its investment in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group, it said yesterday. Speaking as the organisation published its annual report, chief executive John Kingman said the value of its [...]
RHJ back in the running for GM

July 13, 2009

PRIVATE equity firm RHJ International yesterday re-emerged as a strong contender to buy GM Europe saying it would keep Vauxhall’s two UK plants open and would make the European unit profitable by 2011. The firm said it is has been in “advanced” negotiations for several weeks with GM and now felt it was “appropriate to [...]
Teenage media habits: no need for panic

July 13, 2009

SO now we know what banks should do if they want some publicity: ask a teenage scribbler to write one of their research notes. That is what Morgan Stanley has just done, getting an enterprising 15-year old intern to write about his friends’ media habits. But while his findings make sense – they don’t have [...]
Virgin knew of price fixing

July 13, 2009

VIRGIN ATLANTIC chief executive Steve Ridgway admitted yesterday he was aware his airline had conspired to fix the price of fuel surcharges between July 2004 and April 2006 with rival British Airways (BA). Ridgway said in a statement: “Although I did not have any direct contact with BA in relation to passenger fuel surcharges I [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING

July 13, 2009

FINANCIAL TIMES GOLDMAN SACHS EXECUTIVES SOLD $700M OF STOCKExecutives at Goldman Sachs sold almost $700m worth of stock following the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Most of the sales occurred during the period in which the investment bank enjoyed the support of $10bn from the [...]