While the price of gold has been somewhat ignored over the last few months, the price of the precious metal hit a three-month high yesterday amid concerns about European economies and the strength of the worldwide economic recovery. Historically gold has been something of a safe haven in troubled times and the increase in the price of gold would seem to indicate growing fears within the investment community about the short to medium-term economic outlook.
As the proposed British Airways and Iberia merger finally seems as though it will happen there is relief at British Airways bearing in mind the recent conflict with union representatives. The deal, which was announced last year, had initially been put on the back burner due to various technical hitches and issues regarding the British Airways pension scheme deficit. However, it now seems as though both parties have reached a final agreement with speculation that authorities in the UK and Spain have already signed off the structure for the new company.
The Card Factory, owned by entrepreneur Dean Hoyle, is on the verge of being sold to London private equity house Charterhouse in a £350 million deal which could be completed later today. It is believed that Charterhouse is on the verge of taking a majority stake in the operation and will leave the existing management team to run the operation in the future. Dean Hoyle, the chairman of this town football club, is believed to own around 90% the share capital and is in line for a massive windfall if the deal goes through as expected.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been flexing its muscles yet again with the announcement of fines totalling £4.2 million served against three firms in the City of London. Credit Suisse was fined £1.75 million, market maker Getco Europe £1.4 million and broker Instinet Europe was hit with a £1.05 million. The fines have been served due to repeatedly failing to provide trading figures to the regulator to assist with the monitoring of market abuse.
It is believed that Internet giant AOL is looking at potentially closing its social networking operation Bebo which was acquired for USD850 million back in 2008. Despite the fact that social networking sites have increased in popularity over the last few years, it would appear that Bebo has been left behind and potentially starved of investment funding. Initially it is believed that AOL was looking to sell the operation although recently it would appear the decision has been made to close down the website.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has today confirmed a revamp of UK data protection laws which could see fines of up to £500,000 handed out to those in breach of regulations. There has been growing concern within the public domain about the number of data protection breaches revealed over the last few months, many of which have been of a very serious nature. But will the increase in potential fines be enough?
The name of Wilbur Ross has been in the financial headlines today after the billionaire US investor announced a tie up with UK entrepreneur Richard Branson after taking a 20% stake in his Virgin Money operation. So who is Wilbur Ross and what can he do for Richard Branson?
UK MPs will this week issue a critical report on the takeover of Cadbury by US giant Kraft Foods which is certain to light the blue touch paper between UK and US company relationships. The report will highlight a number of alleged broken promises by the US giant although in reality the company paid over £11 billion for Cadbury and was obviously going to look at ways to reduce the cost of running the company and extracting more profitability.
Over the last few months there have been growing hopes of an agreement between international accountancy regulators regarding a convergence of accountancy practices. However, just as this worldwide convergence appeared possible the European Union has now stepped in with one of the most blatant power grabs by Brussels of late.
As the debate regarding Ofcoms move to force Sky to reduce wholesale prices for its subscription channels rages in the press there is a growing feeling that Sky will actually benefit from the move. On the face of it a 23% reduction in wholesale prices does not look good news for the company but when you consider that the likes of BT and Virgin Media will take up these reduced cost services and market this to a wider audience we could actually see significant new income streams coming into the company.