August 2012
3 posts
Stansted Airport to be sold by BAA →
Airports operator BAA has decided to sell Stansted Airport, ending its long-running legal battle.
It has been fighting a 2009 Competition Commission ruling that it must sell Stansted because of the lack of competition between London airports.
BAA was told to sell off Stansted and Gatwick, but by then it had already started the process of finding a buyer for Gatwick.
1 tag
Julius Baer to buy Merrill Lynch private bank... →
Swiss private bank Julius Baer (BAER.VX) is to buy Bank of America’s (BAC.N) Merrill Lynch private bank outside the United States, paying 860 million Swiss francs (563 million pounds) to boost its assets under management by 40 percent and backing the deal with plans to raise 1.19 billion francs in new capital.
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Starbucks CEO Just Joined Square's Board →
Starbucks, the giant coffee seller, just invested $25 million in Square, the San Francisco-based payments startup.
Starbucks is taking a small piece of that round. Square authorized $200 million in new shares at a valuation of $3.2 billion. The company didn’t say who—if anyone—is buying the rest of the new shares, but the New York Times reported that Rizvi Traverse Management, an investor...
July 2012
3 posts
4 tags
Babies in the Office →
Reality documentary following an experiment by minicab firm Addison Lee to help its employees manage their work/life balance by putting their babies right next to their desk
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BBC News - Facebook 'likes' and adverts' value... →
A BBC investigation suggests companies are wasting large sums of money on adverts to gain “likes” from Facebook members who have no real interest in their products.
It also appears many account holders who click on the links have lied about their personal details.
A security expert has said some of the profiles appeared to be “fakes” run by computer programs to spread...
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P&G’s Directors Said to Discuss Need to Replace... →
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) board members are dissatisfied with Chief Executive OfficerRobert McDonald’s performance and are discussing a possible leadership change, according to people familiar with the situation.
Some P&G directors are talking about contacting former executives to potentially take the top job, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the matter is...
June 2012
21 posts
6 tags
LinkedIn Stops Sharing Tweets in Profile to Comply... →
In a post on its blog, LinkedIn has announced that it will stop sharing a stream of Tweets on user profiles, in order to comply with stricter rules that Twitter is enforcingwith regards to its API.
Essentially, the changes mean that you’ll no longer be getting a straight-up stream of your Twitter posts in your LinkedIn profile. Twitter’s Michael Sippey says that these changes “highlight the...
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Rich Russian Wants More Robots →
Dmitry Grishin, the chief executive of Russian e-mail and social networking giant Mail.ru, has an elaborate wedding fantasy. He sees robotic drones flying around the guests and snapping their every move from every angle. “People today have very standard pictures,” Grishin says. “If you have drones, you can attach a camera and make very nice and different movies and pictures.” Add some bartender...
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Buffett Pounces in Private-Jet Slump With $9.6... →
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. jumped into the slumping private-jet market again with a record order valued at $9.6 billion, betting on a rebound later this decade with a third plane purchase in less than two years.
Buying as many as 425 jets from Bombardier Inc. and Textron Inc. (TXT)’s Cessna will bolster Berkshire’s NetJets in “a long-term bet on the global economy,” Chief Executive...
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WatchWorld’s Biggest Airline to Form in $11B Merger: Video - Bloomberg
Lan Airlines SA will merge with Brazilian airline TAM to form the world’s biggest airline in a deal worth $11 billion.
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The 66-Point Innovation Checklist | Innovation... →
Gijs van Wulfen has developed a structured innovation approach connecting creativity and business reality in five steps: 1. Full Steam Ahead, 2. Observe and Learn, 3. Raise Ideas, 4. Test Ideas, 5. Homecoming. Here he summarizes the benefits of his method in a 66-point innovation checklist.
The fuzzy front end is the nickname for the start of innovation or innovation phase. Why? Because getting...
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IPads Help Some Airlines Cut Costs →
Coach travelers on Singapore-based carrier Scoot, the budget unit of Singapore Airlines (SINGY) that launched service on June 4, can while away the hours with a $17 rented iPad (AAPL) chock-full of movies, music, games, and TV shows. Last fall, Jetstar, the budget offshoot ofQantas Airways (QUBSF), also started offering iPads for $10-$15 on flights over two hours. While the tablets are undeniably...
3 tags
The euro’s 'guilty men’ are now steering Europe to... →
Remaining in the single currency is no longer a rational choice for many countries – but will its creators listen?
[ Full article - Telegraph ]
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US banks consider IT top spending priority; shift... →
American banks consider technology investment a top spending priority for the year ahead, with platform simplification the most important IT-related project, according to a KPMG survey.
The poll of over 100 senior executives reveals that, in the face of regulatory reforms and a lacklustre economy, banks are focused on re-examining business models and initiatives that increase operational...
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For some, French retirement age goes down, not up →
France’s new Socialist government moved Wednesday to lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 years old for certain workers, bucking a global trend in a gesture to unions that critics say is a costly mistake.
Governments from North America to Europe have been pushing retirement ages higher and higher in recent decades, as people live longer and spend more years on state-sponsored pension...
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Vodafone, Telefonica Inks Pact For Creating Single... →
Mobile communications company Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) Thursday said Telefonica U.K. and Vodafone U.K. have entered into a partnership agreement for the creation of one national grid running each operator’s independent spectrum.
Facts:
Companies to pool basic network infrastructure to create one national grid of 18,500 sites.
Both companies will be running independent spectrum and...
4 tags
Slowdown in building sector fuels calls for Bank... →
Weaker construction survey in May makes the case for another round of stimulus at today’s meeting
Pressure has increased on the Bank of England to announce more stimulus today to boost the UK economy, after a key survey pointed to a weakening construction sector. The Markit/Cips survey of purchasing managers for May showed the slowest growth in the building industry for three months and a...
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EU, Germany exploring Spanish rescue, no request... →
Germany and European Union officials are urgently exploring ways to rescue Spain’s debt-stricken banks although Madrid has not yet requested assistance and is resisting being placed under international supervision, European sources said on Wednesday.
Spain, the euro zone’s fourth biggest economy, said on Tuesday it was effectively losing access to credit markets due to prohibitive...
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Eurozone divided as time runs out for Spain →
The eurozone sovereign debt emergency showed no signs of abating yesterday as the Spanish government desperately haggled over the terms of its expected bailout and the European Central Bank refused to ease monetary policy for the currency bloc, despite signs of stricken European economies sinking still deeper into recession.
Madrid’s Economy Minister, Luis de Guindos, insisted once again...
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Willow Glass: ultra-thin glass can 'wrap' around... →
A new type of flexible ultra-thin glass has been unveiled by the firm that developed Gorilla Glass, currently used to make screens of many mobile devices.
Dubbed Willow Glass, the product can be “wrapped” around a device, said the New York-based developer Corning.
The glass was showcased at the Society for Information Display’s Display Week, an industry trade show in...
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Siasto Attempts the Improbable: Making Enterprise... →
Part of the reason enterprise software is so crushingly unsexy has to do with its very name. There’s something about those two words that just seems to automatically induce a metallic vomit. But a lot it comes down to design. Enterprise software is ugly to think about because, by and large, it’s ugly to look at. Only now are we beginning to see that change, with the likes ofSiasto leading the...
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AIG Chief Sees Retirement Age as High as 80 After... →
American International Group Inc. (AIG) Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche saidEurope’s debt crisis shows governments worldwide must accept that people will have to work more years as life expectancies increase.
“Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old,” Benmosche, who turned 68 last week, said during a weekend interview at his seaside villa in Dubrovnik, Croatia. “That...
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Wonga windfall for boss as short-term loans firms... →
Errol Damelin reportedly leading ‘a beauty parade’ of banks to help prepare flotation, which could value business at £1bn
The boss of Wonga could be in line for a £100m windfall if he successfully floats the payday lender on the US stockmarket.
Errol Damelin, who founded the short-term loans firm just four years ago, is thought to have retained an interest in 17m shares, or about...
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The Truth About Uncertainty Is That It’s (Mostly)... →
When corporate executives are asked why they don’t spend more of their record profits by investing in their businesses and hiring workers, they offer this mantra: uncertainty, brought on by President Barack Obama.
Verizon Communications Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ivan Seidenberg led the charge in 2010. “By reaching into virtually every sector of economic life,” he said, “government is injecting...
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Google’s vision returns to the humble desktop →
Google’s concept of Chromebooks was ahead of its time when its browser-only, stripped-down laptops appeared a year ago – even though we all seem to spend most of our computing lives online and inside a web browser. A second attempt out this week tries to get closer to answering the needs we have today.
[ Continue FT.com ]
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Software Screening Rejects Job Seekers →
… Long-standing issues that’s wrong with the on-boarding (broken) hiring process:
1. (Removal of ‘human’ interaction process, replaced with automated tools that don’t work) 2. (Hiring Manager should be involved in Hiring process & conduct Interview) 3. (Software replace recruiters) 4. (Software keyword match screening) 5. (Applicants rarely talk to anyone, even...
3 tags
What Is Silicon Valley? →
Tell me what it is that makes Silicon Valley so special. Why should startups move there? Why, in this age of always-on Internet, does it still matter to be there? To get all metaphorical, what isSilicon Valley? [ Continue ]
May 2012
20 posts
3 tags
Free wi-fi Tube stations named →
Some of the first London Underground stations to receive free wi-fi over the summer have been named.
Transport for London said { King’s Cross, Leicester Square, Liverpool Street, Oxford Circus, Stratford ) would be among about 80 stations to enjoy wi-fi.
It will be available at ticket offices, escalators and platforms by the end of July, ready for the Olympics, it said.
Virgin Media...
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EVIDON most informative on Cookie opt in/out... →
In the last couple of days, I’ve come across many websites informing me of the opt-in/opt-out Cookie notification, but none of them have been as informative as Evidon ‘Cookie Consent Tool’ on Thomson Reuters
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The power of failing →
At the inflection point that usually arrives with a new year, I would recommend encouraging a situation most knowledge workers and their leaders fear like the plague: failure. I recently heard a saying that sums up a driving principle for the New Year nicely: “Reward success, celebrate failure, and punish inaction.” Let’s consider this in more detail.
A failure-free climate is...
London, France's sixth biggest city →
More French people live in London than in Bordeaux, Nantes or Strasbourg and it is now thought to be France’s sixth biggest city in terms of population. What is attracting a new generation of young French professionals to the city?
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Zuckerberg Drops Off Billionaires Index as... →
Facebook noted as worst-performing IPO in the past decade:
Facebook Inc (-24.21%) stock loss since IPO Zuckerberg (-$4.7 billion ) loss
____________________
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook (FB) Inc.’s co- founder and chief executive officer, is no longer one of the world’s 40 richest people.
The 28-year-old’s fortune fell to $14.7 billion yesterday from $16.2 billion on May 25, as shares of the...
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Bring LEGOs and Crayons to Your Next Meeting →
So why not use your hands to work through a complicated problem or stir innovation. T.J. McCue shows you LEGO’s initiative to get businesses working with blocks in the boardroom to find creative solutions …
We humans like to use our hands to express ourselves and find solutions. In fact, there are many cultures that are known for the way they can communicate with gestures.
LEGO...
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Bank of England prepares plans for euro collapse →
A senior official for the Bank said the measures would “again play [their] part in mitigating the impact” of Greece or other countries leaving the single currency.
The comments come after the head of the IMF suggested last week that British interest rates may have to be cut to zero if the economic situation deteriorates.
The Bank has already completed a quantitative easing...
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One in four books sold will be e-books by 2014,... →
James Daunt, the managing director of the UK’s largest book chain, said that just one in ten books sold today is an e-book. However this is likely to rise to a quarter in just two years’ time, he said.
Mr Daunt’s prediction came as Waterstones announced a tie-up with online retailer Amazon to sell its Kindle e-reading devices in its shops. From the autumn, shoppers will also be able to...
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Barclays to Sell Entire $6.1 Billion BlackRock... →
Barclays Plc (BARC), the U.K.’s second- largest bank by assets, will sell its entire $6.1 billion stake in BlackRock Inc. (BLK) before the latest round of Basel rules stops it from counting the holding as capital.
BlackRock, the fund manager started by former mortgage-bond trader Laurence Fink, will buy back as much as $1 billion of shares from Barclays as part of the transaction, the London-...
4 tags
Female bosses 'less funny in the boardroom' →
Female bosses are less likely to make jokes in the boardrood because they are met with an awkward silence for eight out of every ten attempts at humour, a study has revealed.
Research has shown women are more likely to use self-deprecation as humour, with their attempts at cracking jokes views as “contrived, defensive or just mean”.
The study, by linguistics expert Judith Baxter, showed more...
3 tags
The Universal Uniform of Über-Euro Males →
Tina Gaudoin on Style: How to Perfect the Tanned, Sockless, White Shirt, Cashmere Sweater Look of This Billionaire Subclass …
For starters, the Über-Euro male (UE) would never been seen carrying a man bag. He’s a car keys, wallet and Marlboro Light carrier. Here’s the subtext: “I drive an Audi/Aston/BMW/vintage Merc; my wallet (ancient Gucci, or more recent Bottega Veneta...
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A Real Man's Place Is in the Kitchen →
When a previous generation of men saw women leaving the kitchen and entering the workforce, they watched with more than a bit of trepidation. They were losing something—or so they thought. But a new generation of men has seen the oven light.
Men of Generation X (my generation) are all but elbowing women out of the kitchen these days. We don’t own the stove outright—yet—but we’re...
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Hewlett-Packard to Cut About 30,000 Jobs →
Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive, Meg Whitman, plans to cut 30,000 or more jobs next week, according to officials familiar with the plan. Her goal, they said Thursday, is to spend the money she saves on increasing the efficiency of the company’s sales force and on creating new products.
[ Full article NY Times]
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Stocial Targets Students With Social Network for... →
Stocial is today launching as a dashboard for stock news and a private social network dedicated to helping students learn the ins and outs of investing.
Stocial’s homepage is divided into three main sections: “Watchlist,” which displays information on user-selected stocks; “Market Pulse,” which surfaces stock-related news as it is pulled from various news outlets and Twitter; and a feature- and...
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JP Morgan crisis: Obama backs tougher Wall Street... →
Guardian Newspaper …
President Obama has said JP Morgan Chase $2bn (£1.2bn) trading loss demonstrates the need for tighter financial services regulation, amid reports that Ina Drew, the bank’s departing chief investment officer, is walking away with a $32m payout.
Obama said the losses at JP Morgan were so big that the US government might have had to step in if the trading...
8 tags
Up Next for the Cloud: Big Data Analytics? →
In an effort to diversify its cloud offerings, NaviSite - a Time Warner Cable cloud computing and managed hosting company - announced plans to offer storage service for customers in what one analyst says could the beginning of service providers looking to offer big data analysis from the cloud. [ Continue ]
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Private Cloud: Top 5 Trends →
Gartner analyst Thomas J. Bittman cuts through the hype to determine the five key trends that are influencing private cloud computing. 1. Cloud Deployments 2. Cloud Hybrid 3. Cloud Management Platform 4. Managed Services 5. Value (Business Requirements)
[ Slideshow ]
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Andreessen Horowitz, Max Levchin and Friends Bet... →
Mobile analytics startup Mixpanel first caught the attention of Andreessen Horowitz by constantly showing up in the slide decks of entrepreneurs who were pitching the hot VC firm. “We were like: Hmmm, that company is pretty interesting!” says Peter Levine, a general partner at the firm. It was enough to set the wheels in motion for a $10.25 million Series A funding round, which Mixpanel is...
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Francois Hollande to set France on new course... →
French President-elect Francois Hollande is to start work on forming a new government, after declaring to his supporters that his victory gave hope there would be an end to austerity.
Mr Hollande has vowed to rework a deal on government debt in eurozone member countries to focus on promoting growth. [ Continue ]
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FSA warns banks on old tech, slow payments and... →
In a speech to the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, Wheatley says that the watchdog wrote to banks in January to “encourage a more proactive approach” to its conduct regime that covers ‘core’ payment activities. Wheatley argues that some are “still not fully engaged” and seems to be just tackling what is pointed out to them, “rather than simply...
April 2012
24 posts
4 tags
One World Trade Centre Becomes NY's Tallest... →
[ Video ] … New York City has a new tallest building - One World Trade Centre is now 1,271ft (387m) tall - just taller than the top of the Empire State building.
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The five Cs of connected TV →
Interesting insight …
When two very different industries like traditional broadcast television and digital collide, it’s difficult to ignore the implications on both sides.
While analysts predict that 60% of households will be watching internet TV by 2014 and many companies are trying to capitalise on shifting viewing habits, the connected TV market is still in a nascent stage
1....
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Chirpify raises $1.3m to build Twitter platform... →
Chirpify is announcing that it’s scored $1.3 million in funding from an impressive array of investors, including Voyager Capital, HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes, TiE Oregon Angels, BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu, investor Geoff Entress and former Facebook exec Rudy Gadre.
The company is also launching its Twitter Commerce for Digital Content platform, that allows artists and musicians to sell digital content...
