Fossil to acquire wearable tech maker Misfit for $260m November 13, 2015 Watchmaker Fossil yesterday agreed to buy wearable tech company Misfit for $260m as it expands into the smartwatch and wearables space. Fossil will continue to produce Misfit health trackers, while incorporating Misfit's technology into its watches. Fossil says the acquisition will allow it to "scale Misfit's technology across Fossil" while giving Misfit new distribution channels and boosting its R&D. Misfit, best known for [...]
Auto Trader share price rises to all-time high after first dividend announced November 13, 2015 Shares in Auto Trader leapt to an all-time high this morning after the company announced its first dividend payment. The online car marketplace announced it will pay a maiden dividend of 0.5p in January 2016 after driving half-year profits to over four times those made during the same period in 2014. The UK's biggest car classifieds website revved pre-tax profits up to £74.7m [...]
Disappointing third quarter for UK construction sector November 13, 2015 Construction output in the UK fell 2.2 per cent in the three months to the end of October, compared with the quarter before, figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed today. That figure is exactly what the ONS estimated as part of the UK's pretty disappointing third-quarter GDP figure – but remains very [...]
Legal & General chairman John Stewart to retire next year November 13, 2015 John Stewart, chairman of financial services company Legal & General, is stepping down after six years at the business. In a statement today, Stewart said he will leave next year, once a replacement has been appointed. "We are now coming to a stage where the post-financial crisis work has been successfully delivered: the company is now [...]
Syngenta share price soars on rumours of takeover offer from China National Chemical Corporation November 13, 2015 Shares in Swiss agrichemicals company Syngenta received a big boost this morning, after rumours circulated that it is in takeover talks with China National Chemical Corporation. According to a Bloomberg report, the Chinese state-owned company approached the European firm with an offer of $42bn (£28bn). Although this was rejected because of potential regulatory issues, the companies [...]
Apple closing down Beats Music after Apple Music’s success against rival Spotify November 13, 2015 Apple’s music-streaming service Beats Music is no more, muscled out by the newer and shinier Apple Music. The tech giant announced late last night that Beats Music would be shut down at the end of the month, just six months after Apple Music was launched on trial subscriptions. The new music service attracted 11m subscribers [...]
TalkTalk share price plunges twice as deep as Sony, Carphone Warehouse, Barclays and EBay after cyber attacks November 13, 2015 Investors may have begun flocking back to crisis-struck TalkTalk after better-than-expected quarterly results, but the company’s shares have still plunged twice as deep as other hacked companies. Over 150,000 of the embattled telco firm’s customers had their personal data exposed in a hack that was made public on 22 October. In the weeks that followed, [...]
France GDP: French economy returns to modest growth fuelled by accelerating domestic demand November 13, 2015 The French economy returned to modest growth, as fresh data showed the country’s GDP growing by 0.3 per cent in the third quarter, boosted by accelerating domestic demand. Growth has been fluctuating over the year, to say the least. After surprising economists by ballooning out by 0.7 per cent in the first three months of [...]
FTSE 100 index opens down on G4S, Rolls-Royce and Glencore November 13, 2015 The FTSE 100 opened marginally lower this morning, led by falls in G4S and Rolls-Royce, while miners regained some ground. The UK's top blue-chip index was down 0.32 per cent at 6,158 points, led by security company G4S, which opened 3.18 per cent down at 228.9p per share after it was downgraded by a broker. "G4S [...]
German growth slows as GDP edges up 0.3 per cent in third quarter November 13, 2015 The German economy grew just 0.3 per cent in the third quarter, an estimate published today showed – down from 0.4 per cent in the previous quarter. Although the figure met economists' expectations, it was nonetheless disappointing for those hoping for a stronger performance. Destatis, Germany's official statistics body, said that while final consumption expenditure [...]