paidContent.org:
A year since HD DVD conceded defeat at last CES, Blu-Ray and its backers will be touting their so-called success at this year's CES, but the reality is far from it. As numbers point out, very few consumers know about Blu-Ray, and those who do still do not see enough value for the premium. As NYT points out in this story, "G (Read More)
Wall Street Journal:
Merger and acquisition activity all but screeched to a halt in the last quarter of 2008, with global deals volume falling 29% for the year. (Read More)
The Guardian:
Competition authorities would not approve a merger of Channel 4 and Five, according to a report that says the Celebrity Big Brother broadcaster is in "relatively good health" despite facing funding gap of up to £100m.The report, by Enders Analysis, argues that previous media competition rulings relating to the merger of Car (Read More)
paidContent.org:
Consumers Union's new non-profit subsidiary Consumer Media LLC launches on Jan. 1 with newly acquired Consumerist.com as its only property but the announcement release stressed that it's the first. Does this mean more acquisitions are on the way? "The short answer is we don't know," Ken Weine, VP-communications, tol (Read More)
The Guardian:
The year's dramatic events made fools of some of the financial world's biggest names. Fortunes have been lost and firms laid low as a series of deals - some of which now look like little more than bets - have gone bitterly sour. Top of the list of deals that went spectacularly wrong was the RBS takeover of ABN Amro. The £47 (Read More)
The Guardian:
The FTSE 100 index closed tonight at its highest level for more than seven weeks. The blue-chip index gained 73.33, taking it to 4392.68, its best closing position since November 10.Nevertheless, it remains on course to record its worst ever year by the time the markets close at lunchtime tomorrow, with leading shares down (Read More)
The Guardian:
Kirk Kerkorian, a longtime investor in the US car industry, has abruptly sold his 6.1% stake in Ford barely nine months after taking the position in a rare vote of confidence in the company's turnaround plan.The disposal appears to mark the end of the 91-year-old financier's enduring flirtation with Detroit and comes at a (Read More)
The Guardian:
Shareholders in Imperial Energy, the London-listed company which has most of its oil assets in Russia, are on course to back a £1.3bn bid from India's oil and gas corporation (ONGC) by the deadline of 1pm today.Imperial has made great efforts to encourage its investors to vote in favour of the deal in good time, given the d (Read More)