For the last few years, M&A has been off the menu; recession tends to dull the corporate appetite, no matter how many dishes the desperate investment bankers offer up. But business doesn’t stop and many companies have harvested a lot of cash or shed a lot of debt. As economies uptick shareholders start expecting accelerated […]
The need for speed is not always associated with high intelligence; think young men (or, even worse, middle aged men pretending to be young) on motorbikes. On the other hand in motor racing those that can afford the best technology can usually go quickest. The same can be said for service providers. And, as in […]
Ironically, given that its purpose is to draw attention, targeted advertising is the dog that didn’t bark. For as long as most of us can remember it has been talked of the great untapped resource, just waiting to be unlocked by convergence; the ‘Mother Load’ that would justify much investment in technology and content. The […]
There are some people who owe politicians and journalists a lot. These people are estate agents and parking wardens. A few years ago, these groups would routinely rank at the bottom of any ‘respect’ poll in the UK, now, thanks to MPs expense scandals and the phone hacking debacle, they no longer need worry about […]
There used to be an entire industry devoted to Kremlin watching during the Cold War, it’s a pastime that’s enjoying – if that’s the right word – a revival just now. The BBC bureaucracy has sometimes been compared to the Kremlin and defining, deducing or second guessing its next move sometimes seems as fraught. Lord […]
The first ever closing of a BBC channel has been done to pave the way for the first ever tax imposed for receiving content over the Internet. The BBC, in the person of its Director General Lord Tony Hall, says the BBC is taking difficult and necessary decisions in the face of real term cuts […]
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, so the saying goes. Charter and John Malone must be reflecting on that now. Comcast had – reportedly – been in detailed discussions with Charter as to which bits of Time Warner it would buy if the former’s bid for the latter was successful. Then, after a […]
I get the feeling we will soon see some seismic moves in M&A, the kind that will make the weather for some time to come. A look at Vodafone’s results reflects a lack of lustre; revenues down and an absence of bright spots. The odds on a shape-shifting deal, using the ammunition of the $135 […]
What do companies do when they are very powerful in a particular field but that power becomes threatened because technology means the battleground shifts to an area where they are weak? You can’t organically become strong in a new sector quickly enough to avert the danger. You can’t even do with it with lots of […]
Two great British institutions have relatively new chiefs at the helm. And these aren’t just corporate suits from central casting but leaders, who, according to them, will redefine the direction of their organisations. At the British Broadcasting Corporation, Lord Tony Hall has returned to repair a corporate reputation battered by many recent events. But he […]