Thursday newspaper round-up: Sony Music, Royal Mail, house prices

A leading City lobby group is calling on the next government to bring in scams legislation that forces big tech and social media companies to cough up to £40m a year to reimburse customers and fight fraud on their platforms. The demand came in a ‘financial services manifesto’ released by UK Finance, which represents banks, payments companies and other financial firms. UK Finance and its 300 membershave long complained about having to shoulder the costs of fraud against their customers, despite a surge in the number of scammers targeting consumers through platforms such as Facebook and Google. – Guardian

Sony Music is in talks to buy Queen’s music catalogue, which includes songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Gaga, in a potential $1bn (£800m) deal, according to Bloomberg. Sony is said to be working with another investor on the transaction that would be the largest sale of its kind and include merchandising and other business opportunities, according to the Bloomberg report, which said talks were continuing and might not result in a deal. – Guardian

Shell and ExxonMobil are nearing a $500m (£390m) deal to offload two gas sites in the North Sea amid the companies’ ongoing retreat from the UK’s oil basin. The duo are putting the finishing touches to a deal to sell the Clipper and Leman Alpha installations in the southern region of the North Sea to UK-based start-up Viaro Energy. Clipper and Leman Alpha are major gas sites and have been owned by Shell and ExxonMobil via a joint venture since the mid-1960s. – Telegraph

A top-ten shareholder in the parent company of Royal Mail has spoken out against the £3.6 billion takeover by its Czech tycoon shareholder. Columbia Threadneedle Investments, which holds about 5 per cent of International Distribution Services, believes that the offer of 370p a share undervalues the postal services group. – The Times

The number of homes for sale is at the highest level in eight years, according to Zoopla, which expects the extra supply to keep a lid on house price rises this year. The property search website has calculated that there are 20 per cent more homes on the market than there were at this time last year, when soaring mortgage rates pushed would-be buyers and sellers to the sidelines. – The Times