News And Announcements
ITV gains leverage after Virgin's fight with Auntie Beeb
UKTV, which is 50% owned by the BBC, will withdraw its channels from broadcaster Virgin Media on Saturday after failing to agree on retransmission fees, which saw ITV shares perk up on hopes that it could increase its own fees.
Cineworld appoints former cashier and film industry veteran to board
Cineworld Group on Friday appointed Renana Teperberg and Camela Galano to its board in the respective roles of executive director and independent non-executive director.
United Utilities asks for more water from Lake District to battle drought
Water company United Utilities has submitted a request to take more water from three lakes in Cumbria - Lake Ullswater, Lake Windermere and Ennerdale Water - to fight the UK’s driest summer for decades.
Ryanair cancels 24 flights due to pilot strike
Irish airline Ryanair was forced to cancel 24 flights on Friday as a quarter of its pilots went on strike over pay and work conditions.
Whatsapp limits message forwarding to combat fake news
In a move to battle the spread of fake news and spam, Facebook-owned app Whatsapp said it would impose limits on how many groups a message can be sent to after rumours sent via the app led to numerous lynchings in India.
EasyHotel acquires freehold site in Dublin
Superbudget hotel developer and operator easyHotel has acquired a freehold site in central Dublin to develop a purpose-built, freehold hotel, it announced on Friday.
Venture Life raising £18.75m ahead of Dentyl, BB Mints acquisitions
Consumer care products company Venture Life announced the conditional placing of up to 46,875,000 new ordinary shares at a price of 40p each on Friday, to raise approximately £18. 75m before expenses.
Apple Watch and FitBit could be hit with Trump's tariffs
The Apple Watch, FitBit and other accessories assembled in China could be affected by the latest round of US tariffs on $200bn of Chinese products, according to government filings.
Keywords Studios acquires Canadian firm Snowed In
Video games industry services provider Keywords Studios has acquired Snowed In Studios for a total consideration of up to CAD 4m, it announced on Friday, from its current owners Jean-Sylvain Sormany, Tim Vito and Evan Hahn.
CVS Group appoints Richard Fairman as finance director
AIM-listed CVS Group has appointed Richard Fairman as group finance director with effect from 1 August.
Lighthouse board pleased with first half progress
Financial advisory company Lighthouse Group updated the market on its trading for the six months ended 30 June on Friday, reporting that it continued to trade positively in the first half of 2018, in line with management's expectations and ahead of the comparator period for the six months ended 30 June 2017.
Microsoft beats forecasts as cloud service booms
Microsoft beat Wall Street forecasts for the fourth quarter as more businesses bought its cloud computing services and the latest version of its Office software.
Acacia Mining interim earnings drop amid ongoing Tanzania dispute
Acacia Mining posted a drop in first-half core earnings on Friday as it said it was not yet clear when it might resolve the dispute with the Tanzanian government over its gold exports.
Energiser boss Dominic White leaves to run KCR
Energiser Investments chief executive Dominic White is stepping down to concentrate on running KCR Residential, one of the company’s property investments.
Comcast is 'likely' £26bn victor in Sky bidding war
Comcast is thought likely to be the new owner of Sky after the biggest US cable TV company pulled out of a battle to buy Rupert Murdoch’s Fox entertainment empire.
Gardner Aerospace takeover of Northern Aerospace gets quick CMA clearance
The Competition and Markets Authority announced on Friday that it had decided, on the information currently available to it, not to refer the merger of Gardner Aerospace Holdings and Northern Aerospace to a Phase 2 investigation.
Record gets first performance fees in two years as inflows return
Specialist currency manager Record announced on Friday that its assets under management equivalents (AUME) as at 30 June totalled $61. 9bn, down from $62. 2bn at the end of March.
Roche clears FDA hurdle with Alzheimer's testing products
Roche announced on Friday that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted ‘Breakthrough Device Designation’ to ‘Elecsys beta-Amyloid (1-42) CSF and ‘Elecsys’ Phospho-Tau (181P) CSF.
Sirius Minerals signs fertiliser offtake agreements with two Chinese firms
Sirius Minerals has signed binding take-or-pay supply agreements supply its POLY4 fertiliser to two Chinese companies on Friday.
PureTech signs deal with Roche for chronic disease treatments
PureTech Health has announced a deal with Roche that could result in the Swiss drug giant paying the company more than $1bn (£769m) linked to PureTech’s treatments for cancer and other chronic diseases.