April 30, 2012
Ford earnings fall amid Europe’s economic weakness
US carmaker Ford has reported lower quarterly profits following weak sales in Europe and higher tax charges. Ford, the second-largest US carmaker, said first quarter net income was $1.4bn (£862m), down from $2.6bn for the same quarter last year.…
April 30, 2012
Google staff ‘knew of wi-fi snooping’, report says
The Google engineer who wrote a program that collected personal data from wi-fi networks told at least two other colleagues, a report has revealed. Google released the full investigation conducted by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).…
April 30, 2012
Spain in Recession
Spain's economy has slumped into a recession. Spain's National Statistics Institute data showed Monday that the country's economy shrank 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2012, after a similar contraction in the final three months of last year.…
April 25, 2012
Apple doubles quarterly profits to $11.6bn (£7.2bn)
Apple has reported its profits almost doubled in the first three months of the year. Apple said its net profit came in at $11.6bn (£7.2bn), up from $6bn in the same period last year and much better than had been expected. The technology giant sold…
April 25, 2012
Government hits annual borrowing target
The UK government borrowed more than expected in March, official figures have shown, but still met its borrowing target for the year. Public sector net borrowing, excluding interventions such as bank bail-outs, came in at £18.2bn in March, the…
April 25, 2012
BP oil spill: First criminal charges filed in US
The US justice department has filed the first criminal charges linked to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. A former BP engineer was arrested on charges of intentionally destroying evidence. Kurt Mix of Katy, Texas, faces two counts of obstruction of…
April 25, 2012
Google Drive to offer free storage in the cloud
Google has launched a new consumer service offering up to 16TB (terabytes) of storage for photos and other online content. Dubbed Google Drive, the service goes head to head with rival cloud services such as Dropbox and Microsoft's SkyDrive. It…
April 23, 2012
Vodafone agrees £1bn takeover of C&W Worldwide
UK mobile phone giant Vodafone has agreed to buy telecoms group Cable & Wireless Worldwide (C&WW) in a deal valuing the firm at just over £1bn. Vodafone was left as C&WW's only suitor after India's Tata Communications ended its interest in the firm…
April 23, 2012
European shares fall as anxiety returns
Stock markets have fallen after weak manufacturing data and political uncertainty in France and the Netherlands hit investor confidence. France's Cac 40 and Germany's Dax indexes were down about 2.5%, while the UK's FTSE 100 was about 1.5% lower. On…
April 23, 2012
Nestle to buy Pfizer Nutrition for $11.85bn
Food giant Nestle has announced a deal to buy children's food maker Pfizer Nutrition for $11.85bn (£7.35bn). The world's biggest food group, based in Switzerland, said its new acquisition was a "perfect complement" to its existing infant food…