Shares News

By Jodie Ginsberg DUBLIN (Reuters) - Phone group Eircom (EIR.I: Quote, Profile, Research) has received a proposed offer from Australia's Babcock & Brown Capital (BCM.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) and Eircom ESOP Trustee that values the Irish company at 2.36 billion euros (1.6 billion pounds), it said on Friday. Eircom said under the proposed offer shareholders would be offered 2.20 euros cash per share plus the right to receive a dividend of around 0.052 euros a share if one is declared. Sh ...

Industrial blue chips held their ground on Wall Street this week but the wider market buckled as a surge in commodity prices and a jump in long-term bond yields unsettled investors. // Crude oil futures topped $69 a barrel as unrest in Nigeria and deepening tensions with Iran stoked fresh fears over supply disruption. Worries over the prospect of mounting inflationary pressures were furth ...

Young children may curse you for buying them a pension rather than an X-Box 360 or iPod, but the thousands of grandparents and parents who are squirrelling away money in pensions for dependants early on in life are ensuring that their offspring are financially secure in retirement by their 18th birthday. // One of the most cost-effective ways of saving for children is through a stakeholder pension. These were launched by the government in 2001 to encourage people who were not saving for their  ...

Move over Match.com. A more intimate form of online dating could soon emerge as a force on the social scene in London. // “I am a professional and looking to buy with a like-minded individual. Would help if you are an Arsenal fan,” is the advertisement “Gooner”, a sympathetic 31-year-old male, has posted on Sharedspaces.co.uk, a new website aimed at bringing together strangers for the purpose of buying a home together. No further details are offered and sadly, Gooner’s picture is not attached. ...

By Jonathan Loades-CarterPublished: April 14 2006 12:00 | Last updated: April 14 2006 12:00TiVo, the company behind “time warping” digital video recorders, on Thursday won a lawsuit against satellite television operator EchoStar for infringing its patents. // The jury in a Texas court awarded TiVo more than $73m compensation for lost profits and royalties after it agreed with the company that Ech ...

By Marie-France Han and Rhee So-eui SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a bigger-than-expected 25 percent slump in quarterly operating profit on Friday, hit by sliding margins in mobile phones and memory chips. The outlook for the current quarter is grim as prices for flash memory chips, popular in hot-selling digital cameras and music players, are likely to fall further before recovering in the second half on seasonal demand. But shares gained  ...

By Lina Saigol in LondonPublished: April 12 2006 23:30 | Last updated: April 13 2006 11:52Robert Tchenguiz, the property tycoon, on Thursday made an informal offer for Mitchells & Butlers, the UK's second-biggest pub group, which is valued at £4.6bn including debt. R20, Mr Tchenguiz' investment vehicle, on Thursday afternoon announced that it had made an informal offer to acquire M&B for 550p a share financed by equity and debt.

Howard Denby, who runs Glaztek, bought SLI Glass in Harworth, Doncaster, from administrators from Deloitte on March 30 and said he would keep the business running and take on up to 600 more staff over the next five years.But the existing workforce have all received letters saying that they are being made redundant.The Yorkshire Post contacted Mr Denby yesterday but he said: "I can't say anything a ...

Tokyo shares closed up marginally higher on Friday, in a session of thin trade as most foreign investors sat on the sidelines due to the Easter holiday weekend. // The benchmark Nikkei 225 average gained 0.2 per cent to 17,233.82, while  the broader Topix index inched up 0.3 per cent to 1,744.07. Shares of Aiful, one of Japan’s leading consumer lending groups, plunged 12.2 per cent to Y7,200, ma ...

By Michael Shields, European Auto Correspondent FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Another solid sales month by Fiat (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) and Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) helped new car registrations in Europe rise 4.1 percent in March to nearly 1.79 million vehicles, industry data showed on Friday. Calendar quirks of the Easter holiday -- which fell in March last year and c ...