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James Bennet awarded an MBE
I am absolutely delighted that James Bennet (Director Technology at Ernst & Young) has been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Birthday Honours list. The citation is...
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Does NCC have too many moving parts?
Escrow and Assurance provider NCC Group had already got the bad news out the way in April when management signalled a FY ‘miss’ (see NCC Group and its moving parts). The reported results came in within...
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EY - "Building a better working world"
In one of the most exciting stories ever carried on HotViews, I can report that Ernst & Young has rebranded as EY. They also have a really exciting and original strap line “building a better...
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Sage transformation - one year in
A year ago Sage launched its far reaching transformation plan which was centred on improved growth and margins, and on becoming fit for business in the cloud (see Sage regroups for growth). Yesterday...
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Banks' capex budgets are not immune to regulatory pressure
As CTOs in the banks across UK, US and Europe consider their capex plans for 2014, they will have to trim their shopping lists again as a result of two weeks of bad news for the banks. Banks have been...
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ECI leaves Clinisys in good health
London-based private equity firm ECI Partners has made a decent exit on its investment in Chertsey-headquartered laboratory information systems vendor CliniSys, yielding a 2.5x return in a secondary...
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Innovation Group sells South African travel business
Insurance BPS player The Innovation Group (TIG) has sold its 62% stake in South African travel subsidiary Travest to South African insurance provider Santam for £3.9m in cash. TIG said this is its last...
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Perform buys Opta for £40m
Congratulations to my friend John O’Connell for selling Opta Sports Data to Perform for c£40m. John has been Chairman since 2011. Opta was originally known as Sportingstartz when setup by Toby Russell...
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Smartphone woes
Most readers know of Apple’s woes. Their shares are down c20% YTD. But most would suggest Samsung has stolen Apple’s crown. But Samsung shares are down almost as much (16% YTD) and fell another 3% last...
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In my Friday post - Smartphone woes - I said that 'the Samsung S4 sold 100m units in just 27 days'. Whereas, of course, that should have read 10m units. I used the figure from a trusted newswire and...
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Murray and the feel good factor
I’m old enough to remember rationing, see a Coronation, attend a Beatles concert, witness England winning the World Cup and see a man walk on the moon BUT I’ve never seen a British man win Wimbledon!...
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Shazam valued at $400m in latest investment
News that America Movil/Carlos Slim, the telecomms operator, has invested $40m in UK Shazam is, of course, great news. It values Shazam at c$400m although it has revenues of c£22m and is loss-making....
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BlikBook takes the money and runs – to Dublin!
Whilst we frequently bemoan the fact that many UK start-ups prefer to seek their fortunes (literally) in the US, it turns out that the ‘threat’ may well be closer to home. London-based (till now!)...
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European tech buyers favouring share over profit
Price-to-sales (PSR) ratios for European TMT (technology, media, telecoms) acquisitions rose faster than price-to-earnings (PER) multiples on a three-month rolling average basis for the second quarter...
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Risk focus favours Lombard
Today, George Osborne is expected to announce plans to implement major reforms as proposed by Lord Tyrie’s cross-party banking commission. These will involve better governance, stronger and better...
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RM faces up to declining revenues
First half results from educational ICT and resources group RM illustrate the difficult trading conditions in the UK public sector schools market. RM’s total revenue (excluding exited businesses)...
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Aveva maintains performance in Q1
There has been no change in trajectory at Aveva Group, as the new financial year started much as the old one ended with improvements across the business (see here). H2 will be the real test for the...
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blur brings its biggest contract into focus
It would be fair to say that our coverage of online marketing services exchange blur Group has often been tinged with veneer of cynicism given that co-founder and CEO Philip Letts was also the brains...
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Dillistone picks up new passenger on its voyage
AIM-listed supplier of software to the recruitment industry, Dillistone, continues on its acquisition journey with what looks to be a sensible addition. Yesterday, it completed the purchase of FCP...
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Encore exits, SEP enters Pure360
Active tech investor Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) has led a £10.5m MBO of Brighton-based email and SMS digital marketing services firm Pure360. SEP invested £6.5m, with Investec and management...
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