Industry news

Yahoo has entered into the bidding for Tumblr, with an offer of $1.1 billion.

The bid received approval by board members on Sunday, with the Wall Street Journal on Sunday reporting that Tumblr would continue to be run as an independent organisation.

Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, announced the successful acquisition on her own Tumblr account, saying: “We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently."

With over 217 million global users over the past month Tumblr represents an opportunity for Yahoo to recapture a youthful audience, with Yahoo being practically geriatric with its 1995 birth.

The purchase of Tumblr has the potential to increase traffic and advertising potential to the Yahoo brand, as well as adding a ‘cool’ factor that Tumblr brings with its young demographic.

Yahoo announces 2,000 layoffs

NS&I (National Savings & Investments) which specialises in providing savings services have awarded Atos a seven year contract to deliver both BPO and customer facing services in a bid to reduce costs and modernise services.

The contract begins on the 1st April 2014, with Atos delivering an improved communications framework and greater digital services under the contract.

Digital improvements including online payment facilities, mobile optimised websites and applications are designed to help move customers to a digital platform in order to create cost savings.

According to Sajid Javid MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury: “Taxpayers across the country will also benefit as the contract will deliver a saving of over £400 million by 2021 – building on the £530 million already saved under the current contract.”

Atos awarded leadership role by MOD

Thames Water has appointed IBM as Technology and Innovation Partner in a move that is designed to develop and improve the water company’s social interaction with customers alongside overall corporate transformation services.

As part of their role as a partner to Thames Water, IBM will analyse big data and social media sources to improve customer relationships.

Analytical data gathered by IBM will be used to develop and modify services and identify opportunities for future innovation, with a particular focus on customer services and supplier relationship management.

Lawrence Gosden, asset director, Thames Water, described how the partnership with IBM was designed to deliver: “the best possible chance of delivering the safest, most sustainable and most innovative solutions”.

Thames Water Strikes £2.5bn Procurement Outsourcing Deal

Thames Water call centre could relocate to India

The UK government have appointed Arqiva to deliver a mobile infrastructure project, valued at £150 million, as part of the government’s move to develop mobile coverage across the country.

The mobile infrastructure project is designed to bring increased mobile coverage to rural parts of the UK, in areas where investment from network operators is low due to limited markets.

The project will help to create infrastructure including mast construction in order to increase the attractiveness of rural telecommunications development.

The Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, said: "Arqiva's appointment today is great news for rural communities throughout the UK, who stand to benefit enormously from this £150 million project to improve mobile phone coverage".

BT reports falling profits

Ofcom clamps down on BT in a bid to increase competition

Oracle has opened a new data centre based in Thames Valley, as part of a move to support the UK governments G-Cloud.

The new data centre will be specifically focused on providing services to the government‘s G-Cloud procurement framework.

The new datacentre is the second Oracle site in the UK, with a general-purpose site located in Linlithgow, Scotland.

The Thames Valley based centre will be designed to support SMEs, a requirement of the government stipulations surrounding the operation of G-Cloud services.

Oracle president, Mark Hurd, said: “We are delighted to bring our technology, applications and experience to the initiative and to make significant investments in the new data centre and infrastructure that will be dedicated to the UK Government's G-Cloud initiative."

March sets records for public sector cloud adoption

Oracle sees reduced revenue from software and cloud services

IT giant Intel has lost ground as the world’s largest semiconductor company, as rivals see sales expand through mobile device uptake, while Intel’s PC market shrinks.

A study released at the start of the week by IC Insights, has revealed that the company is facing increased competition and threats to its position as the world’s top semiconductor company.

Rivals including Samsung and Qualcomm are catching up on sales in the semiconductor marketplace as tablet and mobile devices increase in popularity ahead of tradition PC formats.

Intel currently leads the market in terms of chip technology, operating advanced manufacturing factories and delivering chips a generation ahead of competitors, however a specification in a PC market has restricted growth.

Intel sales dropped 3 percent to $11.56 billion in the first quarter of 2013, compared to the same time last year. Samsung recorded a 13 percent rise based on the success of mobile device sales, with its own range of products and other devices, including Apple which uses Samsung based chips, while Qualcomm recorded a 28 percent rise.

Intel announces investments of $40 million

McAfee plans for $389 million purchase of network security provider

Birmingham Airport has called for greater UK flight links outside of London, in order to support the country’s economy and transport capability.

Birmingham has highlighted how London is currently the focus of the majority of UK flight links, and that this disproportionate focus on the capital compared to the rest of the country, limits economic activity outside of London.

The call for increased flight link comes as Birmingham airport launches a public campaign for increased long-haul airports outside of London.

Airport chief executive, Paul Kehoe, said: “a surprisingly high proportion of the country's potential demand for business air travel comes from Birmingham airport's catchment area. But rather than flying from their local airport, we have ended up with an illogical situation where these businesses have to slog down the M1 or M40 to get to Heathrow”.

The public campaign comes as Birmingham airport prepares for a report from Sir Howard Davies’ commission into aviation capacity in June 2015, which will look at the UK’s future expansion of airports and flight link capability.

Edinburgh Airport outsources IT services

Getronics to aid Gatwick IT Transformation

An increased price rise of 6 percent during December 2012 led to boosted profits for British Gas, with a long winter seeing rising energy consumption levels delivering £602 million in profit.

The long periods of low temperature saw customers consume on average 18 percent more year-on-year during the first four months of 2013 compared to 2012, with the price increase coming into place just before the long winter.

British gas owners Centrica, said in a statement that: “Against a background of sustained cold weather and periods of higher commodity prices, Centrica has performed well in the year to date."

Overall profits were slightly reduced on last year’s total, however profits managed to deliver on-line with expectations, based on rising costs and the impact of the European recession.

The company has said that its ability to offer competitive energy prices has contributed strongly to the success in meeting overall profit expectations.

The energy giant has said that it will use the increased profits generated from the winter period to help to “hold prices for as long as possible."

Centrica and Qatar Buy Canadian Gas Field equiv. to 15 Billion Barrels of Oil

Centrica sees a annual profit increase of 14 percent

Britain’s largest coal mining businesses, UK Coal may return to public ownership, as ministers discuss a plan designed to support the company’s struggling pension scheme.

Currently 6,800 pension scheme members are threatened by the potential collapse of UK Coal, with a collapse potentially devaluing £360 million from the pension pot.

UK Coal is facing significant uncertainty following the closure of the Daw Mill deep-pit in Warkshire due to a fire, which represented the largest deep-pit project for the company.

The loss of the single largest UK deep-pit resulted in 650 job losses and a further loss of £260 million from equipment damage and coal stock destruction.

Government ministers have met with union officials and company officials to discuss the potential nationalisation of the company in a bid to prevent damage to pension scheme, which would place the resulting pension deficient on the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

Ministers are now looking at the possibility of moving assets and the operations of the Daw Mill pit to the government run Coal Authority.

Glencore and Xstrata resolve differences and move forward with £56 billion merger

Global security outsourcer G4S has successfully won the contract to provide security for the G8 summit.

The contract will see G4S provide 450 staff to provide security for the 2013 G8 meeting, taking place in Northern Ireland in June.

The security service will be provided alongside police and armed force personal. G4S has had previous experience with working alongside the armed forces, after the army was drafted in to supplement Olympic security staff, when G4S was unable to meet staffing numbers.

Secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers, sought to downplay concerns regarding G4S’ past performance, saying: “The G8 is considerably less than the numbers that were required for the mammoth operation at the Olympics”.

Security challenges facing the event involving leaders from around the world include thousands of protestors expected to be present at the event, and the threat of action by dissident republicans.

G4S shares spiral as European recession bites

Leaked letter reveals the struggle of G4S partners with asylum seeker contract