Wednesday, June 10, 2015

HP to pay $100m to settle lawsuit with shareholders

  • 9 June 2015
  •  
  • From the sectionBusiness
HP logo on building
HP bought Autonomy in 2011 for more than $11bn
Technology giant Hewlett-Packard has agreed to pay $100m (£65m) to some of its shareholders to settle a claim over its ill-fated acquisition of Autonomy.
Dutch pension fund manager PGGM led the class action lawsuit, which claimed HP had misled shareholders with the acquisition.
HP said it believed the claim had "no merit" but that it was "desirable and beneficial" to settle the case.
"Further litigation would be burdensome and protracted," it said.
HP paid $11.1bn (£6.8bn) for Autonomy but a year later said it was worth $8.8bn less - sending its shares plunging.
HP's $100m payout will be used to compensate shareholders which bought shares between 19 August 2011 and 20 November 2012, and saw their value fall after the writedown.
Other lawsuits relating to the Autonomy acquisition are still continuing.
Separately HP is pursuing a $5.1bn (£3.6bn) lawsuit against Autonomy, accusing its founder Mike Lynch and ex-chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain of artificially inflating the company's revenue before HP bought the firm.
Both executives have denied the claims.


Malaysia Airlines to become new company, says new boss

9 June 2015
Malaysian Airlines will become an "entirely new company" its new boss has said.
"We will leave the old Malaysian airlines behind," Christoph Mueller told the BBC.
He insisted that the transition would be "an orderly process".
Mr Mueller, who took the helm in May, said earlier this month that the airline was "technically bankrupt", and announced a restructuring plan involving 6,000 job cuts.
He said the airline expected no further bad news "particularly for our new employees".
Instead, Mr Mueller said improving its technology, renegotiating contracts with its suppliers and generally becoming more efficient would help the airline to cut costs further.
He said frequent flyer miles as well as any tickets sold by the old Malaysian Airlines would be honoured by the new company.

'Difficult to predict'

The airline was already struggling against strong regional competition and had made a loss for several years, before it was struck by two separate disasters in quick succession.
In March last year, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 passengers and crew aboard. The plane is still missing.
Four months later, flight MH17 was shot down by a suspected ground-to-air missile while in Ukrainian airspace, with the loss of 298 passengers and crew.
Mr Mueller admitted it was "difficult to predict" how fast its brand would recover from the disasters, but said the rebranded firm would take on the compensation obligations of the old company.

'Terminator'

Malaysia Airlines plans to announce details on the rebranding on 1 September. Mr Mueller would not be drawn on whether this would mean a change to its name, but said all options were open.
He also would not say whether the airline would withdraw from some costly long-haul flights, but said its new schedule would be announced "in a couple of weeks time".
Mr Mueller was hired by the carrier's owner, Malaysian state fund Khazanah, to lead the airline's restructuring.
He has previously had senior roles at Ireland's Aer Lingus, Belgium's Sabena and Germany's Lufthansa airlines. Famed for slashing jobs at the airlines, he has earned the nickname "the Terminator"


Africa to create TFTA - Cape to Cairo free-trade zone


  • 1 hour ago
  •  
  • From the sectionAfrica
Trucks at the South Africa-Zimbabwe border (Archive shot)
Negotiating borders can be difficult for lorries carrying goods between countries
Africa's largest free-trade zone is to be created, covering 26 countries in an area from Cape Town in the south to Cairo in the north.
The deal, to be signed in Egypt, is intended to ease the movement of goods across member countries which represent more than half the continent's GDP.
Since the end of colonial rule, governments have been discussing ways to boost intra-African trade.
The poor state of roads, railways and airlines have made it difficult.
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Screengrab
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Three existing trade blocs - the Southern African Development Community (Sadc); the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) - are to to be united into a single new zone.
The pact - known as the The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) - will then be officially unveiled at the upcoming summit of the African Union this weekend in South Africa.
A stock exchange in Egypt
The pact involves 26 countries from the three trade block from Cape Town to Cairo
BBC Africa Business Report's Lerato Mbele says the idea behind it is to remove trade barriers on most goods, making them cheaper, and stimulating $1tn (£648bn) worth of economic activity across the region of more than 600 million people.
However, concluding the deal in Egypt will merely be the first step and it will need to be approved by each country's parliament, before the wheels are set in motion, she says.
It is hoped that this will happen by 2017.

'Extremely exciting'

Analysts says countries within a free-trade zone agree to reduce or do away with certain trade barriers within that area, but still pursue their own trade policies when it comes to outside countries.
Kenyan academic Calestous Juma said the move was "extremely exciting" for the continent as, once implemented, trade within Africa would increase to 30% from 12%.
An Egyptian Republican Guard stands guard under an umbrella outside the venue of a ministerial meeting of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, East African Community and Southern African Development Community, in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, on 9 June 2015, on the eve of a summit to launch a three-way free trade area.
The deal is to be signed in Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, where this soldier stands guard
"The comparison with Europe is 70% of their trade is within Europe," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
"By having larger markets, it signals the possibility of being able to manufacture products at a scale that is cost-effective.
"For example, where you need large-scale investments like $200m to create a pharmaceutical factory, you couldn't do that if you were only selling the products in one country."
He said the consolidation of financing would be another benefit of the TFTA.
"As soon as banks notice that they can lend to larger investors, say in manufacturing, that will lead to the liberalisation of the financing sector, greater access to finance and more investors coming to Africa.


Monday, June 1, 2015

Korea Stares 2NE1


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Source: foreverwithdara


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