Would you reinvest in a bank that had credit problems, and had borrowed up to three billion pounds from the last-resort fund, Bank of England, because there is a possibility there might be a management change?

Northern Rock has swiftly changed its stance, and reneged on its promise of a 59 million pound dividend payout to shareholders. The bank had said earlier it would pay the dividend of 14.2 p per share next month, on 26 October. The news that these payments would not be made came close on the heels of an announcement from the bank that it has received more than one takeover bid.

Continue reading “No Dividends for Shareholders as Northern Rock seeks White Knight” »

If you’re not a video game fan, don’t expect to see any of your gaming friends for a while. Halo 3, one of the world’s most anticipated computer games, launched last night in London, in true Hollywood film style.

Industry analysts are proclaiming that last night’s launch could be the biggest event this year in entertainment history. Microsoft is hoping to set the cash registers ringing; they hope to make about $150 million on just the opening day of sales. That figure would put Halo 3 ahead of the largest-ever film opening record, currently held by Spider Man- 3

Continue reading “Hollywood Launches: Will the Game Halo 3 Take More than Movie SpiderMan 3?” »

Do you normally let your children eat marzipan, jams, sweets, brown sauce, yoghurts, jellies or cheesecake? If so, well then you’re up for real trouble if you listen to new research from the University of Southampton. All these products contain the chemical additive Carmoisine which is banned in Scandinavian countries, but not in the UK.The research, funded by a £0.75m grant from the Food Standards Agency, involved studying levels of hyperactivity in 152 three-year-olds and 144 8-year-olds.

Continue reading “Scandinavia Leads the Way in Banning Food Additives” »

Developed in the United Kingdom, the first voice-verified payment processing system has recently been launched, substantially reducing the threat of credit and debit fraud.

The Voice Pay system uses a customer’s own voice as a means of digitally signing and authorising payments. It incorporates VoiceVault voice biometric authentication technology that is already in use by global banks, insurers and public-sector organisations.

Continue reading “Will Speaking into Your Mobile Pay the Bills?” »

A new trend has set among pet owners, known as ‘functional pampering’- which is driving the premium pet products market. This is the latest example of how much care pet owners lavish on their pets.

Owners who make big money and spare no expense in caring for their pets (nicknamed uber-owners) are occupying a significant share of the $47 billion pet market. One in three pet-owning households in the United States qualifies as a premium pet household. That translates to 17.4 million of the 52.8 million dog- or cat-owning households being premium.

Continue reading “Pampered Pets: Its a Dog’s life” »

Vitamins and antioxidants in my crisps? Hang on a minute- we’re talking about snacks here- not health food. It’s time for those distinctions to blur- we’re now in the age of guilt free snacking.

Snacking between meals is something all of us do: crisps, biscuits, chocolate, you name it. The only downside is, after a few chocolate bars and that bag of crisps, our blood sugar is down low again. We feel just as tired as before, and once again, leaving the office regretting that indulgence. Well, it seems as if there is another option after all, it’s called “guilt free snacking”.

Continue reading “Food Producers Must Respond to Consumers’ Guilt-Free Snacking” »

The industry is still struggling to find products to entice customers into digital TV. The only country where this product has been really successful is the USA, which accounts for more than 80% of the global online video market – worth between US$600 and $650 million. Video-on-demand is still the main product.

However, all around the world entertainment companies are trialling new products and new formats. TV Norge in Norway is producing online episodes of their own FC Nerds football comedy; its business model is based on sponsorship. (They trialled pay-per-view and VoD but the viewers dropped by as much as 80%-90%, so they decided that the sponsoring model is a better way forward.)

Continue reading “Digital: the New Way of Broadcasting TV” »