Finance Matters

Posts Tagged ‘takeover’

AT&T might sell up to 40 percent of T-Mobile’s U.S.-based assets in order to convince the U.S. Department of Justice its $39 billion acquisition won’t disrupt competition.

The deal could involve AT&T selling batches of wireless spectrum — which help you expand your network — and customers to companies like MetroPCS, according to a report by Bloomberg News. Here’s why, according to Bloomberg:

The asset sale is an attempt to address the concerns of the Justice Department, which sued to block the takeover on Aug. 31, saying the deal would “substantially lessen competition” in the wireless market. The acquisition was dealt another blow on Nov. 22, with the Federal Communications Commission signaling an attempt to block it.

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Savers with money in both Northern Rock and Virgin Money will not be disadvantaged by Virgin’s takeover of the Newcastle-based bank if either of the banks collapses.

Both Virgin Money and Northern Rock will keep separate banking licences following the £747 million deal, which is expected to be rubber-stamped in January.

This means that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will cover each bank separately and customers will be able to claim the full amount of compensation on their accounts in each bank in the event of difficulties.

The news should reassure savers who were concerned that the takeover could result in their compensation limits being halved, although the two licences could be merged at some stage in the future.

The FSCS covers deposits of up to £85,000 in single accounts and £170,000 in joint accounts.

Mark Neale, chief executive of the FSCS, said: “Those with large amounts of cash should remember to always try to keep within the £85,000 FSCS deposit limit, or £170,000 for joint accounts, per banking licence to protect their money.

“Anyone with savings above those limits should consider spreading their money around to ensure it is safe.”

Northern Rock will eventually operate under the Virgin Money brand and the combined entity will have four million customers, placing it in competition with Britain’s ‘big five’ of Santander, HSBC, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds and hopefully leading to better rates on the high street.

At the moment, Northern Rock tends to offer better rates on its savings accounts than Virgin Money, so savers would be wise to keep an eye on developments following the merger.

Sir David Clementi, the former deputy governor of the Bank of England, will become chairman of the combined bank, while Virgin Money’s Jayne-Anne Gadhia will retain her role as CEO.

Sir Howard Stringer, head of Sony, discusses his company’s full takeover of mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison if he is convicted of the most serious charge. Sixty-two-year-old Strauss-Khan was arrested at the weekend after being accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York. Mr Strauss-Kahn denies the charges and is [...]

Lloyds Banking Group, which is 41% owned by the Government, has today reported it returned to profit in the first six months of 2010, revealing profits of £1.6 billion, against a loss of £4 billion a year earlier.
The rise in profits was primarily due to reduced writedowns with bad loans falling from £13.4 billion to [...]