Category: Investing

Google Pleads Innocence Over Suspected Fixed Search Ranking Results

Google Inc.’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt has rejected charges made against the search engine giant of “cooking” its search engine results to favour its own subsidiary services online.

World’s Cheapest Car Gets US$4.6 Million Makeover

The world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano, has been transformed overnight into one of the planet’s most expensive models in a publicity stunt that celebrates India’s 5000 years of jewellery tradition and craftsmanship.

On Tuesday, Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, unveiled a jewel encrusted model named the GoldPlus Nano, which is essentially a Tata Nano covered entirely in gold and jewellery.

Prada Earnings Leap By 74%

 Italian fashion house, Prada, reported a 74% gain in first half profit, beating its own forecast in its June listing prospectus, driven by surging demand in Asia. 

The company, Prada Group, posted an “outstanding” net profit of €180 million in the six months to July, more than the €103 million for the same period a year ago.

Patent Wars: New Hope For Google With 1023 More Patents Bought From IBM

Google has once again acquired more than 1,000 patents from IBM, in a continuous effort to strengthen its patent portfolio against impending legal attacks on its Android mobile operating system and its partner manufacturers.

Facebook to Delay IPO Till Late 2012?

Facebook will postpone its highly anticipated initial public offering until the end of next year, “in order to keep employees focused on product developments rather than a pay-out,” according to a Financial Times report on Wednesday.

The IPO, expected to be among the largest in the world, had been previously rumoured to be forthcoming by April 2012, though there was also intense speculation that it may have even come by the end of this year.

GE to Buy Back Berkshire Hathaway’s Financial Crisis Stake

General Electric Co. has announced its intention to repurchase Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s US$3.3 billion stake in the multi-conglomerate, which was bought during the heights of the 2008 financial crisis.

GE said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it had mailed its offer to Berkshire, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska. The $3.3 billion price for the shares includes a 10 percent premium, after Berkshire had invested US$3 billion in GE in October 2008.

Warren Buffett Hires Yet Another Virtual Unknown As His Potential Successor

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. announced yesterday that it had hired 50-year-old Ted Weschler, a hedge fund managing partner from Charlottesville, Virginia, to help oversee the company’s equity portfolio.

The selection of Weschler, a managing partner of Peninsula Capital Advisors, is the most recent move to prepare Berkshire for the day when Buffett, 81, will no longer run the company.

Qatar’s World Cup Bill: US$220 Billion

Patent Wars: HTC Strikes Back at Apple with Google Patents

Smartphone titan HTC Corp. launched fresh intellectual-property claims against Apple on Thursday, using five of the nine patents it had received from Google last week as the basis of its lawsuit.

In August this year, the Taiwanese-based company accused Apple of patent infringement as part of an ongoing legal battle, which have seen both parties throwing barbs and counter-sueing each other.