LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – John Malone’s Liberty Global
has opened talks with Britain’s Virgin Media
over a takeover that would increase the U.S. cable
group’s dominance in Europe and step up a challenge to media
mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Virgin Media, the No. 2 pay-TV group in Britain behind
Murdoch’s satellite group BSkyB, has a valuation
including debt of around $20 billion.

LONDON (Reuters) – John Malone’s Liberty Global has opened talks with Britain’s Virgin Media over a takeover that would increase the U.S. cable group’s dominance in Europe and step up a challenge to media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Virgin Media, the No. 2 pay-TV group in Britain behind Murdoch’s satellite group BSkyB, has a valuation including debt of around $20 billion.

LONDON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Strong demand for broadband and
tight cost control helped Britain’s BT offset the
combined pressures of regulation and recession to post a
better-than-expected 7 percent rise in third-quarter pre-tax
profit.

In a continuation of the strategy that has sent shares in
the group to a near five-year high, BT said it had recorded
profits in the three months to Dec. 31 comfortably ahead of
forecasts, off revenues that were down by 6 percent.

LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – BSkyB will offer its
popular sports channels online for a daily fee, seeking new
customers to offset slowing growth at its core pay-TV service
amid sluggish consumer spending.

Sky, Britain’s dominant pay-TV group which provides
fixed-line telephony, TV and broadband to 10.7 million
households, has adapted its strategy during the economic
downturn after years of chasing new subscribers to its core TV
offering.

PARIS/LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – European telecoms
valuations are languishing near decade lows, and investors are
unlikely to be tempted back over the next few weeks, when
industry results will show that revenues remain on the slide.

Telco stocks were the region’s second-worst performing
sector last year, falling more than 10 percent, and few expect
the problems of intense price competition, tight regulation,
heavy investment needs and high leverage to abate this year.

LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Bumi Plc, the
London-based Indonesian coal mining group riven by shareholder
disputes, urged investors on Tuesday to reject British financier
Nat Rothschild’s proposals to overhaul the board and back its
own plan for peace instead.

Rothschild, who is locked in a bitter corporate governance
battle with Bumi Plc’s co-founders, Indonesia’s influential
Bakrie family, wants to remove 12 of the 14 current directors
and bring in a new board including himself.

By Kate Holton

(Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday attacked multinational corporations that avoid paying their fair share of tax, promising action against such aggressive strategies after a public backlash in Britain.

The issue of tax avoidance by big business has turned toxic in recent years as millions of Britons struggle with low pay rises and austerity measures introduced to reduce the budget deficit.

Jan 24 (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday
attacked multinational corporations that avoid paying their fair
share of tax, promising action against such aggressive
strategies after a public backlash in Britain.

The issue of tax avoidance by big business has turned toxic
in recent years as millions of Britons struggle with low pay
rises and austerity measures introduced to reduce the budget
deficit.

LONDON/DUBLIN, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Burger King, one
of the most popular fast-food chains in Britain and Ireland,
said on Thursday it had stopped using one of the firms caught up
in the scandal of supplying grocers with beef that contained
horse meat.

The British food industry has been rocked by the revelation
last week that retailers including market leader Tesco
and smaller chains Aldi, Lidl and Iceland
had sold beef products that contained horse meat.

LONDON (Reuters) – Leading British business figures warned Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday that his plan for an in-out referendum on the European Union membership was a risky gamble that could damage the economy and throttle foreign investment.

Speaking after Cameron’s call for a vote by 2017, business leaders in London and at the World Economic Forum in Davos said Britain’s $2.5 trillion economy would face uncertainty now that its future position in the 27 country-bloc was in question.