In a deal that was finalized last night, France’s LVMH will acquire the Bulgari family’s majority shareholding in Bulgari SpA. LVMH will issue 16.5 million shares in exchange for the 152.5 million Bulgari shares currently held by the Bulgari family, making them the second largest family shareholder of the LVMH Group. The deal is valued at €3.7 billion, or about $5.19 billion — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Westfield patriarch Frank Lowy has announced he will give up his position as executive chairman, and remain on the company’s board as non-executive chairman — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Here’s how you do it well, courtesy of Zappos (of course). Yesterday I tweeted:
I think my wife is having an affair with someone named “Zappos”. He sends her a package at least every third day. I am on to you, Mr Zappos!
Almost immediately, Zappos’ customer service Twitter account replied:
@jkottke I’m sorry sir, but our relationship with your wife is strictly professional.
Great, right? A company that gets the joke and participates meaningfully in an actual conversation with a full awareness of the context — via Source: kottke.org
HSBC Bank has joined the growing list of large financial institutions investing in new data centre capacity in Australia — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Borders stores were huge — much bigger than their competitors and apparently unassailable — and now they’re shutting down. But from the beginning they were set on a course for disaster – via redwolf.newsvine.com
West Australian Newspaper Holdings is in a trading halt after offering $4.1 billion to buy the Seven Media Group — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Top Ryde Shopping Centre has fallen victim to weak consumer spending just six months after the Prime Minister opened the massive complex.
A syndicate of four banks foreclosed on the newly renovated centre on Wednesday after the retail development tycoon John Beville was unable to meet the repayments on hefty loans used to give the centre a facelift — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Urr ye sittin’ comfortably? Then we’ll tairt. Itchy Coo, the publisher in Scots of well-loved children’s books such as AA Milne’s The Hoose at Pooh’s Neuk, Geordie’s Mingin Medicine by Roald Dahl and Alexander McCall Smith’s Precious and the Puggies, is to close after almost a decade — via redwolf.newsvine.com
BBC Worldwide to pay £42m to complete controversial purchase of travel guide publisher Lonely Planet — via michaelsautter.newsvine.com
A day after US book store Borders collapsed, local chains Borders, Angus & Robertson and the Whitcoulls group of newsagencies in New Zealand have been placed into administration by owners REDgroup Retail — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Privacy Commissioner has cleared Vodafone of allegations that it allowed the private information of four million customers to be made public.
But Timothy Pilgrim found Vodafone did breach the Privacy Act by failing to take reasonable steps to protects customers’ data — via redwolf.newsvine.com
With ingredients such as 20 drops of orange oil, 30 drops of lemon oil and 10 drops of nutmeg oil, it sounds more like a home remedy than a top-secret formula.
But an American radio program claims it has uncovered the exact recipe for Coca-Cola in the pages of a 1979 newspaper — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The peak body representing Australian dairy farmers has welcomed a Senate inquiry into the ongoing milk price war between major supermarket chains — via redwolf.newsvine.com
After a tip from Crowdleaks.org, The Tech Herald has learned that HBGary Federal, as well as two other data intelligence firms, worked to develop a strategic plan [PDF] of attack against WikiLeaks. The plan included pressing a journalist in order to disrupt his support of the organization, cyber attacks, disinformation, and other potential proactive tactics — via redwolf.newsvine.com
2010 saw a strong recovery in Swiss watch exports following the significant downturn recorded in 2009. The sector exported the equivalent of 16.2 billion francs or 2.9 billion more than the previous year. This 22.1% increase makes 2010 the second best year ever, even higher than 2007, which was considered to be excellent at the time — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Mobile phone firm Vodafone has accused the Egyptian authorities of using its network to send unattributed text messages supporting the government — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Whatever you think about Internet porn, if you have any sympathy for online commerce you will be glad to know that this lawsuit failed. A California Appeals court has dismissed the case as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) suit—an action designed to censor free speech.
The publication of a video on the Internet, whether it depicts teenagers playing football or adult entertainment qualifies as ‘conduct in furtherance of… free speech,
the court ruled last week. …All of Cammarata’s causes of action arise from Bright’s conduct of placing speech on the Internet where it can be viewed for free by the public. This is the ‘predatory pricing’ that Cammarata complains of.
The judges also took a look at the Redtube business model, and after a fascinating review of the history of broadcasting and the Internet, rejected the plaintiffs unfair competition claims — via redwolf.newsvine.com
How much privacy does an employee have when using a work laptop at home?
Not much, it seems, after a senior public servant was sacked after googling the word knockers
and looking at legal pornography. That was despite the access being out of work hours and the public servant using his own internet service provider.
The public servant, from the Commonwealth Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, was sacked after a software program, called Spector360, was set up by the department to catch any use of the word knockers
.
The program, which takes a snapshot of a user’s desktop every 30 seconds, was then used to unearth the internet history of the man with a 25-year career with the public service. It uncovered his usage despite him having deleted his browser history — via richardfarner.newsvine.com
Guy Hands this afternoon surrendered control of EMI – handing ownership of the music giant behind Coldplay and Tinie Tempah to bankers Citigroup after his venture capital firm Terra Firma could no longer support the company’s debts — via redwolf.newsvine.com
There are further calls for the competition regulator to investigate the slashing of milk prices by the big supermarkets after the price of fuel jumped significantly over the weekend — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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