Apple Inc: 2012 biggest launch year in history with iPad3, iPhone5, iTV, hybrid Macbook to launch |
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| Economy | |
| Written by Roberta Murray | |
| Wednesday, 25 January 2012 | |
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Financial News Roundup: Apple Inc, Swiss oil company drags down UK offshoot, small business owners shut shop.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) faces its biggest launch year ever in 2012. "We expect the iPad 3 to launch in March, a hybrid notebook/tablet Macbook Air in Q2, LTE iPhone 5 in early Q3, and iTV availability in Q4 (with an announcement mid-year). We highlight that we expect the iPhone 5 to be a bigger product cycle than the 4S." On the investment front Apple is likely to place emphasis on investments in capacity, cloud, content, and OLED: "We believe Apple will leverage its balance sheet to pre-buy capacity (often by funding suppliers' capex), continue to aggressively build its data center capacity, lay the groundwork for OLED products in 2013 or 2014, and obtain access to significant amounts of video content," say Jefferies in a note to clients. Government continues cheap point-scoring over RBS Hester's payoutThe man credited with putting RBS on a stable footing continues to be treated with disdain by a point-scoring government. In a time when emphasis is placed on just reward for just performance, the government has shown a notable air of hypocrisy by stepping up its attack on the man credited with sorting out the monumental mess that was RBS. The Prime Minister is insisting that Stephen Hester receive no more than £1m, half his bonus last year. Hester is, in theory, eligible for twice his £1.2m base salary in a short-term bonus, with up to £4m in share-based payments, giving him a total possible payout of £7.6m. The question is why he was ever offered these government approved incentives in the first place? Cameron’s move comes a day after Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, set out proposals for a clampdown on 'rewards for failure' in Britain’s boardrooms, calling on shareholders to reject excessive pay deals, writes The Times. Swiss oil company goes bust, dragging down its UK offshoot with itA Swiss oil company whose collapse has put the future of a key British refinery in jeopardy borrowed more than £100m from its UK offshoot, accounts reveal. Petroplus, based in the canton of Zug, Switzerland, which bought the huge Coryton refinery in Essex from BP in 2007, said yesterday it was filing for insolvency. That pushed the Coryton operation – plus a storage facility in Teesside and a research facility in Swansea – into administration. The move sparked fears that fuel supplies in the south east of England will face disruption as Coryton’s output accounts for around 10% of the UK’s fuels market. It has emerged that the Swiss company borrowed increasing sums from its British subsidiary after the £715m takeover in 2007. At the end of 2009, the British-based Petroplus Refining & Marketing, which owns Coryton, was owed $65m by the Swiss parent – £42m at today’s exchange rates. But by the end of 2010, the Swiss company’s borrowings from the British business had mushroomed to $177m (£114m). Accounts show some money flowed in the opposite direction, with the British company borrowing from the parent. But most of these loans were long-term, and the sums involved actually fell during 2010, according to The Daily Mail. Small business owners look to shut shopA quarter of small business owners say the economic outlook is so bleak they would rather close their firm and return to being an employee, a report warns today. Large numbers of entrepreneurs admit they are struggling to cope as their earnings have crashed, amid fears that official figures to be released tomorrow will show Britain has slipped into a double-dip recession. Tomorrow official figures will reveal the latest state of the economy, amid fears that gross domestic product dropped into negative territory at the end of last year. The report, from insurers Aviva, asked entrepreneurs: ‘How do you feel about running a company in the current tough economic climate?’ One in four agreed with the statement: ‘I am actively considering returning to work as an employee.’ A third said they had lost ‘enthusiasm’ for their business, while half said it is ‘too tough to be a business owner or entrepreneur in the current climate,’ The Daily Mail reports.
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