Betaville

The assistant editor, the London-listed property giants and the (lack thereof) activists...

Betaville's old pal Oliver, "Shahsy", Shah of the The Sunday Times has churned out another on point column for friends at React News, the specialist property title.

Olly's main point is that there has been plenty of activism this year across several industries - with the likes of SSE, Shell and GlaxoSmithKline all recently tageted - but that the real estate sector has been completely left out...

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EQT said to weigh SWF 9 billion plus takeover bid for Swiss banking software giant Temenos, reveals Bloomberg

Betaville is in a bit of a grump.

Why, you might be asking yourself. Well, I was chasing a bid tale about Temenos all day today and then suddenly arch rivals at Bloomberg popped up with the scoop about Nordic private equity firm EQT considering a takeover bid for the Swiss banking software giant...

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ITV and Lord Grade-backed Miroma Ventures eye multi-million pound takeover bids for Channel 4, reveals The Sunday Times, er, on a Saturday...

Hat tip to my old Mail on Sunday mucker Jamie, "Nimmers", Nimmo for landing a great tale about ITV weighing a takeover bid of Channel 4.

Jamie's scoop also has a line about how Miroma Venture - which is chaired by Lord Grade, the former boss of the BBC and chairman of ITV, and run by entrepreneur Marc Boyan - is also looking at Channel 4. Below is a link to the tale:..

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Former business editor of The Sunday Times leaves BBC Radio 4; rumoured to be heading to Murdoch's Times Radio... - Part 2

It would appear yesterday's business media gossip aired on these pixels was bang on the money.

Today Times Radio has issued a press release confirming O'Connell's appointment from the BBC. Below is the link:

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2021/10/dominic-oconnell-joins-times-radio-as-business-correspondent/..

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Former business editor of The Sunday Times leaves BBC Radio 4; rumoured to be heading to Murdoch's Times Radio...

So farewell Dominic O'Connell, the BBC Radio 4 buiness editor, who today leaves the broadcasting giant.

Little old Betaville had the pleasure of working with O'Connell in his latter years as business editor of The Sunday Times.

It may, though, not be too long before the quick-witted Kiwi is heard on our airwaves again. The talk is O'Connell is heading to the new (ish) The Times radio station, presumably to present on, er, business matters.....

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The hackery merry-go-round continues...

It's been almost eighteen months since Betaville has enjoyed a good old fashioned knees up with fellow hacks (basically alcoholic drinks in a dingy pub in the backstreets of London).

So, it was great to catch up with old colleagues and friends from The Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday tonight for John "The Ridge" Collingridge's leaving do before he heads of to become head of business at The Guardian...

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Sunday review: BT Group and that's it...

Oliver "Shahsy" Shah was talking up the prospect of a takeover bid for FTSE 100-listed BT Group takeover in his column in today's The Sunday Times business section. Below is the link:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a-takeover-bid-for-battered-bt-is-only-a-matter-of-time-3bzlt8d92..

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Softbank-backed Fortress teams up with American billionaire to make £6.3 billion counter bid for WM Morrison - Part 2

The British Sunday newspaper business sections were really talking up the prospects of a bidding war for WM Morrison now that it has agreed to a £6 billion plus offer from a consortium led by SoftBank-backed Fortress and the Koch family. ..

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