Business News

AOL SHARES RISE

Shares in AOL have jumped 22% after the US internet firm reported a sharp rise in advertising revenues.


Advertising sales jumped 7% to $340m (£212m), boosting net profit for the third quarter to $20.8m, compared with a loss of $2.6m a year ago.

Overall revenue was flat at $531.7m, the first time year-on-year revenue has not fallen in seven years.

The firm has struggled to reinvent itself as a media and news group since its spin off from Time Warner in 2009.


FALKIRK BUSMAKER SEALS NEW ORDERS

Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL), the Falkirk-based bus and coach building firm, has announced new orders worth £220m.


In all nearly 1,000 buses in total will be built over the next 18 months. ADL said 640 vehicles are bound for Hong Kong, many for assembly in China. The export deals represent contracts worth £150m.

The work will sustain 900 manufacturing jobs in central Scotland, with plants also in Guildford and Scarborough. The orders represent slightly less than half of the annual turnover of the manufacturer.


MEGABUS ORDER NEW FLEET

Stagecoach are to spend £3.2m on 11 new buses for its Megabus inter-city travel service.
The fleet of 15m-long coaches will be delivered in December and introduced on Megabus routes covering Scotland and England.

Megabus.com now covers around 60 locations across the UK and carries about five million passengers a year. Perth-based Stagecoach said the Plaxton Elite i coaches had 20% extra capacity than its existing coaches
GENDER PAY GAP TO WIDEN

The pay gap between men and women is at risk of widening for the first time on record, a leading pay equality campaign group warns.


The Fawcett Society says that women still earn 14.9% less on average than men for the same job.

But it says this gap could widen as public sector cuts push women into the private sector, where the gap is wider.

The warning coincides with a survey which suggests that a woman can earn £423,000 less than a man in her career.

That average lifetime earnings figure comes from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) 2012 Gender Salary Survey, which also finds that the average pay gap stands at £10,060. This is a drop from 2011, when the difference was £10,546.


COMET STAFF MAY BE SAVED BY DIXONS

The electrical chain Dixons is offering Christmas jobs to hundreds of Comet staff who face redundancy because their firm is insolvent.


The administrators, appointed last week, are keeping the Comet stores open in the hope of finding a buyer. But the outlook for the 7,000 staff is bleak and they all face potential redundancy.

Sebastian James, chief executive of Dixons Retail, said 500 Comet staff had already approached his firm.

"We are taking on a total of 3,000 people -2,000 in the stores."

Comet staff were attractive to Dixons because they already know about its business - which includes Currys and PC World - its customers, and the products it sells.


However he said that Dixons would not be trying to buy any Comet stores from the administrators.



Source: BBC Business News