Flybe: 300 Jobs Cut Amid Outsource Plan

Regional airline Flybe is to cut 10% of its workforce in an attempt to save £35m and return to profit.

The Exeter-based carrier has announced plans to cut 300 jobs from its 3,000-strong UK workforce and is considering outsourcing further support functions, including ground handling and onboard catering.

Support and production roles such as human resources and IT will be affected by the staff cull, while around a fifth of its management team is being cut.

The group, which flies from airports including Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster, Edinburgh and East Midlands, is also putting its network of 13 UK bases under review and will give further details in the summer.

Flybe, which outsourced its call centre last month in a move impacting 55 jobs, slumped into the red by £1.3m in the six months to September 30 against profits of £14.3m a year earlier.

It blamed the loss on high fuel costs and falling numbers of fliers.

Its latest quarterly figures revealed a 1.7% improvement in the number of passengers flown to 1.8 million in the three months to December 31, but passenger revenues fell 1.2% to £136.9m and costs increased by an equivalent of 0.8% per seat.

Andrew Knuckey, chief financial officer of Flybe, said wider economic pressures and the impact of air passenger duty hikes in recent years meant it "had no choice" but to cut jobs to bring costs down.

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Google Sees Its Annual Revenue Top $50bn

Search giant Google has hit a new annual revenue high and an increase in profit, despite ploughing more money into developing smartphone and tablet technology.

"We ended 2012 with a strong quarter," Google co-founder and chief executive Larry Page said.

"We hit $50bn (£31bn) in revenues for the first time last year; not a bad achievement in just a decade and a half."

The fourth quarter profit was up 6.7% from a year earlier at $2.89bn (£1.8bn), and for the full year it grew 10% to $10.74bn (£6.8bn).

Revenue in the quarter that ended December 31 was up 36% from the same period a year earlier at $14.4bn (£9bn). For the year revenues grew to $50.2bn.

Google shares jumped more than 5% to $738.20 (£466) in after-market trading following the release of the earnings figures, which topped most Wall Street estimates.

Google dominates the US online advertising market, which grew 14.9% to $10.58bn in the final three months of last year, according to eMarketer.

The market tracker estimated that Google takes than 41% of digital ad revenue in the US and "holds more share than any other company" when it comes to online, display and mobile advertising.

Google has sought to spread the use of its Android technology

However, cost-per-click prices were down 6% from the fourth quarter of 2011, and up 2% on the third quarter of 2012.

In a conference call with financial analysts, Google executives stressed how the company is connecting with people on smartphones and tablets, and cautioned that it would take time to get newly-acquired Motorola Mobility on course.

Mr Page said he was excited about progress Google has made in handling search queries spoken to mobile devices and described the online Play shop for music, books, applications and other digital content as "on fire."

Google's mapping service programme tailored for Apple gadgets running on the iOS platform have been a hit, Mr Page said, adding that its search and email programmes are also popular on Apple devices.

"We now live in a multi-screen world - in fact, we feel naked without our smartphones," Mr Page said.

"Devices have been one of our biggest bets in the last few years, along with the software that goes with these devices."

In an indirect shot at the Apple iPad Mini launched late last year, Mr Page said Google's Nexus 7 "continues to define the seven-inch tablet category."

Google has been shedding unwanted Motorola Mobility assets since it completed its $12.5bn takeover of the company last year.

The move was seen as a grab for patents to protect Google's Android mobile operating system from legal attacks.

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TweetDeck: Twitter Bosses Sent Closure Letter

By Pete Norman, Sky News Online

Sky News has obtained a letter sent to one of Twitter's UK companies by the business regulator, giving it written warning of impending closure.

Cardiff-based Companies House sent the letter to the two American directors of TweetDeck, at their registered London address.

The letter, dated January 22, stated: "The Registrar of Companies gives notice that, unless cause is shown to the contrary, at the expiration of 3 months from the above date the name of TweetDeck Ltd will be struck off the register and the company will be dissolved."

The letter sent by Companies House on January 22

The two directors are also top executives of the social media giant's San Francisco-based parent firm, Twitter Inc.

Dick Costolo is the social media giant's chief executive and Alex Macgillivray is general counsel and head of trust and policy.

TweetDeck is a platform used by 'power users' of Twitter and helps integrate the programme with other social media platforms, but has repeatedly failed to file compulsory accounts.

It was bought from British founder Iain Dodsworth in May 2011 for a reported £25m, but has not filed any accounts to Companies House since that time.

TweetDeck missed account filing deadlines last September and again last month.

In December Sky News revealed that both of the social media giant's British firms, TweetDeck and Twitter UK Ltd, had been fined £375 each by Companies House for separate filing oversight.

Twitter UK, which is controlled through a Dublin-based parent firm, subsequently filed its abbreviated accounts for 2011, revealing a profit of £16,500.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo (l) and general counsel Alex Macgillivray

But TweetDeck has still not delivered accounts and has now been fined £750 and is now at heightened risk of closure and legal action.

According to Companies House, more than 2.7 million firms are actively registered and 99.1% are up to date in their filings.

Approached by Sky News, Twitter Inc declined to address the issue of continued regulatory filing problems in Britain.

Asked if it had plans to wind-down its UK subsidiary, a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement: "TweetDeck gives the Twitter experience more flexibility and allows advanced users to gain valuable insight into what's happening at this moment on Twitter.

"The TweetDeck team has been steadily innovating and improving the product, and we expect to see much more of that to come."

Last week Companies House informed the London Gazette of "a proposal to strike off" TweetDeck from the register.

TweetDeck has failed to file its compulsory accounts

The London Gazette is the official Government journal of record and allows officials at HM Revenue and Customs, along with creditors, to see firms at risk of being dissolved.

There is no suggestion TweetDeck has any outstanding tax liability.

Corporate solicitor Maung Aye, of Mackrell Turner Garrett, told Sky News: "Global companies usually have procedures in place to prevent problems like this arising in the first place. There should be clear lines of communication between the directors of the company and its professional advisors who would liaise with the directors to ensure the company's accounts are filed on time.

"At this stage it is unclear why the company has not filed its accounts. One possibility is that the company is in financial difficulty and is therefore not opposing the striking off action."

Mr Aye added: "I would however, expect the directors of the company to be advised that they should respond to the letters from the Registrar, in order to avoid any potential criminal liability and the company being fined."

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Zombie Fund Phoenix Rebuffs £400m Ignis Bids

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Phoenix Group, the 'zombie' life assurance company, has rebuffed a string of takeover approaches for its fund management arm as it approaches a crucial phase of efforts to replace billions of pounds of debt.

I understand that Phoenix, a FTSE-250 company set up to consolidate Britain's fragmented life assurance market, recently turned down several proposals to acquire Ignis Asset Management, which manages more than £73bn on behalf of clients.

Some of the approaches are understood to have been made as recently as the end of last year, according to people close to the company, who said that Aberdeen Asset Management had also indicated an interest in buying Ignis earlier in 2012.

Aberdeen's interest in Ignis is not currently live, according to people close to both companies.

Phoenix's board is understood to have rejected the approaches, which valued Ignis at approximately £400m, telling suitors that the business was not for sale, insiders said.

Phoenix manages so-called 'zombie' life assurance funds - investments that were made to back old insurance policies - rather than writing new business. The life assurance arm has around six million customers, according to the company.

Phoenix, which entered into ultimately fruitless talks to sell itself to rival Resolution and private equity group CVC Capital Partners in 2011, is in the middle of important refinancing talks with its lenders.

It has more than £2.5bn of debt, a large chunk of which is due to mature next year.

Phoenix is chaired by Sir Howard Davies, the City grandee who is leading a review of London's airport capacity for David Cameron, the Prime Minister. The company's chief executive is Clive Bannister, a former insurance executive at HSBC.

A Phoenix spokesman declined to comment.

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Unemployment: UK Jobless Total Down 37,000

Unemployment fell by 37,000 in the three months to the end of November, with the total figure of those out of work standing at 2.49 million.

The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance last month also fell by 12,100 to 1.56 million, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Average earnings increased by 1.5% in the year to November, but were 0.3% down on the previous month, according to the ONS.

Almost 30 million adults were in a job in the quarter to last November, up by more than 500,000 on the previous year.

The figure, giving an employment rate of 71%, is the highest since records began in 1971. The unemployment level is also at its lowest since spring 2011.

It was the 10th consecutive fall and was coupled with another cut in the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance, which was down by 12,100 last month to 1.56 million - the lowest since June 2011.

The number of people classed as economically inactive, including those looking after a relative or who have given up looking for a job, fell by 13,000 to just over nine million.

Part-time employment fell by 23,000, but this was offset by a 113,000 increase in the numbers employed full-time in the three months to November.

Data from the ONS also showed a 26,000 increase in the number of women out of work for up to six months, to reach 571,000, which may reflect changes to the benefits system resulting in more single mothers looking for work.

The number of job vacancies in the economy increased by 10,000 to almost half a million at the end of last year, the highest number for four years.

Other figures revealed that the number of self-employed workers has increased by 7,000 to 4.2 million, while unpaid family workers fell by 1,000 to 111,000.

Long-term unemployment has also fallen, down by 10,000 for those out of work for more than two years, to 434,000, and by 5,000 for people unemployed for at least a year, to 892,000.

But the number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work increased by 1,000 to 957,000, the first rise since last summer, although youth employment showed an increase of 12,000 as more students seek work.

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JP Morgan Boss Says Sorry For 'London Whale'

The boss of JP Morgan has apologised for the $6bn (£3.8bn) loss caused to the investmet bank by the so-called London Whale trades.

JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive Jamie Dimon said sorry to shareholders, calling it a "terrible mistake," but said the bank has moved on and is still highly profitable.

"If you're a shareholder of mine, I apologise deeply," Mr Dimon said at a presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"But we had record results and life goes on."

Despite the losses totalling $6.2bn from the bad trades last year, the bank still managed to earn a record $21.3bn (£13.4bn) in 2012.

The complex but legitimate derivatives trades were incurred by its chief investment office in London, overseen from a New York executive.

The losing trades were made in JP Morgan's London office

JP Morgan said its 2012 writedown was mostly felt in the first half, although there was a continuing "modest loss" from the trades in its third quarter.

While revenue from its fixed income trading revenue rose, helped by the Federal Reserve programme to buy mortgage debt, revenue from mortgage lending rose 36% as the US housing market continued its recovery.

The bank's trading hit came as the London team took bets that were designed to protect it by hedging against its other investments, but the strategy dramatically backfired.

The revelation hit banking shares across the world in May and heightened calls for more regulation in the UK.          

JPMorgan Chase still remains the largest US bank, with $2.36trn (£1.5trn) in assets as the end of last year.

Its chief investment office has since been restructured and traders and executives involved with the bad trade - referred to as the "whale" trade after the nickname of a London-based trader involved - were dismissed.

After an internal review, Mr Dimon's bonus for 2012 was cut in half from $22m (£14m) to $11m.

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Lloyds Confirms 940 More Banking Job Cuts

Lloyds Bank has confirmed it is to axe another 940 jobs, taking job loss announcements at the firm to 1,300 in the past few days.

Sky News has confirmed the cuts will occur in the group operations, insurance, retail, wealth and international and commercial divisions.

In a statement, the bank said: "Lloyds Banking Group is committed to working through these changes with employees in a careful and sensitive way.

"All affected employees have been briefed by their line manager today.

"The Group's recognised unions Accord, Unite and LTU were consulted prior to this announcement and will continue to be consulted."

But unions have reacted with anger to the job cuts.

Unite said  25% of Lloyds' workforce has now been cut since 2009, while the Accord union said almost 200 posts were being moved offshore to India.

Unite national officer Dominic Hook said: "Since 2009 Lloyds have slashed a quarter of the workforce.

"It is a complete disgrace that the bank, which is 41%-owned by the taxpayer, continues to cut jobs in such a cavalier manner.

"In the middle of an economic crisis, a bank part-owned by the public should be keeping jobs in the UK, not exporting them abroad."

Mr Hook added: "Unite has warned Lloyds Banking Group that if they are looking for a period of stability and growth to return it to profitability, this cannot and will not be achieved by continuous and damaging job loss announcements.

"Unite opposes these cuts and will be doing everything possible to stop compulsory redundancies."

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