Industry news

Over £22 billion could be saved by the public sector through outsourcing and encouraging private sector competition according to an Oxford Economics study for CBI.

The research found that the inclusion of independent businesses and organisations could reduce costs by 11 percent.

CBI director general, John Cridland, said: "Most public services are still largely state monopolised and it's time to open some of them to competition. That is the way to maintain quality and achieve billions of pounds worth of savings."

AA and Saga look to split after their owners Acromas prepares for a future break-up.

The move comes as Acromas, worth £9 billion, brings in accountants to assess the future of the business. A division of AA and Saga would see the end of a £6.7 billion merger completed in 2007.

Insiders speaking to the Independent pointed to accountancy firm Ernst & Young as being involved in the planned split, however Acromas downplayed talk, saying: "There are no current plans to either sell part of or float the business. We remain focused on delivering excellent service for the customers of both AA and Saga."

Chinese online services Alibaba Group have invested $200 million into their Aliyun OS as a separate new business venture.

The investment will be used to fund the creation of Aliyun OS as a new business unit along with expanding infrastructure, technology and technical staff.

The news of the investment comes from a leaked internal email from Alibaba’s CEO.

A manufacturing facility owned by Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, was the location of a riot involving 2,000 workers.

The “incident” occurred on Sunday night and according to Foxconn related to a personal dispute which then escalated.

Foxconn stated that: “According to police, some 40 individuals were taken to the hospital for medical attention and a number of individuals were arrested".

Business Secretary Vince Cable will announce plans today to provide £1 billion in funding for businesses loans aimed at SMEs.

The fund will help to establish a business bank, tasked with helping struggling small and medium business, which have faced difficulty in securing loans from other high street banks.

Vince Cable said yesterday: "The government understands the frustration felt by many small- and medium-sized businesses around securing credit, especially from the big four retail banks. Many new, promising, growing companies simply can't get the loans they need to expand on reasonable terms.

International ICT services firm Getronics have received a £10 million extension on their contract to provide IT systems to Bid Shopping.

Bid Shopping, the UK's first-ever live auction TV shopping channel, hosts much of their critical IT systems in Getronics’ data centre.

The agreement will see Getronics staff and Bid Shopping’s own IT services department working together to develop a flexible IT system.

Utilities giant E.ON has signed a five year contract with Capgemini, worth €50 million, to provide services for a transformation project. The contract will see staff from E.ON embedded within Capgemini.

The contract will see E.ON provide services for Capgemini’s business intelligence systems and application software.

E.ON has previously provided services to Capgemini, with a IT transition services contract in 2011.

Oracle has reported first quarter net income of $2 billion, up by 11 percent, while revenue fell by 2 percent.

While engineered systems combining Oracle services grew by over 100 percent, hardware system revenues fell by 24 percent as the IT giant defocused on community server services.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, said: “"A little more than a week from now we will announce lots of enhancements to the Oracle Cloud."

Electronic Arts (EA) is planning to employ 300 workers in its Irish facility, with the videogame maker already employing 400 workers in the Irish studio.

The investment comes with government support and represents a setback to the UK which has also sought to encourage video game investment.

EA COO Peter Moore, said: “Galway's mix of technology infrastructure and talent availability, combined with a pro-business environment, will help us expand on our existing foundation here."

The UK government are to invest a total of £114 million in providing superfast broadband to ten cities.

The new wireless broadband service of 80-100Mbps comes as part of the government’s move towards improved digital communications across the country and high speed broadband by 2015.

Secretary of state for culture and media, Maria Miller, said: “Fast broadband is essential for growth, and is key to the country’s economic future.”