Coe firm in the money

THE company that manages the business interests of Lord Coe is set to move into the black.

Complete Leisure Group, which collects royalties from a range of the former athlete’s commercial operations, including gyms, is set to unveil ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciaton and amortisation) of nearly £100,000 compared with losses of about £600,000 the previous year.

The company is chaired by Harold Tillman (right), owner of the Jaeger fashion house.

Microsoft in EU’s sights

THE European Union is poised to impose a further round of stiff sanctions on Microsoft.

People close to the case said that the regulatory push was attempting to change the software giant’s behaviour rather than simply impose fines on it.

The sanctions could dent the company’s long lead in the market for internet web browsers and would follow an investigation by Europe into Microsoft that was initiated last year.

Pearl debt reshuffled

HUGH OSMOND is in the final stages of agreeing a debt restructuring of his Pearl Group insurance empire.

Pearl’s consortium of 17 banks met on Wednesday and are expected to sign off on the deal within days.

Osmond and other existing shareholders are likely to see their stake slashed to 30%. Pearl’s overall debt pile is expected to be cut from £3 billion to about £2.6 billion, with the payments extended over a further two years.

War ‘lost’ on piracy

MORE than 70% of British directors believe the government has lost the battle against software piracy, according to research conducted by Fast IiS, a not-for-profit organisation promoting the legitimate use of software.

More than a third of the 316 directors questioned said that between 20% and 40% of software in companies was illegal, and 67% said that it was very easy to secure these unlicensed products on the internet.

Seatwave sitting pretty

SEATWAVE, a website used by sport and music fans to trade tickets, has raised $17m (£10.5m) of funding designed to propel it to breakeven.

The website, which has sold 20,000 tickets to next month's Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in the past six weeks, has received the injection from new investor Accel Partners as well as further money from existing backers including Fidelity Ventures and Atlas Venture.

Seatwave lets fans sell on unwanted tickets, taking a 25% cut. It has 1.9m monthly users and runs exchanges in five countries.

After criticisms that it is creating a nation of ticket touts, the burgeoning £1 billion market for secondary ticket sales is being investigated by the government, although ministers have backed away from imposing an outright ban.

Crunch sees Tiffany lose a little sparkle

62% The amount by which profits fell at luxury jeweller Tiffany in the first quarter. Profits dropped to $24.3m (£15m) from $64.4m a year earlier on sales of $523m.

42% The amount by which sales fell at the company’s flagship New York store as the wealthy cut back their spending. Sales in Europe were down 8%.

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