Victoria Beckham: Proud to see women wearing my clothes

Singer-turned-fashion designer Victoria Beckham claims the best feeling is when she sees women on streets following her fashion label.

According to the Daily Mirror, Victoria was quoted as saying, “the proudest moments as a designer are seeing women in the street wearing my clothes, it makes it real!"

The former spice girls said it was her dream to become a fashion designer.

"I have loved design since I was kid. It's incredibly fulfilling to have a career pursuing a lifelong passion," Victoria was quoted as saying.

Victoria, who is married to former footballer David Beckham, said she had to work hard to make a name in the industry from scratch.

"Coming from a completely different industry is what I found the hardest," she said.

"I was a Spice Girl married to a footballer, I was trying to do something that no-one had really done before."

Victoria, who has sons Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper with David, is gearing up to open her first standalone store in her native London this fall.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s brother arrested; niece missing

According to Radar Online Leonardo DiCaprio’s brother, Adam Farrar, has been arrested in Texas on warrants issued by the Los Angeles authorities.

Adam was charged with possession of a dangerous drug, theft, and harassment by phone.

The arrest was made when Ferrar attempted to visit his girlfriend Charity Moore, who was arrested earlier in separate drug-related incidents, at the Collin County Sheriff’s Office.

Moreover, couple’s daughter, Normadie Farrar, has been missing since the arrest. Family members as well as friends are reportedly searching for DiCaprio six-year-old niece.

One family friend told Radar: “Adam and Charity have been hiding with Normadie in Texas, desperately avoiding the Department of Justice.”

“It’s now very worrying. With both of them locked up in jail, no-one in the DiCaprio family is sure where Normadie is, at this time. They didn’t even know that Adam and Charity had been arrested.”

It is said that the ‘Titanic’ star was inspired by Adam, who starred in American TV show ‘Battlestar Galactica’, to pursue his career in acting.

But in recent year the two reportedly have not been on good terms and have avoided meeting each other.

Aishwarya to team up with Nagarjuna in comeback film

According to Deccan Chronicle Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is set to make a comeback on the big screen in a forthcoming Mani Ratnam’s film.

A source from Ratnam’s teams told Deccan Chronicle “Aishwarya Rai has confirmed her participation in the project.”

The film, which will be a Tamil-Telugu bilingual, will also feature Tollywood stars Nagarjuna Akkineni and Mahesh Babu in the leads.

Deccan Chronicle quoted a representative of Aishwarya as saying, “she has been in talks with Mani Ratnam but the details of the film are still not known. But she has given her consent. I also know that the makers are planning to start shooting sometime around September-October.”

The 40-year-old actress, who was last seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 'Guzaarish,' will team up with Ratnam for the fourth time following ‘Iruvar’, ‘Guru’ and ‘Raavan’. Meanwhile Nagarjuna will work for the second time with the director after their super hit film ‘Geethanjali’.

Vodafone, Liberty line up to buy Spanish cable group: sources

LONDON: Vodafone and Liberty Global are competing to buy Spain's largest cable operator, Ono, from its private equity owners, two people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

Ono had been planning an initial public offering this year in a bid to capitalise on a wave of investor interest in the increasingly successful cable sector, sources told Reuters earlier.

Liberty Global, owned by billionaire John Malone, has been on a spending spree to increase the size of its empire in Europe, where it derives more than 90 percent of its revenue.

It bought Britain's Virgin Media for $15.8 billion last year, and just on Monday agreed to pay 10 billion euros ($13.7 billion) for Dutch cable operator Ziggo after months of negotiations.

Spain is one of the few European countries, along with France, where Liberty is not already present. Vodafone, for its part, has been acquiring broadband assets to allow it to offer bundled services to consumers and offload traffic from its mobile networks.

The two companies fought to buy Germany's Kabel Deutschland last year, with Liberty forcing Vodafone to raise its offer to 7.7 billion euros.

Liberty's deal to buy Ziggo was struck at an enterprise value to 2013 core profit (EBITDA) multiple of 11.3 times, compared with a median of 9.4 times for its peers, according to Reuters data.

Liberty paid about 8 times forward EBITDA for Virgin Media. Investment funds Providence Equity Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners, CCMP Capital Advisors, and Quadrangle Capital own 54 percent of Ono, according to the company's website.

The funds are holding ongoing talks with Vodafone and Liberty, one person familiar with the situation said.

Ono had core earnings of 752 million euros for 2012, which at the median multiple of 9.4 times would give an enterprise value of 7.1 billion euros.

One banking source, however, said Vodafone or Liberty would have to come in with a bid at a multiple of 10-12 times if it wanted to win over the IPO plan.

Analysts believe a price war is the main reason behind the upcoming market consolidation in Spain, with smaller players Ono, Jazztel and Yoigo, owned by Teliasonera in the spotlight.

The Spanish telecoms market has become increasingly competitive in recent years, with Telefonica last year launching a quadruple-play offer, which bundles fixed and mobile phone contracts with internet and TV services and is sold at a cheaper price than each service individually.

The move forced other operators, such as Vodafone, to slash prices and overhaul its offer in Spain.

The British company has already struck a deal with Orange to offer broadband services in major cities. A Spanish banker active in the telecom sector said it would make sense for Vodafone to buy Ono.

However, it would create a big headache for Jazztel, which has also launched quad play services. Its shares have risen about 70 percent over the last 12 months, making it comparatively more expensive than Ono.

"If the deal ends up being done, Jazztel will lose its ideal lover," he said. "The only other candidate (to buy out Jazztel) would be Orange, but it's not ideal." Ono, Vodafone, and Liberty declined to comment.

Yahoo takes hit, revenue drop overshadows profit rise

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo reported on Tuesday that its quarterly profit jumped at the end of last year, but revenues sank in a troubling sign for the struggling Internet pioneer.

The California firm reported profit up 28 percent to $348 million in the fourth quarter on revenue that slid six percent to $1.27 billion from the same period a year earlier.

Yahoo shares dropped to $36.87 in after-market trades, despite chief executive Marissa Mayer's insistence that the company is on the right path.

"I'm encouraged by Yahoo's performance in the fourth quarter and 2013 overall," she said.

"We are extremely heartened by the year-over-year traffic increase we experienced in 2013, an early sign of return on our investments and the acquisitions we've made."

Yahoo took in $70 million selling some of its patents and saw healthy returns on its investment in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

"Most of their money seems to be still coming in from China, which is outside Mayer's control," said independent analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

A former Google executive, Mayer has been striving to revitalize the once-leading online search engine vanquished by the company she left behind.

Investors were troubled by a six percent drop during the fourth quarter in display ad revenue that has long been at the core of Yahoo's income.

Display ad revenue in the quarter was $491 million compared to $520 million taken in during the final three months of the previous year, according to the earnings release.

For the full year 2013, Yahoo posted a profit of $1.4 billion, which was down from 2012 when the company took in big sums from sales of its stake in China's Alibaba.

But revenue for the full year dropped six percent to $4.68 billion.

Jon Ogg at 24/7 Wall Street said that while the drop in revenues is a concern, Yahoo is also subject to profit-taking after a huge rally over the past year and concerns about how far Mayer can take it forward.

"Many may criticize the lack of revenue growth seen so far. That may be an issue, but the reality is that this stock is up huge and investors seem to have decided to take money off the table here for now," Ogg said.

Leading social network Facebook last year bumped Yahoo from its spot as the number two digital ad seller in the United States for the first time, according to industry tracker eMarketer.

Yahoo's share of worldwide digital ad revenue ebbed to 2.87 percent last year from 3.37 percent in 2012, eMarketer reported.

But Yahoo continues to hold a crown it claimed in August of last year after edging past Google in a comScore ranking of online properties most frequently visited from desktop computers in the United States.

Figures from the industry tracker last week showed that Yahoo websites logged just shy of 195.2 million unique visitors in December, while second-place Google saw about 192.3 million.

During an earnings call with analysts, Mayers said that focus on improving Yahoo's workforce, products, and user traffic last year should translate into company growth in 2014.

Analysts pressed Mayer on her decision to axe Yahoo chief operating officer Henrique de Castro about two weeks ago.

"Ultimately, Henrique was not a fit," Mayer said of getting rid of the second-in-command she had hand-picked 15 months earlier.

"That was a very regretable conclusion, but it was the right decision in the end."

Mayer said that, instead of replacing de Castro, she is more hands-on with the Yahoo sales team and with media talent hired as part of the company's move into being an online venue for original and curated content such as digital magazines.

As part of her mission to revive the company, Mayer has made a slew of acquisitions, including blogging platform Tumblr. She has also revamped Yahoo pages and its free email service.

Many of Yahoo's buys were talent acquisitions, and the pace was not expected to slow, according to the company's chief financial officer.

Mayer took over as Yahoo chief in July 2012, and her plan to revitalize the company includes being at the center of people's Internet habits, especially on mobile devices.

"She certainly has it down how to increase her own visibility," Enderle said.

"But as far as actually demonstrating she can generate revenue, there is nothing in the financials that say she is getting there. It is all a wish and a prayer."

Renault-Nissan alliance sells record 8.3mn vehicles in 2013

TOKYO: The alliance between Nissan and Renault sold a record 8.3 million vehicles last year, giving it fourth spot among global automakers, new data showed Wednesday, as the pair reportedly boost ties to cut costs.

Nissan said it sold 5.1 million units globally in 2013, a 3.3 percent rise from a year ago, while the French automaker earlier reported that it sold 2.63 million vehicles in 2013.

The group sold a total of 8.3 million vehicles last year, including sales by Russian affiliate AvtoVAZ, putting it behind top three automakers Toyota, General Motors and Germany's Volkswagen.

Last week, Toyota said it sold a record 9.98 million vehicles in 2013, its highest-ever annual sales volume, thanks to a weaker yen as well as strong demand in the United States and China, which is now the world's biggest car market.

The Camry sedan and Prius hybrid maker beat US-based GM, which sold 9.71 million cars last year, while Volkswagen logged annual sales of 9.5 million units.

The figures come after Japan's Nikkei business daily reported that Nissan and Renault plan to boost their alliance by bringing together production as well as research and development in a bid to save about $3.8 billion annually.

Despite their close links -- Renault is the Japanese automaker's biggest shareholder and they are both chaired by Carlos Ghosn -- the pair have operated largely independently of each other, except on parts procurement and engine development.

India’s Bharti Airtel profit doubles, first rise in 4 years

NEW DELHI: India's top mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel reported Wednesday its quarterly profit leapt by 115 percent, the first rise in four years, boosted by surging data use and easing of cut-throat price wars.

Bharti, the fourth-largest telecom firm globally, said net profit for the third financial quarter to December climbed to 6.1 billion rupees ($98 million) from 2.84 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.

The company's focus on Internet operations "has increased adoption and usage" of Bharti, said Indian chief executive Gopal Vittal.

"Data is now a huge source of revenue," Vittal added.

Data services have become the new battleground for Indian telecom companies as they seek to boost revenues in an increasingly saturated domestic mobile market.

Bharti, controlled by billionaire founder-chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, had clocked 15 straight quarters of profit decline before Wednesday's rise.

Despite the better performance, the figures still undershot market expectations of a 10-billion rupee profit for the three-month period.

Shares were up just 0.13 percent at 306.55 rupees in early afternoon trade.

But analysts said the quarter was positive overall.

"Competitive intensity is declining in India thanks to (the) fruits of consolidation and the data numbers give quite a bit to be excited about," telecom analyst Harit Shah at Mumbai's Nirmal Securities told AFP.

The Indian firm, with 287 million customers and operations in both Africa and Asia, said Internet revenues soared 105 percent year-on-year to 17.36 billion rupees.

Total revenues climbed 13.3 percent in the third quarter to 219.4 billion rupees from 193.6 billion rupees a year ago.

Average revenue per user, a key industry profitability benchmark, jumped five percent in India.

Bharti operates in 20 countries and is nearly one-third held by Singapore's SingTel.

India's telecom sector was a market star before fierce tariff competition pushed call rates down to among the world's lowest.

But the number of major telecoms players has fallen, with just three firms -- Bharti, Vodafone and Reliance -- accounting for nearly three-quarters of revenues. A 2012 Supreme Court ruling scrapped the licences of various smaller firms over a scandal-tainted spectrum sale.

The easing of market congestion has allowed companies to start hiking calling rates. While there is still a price battle for data customers, that has been more than offset by the volume of new customers, analysts say.

But the industry faces a new deep-pocketed rival, Reliance Jio Infocomm belonging to Reliance Industries, controlled by India's richest tycoon Mukesh Ambani.

Bharti must bid to purchase new spectrum in an auction of mobile airwaves starting February 3 to keep providing services in several areas where it already operates.

Aggressive bidding by Reliance Industries could boost prices at the auction, at which the cash-strapped government is hoping to raise at least $1.8 billion, analysts say.

Reliance's planned entry could force Bharti and other telecom players to invest more on capital expenditure to improve service and may even trigger a new tariff price war, analysts say.

Bharti's Africa operations, which it purchased for $10.6 billion in 2010 to expand its global footprint, meanwhile, continue to face headwinds.

The Africa division has yet to declare a profit and it added 36 percent fewer customers during the third quarter from a year earlier, the earnings statement showed.