| 'Football Manager Live' ready for kick off
Sports Interactive has announced details of a brand new massively multiplayer online game based on the best-selling PC soccer management game, Football Manager.Football Manager Live will allow players to build a club from scratch and compete against friends and rivals.The game will offer mini-leagues to play amongst friends, and allow gamers to bid in player auctions and compete in live matches 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.Matches will take place in real-time with a range of tactical options for managers to control as they follow all the action via a 2D match engine. In addition, the in-game chat option will allow managers to exchange comments on the virtual touchline, whilst other aspiring managers can view their competitors and learn their tactics.Away from the stadium, users will get to control their club in a host of different ways.
ABN Amro Is `Disingenuous' on Bidding Talks, TCI Says (Update5)
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- ABN Amro Holding NV's refusal to meet with rival bidders to Barclays Plc before next week is ``disingenuous and disadvantageous for shareholders,'' according to London-based TCI Fund Management LLP. ABN Amro yesterday extended exclusive takeover talks with London-based Barclays for the next three days. The biggest Dutch bank said it will meet with Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Santander Central Hispano SA and Fortis ``early next week.'' TCI is urging shareholders to pressure ABN Amro's board at the annual meeting on April 26 to split up the bank. Investors will have to decide whether ABN Amro should become a unit of Britain's third-biggest bank, or be divided between the Scottish, Spanish and Belgian-Dutch companies. ABN Amro shares have risen 33 percent in the past month, valuing the Amsterdam- based company at 69.2 billion euros ($94.1 billion).
Glanmor bids to be WRU president
FORMER WRU chairman Glanmor Griffiths has launched a bid to return to the top of Welsh rugby by standing for president. Nominations for the prestigious post, which was left vacant by the death of Keith Rowlands last November, had to be in by yesterday. And the Western Mail can reveal that Griffiths has decided to enter the race. If he is successful, it would mark a return to the corridors of power for a man who was a dominant figure in Welsh rugby for the best part of two decades. Griffiths was WRU treasurer from 1985 to 2003 and then chairman from 1997 to 2003, during which time he was arguably the most powerful man in the game. .
Kovels' List of Top Antiques Searches Reflect Current Events
Kovels has released the Top 20 list of antiques and collectibles for March based on results of hundreds of thousands of searches on its website. The top three searches - Pottery, Glass and Furniture - rarely change and are always the major areas of interest because they are useful antiques or collectibles found in every home. But the other items reflect a special interest often influenced by current news or auctions. For example, the recent ruling against selling war medals has created a problem for dealers and a change in prices of World War II souvenirs so it moved to number 10. The auctions of several large toy collections created extra publicity and interest in toy prices, and Toys made it into the 7th position. The entire top 20 list follows: Pottery and porcelain Glass Furniture Jewelry Bottles Metals Toys Prints, pictures, paintings, paper Royal Doulton World War II Stoves Coca-Cola Advertising Alabaster Silver plate Lighters Folk art Occupied Japan Weapons Music Kovels.com offers the Web's largest free price guide for antiques and collectibles.
Company Says Spectrum Auctions Don't Work, So Just Give It Some ...
Different countries' telecom regulators take different approaches to handing out wireless spectrum. Some use so-called beauty contests, where interested companies file proposals for the airwaves in question, and the regulator judges them on some set of criteria and gives out licenses. In the US and many other places, regulators use auctions, selling off licenses to the highest bidder. The FCC's auction system can get quite complex, with all sorts of different licenses for different areas and different amounts of spectrum, and discounts for smaller companies and bidders. While we wait for a complete overhaul of the spectrum allocation process, in many cases, auctions are a "least worst" solution. The FCC plans to auction off some 700 MHz spectrum this summer, and its properties make it very desirable for wireless broadband providers.
|
