Page proves himself the right chief for Google
As Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, launches a new music subscription service and the company’s share price continues to climb, it’s worth nothing what a success he has so far been in the role – despite the doubters, including myself. Read more
In the three decades since Michael Bloomberg launched his electronic terminal to supply financial information and analytics, his company has been called many things: ambitious, competitive, brilliant, fearsome, relentless and totalitarian. Until now, it wasn’t known as stupid. Read more
Dimon should lose his chairmanship, not his job
My views on Jamie Dimon’s dual roles as chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase have not changed since a year ago, when I called for him to give up the chairmanship, but the stakes are much higher.
Mr Dimon faces a shareholder vote at the bank’s annual meeting next week to enforce a split of the two roles in the company bylaws. According to the Wall Street Journal, he has hinted that he might give up both jobs and leave if that passes. Read more
In the browser wars that began in the 1990s, it took more than a decade for regulators to stop Microsoft exploiting its dominance with users of Windows software. In today’s mobile battles, customers have done so themselves in six months. Microsoft’s rapid retreat over Windows 8 – the latest, mobile-inspired, version of its operating software – shows wise flexibility rather than its traditional obstinacy. But it also demonstrates that Steve Ballmer, the company’s chief executive, has lost the power to “embrace and extend” the Windows hegemony into new fields. Read more
Walt Disney is wrong to pull out of Bangladesh
Walt Disney’s decision to stop making apparel in Bangladesh, as a result of recent factory disasters, is the wrong approach for western companies.
Pulling out of Bangladesh for fear of being linked with a country with poor safety standards will not help. It is harder to stay and help to tackle the country’s deep problems, but it is a better course. Read more
It is easy to forget. Most of us work in buildings where safety can largely be taken for granted, and fire drills are annoying disruptions in which a security official seizes the chance to talk loudly and repeatedly on the public address system, stopping us from doing any work. Read more
Infuriated by Fleet Street’s tabloids, the House of Lords this week nodded through a law to curb the British press. It authorised a Royal Charter that defines how self-regulation will work after the Leveson inquiry into phone hacking. Read more
Small banking islands will suffer from the Cyprus bail-out
The chaos over the rescue of Cyprus – under which insured bank deposits were initially threatened but have been reprieved – has raised questions about whether depositors in other eurozone countries will feel safe.
But I wonder if the bigger long-term effect will be on offshore banking centres in general, rather than the eurozone. After all, Cyprus shows that a small financial centre that becomes overwhelmed by financial difficulties cannot stand behind a banking system several times the size of its economy. Read more
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John Gapper is an associate editor and the chief business commentator of the FT.
He has worked for the FT since 1987, covering labour relations, banking and the media. He is co-author, with Nicholas Denton, of 'All That Glitters', an account of the collapse of Barings in 1995.
Andrew Hill is an associate editor and the management editor of the FT. He is a former City editor, financial editor, comment and analysis editor, New York bureau chief, foreign news editor and correspondent in Brussels and Milan.
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