Even today?s market giants started out small. Microsoft (MSFT:NASDAQ) may now be the world?s largest company with a $3 trillion valuation which rivals the GDP of some major global economies but it began life as a start-up founded by Harvard College drop-out Bill Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen. Few then would have predicted its global domination today.While we are not expecting the names

Given the positive summer trading updates from UK hospitality firms such as JD Wetherspoon (JDW), Marston's (MARS) and Mitchells & Butler (MAB), expectations are fairly high for Beefeater, Brewers' Fayre and Premier Inn owner Whitbread (WTB) when it reports first-half earnings on 18 October.In the first quarter to the start of June, Premier Inn accommodation sales were up 18% on last year while Re

Market confidence that the US Federal Reserve next week would begin to slow the pace of its interest rate hikes was shredded by a fresh indication of a hot economy, sending stock markets lower on Tuesday and widening US Treasury yields.'We're very much in looking-glass territory again with investors desperate for the Fed to ease up on rate hikes and therefore taking any bit of good news about the

London's blue chips eked out a small gain on Friday as Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked as UK chancellor in the afternoon just 38 days after his appointment, with Prime Minister Liz Truss continuing her attempts to unravel the disastrous mini-budget.Amid the swirling rumours in recent days, Truss performed yet another U-turn, scrapping her plans to block a planned rise in corporation tax, and summarily d

An 8% discount to net asset value (NAV) on Jupiter US Smaller Companies (JUS) presents a great buying opportunity. With the US economy remaining strong, domestics benefiting from lower taxes and smaller corporate fry attractive as takeover targets, there's scope for the discount to narrow and the portfolio to be worth a lot more in time.Fund manager Robert Siddles seeks out value opportunities wit

UK microchip designer Imagination Technologies (IMG) has recommended a 182p per share takeover to investors. The sale, to Chinese state-backed private equity firm Canyon Bridge, values Imagination at about £550m, so a rough 47% premium to the share price when the company effectively put itself up for sale on 21 June.Imagination has also agreed to the separate sale of its MIPS arm to US venture ca

The long-term independent future of UK graphics chip designer Imagination Technologies (IMG) looks increasingly in doubt.The Hertfordshire-based company is facing a potentially long and expensive battle with Apple, which has announced plans to cut intellectual property (IP) ties with Imagination.Imagination designs graphics processing units (GPU), called PowerVR, that run the slick visuals on iPho

Investors might think there's a cash windfall in the offing from Imagination Technologies (IMG), but that looks well wide of the mark.The Hertfordshire-based graphics chip technology designer has today unveiled plans to sell its MIPS and Ensigma units to bolster its balance sheet as it readies for an almighty scuffle with Apple.The US tech giant announced plans to ditch using Imagination's graphic

UK microchip design company Imagination Technologies (IMG) saw its share price collapse on Monday after being ditched by its biggest customer, Apple. The Cupertino technology giant informed Imagination that in plans to stop using the group's graphics intellectual property (IP) in new products in 15 months to two years time.This is a hammer blow for Imagination and it sent its share price crashing,

It's been a long time coming but microchip designer Imagination Technologies (IMG) has finally signed, sealed and delivered the sale of its digital radio technology business PURE. The Austrian's Aventure AT have agreed to pay £2.6 million cash and it has also got an option to buy up a relevant property at Imagination's Kings Langley HQ site for £4.5 million, if it wants it.Interesting to also no

Small and mid caps in April underperformed large caps by the biggest monthly amount since September 2008, according to Liberum Capital. It notes the FTSE 250 fell 2.8% in the month versus a 2.8% gain in the blue chip index.Despite the recent dip, it says UK small to mid caps - or 'SMID' - are still the best performing asset class globally over the past one and five years, as illustrated by these t

It may seem perverse to root around at the very bottom of the FTSE 250's performance charts over the past 12 months when looking for a potential momentum winner for 2014, but Imagination Technologies (IMG) looks to be regaining its poise after a bad run.At 178p, Imagination stands way below is 52-week high of 552p as the Kings Langley-based semiconductor designs company grapples with a difficult,

Semiconductor designer Imagination Technologies (IMG) is in the dog house after a messy first-half period of forecast misses, plagued profits, weak licence wins and slowing unit shipments.While licencing revenue has bounced from an even worse second half last year (to end April), at £14.4 million the numbers still look weak in comparison to the £38 million to £43 million range guided for the fu

This week's (10 Sep) big launch event by Apple (AAPL:NDQ) could have repercussions that extend far beyond the remit of the tech sector. As the lights go on in Cupertino, California, the new, expanded version of Shares is about to go to press but we would expect a range of shiny new products to stir share prices in British component suppliers.The release date of iOS 7 will be among its biggest anno