Wiggle considers float as cycling becomes the new golf

Owner Isis plans sale of online retailer Wiggle as cycling increases in popularity spurred on by the successes of riders Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins

Cycling has risen in popularity fueling the growth of online retailer Wiggle,
which is considerings its options after hoisting an estimated £200m for-sale sign.
Photograph: Tetra Images / Alamy/Alamy

With a new world champion in Mark Cavendish and Tour de France contenders such as Bradley Wiggins, there's never been a more opportune time to back British cycling. But with a different prize in mind, the private equity group behind Wiggle, the cycling and triathlon gear website, is working out its race plan after hoisting an estimated £200m for-sale sign.

Its owner Isis Equity Partners is deliberating whether to quietly sell to another buyout firm or attempt the City equivalent of the Alpe d'Huez by pursuing a stock exchange listing. Its chief executive, Humphrey Cobbold, is insists an IPO is a "serious option".

Sales at Wiggle have more than quadrupled in the last five years to reach £86.8m in the year to 31 January, thanks to a growing obsession with cycling and triathlons among "mamils" – a phrase coined by analysts at Mintel as shorthand for "middle-aged man in Lycra". Profits surged 43% to £10.2m. In a bombed out retail sector, Wiggle is a welcome success story with growth of 56% last year helping it to attract buyout firms such as Fat Face owner Bridgepoint and Warburg Pincus, which owns Poundland, to the auction.

"Cycling is the new golf," says Cobbold. "Middle-aged men and women have decided that they are better off spending three or four hours on their bike than hitting a little white ball around a fairway." Even without the buzz generated by high-profile wins such as Mark Cavendish's recent triumph in the world championships road race, the sport has a growing amateur fan base with sportives – cycling competitions – popular fixtures. Britons are also queuing up to compete in triathlons, with last month's event in London, which attracted 13,000 entrants, the world's largest.

Alexander Grous, an academic at the London School of Economics, has calculated that cycling provided a near £3bn boost, or "gross cycling product" as he puts it, to the UK economy in 2010 based on manufacturing as well as related retail sales and jobs.

His study found 13m people are now cyclists, with 3.7m bikes sold last year, a 28% increase on 2009 as high petrol prices and crammed trains and buses encouraged commuters to switch to two wheels. Social and economic factors have resulted in a "step-change" in the UK's cycling scene, says Grous adding: "The growth in involvement we've witnessed in recent years feels like a sustainable trend for the first time."

Wiggle started life as Butlers Cycles, an independent bike shop in Portsmouth that had been trading since 1920. Its entrepreneurial founders Mitch Dall and Harvey Jones branched out into selling accessories online, launching the website in 1999. The venture took off and in 2006 Isis acquired a stake for £12m, valuing the business at nearly £30m.

In short order the internet has grown to account for 8% of UK retail sales with "pure play" retailers escaping some of the pain experienced by traditional store groups. Online penetration is even higher for cycling goods with demand for puncture repair kits, power shakes and Lycra unitards a £1.4bn market.

Wiggle doesn't compete with the cut-throat pricing of the supermarkets, which import bikes from China, selling them for less than £100. It concentrates on serious riders willing to spend more than £600 on their wheels and its range includes top-end bikes by US manufacturer Felt that cost as much as £7,500. "It is a brand-led marketplace – guys love gear," says Cobbold.

Febrile financial markets are making investors increasingly risk averse with companies big and small getting their wings clipped. Fellow internet retailer The Hut Group has delayed its listing until next year while daily deals website Groupon last week scaled down its fundraising plans. "Retail flotations are viewed suspiciously at the moment," says Panmure analyst Philip Dorgan who points to the experience of Ocado which failed to get big institutional investors and fashion website Asos, the former stock market darling which has seen its shares tumble 40% in the last three months. "It might not be a good time to float a pure play online retailer."

If Wiggle does float, the company's management and advisors are in for a gruelling ride. Cobbold adds: "I'm absolutely committed to leading Wiggle into its next phase whether it is a listed or private company." He also points out neither road is easy: "Private equity [firms] are not renowned for being pushovers."

Quoted from Guardian

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Turkey earthquake: 1,000 feared killed in country's worst quake for over a decade

As many as 1,000 people were feared killed on Sunday when a powerful earthquake struck southeast Turkey, destroying dozens of buildings and trapping some victims alive under the debris.

People rescue a woman trapped under debris after a powerful 7.2-magnitude
earthquake struck eastern Turkey, collapsing about
45 buildings in the country's Van province on Sunday.

As night fell, emergency workers battled to dig people out of the rubble in the city of Van and surrounding districts. Civilians joined in the desperate search, using their bare hands and working under generator-powered floodlights.

"We heard cries and groaning from underneath the debris, we are waiting for the rescue teams to arrive," Halil Celik told Reuters as he stood beside the ruins of building that had collapsed before his eyes.

"All of a sudden, a quake tore down the building in front of me. All the bystanders, we all ran to the building and rescued two injured people from the ruins."

At another site, three teenagers were believed trapped under a collapsed building. People clambered over the shattered masonry, shouting: "Is there anyone there?"

An elderly rescue worker sat sobbing, his exhausted face covered in dust. Police tried to keep onlookers back. Ambulance crews sat waiting to help anyone dragged out of the debris.

Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute said the magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck at 1041 GMT and was five km (three miles) deep.

A dozen buildings collapsed in Van city and more were brought to the ground in the nearby district of Ercis, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told reporters.

"We estimate around 1,000 buildings are damaged and our estimate is for hundreds of lives lost. It could be 500 or 1,000," Kandilli Observatory general manager Mustafa Erdik told a news conference.

Hospital sources in Ercis, a town near Van, near the quake's epicentre, said there were more than 50 dead bodies at one hospital and that 405 people had been wounded.

The quake was among the strongest in Turkish history, and the worst since 1999.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was travelling to Van and the cabinet was expected to discuss the quake on Monday morning.

"A lot of buildings collapsed, many people were killed, but we don't know the number. We are waiting for emergency help, it's very urgent," Zulfukar Arapoglu, the mayor of Ercis, told news broadcaster NTV.

Cihan news agency said that of the dead, 30 had been killed in Ercis district, where some 80 buildings had collapsed.

"We need tents urgently and rescue teams. We don't have any ambulances, and we only have one hospital. We have many killed and injured," Arapoglu said.

Turkey's Red Crescent said one of its local teams was helping to rescue people from a student residence in Ercis. It said it was sending tents, blankets and food to the region.

More than 70 aftershocks shook the area, further unsettling residents who ran into the streets when the initial quake struck. Television pictures showed rooms shaking and furniture toppling as people ran from one building.

Dozens of emergency workers and residents scrambled over a multi-storey building in Van as they searched for anyone trapped inside.

Elsewhere, dazed survivors wandered past vehicles crushed by falling masonry.

Some 50 injured people were taken to hospital in Van, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

Turkish media said phone lines and electricity had been cut off. The quake's epicentre was at the village of Tabanli, 20 km north of Van city, Kandilli said.

International offers of aid poured in from NATO, China, Japan, the United States, Azerbaijan, European countries and Israel, whose ties with Ankara have soured since Israeli commandoes killed nine Turks during a raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip in 2010.

Major geological fault lines cross Turkey and there are small earthquakes almost daily. Two large quakes in 1999 killed more than 20,000 people in northwest Turkey.

An earthquake struck Van province in November 1976, with 5,291 confirmed dead. Two people were killed and 79 injured in May when an earthquake shook Simav in northwest Turkey.

Quoted from Mirror

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Astronauts' photographs from space flights and moon landing go on sale

They often used Hasselblad cameras from Sweden modified only by the addition of a bigger button to press, but then taking pictures when you are an astronaut in a bulky, pressurised suit is clearly tricky.

Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.
Neil Armstrong, the photographer, is reflected in Aldrin's visor. Photograph: Nasa/AFP/Getty Images

Many of the astronauts' early space photographs have become extremely famous, more for their otherworldly beauty than their scientific value.

And now some are to appear in the UK's first dedicated sale of vintage Nasa photographs.

Bloomsbury Auctions in London has announced details of the first specialist sale of images showing how man came to land on the moon.

"We are thrilled," said Sarah Wheeler, Bloomsbury's photographs specialist.

"What we are offering are historic artefacts – rare, iconic, vintage photographs taken by the astronauts themselves and printed within days of their return to Earth and very different from today's downloadable images."

More than 280 photographs, with estimated values ranging from £200 to £10,000, will be auctioned. They have been collected over decades by Frenchman Victor Martin-Malburet, who has exhibited them in Paris and Saint-Etienne.

Some of the most striking images in the collection are of Ed White's spacewalk in 1965, part of the Gemini 4 mission.

White was the first American to walk in space. His walk was photographed by fellow astronaut James McDivitt – who was looking out of the craft without really being able to see what he was shooting at.

"He was remarkably successful considering he couldn't really frame the pictures," said a Bloomsbury spokesman.

Other highlights include the first view of Earth from the moon, taken on 23 August 1966 and shown publicly on 10 September.

It is a grainy image but the technological feat of making it happen at all should not be underestimated – the pictures were taken by an unmanned satellite which also developed them and sent them back to Earth as radio waves.

There are also images of a Gemini 12 spacewalk by Buzz Aldrin in November 1966 including one taken by the astronaut himself – using his modified Hasselblad with the big button – which Bloomsbury has billed as the "first self-portrait in space".

One of the most recognisable images is Earthrise, taken by William Anders on Christmas Eve in 1968 from Apollo 8.

Anders explained that they had spent all their time on Earth studying the moon and when they got there, they could see a fragile and delicate-looking Earth.

"I was immediately almost overcome by the thought that we came all this way to the moon, and yet the most significant thing we're seeing is our own home planet, the Earth."

And of course there is Apollo 11 – the mission that landed the first men on the moon – and photographs by Aldrin of his footprints.

Because flight leader Neil Armstrong was often taking the photographs, there are not many pictures of him. But there is the famous image Armstrong took of Aldrin in which he is reflected in Aldrin's goldplated visor.

The photographs are all vintage prints – made soon after the event depicted. The more expensive ones are the large-format prints that were often presented to scientists or dignitaries. The sale takes place on 3 November.

Quoted from Guardian

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Google Music (Beta) vs Apple’s iTunes?

Looks like Google’s adding some finishing touches to their ‘rumored’ online digital store.

There’s no doubt that Google’s product portfolio is immense, there’s social networking, internet search, operating systems, consumer software, maps, web browsers, hardware, advertising… and the list goes on. The only thing that’s missing in Google’s product portfolio is an online music download store, Google Music Beta is there to fill in for the most part but it doesn’t let you purchase/download MP3′s, it just lets you listen to over 20,000 tracks online — for now that is.

Google Music, search engine's new product that will compete against Apple.

There have been multiple reports claiming that Google will be launching a music download service within the next few weeks but Google’s yet to confirm what they’re hiding up their sleeves. According to Engadget, AsiaD’s Senior Vice President Andy Rubin has made it quite clear that Google is indeed “very close” to introducing a digital download store that’ll include “a little twist.”, “It won’t just be buying songs for 99 cents”.

Also, some reports are claiming that this new online store from Google is directly linked to the seemingly bland Music Beta service that Google is currently pushing through, which comes to no surprise since it was their first step in venturing the online music business in the first place.

It’s worth noting that Google has already encountered problems with numerous recording labels and music publishers in the past (during the launch of the Music Beta), simply because they weren’t happy with Google’s previously proposed locker-type storage service which rendered the Music Beta service ‘lacking’  since the day of its launch, they’re also yet to obtain music licensing agreements with the record companies music publishers alike. Google has also been previously hit by a multi-million dollar lawsuit with Bedrock Computer Technologies as well as Apple (Indirectly) — both cases are related to patent infringement, so naturally, they no longer want to go through the same problems again.

Numerous reports are also stating that Google will be introducing their new digital download service to the public ahead of the Apple iTunes Match launch which, will be held by the end of this month. Will Google be able to successfully execute the service this time? How will Apple react to Google’s new offering? We’re yet to find out.

Quoted from POP Herald

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