The Independent from London, Greater London, England • 53

60Business THE INDEPENDENT THURSDAY24 NOVEMBER 2011 Danly Msinll pwpffilts Ml iS peir cemitt psopeirs comme ummdleir pressniiire Google culls research projects to cut costs Operating profits at Korthcliffe, which overseas the company's regional titles, plunged 37 per cent to X7ttl The company cut 602 people, almost a fifth of the division, during the year, as part of a drive to slash 15m out of theailingbusiness. The business-to-business division, which includes risk management operation, and data and events, provided the growth profits up more than a tenth. Trading in the first quarter ofthe new financial year was described as "reasonable" although, as Panmure Gordon's analyst Alex DeGroote pointed out, withouttoo many hard numbers to back it up. Mr Morgan said: We remain cau-tious about the medium-term outlook given continuing external uncertainties, particularly for UK advertising." The net debt fell from 862m to 719m atthe end of its financial year, Which pleased the analysts. Mr Morgan said the companywould continue to reduce its debts fly NICK CLARK The owner of the Daily Mail saw revenues at its newspapers tumble this year blaming consumer pressures, and admitting it faced "'considerable'fees related to the ongoing hacking inquiry, Trust yesterday reported pre-tax profits had fallen IS per cent to 125m In the 12 months to 2 earlier.

Revenues were down4per cent to lbn. Martin Morgan, the chief executive of DMGT, said: "Our UK consumer businesses havebeen Impactedby the weak advertising environment; particularly costs, resulting in profits down 20 per cent fortheyeat When quizzed on the size Of the legal fees related to phone- hacking allegations againstthe Mail on Sunday, Mr Morgan said; "I dont have the figure, but no doubtit will be considerable, absolutely. If going to be ayear-Jongexercise, He added that AssodatedNewspapershadno evidence of phone-hacking at their newpapers. This came as its Associated Media arm, whose titles include theDaily Mailr Mail on Sunday and Metro, fell 15 per cent to 76m. This was brought onby a rise in newsprint costs, hitting the company to the tune of 18m.

Underlying advertising revenues were down 2 per cent on the previous year, as were the circulation revenues. This was due in partbecause of aggressive discounting on the Mail on Sunday trying to attract readers following the closure of the News of the, World. DMGT has admitted th Leveson Inquiry will cost the group a considerable figure Mail Online continued to grow throughout the year. Mr Morgan said; It is now a global name In news and on course to become the world's biggest English language newspaper The company expects to see low single-digit revenue growth" and aboost fromthe London Olympics. By STEPHEN FOLEY in New York Google is pulling the plug on another half-dozen research projects including an attempt to improve the efficiency of solar power, in the third round of cost cuts since founder Larry Page4below, became chief executive earlier this year.

The REC project Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, will be axed along with Google Wave, a once-promising instant messaging service, Knol, Google's answer to Wikipedia, and a string of other programmes. The company called the closures "spring cleaning, out. of Perturbed by rising costsr Wall Street investors have been calling on Google to rationalise its sprawling portfolio of research projects, which range from funding for green energy and space travel to in-house development of robots and self-driving cars. The company has long allowed its engineers to work part of their time on long-term and potentially world-changing ideas. Some of these Compass cooks up 500m share buy-back scheme By JAMES THOMPSON Compass, the world's biggest istoreturn500m to shareholders after strong growth in North America and emerging markets helped it cook up a 5 per cent rise in annual profits, Theupliftwasdrrveixbysales growth andcosteffldencies at Compass, which provides meals across industry, healthcare, education and sporting events in 50 countries.

Richard Cousins, thechief executive of Compass, said; "We had good growth, driven by our geographical expansion into emerging Compass, which delivers catering for sporting events such as the tennis at Wimbledon, posted pre-tax profits up per cent to 958m for the year to 30 September. Total revenues jumped by OA per cent to 15.8bn. Mr Cousins cited strong performances in countries, Including China, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey for driving a 8.3 per cent jump in operating profits to 234m at its "rest of the world division. But the Japanese earthquake dragged down the division's margins. Mr Cousins said the North American outsourcing market, where itde-lrveredprofitsupl2jBpercentto538m, was "more dynamic than in the UK and Europe.

Bolstered by a cash flow of 693m, Compass is to buy back 50Qm of shares during the next year. Weir steps up By TOM BAWDKN Weir Group, theFTSE 10Q pumping and drilling equipment maker, is expanding its presence in the blooming market for North American shale gas, after agreeing to buy Seaboard Holdings, the Texas wellhead maker, for Weir whose shale gas bracking equipment is in such high demand it has raised its full-year profits forecast, Compass provides catering for sporting events, including the tennis at Wimbledon HYHYHYH projects may turn into lucrative busi-hessesinthe future, managers hope, and in the meanwhile they make Google a magnet for some ofthe top talentin Silicon Valley. However, Mr Page said at the time of his elevation to the chief execu-tivejobin April thathe would prune projects that had the least chance of success. Announcing the latestcuts on the company's blog, Google's senior vice-president of operations, Urs Hdlzle, "We're in the process of shutting a number of products which haverfthad the impact we'd hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and endmg several whichhave shown us a different path forward Several of the projects inthe latest cull had already been depriori-tised by Google, includlngWaveand Google Gears, which had allowed app developers to create smartphone software based on Google products. In2009, the company's so-called green energy tsar, Bill Weihl, told Reuters thathe expected to demonstrate working technology that could produce renewable energy at a cheaper price than coal, and said itwas "even odds" that the technology would be ready in three years.

Mr Weihl left Google earlier this month. business with US shale gas said the deal would broaden the range of kit it makes to extract unconventional gas and oil reserves. The group's heavy-dutypumps are used to force sand, chemicals and water into the shale rocks to release the gas, in a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. MeanwhUeSeaboard'sequip- mentis used to control the pressure in the wells. Keith Cochrane, right, the $675m deal exposure, with us providingthe pumps andSeaboanlDontmllingth Mr Cochrane said The shale gas industry has takenoff inthe US in thepastfewyears as the refinement of existing techniques has made it economically viable for producers to extract fossil fuels.

The process is highly controversial, having been linked to earthquakes in areas such as Blackpool as well as water pollution elsewhere. LA chief executive of Glasgow-based Weir, acknowledged there was a supply hot-tleneck in the shale gas industry, which isgrowing so fastthat customers must wait several months for the delivery of fracking kit, "One ofthe keychallengesispro-yiding the pumps and related flow control for fracking, This acquisition doesn't relieve it does give us a broader mm.