In Short

A round-up of today's other business stories in brief

Amazon says customers buying over a million Kindles per week

Amazon.com said yesterday it was selling more than one million Kindle devices a week, an unusual disclosure from the largest Internet retailer that comes in the wake of some negative reviews of its new Kindle Fire tablet.

Amazon said customers were buying “well over” one million Kindles per week. This level of sales has occurred for three straight weeks, it said. The sales numbers include the Kindle Fire tablet and all the versions of the Kindle e-reader. The company did not break down sales numbers for the Fire tablet alone. – (Reuters)

Collins Stewart sold for €300m

Canada’s Canaccord Financial has snapped up UK mid-cap broker and advisory group Collins Stewart Hawkpoint, cementing its ambitions of expanding in London amid a wave of consolidation in the troubled sector.

Canaccord said it had agreed a takeover valuing Collins Stewart at just over £253 million (€300 million), offering 96 pence for each Collins Stewart share, more than a 90 per cent premium on Wednesday’s closing price. – (Reuters)

Kavaleer to create 30 jobs in 2012

Irish animation company Kavaleer has announced it will create 30 jobs next year to keep pace with its international workload.

The company also intends extending turnover from interactive games and e-learning production to €1 million by April 2012.

Kavaleer founder and chief executive Andrew Kavanagh said yesterday: “We’re delighted to announce that we will be taking on additional staff in 2012 as we work on exciting international projects.”

Exchanges step up merger lobbying

Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext have stepped up lobbying for their merger with an advertising campaign to pressure EU regulators and secure approval for their $9 billion (€6.9 billion) union.

In what some antitrust lawyers said was an unprecedented move for a competition case, the exchanges took out full-page adverts in seven newspapers in Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal on Tuesday, touting the merits of the deal for Europe’s financial sector.

The advertisement, signed by 30 academics and top executives from companies such as French oil major Total and French reinsurer SCOR, appeared amid continuing EU regulatory concerns and criticism from rivals and some users.

The European Commission is concerned over the merged entity’s more than 90 per cent share of exchange based derivatives trading in Europe and whether new players could enter the market afterwards. – (Reuters)