We need other countries to be successful if we are to carry on doing well too

We need other countries to be successful if we are to carry on doing well too.. If shareholders are lucky, the video games retailer will defeat the bogeyman (intense price deflation), slay the monsters (an ever-increasing number of competitors) and find the princess (Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 that launches on 2 December).Then again, if the consumer backdrop remains tough, the likes of Tesco ramp up their attempts to conquer the video games market and Sony or Microsoft fail to churn out enough hardware to meet the predicted demand, it could be Game Over by Christmas.The company had a terrible start to the year. And the recent launch of a French version of Closer has been a run-away winner.UK consumer revenues are up 2 per cent on an underlying basis, while radio is also 2 per cent higher, where the company is outperforming the market. Emap remains a good company, with fantastic brands, but the negatives mean that, at 809p, the shares are a hold.The Game’s not worth playing at these kinds of pricesInvesting in Game Group is quite literally a game of chance. Display ads and events are well up in the business-to-business operations.Also on the negative side, French consumer magazine revenues are expected to be down 7 per cent for the first half. But at least the two TV listings titles, which were hit by new competition, have now stabilised.

This is down to general budgetary constraints in the NHS and also the introduction of a free website for all NHS recruits.So with business-to-business jobs advertising generally doing rather well – shown in the Centaur figures the other week – this is a reminder that the sector is very dependent on conditions in the niches in which a company plays. The particular problem high-lighted by Emap in a trading update yesterday, ahead of interim results, was recruitment ads in its business-to-business division, which have fallen 14 per cent in the current financial year.The decline has been felt in its public sector titles, especially Nursing Times, where volumes are down 30 per cent. The company will use the money raised to drill its first appraisal some time this year.. Not everything is rosy at the media group Emap but the advantage of having the kind of broad spread of media assets that it enjoys, is that the “ups” should outweigh the “downs”.

In the UK, the company has consumer magazines which include gossip title Closer and men’s mag Zoo, business-to-business magazines and exhibitions, and the second-biggest radio business, including the Kiss and Magic brands. Accident Exchange rose 22p to 353.5p after the group secured three contract wins and expended a fourth agreement with an existing client.Finally, CDS Oil & Gas enjoyed a solid debut on AIM. It also has consumer publications in France and it sells its highly successful FHM men’s title in the US.
The UK media sector is not having an easy time, with advertising remaining a volatile source of revenue. The Paraguay-based explorer raised £2.4m through a placing of new shares at 10p, and saw its stock close at 11.5p This gives CDS a market value of more than £28m. Leading the way was Derek Mapp, the chairman of the in-store music and television specialist, who picked up 200,000 shares at 8.8p. Three other directors snapped up a total of143,000 shares at the same price.

Domino’s Pizza ticked 1p higher to 316.5p on talk of strong trading at the group.Griffin Mining ticked 2.5p higher to an all-time high of 48p on the back of a positive drilling update from its site in China. Something of a buzz surrounded MFI Furniture, 0.25p weaker at 114.75p, as it emerged that Goldman Sachs has built a 14 per cent stake in the retailer. Analysts believe the US broker holds the shares on behalf of a number of its hedge-fund clients. They suggested that if the these funds are betting on MFI being taken over in the near future, they will be disappointed. The retailer’s £245m pension-fund deficit also makes a buyout of the company quite unlikely.Burren Energy was driven 22p higher at 846p by Merrill Lynch, which started coverage of the oil explorer with a “buy” stance and a 12-month price target of 1,015p. The broker believes that Burren’s oilfields in Turkmenistan and Congo may soon have to be upgraded in size, and tipped the group as very likely to attract the eye of a predator.After last week’s massive profits warning at Deal Group Media, yesterday saw Adrian Moss, its chief executive, try to shore-up confidence in the online advertising group.

Deal Group Media rose 0.5p to 8p yesterday as Mr Moss bought 500,000 shares at 7.75p.There was also director share-buying at Imagesound, 1p better to 9.75p. Laird, 3.25p better at 361.75p, is another engineer which has seen its shares boosted by takeover rumours during the past few weeks. Over the past seven sessions they have performed particularly strongly, losing ground just once.Again on the merger and acquisition front, Morgan Crucible added 4p to 215p as rumours of a 260p-a-share offer for the engineer circled dealing rooms. However, after yesterday’s director share sales, market professionals said they were sceptical that a deal is on the cards any time soon.A weak start to trading on Wall Street pushed the FTSE 100 index 5.8 points lower to 5,447.3. For the past month, traders have seemed convinced that BOC’s days as an independent entity are numbered, and yesterday’s outright refusal by Mr Hambrecht to comment on the speculation only bolstered their stance.Alliance UniChem jumped 29.5p to 870p, making it the best performer in the FTSE 100, as dealers reported talk that a number of private-equity funds are running the slide rule over the company with a view to buying it Alliance UniChem shares stand at an all-time high. According to yesterday’s dealing-room chatter, Compass could raise as much as £700m from a deal.
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein seemed to suggest that such a price tag is certainly achievable, and argued that equally important as the price the company would get for the business is the amount it would save. “Although Autogrill has ruled out making any acquisitions for now it would not be a surprise to see Compass trying to sell its travel concessions division,” one analyst said.