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Talk Talk Fundamentals (TALK)

Its now web based - much like any other ISP that I've seen. so now familiar and very easy to use.

Just put AOL in the search box and you get this - this.

The application based version from the day dot, had to be installed and as you intimate, took residence on your machine and as such, became an issue if you wanted to uninstall or move to a new machine.

But times have changed and finally, so has AOL.

I doubt anyone still uses the application based version.

MIDAS: Woman jockey boss Dido Harding whips TalkTalk back into shape

By Joanne Hart, Financial Mail On Sunday

PUBLISHED: 22:07, 27 July 2013 | UPDATED: 22:07, 27 July 2013


TalkTalk Telecom Group is one of those companies that people love to hate. Demerged from Carphone Warehouse Group in 2010, the early days of independence were decidedly rocky – customers deserted in droves and complaints about poor treatment abounded.


Three years on and chief executive Dido Harding is still working on customer service, but the situation has improved significantly. Customer numbers are rising, they are taking more services and profit margins are increasing.


At 2433⁄4p, the shares offer plenty of potential as Harding continues to turn round the business.


It's good to TalkTalk: Chief executive Dido Harding is savvy and focused

TalkTalk was set up by Carphone Warehouse founder Sir Charles Dunstone, who remains a 32 per cent shareholder and chairman of the business.


The company grew rapidly in the first decade of this century, snapping up AOL’s UK broadband business in 2007 and Tiscali’s UK operations two years later.


These acquisitions helped to make TalkTalk one of the leading phone and broadband companies in the UK, but they also brought considerable challenges, as the group struggled to integrate different systems and processes and keep its customers happy.


Harding, previously head of Sainsbury’s convenience stores, was recruited to bring some retail expertise to TalkTalk and most of the past three years have been spent trying to make the company better at delivering phone and broadband services and better at dealing with customers.


While improvements to the service remain a priority, TalkTalk is also beginning to focus on growth and late last year launched a mobile phone offer and a TV service.

Take-up of these new offerings has been enthusiastic. The group already has 390,000 TV subscribers, with 160,000 customers joining in the past three months alone. There are also more than 200,000 mobile users and a growing number of customers taking several services from the group.


This is where Harding hopes to make most progress. As virtually any business will acknowledge, the more involved customers become with a company, the less likely they are to abandon it and the more they are likely to spend with it.


TalkTalk has four million customers and hopes that over the next few years, three million of them will take the TV offer and around 700,000 will opt for the mobile phone service, too.


In the meantime, Harding last week said trading in the three months to June 30 showed more customers signing up to TalkTalk, while revenue per customer grew 4 per cent to £26.28 a month. The group’s business division is also growing and recently acquired supermarket chain Iceland as a customer.


Harding expressed confidence about the future and pointed out that people are staying longer with the group and spending more than they used to on TalkTalk services.


As a sign of optimism about group prospects, TalkTalk raised its dividend 15.6 per cent to 10.4p last year and Harding hopes to deliver similar increases this year and next. Some analysts are even hoping for a special dividend as the group generates lots of cash, it cut overheads by £25 million last year and it expects more cost-savings this year.


Midas verdict: The phone, TV and broadband sector is dominated by four players: BT, Sky, Virgin and TalkTalk. Within this group, TalkTalk sees itself as the value-for-money operator, aimed at people who want to phone friends and family, be connected to the internet and watch television but do not need top-speed broadband and do not want endless TV channels.


This differentiation is serving the group well and should deliver growing sales and profits over the next few years.


Harding is savvy and focused, customer service is improving and costs are coming down.


The shares are a buy.

Horses, rats and pigs all play a part in Dido Harding’s colourful life

Dido Harding is not your average chief executive. The daughter of Lord Harding and granddaughter of Desert Rats commander Field Marshal John Harding, she was raised on the family pig farm in Dorset, before going to Oxford to read philosophy, politics and economics.


Although smart and ambitious from the start, Harding’s first love was horses and she spent her early years combining business with a career in the saddle as a jockey. In 1998, a horse she owned, Cool Dawn, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup.


Although now retired from steeplechasing, Harding, who is 5ft 2in, remains a passionate rider over flats and will take part in the Goodwood Ladies’ race on Thursday. She is also a member of the Jockey Club.


Her career has been equally impressive away from the racetrack. Having started out at top management consultancy McKinsey, she went to Harvard Business School and then moved into retail.


She joined Tesco and became a director, and in 2007 switched to Sainsbury’s as a board member.


She was lured to TalkTalk by John Gildersleeve, a colleague from her Tesco days.


Harding is married to Tory MP John Penrose and has two young children.

I wish! :-)

"At 2433⁄4p, the shares offer plenty of potential as Harding continues to turn round the business. "

Morgan Stanley Overweight 249.65 280.00 280.00 Reiterates

250 has been both support & resistance over the last 6 months.

250 cleared for now.

Looking for 260.

J P Morgan Cazenove Overweight 258.25 225.00 300.00 Upgrades

Another assault on 260.

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And again.

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 243.80 243.70 300.00 350.00 Reiterates

This is such a frustrating stock to trade, but added on Friday on the spreads @ 250.7 target 270.0 stop 243.0. If I get stopped out it's in the bin.

Better volume today.

skinny - fingers crossed 260.0 now history :O)

Bought these this morning after seeing skinnys 2 chart posts on chart thread VOD and BT.

Was hoping for breakout.

Cheers Skinny.

Having a second go at getting over 270.0 today, need more volume.

That will do for now target hit, out the spreads @ 270.0 + 19.3

Well done Chris.

Cheers skinny.

12 Nov 2013 Interim results.