It found that Kidde had advanced “factually preposterous theories” in court and that it had “no real defence”.Mr DiBelardino said: “The court upheld everything Kidde has a lot of explaining to do…. I would regard this as a victory as it effects meaningful change within Kidde and the marketplace.”The court heard that two young entrepreneurs, Mr DiBelardino and Andrew Ive, originally from Britain, came up with the idea – a fold-away ladder that can be quickly lowered from a window in the event of fire – while they were students at the Harvard Business School. They patented the ladder in May 1998 and formed a company, X-IT, in Virginia and began to sell the product. According to X-IT’s account, Kidde approached it to buy the ladder design late in 1998. However, in August 1999, while talks were still ongoing, it found that Kidde was already selling the ladder under its own name.Kidde, which saw its shares close down yesterday 8 per cent at 80p, said it was considering its legal options, leaving open the prospect of an appeal X-IT and Kidde both continue to sell the ladders.. Prudential, Britain’s biggest with-profit provider, is to launch a fund that will separate assets owned by shareholders and policyholders ahead of a Government review into the sector that is expected to force insurers to restructure products this way. Mr Sandler is likely to say that the current structure of with-profits funds is unfair to policyholders.Most with-profits funds are constructed so that they contain 90 per cent policyholder money and 10 per cent of shareholder money.

Returns to shareholders are determined by how much is paid in bonuses to policyholders. This has raised fears at the Financial Services Authority and with the Government that the board faces a conflict of interest between policyholders and shareholders.Mr Sandler and other critics of with-profits are also not happy with the fact that policyholders’ capital, in effect, funds new business. Yet new business growth holds no obvious benefit to current policyholders while it is a key factor that affects share prices and so is of great importance for shareholders.Prudential’s fund will still contain shareholder and policyholder money. But it will break the link between bonuses and shareholder returns. The new bond, called Flexible Options does not mix policyholder and shareholder money and makes charges much easier to understand.Scottish Widows, a mutual organisation that was bought by Lloyds TSB two years ago, has not managed any funds that contain 90 per cent of policyholder money and 10 per cent of shareholder cash.But other insurers still have to come up with a plan for how they could unravel the 90-10 division within their existing with-profits funds, if Mr Sandler strongly encourages insurers to divide their existing books as well as new business. This will be a thorny problem for Prudential and its rivals, as they will have to divide large “orphan assets” estates, which are made up of shareholder and policyholder money.

The task is difficult because there is no established procedure for deciding how the money should be divided.. The computer services company Xansa ruled out a real recovery in customers’ IT spending before the start of next year, sending its shares sharply lower. Xansa scored a £250m seven-year contract with BT on 5 June to process payments, payslips and online purchases for the telecoms group.Xansa, however, was dealt a big blow weeks later with HBOS cancelling its contract, due to expire in summer 2005, after a review of its IT strategy.The contract was set up in June 1998 to supply software development and information technology systems planning to Bank of Scotland, which merged with the Halifax bank in September to form HBOS.. A city brokerage company plotted a “systematic and carefully planned” raid of key staff from Cantor Fitzgerald after hundreds of Cantor employees were killed in the 11 September terrorist attacks, the High Court has heard.

One waited until he had taken a holiday in the Maldives, paid for by Cantor, before leaving.Andrew Hillier QC, appearing for Cantor at the High Court in London, said the e-mail was part of a “concerted campaign” by Icap to attack the interest-swaps desk.Mr Spencer sent another e-mail on 25 October when he stated: “This is the time I have been waiting for for just a few years!!!” Mr Hillier told the judge: “This was a time Mr Spencer was waiting for – Cantor at a weak stage.”He said Cantor wanted damages from the three for breaking their contracts, the return of a loan to Mr Gill and the return of bonuses paid to all three. It also wants Icap to pay damages and for Icap to be banned from approaching its employees for six months.The hearing, which started on Tuesday, is expected to resume today.. The Inland Revenue has stalled plans to allow millions of taxpayers to communicate with the department by e-mail because of fears that hackers could breach security. that there is potential danger from people masquerading as others.”The decision means that 55,000 computers running Microsoft’s Office suite and Exchange e-mail system at a cost of £200m are not being used to their full capability.It also appears to have put the Inland Revenue behind schedule. Earlier this year the department said a “key objective [is] to provide an e-mail facility for customers to contact their IR office by 2002″, Computer Weekly reports. The Revenue spokeswoman said that objective might have been met by running a trial, .Four weeks ago, the Inland Revenue had to suspend a system enabling taxpayers to file returns over the internet because of security breaches. Users had been able to view other people’s data on the site.Revenue staff have complained that being unable to communicate electronically with suppliers or taxpayers is “humiliating” and like “living in the Dark Ages” A new trial is not expected to be run until next year.