黑洞社区

Money talks

Naysayers are still picking at Davis Langdon鈥檚 拢204m takeover by US behemoth Aecom. Since the deal was announced earlier this month, many have wondered how much of the price-tag was debt and whether DL was forced to sell up to the American after going 拢32m into the red. Senior partner Rob Smith has so far refused to talk numbers, but surely the consultancy鈥檚 results for the year to 30 April 2010 will shed some light on the matter? Well, no. We understand DL won鈥檛 be sending them to Companies House in the time-honoured fashion, but will instead extend its reporting period to October and wrap the numbers up into Aecom鈥檚. So another opportunity to silence the doubters will be missed. People might start getting suspicious 鈥�

Bedroom farce

After being made redundant by Turner & Townsend, consultant Bill Hazzledine decided to set up his Staffordshire home as a B&B (see news). One of his first clients said he wanted a quick afternoon nap before heading to the airport, so Bill gave him a reduced rate to rent the room for an hour or so. The man was then spied disappearing into the room with a female companion, after which he bolted the door and closed the curtains. Hazzledine realised he鈥檇 stumbled on a recession-proof industry - although not one he decided to pursue, he assures us.

Root-and-branch review

A recent visit to the London 2012 Olympic Park revealed an unexpected consequence of the rapid progress being made at the 100ha site. The popular View Tube venue to the south of the site is open to the public and provides panoramic views of the Olympic site, including the 2,000 semi-mature trees that make up London鈥檚 biggest ever one-off tree-planting project. However, as the viewing platform is only one storey high, the new trees are gradually taking away the view. Oops 鈥�

Screen idol

If you鈥檝e come across a London fit-out firm called Cameron Black, you might have wondered where the name came from, seeing as it was formed by Simon Black and Rupert Shaw. Apparently, it was dreamed up because the two founders didn鈥檛 like the ring of Black Shaw or Shaw Black. Instead, Shaw suppressed his ego and drew inspiration from his PC鈥檚 screensaver, which bore an image of Cameron Diaz. Diaz was in London last week promoting her new film, Knight and Day, but sadly didn鈥檛 find time to drop in at the company named in her honour.

Two phrases containing the word 鈥檙ock鈥�

With the World Cup behind us, we thought we were safe from press releases making tenuous links between building materials and large public events. Not so. Last week we received a missive trumpeting research into festivals: 鈥淏ritain cements reputation as summer hotspot with 2,820 days of major festivals in 2010.鈥� The source of this release was Rockwool, the insulation maker. The link between Rockwool and festivals? Well, it makes sound-absorbing insulation, said the firm鈥檚 PR, and 鈥渇estivals are very noisy鈥�. He could not confirm, however, whether Rockwool would be offering to wrap the Glastonbury festival in soundproof wool.