Don’t worry – despite the name shame, Salesforce Tower’s in pretty good company May 27, 2014 Hardly a day goes by when one of London’s newest skyscrapers isn’t making headlines and this week it’s the artist formerly known as Heron Tower. Last week it emerged that the building, on the City’s Bishopsgate, had signed a deal welcoming a new (and largest) tenant, American CRM giant, Salesforce. As part of the [...]
How Asia could fix Twitter’s disastrous growth problem May 27, 2014 Twitter’s user growth is rapidly slowing, a revelation that has sent its share price tumbling in recent months. But the social network’s best hope for growth could lie in Asia, according to a report today. While the number of Twitter users in the US is expected to grow by just 12 per cent this year, [...]
What you need to know before the US open May 27, 2014 US stock futures rose this morning, as investors bet on expectations of rate cuts from the European Central Bank. World shares have risen to a near all-time high, too, as the central lender continues to point towards continuing global liquidity. Meanwhile, durable goods rose unexpectedly, by 0.8 per cent, suggesting a stronger rebound than expected. [...]
US durable goods orders beat expectations with 0.8pc rise May 27, 2014 Durable goods orders in the US unexpectedly rose 0.8 per cent in April, after rising 2.5 per cent in March. The consensus was for a 0.5 per cent fall. Rising sales of defence aircraft and other transport equipment helped drive the unexpected boost in orders. Defence capital goods orders jumped 39 per cent in the [...]
Rogoff distances himself from not-so-pernickety Piketty May 27, 2014 Thomas Piketty is isn’t having a great week. At the end of last week, the FT launched a damning attack on his best-selling tome Capital in the Twenty-First Century, as data fisking hack Chris Giles accused Piketty of having made a number of errors with his figures. Not great news for the new darling of [...]
How the Co-op’s botched deal has cut TSB out of half of the mortgage market May 27, 2014 New high street bank TSB can only access half of the mortgage market because it does not have the systems in place to sell through mortgage brokers, chief executive Paul Pester said today – and it is thanks to the Co-op’s botched attempt to buy the lender. As 40 to 50 per cent of [...]
Former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed sells his flash sales site to MySale May 27, 2014 Mohamed Al Fayed has sold his luxury flash sales website Cocosa for an undisclosed sum to MySale, an Australian rival backed by Philip Green that is looking to expand in the UK. The former Harrods boss bought Cocosa in 2011 after selling his world-famous store to Qatar Holdings the previous year, with the view [...]
Darkcoin crashes 23pc after blockchain forks May 27, 2014 Privacy centred cryptocurrency Darkcoin has suffered a massive 23 per cent fall after its blockchain split into several forks. Cryptocurrencies can only have a single path stemming from the original block. However, one-block forks can be created when two blocks come into being only moments apart. Yesterday, Darkcoin implemented the much anticipated masternodes, which conceal [...]
Apple rumoured to be close to unveiling Jetson-style home automation platform May 27, 2014 Remember the Jetsons? Their home was filled with a variety of push-button, space age, automated conveniences. Fifty years on and the fantasy could soon be another step closer, as Apple takes its biggest stride yet into the "internet of things". According to the FT, the electronics titan is preparing a new software platform that’d turn [...]
Regulator warns on conflicts of interest in insurance intermediaries May 27, 2014 The Financial Conduct Authority has cautioned this morning that conflicts of interest within insurance intermediaries are “not being properly managed” when it comes to dealing with small business clients. It’s called on firms to manage situations better. The City watchdog ran a review of small business customers, as they often have more complex needs when [...]