Boohoo moves forward with $20m acquisition of Nasty Gal February 6, 2017 Online fashion retailer Boohoo is moving forward with its $20m (£16m) acquisition of bankrupt rival Nasty Gal, announcing this morning that the deal will be completed by the end of the month. Boohoo, which targets millennial shoppers, announced its intentions to buy up Nasty Gal's intellectual property assets and customer database on 28 December. This [...]
Poor hiring decisions are costing businesses thousands of pounds February 6, 2017 Bad hiring decisions are routinely leaving five digit holes in businesses' budgets, research out today has found. In a survey by CV-Library, two-thirds (66.1 per cent) of recruiters confessed they had lost significant chunks of cash on a bad hiring calls. Meanwhile, just less than one in five (19.5 per cent) admitted a hire that [...]
Ryanair profits hit turbulence but the airline maintains full-year guidance February 6, 2017 Ryanair profits hit a patch of turbulence in 2016 as the devaluation of sterling following the EU referendum saw Europe’s largest airline’s wings clipped. The figures Profits fell by eight per cent to €95m (£81m) despite traffic growing by 16 per cent to reach 29m customers. Revenue grew one per cent year-on-year to €1.35bn (£1.16bn) [...]
Twitter could be the people’s platform – but not unless it turns a profit February 6, 2017 Twitter has a problem. Despite unbridled use by the President of the United States; despite being used the world round to mobilise protests and marches – to distribute news, to interact and advertise – it looks like it’s in trouble. Awareness of it has never been higher and yet, Twitter isn’t making a profit. While [...]
London travel disruption: Delays on the Central, Circle and Metropolitan lines this morning February 6, 2017 Londoners may have breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that the latest round of Tube strikes had been called off, but some commuters are still starting their weeks with a disrupted journey into work. On the Central line, westbound services are delayed because of a faulty train at Liverpool Street. https://twitter.com/centralline/status/828523735116308484 There are [...]
Yo Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe: I want to be the next Richard Branson February 6, 2017 It took a life crisis for Simon Woodroffe to set up restaurant chain Yo Sushi. “I got divorced in the early nineties and was out in the wilderness for a long time. I was down to my last £200,000 tied to my flat and was desperate to do something with my life. That’s when I set [...]
Some of the world’s biggest tech companies join the fight against US President Donald Trump’s travel ban February 6, 2017 Some of the world’s biggest tech groups have officially joined the fight against US President Donald Trump’s travel ban on nationals from certain Muslim-majority countries. Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook are among 97 companies to file an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief, making clear their support for efforts to stop the travel ban. [...]
Making his mark on Mediacom UK: Meet chief executive Josh Krichefski February 6, 2017 I’m waiting in the lobby of MediaCom’s home in Holborn to meet Josh Krichefski; a six storey hive, buzzing with the to-and-fro of a thousand-strong population, tied together by a dominating atrium. Expecting to head straight to the executive suite on the top floor, his assistant instead guides me to the second: “he likes to [...]
The irony of the filter bubble for advertisers is bittersweet February 6, 2017 "Algorithm" became a dirty word in 2016; few know what one is, fewer know how one actually works. Sure sounds scary though. “Filter bubble” can be added to that list, the latter a product of the former. The notion that social media algorithms nurture confirmation bias through reflecting self-affirming views, and therefore prejudice, is rife. [...]
British business leaders urge government to improve the UK’s lagging infrastructure February 6, 2017 Two thirds of British business leaders think that the UK’s infrastructure is worse than other developed economies, according to a Lloyds Bank survey released today. Only 8 per cent of the 77 boardroom-level executives who responded thought that the national infrastructure of the UK was better than that of other countries. The results of the [...]