Uber IPO? Leaked reports suggest Uber plans to go public within two years August 21, 2015 Ride-hailing app Uber could become a public company by early 2017, according to a leaked document intended for investors, reports news agency Reuters. A confidential document outlining a presentation intended for potential investors in the company’s Chinese arm UberChina revealed that the parent company is forecast to go public within 18-24 months. Speculation about the [...]
Google spins off life sciences to become own company under Alphabet with Andy Conrad as chief exec August 21, 2015 Google’s life sciences team is about to become a standalone company. Formerly part of the tech giant’s secretive research organisation Google X, the company has now confirmed speculation that it’s to be spun off into a company of its own under Alphabet. Co-founder Sergey Brin wrote in a blog post today that the goal would [...]
Gap reports yet another round of disappointing profits for Q2 August 21, 2015 American apparel retailer Gap reported a fall in quarterly profit for the second consecutive quarter yesterday. The company said that it had been hit by a stronger dollar, shipment delays and weak sales. The company said net income fell by more than a third to $219m (£140m) or 52 cents per share, in the second [...]
HP sales slip as consumers hold off buying PCs August 21, 2015 Computing giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) reported its fourth straight quarter of lower revenues yesterday, pointing to a strong dollar, weak personal computer sales and lower demand from corporates for its services. Falling demand for PCs has severely impacted the company, with HP reporting a drop in quarterly sales in 15 of the last 16 quarters. Revenue at HP’s [...]
Twitter’s share price is tanking: Stock swoops below $26 IPO price August 20, 2015 The rapidly declining share price of Twitter has swooped lower than its IPO price of $26 – a new nadir for the troubled social network. Twitter shares have fallen by more than six per cent in early afternoon trading, sending stock as low as $25.94 per share, and tumbling past the marker which signals the [...]
Premier cuts costs as it joins the oil leak August 20, 2015 Premier Oil yesterday announced losses of $214.7m (£137m) as the effects of over-supply in the market made their way on to another oil company’s balance sheets. The firm’s losses came despite revenues coming in ahead of expectations at $577. Premier said it had implemented a series of cost-cutting measures to see it through a period [...]
Uber safety: “Lax” background checks slammed as convicted criminals allowed to become drivers August 20, 2015 Background checks by taxi-hailing app Uber have come under fire, after California prosecutors slammed it for security routines so lax that convicted sex offenders and even murderers were allegedly allowed to become drivers. California prosecutors are widening a civil lawsuit they originally brought against Uber in December last year, alleging that the company misleads customers [...]
FTSE 100 poised for longest losing streak since 2011 August 20, 2015 Britain's top share index fell for the eighth straight session today, putting it on course to clock its longest losing streak since 2011. The FTSE 100 was also down more than 10 per cent from its recent record high of 7,122.74 points hit in April – taking it into official correction territory, Britain's FTSE 100 [...]
Co-operative Bank losses nearly treble as turnaround plan gets underway August 20, 2015 The figures Co-op Bank said it made a loss of £204.2m in the first half of 2015, up from a £77m loss in the same period last year, however this was slightly better than expected. The bank’s operating income slumped to £236.5m during this period, from £307.3m in the first half of 2014. This included losses [...]
Amazon Web Services opens first startup support centre outside US in London’s Silicon Roundabout August 20, 2015 If you were looking for more evidence that Tech City is booming: Amazon has just announced it will open its first startup support centre outside the US – and is basing it in London’s Silicon Roundabout. Competition between cloud-based infrastructure providers has heated up recently, with Alibaba, Microsoft and Google all reporting rapid growth in [...]