Musical shares: Why Merck Mercuriadis believes the old ones are always the best October 14, 2019 Merck Mercuriadis has a party trick. If you tell the veteran music mogul-turned City slicker your favourite band, he’ll name an older band that influenced them. Like a Spotify algorithm, but in real life. Mercuriadis’s encyclopedic music knowledge is hardly surprising. Over his career he has managed artists including Morrissey, Beyonce and Elton John, and [...]
Hiro Capital launches with €100m fund as it sets sights on gaming boom October 14, 2019 A team of gaming entrepreneurs has set up a brand new venture capital firm to pump €100m (£87.6m) into the booming games and esports industries. Hiro Capital launched today with the aim of targeting what it describes as a funding gap in the market, splitting its investments between creative games studios and industry technology. Read [...]
Northedge snaps up UK video games firm Catalis in £90m deal October 14, 2019 Private equity group Northedge Capital has bought London-based video games company Catalis in a deal valuing the firm at £90m. Northedge has invested £46.6m in Catalis, while major backer Vespa Capital and chief executive Dominic Wheatley have reinvested their shareholdings in the company as part of the transaction. Read more: MPs call for regulation of [...]
Mastercard and Visa join Paypal and others in abandoning Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project October 12, 2019 Mastercard, Visa, eBay and Stripe have all pulled out of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Libra. It comes a week Paypal announced they were withdrawing from Libra and is a huge blow to the social network’s plans to launch what it envisioned as a global currency. Read more: Paypal become first firm to drop out of Facebook’s [...]
Facebook pays just £28m in UK corporation tax in 2018 after sales worth almost £800m October 11, 2019 Facebook paid just £28m in UK corporation tax in 2018 according to its latest filing at Companies House. This is despite it having recognised sales worth £797m with a gross profit of £763.4m for the year. Read more: OECD targets tech giants as it shakes up global tax rules It is the latest example of [...]
James Murdoch acquires minority stake in Vice Media October 11, 2019 James Murdoch has agreed to buy a minority share in Vice Media as he looks to build his own media empire. The younger son of Rupert Murdoch created Lupa Systems earlier this year with the $2bn proceeds from the family’s $71bn sale of 21st Century Fox to Disney. Read more: Government and BBC ‘must reach [...]
Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One deepens losses days before £3.3bn Hasbro merger vote October 11, 2019 Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One has revealed a £43.9m loss in the first quarter of the year, just days before Hasbro puts a massive takeover offer to a shareholder vote. The media firm posted a £43.9m loss, up from a £6.8m loss this time last year, blaming higher debt and its acquisition of Audio Network. [...]
Government must reach funding deal with BBC over free TV licences, say MPs October 11, 2019 MPs have urged the government and the BBC to reach a funding arrangement to restore free TV licences for people aged over 75. In a damning report the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee slammed the government of 2015 for trying to “bounce” the BBC into accepting measures that left it liable to [...]
Dialling down: A quarter of mobile phone users make fewer than five calls a month October 10, 2019 A quarter of mobile phone users in the UK make fewer than five calls per month, while six per cent made no calls at all, new figures have revealed. Moreover, around 60 per cent of those people who did pick up the phone ended the call in under 90 seconds. Read more: Mobile shopping platform [...]
Nobel prize for literature awarded to Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke October 10, 2019 Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and Austrian writer Peter Handke have both been awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Tokarczuk, who was lauded for her “narrative imagination” and “encyclopedic passion”, was handed the prestigious award for 2018. Read more: Nationwide scoops £50m prize for small business lending Handke scooped up the prize for this year and [...]