Why university spinouts are a battleground in the government’s ‘science and tech superpower’ plans May 16, 2023 Top tech investors and policymakers are looking to boost the flow of cash into a new wave of start-ups coming out of British universities, as ministers lean on the private sector to turn the UK into a “tech and science superpower”. Universities have long been viewed as fertile breeding grounds for tech start-ups by private [...]
Restart game? EU approves Microsoft’s $69bn Activision bid weeks after UK rejected deal May 15, 2023 Microsoft’s $68.7bn bid for Activision Blizzard has been approved by EU regulators today, just weeks after the UK’s competition agency blocked the deal. The EU decided to approve the deal after remedies were put in place to address competition concerns, with the European Commission saying Microsoft offered 10-year free licensing deals to customers. “These licenses [...]
WANdisco: Scandal-hit data firm warns cash could run out by mid-July as it launches $30m fundraise May 15, 2023 Scandal-hit data firm WANdisco warned it could run out of cash as soon as mid-July today as it announced an emergency $30m fundraise to bolster its balance sheet following a fraud scandal.
Cost of card payments slammed as ‘startling’ after Mastercard exec defends fees May 15, 2023 A lobby group has today warned of the “startling rise in the cost of accepting cards” for small businesses after the European chief of Mastercard defended the fees it levies on merchants over the weekend. Interchange fees, which are charged to merchants and paid to the card issuing bank and payment network, have climbed sharply [...]
AI will have ‘bigger economic impact’ than Industrial Revolution, expert predicts May 14, 2023 Emerging AI technologies will have a bigger impact on the global economy than the Industrial Revolution, a leading expert has predicted. Emad Mostaque, the founder of Stability AI, the maker of a free AI-image generating tool Stable Diffusion, has suggested artificial intelligence (AI) will be bigger than Google and Facebook within a decade. Speaking on [...]
Vodafone’s new chief under pressure to shine as analysts predict weak annual results May 14, 2023 Vodafone’s new chief Margherita Della Valle will be looking to lay out a convincing vision for the firm on Tuesday as she updates the City with its full year results for the first time in the top job. Della Valle, the former finance chief of Vodafone, has been tasked with breathing life into the FTSE [...]
Elon Musk announces successor as Twitter chief – and that it’s now called X Corp May 12, 2023 Elon Musk said that he has found a new CEO for Twitter, or X Corp, as it is now called. He did not initially name the person but said she will be starting in about six weeks when the announcement was made on Thursday. On Friday he took to the site to say the new [...]
Supertool: S4’s Sorrell says AI ‘more effective than a 25-year-old media buyer’ May 11, 2023 S4’s chairman Sir Martin Sorrell is optimistic about the future of AI as his advertising agency embraces it to supercharge their productivity and reach. Sorrell said S4 had already seen an increase in viewing metrics because AI was helping employees speed up ad copywriting and aggregate data that makes it easier to hyper-personalise and target [...]
Softbank’s Vision Funds book record £31bn loss – but Alibaba sale helps cushion the blow May 11, 2023 Japanese investment giant Softbank continued to shed cash from its storied Vision Funds in the three months to March even as a slew of asset sales and tech rebound helped narrow losses across the firm.
Vodafone: New chief embarks on Emirati E& partnership, with board seats up for grabs May 11, 2023 Vodafone has announced a strategic relationship with e& – the Emirati telecommunications firm which currently holds 14.6 per cent of its shares. In the deal, E&’s chief executive will join the board and there are provisions included for another member its team team to take a seat should the Emirati firm’s shareholding go above 20 [...]