Bolt set for £190m VAT bill after legal defeat October 8, 2026 Ride-hailing platform Bolt has been refused permission to appeal a case brought by HMRC over how it calculates and pays its VAT. This follows HMRC winning an appeal in June against the Estonian tech giant over its VAT payments and calculations, overturning earlier decisions that had ruled in Bolt’s favour. The tax authority brought the [...]
Asos hackers duped employee in data breach October 8, 2026 The hackers behind a threat to leak Asos customer data duped an employee by posing as a “trusted contact,” the fast-fashion group has said. An unknown group shocked Asos’ millions of customers on Tuesday when they published a push notification on the online retailer’s app, claiming to have hacked into the company and threatening a [...]
As it happened: Oil surges after Trump says he doesn’t ‘really want’ Iran peace October 8, 2026 Welcome back to City AM‘s FTSE 100 liveblog. The FTSE 100 has returned to the red after markets were hit by the spiking price of oil this week that led to a global bond sell-off. The UK’s 10-year gilt yield rose ten basis point yesterday before giving up some gains to settle seven basis points higher at [...]
Goldman-linked EY breach highlights new era of undetectable data theft October 7, 2026 Sensitive corporate data can be stolen through everyday workplace software without setting off traditional cyber defences, Darktrace has warned, after a breach at the Big Four giant exposed information linked to Goldman Sachs and Man Group. Nathaniel Jones, senior vice president of global threat intelligence at Darktrace, told City AM attackers were increasingly able to [...]
Lime pumps £1m into parking to tackle London e-bike clutter October 7, 2026 Green bike conglomerate Lime is pumping nearly £1m into hundreds of new e-bike parking bays as it looks to tackle the pavement clutter that has accompanied London’s rental bike boom. The capital’s biggest shared e-bike operator has awarded £886,857 to nine boroughs, including Greenwich, Lambeth and Hackney, to create or expand 586 parking bays this [...]
Musk turns to rival Anthropic to power Grok October 7, 2026 Elon Musk has opted to buy competing technology as he is set to use rival Anthropic’s AI models to power parts of Grok, despite spending heavily to build his own AI challenger. Musk said on Wednesday that the Grok bot would use the “best back-end model for any given task”, including Anthropic’s latest Claude Opus [...]
HSBC set to axe UK wealth jobs as AI takes hold October 7, 2026 HSBC is putting a raft of roles in its UK wealth division on the chopping block following a push to slash costs with artificial intelligence. Europe’s biggest lender is consulting on changes to its wealth management operations that would lead to a shake-up for hundreds of relationship managers and financial advisers across the UK. The [...]
UK AI health rules could give firms ‘competitive edge’ as ministers back overhaul October 6, 2026 Experts have said Britain’s new approach to regulating AI in healthcare could give UK tech firms a “competitive edge” by letting them prove their technology in the NHS earlier. The UK government on Tuesday accepted all 44 recommendations of the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, paving the way for a shake-up [...]
Informa snaps up Clarion Events in £2.2bn deal with Blackstone October 6, 2026 Digital services giant Informa has snapped up the world’s largest privately owned event and exhibition organiser in a multi-billion pound deal with private equity firm Blackstone. The FTSE 100 group revealed on Tuesday it had acquired London-headquartered Clarion Events for £2.2bn from Blackstone. The deal brings over 100 business-to-business live event brands under the Informa [...]
UK firms axe PR and consulting spend as AI tools muscle in October 6, 2026 British businesses are shelving spending on public relations and consultancy firms as they embrace the capabilities of PR tools, according to City AM’s latest Business Spend Pulse. The share of UK firms who spent money on management consultants and PR services fell sharply in September to just 4.2 per cent, despite an overall 3.1 per [...]