Shares in biotech firm C4X Discovery fizz on €414m Sanofi deal April 12, 2021 Shares in C4X discovery jumped today after the biotech company unveiled a €414m (£360m) licensing deal with Sanofi to develop an oral therapy to treat inflammatory diseases. Under the terms of the deal, the London-listed giant will receive an upfront payment of €7m and could receive up to a further €407m in potential development and [...]
Microsoft buys AI firm Nuance for $19.7bn in healthcare push April 12, 2021 Microsoft today said it will buy AI health firm Nuance Communications in a $19.7bn (£14.3bn) deal as it looks to bolster its healthcare offering. Massachusetts-based Nuance offers artificial intelligence and speech technology services designed to automate clinical administrative work and reduce the burden of paperwork on doctors. Microsoft said its offer of $56 per share [...]
Jack Ma’s Ant Group forced to restructure after China crackdown April 12, 2021 Ant Group will be restructured as a financial holding company as part of a crackdown by Beijing on billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba empire. China’s central bank today said Ant Group had laid out a “comprehensive and feasible restructuring plan” following pressure from regulators. The agreement will mean the fintech firm cuts “improper” links between its [...]
Pensionbee targets £384m valuation as it gears up for London float April 12, 2021 Pensionbee is targeting a valuation of up to £384m as it prepares to list on the London Stock Exchange later this month. In a filing today the fintech firm priced its initial public offering at between 155p and 175p per share, giving a market capitalisation of between £346m and £384m. It plans to raise £55m [...]
Google accused of insider trading over secret digital ads programme April 12, 2021 Google has been accused of insider trading in the digital advertising market through its use of a secret programme that allegedly gave it an unfair advantage over rivals. Court documents filed in a Texas lawsuit state the scheme, dubbed Project Bernanke, used access to data about past bids in Google’s advertising exchange to give it [...]
Swedish payments firm Trustly plans to go public imminently April 12, 2021 Swedish payments firm Trustly plans to launch an IPO in late April or early May that could value the business at €9bn. Trustly’s owner, buyout group Nordic Capital, is working with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Carnegie on the IPO, Reuters reported in January. Trustly’s revenues were around €130m in 2019 and will be around [...]
Darktrace revenue hits $200m as it confirms London float April 12, 2021 Darktrace today said its revenue surged to almost $200m (£146m) thanks to the pandemic as it confirmed plans to float on the London Stock Exchange. In a filing this morning the Cambridge-based tech firm unveiled its intention to list in London, with its registration document due to be published later today. Darktrace did not provide [...]
Five big names who made CRISPR possible April 9, 2021 | City Talk Before becoming a reality, many of our craziest dreams had first been imagined in comics, movies and television shows. Being passionate about robotics and AI and also being a movie lover, I have devoured a large number of Sci-Fi movies, with Gattaca being one of my favourites. In this movie, new generations of humans are [...]
US outlines new global plan to tax tech titans April 8, 2021 The US has put forward a new plan on global corporate taxes in an effort to resolve disagreements over upcoming tech tax reforms. President Joe Biden’s administration has submitted proposals that would see tech giants and other large multinational corporations pay higher taxes in countries in which they operate, regardless of their physical presence in [...]
The game-changing applications of neuromorphic high-speed vision April 8, 2021 | City Talk In a very short time, the digital world has become dominated by visual data. Cameras are everywhere, pumping zettabytes of data into phones, cars, tablets, and robots. However, this data is not all created equal. We can categorise digital visual data in the following ways: 1) Static Vision Static vision entails huge repositories of pre-recorded [...]