Glaxosmithkline set to bag £500m UK deal for coronavirus vaccine July 5, 2020 Pharmaceuticals giants Glaxosmithkline (GSK) and Sanofi are close to securing a £500m deal to supply the UK government 60m doses of their coronavirus vaccine, according to reports. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) is said to be taking an option to buy the vaccine from the two drugs companies if it proves [...]
UK government wins stake in satellite firm Oneweb July 3, 2020 The UK government has won its joint bid with India’s Bharti Enterprises for the collapsed satellite internet operator Oneweb, in a move set to put it in competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink. The government will invest $500m and take a significant equity share in Oneweb, thought to be about 20 per cent. Oneweb went bust [...]
Twitter and JP Morgan drop ‘master’ and ‘slave’ terms July 3, 2020 Twitter is going to discontinue the use of software terms ‘master’ and ‘slave’, as well as more common phrases such as ‘blacklist’, as it tries to move toward inclusive language. US banking giant JP Morgan is to make a similar move, following global anti-racism protests and the killing of George Floyd by the police in [...]
Tesla shares accelerate as car deliveries top estimates July 2, 2020 Shares in Tesla popped eight per cent as trading began today, after it posted second-quarter delivery numbers that surpassed expectations. Tesla delivered 90,650 vehicles during the quarter, above estimates of 74,130 vehicles, according to Refinitiv data. It delivered 80,050 units of its new Model Y sport utility vehicle and Model 3 sedan for the quarter. [...]
Tech chiefs to appear before US Congress in July antitrust hearing July 2, 2020 The chief executives of Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook will all testify before a US Congress panel later this month, as scrutiny of competition in the tech sector ramps up. An approximate date of 27 July has now been set for the group to appear, sources told Reuters, with all four chiefs having been made [...]
Struggling to adapt? Look to the creative industries for inspiration July 2, 2020 The outlooks for many sectors remains pessimistic — but if you want inspiration, you’ll find the industries that have been worst hit are setting an example of how to respond. Social distancing restrictions have hit the creative industries, from concert venues to cinemas and museums, more than any others. For some companies, this has exposed [...]
Facebook reveals flaw that shared data with 5,000 developers July 2, 2020 Facebook has said it mistakenly allowed 5,000 app developers to access information about its users after a time limit system failed to expire properly. The system, introduced in 2018 to block a loophole used in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, was designed to shut off data access to third-party developers if a Facebook user hadn’t opened [...]
Business groups challenge Google’s $2.1bn Fitbit deal over antitrust concerns July 2, 2020 Twenty advocacy groups from the US, Europe and elsewhere have signed a statement urging regulators to look into Google’s $2.1bn bid for Fitbit, citing privacy and competition concerns. The organisations argued regulators should be concerned about allowing Google to gain access to Fitbit’s data, which tracks personal information about its users such as the number [...]
Zuckerberg: Advertisers will be back on Facebook ‘soon enough’ July 2, 2020 Mark Zuckerberg has brushed off staff concerns of an ongoing advertising boycott at Facebook, saying it will have very little impact on the business. The Facebook chief executive told employees at an internal meeting last week that the move only affects a “small” chunk of its revenue, adding: “My guess is that all these advertisers [...]
Fresh calls for guarantees on digital taxation in future UK-US trade deal July 2, 2020 One of America’s largest internet advocacy groups has published a six-point wish list for a future UK-US trade deal, including calls for no unilateral digital taxes. The Internet Association’s new white paper calls for a future trade deal to include provisions to ensure the free flow of information between the two countries, a guarantee to [...]