Home is where the heart is: how to revolutionise the house buying process January 9, 2020 For too many people, home ownership is a distant dream. In today’s Britain, only about 27 per cent of people aged 25 to 34 own their home — a huge dip compared to 1990, when ownership for this age group was 50 per cent, according to the Resolution Foundation. Sky-high property prices, the need to [...]
Ofcom plans to ‘supercharge’ rollout of full-fibre broadband January 8, 2020 Ofcom will “supercharge” British investment in full-fibre broadband by encouraging more competition in cities and supporting BT to roll out faster speeds in rural areas. In a new five-year plan set out today, Britain’s telecoms regulator proposed the introduction of different regulatory regimes for rural and urban areas. Read more: Broadband speeds are increasing but [...]
Why CES 2020 shows the UK is a tech superpower January 8, 2020 The UK’s position as Europe’s leading tech superpower is being reinforced and demonstrated at Consumer Electronic Show (CES) — the world’s largest tech show — in Las Vegas this week. As the UK investment minister I’m delighted to be leading a powerful delegation of UK tech companies ranging from startups hosted by the Future Worlds [...]
CES 2020: Amazon, Sony and Toyota put mobility centre stage at tech conference January 7, 2020 Amazon signalled a concerted push into the car industry at CES 2020, as it announced a partnership with Lamborghini and other firms working on driverless car tech. It signals the latest move into the mobility sector for one of Silicon Valley’s tech giants, as the internet retailer said it would add its voice assistant Alexa [...]
Tech giants lobby EU not to hold them liable for illegal content January 7, 2020 The biggest tech companies have called on the EU not to hold them liable for all content on their platforms, but have accepted that their efforts to remove illegal or harmful content could be regulated by a new European watchdog. A lobby group that represents tech titans including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon has written [...]
Elon Musk stripteases at launch of Tesla SUV at new China factory January 7, 2020 Elon Musk left his army of followers hot under the collar this morning, when he posted a video of himself seemingly beginning a striptease on stage at the launch of Tesla’s Model Y in Shanghai. The Tesla boss was at his firm’s new Gigafactory in the city, when he started dancing in front of the [...]
London’s legal tech status burnished by $5m US investment in startup Juro January 7, 2020 London’s status as a hub for legal tech was boosted today by the investment of $5m (£3.8m) in contracts startup Juro in a funding round led by a US firm that backed Twitter and Kickstarter. Juro is an end-to-end contract management platform with customers such as Deliveroo and Skyscanner. The company today announced it has [...]
US firm Wiley buys London-based tech education company Mthree for £98m January 6, 2020 London-based tech education firm Mthree has been bought by US multinational John Wiley and Sons, in a deal worth $129m (£98m). Mthree trains up students and professionals looking to go into technology careers, and boasts a revenue of more than $50m. Read more: The top tech predictions for 2020 The company was sold by private [...]
Xerox secures $24bn financing for HP hostile takeover bid January 6, 2020 Printer maker Xerox has announced it has secured $24bn (£18.3bn) financing for its $33.5bn takeover offer for HP – a deal the computing giant is opposing. HP rejected Xerox’s $22 per share offer in November, saying it “significantly” undervalued the company. Xerox then took the proposal directly to HP shareholders. Read more: Xerox takes $33.5bn [...]
The social media giants are becoming digital graveyards January 6, 2020 In the final weeks of 2019, Twitter announced an imminent cull of inactive accounts. Desultory users risked losing their Twitter handles and having to start building their social media presence all over again. But there was another implication: inactivity might also mean that the person behind the profile is no longer alive. Bereaved people reacted [...]