GCA Altium acquires Stella EOC in expansion into entertainment February 14, 2020 Investment bank GCA Altium has announced it will acquire Stella EOC, a technology and media investment banking boutique. The strategic acquisition will strengthen GCA’s technology practice and add to its expertise in the entertainment space. GCA have previously advised on some deals in the entertainment sector, such as the sale of 33 per cent of [...]
Mark Zuckerberg ‘accepts’ Facebook may have to pay more tax in Europe February 14, 2020 Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg says he recognises that tech giants may to have pay more tax in Europe in future. The social media giant’s founder said he understood the “frustration” surrounding the issue and backed plans from think tank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, to find a global solution. Facebook and other tech giants [...]
Judge pauses Microsoft’s $10bn Pentagon contract in Amazon lawsuit February 13, 2020 A US judge has temporarily blocked Microsoft’s $10bn (£7.66bn) Pentagon cloud computing contract, in response to a lawsuit filed by Amazon. Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith issued the injunction but did not release her written opinion. Amazon Web Services has been told to earmark $42m to pay for costs and damages in the event that today’s [...]
US hits Huawei with fresh charges over alleged trade secret theft February 13, 2020 The US has ramped up its attack on Huawei, filing a raft of new charges against the embattled Chinese tech giant on allegations of stealing trade secrets. In a 16-count indictment published today, the Justice Department accused Huawei of stealing technology from six unnamed American companies. The fresh accusations come alongside raft of other charges [...]
Tesla shares rise as it unveils plan for $2bn stock issue February 13, 2020 Shares in Tesla rose this afternoon after the electric car maker said it would raise roughly $2bn (£1.5bn) by issuing new stock. Idiosyncratic chief executive Elon Musk will personally purchase up to $10m of shares in the new offering, while Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who sits on Tesla’s board of directors, will also buy up [...]
EDF acquires electric car charging firm Pod Point in £100m deal February 13, 2020 EDF has bought a majority stake in electric vehicle charging point manufacturer Pod Point as part of a deal worth more than £100m, City A.M. understands. The tie-up also forms part of a new joint venture with Legal & General Capital, in which the latter will also take a 23 per cent stake in Pod [...]
Google gets the green light for $2.6bn Looker acquisition February 13, 2020 Google today completed its $2.6bn (£2bn) acquisition of analytics firm Looker after the deal was approved by the competition watchdog. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into the merger in December amid concerns it could damage competition in the UK’s cloud computing market. However the regulator today said it had cleared the [...]
Fighting shadows: Each technology advance puts new weapons in the hands of cyber-criminals February 13, 2020 US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, talking about the benefits of openness and transparency, famously said that sunlight is the best disinfectant. And, conversely, we are all rightly suspicious of anything that hides in the shadows and conceals identity and motive. Global cybercrime is able to exploit technology to create anonymity and avoid accountability as [...]
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra impressions: A groundbreaking camera with a 100x zoom lens February 12, 2020 Cameras have long been the battleground on which top phones have proven themselves. Just look at how the advertising has evolved over the years: televisions and billboards are now plastered with video and photographs shot on Apple, Google and Samsung phones. The physical devices themselves? Almost an afterthought by comparison. Where manufacturers once fought to [...]
Business groups blast new Ofcom powers to police social media February 12, 2020 Business groups have hit out at Nicky Morgan’s plans to give Ofcom an expanded role in regulating the internet, calling the plan “unrealistic” and saying it would create “uncertainty”. The culture secretary announced that the broadcast regulator would be beefed up to tackle social media firms over “online harms”. Ofcom’s new role, first mooted in [...]