Former Apple retail head Angela Ahrendts appointed to Airbnb’s board May 16, 2019 Airbnb has beefed up its board of directors with the appointment of Angela Ahrendts, former head of retail at Apple. Ahrendts, who is also a former chief executive of luxury fashion house Burberry, will become an independent board member alongside ex-American Express boss Ken Chenault and former Pixar finance chief Ann Mather. She resigned from Apple [...]
China threatens to strike back after US Huawei ban May 16, 2019 China has threatened to retaliate against the US after President Donald Trump signed an executive order effectively blocking American companies from working with telecoms firm Huawei. Foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang slammed the use of unilateral sanctions on Chinese firms and said the country would take action. Read more: Former spy chief calls for UK [...]
Accounting software firm Xero grows revenue thanks to strong UK performance May 16, 2019 Accounting software company Xero has posted a sharp rise in revenue for the full year, boosted by strong subscriber growth in the UK. Read more: Financial app store provider OpenFin backed in $17m funding round The figures Operating revenue soared 36 per cent to 552.8m New Zealand dollars (£267.9m) in the year to the end [...]
Huawei poses a risk to national security and should be banned, says former spy chief May 16, 2019 Allowing Chinese tech firm Huawei to participate in the UK’s 5G network poses an unnecessary risk to national security, the former head of MI6 has warned. Sir Richard Dearlove has called for a total ban on Huawei, warning that no Chinese company could be free from the influence of the communist state. Read more: Huawei [...]
Lift off: Flying taxi startup hopes to revolutionise city travel by 2025 May 16, 2019 Ever been stuck in a traffic jam, wishing you could take to the skies and leapfrog the gridlocked cars below? German startup Lilium hopes that by 2025, it will let you do just that, after staging a successful maiden flight of a prototype five-seater flying taxi, capable of whisking passengers from place to place above [...]
Cyber security solutions that are only 95 per cent effective are just not good enough anymore May 16, 2019 The cyber security industry is failing businesses. Cyber criminals are constantly evolving and evading the market’s most sophisticated detection-based security solutions, with government figures showing that 32 per cent of UK businesses have faced a cyber attack or data breach in the past year. Most security solutions take a “best endeavour” approach to defending against [...]
Face off: iProov’s facial verification system can keep your online identity safe and protect your bank account May 16, 2019 Cyber security can feel like an intractable problem. Every day there seem to be new stories about hacking, scams, and financial fraud that target our reliance on digital tools and use them against us. Just this week, we had news of a spyware attack on Whatsapp. And while cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated, our [...]
Sophos shares jump as it grows revenue despite ‘challenging’ year May 16, 2019 Shares in cybersecurity firm Sophos soared after it posted double-digit revenue growth for the full year, despite reporting “challenging” trading over the period. Read more: Sophos shares tank on performance warning The figures Revenue rose 11.2 per cent to $710.6m (£554m) in the year to the end of March. Pre-tax profit hit $53.6m, up from [...]
Huawei lashes out at US as President Donald Trump declares tech emergency May 16, 2019 Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has said it is willing to work with the Trump administration after it was slapped with a ban on buying components from US firms without special approvals. Read more: Huawei snaps up top Sky News journalist as senior spin doctor US President Donald Trump yesterday also signed an executive order which [...]
Monzo backer Accel raises $575m fund for European and Israeli startups May 16, 2019 London venture capital stalwart Accel has today announced its sixth fund for Europe's early-stage startups, closed at a final raise of $575m (£440m). The fund will be managed by a core investment team based in its London office, seeking out entrepreneurs across the continent and in Israel in both consumer and enterprise sectors at series A stage. Accel [...]