H&M takes a $20m stake in fintech startup Klarna October 8, 2018 Swedish fintech startup Klarna has today announced a global partnership with fashion powerhouse H&M, which included a $20m (£15.3m) investment in the business. The deal will see Klarna integrate its digital payments technology into H&M's physical and online stores via its payment programme H&M Club1. Klarna allows shoppers to pay securely for products online with flexible payment options [...]
Heathrow fined £120,000 for leaving security staff’s personal data on an unencrypted memory stick October 8, 2018 Heathrow must pay a £120,000 fine after an employee lost a memory stick containing dozens of staff’s personal details. The details of up to 50 security personnel, and 10 people’s names, dates of birth and passport numbers, were exposed on the memory stick, which was found by a member of the public. Read more: Heathrow [...]
Could YouTube star Joe Sugg win Strictly Come Dancing? October 8, 2018 When Strictly Come Dancing unveiled its 2018 lineup, I imagine there would have been more than a couple of blank faces at the name Joe Sugg. While reality stars frequently feature on the show, Sugg is the first social media celebrity to ever appear. But if Strictly’s core fanbase aren’t familiar with him, plenty of [...]
Paypal hit by additional UK tax bill after HMRC enquiry October 8, 2018 Paypal has paid out an additional €3.1m (£2.7m) in UK tax, after financial accounts showed the results of a review by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). The addition resulted in the US payments giant forking out a total of €4.7m in tax in 2017, up from €181,749 the year before. Paypal said in the filing HMRC had been "reviewing [...]
High Court blocks iPhone data breach suit against Google October 8, 2018 The UK's High Court has blocked a mass legal action court case against Google, which claimed the tech giant had collected sensitive information from over 4m iPhone users. The tech giant faced claims that it circumvented the privacy settings installed on Apple's iPhone Safari browser between August 2011 and February 2012, using a method known as the [...]
Facebook triples its UK tax bill to £15.8m October 8, 2018 Facebook paid £15.8m in UK tax last year, tripling the amount it paid in 2016 as tech firms come under increased scrutiny by HMRC. Accounts filed last week on Companies House revealed the social media giant's profits for its UK office, which covers expenses on marketing, sales and engineering support, rose 6.3 per cent to [...]
When it comes to our social care crisis, prevention is the only cure October 8, 2018 Matt Hancock has survived his first party conference as the new health secretary, wearing his NHS pin proudly on his lapel. And top of the list of his departmental priorities is social care. It got a £240m spending boost last week, but that’s not the only approach on the table. One of Hancock’s recent suggestions [...]
Fintech M&A deals swell to $40bn in first half of 2018 October 8, 2018 The fintech sector carried over 140 M&A transactions in the first half of 2018, at a total value of nearly $40bn (£30.48bn) – an increase of more than 26 per cent on the same period last year. The Fintech M&A market report, compiled by Hampleton Partners, says the surge in transaction values can be attributed [...]
Apple exec Angela Ahrendts bags $28m shares bonus October 7, 2018 One of Apple's retail bosses Angela Ahrendts made a whopping $28m (£21.m) last week through bonus shares thanks to the tech giant's stock price going through the roof. Ahrendts was given restricted stock units when she joined the company from Burberry in 2014, and has benefited hugely from Apple's share price nearly tripling since she was first hired. When she [...]
Elastic, the open-source tech startup behind Uber and Tinder, scores $252m IPO October 6, 2018 Shares in Dutch open-source search startup Elastic skyrocketed as much as 106 per cent in its first day of official trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, bucking the trend for tech stocks on Wall Street. The search and data analytics software firm, whose main product Elasticsearch powers technology behind big names such as Uber [...]