Amazon poised for trillion-dollar valuation despite stock shorts September 2, 2018 Amazon is set to become the second US publicly-listed company to reach a $1 trillion (£771.2bn) market capitalisation this week, despite it overtaking Tesla as the most shorted stock on Wall Street. The e-commerce giant broke past the $2,000 per share milestone on Thursday evening, holding investors in suspense. Fellow tech giant Apple became the first [...]
HSBC goes on hiring spree for new digital business banking initiative September 2, 2018 HSBC has hired more than 100 new staff to work inside its Aldwych offices on Project Iceberg, an internal digital initiative to revamp its small business banking effort and to counteract competition coming in from Shoreditch’s fintech stars. A source familiar with the matter told City A.M. the bank has chosen to innovate on its [...]
Ofo in £7.9m spot of hot water over unpaid bike bills September 2, 2018 Floating bike-sharing startup Ofo is being sued for defaulting on around 70m yuan (£7.9m) in payments to its supplier Shanghai Phoenix Bicycles, the company’s Shanghai-listed parent said in a filing late on Friday. Shanghai Phoenix petitioned a court in Beijing last week to demand Ofo repay 68.15m yuan as well as 1.87m yuan in losses incurred [...]
Tech giants to testify before US Congress over Russian interference September 2, 2018 Top bosses from Twitter and Facebook are set to testify before US lawmakers on Wednesday, as part of a probe into how Silicon Valley polices online content. Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey will attend a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on 5 September to give evidence in a hearing on social [...]
Apple reaches a new self-driving car milestone in its first road accident September 2, 2018 A test vehicle from Apple's self-driving car programme was involved in a road accident near its Silicon Valley headquarters last month, making Apple the latest tech giant to join a recent spate of autonomous driving incidents. One of Apple's Lexus RX 450h self-driving vehicles was preparing to join a motorway in Sunnyvale on 24 August when it [...]
Blackrock voted to remove Elon Musk as Tesla chairman August 31, 2018 Blackrock-managed funds voted in favour of replacing Tesla's billionaire founder Elon Musk with an independent chairman, it revealed yesterday. Funds run by the New-York based firm backed a shareholder proposal to oust Musk as chairman, its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed. More than 86m shares voted against the failed motion, which would not [...]
Warren Buffett: I’d pick my iPhone over my airplane August 31, 2018 People should be taking better care of their iPhones, if billionaire Warren Buffett is to be believed. The business magnate said in an interview yesterday that he would prefer to have his iPhone over his private jet. Despite the $999 (£770) iPhone X being the most expensive smartphone Apple has produced, he claimed the device [...]
There’s nothing artificial about AI’s influence on the financial world August 31, 2018 Research by PwC estimates that global GDP will be 14 per cent higher in 2030 as a result of artificial intelligence (AI). That’s the equivalent of an additional $15.7 trillion, or more than the current output of China and India combined. If this is the case, how exactly will the City’s financial services sector change [...]
Stephen Kelly quits Sage, sending share price tumbling August 31, 2018 Sage chief executive Stephen Kelly has agreed to step down from his position after discussions with the board. Kelly, who joined the accounting software firm in 2014, has vacated his director and chief executive roles effective immediately on the back of lower-than-expected growth. Read more: Deustche Bank advises investors to sell Sage stock The company [...]
New car hire app Virtuo sidesteps all the usual pains of London car rentals August 30, 2018 By far the least entertaining part of renting a car is having to stand around inside a hermetically sealed fartbox of a portacabin on the edge of some rainy industrial estate, before a 17-year-old in an oversized suit throws you the keys to an old banger that you suspect was built in East Germany. Recently [...]