Ebay 20th anniversary: Online auction giant celebrates 20 years of buying and selling September 4, 2015 Auction site eBay yesterday marked its 20th birthday – and it has come a long way since computer programmer Pierre Omidyar began the business, listing a broken laser pointer pen as his first item for sale. Amazingly, as he found a buyer, Omidyar knew he was on to a winner. The US-based company [...]
Tesla driving towards mass market for 2017 as Elon Musk announces Model 3 September 4, 2015 Tesla boss Elon Musk announced on Twitter that the company’s third car offering would be the mass-marketable Model 3, which he hoped would go into production in 2017. He tweeted on Wednesday night: “Model 3, our smaller and lower cost sedan will start production in about 2 years. Fully operational Gigafactory needed.” And, in a [...]
B&G makes giant acquisition in American frozen foods industry September 4, 2015 B&G FOODS is about to make a giant investment. The American snack food company said yesterday that it would buy General Mills’s Green Giant frozen foods business, as well as its Le Sueur canned vegetable brand, for about $765m (£501m), in order to broaden its distribution network and expand into the frozen foods market. Growth in [...]
EU warns: SNP minimum booze price could distort competition September 4, 2015 Scotland’s first minister Sturgeon has said that she will “vigorously make the case” for a minimum unit price for alcohol in Scotland, even though a top official at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that the policy could restrict trade and distort competition. ECJ advocate general Yves Bot said yesterday that it was “difficult to [...]
Magic circle firms struggle to keep up with US rivals September 4, 2015 BRITAIN’s elite law firms failed to track the country’s improving economy and reported a combined turnover of £20.64bn, a one per cent drop in earnings from 2014. Figures released by Legal Business magazine today show that the number of lawyers employed by the largest 100 firms in the UK, has also fallen, down two per [...]
Skills gap is bigger threat than Brexit: Talent shortages to hit UK economic growth, warn finance chiefs September 4, 2015 Top UK finance chiefs are more unnerved by their lack of access to talented labour than they are by the threat of Britain leaving the EU, the Bank of England hiking borrowing costs or even the abrupt slowdown in China that has sent shockwaves throughout global financial markets. Fear over dwindling access to skilled [...]
Euro plummets after Mario Draghi’s dove-bomb as ECB chief cuts inflation forecasts September 3, 2015 The euro lost over one per cent of its value yesterday after Brussels’ top central banker hinted that he could push the button on further monetary stimulus in a bid to boost the single currency area. European Central Bank (ECB) boss Mario Draghi gave an unexpectedly dovish statement, revealing that his organisation has cut forecasts for [...]
No more calculus: New real-life maths exam will teach students interest rates for A-Levels September 3, 2015 Maths geared toward real-life situations will now be as a subject for 16-year-olds, the department for education revealed yesterday. Core maths will teach pupils how to apply their maths skills to calculate interest, work out profit margins and get the best currency exchange, and will start being taught in schools today. The course [...]
Think the UK’s experiencing a migrant crisis? It’s nothing compared with Denmark, Austria and Sweden September 3, 2015 The UK may be in the grip of a migrant crisis – but the number of people applying to come to the UK pales in comparison to many other European countries, it turns out. The number of people seeking asylum in Europe peaked at 70,720 in February, data from Eurostat shows. Of those, 2,255 applied [...]
Nissan to invest £100m in Sunderland car plant September 3, 2015 The UK’s biggest car plant is to receive a further £100m investment, after Nissan said it plans to build its next generation Juke model in the UK. The investment is a will secure “valuable jobs for thousands of working people in the area”, chancellor George Osborne said in Sunderland. "Our ambitious plan to build the [...]