Ashley Madison chief exec Noel Biderman steps down after the hack August 28, 2015 The chief executive of extramarital affair site Ashley Madison's parent company stepped down today, after a hack left 37m customers exposed. "This change is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and dedicated employees. We are steadfast in our commitment to our customer base," according [...]
Ready for lift-off: Silicon Roundabout’s Inmarsat is launching a rocket August 28, 2015 Inmarsat, which is based in London's Silicon Roundabout at Old Street, launched its third satellite into the atmosphere today. The Inmarsat-5 F3 was carried into space by a rocket at 12:44pm UK time. This creates the world’s first globally available, high-speed mobile broadband service, delivered through a single provider. "We launched our first satellite over Europe, the [...]
Where are UK companies founded? London has a startup rate over 14 times higher than Yorkshire August 28, 2015 The UK’s startup scene is booming, with a record-high number of new companies founded last year – and London has the biggest share. Over half a million, 581,000, new startups were started in 2014, according to data from Companies House. With almost 80,000 of these in London, the UK capital has the lion’s share of [...]
Bank of England interest rate rise threat sends first-time buyer sales to a pre-recession high August 28, 2015 The threat of a rise in borrowing costs led first-time buyers to look through increased deposit costs and indulge in a "summer of white-hot activity" with completed transactions hitting a pre-recession high. Monthly first-time buyer sales rose 4.9 per cent to 29,700 in the month to July, according to an index by estate agents Your Move and [...]
Black Monday: £74bn knocked off FTSE 100 as markets respond to deteriorating China outlook August 28, 2015 The UK’s 100 biggest companies had £74bn wiped off their value today after a worsening outlook in China hit global stock markets. The FTSE 100 had lost 4.67 per cent by the time markets closed, nosediving below the 6,000 mark to 5,898.9. China led the global sell-off with the Shanghai composite index plunging 8.49 [...]
Brazil’s economy pummeled anew on tumbling commodities August 28, 2015 Brazil’s economy took another beating, as quarterly GDP figures showed the country’s economy shrinking at the fastest pace since 2009. Tumbling commodity prices and a corruption scandal are both weighing on the troubled South American powerhouse, as data released by government agency IBGE showed the country’s economy contracting by 1.9 per cent over the last [...]
Former Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke to be quizzed by Serious Fraud Office August 28, 2015 Former Tesco boss Philip Clarke is set to be grilled by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as part of an investigation into the supermarket chain’s multi-million pound accounting black hole. The UK prosecutors have also called in ex-commercial director Kevin Grace for questioning, according to people with knowledge of the matter cited by Bloomberg. Read [...]
888 profits dip as competition with GVC heats up for Bwin.party August 28, 2015 Online gambling giant 888 Holdings, which is currently in hot pursuit of Bwin.party, has promised to put all its cards on the table, as it unveiled a dip in revenues for the first half of 2015. The company said it will publish its prospectus for its recommended offer for Aim-listed Bwin as it attempted to [...]
HSBC customers not getting paid after IT failure August 28, 2015 HSBC customers face payday woes today, after an IT glitch at the bank has left thousands without their salaries just ahead of the bank holiday weekend. It's unclear exactly what problems it's experiencing, but following a barrage of complaints from customers noticing that their paycheques were missing, the bank confirmed on Twitter that it was [...]
UK GDP second estimate: UK exports jump as GDP growth stays flat August 28, 2015 A sharp upward revision to US second-quarter GDP yesterday sent markets around the world higher. Alas, data out of the UK was a little more muted. Official statistics released today confirmed Britain's economy grew 0.7 per cent in the second quarter of this year. However, economists said that the underlying data shows some rebalancing in the [...]