Paramount woos Warner Bros investors with regulatory delay payout February 10, 2026 Paramount has upped the ante in its bid for Warner Bros Discovery, adding a so-called ticking fee to its $108bn (£78bn) takeover offer. The move comes as the streaming giant seeks to reassure shareholders amid heightened antitrust scrutiny. Under the revised terms, Paramount Skydance will pay Warner Bros. Discovery investors an additional $0.25 per share [...]
Services sector rebound expected to help economy limp towards growth February 10, 2026 Rachel Reeves is set to breathe a minor sigh of relief at the sight of new economic data this week with the UK economy expected to have limped towards growth in December. A survey of City economists by Bloomberg had projected a 0.1 per cent expansion in December and 0.2 per cent for the fourth-quarter. [...]
Jonathan Barnett: Gareth Bale’s former agent denies ‘sex slave’ claims in full February 10, 2026 The British football super-agent who negotiated Gareth Bale’s world record transfer to Real Madrid, Jonathan Barnett, has denied any wrongdoing after a woman alleged he kept her as a “sex slave” and threatened to kill her. Barnett, 76, is the subject of a range of serious allegations made by an Australian woman in a US [...]
Law Society slams Labour’s ‘crude’ stealth tax on legal clients February 10, 2026 The Law Society issued a blistering response to the government’s proposal to take the interest law firms earn on money sitting in their client accounts, branding it a “fundamentally flawed” sector-specific tax that threatens the stability of the wider UK legal economy. Last month, the Ministry of Justice opened a consultation on a proposal to [...]
Spotify proves raising fees won’t stop listeners February 10, 2026 Spotify’s latest results show that despite prices rising and costs climbing, users are not leaving. The Swedish group added a record number of users in the final quarter of 2025, pushing monthly active users to 751 million and paid subscribers to 290 million. Revenue rose 13 per cent year on year on a constant-currency basis [...]
Should you consider Junior ISAs for your kids? February 10, 2026 The end of the tax year is creeping closer, concentrating the minds of UK savers and investors on the hunt for the best deal. While most of the noise surrounding the 5 April deadline centres on securing the most favourable interest rates on cash ISAs and finding stocks and shares ISA with the lowest fees, [...]
Dupont image rights row puts Toulouse in rugby spotlight again February 10, 2026 French rugby giants Toulouse are facing the threat of a second salary cap-related sanction after a media investigation into star player Antoine Dupont’s image rights payments. The so-called Le Petit General has been an integral part of France and Toulouse teams in recent years but is now at the centre of a storm, alongside Stade [...]
Allow pensions savings to go into housing deposits, says FCA chief February 10, 2026 The head of the financial watchdog has suggested that the UK should have the “contentious debate” about whether pension savings could be put towards housing deposits. Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said there was greater scope for pension savings to support financial resilience, particularly among lower income households. “We have [...]
BP shares down: What is going on at the oil giant? February 10, 2026 Once-dominant energy giant BP is running on empty as it curbs shareholder payouts and unveils fresh attempts to bolster its balance sheet. The London-based oil baron announced in its final results on Tuesday that it has suspended its share buyback programme and increased its cost-cutting goal as it looks to reverse its fortunes in the [...]
Barclays boss calls for political ‘stability’ as banker’s pay packet swells to £15m February 10, 2026 The boss of British banking giant Barclays has called for “stability” across the political landscape as the Labour government’s future faces uncertainty. CS Venkatakrishnan, the bank’s chief executive who is known as Venkat, faced questions on the turmoil in Number 10 after Barclays published its full-year earnings report. “From the point of view of businesses [...]