Laura Ashley scraps dividend after doubling losses to £4m February 20, 2020 Struggling retailer Laura Ashley will not pay an interim dividend after losses more than doubled in the first half of the year amid a “challenging” trading period. The figures Laura Ashley reported total group sales of £109.6m, down from £122.9m a year earlier, for the first half of the year. The decline in total revenue [...]
How to break up big tech? Regulating technology companies is more easily said than done February 20, 2020 Over the last few years, the public perception of technology companies has shifted quite dramatically. Large tech firms such as Google, Facebook and Amazon are no longer the darlings of the world. They are attracting the same kind of ire that financiers attracted a decade ago. At the political level, this translates into a broad [...]
Tech leaders must adapt or risk obsolescence February 20, 2020 While it may not always have felt it, the tech sector has had a relatively easy path to growth over the last three decades. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in a “peace dividend” which released swathes of public money that would otherwise have gone into national defence. Much of this spare [...]
They’re not just phones, they hold our entire lives together February 20, 2020 This month, we are marking the eighteenth year of O2. The world of 2002 feels like a very long time ago — and over the past 18 years, the mobile industry has been at the heart of some seismic changes in the way we live our lives. An eighteenth birthday is an important milestone, sparking [...]
DEBATE: Should business be concerned about the planned immigration curbs on low-skilled workers? February 20, 2020 Should business be concerned about the planned immigration curbs on low-skilled workers? Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, says YES. The proposals announced yesterday are overly restrictive and will halt business growth in huge swathes of the economy. They also give very little time for business to adjust and adapt, as the government has said [...]
City of London office leasing hits all time high February 20, 2020 Office space leasing in the City hit an all time high in 2019, rising to 43 per cent of all take up across London, according to the latest research. Leasing in the City reached 6.4m sq ft last year, a jump of three per cent on the previous year. Total office leasing in London reached [...]
Tech jobs advertised in the UK plunged by half in 2019 February 20, 2020 The number of tech jobs advertised in the UK fell 52 per cent from mid-2019 to the end of the year, analysis published today said. The research found there were 78,000 jobs listed on social network Linkedin that required skills in emerging technologies at the end of 2019, down from 162,000 in June. The decrease [...]
Swiss bank UBS set to hire ING boss Ralph Hamers February 19, 2020 Swiss bank UBS is reportedly set to name the chief executive of Dutch bank ING as its new chief executive. The Financial Times reported that Ralph Hamers would take over from Sergio Ermotti who has been in post for more than eight years. ING pulled a bond deal today, saying “information had come to the [...]
Airbus announces 2,300 job cuts in space and defence division February 19, 2020 Airbus today said it would cut 2,300 jobs in its defence business, including 357 roles in the UK. The UK cuts amount to a near 10 per cent reduction in its 4,000-strong workforce. The aircraft maker blamed a flat space market and postponed defence contracts for the cuts. Ongoing technical problems with its transport and [...]
Dominic Cummings’ war on conventions is just getting going February 19, 2020 Much is being made of Dominic Cummings’ supposed overreach this week. His attack on the BBC proved so brutal that even Auntie-sceptic John Whittingdale blanched, while one of Number 10’s newly-hired “weirdos and misfits” had voiced his support for marital rape and sympathy for eugenics in online forums. Andrew Sabinsky’s Downing Street career lasted just [...]