Ad spend growth continues thanks to streaming and cinema boom October 29, 2019 Advertising spend hit £6bn in the second quarter as booming demand for films and TV shows helped drive sharp growth in the video on-demand and cinema sectors. UK ad spend grew 5.8 per cent year on year in the three months to the end of July, although the £6bn figure remained flat on the first [...]
Government faces calls for reform as data shows dominance of Big Four audit firms October 29, 2019 Data published yesterday by the audit watchdog showed that the Big Four accounting firms increased their market share of the UK audit market in 2018. The lack of competition in the sector has come under the microscope following scandals such as the failures of outsourcer Carillion and department store BHS which both received clean bills [...]
PM Boris Johnson goes fourth – with pre-Brexit date sewn into election October 28, 2019 The Prime Minister will today seek an election for the fourth time in two months – this time with a pre-Brexit date sewn in. Yesterday the EU finally granted a three-month extension to the Brexit process, pushing back the deadline until 31 January, or earlier if a deal is signed off by parliament in time. [...]
Shop Direct could fail unless £150m is found, auditor warns October 28, 2019 Shop Direct, the UK retail group owned by the Barclay brothers, could collapse unless it finds £150m to cover the costs of payment protection insurance (PPI) compensation, its auditor has warned. Read more: Media veteran David Montgomery weighing up Telegraph bid The Littlewoods.com and Very.co.uk owner last week revealed it had seen higher-than-expected demand for [...]
Media veteran David Montgomery weighing up Telegraph bid October 28, 2019 Press executive and former News of the World editor David Mongtomery has expressed an interest to the owners of the Telegraph about buying the ailing newspaper business, which is reportedly up for sale. Read more: ‘Structural decline’: Telegraph group suffers profit slump Montgomery is also a former chief executive of the Mirror Group. He last [...]
Alphabet shares dip as profit fails to meet expectations October 28, 2019 Google parent Alphabet missed Wall Street estimates on its third-quarter results tonight, having failed to live up to expectations on profit takings. Alphabet reported earnings per share of $10.12 for the three months to the end of September and net income of $7.07bn, versus expectations of $12.44 per share according to consensus estimates polled by Refinitiv. [...]
Rail: Williams review recommendations ‘could take 10 years to implement’ October 28, 2019 Some recommendations of an upcoming wide-ranging independent review into Britain’s railways could take up to a decade to implement, the review’s chairman suggested today. Keith Williams, who heads up the Williams Review, told MPs that the government would be able to bring some of his suggestions about in a short timeframe, others would require primary [...]
Men dominate investment banking deals, research finds October 28, 2019 A new ranking of Europe’s top investment bankers reveals that no women were included in the top 10 by number of deals over £100m. According to the research by data platform Mergerlinks , the top deal doer in Europe in the year ended the first half of 2019 was Rothschild & Co banker Dominic Hollamby [...]
M&C Saatchi set to appoint PwC as its auditor following accounting scandal October 28, 2019 Advertising agency M&C Saatchi is set to appoint Big Four accountancy firm PwC as its new auditor following an accounting scandal that wiped out more than half of its share price. In August the advertising agency network said it had set aside £6.4m after it had spotted an error in its accounts. Its previous auditor [...]
Uber sizes up to the City in financial services push October 28, 2019 Ride-hailing app Uber has taken a leaf out of the Square Mile’s book, and today revealed a move into financial services. The tech giant has set up a new division within the company called Uber Money, which will include a digital wallet and support for the firm’s debit and credit cards. The debit card is [...]