Institute of Directors calls for tax overhaul to help startups soar October 20, 2016 Complications in the tax system are a blocker for startup firms to take on more staff and pitch bigger contracts, a new report has found. Research from the Institute for Directors (IoD), Prelude Group and Grant Thornton calls for an overhaul of the system to make it simpler, including recommendations to merge income tax and [...]
560,000 reasons why BuzzFeed won in 2015 October 19, 2016 The UK arm of US media company BuzzFeed quadrupled its profits last year, making around £560,000, alongside some huge investments. Accounts filed at Companies House show BuzzFeed grew its profits from £140,772 in 2014 to £558,408 last year. The filings don’t show revenue as firms bringing in less than £6.5m are not required to disclose [...]
BT comes under pressure from digital minister October 19, 2016 The minister for digital policy has said the government is committed to improving competition in the UK broadband market as watchdog Ofcom weighs the case for breaking up BT. Minister of state for digital and culture Matt Hancock said the government wanted to ensure “a fair market in which all providers can compete for business”. The [...]
Twitter fires its new head of VR… in the same week it hired him October 19, 2016 Twitter is ploughing on into the world of virtual reality, though it faced a small setback today after announcing it had fired its new head of VR (roughly 48 hours after he started his new job). A Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, Gregory Gopman, had joined the struggling social network to work on a nascent team charged with [...]
Sir Philip Green takes fresh swipe at Frank Field on the eve of parliamentary showdown October 19, 2016 First Sir Philip Green published a report from a top lawyer criticising MPs, and now he’s gone one step further by launching a stinging attack on Frank Field in the form of a letter from the retailer. On the eve of the Commons debate on whether Green should be stripped of his knighthood, a letter seen by [...]
Google Pixel review: Quite comfortably the greatest Android phone ever made October 19, 2016 Every Android phone has come with some compromise built in. Whereas the iPhone owes much of its popularity to Apple’s ability to control every last design detail – creating software and hardware that works in perfect harmony – Google has always had to rely on third-party manufacturers to build its phones. Imperfection’s gnarled fingers tended [...]
BHP Billiton aims for half of workforce to be women by 2025 October 19, 2016 The world's largest mining company has set an ambitious new target for gender parity and will aim for women to comprise half of its workforce for 2025. BHP Billiton (BHP) will announce the new goal at its annual general meeting in London today. At present, 17 per cent of the FTSE 100 miner's 65,000 employees are women. Read [...]
Leavers and Remainers launch group to untangle Brexit’s mixed messages October 19, 2016 A new group uniting Bremainers and Brexiteers to create clear, neutral, evidence-based research on the issues stemming from the Referendum result launches today. The Financial Services Negotiation Forum, or FSNForum for short, has already earmarked equivalence, euro-clearing, access to talent and market liquidity as research priorities. Anthony Belchambers, chairman of the honorary advisory council of the FSNForum, told City [...]
Citigroup plans to relocate 10 per cent of UK roles if the UK can’t secure passporting October 19, 2016 US bank Citigroup would relocate almost 1,000 jobs outside of the UK if the government is unable to secure passporting for financial services. The bank, which has 9,000 staff in the UK, has told MPs that failure to secure passporting would see it move the roles. Citi has major locations in Dublin, Paris, Frankfurt and [...]
West Texas Intermediate crude price highest level in more than a year on US stockpile data October 19, 2016 Prices of the black stuff rose more than two per cent today after a surprise fall in US crude inventories. Stockpiles fell by 5.2m barrels in the week ended 14 October, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration, dashing analysts' expectations of a build. This is the sixth fall in inventories in seven weeks. US [...]