“Double-Irish” tax loophole to close by 2020 for Apple, Google and Facebook, making way for “Knowledge Development Box” October 14, 2014 The Irish government has revealed plans to close a much criticised tax loophole nicknamed the “Double-Irish”, which lets major international corporations such as Apple, Google and Facebook pay surprisingly low rates of corporation tax. The plans, announced by Ireland’s finance minister Michael Noonan in the government's budget today, come amid mounting pressure from Europe and [...]
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg shells out $100m for Hawaii holiday sanctuary October 14, 2014 Mark Zuckerberg has splashed out over $100m on two pieces of land on Hawaii's stunning Kauai North Shore, according to Forbes. The properties are reported to total 700 acres. The first purchase was the Pila'a beach, which consists of 383 acres of dazzling white sand. The private beach was owned by Pfleunger properties, a company belonging [...]
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook has no plan to monetise WhatsApp October 9, 2014 Mark Zuckerberg has admitted Facebook does not have a plan to monetise WhatsApp, following its $22bn takeover which completed this week. The deal was initially agreed way back in February, yet Facebook has not yet worked out how to make money out of the instant messaging service which currently has 600m users. Currently [...]
DHL apologises for using Jules Bianchi crash to get “likes” on Facebook October 6, 2014 DHL has apologised for a Facebook post which used the life threatening crash of F1 driver Jules Bianchi to ask for “likes”. Many fans of DHL on Facebook were outraged by the post which said “by clicking ‘Like’ on this occasion, you’ll be sending Jules your best wishes for a speedy recovery.” French [...]
Facebook fake “likes”: Social media giant vows to “aggressively get rid” of scam artists October 6, 2014 Facebook says it will "aggressively get rid of" companies and brands paying for fake "likes" on the social media site. Brands buy "likes" from fake pages from websites such as buy-facebooklikes.co.uk and socialmadness.co.uk in order to make their products seem more popular. Facebook has already won nearly $2bn (£1.25bn) in legal judgements against the spammers and [...]
Facebook’s long-awaited WhatsApp deal completes – costing Zuckerberg another $3bn October 6, 2014 Facebook's share price opened broadly flat today after its long-awaited deal to take over WhatsApp completed. But the deal has ended up costing Facebook nearly $3bn more than was originally intended, because of the amount of time taken to get approval. The deal – in which WhatsApp shareholders received 177.7m Facebook Class A shares and [...]
Alex Salmond’s Scottish independence defeat: From Yes Scotland to One Scotland on Facebook September 19, 2014 Scottish first minister Alex Salmond has updated his Twitter and Facebook photo in light of his referendum defeat. Having previously said “Yes Scotland” in support of his independence campaign, an hour ago this was updated to say “One Scotland”. Yesterday, Scots went to the polling stations to cast their votes on whether they wished [...]
Mail.ru share price up as Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov takes full stake in “Russian Facebook” VKontakte for $1.47 billion September 16, 2014 Moscow-based internet company Mail.ru has bought a remaining 48 per cent stake in the social network VKontakte, Russia's answer to Facebook, for $1.47bn (£909m) taking full ownership of the business. Mail.ru said in addition to the sale, all legal action among itself, United Capital Partners which sold the stake and VK founder Pavel Durov had [...]
Alibaba listing’s legal fees set to dwarf Facebook September 7, 2014 ALIBABA, the Chinese e-commerce giant that sells more than Amazon and Ebay combined and is seeking to raise over $21bn (£12.8bn) in its float this month, will pay some of the highest legal fees for a US listing, six times what Facebook paid two years ago. The legal fees for Alibaba’s public listing, $15.8m according [...]
Why Facebook makes us lose trust in society September 1, 2014 Facebook exposes us to “offensive behaviour and hate speech”, giving rise to feelings of depression and distrust, according to a new study. Researchers at the Sapienza University of Rome looked at the way in which 50,000 Italian people use social networks, and compared the results with the individuals' reported levels of happiness and self-esteem. [...]