Starmer vows to rip up the red tape at investment summit October 14, 2024 Prime Minister Keir Starmer will today promise to rip up the red tape that is needlessly holding back investment in a bid to galvanise economic growth. Starmer is set to make the pledge in a speech at the government’s inaugural International Investment Summit, which kicks off today at the Guildhall in the heart of the [...]
Microsoft chief executive to chair government’s industrial strategy council October 13, 2024 The chief executive of Microsoft UK will chair a new body to advise the government on its industrial strategy. Clare Barclay will head up the industrial strategy advisory council, which will act as an interim advisory body until legislation is passed to put it on a statutory footing. The first meeting and full membership is [...]
Microsoft: Tech giant announces mammoth buyback and hikes dividend September 17, 2024 Tech giant Microsoft has announced a new $60bn share buyback programme and hiked its quarterly dividend by 10 per cent. This new shareholder cash return replaces Microsoft’s previous $60bn programme, which was launched in 2021, and has no set expiration date. According to data from Birinyi Associates, the cash return is the third-largest repurchase scheme [...]
CMA clears Microsoft and Inflection AI partnership after merger ruling September 4, 2024 Britain’s competition regulator has today cleared Microsoft’s arrangements with Inflection AI, which included a licensing deal and the hiring of former Inflection employees. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced in April it was looking at three separate deals that potentially fall under UK merger law and, if so, whether they could have a harmful [...]
Wall Street carnage continues as Nvidia leads US tech selloff September 4, 2024 A wave of panic selling hit Wall Street on Tuesday, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all suffering their steepest daily percentage declines since early August. The carnage was widespread, with nine of the 11 sectors within the S&P 500 sinking into the red, led by sharp declines in technology, [...]
Craneware spies ‘increased opportunity’ from Microsoft partnership September 3, 2024 Software and IT company Craneware said it sees “increased opportunity ahead” as it posted solid full year results on Tuesday, ahead of expectations. The Scottish company, which provides software to American healthcare organisations, beat forecasts as revenue rose to $189.3m (£144.3m) in the year to 30 June 2024, up nine per cent from $174m (£133m) [...]
Lloyds Bank and Nationwide hit by online issues as Microsoft reports outage September 2, 2024 Lloyds Bank and Nationwide have apologised to customers for issues affecting their online services amid a report from Microsoft about a fresh outage that affected its public cloud computing platform.
Crowdstrike shares slide despite beating expectations amid IT outage fallout August 29, 2024 Shares in cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike tumbled over seven per cent in after-hours trading, even as the scandal-stricken company posted better than expected second-quarter earnings for its financial year 2025. The Nasdaq-listed company, still reeling from last month’s global IT outage, posted total revenue of $963.9m (£729m), a 32 per cent increase from $731.6m (£553.3m) in [...]
Quantexa: AI start-up boss on business after hitting Unicorn status August 19, 2024 When artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Quantexa hit unicorn status, the London-based company said it was a chance to embark on a major growth push. In April 2023, Quantexa was minted a billion dollar ‘unicorn’ after closing a $129m (£99.4m) funding round at a valuation of $1.8bn (£1.4bn). Quantexa, which uses AI to analyse financial firms’ [...]
Nvidia and Apple lead losses as trillions wiped from Nasdaq tech stocks August 5, 2024 Trillions of dollars have been wiped from the Nasdaq-listed tech giants taking a nosedive amid a global stock sell off, as fears of a US recession are causing investors to run for the hills. The so-called Magnificent Seven’s combined market capitalisation has lost at least $2.3t (£1.8t), equal to a 15 per cent slide from [...]