British ‘godfather of AI’ awarded Nobel prize but warns tech could ‘get out of control’ October 8, 2024 A British scientist dubbed the ‘godfather of AI’ has been honoured with a Nobel Prize in Physics, but warned of the “existential risk” it posed if technology gets “out of control”. Professor Geoffrey Hinton, born in the UK and a professor at the University of Toronto in Canada, said he was extremely surprised to be [...]
Beeks: Financial cloud firm swings to profit amid ‘stronger than ever’ demand October 7, 2024 Scottish financial cloud computing firm Beeks has swung to an annual profit as it reported "stronger than ever" demand for its products.
Safety device firm Halma maintains full year guidance September 26, 2024 Health and safety product manufacturer Halma said it has made progress in “varied” and “changing” market conditions in a trading update ahead of its half year end on 30 September. The Amersham-headquartered company has maintained its full year 2025 guidance given earlier this year of “good organic constant currency revenue growth” and an adjusted earnings before interest [...]
Huawei: Chinese firm reduced to a shadow of former size as UK restrictions bite September 25, 2024 Turnover at the UK arm of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has been slashed by more than £1bn since 2019 as the impact of UK and US restrictions bite. The London-headquartered business has reported a turnover of £229.56m for 2023, down from the £359m it posted in 2022. The latest figure comes after Huawei’s turnover totalled [...]
Regulation in the UK a ‘web of complexity’ and harming innovation says think tank September 25, 2024 A leading think tank has called for the government to create a ‘call-in’ power to overrule regulators’ decisions, warning that Britain’s approach to tech regulation is harming innovation and investment in the sector. In a new report, right-leaning think tank Onward described the UK’s patchwork of “under-resourced” and “overstretched” regulators as spinning a “web of [...]
Engineering giant Smiths misses profit forecast and launches ‘acceleration plan’ September 24, 2024 British engineering giant Smiths Group missed a key consensus forecast and launched an ‘acceleration plan’ to boost profitability, as it snapped up two firms in a £110m spending spree. Smiths reported a 5.4 per cent year on year organic revenue growth to £3.1bn, but the 7.1 per cent increase in operating profit to £526m fell shy [...]
Rolls Royce closes in on European nuclear reactor deals as UK process delayed September 22, 2024 Rolls Royce is closing in on two deals to build miniaturised nuclear power plants in Sweden and the Netherlands after a successful deal with the Czech Republic announced last week. Rolls-Royce boss Tufan Erginbilgic had warned that the firm would start building small modular reactors (SMRs) in Europe should UK ministers fail to speed up [...]
Google wins £1.3bn case against EU ruling over ad product September 18, 2024 Google has overturned a nearly €1.5bn (£1.3bn) EU fine related to its AdSense advertising platform in a win for the tech giant following two major fines. The General Court has found “errors” in the European Commission’s 2019 assessment of Google’s advertising contracts with publishers. Europe’s second highest court, based in Luxembourg, has annulled the fine [...]
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 [...]
Garmin predicts further sales boost as wearable fitness tech surges September 11, 2024 Wearable technology giant Garmin has predicted its European sales will surge by 14 per cent in 2024 thanks in part to new products being launched. The Southampton-headquartered division made the forecast in newly-filed accounts with Companies House which revealed an increase in both its turnover and pre-tax profit during 2023. The results show that Garmin [...]