Gambling white paper: Betting firms forced to ‘step up’ checks in biggest industry overhaul since 2005 April 27, 2023 Gambling companies will be subject to tighter regulations including a statutory levy and stricter checks on losses, the government announced today in its long-awaited gambling white paper. The secretary of state for culture, media and sport Lucy Frazer announced on Thursday that the industry would be subject to “six key areas” of reform. Operators will [...]
AstraZeneca: Cancer medicine sales offset a post-pandemic slump in Covid drugs April 27, 2023 AstraZeneca reported a slight dip in sales but beat forecasts on the back of a boost in sales of oncology medicines. The pharmaceutical company reported a 4 per cent fall in revenue to $10.9bn (£8.7bn) on Thursday morning. Sales of oncology drugs helped compensate for a $1.5bn (£1.2bhn) fall in Covid-19 medicines, the company said. [...]
Game Over? CMA block of Activision deal to set the tone for other regulators April 26, 2023 The UK competition regulator today blocked Microsoft’s $70bn bid for the video game publisher, Activision Blizzard, citing concerns over competition in a fledgling cloud market. The move by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to scupper the deal — Microsoft’s largest acquisition — comes as a blow to the tech giant, which has already announced [...]
Microsoft’s £55bn acquisition of Call of Duty games creator blocked by UK’s competition authority April 26, 2023 Microsoft has had its $68.7bn (£55bn) acquisition of Activision Blizzard blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the regulator confirmed on Wednesday. The CMA blocked the deal over concerns it would lessen competition in the UK cloud gaming market by giving Microsoft it control over where Activision games are available. “Cloud gaming needs a [...]
Advertising: Digital ad market spend slows as budgets take post-Covid reset April 26, 2023 Growth in the UK’s digital advertising market slowed in 2022 as economic headwinds continued to weigh on the market. The digital advertising market – meaning any advertising delivered through digital platforms – grew 11 per cent to £26.1bn in 2022, according to industry body IAB’s digital ad spend report. The market previously grew 41 per [...]
An activist spring? Another Vodafone shareholder ups its stake with eyes on board shake-up April 25, 2023 The Abu Dhabi based telecoms company e& has upped its stake in Vodafone and is in talks with the company over potential shifts in its board, media reports said on Tuesday. The investor — which is Vodafone’s largest shareholder — said on Monday that it had opened discussions with Vodafone on April 12 “on a [...]
Spotify hits record half a billion monthly users and forecasts future revenue to soar April 25, 2023 The number of monthly active users on Spotify passed the half a billion milestone for the first time, the music streaming platform reported today. The number of monthly active users rose 27 per cent to 515 million in the first quarter of this year, 15 million more than the company’s estimates. Premium subscribers also grew [...]
Regulation set to challenge the ‘dominance’ of tech giants Google, Amazon and Facebook April 25, 2023 Plans to toughen up UK regulation of some of the world’s largest tech companies will go before MPs for the first time, with the competition watchdog’s dedicated digital unit set to be given sharper teeth. New laws to regulate big tech firms, such as Google, Amazon and Meta, have been long awaited, with MPs last [...]
Disney to cut thousands of jobs this week, reports say April 24, 2023 Disney will cut thousands of jobs this week, taking the total number of layoffs to 4,000, according to media reports. Disney first announced it would start axing jobs in February as part of a $5.5bn (£4.54bn) cost-cutting drive under chief executive, Bob Iger. Iger – who returned as Disney’s chief in November following the tumultuous [...]
Millions of low income households are overpaying for their broadband, says Ofcom April 24, 2023 More than half of low-income homes who qualify for cheaper broadband tariffs are missing out on the deals, according to the UK communications regulator. Only 220,000 households were on a social tariffs as of February 2023, meanwhile 53 per cent of people receiving benefit payments were completely unaware of cheaper deals, Ofcom revealed in a [...]
