Joe Biden ‘will not prioritise’ UK-US trade deal November 9, 2020 Joe Biden will reportedly not prioritise UK-US trade deal discussions in the first 100 days of his presidency. The president-elect has shown little interest in the talks and will focus instead on domestic legislation, an adviser to his campaign told the Telegraph. The Democrat would also face hurdles appointing his US trade representative to lead [...]
UK house prices see fastest growth in four years but monthly rate slows November 6, 2020 UK house prices grew at their fastest annual rate since 2016 in October, new figures have shown, although month-on-month price growth slowed considerably. House prices jumped 7.5 per cent in October, according to the Halifax house price index, compared to 7.3 per cent in September. Yet growth slowed to just 0.3 per cent when looked [...]
Screenshot: Ant Group, Jack Ma and China’s power paradox November 6, 2020 A weekly column from City A.M. bringing you all the biggest stories and trends in technology, media and telecoms This week: **Media Moment of the Week: Margaret Thatcher takes to Twitter **Ant Group, Jack Ma and China’s power paradox **Three’s a crowd: Why a telecoms mast deal could spark more mergers Media Moment of the [...]
Ghosted: Whatsapp rolls out disappearing messages in privacy push November 5, 2020 Whatsapp is introducing a new function that will delete messages from the app after seven days in an effort to ramp up its privacy credentials. The social media platform, which has more than 2bn users worldwide, said the new feature will help keep chats private and “more like a face-to-face conversation that is not recorded [...]
Alibaba gets post-pandemic revenue boost amid Ant Group float woes November 5, 2020 Chinese tech giant Alibaba has posted continued sales growth following the coronavirus lockdown, just days after Beijing slammed the brakes on Ant Group’s mammoth stock market float. The conglomerate, run by billionaire Jack Ma, posted a 30 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue to 155bn yuan (£17.9bn) in the three months to the end of [...]
Switch it up: Nintendo profit triples on lockdown gaming boom November 5, 2020 Nintendo’s profit tripled in the six months to the end of September as consumers splashed out on gaming during the coronavirus lockdown. The Japanese tech giant posted a first-half operating profit of 291.4bn yen (£2.1bn), up from 94bn yen in the same period last year. Nintendo has enjoyed booming demand for its Switch consoles, with [...]
BT threatened with strike action over job cuts and pay November 5, 2020 BT could be facing its first major strike action in more than 15 years after union members accused the company of “putting profit before people”. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) today asked members to vote on whether to hold a strike ballot at the company over an “increasingly aggressive” approach by management across BT, Openreach [...]
Virgin Media boosts customer numbers ahead of O2 merger November 5, 2020 Virgin Media today reported its biggest quarterly increase in broadband customers since 2017 as the firm said its proposed merger with O2 was on track. The telecoms group said its fixed-line customers have surpassed 6m after an increase of 37,000 in the third quarter. This is compared to a loss of 3,000 in the same [...]
Virgin Media switches on gigabit broadband across London November 4, 2020 More Londoners can now enjoy access to next-generation broadband after Virgin Media carried out the UK’s largest ever network switch-on. Roughly 2.6m homes across the capital will be able to benefit from gigabit broadband, which is more than 17 times faster than the national average, with speeds of 1,104Mbps. Virgin’s broadband coverage reaches every London [...]
Three owner CK Hutchison nears €10bn tower sale to Cellnex November 4, 2020 The owner of mobile network Three today confirmed it is closing in on a €10bn (£9bn) sale of its European masts business to Spanish infrastructure group Cellnex. In a stock market filing today, CK Hutchison said it had reached a “substantial agreement” with Cellnex on key commercial terms for the sale. The Hong Kong-based group [...]
