Queensgate Investments buys four Grange hotels in central London for £1bn March 15, 2019 Real estate investment firm Queensgate has snapped up four Grange hotels in central London in a deal worth roughly £1bn. The company has acquired the Grange’s upmarket hotels at St Paul’s, Tower Bridge, the City and Holborn. In total the portfolio comprises 1,345 rooms and roughly 930,000 square feet (sq ft) of real estate. Read [...]
Telecom Italia backs chief executive Gubitosi as it hits back at Vivendi March 15, 2019 The board of embattled firm Telecom Italia has thrown its weight behind chief executive Luigi Gubitosi as it hit back at dissident investor Vivendi. “The attribution of powers to Mr Luigi Gubitosi represented, and represents, the best possible solution for the company and for all its shareholders,” the company wrote in a statement last night. [...]
Google braced for EU fine over advertising competition breach March 15, 2019 The EU’s competition commission is set to hit Google with another fine following an investigation into its advertising business. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will announce the fine next week following a probe into Google AdSense, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the case. Read more: Google removed 2.3bn ‘bad ads’ last year Google [...]
Apple slams Spotify for wanting ‘benefits of a free app without being free’ March 15, 2019 Apple has hit back at Spotify’s EU competition complaint, saying the streaming service wants “all the benefits of a free app without being free”. Earlier this week Spotify filed a complaint with EU competition authorities over the way the tech giant’s App Store works. Read more: Spotify reports Apple to EU commission over antitrust concerns [...]
Facebook blames server problem after 14-hour outage cripples social media sites March 15, 2019 Facebook has blamed a “server configuration change” for the outage that affected its social media platforms for more than 14 hours yesterday. “We've now resolved the issues and our systems are recovering. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience,” the company said in a statement. Read more: Facebook restores service after worst [...]
Wetherspoons profits take a hit as wage increases kick in March 15, 2019 Wetherspoons has posted a sharp drop in pre-tax profits in its half-year report as increased labour costs took their toll. Read more: Wetherspoons profits slow amid surge in labour costs The figures Revenues increased 7.1 per cent to £889.6m for the 26 weeks to 27 January. Like-for-like sales were up 6.3 per cent over the [...]
Netflix to set its own age ratings for streaming shows and movies in new partnership with BBFC March 14, 2019 Netflix will be granted powers to set the official age ratings for its film and TV programmes as part of a new partnership with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The streaming giant will use an automated rating algorithm, alongside a manual tagging system, to apply official UK age ratings to its original films [...]
Just Group leads FTSE fallers after revealing £400m fundraising plans March 14, 2019 Retirement services firm Just Group has seen shares fall 11 per cent today after revealing plans to raise almost £400m to comply with new capital requirement rules as it unveiled a heavy loss before tax in 2018. The firm said it plans a debt offering of £300m and will raise a further £80m from an equity [...]
Pi in the sky: Google Cloud sets new Pi record with 31 trillion digits March 14, 2019 A Google employee has set a new record by calculating the value of the number Pi to more than 31 trillion digits. Emma Haruka Iwao, a developer advocate at the tech firm, beat the previous record of 22 trillion, set in 2016. Read more: IBM's Watson supercomputer launches tie-up with Volkswagen's SEAT The calculation, which [...]
Investor group Glass Lewis opposes Vivendi in Telecom Italia feud March 14, 2019 Investor group Glass Lewis has dealt a blow to Vivendi in its ongoing dispute at Telecom Italia as it became the latest proxy adviser to warn shareholders against the French firm’s proposals. Vivendi has laid out proposals to replace five Telecom Italia board members backed by rival investor Elliott and replace them with its own [...]
