Airbnb set to swing to a loss ahead of 2020 market debut February 11, 2020 Holiday letting platform Airbnb reportedly swung to a loss last year, raising concerns ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO) later this year. The tech giant reported a $322m (£248.65m) net loss in the nine months to September as costs spiked, down from $200m profit the previous year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Airbnb [...]
German digital bank N26 quits UK ‘due to Brexit’ February 11, 2020 German digital bank N26 has announced it is pulling out of the UK, saying it will no longer be able to operate in Britain with its European banking licence. The Monzo and Revolut rival, which is valued at $3.5bn after raising $670m in total, said all UK accounts will be shut down by 15 April [...]
Wework aims to be free cash flow positive by 2022 February 11, 2020 Embattled office space provider Wework has said it will become free cash flow positive a year earlier than expected and will post its first ever $1bn revenue quarter this year. The coworking firm said it will be free cash flow positive by 2022, and hopes to achieve free cash flow of more than $1bn by [...]
New Look narrows losses as turnaround plan pays off February 11, 2020 High street retailer New Look narrowed its losses in the third quarter, as a new leadership team pushed ahead with its transformation plan. New Look said it narrowed its losses from £63.2m to a statutory loss before tax of £1.2m, despite falling sales. Like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland fell 7.1 per cent over [...]
Revolut backer Lakestar leads $20m funding round London hotel startup Impala February 11, 2020 London-based hotel software startup Impala has raised $20m (£15.49m) in a funding round led by Revolut investor Lakestar. The Series B funding round, which comes four months after an $11m fundraise, will allow the startup to invest in developing tools to take bookings. Impala, which was founded in 2016, works with companies such as tech [...]
Boris Johnson to announce £5bn bus service improvement plan February 10, 2020 Boris Johnson is tomorrow expected to announce £5bn of funding to improve local bus services across the country. The Prime Minister will outline a plan to transform the bus network and cycle links with simpler fares, new vehicles, improved routes and higher frequencies. The five-year funding package will increase the number of services – particularly [...]
Amazon seeks to depose Trump in $10bn Pentagon contract battle February 10, 2020 Amazon is seeking to depose Donald Trump and US defence secretary Mark Esper in a legal battle over whether the president was trying to ‘“screw Amazon” in handing a Pentagon cloud computing contract to Microsoft. Amazon Web Services said Trump influenced the decision to give the $10bn (£7.74bn) Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure Cloud contract, which [...]
Wilkinson Sword owner Edgewell abandons $1.4bn Harry’s merger February 10, 2020 Razor maker Edgewell – the owner of Wilkinson Sword – has abandoned plans for a $1.37bn merger with rival firm Harry’s following opposition from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Earlier this month, the FTC filed a lawsuit to block the deal, saying it could hurt competition in the US. Privately owned Harry’s will pursue [...]
Coronavirus: British Airways extends Beijing and Shanghai flight suspension February 10, 2020 British Airways has extended its suspension of flights to Beijing and Shanghai until April due to the outbreak of coronavirus. The airline said today that all flights to the two Chinese cities have been cancelled until 31 March, while flights from Beijing and Shanghai are cancelled until 1 April. Flights to the cities had originally [...]
Architecture firm denies reports that Bill Gates has bought £500m hydrogen yacht February 10, 2020 A Dutch architecture firm has denied reports that Microsoft founder Bill Gates has bought the world’s first hydrogen-powered superyacht after reports that he had went viral. The claim that the billionaire businessman had bought the yacht for an estimated £500m from Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design was published by several national newspapers. However the designer [...]
