Vectura auction scrapped as Carlyle refuses to match Philip Morris bid August 10, 2021 Plans for an auction to decide the buyer of respiratory drugmaker Vectura have been scrapped after US private equity firm Carlyle said its 155p per share offer was “full and final”. Cigarette maker Philip Morris and private equity firm Carlyle both hiked their offers for the business over the weekend, leading the Takeover Panel to [...]
Thousands of UK small businesses ‘can’t repay Covid loans’ August 10, 2021 Thousands of SMEs that received government Covid loans and the furlough scheme can now not make repayments amid limited cash flow, a survey of small businesses out today shows. The survey projected 59 per cent of SMEs in the UK, amounting to around 3.5m businesses, used government loans or furlough schemes during the pandemic. The [...]
Twitter to introduce autoblocking after Euro 2020 racist abuse August 10, 2021 Twitter will trial automatic blocking of accounts that post harmful language after Brits used the platform to hurl racist abuse at England footballers following the Euros final. The social media giant said the UK was “by far” the biggest source of abusive tweets sent on the night of England’s defeat to Italy and in the [...]
Student accomodation sector ‘very positive’ after record results day and £2bn investment August 10, 2021 The purpose-built student accommodation market has been further buoyed after record A-Level results today after investors spent £656m in the sector in the second quarter of this year. Almost half (44.8 per cent) of all A-Level grades received were either A or A*, after exams were cancelled and replaced with teacher predicted grades. There had [...]
Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill passes Senate August 10, 2021 President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill secured enough backing to pass through the US Senate today. The passage is seen as a victory for cross-party cooperation between Democrats and Republicans. The vote fiished at 69-30 in the 100-seat chamber, with 19 Republicans voting yes. After the vote concluded, Senators stepped up efforts to push [...]
More than $600m lost in worst ever DeFi hack August 10, 2021 Poly Network, a cross-chain protocol, has been attacked by a hacker who drained $611m (£441m) in the worst ever theft affecting Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Poly Network, which operates on the Ethereum, Binance and Polygon blockchains took to Twitter to announce the theft. They said: “We are sorry to announce that #PolyNetwork was attacked on @BinanceChain, [...]
Gino D’Acampo chain rescued in £12.9m pre-pandemic bailout August 10, 2021 Celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo’s restaurant chain received a £12.9m bailout before venues were struck by Covid closures. The money was lent by D’Acampo’s co-investors and Iceland bosses, Sir Malcom Walker and Tarsem Dhaliwal, who run the linked company Individual Restaurants. Gino D’Acampo Worldwide Restaurants owes the Piccolinos owner £12.9m, including a £7.125m bank loan taken [...]
Salesforce enters streaming wars with Netflix-style business service August 10, 2021 Software giant Salesforce has waded into the increasingly crowded streaming market with the launch of a new platform offering business-focused content on demand. The San Francisco-based company said its in-house studio had produced the core programming for Salesforce Plus, which will launch at its Dreamforce event next month. The service will look to harness the [...]
Chinese social media giant Weibo’s ex-PR director arrested on bribery charge August 10, 2021 Chinese authorities have arrested today a top communications director at Chinese social media giant Weibo accused of taking bribes. Mao Taotao, former senior public relations director at Weibo, was detained by police on suspicion of accepting bribes and committing fraud. Weibo, part-owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Groups, said the company had fired Mao and will [...]
Robinhood acquires investor relations platform Say Technologies in $140m takeover deal August 10, 2021 Fresh from its IPO at the end of last month, Robinhood today announced to its new shareholders that it will acquire online retail investor relations platform Say Technologies in a $140m (£101m) all-cash deal. New York fintech startup Say provides a digital platfrom that aims to enable retail investors to interact with the companies where [...]
