Travel restrictions pull Visa quarterly profit lower April 27, 2021 Visa reported a small fall in its quarterly profit as lockdown restrictions continue to have an impact on the world’s travel and retail industries. The payments company reported net income slipped two per cent in the second quarter to $3bn, equivalent to $1.38 per Class A Share. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.27 per [...]
Microsoft sees continued demand for cloud services April 27, 2021 It was another stellar quarter for Microsoft as it continued to benefit from the pandemic-induced shift to the cloud. The tech heavyweight beat Wall Street expectations for quarterly revenue, rising 19 per cent to $41.7bn in the three months to March just ahead of analysts’ estimates of $41.03bn. Last quarter Microsoft reported a 17 per [...]
Google owner Alphabet beats revenue expectations as ad spend recovers April 27, 2021 Google’s parent company Alphabet beat Wall Street estimates for the first quarter amidst a recovery in digital ad spend. Revenue rose to $55.31bn in the first quarter from $41.16bn a year earlier, beating analyst estimates of $51.7bn according to Refinitiv data. Alphabet shares rose about five per cent to $2,405 in after-hours trading. Digital advertising [...]
Mayor of London election: Minor candidates create a race within a race April 27, 2021 This year’s mayor of London election has set a record for the most ever candidates – a 20-strong field of career politicians, chancers, grifters, oddballs, cranks, culture warriors and earnest small party hopefuls. The race itself has provided little interest for the public at large, with a Sadiq Khan victory a foregone conclusion at a [...]
Softbank leads $525m round in British drug developer Exscientia April 27, 2021 British pharmaceutical company Exscientia has received funding from Softbank Vision Fund just a month after closing its last investment round. Exscientia uses artificial intelligence to discover new drug molecules and has now designed two drugs that are in Phase 1 of clinical trials. The Oxford-based company today announced it had completed a $225m Series D [...]
Shell Q1 results: What to expect April 27, 2021 After BP today gave the market “all it could have asked for”, attention will now turn to rival oil giant Shell ahead of Thursday’s first quarter results. While the former firm came into the results trumpeting the fact that it would hit its debt reduction targets a year early, prompting the restart of share buybacks, [...]
Oneweb raises $550m as French satellite firm Eutelsat takes major stake April 27, 2021 Oneweb today said it had raised $550m (£395m) in fresh funding from French satellite firm Eutelsat as the race to roll out space internet services gathers pace. Eutelsat, which is part owned by the French state, will take a stake of roughly 24 per cent in the British company and take on similar governance rights [...]
Spotify launches podcast subscriptions as Apple rivalry heats up April 27, 2021 Spotify today revealed plans to launch a paid subscription platform for podcasters as the streaming service’s rivalry with Apple continues to heat up. The feature, which will initially launch in the US, means podcast creators can mark certain episodes as subscriber-only and publish them on Spotify, as well as on other podcast services. It comes [...]
FTSE 100 weighed down by Aveva while Wall Street slips ahead of tech earnings April 27, 2021 The FTSE 100 closed in the red this afternoon despite a strong day of results for heavyweights BP and HSBC, while US stocks were muted ahead of bumper tech earnings. London’s blue-chip index closed down 0.26 per cent this afternoon as Aveva slumped nearly five per cent following its CEO’s exit. The drop was limited [...]
Arlene Foster on verge of facing DUP leadership challenge April 27, 2021 Arlene Foster is on the verge of being removed as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader and Northern Ireland’s First Minister in a move that could jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement and the Brexit treaty’s Northern Ireland Protocol. An estimated 75 per cent of Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have [...]
