Finding Britain’s next Future Fifty: Tech City’s Gerard Grech in search of new UK stars October 29, 2014 Four London floats, over £260m of investment raised and just 10 months later, Gerard Grech is hunting for the UK’s top tech stars to join his new cohort. London has changed dramatically in the past year since Tech City UK, then simply Tech City, named 50 high-growth tech firms which would join its scheme [...]
Fitbug share price: The curious case of the rocketing penny stock October 28, 2014 Penny stock Fitbug continued its meteoric rise yesterday as shares jumped a further 60 per cent to 6.22p, leaving the wearable fitness tracker-maker perplexed as to the reason why. Fitbug gained investors’ attention last Wednesday when the little-known firm announced a potentially lucrative deal for its £49.95 Orb wristband to be stocked in 1,800 Target [...]
Emerging markets and cancer drugs help Pfizer top forecasts October 28, 2014 SALES in emerging markets and growing demand for its cancer drugs led US pharmaceutical titan Pfizer to report stronger-than-expected quarterly results yesterday. Earnings for its third quarter rose to $2.67bn (£1.65bn), up from $2.59bn a year earlier. The figure beat analyst expectations, but left shares trading fairly flat yesterday. Revenue fell two per cent to [...]
Veteran Quindell board member Tony Bowers dies October 28, 2014 Insurance outsourcer Quindell announced that its independent non-executive vice-chairman Tony Bowers passed away yesterday afternoon. Bowers was a partner with Deloitte for 23 years before his retirement in 2008, when he began specialising in dealing with companies on aspects of business and taxation. He went on to join Quindell’s board in February 2011. “Tony was [...]
Matomy Media Group share price rises as $17m MobFox deal to double down on mobile revealed October 28, 2014 Israel’s Matomy Media Group, of which French ad giant Publicis took a 20 per cent stake in earlier this month, will buy Austrian mobile-advertising specialist MobFox for $17.6m (£10.9m) in a move to boost its mobile offering. The deal, which City A.M. understands is due to close in the next few days, is comprised of [...]
Novartis share price rises as results top expectations after new drugs boost revenues October 28, 2014 Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis saw its results top expectations yesterday as strong sales of new drugs pushed up group revenues four per cent to $14.7bn (£9.09bn) in the third quarter. Novartis has been counting on a wave of new products, including multiple sclerosis pill Gilenya and cancer drugs Tasigna and Afinitor, to offset patent losses [...]
Just one UK company ranked among the world’s top 50 innovative firms in BCG report October 27, 2014 Britain's biggest firms are lagging behind US and Asian firms in terms of innovation, according to a new report that lists just one UK firm among the world’s 50 most innovative companies. The single British firm was multinational Unilever, which owns brands such as Lynx, Ben and Jerry’s and Dove. The firm finished in 49th [...]
Flybe returns to London with new city routes October 27, 2014 Flybe launched its first service to London City Airport yesterday, aiming to connect the regions with the heart of London’s financial district, just over a year after it left Gatwick during its restructuring. Chief executive Saad Hammad told City A.M. that he expects the six new routes – which will see the City connected with [...]
London’s top tech advocate October 27, 2014 Universities are not producing the graduates needed for London’s booming tech sector. While that’s not a new problem, it is the number one issue affecting businesses in the capital, according to a private sector-led group of 1,000 so-called Tech London Advocates – including BT boss Gavin Patterson, Facebook’s EMEA vice president Nicola Mendelsohn and Lastminute.com [...]
More $1bn startups bypass the US October 27, 2014 SILICON Valley’s stranglehold of creating leading software businesses is weakening as less than 40 per cent of the 134 software companies reaching a billion-dollar valuation over the past 10 years have come from the legendary tech hub. New research, created by London-based venture capital firm Atomico, led by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, found that 82 [...]
