Photobox boss Stan Laurent: The man driving Moonpig’s growth story September 14, 2014 By the end of April, it became clear to Stan Laurent that London’s doors were effectively closed to new consumer-facing internet companies. There had just been the perfect storm of disastrous market debuts from Just Eat and AO World, along with two profit warnings from Asos that triggered a sell-off in shares of fellow fashion [...]
Amazon planning to more than double its workforce in London September 11, 2014 Online retail giant Amazon has signed a deal to open a huge office around the corner from Silicon Roundabout, where it will more than double its current total UK corporate workforce to more than 5,000 employees. Amazon’s new home will be Principal Place, a massive development between Liverpool Street and Shoreditch High Street stations, which [...]
Autonomy hits back at HP’s fraud allegation September 11, 2014 Autonomy founder Mike Lynch yesterday hit back at Hewlett-Packard’s allegations of fraud by publishing a file of internal documents that he claimed contradicted some of his accuser’s most damaging accusations. HP last week publicly disclosed for the first time some of the detail behind its allegations that it was forced to write down more than [...]
BlackBerry swoops for London mobile software startup Movirtu September 11, 2014 BLACKBERRY, the struggling smartphone maker, has bought London-based startup Movirtu, a firm that makes software that allows users to have multiple phone numbers on the same device. BlackBerry yesterday said the move would help it target smartphone users who increasingly use a single device for personal calls and business. Chief executive John Chen said: “In [...]
M&C Saatchi’s ad revenue soars on strong UK and US markets September 11, 2014 ADVERTISING giant M&C Saatchi saw revenues rise three per cent during the first half of the year, it reported yesterday, to £82.6m on the back of strong growth in the UK and US. With a 17 per cent jump in profit to £8m during the six months to 30 June, the group said it was [...]
Lululemon ups 2014 forecast September 11, 2014 CANADIAN clothing heavyweight Lululemon Athletica reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit yesterday, mitigating some of the damage from a series of mishaps last year, spurring it to raise its 2014 profit forecast and pushing its stock higher. Lululemon’s shares jumped 13.9 per cent on the results to $43.73 yesterday, after it reported a 13 per cent [...]
Uber driver hit with first fine September 11, 2014 Ride hire app Uber suffered a fresh blow in Germany yesterday, after a Frankfurt taxi operator won a temporary injunction against an Uber partner driver. Earlier this month, the Frankfurt regional court imposed an injunction on the firm’s ride-sharing offering UberPop – that allows passengers to share a hire car to the same destination – [...]
Viacom closes £450m Channel 5 takeover and unveils new shows September 10, 2014 MTV-OWNER Viacom has completed its £450m takeover of Channel 5, ending the auction process of the UK broadcaster which began last year. Viacom also announced its first joint programme commissions with Channel 5, a reality TV show called 10,000 BC, as the US group looks to boost the British channel’s programming budget and benefit from [...]
BSkyB prices £3.25bn bond issue to cover the cost of Sky Europe September 10, 2014 SHARES in British Sky Broadcasting fell slightly in trading yesterday after it priced £3.25bn of euro- and US dollar-denominated bonds to help it buy Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland. The deal will create a so-called Sky Europe, a pan-European PayTV empire, described by BSkyB as a “world-class, multinational pay TV business with enhanced headroom for [...]
German venture capitalist Rocket heads for €5bn float in Frankfurt September 10, 2014 German venture capital firm and startup incubator Rocket Internet yesterday unveiled plans for a stock market listing in Germany that could value the company behind dozens of online start-ups at €5bn (£4bn), riding a wave of e-commerce flotations. Rocket, that replicates e-commerce businesses in a number of startups that it has launched around the world, [...]
