How Facebook built a $1bn business in 16 months March 26, 2014 Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg yesterday described his purchase of Oculus VR as key in jumping onto virtual reality which he says will become a part of everyday life and be the “next major computing platform that will come after mobile.” To find out just how quickly Facebook can capitalise on a new business, it’s [...]
Are you a secret sexist? Take this test and find out March 26, 2014 At this morning’s launch of the latest Cranfield FTSE Women report, unconscious bias was a hot topic. Put very simply unconscious bias controls that bit of our brain that – like it or not – sorts people into categories. Man = manager. Women = secretary. And so on. Neurologists claims that not only are our [...]
Loan brokers to beat government to SME referrals site March 26, 2014 Business loan brokers are setting up a new site to let small businesses compare and apply for credit, beating the government’s new referral scheme. Chancellor George Osborne fears small firms are not getting the credit they need to grow. So in the budget he announced big banks will have to refer any rejected customers to [...]
Centrica shares drop after SSE price freeze receives warm welcome March 26, 2014 SSE’s business plan and price freeze until 2016 has proved popular across the board today. Unless you’re in the renewable energy camp, who are pretty peeved that the energy firm is cutting its offshore wind portfolio to offset said price freeze. Politicians were battling to take credit for the consumer-friendly move at PMQs, with Labour [...]
Boeing orders see US durable goods swell in February March 26, 2014 The latest macro data from the US sees headline durable goods orders rise by 2.2 per cent in February. Analysts had expected growth of just one per cent this month. But ignore the Boeing effects from strong orders, and the numbers are far less attractive. Excluding transportation, orders growth is a tepid 0.2 per cent, [...]
Just-Eat opts to be first member of LSE’s High Growth Segment March 26, 2014 The prospectus of takeaway website company Just-Eat has revealed that it plans to join the London Stock Exchange's High Growth Segment. By doing so, it won't have to sell off as much stock to be listed. The High Growth Segment has a lower free float requirement, with a minimum threshold of 10 per cent, as [...]
The UK’s 50 biggest companies that still have all-male boards March 26, 2014 UK companies are closing in on a government target to see women in 25 per cent of FTSE 100 board positions. That's according to the 2014 Cranfield Female FTSE board report, which shows that just 48 more women are needed on the boards of Britain's top companies for the target to be met. Just two [...]
One Reddit user said Zuck was visiting Oculus’ offices a month ago – and everyone ignored him March 26, 2014 The latest addition to Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook empire has gotten many of Reddit's users very heated up. A part of the messageboard dedicated to Oculus Rift, which the social media giant announced it would be acquiring yesterday, is filled with anti-Facebook entries. Maybe that's why one user was ignored when he reported that the Facebook [...]
Academics tried to rank the best of finance Twitter and made three huge mistakes in the process March 25, 2014 Two academics have set out to find the best of the best of financial Twitter. In their new paper, "How to measure the quality of financial tweets", Cerchiello and Giudici note that data from the social network "may be very useful". They suggest that it could be used to "predict financial tangibles, such as share prices, [...]
UKFI to sell further 7.5 per cent stake in Lloyds March 25, 2014 UK Financial Investments, the body responsible for the government's stake in state-supported banks RBS and Lloyds, has announced that it intends to sell part of the Treasury's shareholding. Approximately 7.5 per cent of Lloyds is up for grabs, or 5.35bn ordinary shares. That should see the government's stake in Lloyds reduced from 32.7 per cent [...]
