The great high street outage of 2025 Retail On paper, British high streets have seen worse. Footfall has survived recessions, pandemics and price shocks before, and tills were just about still ringing. But this year it flickered, stalled and, in some cases, went dark – brought to its knees by a wave of cyber attacks that exposed the fragility of retail in the [...]
Bet365 boss banks £260m payout despite profit slide Business Billionaire founder and chief executive of Bet365, Denise Coates, saw her pay surge last year, despite the firm’s profit going south. Coates was paid a salary of £104m in the year to March, according to newly filed accounts, while cash dividends to family shareholders tripled to £313.6m. As the firm’s majority owner, Coates was entitled [...]
TikTok owner eyes $23bn AI spend amid Nvidia chip uncertainty Tech ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, is set to significantly ramp up its investment in AI next year, as access to Nvidia’s chips once again becomes a key fault line in the global race. ByteDance is reportedly targeting around RMB160bn (£17bn) in capital expenditure in 2026, up from roughly RMB150bn (£15.7bn) this year, with the bulk [...]
Pressure mounts as Ellison stakes $40bn for Warner Bros December 23, 2025 In the latest twist in Hollywood’s own corporate soap opera, tech billionaire Larry Ellison has personally guaranteed $40.4bn (£30bn) to support Paramount Skydance’s $108.4bn bid for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), in a bid to outflank Netflix in the fight for the entertainment giant. Warner Bros urged shareholders last week to reject Paramount’s all-cash offer, citing [...]
Tech hiring set to spike despite dire UK job market December 22, 2025 The UK labour market may be flashing warning signs, but demand for IT and tech professionals seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Over half of British businesses plan to expand their permanent IT and tech teams in the first half of next year, according to new research from recruitment firm Robert Half, a [...]
Big Tech braces as Keir Starmer flirts with Australia-style social media ban December 22, 2025 According to reports, Keir Starmer is weighing up an Australia-style ban on social media for under-16s, as ministers reassess how far the UK should go in regulating online platforms for kids. The prime minister has previously said he was “personally” opposed to a blanket ban, arguing that the focus should be on controlling content instead. [...]
GSK strikes deal to cut drug prices with US government December 22, 2025 GSK has struck a voluntary agreement with the US government to lower the cost of prescription medicines and expand access to treatments for millions of Americans. The move comes as pressure mounts on global drugmakers over pricing, tariffs, and domestic investment. The London-listed pharma giant said the deal covers medicines used by over 40m US [...]
Eurostar’s new AI chatbot left customers exposed December 22, 2025 Eurostar’s shiny new AI chatbot was billed as a smarter way of helping customers. But the bot was shipped with old-fashioned security flaws that could have left customers exposed, and for weeks, nobody at the train operator seemed willing to listen. City AM can reveal that multiple security flaws were found in Eurostar’s public-facing AI [...]
Bailey sounds alarm on AI as youth unemployment jumps December 19, 2025 AI could displace workers on a scale not seen since the Industrial Revolution, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has warned, as the UK jobs market shows fresh signs of strain. Bailey said the rapid adoption of AI across the economy was “most likely” to have a similar effect to past technological upheavals. “As you [...]
Zara turns to AI-edited models amid shop closures December 18, 2025 Zara is using artificial intelligence to edit images of human models for its e-commerce platforms, City AM understands, as the fast-fashion giant looks to cut costs amid a tough retail backdrop. Models who have previously shot campaigns for Zara have since been contacted by the Spanish retail giant and asked for permission for their images [...]
