UK businesses are increasingly adopting automation November 13, 2019 Eighty seven per cent of businesses have automated a key process during the last year, a survey of chief financial officers showed today. One-in-five financial officers view automation as their most most important investment priority during the next five years, the survey by accountancy firm BDO said. A third of businesses (31 per cent) have [...]
Killer robots? It’s only a matter of time November 12, 2019 Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere in the news at the moment, but there is little discussion of an area where huge sums are being spent by all the major powers: automated intelligent weapons — or killer robots, as they are usually called. Some strategists now envision military operations conducted entirely by automata. Such fully automated [...]
Meet our City A.M. PA Awards Judges – Alice Scutchey November 11, 2019 Alice Scutchey is a Senior Executive Assistant at Citi and the founder and director of the Canary Wharf PA Club. What made you decide to set up the Canary Wharf PA Club? I launched an internal network a couple of years ago but decided to expand on this idea when I returned from maternity leave [...]
Astrazeneca pushes further into China with trio of new projects November 6, 2019 Astrazeneca this morning unveiled three new initiatives to further deepen the UK-based company’s footprint in China. The pharmaceuticals multinational has agreed a partnership with China International Capital Corporation (CICC), one of China’s leading investment banks, to create a $1bn Healthcare Industrial Fund. Read more: AstraZeneca beats estimates in strong third quarter Astrazeneca will be a [...]
Bayer leads $25m investment round for healthcare start-up Medopad November 5, 2019 Digital healthcare start-up Medopad has earned $25m in an investment round led by Leaps by Bayer, the German pharmaceutical multinational’s venture capital arm. The investment, which brings Medopad’s total funding to over $50m, will be used to help develop the company’s digital health platform and to fund new clinical studies. Read more: Investment bank in [...]
New technologies to gain funding boost over next five years November 5, 2019 Nascent technologies such as quantum computing, blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) are set to receive significant attention from British businesses over the next five years, new research has found. The amount of firms set to invest in quantum computing is to nearly triple from 11 per cent today to 32 per cent in five years, [...]
Google to buy Fitbit for $2.1bn November 1, 2019 Google is set to snap up Fitbit in a deal worth roughly $2.1bn (£1.6bn). The tech giant is acquiring the fitness tracking company for $7.35 a share, in a move that is expected to be completed next year. Read more: Technical issue with Revolut app leaves customers unable to sign in Fitbit’s stock jumped 16 [...]
Dataminr is helping to save local journalism October 31, 2019 Journalism is in a tough spot. For decades, money and jobs in the industry have been in decline. The government’s Cairncross review, released last year, revealed the scope of the problem. It found that total press industry revenues had declined by more than half over the previous 10 years, and that the number of full-time [...]
Financial Times owner Nikkei loses $29m in apparent fraud October 30, 2019 Nikkei, the Japanese media giant behind the Financial Times, has lost roughly $29m (£22.5m) in an apparent wire transfer fraud. In a statement issued today, the company said an employee of its US subsidiary had transferred the funds after receiving “fraudulent instructions by a malicious third party who purported to be a management executive of [...]
The economic impact of Brexit tariffs only tells us half the story October 30, 2019 Brexit is about much more than the economic costs and benefits, but the idea that the former dramatically outweigh the latter has become the received wisdom in much of the media. Report after report emerges which purports to show that, under any of the various trade arrangements envisaged, the UK will be worse off as [...]