FTSE 100 roundup: Today’s winners and losers February 1, 2019 The FTSE 100 finished 0.74 per cent up today, nudging just above 7,000 points to finish on 7,020.22. The index was bolstered by weakness in the pound after the release of further disappointing manufacturing statistics this morning. Sterling has had a tough end to an already difficult week, falling 0.3 per cent against the dollar, striking a [...]
Outgoing BT boss Gavin Patterson regrets delayed start to turnaround plan January 31, 2019 Outgoing BT boss Gavin Patterson today said he regretted not starting the company’s radical turnaround plan earlier as his turbulent time at the helm came to an end. The embattled chief executive said the company would be in a better position if it had been quicker to kick off its aggressive cost-cutting plan, which included thousands [...]
BT boss Gavin Patterson signs off by beating revenue and profit forecasts despite industry headwinds January 31, 2019 Outgoing BT boss Gavin Patterson signed off today by beating revenue and profit expectations in the telecom giant’s third quarter. Patterson will make way for ex-Worldpay chief executive Philip Jansen tomorrow, after BT suffered a sustained drop in its share price. Read more: BT names ex-Worldpay chief Philip Jansen as new CEO Analysts said Patterson [...]
Huawei: How the Chinese telecoms spying scandal has impacted the UK January 29, 2019 The scandal rocking Chinese telecoms firm Huawei escalated last night after the US filed a series of criminal charges against it. The US Department of Justice has alleged Huawei of a raft of criminal offences amid fears Chinese authorities could use the company’s equipment for spying. The US, Australia and New Zealand have all banned [...]
Investors get green light to inspect SFO documents in legal action against Tesco January 29, 2019 A group of investors pursuing legal action against Tesco over its 2014 accounting scandal have been given the green light to inspect documents compiled by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Last Friday a High Court judge ruled that the documents, now in Tesco’s possession, would be of “considerable litigious advantage” to the claimants. Judge Hildyard [...]
A year in YouTube – the marketing lessons to learn from 2018 January 28, 2019 As we begin 2019 in earnest, it is important to reflect on some of the marketing lessons that last year provided. For YouTube, 2018 presented an opportunity for us to demonstrate how we used a combination of human review and machine learning to address some of the challenges that we had with ensuring that ads [...]
Vodafone and O2 eye sale of phone mast joint venture CTIL to speed up UK’s 5G rollout January 23, 2019 Vodafone and O2 today said they will consider a sale of their joint phone mast venture as they look to expand the partnership ahead of the rollout of 5G. The two telecoms firms said they had entered into a non-binding agreement to extend their existing network sharing partnership CTIL, which owns and manages phone masts, [...]
Robinhood rival Freetrade moves into US stocks as transatlantic retail investing battle hots up January 22, 2019 London fintech startup Freetrade has today launched US stock trading on its app, in the midst of growing rivalry in the commission-free trading space. The app, which offers users the ability to invest in stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) directly without paying commission, said it will start with a curated list of 120 US stocks, including the likes [...]
Monica Vinader-backer Beringea leads £6.5m round for data startup Exonar January 21, 2019 London-based venture capital firm Beringea has led a £6.5m funding round into UK data privacy and cybersecurity startup Exonar. The round was completed by Beringea alongside Downing Ventures, and existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners and Winton Ventures. Exonar aims to help firms comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and other legislation by creating an overview [...]
Hammond tells business chiefs no deal could be ‘taken off the table’ on leaked conference call January 17, 2019 Chancellor Philip Hammond has told business chiefs a no deal Brexit could be “taken off the table” and Article 50 rescinded, according to a leaked conference call transcript. In a conversation with 11 business leaders after Theresa May’s deal was defeated in parliament on Tuesday night, Hammond said the result led to two issues. Firstly, [...]