Bubble trouble: Lessons from three centuries of boom and bust August 6, 2020 While 2020 has seen its fair share of market turbulence, it has some way to go to match the volatility of 1720. This month marks the 300th anniversary of the peak of the South Sea Bubble — one of the first financial bubbles, and still one of history’s greatest. The bubble began when the South [...]
Flexibility key to Blazing Griffin’s soaring success August 5, 2020 Within 24 hours our entire games’ studio was working from home. Inadvertently, we had made the sudden transition slightly easier as have given staff the option to partially work from home for some time now and are used to flexible working. This meant that our work was already entirely cloud based, that we had device [...]
Tiktok faces EU privacy review over data collection methods August 5, 2020 Tiktok’s attempts to restructure its European operations are facing a review from EU privacy watchdogs, as the video sharing app prepares to sell its US arm to Microsoft. Last week, Tiktok shifted data about its UK, EU and Swiss users from computer servers in the US to holding bases in the UK and Ireland, as [...]
Johnson gives Tiktok the green light for London headquarters August 4, 2020 Boris Johnson has given the green light to allow video sharing app Titkok to move its global headquarters to London, in a move that will likely spark fury from across the Atlantic. Downing Street today said it had no objection to Tiktok’s shift to the UK, despite growing national security concerns over its close links [...]
Trump demands US Treasury cut of Tiktok sale August 4, 2020 US President Donald Trump has said the US Treasury should be brought in on Microsoft’s potential acquisition of Tiktok’s American arm, arguing the deal wouldn’t happen without its approval. Trump said he told Microsoft the government should receive a “substantial portion” of the deal if an American firm buys the operation. Tiktok’s Chinese owner Bytedance [...]
Bitcoin Tests $12,000 Mark as Decentralized Finance Surpasses $4 Billion August 4, 2020 This week the price of Bitcoin (BTC) went from about $10,200 to a near $12,000 high, but it was met with resistance and crashed to less than $11,000 within 6 minutes. At press time, it’s trading at $11,200 as it steadily recovers. Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, started the week at $355 [...]
Russian hackers ‘stole’ US-UK trade deal papers from Liam Fox’s email August 3, 2020 Classified US-UK trade documents were “stolen” from former trade minister Liam Fox’s email account by Russian hackers, according to reports. The papers, which were leaked ahead of the December General Election last year, were accessed via several hacks on Fox’s account between 12 July and 21 October, according to Reuters. Several sources declined to name [...]
FTSE 100 breaks 6,000 and US stocks rise amid economic optimism August 3, 2020 The FTSE 100 rose sharply, surpassing 6,000 points, as investors looked past rising coronavirus cases and cheered positive economic data. London’s blue-chip index was 2.2 per cent higher in afternoon trading at 6,028 points. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was up 1.2 per cent. Read more: HSBC profit plummets due to coronavirus pandemic On Wall Street, [...]
Chinese AI firm slaps Apple with $1.4bn patent lawsuit August 3, 2020 Chinese artificial intelligence firm Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology has filed a $1.4bn lawsuit against Apple, claiming the iPhone giant has infringed on a patent for its voice assistant technology. Shanghai Zhizhen, also known as Xiao-i, is calling for 10bn yuan ($1.4bn) in damages and demands that Apple cease “manufacturing, using, promising to sell, selling, and [...]
Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to clinch Tiktok deal as owners eye London move August 3, 2020 Microsoft and US President Donald Trump have worked out an agreement which gives the software giant 45 days to finalise a deal for the US arm of Tiktok. The software giant said in a statement that its chief executive Satya Nadella has been in discussions with the President about a potential Tiktok purchase, and that [...]