Sky’s the limit: Alibaba Cloud looks to take on Amazon as it talks up a partnership with BT July 9, 2018 Chinese tech giant Alibaba is in talks to provide its cloud services to BT, in an apparent bid to take on Amazon’s dominance of the European market. Alibaba already holds a cloud services deal with Vodafone in Germany, where its first European data centre is located. If the partnership with BT were to look similar, [...]
Make cool stuff, says Jason Kingsley, founder of video game company Rebellion July 9, 2018 VIDEO games get a bad rap. The industry is still plagued by unfair stereotypes about gamers (perpetuated by awful shows like The Big Bang Theory) and sensationalist headlines in newspapers – think of the furore over the currently popular multiplayer shooter Fortnite, with parents claiming that their children are “addicted” to the game. This knee-jerk [...]
Chinese bid for Northern Aerospace falls through as regulator denies approval July 9, 2018 Chinese takeover attempts to buy a British defence company have fallen through, according to UK private equity firm Better Capital. Approval has not been given for aircraft parts maker Northern Aerospace to be purchased by Derby-based Gardner Aerospace, a subsidiary of Chinese aerospace and mining firm Shaanxi Ligeance Mineral Resources. Read more: Aerospace sector revises [...]
Last Week in the City: Trade wars begin July 6, 2018 Garry White, chief investment commentator, looks at the market-moving events that have shaped the UK equity markets this week (2 to 6 July 2018). The World Cup is “distracting” for participants in global markets, according to Citigroup. "We find that football is indeed distracting, subtly impacting market depth, traded volumes and execution cost,” the US [...]
Mobike refunds user deposits in China, in a bid to pedal away with market share July 5, 2018 Chinese bike-sharing company Mobike has said it will be ditching the traditional deposit scheme for all of its Chinese users, in a bid to win over the market amid fierce competition. Existing customers will be able to claim back their deposits from Mobike, which was priced at 299 yuan (£34). Mobike said in a statement [...]
Tit for tat trade response risks 1930s mistake July 4, 2018 “Trade wars are good and easy to win”, so says US President Trump who last weekend railed against the EU for being as “bad as China” when it comes to trade practices that he perceives as being disadvantageous to US jobs and business. Over the past few weeks the rhetoric over global trade has been [...]
Trade war threatens £265bn blow to global economy as backlash against Trump’s protectionism grows July 2, 2018 An escalation in the brewing trade war among the world’s biggest economies threatens to deliver a £265bn blow to the global economy next year, new forecasts show, as the backlash grows against US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies. The powerful US Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest lobby group with more than 3m members, has [...]
Revealed: June’s top and bottom performing funds July 2, 2018 June was dominated by trade war fears as Donald Trump said he would add further tariffs on Chinese and European goods should there be any retaliation to his initial tranche of measures. The prospect of mercantilist trade policies unnerved investors concerned about future growth. There are few, if any, real winners in a full-blown trade [...]
Chinese stocks down 2.5 per cent today as tariff deadline looms July 2, 2018 Chinese stocks took another battering today as new tariffs from both Washington and Beijing will take effect this week. China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed down over 2.5 per cent – the worst start to the second half of a year since 2015. And losses rippled across Asia with Japanese and South Korean markets both [...]
Tom Davies talks eyewear, designing glasses for Clark Kent, and moving his factory from China to Brentford July 2, 2018 What do Ed Sheeran, Angelina Jolie, and Carrie Fisher, have in common? They’ve all worn spectacles created by luxury eyewear designer Tom Davies. The entrepreneur’s designs are highly sought after. Not only does he count celebrities among his clientele, but his glasses have appeared on the big screen. In 2014, he was asked to design [...]