Boris Johnson vows to block European Super League for English clubs April 19, 2021 Boris Johnson has this morning slammed the new European Super League proposal and has vowed to block English football teams from competing in the new breakaway league. Johnson told reporters today that the proposal, which includes England’s six richest clubs, was “not good news for fans” after last night’s announcement sparked global outrage and brought [...]
Inspiring Ideas April 16, 2021 Inspiring Ideas WOBI is a leading global business content hub. Our goal is to produce and distribute the best management media content to help companies and their top executives improve the way they manage their organizations. We strongly believe that knowledge is the main competitive advantage in today’s business world. We create the most inspiring [...]
Competition watchdog clears £31bn O2-Virgin Media merger April 14, 2021 The competition watchdog has provisionally cleared the £31bn merger between O2 and Virgin Media following an in-depth investigation. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a probe into the tie-up amid concerns it would harm competition in the wholesale market. Virgin Media provides leased lines to mobile operators such as Vodafone and Three, while O2’s [...]
UK must make tech firms pay for news, says competition watchdog April 13, 2021 The UK must introduce a new code to ensure news publishers are fairly compensated for the use of their stories on tech platforms, the competition watchdog has said. Daniel Gordon, senior director of markets at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said his organisation agreed with the principles behind a new Australian law requiring tech [...]
Exclusive: London’s fintech bubble is ‘close to popping,’ warns Reed Smith partner April 13, 2021 A coalition of London fintech firms recently called on the Financial Conduct Authority to end the dominance of banks over the use of consumer data this year. They argue it would increase competition in the savings, credit, mortgages and pensions markets. Howard Womersley Smith, an expert fintech and data lawyer at Reed Smith in the [...]
UK urged to use new telecoms suppliers after Huawei ban April 13, 2021 The UK must ensure smaller telecoms suppliers play a major role in the country’s 5G network following the decision to ban Chinese tech firm Huawei, according to a new report. The vendor diversity task force, which was set up last year to lead the search for a replacement to Huawei, said smaller equipment makers should [...]
JD Sports beats profit forecasts as it shakes off pandemic hit April 13, 2021 JD Sports today reported full-year profits well ahead of market expectations as trading proved resilient despite the impact of store closures. The fashion retailer booked profit before tax and exceptional items of £421m in the year to the end of January. This was down from £439m the previous year but well ahead of market expectations [...]
To make Britain competitive globally, we must strip away regulatory red tape April 13, 2021 Last month, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) made a ruling which blocked the merger of the two British crowdfunding sites Seedrs and Crowdcube. This was wrong for a slew of reasons, not the least because Seedrs and Crowdcube are both tiny companies that should be below the regulatory radar. Both companies are currently [...]
China fines Alibaba a record £2bn after competition probe April 10, 2021 Chinese authorities have fined e-commerce giant Alibaba 18.2bn yuan (£2bn) over competition breaches, the largest penalty the country’s regulator has ever handed down. The fine, which amounts to about 4.0 per cent of the firm’s home country revenues, is the latest step in a crackdown on the tech firm after founder Jack Ma criticised China’s [...]
Why China’s electric vehicle market is at full throttle April 9, 2021 We get under the bonnet and look at what’s driving growth in China’s electric vehicle market After a dip in sales in 2019 and the impact of the pandemic in early 2020, the market for electric vehicles (EVs) in China is recovering strongly. Among the factors driving this acceleration in sales is the combination of [...]