Clarks kicks off restructuring talks with landlords October 26, 2020 High street footwear retailer Clarks has begun negotiations with landlords over store closures and rental agreements as it prepares to launch a restructuring plan. Clarks and its advisors will meet with retail property owners this week to discuss a company voluntary arrangement, which would allow the retailer to move to a “turnover rent” model linked [...]
Drop in drama comes at bad time for Premier League’s pay-per-view push October 26, 2020 Who remembers the good old days of a few weeks ago, when the Premier League was all goals and madcap scorelines? Leicester smashing five at Manchester City was soon eclipsed by Tottenham’s six-goal romp at Manchester United and then, giddily, Aston Villa putting seven past champions Liverpool. Gameweek Two had set the tone, ushering in [...]
The world’s great power rivals must not underestimate American blundering October 26, 2020 I love the peerless movie Casablanca beyond all others for its wit, intelligence, charm. I love it for its beating heart of romanticism, all lying just under the strata of the most delightful cynicism imaginable. But most of all I love it for its politics. A perfect geopolitical allegory of the early 1940s, it finds [...]
The Secret Garden review – death by 1,000 adaptations October 23, 2020 Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel The Secret Garden has been adapted numerous times for film, television and the stage, with the most recent being a 1993 version produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Times have changed, but the allure and magic of The Secret Garden was enough for the producers of the Harry Potter and Paddington [...]
Screenshot: Will the UK’s live music industry ever recover? October 23, 2020 A weekly column from City A.M. bringing you all the biggest stories and trends in technology, media and telecoms This week: ** Media Moment of the Week: Sky History gets tattoo regret ** Can the live music sector survive this crisis? ** The tide turns against Google Media Moment of the Week This week we [...]
KPMG considering sale of UK restructuring business October 22, 2020 KPMG is considering selling its UK restructuring business as the accounting giant looks to shore up its finances after delaying its annual results amid the disruption caused by Covid-19. The firm is exploring options for the division including a possible sale as the Big Four accountants prepare for extensive reforms of their business to comply [...]
Shell makes surprise bid for Post Office broadband division October 22, 2020 Oil giant Shell is said to have made a surprise entry into the race to snap up the Post Office’s telecoms division, paving the way for a potential shake-up of the UK broadband market. The FTSE 100 company already has a presence in the telecoms market after taking control of energy and broadband provider First [...]
Government ‘significantly underestimating’ airport testing effectiveness, new study finds October 22, 2020 New independent analysis has emerged which calls into question the government’s claim that airport testing for coronavirus will only detect seven per cent of cases. The research, from consultancies Oxera and Edge Health, along with Dr Kit Yates from the University of Bath, says that the methodology used by Public Health England (PHE) was flawed. [...]
Take a break in Sweden’s magical Arctic Bath Hotel October 21, 2020 Sweden is currently in the UK’s travel corridor “green list”, meaning you can travel without having to self-isolate for two weeks when you return. So why not venture into the wilderness of Swedish lapland to forget about the woes back home, staying in Arctic Bath, one of the world’s most unique hotels. The weekend Set [...]
Startup community Supernode merges with VC fund to invest in media-tech October 21, 2020 Investor and startup community Supernode has absorbed media-tech VC fund Rooks Nest Ventures in what it claims is an industry first. The creation of Supernode Global comes out of the £28m Rooks Nest Ventures fund, launched in 2017 by film producer Michael Sackler, and the community platform Supernode. The new venture will offer access to [...]