Eleven Sports: Live-streaming service grapple with the future of sports broadcasting August 15, 2018 It’s fair to say Eleven Sports’ first foray into the UK sports broadcasting market did not go to plan at the weekend. The new boys on the scene arrived with hopes high and viewers intrigued, offering two days of the US PGA Championship for free, with a seven-day trial making the entire tournament available on [...]
Serious Fraud Office suspends lawyer in charge of Unaoil criminal investigation | City A.M. August 12, 2018 The senior lawyer in charge of an ongoing criminal investigation into Monaco-based oil firm Unaoil has been suspended. Tom Martin, the lawyer managing the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) probe into the oil consultancy, has been suspended within the last few weeks for gross misconduct, according to Sky News. It comes just weeks before the agency’s [...]
IBM top executive joins the race to succeed Sorrell as next WPP chief August 11, 2018 An IBM senior vice president has entered the running to replace Sir Martin Sorrell at the helm of global marketing agency WPP. David Kenny, the senior vice president of IBM's cloud computing division, was approached by WPP chairman Roberto Quarta and took part in an interview last month, Sky News first reported. Sources close to the [...]
Philip Hammond is mulling special ‘Amazon tax’ for online retailers to counter high street woes | City A.M. August 10, 2018 Chancellor Philip Hammond has said he is considering a new tax for online businesses in recognition of the challenges faced by high street retailers. Hammond told Sky News he believed “the nature of the offer on the high street” was changing permanently. “There’s going to be less retail, more leisure, bars, community facilities,” he said. [...]
Martin Sorrell vs WPP: The king of adland wages war on the company he founded with his new venture S4 August 8, 2018 When a couple break up, sage advice is that it’s best to part ways amicably. This advice, however, has not been heeded by Martin Sorrell and WPP, the company Sorrell founded in 1985, turned into a global powerhouse, then exited in controversial fashion in April this year. Sorrell and WPP have been engaged in a war of [...]
Starbucks confirms partnership with Alibaba in a bid to increase China sales | City A.M. August 2, 2018 Starbucks is officially partnering with Alibaba in an effort to boost its delivery and online Chinese presence. The tie-up comes after an abrupt drop in Starbucks’ China sales in June, which was pinned on a crackdown on third-party delivery firms that had helped propel orders in its stores. Starbucks chief executive Kevin Johnson told reporters: [...]
Is the Premier League spending spree over? Transfer window alteration and broadcast revenue dip could explain expenditure | City A.M. August 1, 2018 If not quite at death and taxes levels of certainty, there has been a marked predictability about the volume of spending indulged in by Premier League clubs during every close season. Each summer for the last eight years, the total amount spent on new players during the transfer window by England’s top-division clubs has reached [...]
Co-op Group looks to sell off insurance division for £300m | City A.M. August 1, 2018 The Co-op Group is looking into selling off its general insurance operations for a sum of around £300m. Investment bankers from Fenchurch Advisory Partners have been brought in to advise the company on potential options for its insurance business. The Co-op division, which made £11m in underlying profit last year, has started to approach potential [...]
Jaguar XK150 Drophead Coupe review: A classic that’s been upgraded for contemporary tastes | City A.M. July 30, 2018 The Jaguar XK150 is basking, roof-down in front of a Mayfair mews house, all voluptuous curves and glinting chrome. It’s a perfect London postcard – but not, it seems, for the well-spoken chap who walks into JD Classics’ Mount Street showroom. “My fantasy car is an E-Type,” he tells me, “preferably in red.” Launched in [...]
How the Bank of England’s (BoE) monetary policy committee (MPC) are expected to vote | City A.M. July 30, 2018 The Bank of England is widely expected to raise the policy rate to 0.75 per cent on Thursday. This would be the second rate hike in a decade and take the policy rate to its highest level since 2009. Recent data have improved, but with some pockets of weakness still evident and ongoing lack of [...]