The world’s biggest economy is scared March 4, 2020 The final weeks of 2019 saw the traditional flurry of analysts and market commentators raising the prospect of so-called black swan events in 2020. Looking back through these notes today, one is confronted with a range of nightmare scenarios ranging from military conflict in the South China Sea to the collapse of a major investment bank [...]
Premier League broadcasting: What does Amazon’s initial success with Prime Video mean for the market? March 3, 2020 Amazon broadcast its first live football matches in December, showing 20 Premier League games to subscribers on its Prime Video platform. The decision to make a first foray into the sector was a brave, albeit relatively small, one for the US retail giant. Now that the dust has settled, it looks increasingly like an intelligent [...]
Alphabet’s Waymo nabs $2.25bn in first external funding round March 2, 2020 Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet, said tonight it has raised $2.25bn (£1.76bn) in its first external investment round. In addition to Alphabet, investors included car parts supplier Magna International, US dealership chain Autonation, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and three large investment firms: Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz and sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. Alphabet [...]
UK tycoons buy Twickenham Studios as they launch £500m film venture March 2, 2020 Two British tycoons have snapped up Twickenham Studios as part of a £500m project to develop studio space to meet surging demand for new films and TV shows. Piers Read, producer of The Inbetweeners and Peep Show, and Jeremy Rainbird, who launched Bafta-winning production company Merman, have bought the west London studio hub for £50m. [...]
Goldman Sachs and Citigroup halt foreign business trips over coronavirus March 2, 2020 US banking giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have expanded their restrictions on business trips by staff in response to the coronavirus epidemic. Citigroup’s restrictions will now cover all international business trips “until further notice”, the bank said. Previously, it had only restricted travel to a select number of countries that had reported outbreaks of the [...]
Car shipping cartel to face UK class action March 1, 2020 Five shipping companies who ran a cartel for importing cars to the UK will face a class action lawsuit. MOL, “K” Line, NYK, WWL/EUKOR and CSAV are being sued for overcharging UK consumers and businesses. The European Commission ruled in 2018 they had breached competition rules by coordinating rates and capacity. Brussels imposed a €395m [...]
US stocks fall for seventh consecutive day as coronavirus fears increase February 28, 2020 US stocks opened down again today for the seventh straight day as investors continued to sell after new cases of coronavirus pummelled global stock markets. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 both fell 2.5 per cent, to 25,119.36 and 2,904.44 respectively. The Nasdaq fared marginally better, opening 1.9 per cent down at 8,402.67. The [...]
How coronavirus could cause a global recession February 28, 2020 Covid-19 has dominated news headlines since mid-January. The human and social costs have been heavy, disrupting the normality of life primarily in China but also around the world. Now the recent outbreaks in Italy, Iran and South Korea have ignited fears of a global pandemic, and in response major equity indices have plummeted by nearly [...]
Apple receives bloody nose over Chinese censorship policies February 26, 2020 Apple’s shareholders today launched an unsuccessful proposal critical of the firm’s removal of apps at the request of the Chinese government, despite garnering two-fifths of investors’ support. The proposal drew a much higher proportion of votes than similar proposals in previous years which had gained support only in single-digit percentages. The bid had called on [...]
Microsoft downgrades Windows and Surface outlook on coronavirus outbreak February 26, 2020 Microsoft has said it won’t meet parts of its quarterly guidance following the coronavirus outbreak. The downgrade relates to its More Personal Computing segment, which Microsoft had previously forecast to report between $10.75bn (£8.33bn) and $11.15bn in revenue for the upcoming quarter. “Although we see strong Windows demand in line with our expectations, the supply chain is returning [...]