Starbucks and Fiat EU tax ruling: Luxembourg and Netherlands no longer corporation tax sweethearts October 21, 2015 Starbucks and Fiat are in for a very large tax bill. €30m to be exact. Each. The EU has ruled that “sweetheart” tax deal arrangements between large corporations and individual countries amount to state aid and are therefore illegal. "All companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax,” said [...]
Back to the Future 2 Day October 21, 2015: Seven of tech’s biggest entrepreneurs and what they were doing back in 1985 October 21, 2015 It’s not just the technology that’s different on Back to the Future Day (the day which Marty McFly travels to from 1985 in the second instalment of the film). The world’s best known entrepreneurs who have changed the way we live in the last 30 years were living very different lives back in 1985 when [...]
Arm Holdings share price jumps as revenues rise 24 per cent October 21, 2015 Arm Holdings, the UK chip designer – and one of the darlings of Cambridge's burgeoning tech scene – said pre-tax profits jumped almost a third in the three months to the end of September. The figures The company said revenues had risen 24 per cent to £243.1m in its third quarter, pushing profits before tax up 27 per cent to £128.4m. The [...]
Audi A4 motoring review: From worst car in the class to a class act October 19, 2015 Audi, in recent years, has been in the rather unfortunate position of selling the worst car in its class. It’s long been unable to topple the BMW 3 Series as the best compact premium saloon, of course, but an honourable runner-up slot used to suffice. Then Mercedes-Benz came along with the new C-Class and, one [...]
Think iPhones are expensive? An Apple 1 computer is being auctioned by Christie’s for £500,000 October 16, 2015 One of the first ever Apple computers is going up for sale at London auction house Christie's – and it's expected to raise as much as £500,000. Christie's said the rare Apple 1 computer is one of only about 50 in existence. Hand-made by Steves Jobs and Wozniak in their garage, only 200 were ever made. It's no wonder, then, that [...]
Adobe confirms security hole in Flash Player which leaves users exposed to hackers October 16, 2015 As if Adobe Flash wasn’t already struggling enough. A massive security flaw has just been confirmed, which could leave all Flash users exposed to hackers crashing their computers, or even taking control over them. Adobe has confirmed the “critical” vulnerability, which apparently affects all versions of Flash Player, whether on Windows, Mac or Linux. The [...]
The secrets of presenting to the boss: Off-the-wall is fine but prepare answers before you go in October 16, 2015 As a former director, I recall the time when a newly appointed member of the executive team was “called in” to present to the chief executive for the first time. Needless to say, she was a little anxious, so I did my best to encourage her. Afterwards, I asked how it went, and she [...]
Christopher Bailey’s sky high pay is hard to justify as Burberry’s profits sink October 16, 2015 Burberry, the luxury fashion brand popular with Romeo Beckham and Yanis Varoufakis, must be getting pretty bored with criticism over the size of its executives’ pack packages. Annual eight-figure payments to former boss Angela Ahrendts attracted attention in the wake of the global financial crisis, while current chief Christopher Bailey faced a shareholder revolt before [...]
Elon Musk is about to put thousands of driverless cars on the road – but drivers of Tesla Model S with Autopilot have been warned: Keep your hands on the wheel October 15, 2015 Did the future just arrive on the world's roads and we didn't even notice? Cult electric car maker Tesla said last night that it's about to push an update to 60,000 of its Model S vehicles which will allow them to autonomously park (including finding a parking spot) and change lanes. Elon Musk, the company's [...]
The war on the driver is a war on freedom – and autonomous cars are part of the problem October 14, 2015 Freedom-hating municipal politicians have it in for the motorist: London has its congestion charge, Dublin is closing off ever more of its urban core, and Paris is now experimenting with sporadically banning all private transport. Young people, faced with turbo-charged costs, onerous restrictions and absurd taxation – not to mention rising housing costs – [...]