The Digital Effect February 16, 2014 Annabel Palmer discusses trends with Gwyn Jones, BBH’s group chief executive BRITISH advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) has been Agency of the Year twice at the Cannes Lions Festival, and has created notable campaigns including “Vorsprung durch Technik” for Audi and “The Lynx Effect” for Unilever. Group chief executive Gwyn Jones tells City A.M. [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 14 February 2014 February 13, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Apple to cut use of ‘conflict minerals’ Apple is extending its supply chain clean up beyond Chinese factories and into African mines, using name-and-shame tactics to cut the amount of “conflict minerals” that end up in its iPhones and iPads. As it touts fresh improvements to working conditions in the factories that produce [...]
How wearable band shipments will hit 17m this year February 12, 2014 If you’re not one of the people who got a wearable band last year, you might well order one this year, as numbers look set to skyrocket. According to research firm Canalys, not only did basic and smart band shipments grow dramatically in the second half of 2013 to 1.6m, but 2014 will be the [...]
Flappy Bird’s earnings pale in comparison with these big players February 12, 2014 When Flappy Bird creator Nguyen Ha Dong revealed he was making over $50,000 (£30,250) a day from the game, before he removed it from distribution, pundits were certainly shocked. But the smartphone App Store gold rush, those are rookie numbers compared to some larger game makers. Supercell, behind both Hay Day (the eighth highest grossing [...]
Google overtakes Exxon to become US’ second biggest firm February 10, 2014 Tech giant Google has overtaken the world's No1 oil producer, Exxon, to rank as the US' second largest company by market capitalisation. On Friday Google closed with a cap of $395.42bn (£240.96bn), versus Exxon's $392.66bn, according to FactSet data. The shift marks the changing landscape of the US economy, as more of its capital shifts [...]
Carl Icahn drops $50bn Apple buyback proposal February 10, 2014 News in this afternoon that Carl Icahn has discarded his Apple buyback proposal. Icahn, who is one of Apple’s biggest shareholders, was pushing for the tech giant to repurchase $50bn more of its shares this year. Apple shareholders were due to vote on the non-binding plan on 28 February. But in a letter to fellow shareholders, [...]
Nasty, brutish, short: Why businesses prosper then die at an ever faster pace | City A.M. February 10, 2014 IF THOMAS Hobbes found himself walking down City streets today, he wouldn’t blink an eye. Business life seems to be getting increasingly short and rather nasty. Due to the accelerating rate of technological change, some economists believe we are heading toward a “winner takes all” era of unprecedented competition, enabled by an enormous number of [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 10 February 2014 February 10, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Quantum nets Soros $5.5bn George Soros’s Quantum Endowment fund had its second-best year in dollar terms in 2013, adding $5.5bn to the billionaire’s fortune and putting the $28.6bn fund back at the top of the table for the most successful hedge funds of all time. The $5.5bn return was the best for Quantum [...]
Flappy Bird fans all atwitter after creator pulls high-flying game February 10, 2014 FLAPPY Bird creator Nguyen Ha Dong last night pulled the plug on his high-flying and addictive game after announcing, “I cannot take this anymore”. The Vietnam-based games developer, whose deceptively simple free mobile game flew to the top in popularity at the Apple App Store and Google Android Play store, tweeted earlier, “22 hours from [...]
Nasty, brutish, short: Why businesses prosper then die at an ever faster pace February 9, 2014 IF THOMAS Hobbes found himself walking down City streets today, he wouldn’t blink an eye. Business life seems to be getting increasingly short and rather nasty. Due to the accelerating rate of technological change, some economists believe we are heading toward a “winner takes all” era of unprecedented competition, enabled by an enormous number of [...]