Virgin Media O2 to create £1.4bn giant in mega deal May 12, 2025 Virgin Media O2 has announced plans to create a new communications and IT giant which is expected to turn over around £1.4bn. The move will see Virgin Media O2 and Daisy Group combine their direct B2B (business to business) operations. Virgin Media O2 is to own 70 per cent of the new entity, with Lancashire-headquartered [...]
Wikipedia mounts legal fight over UK online safety rules May 8, 2025 The Wikipedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, is fighting back against the UK’s online safety rules, seeking a review of some of the requirements of the act. The platform wishes to be in the threshold of a ‘category one’ service – a label reserved for platforms facing the strictest levels of user safety duties. This status [...]
British and Irish Lions launch takes heritage brand into modern age at O2 May 8, 2025 The British and Irish Lions have followed in Formula 1’s footsteps in hosting launch events in London and it’s dragged a heritage brand into the modern era, writes Will Taylor. This afternoon, the British and Irish Lions did something they’ve never done before, they turned their usual squad selection into a show. For the first [...]
Raiola Ratings, FPL gurus and €1m: What super agent’s family did next May 8, 2025 The larger-than-life, occasionally combustible figure of football super-agent Mino Raiola couldn’t have appeared further from the world of number-crunching and algorithms. The late transfer broker, whose clients included Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Erling Haaland, always seemed far more into pressing the flesh and pouring champagne than poring over data. But one strand of the [...]
Trump poised to announce US trade deal with UK May 8, 2025 President Trump will announce a US-UK trade deal today, according to a New York Times report which has since been backed up by Sky News. In a post on X, Sky News’ Sam Coates said that the claims are “substantive”, and that the announcement today would be “a ‘heads of terms’ agreement rather than the [...]
US immigration ignites MAGA-sized fears for British lawyers May 8, 2025 US immigration officers were never known for their friendliness. However, in the new Trump era, anxiety levels for visiting the US are at an all-time high
Another Simple Favour review: Blake Lively back after Baldoni battle May 7, 2025 Like her character Emily, Blake Lively launches her new film with an air of suspicion around her. Once one of the most popular stars in Hollywood, recent headlines have been less forgiving following the fallout from her previous project, 2024’s It Ends With Us. The former Gossip Girl star is embroiled in a legal battle [...]
David Kogan: Football regulator nominee donated to Starmer and Nandy May 7, 2025 The man nominated to chair the football regulator, David Kogan, has revealed he made donations to both Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy but insists he will have “absolute independence of political control” if given the job. Kogan, a Labour historian, said he donated “very small sums” to the leadership campaigns of Starmer and Nandy in [...]
Beavertown: From the founder’s kitchen to a £100m buyout May 7, 2025 The first Beavertown pint was brewed in a kitchen rice pan in 2011. Over 10 years later, they’d been bought out by Heineken for over £100m. All while being the most expensive pint in the country, and surviving a pandemic where most breweries lost 95 per cent of their business overnight. The difference was savant-level positioning. Here are three levers [...]
‘I’ve directed Sir David Attenborough for 40 years – these are my best stories’ May 7, 2025 Ocean with David Attenborough is in cinemas from tomorrow – its producer, a longtime colleague of Sir David’s, shares his favourite memories of working with the legendary broadcaster as he turns 99 Here’s a remarkable fact: when TV producer Keith Scholey first worked with Sir David Attenborough in 1983, the nature documentarian was approaching the [...]