UK assets are very compelling when looked at on a global basis March 8, 2019 As City AM is chatting with Mark Slater, warnings of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit are again flashing across the media headlines. The biggest news story in town is impossible to ignore as Theresa May, Donald Tusk and co make painfully incremental progress in their high-stakes discussions about Britain’s EU exit. But as the politicians flounder, Slater’s [...]
International Women’s Day is a reminder to keep breaking down barriers March 8, 2019 As a senior woman in business, I’m often approached to speak at events about the importance of nurturing diversity, in the technology industry and beyond. It is both a privilege and a regret. I long for a world where diverse leadership is simply the norm; where senior female business leaders are just known as “business [...]
Horrible bosses: How retailers can clean up their image March 7, 2019 It seems like a case of “another day, another scandal” in the retail industry at the moment. This time it’s Ted Baker founder and CEO, Ray Kelvin, who has been accused of “forced hugging”. While I can’t comment on the innocence (or otherwise) of the shamed chief, he joins a growing list of alleged wrong [...]
Zuckerberg leans in to ‘privacy-focused’ future at Facebook with encrypted merger March 7, 2019 Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has said the social media giant will be encrypting more of its messaging services, calling it “the right thing to do”. Writing in a Facebook post late last night, Zuckerberg said Facebook users would be able to message Whatsapp users through Messenger, and vice versa. Read more: Facebook faces paying billions [...]
Sweetening the deal: Greggs’ profits rise as bakery chain hails record breaking year March 7, 2019 Greggs’ baked goods weren’t the only thing rising in 2018, as revenues broke the £1bn mark for the first time ever in a record-breaking year for the pastry-making giant. The firm, which recently drew headlines for the launch a vegan version of its flagship sausage roll, said it had recovered from a “very challenging first [...]
Like the myth that the Earth is flat, the socialist conspiracy theory never dies March 6, 2019 The idea that the Earth is flat is a rapidly growing trend on social media. The Flat Earth Society’s Twitter feed has the best part of 100,000 followers. The fact that the planet is a sphere has been known since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. The astronomer Eratosthenes demonstrated it with a simple [...]
Puma claws Manchester City away from Nike to grow their consumer impression March 6, 2019 Premier League champions Manchester City have signed a long-term shirt sponsorship deal with German sportswear brand Puma, ending a 7-year agreement with Nike. The move will put a different logo on players’ chests but also affect loyal fans. Media reports suggest the deal could be worth up to £65m a year over 10 years. Puma [...]
Financial Times buys majority stake in tech media firm The Next Web March 5, 2019 The Financial Times (FT) has bought a controlling stake in tech media firm The Next Web (TNW) in a bid to expand its events offering. The FT said the move will boost its presence in the European tech market and will create synergies with its existing events division FT Live. Read more: German prosecutors probe [...]
Houseplants are all the rage, but are they are millennial cry for help? We speak to the companies cultivating this urban jungle March 5, 2019 Millennials have been accused of killing almost every industry there is, but there may be one that 25-35 year olds are actually propping up. Houseplants are taking off like an avocado tied to a racing drone among Generation Rent, prompting investigations by such serious organs as The Washington Post and New York’s Nylon magazine, in [...]
Pay politicians £500,000 each per year and maybe we’d get better quality MPs March 5, 2019 Few people are as hawkish on government spending as me. However, there is one area where taxpayers should be willing to spend much, much more: the salaries of our members of parliament. Last week, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority announced that MPs’ basic pay was to increase by 2.7 per cent to £79,468 from 1 April. [...]