Use your local post office or lose it to the long list of high street casualties April 30, 2019 Owning and operating a post office couldn’t be any harder. The ongoing high street decline and the difficult retail environment over the past 12 months have hit subpostmasters hard, and it has never been tougher to make ends meet. We recently conducted a national survey of our membership, and found that more than one in five [...]
Labour policies will represent ‘revolution’ for UK economy says John McDonnell April 29, 2019 Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Labour will unleash an economic “revolution” if it wins power. The Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, who has previously named Soviet revolutionaries Lenin and Trotsky as key intellectual influences, told the BBC he saw parallels with 1979 when Margaret Thatcher swept to power. "Things aren't working for people, so they're [...]
Financial Conduct Authority dawn raids nearly doubled in 2018 April 29, 2019 The number of dawn raids conducted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has almost doubled over the past year, from 13 in 2017 to 25 in 2018. Financial services regulatory consultancy Fscom said one of the drivers of the jump in raids was likely to be an FCA crackdown on unregulated investments. Read more: London [...]
Amazon smashes profit predictions on soaring cloud services demand April 26, 2019 E-commerce giant Amazon reported a significant jump in profit tonight to soar past average analyst expectations, in addition to matching estimates on revenue. The company’s net income for the first three months of 2019 more than doubled year-on-year to reach a record $3.6bn (£2.8bn), or $7.09 per share, compared to the average estimate of $4.72. [...]
Microsoft’s valuation passes $1 trillion as competition with Apple and Amazon heats up April 25, 2019 Microsoft’s valuation briefly exceeded $1 trillion (£776bn) for the first time yesterday after the firm posted strong revenue and profit growth in its quarterly results. Shares in the US tech behemoth rose as high as $130.87 in late trading, taking its market capitalisation past rivals Apple and Amazon and beyond the coveted $1 trillion mark. [...]
Fieldfisher merges with Irish firm McDowell Purcell in Brexit-related expansion April 25, 2019 City law firm Fieldfisher has struck a merger deal with Irish firm McDowell Purcell as it looks to secure a route into the EU market post-Brexit. The deal gives Fieldfisher a Dublin office and 16 new partners and 50 lawyers. A string of UK and US law firms have established Dublin bases following the 2016 [...]
Public will be able to make digital HMRC complaints from August April 25, 2019 The chair of the Treasury Committee, Nicky Morgan, has today welcomed the move by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to let the public make complaints about its decisions digitally. Read more: HMRC claims its online tax evasion crackdown has clawed back £200m Earlier this month Morgan said her and the Committee, which scrutinises the Treasury [...]
Inside Huawei: Spies, spin and billions at stake April 24, 2019 The journey from Paris to Verona takes just two minutes. The small, replica Swiss train trundles past imposing French chateaux and gothic German castles, sliding effortlessly through 12 European cities before ending up, after just under eight kilometres of newly-built track, back in Paris. On Huawei’s new Ox Horn campus, not far from the Chinese [...]
UK digital advertising spend jumps to £13bn as brands opt for smartphone ads April 24, 2019 Digital advertising spend hit £13.4bn last year as smartphone adverts overtook desktop for the first time, new figures have revealed. Data from digital advertising body IAB and PwC show UK ad spend jumped 15 per cent in 2018 amid a boom in digital formats. Read more: Digital advertising firm Teads posts double-digit revenue rise Ad [...]
Twitter profits triple as it reaps rewards of crackdown on harmful content April 23, 2019 Shares in Twitter rose more than 16 per cent today after the social media platform posted a threefold increase in first-quarter profits. Read more: Twitter boss Jack Dorsey was paid just $1.40 in 2018 The figures Revenue grew 18 per cent year-on-year to $787m (£605m) in the three months to the end of March. Net [...]