Quindell suffers – despite profits quadrupling August 21, 2014 Quindell, the Aim-listed insurance firm whose shares plummeted 60 per cent in April following a scathing blog post by US short seller Gotham City Research, came out fighting yesterday when it reported an 119 per cent increase in half-year revenue. Despite the bullish results, Quindell’s shares still fell 12.4 per cent following the update to [...]
Uber’s battle against taxi industry and regulators steps up a gear with Obama adviser on board August 20, 2014 In Uber’s relentless battle against regulators and the taxi industry around the world, a political strategist was considered a crucial element for negotiating roadblocks in the disruptive taxi service’s plans for world domination. Now the search is over, and Uber has no doubt spent a pretty penny of its billions of dollars of investment (which [...]
Carillion board tries to woo Balfour Beatty with cost-cutting plan August 14, 2014 A merger between Carillion and Balfour Beatty could save as much as £175m a year, according to a statement issued by the infrastructure giant today. The two businesses met on Monday (August 11) to discuss the move, with “significant synergies” between the two businesses having been identified, Carillion said. This includes cost savings [...]
Saxo boss Lars Seier Christensen opens Pandora’s box with jewellery startup investment August 12, 2014 Saxo Bank’s chief exec Lars Seier Christensen has got chins wagging in the Danish press. The banking boss has made a personal investment into jewellery startup Endless Jewelry – a company run by well-known Danish entrepreneur Jesper Nielsen. Nielsen made his name as a reseller of jewellery brand Pandora. He sold his Pandora distributorship for [...]
UK leads western Europe for self-employment August 12, 2014 When it comes an increase in the number of people who are self-employed, the UK is now ahead of its western European neighbours, according to think tank IPPR. Britain has experienced a rapid growth in its workforce over the past year, with net job creation exceeding 900,000 in the 12 months to April 2014, [...]
BuzzFeed valued at $850m as company plans international expansion August 11, 2014 BuzzFeed, the viral news and content website famed for its "listicles", has been valued at $850m after it secured $50m of investment from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The online media company currently reaches 150m people a month, has expanded from its New York base to offices in Los Angeles and London, and now [...]
Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds quits government after resigning in reshuffle August 11, 2014 Junior Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds has resigned from government, the second minister in the department to do so in less than a week after Baroness Warsi quit last Tuesday. No 10 said Simmonds’ departure had been agreed during the reshuffle and is unrelated to Warsi’s resignation over Gaza. Simmonds remained in the post after [...]
As sectarian violence in Iraq intensifies, does the West have a responsibility to intervene? August 7, 2014 Robin Simcox, research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, says Yes. The mess in Iraq is partially of the West’s making – both in terms of the botched post-invasion planning in 2003 and the US’s disastrously premature withdrawal in 2011. The al-Qaeda offshoot Islamic State (IS) now controls significant amounts of territory and is treating [...]
Baroness Warsi resigns over Gaza conflict August 5, 2014 Foreign Office minister Baroness Warsi has resigned from the cabinet because she can no longer support the government's position on Gaza. She made the announcement via a tweet posted today at 9.10am. It said: “With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister & tendered my resignation. I can no longer [...]
Blackrock’s Jonathan Burrows, the City’s artful ticket dodging banker, is hardly alone August 3, 2014 The City’s artful ticket dodger has finally been named. Turns out the mystery Stonegate to Cannon Street commuter, who shaved a whopping £43,000 off the price of his commute by not tapping in at Stonegate (making him the biggest fare dodger in history), was Blackrock investment executive Jonathan Burrows. He has since resigned. Burrows can [...]