Crown Estates sues Twitter over unpaid rent of its Piccadilly Circus HQ January 24, 2023 Twitter is being sued by the Crown Estates over unpaid rent relating to its Piccadilly Circus-based headquarters building. The Crown Estates manages property for King Charles III and the monarchy, which includes the 10m sq Twitter headquarters in central London. The estate filed the claim against Twitter Inc, which is also facing legal action over [...]
Oaknorth and Atom Bank call on Grant Shapps to boost lending to small businesses January 24, 2023 The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and a group of top fintech firms, including Oaknorth and Atom Bank, have called on Grant Shapps to improve small businesses’ access to borrowing, warning that failure to do so could further damage the UK’s economic growth prospects. The business lobby and a number of fintech lenders have warned [...]
Feared activist investor Elliott snaps up multi-billion dollar stake in Salesforce January 23, 2023 Activist investor Elliott Management has snapped up a multi-billion dollar stake in Salesforce as the software firm is rattled by a slowdown in growth and slashes its headcount. In a statement shared with City A.M. today, Elliott managing partner Jesse Cohn said Salesforce was “one of the preeminent software companies in the world” and Elliott [...]
Spotify’s revenue slow down will lead to 600 job losses, as tech giant becomes the latest to cull staff January 23, 2023 Spotify will be cutting its global workforce by nearly six per cent with around 600 people expected to lose their jobs. The music streaming platform has joined fellow tech giants including Amazon, Google, Meta and Twitter in laying off staff, with tens-of-thousands of workers being laid off in recent weeks. Last November Meta, the owner [...]
Veganuary: New £240m fake meat fund looks to disrupt and decarbonise the food industry January 23, 2023 Milltrust Ventures and Earth First Food Ventures are set to launch a new $300m (£242m) Smart Protein Fund tomorrow to back alternative proteins and decarbonise the food industry, City A.M. can reveal. Over $600m was invested in total in the cultivated meat sector last year, and the alternative protein market, which includes imitation meats [...]
Tech Nation ‘working round clock to secure future’ after Govt strips it of £12m contract and awards it to Barclays January 20, 2023 Start-up body Tech Nation said it is facing an existential crisis and was scrambling to secure funding for its future today, after the government stripped it of a major £12m government contract and handed it to Barclays. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) confirmed it had handed the new tech deal to Barclays [...]
Google: Parent firm Alphabet announces 12,000 sackings worldwide as CEO Sundar Pichai takes ‘full responsibility’ January 20, 2023 Google’s parent company Alphabet has become the latest Silicon Valley powerhouse to announce a raft of redundancies across its global workforce. The tech giant said today that it would cut six per cent of its global workforce, around 12,000 people worldwide. “I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” chief executive Sundar [...]
Netflix drama: Chief executive Reed Hastings quits as big leadership shake up underway January 20, 2023 Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has stepped down as chief executive but he is staying with the company as executive chairman. The American businessman said that Greg Peters will step up from COO to join Ted Sarandos as co-CEO of the company. Hastings said he is not ready to leave Netflix entirely but is taking more [...]
Sage’s sales climb to £517m as accountancy software giant sees boom for Cloud and subscription services January 19, 2023 Sage’s profits are on track to meet its 2023 full-year guidance after recurring revenue rose 12 per cent to £517m in the three months ended 31 December. This rise was boosted by a 31 per cent rise in Cloud sales and an 18 per cent hike in software subscription sales, £390m and £422m respectively. Jonathan [...]
A crypto scam nightmare January 19, 2023 People around the world are losing millions through a "pig butchering" scam - but it's got more to do with crypto than it does our porcine pals, writes Elena Siniscalco