London’s Storfund lands £300m mega-deal for ecommerce marketplace financing October 27, 2021 UK fintech Storfund, which optimises the cash cycle for merchants selling on ecommerce marketplaces, has struck a £300m debt funding deal with Fasanara Capital. It’s the latest in a string of investments by Fasanara into e-commerce lending platforms, and marks a significant step up from Storfund’s last £26.5m funding round in February, led by Union Bancaire [...]
Microsoft beats Amazon to Pentagon’s $10bn cloud computing contract October 26, 2019 Microsoft has won a cloud-computing contract from the Pentagon worth $10bn (£8bn). The contract is for the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure, dubbed Jedi, is for a 10-year period. Read more: Cloud computing drives Microsoft revenue up The project is aimed at making the US defence department more technologically agile. Amazon had been favourites for the [...]
Brits flocking to online retailers hoists UK spending above pre-pandemic levels December 31, 2021 Widespread take up of online shopping amid Covid-19 lockdowns has lifted consumer spending above pre-pandemic levels, reveal fresh figures released today. Brits spent 5.9 per cent more in 2021 compared to 2019, according to research from Barclaycard, which cover £1 in every £3 spent on debit and credit cards in the UK. The upbeat spending [...]
Just Eat Takeaway urged to sell Grubhub by activist investor October 25, 2021 Just Eat Takeaway (JET) has been urged to sell or spin-off its US arm Grubhub by an activist investor by the end of the year. Investor Cat Rock Capital has said the food delivery firm’s management “failed to fix the deep and damaging undervaluation of its equity by taking tangible action to unlock the value [...]
Amazon files lawsuit contesting Pentagon’s decision to award $10bn contract to Microsoft November 23, 2019 Amazon has filed a lawsuit contesting the Pentagon’s decision to award an up to $10bn cloud computing contract to Microsoft. A spokesperson for Amazon said the company had filed a complaint and supplement motional for discovery with the US Court of Federal Claims. Read more: Amazon to appear Pentagon’s decision to award Microsoft $10bn cloud [...]
Ben Francis: Gymshark’s move to the West End ‘completely different ball game’ October 27, 2022 How does Gymshark’s 30-year-old founder feel about the fitness apparel firm moving offline and into the West End? “Buzzing,” Ben Francis tells CityA.M. Gymshark reeled in record profits during the pandemic, as stuck at home Brits took to Joe Wicks workouts and online shopping with abandon. With that now in the rear-view mirror, Francis is [...]
City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile today? December 10, 2021 City A.M.’s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every morning. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. Tesco Bank Tesco Bank has bolstered its board with a new independent non-executive director, who brings three decades of financial services experience to the position. Liz Buckley, a former group transformation director at Direct Line Group, has [...]
Google pushes back office return to January as Covid cases surge August 31, 2021 Google has pushed back on plans for a full return to the workplace and extended its voluntary return-to-office policy through to January next year, amid concerns over rising Covid cases in some locations around the world. “Beyond January 10, we will enable countries and locations to make determinations on when to end voluntary work-from-home based [...]
New tech regulation mustn’t be allowed to stifle innovation June 3, 2021 There is scarcely any market that could not be described as digital in 2021. In ten years time, the phrase ‘digital market’ will be, effectively, redundant. We should be concerned, then, by the creation of a powerful new regulator with a remit to cover all ‘digital markets’. Read more: UK says any global tax deal [...]
Rishi Sunak does not back Joe Biden’s global business tax plan May 17, 2021 Rishi Sunak is withholding support for Joe Biden’s draft plan to implement a minimum 21 per cent global business tax rate, with the chancellor wanting more assurances on taxation on US tech giants. Sunak, who is chairing this year’s G7 meetings for finance ministers, has reportedly said he would only support a minimum tax rate [...]