Three tech firms surge to $260bn on grey market March 24, 2014 THREE upcoming initial public offerings (IPOs) from tech firms King Digital Entertainment, Alibaba and Just Eat are all set to beat analyst expectations with a combined valuation of over $260bn (£158bn), according to IG’s IPO grey market. King, the British games giant and creator of Candy Crush Saga, has already hit a valuation of $8.7bn, [...]
Goldman left holding Sports Direct stock after Ashley’s sale April 9, 2014 GOLDMAN Sachs has failed to sell all the 24m shares in Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct it took onto its books on Monday afternoon. Market sources believe that Goldman Sachs might have a large portion of the £204m block unsold after a torrid time on Tuesday when Sports Direct shares fell sharply from 883.5p to 811p. [...]
Sheer satisfaction: Zendesk founder Mikkel Svane on providing better customer service July 13, 2014 Harriet Green talks IPOs, big data and radical taxis with Zendesk’s founder Mikkel Svane. An O2 survey last year found that 70 per cent of people wouldn’t forgive a company for bad customer service. Two thirds also said they’d share their experience with an average of eight friends and family members. Mikkel [...]
Retail investors excluded from Polypipe float March 18, 2014 BRITISH plastic piping manufacturer Polypipe is the latest company to announce its plans to float on the London Stock Exchange, as it looks to take advantage of the UK construction market recovery. Around half of the company’s share capital will be up for grabs, but like online food takeaway business Just-Eat, which announced its plans [...]
Oxo Tower Restaurant has great food but the lighting left us a little blue February 10, 2015 The Oxo Tower Restaurant has been chugging along forever, minding its own business. Harvey Nicks has run the eighth-floor dining room for 19 years. Its head chef Jeremy Bloor has been there for 12, while the restaurant manager is a relative rookie, with only nine years under his belt. Located on the South Bank, in [...]
London Report: Supermarkets’ results to show split in fortunes May 5, 2014 THE varying fortunes of the UK’s supermarkets will be revealed this week as Morrisons gives its quarterly results while Sainsbury’s announces full-year figures. Sainsbury’s annual results are forecast to show that underlying pre-tax profits rose 3.5 per cent to £782m. However investors will be anxious to see the company’s plans for the next year, especially [...]
What is China’s Singles Day? Alibaba nears record-breaking billion-dollar sales target in one day November 11, 2014 The 11th day of the 11th month has a very different meaning in China – in case you haven't heard, today is Singles Day, because of the combination of two 'ones'. But having initially been a day for young singles to meet future partners, and also eat lots of deep fried dough sticks and dumplings, [...]
Restaurateur Des McDonald discusses the burger revolution, forests and what it means to have cooking in your blood December 7, 2014 Sitting in your own month-old restaurant would be extremely exciting for most people. It is for Des McDonald too, except this is one of six – and they’ve all opened within the last two years. His second branch of The Fish & Chip Shop is the latest, and it’s bringing the City what McDonald describes [...]
A day in the life of a chef on the world’s finest yachts November 23, 2014 It sounds like a dream job, but serving food on the high seas to the world’s elite comes with its own challenges. People assume being a chef on a super-yacht – the kind you see in Hello magazine – is a dream job. In many ways they’re right, of course. But it’s not [...]
From Vibease to Elon Musk’s underwhelming big reveal, here are nine of the worst inventions of 2014 December 13, 2014 If you're looking for Christmas present ideas, you've come to the wrong listicle. This is all about the worst inventions of 2014, and there have been some real crackers. If you end up with one of these under the tree, you know your family hate you. 1. Pizza Hut's mind-reading menu app We're pretty certain [...]