Fifty years on from the first moon landing, it’s time to get ready for space tourism July 9, 2019 Next time someone asks if you are going anywhere nice on holiday, perhaps soon you can say Mars or Venus rather than Mallorca or Ibiza. It has been 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched Apollo 11 down on the moon, and now famous billionaires are backing different projects to make space a [...]
Interview: City Football Group marketing chief Nuria Tarre on innovating at Manchester City and the future of the sports industry September 29, 2019 “My ultimate objective – day-to-day, the reason I wake up and enjoy doing the work that I do – is because I truly think we want to be there for the fans in an authentic way,” says Nuria Tarre, chief marketing officer of City Football Group. Since joining CFG in 2015 from her role running [...]
British competition watchdog to probe JD Sports’ £90m Footasylum merger May 17, 2019 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating JD Sports' merger with Footasylum, it confirmed today. JD Sports recently completed the acquisition of Footasylum in a deal worth £90m. Read more: Thomas Cook shares crash as investors urged to sell Both JD Sports Fashion and owner of Footasylum, the Pentland Group, have been issued with an initial [...]
Former SSE boss Ian Marchant invests in London smart home startup January 21, 2019 A London-based smart home technology startup, backed by the former chief of SSE Ian Marchant, today announced that it has raised £2m in a new funding round. Den, which has now raised a total of £5m, is also backed by Mark Davies, a founder of Betfair. Read more: Stay on top of your resolutions with the [...]
Crowdsourcing platform Limitless secures £5m in series A funding April 10, 2019 Brand ambassador platform Limitless Technology has secured £5m in funding as it looks to develop its machine learning technology. The company, which uses crowdsourcing to help businesses turn their customers into brand ambassadors, said it has bagged the funds in a series A round led by Albion VC. Read more: Grab looks to raise further $2bn [...]
Former Apple retail head Angela Ahrendts appointed to Airbnb’s board May 16, 2019 Airbnb has beefed up its board of directors with the appointment of Angela Ahrendts, former head of retail at Apple. Ahrendts, who is also a former chief executive of luxury fashion house Burberry, will become an independent board member alongside ex-American Express boss Ken Chenault and former Pixar finance chief Ann Mather. She resigned from Apple [...]
Ofcom calls for new laws to protect public service broadcasters July 4, 2019 Ofcom has urged the government to introduce new laws to support public service broadcasters amid rising competition from streaming giants. The media regulator has called for new legislation to ensure channels operated by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are displayed prominently on online platforms. Read more: Revamp media regulation to help broadcasters [...]
A little more conversation, a little less technology please July 2, 2019 Profit is not just about how much money you make. It’s about how you make it too. And how likely you are to make that money again and again, so you create a sustainable business that will be around for the long term. This longevity will come as much from how you communicate as it [...]
Notifications to EU Commission about unlawful tax breaks rocket in state aid crackdown May 30, 2019 The number of notifications to the EU Commission about potentially unlawful tax breaks has rocketed as countries take a tougher stance on state aid. In the last five years the Commission was notified about 385 potentially unlawful tax breaks, compared to just 80 between 2007 and 2013. Over the 12 months to 31 March the [...]
Netflix raises prices by 20 per cent as it blames $15bn production budget May 30, 2019 Netflix is raising the prices of some of its subscriptions by as much as 20 per cent as it prepares to ramp up investment in new TV shows and films. The streaming service is increasing the cost of its standard plan, which allows users to watch on two screens, by £1 to £8.99, while the [...]