Sears chairman wins auction for troubled department store chain with $5.2bn bid January 16, 2019 The chairman of bankrupt US department store chain Sears has won an auction for the retailer with a bid of $5.2bn (£4bn). Read more: Bidders table competing offers for struggling HMV Eddie Lampert prevailed in the auction today after weeks of back-and-forth negotiations. Lampert’s bid, made through his hedge fund, ESL Investments, will keep up to [...]
Luxury rental property platform The Plum Guide to use £14m fundraise for rapid expansion March 21, 2019 High-end property rental platform The Plum Guide, which aims to eliminate disappointment from holiday bookings, has raised £14m in a Series B funding round led by Talis Capital as it prepares to launch in six more cities. The Plum Guide, which was set up in London in 2015, will be available in Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, [...]
DEBATE: Could Mike Ashley be the answer to Debenhams’ woes? March 28, 2019 Could Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley be the answer to Debenhams’ woes? John Phillips, general manager (EMEA) of Zuora, says YES. Reversing the fortunes of Debenhams would provide any new boss with a challenge – it is in dire need of modernisation. But Mike Ashley could well be the right man for the job. He has [...]
More than a quarter of Brits believe Facebook will launch a banking service by 2023 February 4, 2019 More than a quarter of Brits believe that Facebook will offer a banking service within the next five years. The research, published on the 15th anniversary of the social media giant’s launch, revealed that 29 per cent of UK consumers believe technology companies such as Facebook and Amazon will offer high street banking services by [...]
Hipster investor The Craftory leads $30m funding round in vegan startup March 1, 2019 New “hipster” investor The Craftory has led a $30m (£22.59m) funding round in artificial intelligence meat substitution company Notco. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ family office Bezos Expeditions and existing investors Kaszek Ventures and Indiebio also took part in the round. Read more: New 'hipster' firm is investing $300m in challenger consumer brands Notco produces plant based replacements [...]
Fedex creates Segway-inspired delivery robot with Pizza Hut and Walmart February 28, 2019 Fedex has unveiled a pizza delivery robot that will hit the streets this summer. Read more: What’s on your tech radar for 2019? Pizza Hut and Walmart are both on board, with trials set to begin soon in cities across the US, including in Fedex’s hometown of Memphis. The autonomous bot, which is powered by an [...]
Some investors are clearly living in a parallel universe April 30, 2019 Having watched the phenomenal “Avengers: Endgame” this weekend (no spoilers here), I did take a moment to think about parallel universes. To put it bluntly, it doesn’t take a genius like Tony Stark to work out that many market commentators are living in a parallel universe – that is, they can’t remember what happened 20 [...]
Tech giant Alibaba opens two cloud data centres in the UK October 22, 2018 E-commerce giant Alibaba's cloud arm has opened two data centres in London, signalling the firm's first official expansion to British shores. The centres will power Alibaba's cloud services in the UK, allowing it to effectively disseminate its services to British businesses as it seeks to compete with rivals Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft. The [...]
Chickens come home to roost for Mike Coupe as Sainsbury-Asda deal dies February 22, 2019 Mike Coupe was a happy chappy back in April. Notably he was caught on camera humming the lyrics to the gold digger's song – 'we're in the money' etc, after announcing a supermarket mega merger like no other. This week however the companies' complete lack of understanding of the Competition and Markets Authority has come [...]
Facebook shares down after investigation reveals true extent of data-sharing with other tech giants December 19, 2018 Facebook’s shares fell 6 per cent today after an investigation revealed the company gave big tech companies far greater access to users’ personal data than it had previously admitted. The social media giant let Microsoft’s Bing search engine see the names of virtually all users’ friends without their permission, according to reports. The New York [...]