Quit nostalgic navel-gazing and get excited for the future February 11, 2019 The thing about the 1970s – if you lived through them – is that they were for the most part dull and dour years, devoid of political and economic energy. And as for the fashion, don’t even go there. Yet there seems to be no shortage of fresh-faced tweets proclaiming those years to be something [...]
FAANGs out: Tech stocks open on a positive note after a bumpy earnings season | City A.M. July 31, 2018 Wall Street’s top tech stocks group have taken big hits this earning season, causing a stark difference in share prices across the board. However things seemed to pick up as markets opened in the US this afternoon, as falling prices pulled back on a bad week. The so-called FAANGs group – consisting of Facebook, Apple, [...]
Barbies and princesses: The game-changer in gender-stereotyped toys May 13, 2019 "Can I be an astronaut if I’m a girl?” That was the question asked by Katy Alexander’s four-year-old daughter, Zabel. To the New Jersey-born mother, this question came as a surprise. “Until then, I’d never really noticed that the characters in the space books she had been reading and the games she had been playing were [...]
Microsoft faces high expectations ahead of Thursday’s quarterly results, after its share price (MSFT) hit an all-time high | City A.M. July 15, 2018 After a record performance in its third quarter and a share price spike to an all-time high last week, software technology firm Microsoft will be feeling the pressure ahead of publishing its fourth quarter results on Thursday. The company is expected to report revenue of $29.17bn (£22.1bn) at a 25 per cent year-on-year increase, according [...]
A Marie Kondo divorce: Lessons from Netflix’s new TV star February 6, 2019 A new year means a new selection of TV series to help us through the deep dark winter months. This year is no exception, and Netflix’s Tidying Up with Marie Kondo resonates with what are no doubt nationwide resolutions for self, home, and life improvement. It might be surprising to learn that many of the [...]
Debate: Given Netflix’s share price dive, should investors be worried about the future of the streaming service? July 18, 2018 Given Netflix’s share price dive, should investors be worried about the future of the service? Yes – Rebecca O'Keeffe is head of investment at Interactive Investor. Netflix is fundamentally a subscriber stock, and this key metric is showing some worrying signs. Not only did Netflix significantly miss on its second quarter targets for both its [...]
Facebook, social media and ads – when will marketers abandon the network? February 25, 2019 The Facebook-Google duopoly has a stranglehold over internet advertising. While the search engine dominates the pairing, Mark Zuckerberg’s creation is no slouch – last year, more than a fifth (21.8 per cent) of all US digital ad spending went to the social media network, equivalent to $28.2bn (£21.7bn). But the company is in hot water, [...]
EU rules Luxembourg did not give McDonald’s special tax deal September 19, 2018 The European Commission has ruled that Luxembourg did not give McDonald's a special tax deal and blamed a “mismatch” in laws for the non-taxation of some of the fast food chain's profits. The commission's in-depth investigation, launched in December 2015, concluded the tax deal was in line with national laws and the Luxembourg-US double taxation [...]
EU rules Luxembourg did not give McDonald’s special tax deal September 19, 2018 The European Commission has ruled that Luxembourg did not give McDonald's a special tax deal and blamed a “mismatch” in laws for the non-taxation of some of the fast food chain's profits. The commission's in-depth investigation, launched in December 2015, concluded the tax deal was in line with national laws and the Luxembourg-US double taxation [...]
Toyota and Softbank team up on ride-sharing, driverless tech unit October 4, 2018 Toyota and Softbank have unveiled a partnership that will see the two companies collaborate on transport services that utilise self-driving technology. Named Monet, a play on the longer term Mobility Network, the new venture will be initially funded at ¥2bn (£13.5m), with Softbank taking a stake of just over half of the business. “SoftBank alone and automakers alone [...]