Corbyn won’t stop until the government controls everything September 4, 2018 Back in November 2013, the general secretary of the Unite union, Len McCluskey, outlined what he believed was so refreshing about then Labour leader Ed Miliband’s platform. “What is particularly important is the underlying rationale for what Ed has proposed,” McCluskey boomed. “There are some things too important to be left to the market.” “Too [...]
The media’s greatest enemy isn’t Trump, it’s the tech titans September 3, 2018 What is the biggest threat to the future of the media: President Donald Trump, or Silicon Valley? In the presidential corner, Trump’s regular attacks on the “fake news media” have provoked a robust response. This summer, newspapers coordinated a string of editorials defending the essential role of the press as a lens on power and [...]
Amazon poised for trillion-dollar valuation despite stock shorts September 2, 2018 Amazon is set to become the second US publicly-listed company to reach a $1 trillion (£771.2bn) market capitalisation this week, despite it overtaking Tesla as the most shorted stock on Wall Street. The e-commerce giant broke past the $2,000 per share milestone on Thursday evening, holding investors in suspense. Fellow tech giant Apple became the first [...]
Chinese online retail tycoon released after US sexual conduct charge September 2, 2018 The billionaire leader of a Chinese web retail giant was arrested in the US on Friday on a charge of criminal sexual conduct, before being released a day later. Richard Liu, the founder of JD.com – one of China’s biggest online retailers, and a major rival to web behemoth Alibaba – was taken into custody [...]
Amazon strides past $2,000 a share in trillion-dollar race August 30, 2018 E-commerce behemoth Amazon has broken past the $2,000 (£1,538) per share mark, putting the online retailer well on its way to hitting a $1 trillion market valuation. Shares in Amazon reached an all-time high of $2,010 just an hour after markets opened in the US, powering the firm past the $980bn market capitalisation milestone. Amazon made [...]
WH Smith trading update: Airport sales keeps retailer’s shares aloft August 30, 2018 Airport passengers shopping for a holiday read helped boost WH Smith in the 12 months to the end of August, it said today, as it delivered a trading update on its full-year results. The retailer, voted the UK’s worst high street store earlier this summer, teased its latest results ahead of their official release on [...]
ITV is right to launch a new streaming service, but it needs to make good content as well August 29, 2018 ITV’s plans to join forces with its fellow public service broadcasters BBC and Channel 4 to combat the growing threat from Netflix, Amazon, and other US streaming service giants may have seemed like too little too late. However, given the success of ITV’s current video offering – the ITV Hub – which has had a bumper [...]
The subscription economy may be the future for businesses, as firms switch to selling outcomes rather than products August 29, 2018 When was the last time you actually bought a DVD or CD? Most likely, you subscribe to a digital streaming service, like Netflix or Spotify. Congratulations, you’re part of the burgeoning subscription economy. But this subscription-based economy isn’t just limited to entertainment media. Increasingly, both individual consumers and big businesses are finding it more convenient [...]
Sports Direct named least reputable retailer in annual rankings while Amazon takes top spot August 28, 2018 Sports Direct has been named the least reputable retailer in the UK after a survey of consumer attitudes. The sports gear retailer languished at the bottom of the rankings compiled by the Reputation Institute for its annual UK Retail RepTrack. Sports Direct scored poorly on four measures: workplace, governance, citizenship and leadership. It comes just weeks after [...]
Brains, Chains and Autobots August 28, 2018 They’re usually talked of as completely disparate fields; but ‘Brains and Chains’, or Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technologies, have already started to converge – despite claims they’re philosophically incompatible. So where’s the join? Google, Amazon, Microsoft and the like have invested billions in AI over the years. Billions more are being poured into Blockchain ventures [...]