Bertelsmann snaps up Simon & Schuster in $2.2bn deal November 25, 2020 The German media group behind Penguin Random House has acquired US publisher Simon & Schuster for $2.2bn (£1.6bn). Bertelsmann today confirmed it had secured the deal with owner Viacom CBS following a closely-fought bidding war. The takeover cements Bertelsmann’s position as the world’s largest book publisher, and strengthens its footprint in the US — its [...]
Creating a healthy City with The Lord Mayor’s Appeal September 30, 2020 The Lord Mayor’s Appeal’s This is Me initiative is focused on creating a City that is healthy. It is committed to changing attitudes around mental health and strives to create healthier and more inclusive workplaces by reducing stigma, dispelling myths, and improving employee wellbeing for good. This year we are marking World Mental Health Day on [...]
The damning case against China over Covid-19 deserves proper attention June 1, 2021 As John Stuart Mill so eloquently wrote: “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.” Fortified by this moral admonition, I went on to write an April 2020 piece in CapX, charging the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with direct culpability in the spread of [...]
American astronaut Michael Collins of Apollo 11 dies aged 90 April 28, 2021 American astronaut Michael Collins, who stayed behind in the command module of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin traveled to the lunar surface to become the first humans to walk on the moon, died on Wednesday at age 90, his family said. A statement released by his family said Collins died [...]
Private equity needs to start speaking up for itself – it could be the key to ‘levelling up’ August 6, 2021 Private equity’s reputation is once again in the spotlight. With the supermarket Morrisons in the industry’s crosshairs, the public memory is reminded of previous scandals involving other household names. The multi-billion-pound bidding war for a major employer, headquartered in the north of England, has understandably attracted the interest of ministers and opposition politicians sensitive to [...]
Westminster year in review: Who is up and who is down in 2020? December 21, 2020 As the UK ushered in 2020 it looked as if Boris Johnson had an unshakeable grasp on Westminster and the Conservative party. Johnson’s election landslide win last December and his victory in dragging the UK out of the EU in January made him look infallible. Before the Open newsletter: Start your day with the City [...]
Bitcoin echoes gold as US economy strengthens November 23, 2021 The Bitcoin price again dipped below $56,000 yesterday, as its pullback from recent all-time highs continues.
Twitter mulling subscription services and tipping features February 25, 2021 Twitter mulls over introducing new subscription features to provide monetary incentives to influencers
Publisher Future given bloody nose over executive pay as profit surges February 11, 2021 Publishing group Future has suffered an investor revolt over executive pay, even as the magazine giant shrugged off the pandemic to post a sharp rise in profit. The board of Future, which owns titles such as Four Four Two and Country Life, has pushed through a controversial new pay scheme that could see chief executive [...]
Deloitte China whistleblower circulates damning presentation on social media that alleges audit failures of RYB Education February 5, 2021 Big Four firm Deloitte is under pressure after one of its employees reportedly made a 55-page PowerPoint presentation that exposed the firm’s alleged accounting violations in China. The PowerPoint, which has been circulating on Weibo, a Chinese website similar to Twitter, has alleged that when Deloitte was auditing the financial data of its client RYB [...]