Counterstrike gamer’s Twitch live stream crashed by SWAT team in remarkable video August 28, 2014 The stranger side of Amazon's recent acquisition, Twitch: a professional gamer’s live streaming session was crashed by a SWAT team, a surreal event captured in a remarkable YouTube video. Jordan Mathewson, who games under the alias “Kootra”, found himself the unfortunate victim of a prank known in the gaming community as “swatting”. According [...]
US earnings season enters second week – The week ahead on Wall St October 19, 2014 INVESTORS are hoping for a bit more in the way of calm this week, though recent volatility is not likely to abate entirely, especially with equity options expiring at the end of the week. As earnings season kicks into gear, a slew of companies are expected to report results. Tomorrow Coca-Cola, United Technologies and Verizon [...]
Amazon extends Sunday delivery to six more cities January 20, 2014 AMAZON will extend the Sunday delivery service that it trialled in London during December to six additional cities around the UK. Customers in Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Nottingham, Manchester and Leeds will now be able to order items for delivery on any day of the week as part of Amazon’s Sunday delivery service. Sunday deliveries [...]
The rise of the machines? Shape-shifting robot viewers to cost marketers £4bn in fake traffic December 10, 2014 We're pretty used to hearing that robots are going to steal our jobs. But now it turns out that once they've done that, they're going to do exactly what we do anyway: sit around watching online videos. But this is actually a serious problem. Global advertisers stand to lose out on $6.3bn (£4bn) next [...]
10 things we learned this week: From Tesco’s share price and Facebook’s tax bill to cures for Ebola and the EU budget October 24, 2014 What a week. From troubles at Tesco (not least its share price) to Facebook's UK tax bill, we've had a busy front on company news. And when it came to international goings-on, the EU really kept us on our toes, while Ebola continued to dominate the news. Here we digest the top 10 stories [...]
Zalando share price fizzles after explosive opening in Frankfurt stock debut October 1, 2014 Shares in Europe’s largest online fashion retailer Zalando gave up most of their opening gains on the Frankfurt stock market debut yesterday. After pricing at €21.50 shares soared as high as €24.10, but by the close of trading had retreated to just €21.569. Berlin-based Zalando started out selling shoes in Germany in 2008, inspired by [...]
Mothercare plans turnaround with £100m fundraise to stem UK losses October 9, 2014 Mothercare shareholders yesterday approved plans for a £100m rights issue to help fund another raft of store closures and revamps, as it steps up efforts to stem losses at its UK business. Despite having a profitable overseas business, Mothercare has been struggling with fierce competition in its home market from supermarkets and online players such [...]
Wonga’s fallen soldiers: Errol Damelin, Tim Weller and Niall Wass – its lost chief executives November 20, 2014 To lose one chief executive may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. Unfortunately, Wonga has just lost its third: today it emerged Tim Weller, who had been the company's interim chief exec since May, stepped down in October, according to filings at Companies House. Which just seems sloppy… So who are the [...]
DHL “parcelcopter” drone to start Germany delivery service to Juist island September 24, 2014 Logistics firm DHL announced yesterday that it was using a drone to fly parcels to the German island of Juist, in what maybe the first time an unmanned aircraft has been allowed to deliver goods in Europe. The company, owned by Germany’s Deutsche Post, joins Amazon.com in testing the potential for drones to deliver packages. [...]
Amazon boss airlifted after kidney stone January 6, 2014 AMAZON founder Jeff Bezos was airlifted from a cruise ship by the Ecuadorian Navy after suffering a kidney stone attack in the Galapagos Islands on New Year’s Day. Bezos – the mastermind behind the world’s largest online retailer – said in an email to Reuters responding to the incident, “Galapagos: five stars. Kidney stones: zero [...]