LiteBulb Group’s Simon McGivern and James Phillips talk Mary Berry, cashpoint encounters and woodwork January 18, 2015 It's not every day that you bump into an old friend at a cash machine in Fulham and end up hatching a business – but then Simon McGivern and James Phillips, the founders of LiteBulb Group, are not your average pair. They went to school together (although they didn’t know each other very well) and [...]
Amazon bulks permanent UK staff October 15, 2013 Amazon will take on 800 new permanent staff in the run up to the holiday period, alongside the 15,000 hires it will take on a temporary basis. The new staff will take on a new shift pattern as the online retail giant moves its fulfilment centre staff from five-day to four-day working weeks.
UK housing crash, Draghi quitting the ECB or “A-choco-lypse”? Here are Saxo Bank’s bonkers predictions for 2015 December 10, 2014 Could there be a UK housing market meltdown? Could Nigel Farage become deputy prime minister? Or worst of all, will there be an "a-choco-lypse"? These could be some of the most outrageous predictions you'll hear this year – or the best warning you ever had. Saxo Bank has just released its 10 scenarios for 2015 [...]
Alibaba expects IPO to raise $24.3bn with largest listing in history September 6, 2014 Alibaba expects to raise $24.3bn when it lists on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) later this month. If it raises that sum, the Chinese e-commerce giant's initial public offering (IPO) will be the largest in history, giving it a valuation of around $163bn. In a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, [...]
New York Report: Dow Jones below 17,000 July 8, 2014 US STOCKS tumbled yesterday as the Dow fell nearly 118 points, ending the trading day below the 17,000 mark. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.7 per cent to 16,906.62. The S&P 500 index fell 0.7 per cent to 1,963.71 and the Nasdaq composite index plunged 1.4 per cent to 4,391.46. It was the second [...]
Parcel woes hit shares in Royal Mail before AGM July 22, 2014 AN UNEXPECTED drop in Royal Mail parcel revenues announced yesterday is likely to build more pressure on the company ahead of its annual general meeting tomorrow. Royal Mail saw a one per cent decline in parcel revenues in the first three months of the financial year to 29 June, and it expected full-year parcel revenues [...]
How could Marks & Spencer improve its website? The web developer’s view July 8, 2014 Marks & Spencer announced today that the new M&S website has failed to perform, with a fall in online sales of 8.1 per cent, and with the development project going over budget by 50 per cent. Since the new site launched in February, customers have taken to the company's Facebook page, Twitter and web forums [...]
Shoe Zone releases positive results following IPO June 24, 2014 After listing as a public company last month, Shoe Zone has released positive initial results. Pre-tax profit rose to £2.7m, a large increase from £200,000 in the first half of the last financial year, and earnings per share rose to 3.7p. There were few signs of disappointment for the UK footwear retailer. Although revenues were [...]
Iced-Berg? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and fellow tech CEOs get soaked August 14, 2014 It's often been said that the Silicon Valley tech scene is overheating, but photos of its best known chief exec dumping buckets of ice water over themselves is nonetheless perplexing. On closer inspection, though, you realise its a new social media “nomination”, not completely dissimilar to the no-makeup selfie, in a bid to raise [...]
Amazon to launch TV box for Xmas October 3, 2013 Amazon.com, which entered the gadget-making business with the Kindle e-reader, intends to sell a set-top box that can stream internet content to televisions in time for the holidays, the Wall Street Journal reported last night. The internet retailer has approached media software developers as well as cable television providers in recent weeks, hoping to secure [...]