UK start-ups need Silicon ambitions September 16, 2012 AMAZON is coming to London’s Tech City. Jeff Bezos’s company will do a lot to help build what many entrepreneurs call an “entrepreneurial ecosystem”. This analogy is a useful one: a self-sustaining system in which entrepreneurs feed off one and other’s talent. Tech City – still primarily based around Old Street’s Silicon Roundabout but theoretically [...]
Wanted: more advisers to deliver a Royal Mail sale January 10, 2013 THE investment banks are on board and now the next stage ahead of the ultimate privatisation of the Royal Mail is about to be sorted; the appointment of a financial public relations team that will sell a deal to the City via the financial media. Various firms, including City heavyweight RLM Finsbury, are vying to [...]
Waiting for a special delivery to bring home the goods November 11, 2012 THE Royal Mail’s privatisation has been lost in the post for too long to get your hopes up right now. But if Royal Mail delivers first class half-year results tomorrow, it will pave the way for an initial public offering (IPO) next year. The state postal giant, which employs 159,000 people in the UK, has [...]
Waiting for a special delivery to bring home the goods November 11, 2012 THE Royal Mail’s privatisation has been lost in the post for too long to get your hopes up right now. But if Royal Mail delivers first class half-year results tomorrow, it will pave the way for an initial public offering (IPO) next year. The state postal giant, which employs 159,000 people in the UK, has [...]
Embracing new technology gets companies ready for the future December 19, 2012 DIRECTOR UK ENTERPRISE, CISCO Q How have advancements in the internet and online networking helped businesses through the difficult economic period? A Three of the key reasons for any company to use the internet are business model innovation, reaching more customers, and reducing costs. To quote Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, “the [...]
HMV’s demise shows why even giant firms have feet of clay January 14, 2013 SO that’s it, then: HMV has finally gone into administration, the latest, most tragic victim of the revolution that is sweeping away erstwhile giants. This comes just days after Jessops, the camera firm, was liquidated, and after the demise of Comet, the electrical retailer. So who’s responsible? Quite simply, all of us. Consumers are all-powerful, [...]
We must ditch unfair loopholes – and then cut tax overall November 19, 2012 BRITAIN’S corporation tax system is broken. It is arbitrary, opaque, incomprehensible and unfair. At best, it is uncompetitive compared with other countries, such as Ireland; at worst it is a complete nightmare of complications and distorted incentives. Britain’s tax system is one of the worst things about the UK: It needs to be smashed up [...]
US stocks drop on anticipated poor earnings January 7, 2013 US stocks lost ground yesterday, as investors drew back from recent gains that lifted the S&P 500 to a five-year high, in anticipation of sluggish growth in corporate profits. Shares of financial companies dipped after a group of major US banks agreed to pay a total of $8.5bn (£5.3bn) to end a government inquiry into [...]
We must ditch unfair loopholes – and then cut tax overall November 18, 2012 BRITAIN’S corporation tax system is broken. It is arbitrary, opaque, incomprehensible and unfair. At best, it is uncompetitive compared with other countries, such as Ireland; at worst it is a complete nightmare of complications and distorted incentives. Britain’s tax system is one of the worst things about the UK: It needs to be smashed up [...]
Black Friday hangover dogs Wall St stocks November 26, 2012 WALL Street slipped yesterday, pulling back from last week’s gains, as retailers fell on concerns about heavy discounts at the start of the US holiday shopping season and the overhang of the “fiscal cliff” kept investors wary of making big bets. The Nasdaq outperformed to close higher, led by gains in eBay and as Apple [...]