Softbank Vision Fund boss doubles pay despite hefty loss May 29, 2020 Softbank has more than doubled the pay of its Vision Fund boss Rajeev Misra even as the mammoth tech fund dragged the Japanese company to a record loss last year. Misra pocketed 1.6bn yen (£12m) in total compensation for the year to March, more than twice as much as he earned in the previous 12 [...]
Workers of the world unite! How the post-pandemic recovery is increasing the bargaining power of labour August 23, 2021 More than 114 million people lost their jobs over 2020, according to the International Labor Organization. Even more saw their working hours and wages cut. The worst affected industries were accommodation and food services where global employment declined by over 20%, followed by retail. These sectors were particularly hard hit by lockdowns, forced closures and plummeting tourism. Women and younger workers were badly affected. You could be [...]
Competition watchdog revokes ban on Takeway.com and Just Eat integration April 16, 2020 Just Eat Takeway has been given the go-ahead to integrate the two food delivery businesses after the UK’s competition watchdog revoked an order to keep the firms separate. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued an initial enforcement order in January, which prevented the two food delivery firms from integrating their businesses. Amsterdam-based Takeaway.com bought [...]
Don’t sacrifice company culture on the remote working altar September 25, 2020 The UK recession, like its predecessors, will cause massive shifts in the market: new startups will be born (just as Airbnb, Uber, and Whatsapp were last time); many SMEs will be forced to adapt, refine, and then rebuild; and larger companies, spanning sectors as broad as property, law and finance, will find the pandemic era brings [...]
Screenshot: Does the UK media have a racism problem? March 12, 2021 This week: **Media Moment of the Week: GMB gets a new frontman **Does the UK media have a racism problem? **Deliveroo’s IPO giveaway; BT gets in a bind Media Moment of the Week: GMB gets a new frontman What a week it’s been for ITV. In the space of 24 hours it racked up bumper [...]
Vision Fund’s Wework splurge drags Softbank to $6.4bn loss November 6, 2019 Softbank’s Vision Fund’s soured bets on tech prospects like Uber and Wework saw the fund lose $8.9bn and drag its parent company to its first quarterly loss in 14 years today. Softbank’s high profile splurge on Wework saw the company fall to a $6.4bn quarterly loss in results revealed today. Read more: Wework hits the [...]
The future of film: Big screen’s make or break moment August 9, 2021 As blockbuster season explodes into action and Cannes finally reconvenes, it may seem like business as usual for cinema. But peek behind the scenes and there are still huge challenges to overcome. Three CAs in the sector tell Christian Koch about the big screen’s make-or-break moment. This article first appeared in ICAS’ CA magazine. Hollywood and [...]
TfL bans hundreds of minicab drivers in crackdown December 5, 2019 Transport for London (TfL) has banned hundreds of minicab drivers on the back of an investigation into schools fraudulently offering licences. It was revealed in November that the transport regulator was investigating Vista Training Solutions in Newham and all other centres offering Business and Technology Education Council (Btec) diplomas that can be used to gain [...]
From Wigan Warrior to eco-warrior: Let’s make the future electric October 20, 2020 I remember the moment my future went electric. No, it wasn’t as I was sprinting 90m for a try in the 1994 Challenge Cup Final against Leeds. It was when I first took my wife’s second-hand BMW i3 for a drive a couple of years ago. We had bought an electric motor as our second [...]
SoftBank’s telecommunications subsidiary forecasts stable operating profit May 11, 2020 SoftBank’s telecommunications subsidiary has forecast operating profit of £6.92bn, largely unchanged from a year earlier. The wireless carrier, SoftBank Corp, is an important source of cash for its parent company SoftBank Group Corp, which is expected to post a record annual operating loss next week. The Japanese conglomerate has warned of further losses on its [...]