Santander profits dive 18 per cent as UK mortgage margins squeezed July 23, 2019 Santander posted an 18 per cent plunge in second quarter profits due to one-off acquisition costs and rising pressure on mortgage margins in the UK. Read more: Santander ‘offered Andrea Orcel 52m euros’ in botched CEO plan The figures Profit before tax fell 18 per cent year on year to €1.39bn (£1.25bn) between April and [...]
RBS to select Alison Rose to become first female chief executive August 10, 2019 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is set to pick Alison Rose to become its new chief executive. Rose will become the first woman to lead one of the UK’s biggest high street lenders and is likely to be named as Ross McEwan’s successor in the coming weeks, Sky News claim. Read more: Outgoing RBS [...]
Tesla sues former engineer for allegedly passing tech secrets to Chinese rival Xiaopeng March 22, 2019 Tesla has accused a former employee of stealing trade secrets and handing them over to a Chinese rival. Elon Musk’s firm has filed a lawsuit alleging one of its former engineers, Guangazhi Cao, copied the source code for its Autopilot self-driving technology before joining Chinese startup Xiaopeng Motors. Read more: Tesla launches new Model Y [...]
Big tech vs the market: what you need to know June 23, 2020 Big tech has led the global market recovery in the wake of Covid-19. Can the dominance of the FAMAGs continue? On 8 June the S&P 500 of US stocks recovered all their Covid-19 losses for 2020. The so-called FAMAGs (Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet (Google’s parent company)) led that recovery. Even before the pandemic, [...]
Burford Capital rebuffs news of possible ‘revenge porn’ law suit September 10, 2019 Litigation funder Burford Capital has hit back after reports it could be facing a private prosecution for an alleged breach of England’s “revenge porn” laws, in the latest development in an ongoing legal battle on both sides of the Atlantic. It was alleged in a High Court lawsuit last month that Burford executive Daniel Hall [...]
BHP Billiton faces record $5bn claim for failure of Brazilian dam in 2015 May 7, 2019 Mining giant BHP Billiton is facing a landmark, $5bn lawsuit for being “woefully negligent” before a 2015 dam collapse that led to Brazil’s worst ever environmental disaster. Read more: BHP profits slump after mining outages The damages claim will be the biggest group action to be heard in Britain, and was served today in Liverpool. [...]
Google paid $105m to two executives accused of sexual harassment March 12, 2019 Google paid a total of $105m (£79m) to two executives after they were accused of sexual harassment, according to court documents released last night. The lawsuit, filed by shareholder James Martin, confirms previous reports that Android creator Andy Rubin was paid $90m after he allegedly coerced sex from a colleague. Read more: Fintech superstar Marta [...]
Facebook executives planned ‘switcharoo’ on data policy change November 6, 2019 Facebook began cutting off access to user data for app developers from 2012 to squash potential rivals while presenting the move to the general public as a boon for user privacy, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters. Some executives at the world’s biggest social network appeared to refer to the strategy of promoting a [...]
John McDonnell says Labour will break up Big Four ‘cartel’ November 19, 2019 Shadow chancellor John McDonnell today promised to break up the “cartel” of the Big Four accounting firms if Labour wins the upcoming election. “Under Labour the Big Four companies will not be allowed to continue to act like a cartel,” McDonnell told a Westminster audience during a speech on Labour’s plans for the economy. The [...]
Reckitt Benckiser agrees $1.4bn settlement in US opioid case July 11, 2019 Reckitt Benckiser said today it has agreed to pay $1.4bn (£1.1bn) to settle a case in the US over its opioid addiction treatment. The London-listed company agreed the fine after being accused by the Justice Department of illegally increasing prescriptions for Suboxone Film. Read more: Reckitt Benckiser picks Pepsico executive for top job The firm [...]