Bitcoin breaks past $10,000 for first time in two months July 27, 2020 Bitcoin jumped past the $10,000 mark for the first time in almost two months this morning, after several weeks of trading in narrow ranges. In addition to suffering pricing blows due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, the cryptocurrency went through its third so-called halving on 11 May, which cut the rewards given [...]
High-profile users boycott Twitter over grime star’s antisemitic rant July 27, 2020 Twitter is facing a 48-hour boycott of its platform from a number of celebrity users and politicians, following criticism of its handling of an antisemitic rant by British grime artist Wiley. The self-styled godfather of grime, whose real name is Richard Cowie, is being investigated by police after posting a series of antisemitic tweets over [...]
Garmin outage enters sixth day after ransomware attack July 27, 2020 A suspected ransomware attack on wearable fitness tech firm Garmin has caused an outage that has now left users without access to its services for six days. The outage first began last Wednesday, with users reporting being unable to sync their devices with the Garmin app. Following the attack Garmin shut down most of its [...]
SAP to float Qualtrics after $8bn acquisition July 27, 2020 Software giant SAP is to spin off Qualtrics in an initial public offering, less than two years after buying the unit for $8bn. Qualtrics was the last big deal signed by former SAP chief Bill McDermott, who was criticised at the time for overpaying for Qualtrics. Just before the acquisition was announced, Qualtrics founder Ryan [...]
British fintech investment slows as venture backers remain cautious July 27, 2020 Investment in the UK’s top-performing fintech sector slowed by more than a third in the first half of 2020, as investors held onto their cash during the pandemic. However funding levels still gained 22 per cent on the second half of 2019, as UK venture capital investment in fintech reached $1.84bn across 167 deals in [...]
Stamp duty cut makes UK buyers among Europe’s lowest taxpayers July 27, 2020 The government’s emergency stamp duty cut means buyers in the UK now pay among the lowest in tax in Europe, even on a prime property. British buyers are now paying just 1.93 per cent of a property’s value in tax compared to the European average of 4.53 per cent, a new study by accountancy network [...]
Consumer confidence edges up after hitting record low July 27, 2020 Consumers in the UK are emerging from the last three months in a slightly more positive mood, a closely-watched industry gauge showed today, with plans to start spending again. Consumer confidence at the end of the second quarter climbed just one percentage point to minus 17 per cent, up from a record low in the [...]
Lack of UK female bosses leads to £47bn profit gap July 27, 2020 Companies in the FTSE 350 with more diverse executive leadership teams perform considerably better and have higher profit margins, a new report said today. Analysis by gender diversity business the Pipeline showed more diverse companies — which have executive committees with female memberships of more than 33 per cent — have a net profit margin [...]
More than a fifth of small businesses expecting ‘much worse’ performance in 2020 July 27, 2020 More than a fifth of the UK’s small businesses expect their performance to be “much worse” over the next three months, after an unprecedented wave of job losses dampened their prospects. Hiring activity, profits and exports across small firms hit an all-time low in the second quarter, with 23 per cent of businesses having cut [...]
PM Johnson: ‘Open questions’ on whether lockdown was too late July 24, 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said there are “open questions” on whether lockdown measures were implemented too late in the UK, as coronavirus remained a mystery to scientists at the time. Asked whether lockdown came too late, Johnson said: “When you listen to the scientists, the questions that you’ve just asked are actually very open [...]