Ebay rejects Gamestop’s not ‘credible nor attractive’ $56bn bid May 12, 2026 Global commerce giant Ebay has dismissed an audacious play from video game retailer Gamestop that sought to merge the two companies into a new titan to take on the dominance on Amazon. Ebay’s chairman Paul Pressler said the firm’s board had “thoroughly reviewed [the] proposal and has determined to reject it”. In a letter to [...]
Burges Salmon and Wexler roll out firm-wide legal AI partnership May 11, 2026 Leading UK law firm Burges Salmon is rolling out a new company-wide partnership with legal tech startup Wexler to aid lawyers in litigation work, Morning Wire can reveal. The Bristol-headquartered legal practice said Wexler is “a reliable option” and the firm-wide partnership follows “a successful integration” of adopting Wexler in the Dispute Resolution team in [...]
City calls on tech firms to tackle Britain’s fraud epidemic May 8, 2026 Canada Corporation is calling on tech firms to help build a new digital identity verification network, designed to crack down on fraud and reduce the growing costs of financial scams. Under the plans, shared with Morning Wire, consumers would verify their identity once with a trusted provider before reusing those credentials across [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks down on election day; oil back below $100 as Iran deal hangs in balance May 7, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. It’s local election day in the UK and Keir Starmer’s premiership is hanging in the balance as his Labour Party prepares to take a drubbing in council boroughs across the country. Gilt yields rose at their fastest rate earlier this week as the market prepares [...]
Revealed: The 2026 Morning Wire Awards Winners May 7, 2026 Around 500 guests enjoyed a night of celebration at London’s Guildhall on Wednesday 6 May where the winners of the 2026 Morning Wire Awards were crowned. From 60 finalists across 12 categories, the judges chose their champions. Personality of the Year Greg Jackson CBE The entrepreneur and CEO of Octopus Energy has become one of [...]
Fractile vs Nvidia: can a UK startup undercut AI’s chip darling? May 6, 2026 A little-known British startup is beginning to test one of the biggest assumptions underpinning the AI boom: that Nvidia will remain the unavoidable centre of the ecosystem. Founded in 2022 by Oxford researcher Walter Goodwin, Fractile is attempting to redesign how AI chips work altogether, with a focus on speed and – crucially – cost. [...]
Corvera co-founder: Brits have it too comfortable May 5, 2026 The boss of Corvera has said Brits take a too comfortable, risk-averse approach after moving his AI startup from London to San Francisco. Corvera co-founder and chief executive Christopher Kong, an Oxford graduate who launched a fast-growing vegan food range before setting up the AI business in October last year, said he found it easier [...]
OpenAI listing plans hit as Altman scraps robotics spin-off idea May 5, 2026 Tech behemoth OpenAI internally shelved plans to spin off its robotics and consumer hardware divisions, as chief executive Sam Altman tightens focus ahead of a potential IPO that could value the company at up to $1 trillion (£737bn). The proposed restructure, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would have mirrored Alphabet’s model, separating [...]
Elon Musk settles lawsuit over Twitter takeover for $1.5m May 5, 2026 Tech tycoon Elon Musk has finally put one of his longest-running legal battles to rest after reaching a $1.5m (£1.2m) settlement with the US regulator. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil lawsuit against the billionaire, alleging violations of securities laws in the run-up to his 2022 purchase of Twitter. Musk, who [...]
Palantir revenue rockets past forecasts May 5, 2026 Revenue at Palantir rocketed past analyst forecasts as the AI-powered firm ramped up commercial and government deals. The US tech firm posted revenue of $1.6bn (£1.2bn) in the first three months of the year, above investor expectations of $1.5bn and 85 per cent ahead of last year. The firm upped its revenue guidance to $7.6bn [...]