Unilever swallows healthy food startup Graze February 5, 2019 Retail giant Unilever has agreed a deal to buy UK healthy snacks firm Graze at a reported valuation of £150m. Founded in 2008, the brand had raised just £2m from London investors Octopus Ventures and Draper Esprit before being acquired by US buyout group Carlyle in 2012. The bidding war for Graze had garnered interest from [...]
Sir Nick Clegg summoned in front of MPs over social media abuse February 5, 2019 Sir Nick Clegg has been asked to appear in front of a parliamentary committee to answer questions about the harassment of MPs on social media. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has written to Clegg, who is head of global affairs and communications at Facebook, asking him to give evidence as part of its inquiry [...]
Apple reclaims its title as the world’s most valuable public company February 5, 2019 Apple has taken back its crown at the top of the tech heap, becoming the world's most valuable public company for a second time after losing the title last year. Boosted by a small 1.7 per cent share price rise as markets opened this afternoon, Apple's market capitalisation rose to $820.8bn (£633.1bn), up from hitting [...]
Apple chipmaker AMS warns of ‘subdued’ smartphone demand hitting revenue February 5, 2019 Shares in Austrian chipmaker AMS slipped more than 13 per cent today, after the iPhone supplier warned investors about a smartphone slowdown. The firm revised down its revenue expectations for the current quarter to between $350m (£270m) and $390m, reflecting continued "subdued smartphone demand" globally. Reporting its results for the three months to 31 December, AMS [...]
European companies suffer 60,000 data breaches in eight months February 5, 2019 More than 59,000 data breaches have been reported across Europe since data protection laws were brought in last year, new figures have revealed. The Netherlands, Germany and the UK topped the list of the most reported breaches in the eight months since new GDPR laws came into force, according to law firm DLA Piper. Read [...]
British startups hit by funding drop last year as fintech bucks the trend February 5, 2019 The amount of money pumped into Britain’s startups slipped in 2018, but fintech and blockchain investment provided a silver lining. Funding into the UK’s young companies dropped from 2017’s record high of £8.6bn to £7bn last year, according to data published today by Beauhurst. Deals at seed stage fell 15 per cent to almost the [...]
Every day, we vote with our clicks that we value Facebook February 5, 2019 With front-page headlines including “Facebook paid kids and spied on them”, “Generation of web addicts”, “Wild West Web firms facing ban”, and “Stop online giants who help kill our kids”, it’s fair to say that it has not been the best UK press week for social media firms. Poor old Nick Clegg must have thought that [...]
Business banking startup Anna Money raises £8.5m from Kinetik February 5, 2019 Financial admin startup Anna Money has landed £8.5m in funding from Kinetik, as the banking app aims to take on the big leagues. Anna, which offers a digital admin assistant, current account and banking debit card for small businesses, said it is preparing to launch several new tools in anticipation of HM Revenue & Customs' [...]
Google beats estimates on revenue and profit, but shares fall on rising costs February 4, 2019 Google's parent firm Alphabet topped consensus estimates in its fourth quarter results tonight, surpassing expectations for revenue and profit. The tech giant reported net income of $8.9bn (£6.8bn), marking a turnaround from a $3bn loss in 2017 when it recorded a one-off tax charge of $9.9bn. This outperformed the average analyst prediction of $7.7bn, as collated by [...]
Crypto exchange Kraken buys London trading firm in nine-figure deal February 4, 2019 San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has finalised a deal to buy London trading firm Crypto Facilities. Kraken said it was one of the industry’s largest deals to date, valued at nine-figures. Though Crypto’s 25-strong team will remain in London, they will all become Kraken employees and expand the US firm's commitment to expanding its European [...]