WPP shares jump as embattled advertiser draws takeover interest November 17, 2025 Shares in advertising giant WPP soared as markets opened on Monday following reports the firm was the subject of takeover interest. The FTSE 100 group is said to be in the centre of deals chatter with interest from French rival Havas, as well as private equity firms Apollo and KKR. WPP soared ten per cent [...]
Tech tailwinds boost Polar Capital as AI bubble balloons November 17, 2025 Asset manager Polar Capital reported a surge in earnings after the firm’s “meaningful exposure” to tech stocks provided a hefty tailwind. The London-listed business recorded a 21 per cent jump in pre-tax profit to £27.9m, this was up from £23.1m just last year. Whilst outflows soared to £690m, including a significant £632m concentrated in the [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Budget and bubbles continue to set agenda November 17, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. We are now just over a week out from the Labour government’s second Budget and last week rogue Westminster briefings sent ripples through markets. After continuous weeks and media outings teasing a manifesto-breaking income tax hike, the government rowed back with several reports pointing to [...]
AI-powered regtech lands £2.1m to help banks dodge FCA fines November 13, 2025 An AI-powered regulation tech firm has landed £2.1m in funding to help banks avoid getting fines from the City watchdog. Adclear, which uses software to ensure lenders’ books are in order, has capped off a funding round which has included backing from Clearscore founder Dan Cobley and Coinbase’s UK managing director Keith Grose. With Adclear’s [...]
London’s £10bn data centre boom accelerates amid AI power crunch November 7, 2025 London’s data centre sector is entering a new phase of expansion, with three major schemes worth over £10bn revealed in the past week. The projects, all located in and around the capital, aim to serve the growing computing needs of the City, tech firms, and the broader UK economy, particularly AI workloads. The developments are [...]
Rightmove shares in £1bn crash as AI plans spook investors November 7, 2025 Shares in Rightmove nosedived on Friday morning after the property titan revealed a major-shakeup centred on upping AI spending. The group said it would invest £60m over the next three years, with a focus on leaning into new tech. The FTSE 100 firm slashed its short-term profitability targets amid the new plans. Company boss Johan [...]
AI investment lacks basic safety checks, warns BSI October 27, 2025 Many businesses are investing heavily in AI without sufficient safeguards for its implementation, a new study by the British Standards Institution (BSI) has found. While executives are touting AI’s potential to drive productivity, the report suggests that most firms are operating with little more than blind faith in a technology they do not yet fully [...]
MPs urge Whitehall to prioritise AI training as digital gap widens October 22, 2025 The government must urgently upskill civil servants to make effective use of AI, MPs have warned. In a new report published on Wednesday, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that gaps in digital advancements among government departments are leading to service backlogs, inefficiencies, and poorer outcomes for citizens. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, PAC chair, argued: [...]
Salesforce: Trust is ‘critical’ when it comes to AI October 16, 2025 Trust has become key when it comes to businesses using AI. As Salesforce’s Brent Hayward, head of competitive intelligence, told Morning Wire: “I don’t think there’s any more valuable thing. If you’re in the business of working with other businesses or customers, then trust… It is the foundational level”. Hawyard insisted that this trust ‘layer’ [...]
Anthropic boss ‘concerned’ about AI’s impact on jobs October 16, 2025 Anthropic boss and co-founder Dario Amodei has warned that the rapid advance of AI could upend the workforce “faster and more broadly than anything we’ve seen before”, even as his company embraces the technology to transform how it operates. Speaking on stage at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, Amodei announced that AI tools were [...]