North East take support for gaming companies to the next level August 5, 2020 | Sponsored The North East of England is a powerhouse in the global gaming. It’s home to more than 60 internationally renowned, specialist gaming companies including Ubisoft Reflections, Coatsink and Sumo Digital. International blockbuster games made in the area include Mortal Kombat 11 and the Tom Clancy’s The Division franchise. Access to an established talent pool has [...]
Nottingham – where the living and working is easy August 5, 2020 | Sponsored “Nottingham is an easy city, easy to do business, easy to find talent and we’ve been able to grow our business here easily” said Halli Bjornsson, Co-Founder and CEO at Lockwood Publishing, creators of the hit 3D virtual world Avakin Life which has 500,000 Daily Active Users. Many more who live, work and run gaming [...]
Instagram rolls out Tiktok rival Reels in the UK August 5, 2020 Instagram has today launched Reels, a short-form video feature to rival Tiktok. Users can make 15-second videos inside the Instagram app using editing tools to help film different clips, which can be shared within a new tab on Instagram’s public Explore page. The social app, which is owned by Facebook, is seeking to capitalise on [...]
Amazon to pass on UK digital tax to sellers in fees hike August 5, 2020 Amazon is to increase seller fees next month, saying it will no longer absorb the UK’s digital services tax after talks with the government failed to progress. The e-commerce giant said it had taken on the impact of the digital services tax — a two per cent levy on the firm’s annual revenues — since [...]
Bytedance founder says Trump’s goal is to ban Tiktok, not secure a sale August 4, 2020 The founder of Tiktok parent firm Bytedance has told employees he believes the US is ultimately seeking a total ban on the app, despite allowing negotiations of a sale to Microsoft to continue. Zhang Limin also said there were misunderstandings on Chinese social media about Tiktok’s situation in the US, but that Bytedance could face more [...]
EU launches full-scale probe of Google-Fitbit merger August 4, 2020 The EU has decided to launch a full-scale investigation of Google’s proposed $2.1bn takeover of Fitbit, after an initial probe prompted concerns. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, closed a preliminary review today that determined further investigation of the deal was needed to ensure Google would not use Fitbit’s data to benefit its online [...]
CMA gives Amazon’s Deliveroo investment the all-clear August 4, 2020 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially cleared Amazon’s 16 per cent stake in food delivery startup Deliveroo, after a lengthy investigation process. The watchdog awarded the deal initial clearance in April on the basis that Deliveroo could go out of business without the Amazon investment, but later changed its methodology to just focus [...]
Amazon almost doubles size of UK Prime Air drone delivery arm August 4, 2020 Amazon has ramped up expansion of its ambitious drone delivery project, almost doubling the number of staff in its Cambridge-based Prime Air team. Prime Air now has close to 60 staff working on making Amazon deliveries by drone a reality, its largest since the project began in 2016, data on Linkedin showed. Its most recent [...]
Google parent Alphabet reveals record $10bn bond at lowest-ever price August 4, 2020 Alphabet borrowed $10bn (£7.66bn) in the investment-grade corporate debt market yesterday, marking its largest ever bond issue at its lowest price to date. Within the $10bn on offer, a $1bn five-year tranche was issued at a discount of 0.45 per cent — the lowest discount seen at that maturity since Apple issued a $1.5bn five-year [...]
Twitter faces $250m fine after US data probe August 4, 2020 Twitter said it is being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for alleged violations of a law that prevents it from using personal data to target ads. In a regulatory filing, Twitter said it received a draft FTC complaint alleging data violations, which is provided by users for security purposes, between 2013 and [...]
