Marriott International to be fined £99m for data breach July 9, 2019 Hotel chain Marriott is set to be fined more than £99m for a data breach that compromised the personal details of roughly 393m guests. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) today announced its intention to hand down the fine following an “extensive” investigation into the breach. Read more: British Airways set for £189m fine for 2018 [...]
Blast off: Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic plots public listing July 9, 2019 Space may be the final frontier, but Virgin Galactic is readying itself to overcome a fresh obstacle before launching into the great unknown: a stock market listing. Sir Richard Branson’s space-tourism venture is planning to go public as part of a deal with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Read more: Fifty years on from the [...]
Wework poaches Facebook executive as it gears up for stock market float July 9, 2019 Wework has poached senior Facebook executive Martin Ott as the firm looks to beef up its management team ahead of its highly-anticipated stock market debut. Ott, who previously served as Facebook’s managing director for central Europe, will join the flexible workspace firm as managing director for EMEA, City PM can reveal. Read more: EMA to [...]
British IT firm Micro Focus ups profit margin but revenue stalls July 9, 2019 Micro Focus saw revenue slip in the first half of its financial year, it said today, although earnings rose 1.8 per cent to $662.3m (£530.6m), boosted by a wider profit margin. The figures Adjusted revenue shrank 5.3 per cent year on year to $1.7bn (£1.3bn) in the six months to the end of April, the [...]
Fifty years on from the first moon landing, it’s time to get ready for space tourism July 9, 2019 Next time someone asks if you are going anywhere nice on holiday, perhaps soon you can say Mars or Venus rather than Mallorca or Ibiza. It has been 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched Apollo 11 down on the moon, and now famous billionaires are backing different projects to make space a [...]
Climate catastrophising risks shutting down vital debate July 9, 2019 In April, the cry of climate catastrophe seized the political agenda. A trinity of David Attenborough documentaries, Greta Thunberg-inspired school strikes, and Extinction Rebellion protests took over both traditional and social media. It was the only subject driving the zombie government’s agenda forward when, Trump-like, environment secretary Michael Gove watched Blue Planet 2 and tweeted [...]
Huawei will not pass information to Beijing, says Chinese ambassador July 7, 2019 China’s ambassador to London has said he can promise that Huawei would not pass confidential information back to authorities in Beijing. Liu Xiaoming dismissed concerns that China could install so-called backdoors in the tech firm’s equipment, allowing the country to spy on the UK. Read more: Huawei blacklist remains in place, US government staff told [...]
Fresh trouble for Neil Woodford as Benevolent AI valuation drops July 7, 2019 Beleaguered fund manager Neil Woodford could be facing fresh trouble as one of his biggest bets is reportedly braced to suffer a drop in its valuation. London-based tech firm Benevolent AI is said to be raising money at a level well below its $2bn (£1.6bn) valuation, the Sunday Times reported. Read more: Neil Woodford cuts [...]
Ocado to create 260 new jobs in Old Street tech hub July 5, 2019 Online supermarket Ocado will bring 300 jobs to London as it bolsters the digital talent behind its technology platform for supermarkets. The Ocado smart platform will be sold to companies across the world to help them move online, the firm said. Read more: Ocado pumps £17m into vertical farming joint venture The London office, in [...]
Police arrest man after Baidu boss drenched on stage July 4, 2019 Chinese police have arrested a man in connection with an incident that saw someone pour a bottle of water over the head of search giant Baidu’s chief executive. Robin Li was left soaked during a keynote address at Baidu’s annual Create conference in Beijing yesterday after a man stepped on stage to empty the bottle [...]
