Carmakers must embrace Big Tech to survive the coming revolution February 28, 2017 Merger plans for Europe’s car manufacturers have dominated headlines in recent weeks, not least because of the threat they pose to UK and wider European car jobs. Combine this with Brexit jitters and concerns about overcapacity, and you might view our industry with a “glass half empty” attitude. And this is even before you contemplate [...]
Tech entrepreneurs may be over confident about their chances of success February 27, 2017 Tech entrepreneurs are more positive about their prospects for growth compared to the rest of the market, according to a poll of owner-managers and entrepreneurs by Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group. Three quarters (74 per cent) of tech entrepreneurs and business leaders forecast growth in 2017. In the wider entrepreneurial [...]
Blockchain for banks is a “long way off” says influential central banker February 27, 2017 Blockchain fintech has a “long way to go” to satisfy financial regulators, according to an influential board member of the European Central Bank (ECB). Benoit Coeure said the underlying distributed ledger technology could pose new risks to the financial system, including legal and operational obstacles. Coeure said: “Distributed technology could become a game-changer for payment, [...]
Legendary investor Warren Buffett beefs up Apple stake buying 120m shares in 2017 February 27, 2017 The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, confirmed today that his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway has snapped up 120m shares in Apple this year. Buffett told CNBC that Berkshire's Apple stake was now worth about $17bn and amounted to 133m shares. “Apple strikes me as having quite a sticky product and an enormously useful product to people that use it, not [...]
Most successful tech entrepreneurs have set up their businesses by the time they’re 30 February 27, 2017 Are you a 30-something itching to set up a tech firm? Strike age and lack of experience off of your list of excuses because Europe's top entrepreneurs set up their companies by the age of 30. Despite often lacking financial expertise, the average age tech titans establish their company by is 29.7 years, according to research by [...]
Joining the data dots to predict the future: Meet Ometria’s Ivan Mazour February 27, 2017 With nauseating velocity I’m elevated 40 floors up the Heron Tower, my ears popping with altitude, to meet Ivan Mazour at the Duck and Waffle. We’re here to talk about how Ometria, his seventh company by his early thirties, can predict the future. Often referred to pejoratively as “the son of a Russian billionaire”, Mazour is [...]
Access to finance is key to getting SMEs exporting February 27, 2017 Brexit may have been delayed but one thing that isn’t slowing down is UK exports. The latest industrial trends survey published by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) this month revealed that export orders remain above the long-run average. But while big businesses are reaping the benefits of exporting, small and medium-sized firms are being [...]
Who are Grand Theft Auto’s new contenders on the block? February 27, 2017 | City Talk Imagine inventing an awesome digital game. It then reaches global domination in sales. The fruits of becoming a billionaire might even be incidental to the sheer satisfaction of creating a global best-seller. And especially so when you work hard and play even harder. £4.2bn in UK consumer spend The UK game industry is booming: According to the Association for [...]
Video game designer turned chief executive aims to propel his company into the elite February 27, 2017 As a Star Wars and science fiction enthusiast famous for co-authoring a “seminal” video game in the 1980s, it is perhaps unsurprising that David Braben does not come across as a typical chief executive. Sitting tie-less in the City offices of investment bank Numis on the morning of a trading update, the founder of Frontier [...]
Why artificial intelligence is about to get real backing in the government’s Digital Strategy February 27, 2017 Artificial intelligence (AI) has long captured people’s imaginations. It has been a theme of science fiction novels and films for more than half a century and, while reality has always seemed a long way behind the fiction, that is now changing. AI is finally living up to its promise and has the potential to improve almost [...]
