FOR seasoned bankers and starry-eyed entrepreneurs alike, doing an IPO, or initial public offering, is synonymous with the very idea of taking a firm public. No wonder, then, that the decision by Spotify, a music-streaming service, to opt for an unconventional alternative called a “direct listing” has prompted debate. Instead of paying investment banks hefty […]
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IN JUST a few short years Spotify has evolved from bête noir of some of the world’s most prominent recording artists to perhaps their greatest benefactor. The Swedish company transformed the way people listen to music, and got them used to paying for it again after digital piracy had crippled sales. Global revenues from music […]
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DESPITE her father’s pleas, Cherry Liu refused to work for the family business, a small electronic-components company founded in 1979 on the outskirts of Taipei. A 34-year-old diamond dealer based in Sydney, Ms Liu says she is simply not passionate about gadgets such as circuit-breakers. Nor are her siblings. Her 64-year-old father cannot find a […]
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THE timing could hardly have been worse. Just as the tech industry was preparing for its big annual trade show, CES, held this week in Las Vegas, it was hit by one of the most worrying computer-security scares of recent times. On January 3rd it emerged that most microprocessors, the brains of electronic devices, are […]
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U.K. businesses continue to lag behind their European peers ahead of Britain’s upcoming departure from the European Union (EU), according to the CFO of the U.K.’s biggest recruitment firm. As Britain prepares to leave the EU next year, businesses based in the U.K. were seen to be struggling to attract investment, according to Hays‘s Paul […]
Read moreThe number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, hittingtheir highest level in more than three months, likely as a cold snap kept some workers at home. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 261,000 for the week ended Jan. 6, the highest level since late September, […]
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The euro jumped on Thursday after policymakers at the European Central Bank (ECB) unveiled upbeat minutes from its mid-December meeting. Shortly after the minutes were published, the euro surged 0.33 percent to hit $1.1983 at around 12:40 p.m. London time. The common currency also spiked against the pound, rising almost 0.5 percent, with a unit […]
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U.K. politician Nigel Farage — an outspoken supporter of Brexit — has said it might be time to hold a second referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. Farage, the former leader of the right-wing UKIP party, said that having a second referendum would remove doubt over the U.K.’s decision to withdraw from the […]
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Brexit could result in the loss of nearly half a million jobs and almost £50 billion ($67 billion) in investment by 2030, according to an independent economic report published Thursday. The analysis — commissioned by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan — models five possible scenarios for Britain’s looming departure from the European Union. The scenarios […]
Read moreThe German economy grew by a less than expected 2.2 percent in 2017, the strongest rate in six years and an improvement on the previous year, a preliminary estimate from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Thursday. Europe’s largest economy is benefiting from rising private consumption and resurgent exports buoyed by a recovery of the […]
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