Category Archives: Business

Big tech boom or bust? Experts see signs of strength after wave of layoffs

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Even as more job cuts await, some analysts see the beginnings of a bull market in the coming season of earnings reports

Will 2024 be a boom or a bust for big tech? By one estimate, there have been more than 7,500 layoffs in the sector since the start of the year – a dispersal of pink slips that many hoped would have ceased after the deep job cuts of 2023.

However, as the US’s big tech earnings season gets under way this week, some analysts are predicting strong numbers. This batch of quarterly financial results may show that the industry has cleared out its pandemic-era overhiring and reorganised itself around cloud computing and AI - necessitating cuts in sectors with less rosy prospects. Analysts keen on AI say we are at the start of a tech bull market.

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Groceries on special fly off Australian supermarket shelves at 70 times normal rate

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ABS data highlights shoppers’ attraction to promotions, as supermarkets giants discount unhealthy food twice as often as healthier items

Supermarket promotional items can sell at up to 70 times their normal rate, analysis shows, in a sign of the market power the grocery giants exert over Australian households that includes a preference to discount junk food.

An upcoming parliamentary inquiry designed to investigate claims of profiteering is expected to place significant focus on grocery specials, while the competition regulator has also suggested it could sue major supermarkets for deceptive promotions. The chains have defended their pricing practices.

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Ofcom to set out possible Royal Mail reforms – and Saturday deliveries could end

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Regulator’s review will look at evidence and options on how universal postal service ‘might need to evolve’

Royal Mail could be allowed to end Saturday postal deliveries as part of Ofcom’s review into how the service may need to be reformed.

Next week, Ofcom will publish a document outlining “potential options for the future of the universal postal service”.

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HMRC has not charged a single company over tax evasion under landmark legislation

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Powers bestowed by the Criminal Finances Act 2017 are not being used effectively, say critics

HMRC has not charged a single company under landmark legislation passed six years ago to crack down on corporate tax evasion.

Critics say the data, released under freedom of information laws to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and TaxWatch, suggests that HMRC is undermining its own deterrents against corporate tax evasion by failing to use its criminal enforcement powers.

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Video game developers union membership in UK soars after thousands laid off

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Around 900 of the estimated 11,100 job losses in the workforce last year were in the UK’s £5bn a year industry

Mass redundancies in the video game industry, with thousands of developers losing their jobs, have led to a record surge in workers joining unions, organisers have told the Observer.

The fledgling Game Workers branch of the IWGB union saw its membership jump by almost half between December 2022 and December 2023 as job cuts worsened in the sector, including at the studios behind bestselling games such as Fifa, Skyrim and The Witcher.

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Retired teacher’s pension stopped as provider refuses to believe she is not dead

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Payments halted four times and left Eileen McGrath without income over Christmas

A retired teacher has had her pension payments stopped four times because her pension provider repeatedly refuses to accept that she is not dead.

Eileen McGrath, 85, was left without income over Christmas when Teachers’ Pensions, which administers payments on behalf of the UK government, wrongly matched her with a deceased stranger.

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Fujitsu government contracts under scrutiny in light of Horizon scandal

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Treasury committee writes to 21 bodies including Bank of England and HMRC to demand details of post-2019 deals

Fujitsu’s receipt of lucrative government contracts despite its role in the Post Office Horizon scandal has come under greater scrutiny after the Treasury committee wrote to organisations including the Bank of England and HM Revenue and Customs to demand details of their contracts with the tech company.

The influential group of MPs told 21 public bodies, including the Treasury itself, to provide information on work given to the Japanese-owned company since 2019, when the high court ruled there had been dozens of bugs and errors in its Horizon IT system.

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S&P 500 hits new record high amid signs of easing US economic gloom

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Index climbs to all-time high of 4,838, clearing record set two years ago, as US consumer confidence rises while inflation concerns ease

The S&P 500 scaled a new all-time high on Friday amid signs that the economic despondency that has gripped US consumers may be easing.

The index climbed 1.2% to 4,838 on Friday afternoon, clearing a record last set two years ago. It has rallied more than 17% since late October.

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Women added to Cop29 climate summit committee after backlash

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Panel was originally composed of 28 men, a move condemned as ‘regressive’ and ‘shocking’

The president of Azerbaijan has added 12 women to the previously all-male organising committee for the Cop29 global climate summit, which the country will host in December.

The move follows a backlash after the Guardian reported the initial 28-man composition of the committee, which was called “regressive” by the She Changes Climate campaign group. “Climate change affects the whole world, not half of it,” the group said.

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Port Talbot steelworks owners expected to confirm blast furnace shutdown

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Union representatives protest over ‘crushing blow’ to workers and industry, with 3,000 jobs at risk

The owners of the Port Talbot steelworks are expected to confirm the shutdown of its blast furnaces on Friday morning, putting almost 3,000 jobs at risk.

Trade union representatives have gathered outside the gates of the works in south Wales to protest against the decision, which members have said will be a “crushing blow” to workers and UK steelmaking.

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Retail slump raises spectre of recession as Hunt looks more Truss-like by the day

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Surprise fall in December sales damages chancellor’s claims that UK economy is on right track

The UK economy was probably in recession during the second half of 2023 if the latest retail sales figures are anything to go by.

A surprise 3.2% slump in the level of sales in Great Britain during December appears to show the cost of living crisis was continuing to hurt household finances despite a rise in wages that gave many consumers a bit more spending power.

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Tata Steel to shut down Port Talbot blast furnaces, putting 3,000 jobs at risk

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Firm rejects union plan, leaving UK on course to become only major economy unable to make steel from scratch

The owners of Port Talbot steelworks have rejected a trade union plan designed to keep its blast furnaces running, putting nearly 3,000 jobs at risk and leaving the UK on course to become the only major economy unable to make steel from scratch.

In what one union said would be a “crushing blow” to workers and UK steelmaking, Port Talbot’s parent company, the Indian-owned Tata Steel, told workers’ representatives that it could no longer afford to continue production at the loss-making plant in south Wales while it completed a four-year transition plan to greener production.

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UK banks expect sharp rise in defaults on unsecured debt

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Lenders forecast biggest quarterly increase in missed repayments on credit cards and loans since 2009

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Britain’s biggest high street lenders expect the sharpest rise in defaults on unsecured lending since 2009, according to a Bank of England survey, as households come under growing pressure amid the cost of living crisis.

The figures from Threadneedle Street show banks expect a marked rise in the number of people who fail to meet repayments on credit cards, loans and other forms of unsecured borrowing over the next three months.

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Royal Mail hails best Christmas for four years – but staff miss £500 bonus

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Delivery company says nearly all festive deliveries arrived on time and its revenues rose

Royal Mail has said it had its best Christmas for four years, with nearly all festive deliveries arriving on time – despite missing a target that would have handed postal workers a £500 bonus.

The delivery company’s owner, International Distributions Services (IDS), on Thursday reported group revenues rose nearly 10% to £3.6bn in the final three months of 2023.

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‘Greedy and dishonest’ touts sold tickets worth £6.5m, court hears

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Ed Sheeran and Little Mix fans among those targeted by firm that resold on Viagogo and StubHub

Ticket touts acting out of “greed and dishonesty” sold tickets worth £6.5m to music fans, a court has heard, as a woman known as the “Ticket Queen” pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading nearly seven years after being named in an Observer investigation.

TQ Tickets Ltd, owned by Maria Chenery-Woods of Norfolk, used fake identities to hoover up large numbers of tickets for acts such as Ed Sheeran and Little Mix, prosecutors for National Trading Standards said.

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Sheryl Sandberg to leave board of Facebook parent Meta

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Former chief operating officer was lead architect of Facebook’s digital advertising-driven business model

Sheryl Sandberg is to step down from the board of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, nearly two years after quitting her executive role at the business.

Sandberg was the lead architect of Facebook’s digital advertising-driven business model as Meta’s chief operating officer.

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UK urges west to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine’s economy

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Foreign secretary says there are legal, moral and political justifications for using assets of $350bn

Britain is ramping up pressure on western governments to use $350bn (£275bn) of frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine’s war-shattered economy, with David Cameron insisting there were legal, moral and political justifications for action.

The foreign secretary said the countries that were backing Ukraine had economies that when combined were 25 times the size of Russia and it was important to make that firepower count.

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Sexual harassment has shifted away from the office to work trips, MPs told

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In wake of #MeToo, sexism in the City has become more ‘underhand and pernicious’, women tell inquiry

The social change sparked by the #MeToo movement has not translated to the UK’s financial sector, with sexual harassment merely shifting outside the office to conferences and work trips, MPs have heard.

A summary of private hearings held as part of the Treasury committee’s sexism in the City inquiry showed that, while a small number of women said workplaces had become more inclusive in recent years, the majority felt the Square Mile was still an “old boys’ club” with misconduct and misogyny widespread.

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Uniqlo sues Shein over ‘imitation’ banana-shaped ‘it’ bag

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Petition demands online retailer stop immediate sale of bags and compensation for damages incurred

Uniqlo is suing the Chinese online retailer Shein over the sale of items it claims copy its popular banana-shaped ‘it’ bag, the “round mini”.

The petition demands that Shein immediately stops the sale of “the imitation products” and pays compensation for damages incurred as a result of their sale. It was filed last month in the Tokyo district court against the fast-growing business’s parent groups Roadget and Fashion Choice, as well as Shein Japan.

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Rwanda president: efforts to implement asylum plan cannot ‘drag on’

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Paul Kagame also says he would be happy for the scheme to be scrapped

Rwanda’s president has said there are limits to how long attempts to implement an asylum deal with Britain can “drag on”, indicating he would be happy for the scheme to be scrapped.

Paul Kagame’s comments on Wednesday came before Rishi Sunak faced a potentially leadership-ending rebellion by Conservative MPs threatening to vote down his Rwanda deportation bill on Wednesday night.

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