Business

UK entrepreneur Mike Lynch has lost a multi-billion pound fraud action brought over the sale of software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2011. The High Court judge found that HP had “substantially” succeeded in its bitter civil case but indicated that the US firm would get considerably less than the $5bn it had

Apple has shrugged off the impact of chip shortages to deliver record quarterly sales of $123.9bn (£92.6bn) and said the constraints will start to ease. The iPhone maker’s revenues for the three months to Christmas were 11% higher than a year ago even though the shortages put a $6bn dent in the figure – something

The competition watchdog has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the music streaming market. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed last October an intention to examine the sector but was yet to determine the full scope of its inquiry. It followed hot on the heels of a report by MPs the previous month that raised

The head of America’s central bank has declared there is “quite a lot of room to raise interest rates” as it stepped closer to a March hike. Jerome Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve, made the remarks in a news conference after the bank declared that a hike would “soon be appropriate” – as

The chief executive of a major household energy supplier has cast doubt on whether the sector and government will be able to spare households from a huge spike in bills from April. Greg Jackson, the founder of Octopus Energy, used a letter to the three million households on its books to explain the options facing

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has taken an axe to its global growth forecasts while listing a string of threats to the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The world’s lender of last resort downgraded a prediction, made in October, for 4.9% growth in collective gross domestic product this year, saying it now expected a

Consumer goods giant Unilever has confirmed plans to cut 1,500 jobs under a shake-up of its global operations. The maker of Dove soap-to-Marmite, which made the announcement after details were apparently leaked on Monday evening, said the cuts to senior and junior management roles were the result of a new, simpler organisational structure. The company

Consumer goods giant Unilever is preparing to cut thousands of management jobs across the business in a “major initiative” due to be announced within days. The cuts will form part of a shake-up, flagged last week by the Marmite to Domestos maker, intended to “drive greater agility, improve category focus, and strengthen accountability”. Unilever declined

Wholesale gas costs have risen sharply while Bitcoin and stock market values have plunged further as tensions over Russia’s intentions concerning Ukraine add to the cocktail of concerns being juggled by global investors. The market volatility builds on heavy sell-offs that saw the US Nasdaq index come under particular pressure and endure its worst week

The quoted bid vehicle pursuing a takeover of M&C Saatchi has tabled a fresh offer which includes a partial cash alternative for investors in the London-listed advertising group. Sky News has learnt that AdvancedAdvT, which is backed by the technology entrepreneur Vin Murria and serial dealmaking group Marwyn, submitted a revised bid to the board

Dame Carolyn Fairbairn has joined the race to head Channel 4, the state-owned broadcaster, two years after leaving the CBI after a period of fractious ties between Britain’s biggest employers’ group and Boris Johnson’s administration. Sky News has learnt that Dame Carolyn is among a handful of contenders shortlisted to become Channel 4’s next chairman

The FTSE 100 has joined a global markets sell-off as it followed Wall Street into the red amid jitters over rate rises and the outlook for tech stocks. London’s leading share index fell by more than 100 points, or about 1.5%, while Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac 40 were each down by around 2%. The

People should “get back to work” after Plan B rules were eased, the business secretary has said. Kwasi Kwarteng extolled the benefits of office-based staff interacting directly as he called for a return to “some degree of normality”. The comments came after the government this week dropped working from home guidance that was reintroduced late

Plans for a new British-owned battery gigaplant in Northumberland have been boosted by the commitment of around £100m of government funds to the £3.8bn scheme. The Britishvolt project intends to manufacture power cells for 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs a year at a new factory on the site of the former Blyth Power Station. The

One of the only facilities in the world that uses carbon capture and storage technology to reduce the emissions of hydrogen production has the same carbon footprint as 1.2 million petrol cars, according to a new report seen exclusively by Sky News. In a first-of-its-kind investigation into the plant, which is owned and operated by

Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin said he was “breakdancing round my living room” after COVID-19 restrictions were eased – amid signs of a return to normal trading from a number of businesses. Mr Martin made the comments to Sky News a day after his company revealed a slump in sales over the Christmas period blamed on

The governor of the Bank of England has voiced “concern” that inflationary pressures in the UK economy could prove more stubborn than it expected. Andrew Bailey told a committee of MPs a key element of this was market forecasts since Christmas of higher than normal natural gas costs through 2023 as households and businesses grapple

Another month, another eye-wateringly high inflation number. In November the consumer prices index rate of inflation was 5.1% and most economists had expected it to stay at that level again in December. In the event it outdid those expectations, rising to 5.4%. This critical statistic – among the most important measures of economic activity –

Households in Britain could soon be spending more of their money on energy than any previous generation, including during the oil shocks of the 1970s and ’80s, according to Sky News analysis. If the energy price cap rises in line with current wholesale prices, by the end of the year the share of family expenditure

UK workers saw their wage rises wiped out by surging inflation late last year, official figures show. Weekly earnings – excluding bonuses – rose by 3.8% in the three months to November compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). But with inflation climbing to a ten-year