Globaldata Share Discussion Threads

[littleredrooster] 08/3/2018 21:40

an anti-democratic clique of bureaucrats wielding power without accountability



Date: 08/03/2018 @ 20:59

Source: Dow Jones News

A Sudden Promotion Sparks an Uproar in Europe

By Valentina Pop and Laurence Norman

An episode of palace intrigue inside the European Union's top institution has reinforced criticism of the bloc among those who see it as the plaything of unelected bureaucrats or the tool of Germany.

The sudden promotion of the chief of staff of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to the job of the institution's most powerful civil servant has Brussels in turmoil, and the complaints are reverberating more widely.

From the EU's perspective the timing could hardly have been worse. The weekend's Italian election was only the latest to show growing anti-EU sentiment in Europe. If the commission needed to refute the popular critique of Brussels as an anti-democratic clique of bureaucrats wielding power without accountability, instead the appointment reinforced the caricature.

What happened? On Feb. 21, the EU's 28 commissioners approved Mr. Juncker's recommendation that Martin Selmayr, a German national who has been the president's powerful right-hand man, should become the EU executive's secretary-general.

The 47-year-old will head the permanent Brussels bureaucratic machine which stays in place as the president and commissioners and their cabinets come and go.

The promotion means that Mr. Selmayr, a key architect of the Juncker commission, is positioned to remain in an influential position after the former Luxembourg prime minister's term ends next year.

Mr. Juncker didn't reveal his nomination before Feb. 21. The appointment was made in a single meeting of EU commissioners in a two-step move that saw Mr. Selmayr first appointed as deputy secretary-general, then immediately promoted to the top job.

"It was a surprise," Belgian commissioner Marianne Thyssen, in charge of social policy, said at a Politico event on Tuesday, though she said she supported the appointment.

A national diplomat in Brussels said no government was aware that the previous secretary-general, the Netherlands' Alexander Italianer, was planning to quit, even though Mr. Juncker said after Mr. Selmayr's appointment that he had known for a couple of years.

"This was a coup. No one confronted Juncker as no one had been prepared for what happened," said a person who attended the commissioners' meeting.

After the meeting, commission officials indicated that Mr. Selmayr faced internal competition for the job -- but the commission later acknowledged that there was in fact no other candidate when the decision was made.

Most EU capitals still seem relatively unconcerned, but a backlash is gathering force. The European Parliament is debating the appointment on Monday, after a majority in the body requested clarification from the commission. The Dutch parliament will also discuss it next week. That will create more political ruckus, even if the two bodies can't do much about it.

French media, led by Brussels journalist Jean Quatremer from the left-leaning La Libération, is abuzz with fresh information and allegations.

There have been several objections to the decision. First, Mr. Selmayr made enemies in Central and Eastern Europe during Europe's migration crisis, when he devised a system to decide how many migrants each country should take in -- and didn't back down when Hungary, Poland and others balked.

He also became a lightning rod for criticism from the U.K. when Theresa May accused EU officials of leaking embarrassing accounts of Brexit talks to interfere with the U.K. election last May. He said he wasn't behind any leaks.

Mr. Selmayr also hasn't shied away from entering political debates, though he has a nominally back-seat role. "G7 2017 with Trump, Le Pen, Boris Johnson, Beppe Grillo? A horror scenario that shows well why it is worth fighting populism," he wrote in one widely noticed tweet in mid-2016.

In addition, the haste of the decision and the lack of debate has been seen as breaching the commission's aim of encouraging transparency and ensuring scrutiny.

The commission said it followed its rules "religiously," as Mr. Juncker's chief spokesman put it. It said the secretary-general job was never widely advertised in advance in the past and that the commission president has always been understood as having discretion over the choice.

Some are also complaining that the promotion of a German undermines the geographical balance of which country holds which posts in Brussels. German officials also hold the top administrative jobs at the European Parliament and EU foreign-service administration and head the bloc's bailout fund and its investment bank.

Mr. Juncker dismissed that objection, noting that in Berlin Mr. Selmayr is seen very much as a Brussels man. "He's not an undercover agent for German politics," Mr. Juncker said.

The EU is trying to revamp its legitimacy and hopes to assume command of a bigger budget and broader powers. It has set itself up, in fights with Poland and Hungary, as a champion of rule-of-law and democratic norms.

"In the light of the recent developments in the household of the commission, we see that preaching about the rule of law is not authentic when it comes to the commission," Hungarian government spokesman Laszlo Kovacs said Wednesday.

The handling of Mr. Selmayr's elevation may not, in the end, concern voters, and Mr. Selmayr may prove good at his job. Nonetheless, it is a gift to Brussels' many critics.

--Bojan Pancevski contributed to this article.

[anusol] 26/2/2018 14:56

You're a lone voice in here Rooster.I'm a long term holder and happy to sit quietly in the background for steady long term play.

[littleredrooster] 26/2/2018 10:57

GlobalData PLC

26 February 2018

Possible Acquisition

The board of directors ("Board" or "Directors") of GlobalData Plc (AIM:DATA) ("GlobaData", the "Company" and, together with its subsidiary undertakings, the "Group") announces that the Company is in advanced discussions concerning the possible acquisition of Energy, Construction and Financial Services data and analytics companies, Research Views Limited, Progressive Ventures Limited, Progressive Media Ventures Limited and their respective subsidiaries (together the "Target Group"), private companies owned by Mike Danson (CEO, GlobalData) and a number of other minority shareholders including Wayne Lloyd (Managing Director, GlobalData US) (the "Vendors") (the "Acquisition"). It is envisaged that the Target Group will be re-organised prior to completion of the Acquisition to form a single group owned by Research Views Limited.

It is currently expected that the consideration for the Acquisition is to be satisfied through the issue of approximately 18 million new ordinary shares in the Company to the Vendors, representing approximately 17.6% of the Company's current issued share capital. The Board intends that appropriate lock-in and orderly market arrangements will be put in place.

In the year to 31 December 2017, the Target Group generated pro forma revenues of approximately £27.0m.

The Directors believe the Acquisition will further advance the Company's transformation into a global data and analytics company with a truly differentiated multi-industry offering, significantly increasing its addressable market. It will add the Energy industry and strengthen the recently acquired Construction business. It will provide complementary intelligence assets and capabilities relevant to existing Healthcare and Financial Services industries.

The Acquisition is commercially aligned to the Group's primarily subscription based model and is operationally complementary especially in the context of the Group's existing analyst and client service operations. Following the Acquisition the Group addresses at least 8 major global industries with a global expert community operating in 23 offices worldwide.

The Acquisition is expected to be earnings accretive in the first full year of ownership.

If final terms are agreed between the respective parties together with satisfactory due-diligence, the Acquisition will require the approval of GlobalData's shareholders at a general meeting.

In addition, the Acquisition would constitute a related party transaction for the purposes of Rule 13 of the AIM Rules for Companies, and the Company's independent directors would, amongst other things, be required to confirm that the terms of the proposals are fair and reasonable insofar as GlobalData's shareholders are concerned.

The Acquisition remains subject to binding legal agreements and there can be no certainty that these discussions will lead to a transaction.

Further announcements will be made at the appropriate time.

[littleredrooster] 09/2/2018 02:39

Blackbird is the most responsive cloud video platform available

So where are the revenues?

hxxp://www.forbidden.co.uk/2018/02/08/new-world-mams/

February 8, 2018 by Jeff Krebs

New world MAMs

There is a new worldview of Media Asset Management (MAM) technology. Once perceived as an integrated storage system linked to a platform facilitating distribution, it is now understood as an integral layer in the framework along with Production Asset Management, and Digital Asset Management. Today MAM technology is recognised as a critical part of the media supply chain and media companies are utilizing these frameworks to connect production and distribution to control the flow of media through its lifespan.

With all the challenges of MAM requirements, including vertical integration with non-MAM processes which range from traffic, scheduling and airtime, to horizontal alliances with content production and distribution functionalities – the discussion surrounding the efficiency of content visibility through proxy browse technology gets ‘lost in translation’.

For the feature/function of proxy browse, the media industry generally utilizes the H.264 codec. As commonplace as the H.264 codec is, there are some issues which need to be considered:

•H.264 known profiles – careful considerations need to be made and adhered to upfront, in order to “lock into” the correct profile(s) for your entire supply chain requirements, since H.264 has a minimum of 22 known profiles.
•General purpose CPUs – software implementations that run on general-purpose CPUs are typically less power efficient and below the horsepower required to process smoothly.
•Bandwidth dependant – A good, non-buffering, client-side playback of a pre-created proxy is bandwidth dependent. Working “off-premise” can lead to unpredictability for the client side user experience and this can range from ‘great’ to ‘terrible̵7;.

For a proxy feature/function, H.264 is a solution for the wrong problem, being forced on to a MAM when no other alternative solution was known or available…until now.

Blackbird is the most responsive cloud video platform available. It is surrounded by media services and can be accessed at any time and from any location. Blackbird has the potential to fit into various levels of your media supply chain layers and works alongside your current proxy browse workflow.

What is the Blackbird codec?

Blackbird is designed to perform video manipulation tasks that are impossible to achieve with the H.264 codec.

•A software frame accurate codec designed to exceed in navigation and manipulation, with graceful operation on slower connections.
•It uses Intraframe and multiple Interframe temporal resolutions to allow efficient access at multiple frame rates and playback speeds (reverse and forward).
•It uses blocks and motion compensation but avoids DCT which is slow and introduces unnatural visual artefacts.
•It updates its codewords 10,000 times per second to adjust to changing content.
•It allows media manipulation and fast random access for navigation.
•As a software solution, it can be easily upgraded, increasing quality while decreasing bandwidth requirements.

Creating a Blackbird layer is simply a matter of monitoring and scanning mounted volumes in a variety of methods that are part of your asset management integration. The creation process works independently but integrates neatly into your workflow. Blackbird can also sit neatly as a “slip-in”; or “bolt-on”; without disruption to current integrations.

See how Blackbird can improve your proxy view requirements, take a test drive below:

[littleredrooster] 09/2/2018 02:38

hxxp://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/News/Online-Video-News/NBC-to-Stream-Live-Winter-Olympics-Video-Over-Snapchat--123165.aspx

NBC to Stream Live Winter Olympics Video Over Snapchat

Just days after its surprisingly good quarterly earnings report, Snap says it's getting in the Olympic spirit and making NBC its first live TV partner.

By Troy Dreier

Posted on February 8, 2018

For the first time, NBC will stream live Olympics video to a partner: Snapchat will carry a live Olympic moment each day during prime time, starting tomorrow. Live video is a new offering for Snapchat, and NBC will be its first TV partner for live content. Viewers will be able to sign up for notifications letting them know when a live stream is about to take place. These live moments will be featured on the NBC Olympics Discover page in Snapchat.

The two companies didn't say how long the live streams will last, but it sounds like they'll be highly anticipated moments from key events. NBC's statement emphasizes that viewers can "zoom in on different live angles," so viewers will probably be able to see streams that aren't part of the regular NBC broadcast. NBC has a financial interest in Snap's success, as it invested $500 million in the company during its IPO.

Snapchat will also offer Olympic video in a daily Our Stories package. These curated Our Stories pieces will include custom context cards highlighting information from NBC, such as medal counts, local weather, schedules, and links to articles. To see them, viewers will need to swipe up on snaps that say "More." The Our Stories packages will combine broadcast footage, behind-the-scenes clips, and fan video.

NBC will also create two original shows for Snapchat during the PyeongChang Games: Pipe Dreams and Chasing Gold. Pipe Dreams is a 4-part profile of 3 snowboard athletes, while Chasing Gold is a 17-part series on Team USA's journey. Both are available now.

“Building off our successful partnership for the Rio Olympics, we’re excited to significantly expand the NBC Olympic experience on Snapchat by delivering even more content and coverage to the platform, including a live look-in on one of the most compelling moments each day during the Games,” says Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics.

BuzzFeed will create its own daily look at the events, using footage shot by a team in PyeongChang. BuzzFeed is an NBC partner, and will get unique access to athletes and Olympic venues.

hxxp://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/News/Online-Video-News/Twitter-Prepares-Snapchat-Like-Feature-for-Easy-Video-Sharing-122875.aspx

[littleredrooster] 28/1/2018 23:09

the U.S. will be Britain's "great trading partner" ... "We are going to make a deal with U.K. that'll be great"

Roosevelt and Churchill are probably smiling in their graves.



President Trump Hints at Retaliation Against EU for Unfair Trade Policies

Date : 28/01/2018 @ 17:01

Source : Dow Jones News

By Wiktor Szary in London and Emre Peker in Brussels

President Donald Trump extended his threats of action against America's trading partners, this time hinting at major retaliation against the European Union for what he described as its "very unfair" trade policy toward the U.S.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly complained about global trading arrangements that he says discriminate against the U.S. and has threatened steps that have fanned anxieties around the world about U.S. protectionism and the possibility it could set off a global trade war.

His comments about the EU come days after he imposed steep tariffs on imports of solar panels and washing machines, a move aimed mainly at curbing imports from Asia.

They were the first of what administration officials said would be a series of trade-enforcement actions in the coming months.

"I've had a lot of problems with European Union, and it may morph into something very big from that standpoint, from a trade standpoint," Mr. Trump said in an interview with the U.K. broadcaster ITV, due to be aired later Sunday. The U.S. response would be "very much to their detriment," he said of the EU.

"It's a very unfair situation. We cannot get our product in. It's very, very tough," he said. "And yet they send their product to us -- no taxes, very little taxes."

Excerpts from the interview, conducted on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, were published by The Mail on Sunday, the U.K. newspaper.

The EU's executive branch -- the European Commission -- didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump has frequently criticized multilateral trade agreements, and suggested he favored bilateral deals, while expressing concern about America's trade deficits with other countries.

Shortly before taking office, he called the EU a "vehicle for Germany." After his trip to Europe in May, his first foreign visit as president, he also threatened action against Berlin.

"We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany.... Very bad for U.S. This will change," President Trump tweeted after meeting last year with EU and European leaders during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Brussels.

The EU has regularly warned that U.S. actions smack of protectionism and risk undermining international free trade.

Mr. Trump's decision to impose levies on solar panels and washing machines drew ire from Brussels. European solar panels make up about 2% of all U.S. imports. An EU official said the bloc would review the measures and react "firmly and proportionately" if the measures significantly impacted European exports.

Mr. Trump has long promised to pursue a harder trade line in defense of U.S. manufacturers. On his first workday in office a year ago, he signed an order withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade agreement being negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama. The president, however, signalled a potentially major policy shift on Friday in Davos, saying the U.S. "would consider negotiating" a trade deal with TPP countries, individually or as a group. Mr. Trump also is renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, a 1994 trade pact between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

In the interview Sunday, Mr. Trump also criticized Britain's approach to negotiating its exit from the EU, scheduled for March 2019, saying he "wouldn't negotiate it the way it's [being] negotiated."

Mr. Trump said "I think I would have said that the European Union is not cracked up to what it's supposed to be. And I would have taken a tougher stand in getting out."

Mr. Trump, however, reiterated his commitment to striking a bilateral trade deal with the U.K. once its departure from the EU made that possible, saying the U.S. will be Britain's "great trading partner."

"We are going to make a deal with U.K. that'll be great."

[littleredrooster] 23/1/2018 20:23

hxxps://uk.webfg.com/news/international-economic/south-korea-bans-anonymous-cryptocurrency-trading--3090120.html

Caoimhe Toman WebFG News

23 Jan, 2018 16:18

South Korea bans anonymous cryptocurrency trading

Bitcoin is trading well below the $11,000 mark after South Korea cracked down on trading in the crypto-currency via anonymous bank accounts.

Bitcoin was sent into another tailspin as investors fretted that the move by authorities, in what is perhaps the most active market for the currency, might lead to a drop in demand.

That followed a down-draft in the currency during the week before after Seoul threatened to ban crypto-currencies altogether.

The regulator was concerned that crypto-currency trading was being used for criminal activities such as money laundering and that it might generate financial instability due to volatility in prices and rampant speculation.

However, the public outcry that ensued following Seoul's threat to ban crypto-currency transactions led regulators in the country to soften their approach

So instead of banning crypto-currency trading altogether, Seoul forbid the use of anonymous accounts, imposing stricter regulations on transactions. The new policy would be effective from 30 January.

Those wishing to trade in the market will now be asked to use bank accounts with their real name linked to them. Banks would also be asked to monitor exchanges and to refuse customers when illegal activities were suspected as the underlying motive.

Aside from now needing to have their identities confirmed before being allowed to trade, a ban was also placed on underage investors and foreigners from opening accounts in South Korea.

Furthermore, a full ban on Bitcoin trading was still a "live option", the government said.

Commenting on the price action in Bitcoin over recent says, ETX Capital's Neil Wilson said: "Bitcoin was on the back foot, sinking back towards $10,000 before paring losses as the market reacted to yet more moves by South Korea to rein in speculation. The crypto-currency remains unable to break through $12,000. That level has been tested on Thursday, Friday and Monday and rejected and now bitcoin seems to be unable to break out past $11,000 and was last trading at $10,500."

[littleredrooster] 19/1/2018 14:38

A somewhat hybrid version of the article.

hxxps://www.wsj.com/articles/google-and-chinas-tencent-find-being-friends-has-benefits-1516353949

Google and China’s Tencent Find Being Friends Has Benefits

The tech giants have struck a cross-licensing deal for patents

By Liza Lin in Shanghai and Alyssa Abkowitz in Beijing

Jan. 19, 2018 4:25 a.m. ET

Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Tencent Holdings Ltd. will license each other’s technology patents, a deal that could help the former broaden its toehold in the Chinese market and accelerate the global expansion of the latter.

They entered a long-term patent cross-licensing agreement for a broad range of products and technologies, the two companies said Friday, adding they were open to more cooperation in the future.

“By functioning with each other on agreements this sort of as this, tech providers can concentrate on making much better products and solutions and products and services for their customers,” Mike Lee, Google’s head of patents, reported in a assertion.

Financial terms weren’t disclosed, and neither enterprise commented outside of their statements.

Cross-licensing discounts enable firms to license just about every other’s technological innovation for use in diverse marketplaces, mentioned Lester Ross, an attorney at WilmerHale in Beijing. Mr. Ross mentioned that cross-licensing deals can restrain opposition, but that they also make sector efficiencies—for instance, decreasing the price of acquiring to file for patents in numerous international locations.

Firms this sort of as Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. have signed this sort of agreements in the previous to protect against infringing each and every other’s engineering and regional patents and hence steering clear of pricey lawsuits.

The arrangement is the most current in a string of moves by Google to expand its access into mainland China, after it pulled out its most important lookup organization in 2010 owing to problems about hacking and censorship. Various weeks back, the Mountain View, Calif.-centered corporation opened an synthetic-intelligence lab in Beijing, and this week said it is opening a new Chinese office—in Shenzhen, the city around Hong Kong, the place Tencent is centered.

Google now operates offices in Beijing and Shanghai, employing about 600 staff members. Though Google’s research motor is blocked in China, the places of work are used mostly for its ad profits employees and engineers doing the job on its global solutions. Google will use the new foundation in Shenzhen in section to faucet into the region’s electronics components offer chain, in accordance to an e mail despatched to its Chinese workers.

Tencent is China’s major tech firm by market place capitalization, and it helps make most of its cash from videogames. Its WeChat social community app is dominant in China, but has scant achieve further than.

Chris DeAngelis, China general supervisor for technological innovation consultancy Alliance Growth Team, sees the tie-up with Google as a indicator of Tencent’s world wide ambitions.

“It signifies that China’s engineering giants have developed up,” Mr. DeAngelis reported. “Tencent is now a worldwide participant.”

[littleredrooster] 17/1/2018 20:56

Apple to Pay $38 Billion In Repatriation Tax; Plans New U.S. Campus

17/01/2018 7:26pm

Dow Jones News

Apple Inc. said Wednesday it plans to pay $38 billion in repatriation taxes on profits and cash held overseas following the enactment of the new tax law.

As of last September, Apple had $252.3 billion in cash or cash equivalents abroad.

The consumer technology giant also said it would contribute more than $350 billion to the U.S. economy over the next five years by adding new jobs and investing in its domestic suppliers.

Apple plans to spend more than $30 billion over the next five years to create 20,000 jobs and open a new campus at a U.S. location to be announced later this year. The company said it would also ramp up its education programs to help train people for jobs in software development.

Apple shares rose 0.5% to $177 in afternoon trading. The stock has risen 48% over the past year.

"Apple is a success story that could only have happened in America, and we are proud to build on our long history of support for the U.S. economy, " said Chief Executive Tim Cook.

[littleredrooster] 10/1/2018 21:17

almost all installed CPUs are flawed

hxxp://www.forbidden.co.uk/2018/01/09/meltdown-and-spectre/

January 9, 2018 by Stephen Streater

Meltdown and Spectre

Introduction

In my AI blog series, I have discussed the power of inductive logic and its weakness – a vulnerability to Black Swans. There are many possible realities which fit with known facts, only some of which are desirable – or anticipated.

And so it is with the recently announced CPU security bugs, known as Meltdown and Spectre. Discovered in Intel CPUs after ten years, almost all installed CPUs are flawed.

Complexity is the enemy of security

Complex CPUs have had bugs for years. These are fixed in later revisions, usually without fuss. The Pentium Floating Point Divide bug, which received a lot of attention at the time, is typical: the CPU didn’t do what it was supposed to.

Meltdown and Spectre are different – the CPUs are doing exactly what people designed them to do. They just didn’t realise the capabilities of the design.

By allowing introspection, modern CPUs have opened a door for software to work out what the CPU it is running on is up to, even when running other software in supposedly secure areas of the same chip.

Significantly, all major chip designers have introduced the same types of critical security flaws. They didn’t understand the novel ways the instructions could be used. Using groupthink, they followed each other.

We think more sceptically at Forbidden.

The Blackbird Cloud

Forbidden’s cloud editing platform, running its suite of Blackbird tools, has significant protection from this latest range of CPU bugs.

The platform runs on Forbidden’s own hardware, dedicated to running our video platform. Unlike public clouds, members of the public cannot hire Blackbird computer resources to run spyware on each other – or on us.

By restricting the complexity of our environment, we have limited the range of possible vulnerabilities, making it easier to keep secure.

It is encouraging Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s AWS have responded so quickly with patches, and advice to users – we have prototypes for running our cloud in both. Their rapid response seems to have prevented any actual attacks.

In security, it is worth following Andy Grove, Intel founder and former CEO, when he wrote: “Only the paranoid Survive”.

Stephen B Streater
Founder and Director of R&D

hxxp://www.zdnet.com/article/meltdown-and-spectre-the-looming-death-of-security-and-what-to-do-about-it/

Meltdown and Spectre: The looming death of security (and what to do about it)

These latest flaws show once again that security is a mirage. It's time for a better approach.

By Steve Ranger | January 10, 2018 -- 13:20 GMT (13:20 GMT) | Topic: Security

[littleredrooster] 05/1/2018 12:40

$2.65tn seems big enough to me to take control of its own destiny.



Andrew Neil

1:38 am - 3 Jan 2018

World Bank: Gross domestic product 2016 of 10 largest economies (trillions of US dollars)

1 United States 18.6tn
2 China 11.2tn
3 Japan 4.9tn
4 Germany 3.5tn
5 United Kingdom 2.65tn
6 France 2.47tn
7 India 2.26tn
8 Italy 1.86tn
9 Brazil 1.8tn
10 Canada 1.53tn



Jacob Rees-Mogg

8:11 pm · 19 Dec 2017

As the BBC would say in spite of Brexit...

The U.K. Tops Forbes' Best Countries For Business 2018

[littleredrooster] 05/1/2018 11:05

London is the undisputed tech capital of Europe



UK tech sector enjoys record investment in 2017 despite Brexit uncertainty

UK firms attracted almost four times more funding in 2017 than Germany and more than France, Ireland and Sweden combined

Josie Cox Business Editor

Friday 5 January 2018 10:50 GMT

A record amount of money flowed into the UK tech sector last year, particularly fuelled by venture capitalists splashing cash in London, despite uncertainty around the implications of Brexit, new data has revealed.

UK tech firms attracted close to £3bn in venture capital funding during the 12 months to the end of December, according to data compiled by the Mayor of London's official promotional agency, London & Partners. That was almost double the £1.63bn attracted throughout 2016, and marks a fresh all-time record for the country.

London accounted for around 80 per cent of all venture capital tech funding in 2017. Some of the biggest funding rounds were pulled off by game development platform Improbable, food delivery service Deliveroo and mobile network Truphone.

“Today’s record investment figures are further proof that London is the undisputed tech capital of Europe and I am committed to ensuring we take over from Silicon Valley as the world’s leading tech hub,” said Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

“Technology entrepreneurs and businesses are attracted to our great city for its diverse talent pool and unique business ecosystem and I am determined that London remains open to investment and the best tech talent from all over the world,” he added.

The data also revealed that UK firms attracted almost four times more funding in 2017 than Germany and more than France, Ireland and Sweden combined. London & Partners said that the capital’s tech companies also raised significantly more venture capital than any other European city.

Eileen Burbidge, a partner at investment company Passion Capital, said that the figures were “no surprise”.

“It’s a testament to our exceptional entrepreneurs that the UK tech sector continues to produce companies that are leading in the development of cutting edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and fintech,” she said.

“This environment and ecosystem of innovation presents tremendous opportunities for investors and will help to attract global investment into the UK’s digital economy for many years to come,” she added.

By sub-sector, the UK’s financial technology – or fintech – space led the year in terms of investment, attracting a record £1.34bn. London accounted for the bulk of that, with deals from the likes of Transferwise, Funding Circle and Monzo.

The UK’s Artificial Intelligence companies also grew their funding last year. Investment in London-based AI companies surpassed £200m –a 50 per cent increase on 2016 levels.

London & Partners also pointed out that several global tech behemoths pledged their long-term commitment to the capital last year. Amazon, Apple and Google all announced major investments. During the second half of the year, music streaming service Spotify said that it would expand its research and development operations in London and double its staff headcount in the capital.

[garth] 03/1/2018 17:53

Good afternoon all. I am just sorting through some old certificates. I am tracing some The Mutual Net certs into Progressive Digital Media.

This piece suggests that PRO took over (or reversed into?) Global Data Holdings in January 2016:
h x x p://www.i i i.co.uk/stockmarketwire/289352/progressive-globaldata-deal-approved?context=LSE:PRO

I can find no certificates for PRO and none for DATA (but I do have old certs for TMN). Anything I am missing? And anyone know whether a 198 shares in TMN would just have been dissolved into nothing of DATA?

Thanks,

G.

[littleredrooster] 27/12/2017 15:24

quantum computing .. introduces further risks that make bitcoin not well suited to become a widely adopted currency

hxxps://uk.webfg.com/news/international-economic/governments-may-act-if-bitcoin-prices-triple-citi-says--3047204.html

Alexander Bueso WebFG News

27 Dec, 2017 14:39

Governments may act if Bitcoin prices triple, Citi says

It's hard to say how high Bitcoin prices may rise, but many signs point to it being just a bubble and government action against it - possibly should prices triple - will likely determine its peak value, analysts at Citi told clients.

In particular, Citi pointed to the inherent volatility of Bitcoin, at nearly seven times that of emerging market currencies or gold, to argue that the crypto-currency would simply just not do as as a 'means of transaction' or as 'a store of value' - two of the basic properties of any currency.

It was also exceptionally "wasteful", with recent reports indicating that mining it was using up nearly as much as energy as consumed by all of Denmark, with the cost set to rise further.

Indeed, such waste would eventually become an additional incentive for governments to outlaw it, Citi argued.

The role played by Bitcoin in the informal economy was another reason why authorities might decide to act, together with the increasingly high risks a hypothetical failure of Bitcoin might pose for economies such as that of Russia, Nigeria or New Zealand due to the elevated value of Bitcoin transactions as a proportion of gross domestic product.

According to Citi, other countries with a high level of Bitcoin holdings as a share of GDP included the Ukraine, Kenya, South Africa and Colombia.

To take note of, at 2% the UK also ranked high on the list of countries that were the most Bitcoin friendly.

Citi drew a comparison with the negative wealth effects experienced during the Internet bubble to drive home its point.

During the 'Dotcom' bubble, between the peak in the stockmarket reached in March 2000 and the onset of economic recession in March 2001, the market capitalisation of shares listed in the US dropped by approximately 20% of GDP.

And now there were already several countries where the value of Bitcoin transactions, as a share of GDP, was starting to become worrisome, such as in Russia at 5% and Nigeria or New Zealand at 4%.

"If bitcoin were to flop, those countries would already experience a meaningful negative wealth effect. On the other hand, for the US it is very low at 0.17%.

"Another tripling of bitcoin prices from the highs (to $60,000) may focus minds of authorities. But are the potential wealth effects outlined above enough to compel policy makers in the at risk countries to move against bitcoin?," the analysts said.

Bitcoin's security was noting to write home about either, according to Citi, as recent cases of theft of Bitcoin wallets - albeit not the coins themselves - had demonstrated.

The advent of quantum computing also made it more likely that at some point private keys could be replicated from public keys, the investment bank said.

"Even in the best case outcome this is at the very least likely to lead to additional forks. While quantum computing may not be the end of bitcoin, at the very least it introduces further risks that make bitcoin not well suited to become a widely adopted currency, rather than just a highly speculative plaything."