Business

Secret Sales, a discount platform for premium clothing and beauty brands, has clinched a $10m funding round to accelerate its expansion into Europe. Sky News understands that the company, which was bought by retail entrepreneurs Chris Griffin and Matt Purt three years ago, will announce this week that it has secured the additional capital from

The new owners of Chelsea FC are in talks with Allianz, the German insurance giant, about taking over as its principal shirt sponsor as they grapple with the impact of a dire debut season on the club’s finances. Sky News has learnt that Allianz is among a handful of companies in discussions with the Stamford

Capital One, the American credit card giant, is poised to swoop on a British luxury concierge service in a deal said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Sky News has learned that Capital One Financial Corp has struck a deal to acquire Velocity Black, which was founded in 2014 and offers its well-heeled

The British competition watchdog has blocked Microsoft’s bid to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stopped the $68.7bn (£55bn) deal due to concerns that it would stifle competition in the cloud gaming market. In its final report on Wednesday, the CMA said that the move was “the only effective

The chief executive of Ted Baker is close to leaving the company six months after it was taken over by a giant American brands and entertainment conglomerate. Sky News has learnt that Rachel Osborne, who took the helm at the British retailer in the midst of a governance and accounting crisis in 2020, is expected

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar talks to Ian King about grocery prices and developing trends in our shopping habits. Plus, chief executive and co-founder of GAIL’s Bakery, Tom Molnar, discusses how the rising price of flour has affected his business. Ian’s also joined by the boss of train ticketing app

Renee Elliott, the founder of Planet Organic, is returning to spearhead a rescue deal for the supermarket chain she launched in 1995. Sky News has learnt that Ms Elliott has agreed to lead a takeover of Planet Organic in a deal expected to be finalised on Tuesday. City sources said she had assembled backing from

One of Britain’s most experienced retail executives is joining the board of JD Sports Fashion, part of a management shake-up aimed at improving governance under its new chairman. Sky News has learnt that Darren Shapland, a former finance chief at J Sainsbury, will be named on Tuesday as a non-executive director of the UK’s biggest

A conveyancing software maker is in talks to join the growing exodus of companies from the London stock market. Sky News has learnt that AIM-listed Smoove has received several takeover approaches from unnamed suitors. City sources said on Monday that the company was engaged in discussions with at least one prospective buyer. Smoove is a

Microsoft has been invited to showcase its products in 10 Downing Street on the same day that its $75bn takeover of games-maker Activision faces being blocked by British competition watchdogs. Sky News has learnt that the technology giant is among the companies due to attend an event organised by UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), the industry

The first UK-made Jaguar electric car is to be a £100,000 four-door grand tourer, the vehicle’s manufacturer has announced. The UK’s largest carmaker said its first British car to run fully on batteries will be made in the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Solihull plant in the West Midlands and will be available in selected markets

After the rate of inflation eased slightly but still remains above 10%, Ian is joined by KMPG’s chief economist Yael Selfin to discuss the official figures. He also talks to Alex Kendall – the chief executive of the UK-based autonomous vehicle group, Wayve – about Asda beginning what it claims is the UK’s biggest trial

Twitter will finally remove “legacy” blue ticks from verified accounts on Thursday. Elon Musk announced earlier this month that 20 April was the final date for culling the checkmarks – almost three weeks after the original plan to do so on April Fool’s Day. The only blue ticks left will be those with a Twitter

The government has made it its primary aim to halve inflation by the end of the year but things aren’t quite going to plan. Britain has shot up the leader board and now has western Europe’s highest rate of consumer price inflation. Economists were expecting the headline rate to fall from 10.4% to 9.8% in

Google’s chief executive had admitted the potential dangers of AI development “keep me up at night”. Sundar Pichai said the technology “can be very harmful if deployed wrongly” and backed growing calls for regulation amid concern about its impact on jobs, privacy, and how information is shared online. “We don’t have all the answers there

Police are now investigating alleged sexual misconduct at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The City of London Police said its inquiries were “at a very early stage”. Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Waight said: “The City of London police takes all acts of sexual misconduct and violence against women and girls extremely seriously. “We approached

You can actually get more of a sense of the mood at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from looking not at their latest forecasts, but at the kind of vocabulary they’re using around them. Words like “ominous”, “perilous” and “significant vulnerabilities” rather sum it up. The IMF is getting very nervous about the state of

Cryptocurrency Bitcoin has reached a 10-month high following the worst banking turmoil since the 2008 global financial crash and is now worth more than $30,000. One Bitcoin was worth $30,438 in Asian trading on Tuesday, a high not seen since June last year – but still less than half the all-time high value of more

Atom Bank, the app-based lender, has picked advisers to secure a further £100m in capital in what is expected to be its final fundraising before an attempt to list its shares publicly. Sky News understands the Durham-based company is working with bankers at Jefferies on a share sale that will take place in the coming

Illegal immigrants will have their bank accounts shut down in a new crackdown by the Home Office – who have been accused of “demonising” asylum seekers. The Home Office announced it began sharing data with the financial sector on Thursday so it can refuse to open new bank accounts and close existing accounts of people