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Aston Martin issues fresh profit warning and sells F1 naming rights for £50m

Aston Martin has issued another profit warning and agreed to sell the permanent naming rights to its Formula One team for £50m, as the British marque grapples with falling deliveries, mounting debt and the impact of US tariffs. The carmaker, majority-owned by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, said earnings for 2025 would be worse than City forecasts, marking its fifth profit warning since September 2024. Analysts had expected the company to report a loss of around...

Depop sold to eBay at 25% discount to 2021 valuation

Depop has been sold to eBay for $1.2bn, marking a 25 per cent discount to the price paid five years ago by Etsy. Etsy acquired the London-founded second-hand fashion platform for $1.6bn in 2021 at the height of pandemic-era ecommerce growth. The resale comes as Etsy refocuses on its core handmade and vintage marketplace. Founded in 2011 by English-Italian entrepreneur Simon Beckerman, Depop built a strong following among younger consumers seeking sustainable and affordable fashion....

£42,000 roaming bill nearly bankrupts family firm after TikTok use abroad

A Manchester business owner was left facing a £42,000 mobile phone bill after his daughter streamed TikTok on holiday in Morocco, a charge he said nearly pushed his small company into financial crisis. Andrew Alty, who runs a curtains business, discovered the scale of the bill while on a family trip to Marrakech after receiving an initial £22,000 invoice from O2. A second bill for around £20,000 followed shortly after their return to the UK....

Record January surplus boosts public finances as tax receipts surge

Britain recorded its largest monthly budget surplus on record in January as rising tax receipts and a sharp fall in debt interest costs boosted the public finances. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show government revenues exceeded spending by £30.4bn in January, the highest surplus since monthly records began in 1993 and well above City forecasts of £23.8bn. January is typically a strong month for receipts because of self-assessment tax payments, but this year’s...

Asos co-founder Quentin Griffiths dies after fall in Thailand

Quentin Griffiths, the British co-founder of online fashion retailer Asos, has died after falling from a high-rise apartment building in Pattaya, according to local reports. Griffiths, 58, is reported to have fallen from the 17th floor of his condominium. Emergency services attended the scene and confirmed his death. Thai police said there were no immediate signs of disturbance inside the apartment but added that investigations are ongoing and foul play has not been ruled out...

Detecting Configuration Drift: Continuous Controls vs. Point-in-Time Snapshots

For years, security programs have relied on point-in-time snapshots to prove control effectiveness. They’ll run a quarterly audit here, a monthly scan there. They’ll rely on spreadsheets frozen at the moment it’s exported. That approach might satisfy an auditor, but it fails the reality of modern infrastructure. Cloud environments change by the hour, identities sprawl, and controls drift quietly between checks. By the time a snapshot tells you something is wrong, the risk has already...

UK Online Casinos Face Further Increased Costs

Recently published figures for Q3 of the 2025-26 financial year revealed gross gambling yield (GGY) for UK online casinos of £1.5 billion. Will they be able to continue posting such results amid rising costs in the coming months? The cost of a UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) licence is likely to be increased later this year. It’s the latest piece of bad financial news for UK online casinos. Although the online gambling industry continues to post...

Understanding the Role of an Ovulation Tracker in Modern Fertility Care

Advances in digital health have transformed fertility awareness from traditional methods into precise, personalized monitoring. Today, individuals have access to tools that provide real-time insights into their reproductive cycles, helping them make informed decisions about conception and overall reproductive health. Central to this evolution is the ovulation tracker, a device that measures key hormonal changes to identify fertile windows with high accuracy. For many women, pinpointing ovulation is essential. The fertile window is brief, often...

UK firms back home market for growth as Barclays unveils £22bn lending fund

UK businesses remain broadly confident in Britain as a base for growth, even as rising costs and economic uncertainty weigh on margins, according to new research from Barclays. The bank’s latest Business Prosperity Index, analysing anonymised data from around one million clients alongside a survey of 1,000 business leaders, reveals a two-speed economy emerging at the end of 2025. Larger firms are pushing ahead with long-term borrowing and investment, while smaller companies are turning to...

The Digital Balancing Act: How Growing Businesses Can Move Faster Without Sacrificing Security

In today’s market, every single company is a technology company. It does not matter if you sell clothing, offer financial advice, or run a local delivery service. Your customers find you online, they buy from you through digital platforms, and they expect your services to be available 24 hours a day. Because of this massive shift, the pressure on business owners has never been higher. Consumers today have zero patience. If your mobile application is...