Business

What is Elon Musk up to? Not for the first time that’s the question on the minds of Twitter executives, global investors and many of his 92 million followers, after the world’s richest man announced, in a tweet, naturally, that his purchase of the social media platform is “temporarily on hold”. The impact was instant,

Billionaire Elon Musk has said his Twitter deal is “temporarily on hold” over the company’s spam and fake user accounts. Mr Musk, who last week secured $7bn from new investors for his $44bn takeover, tweeted: “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”

The boss of Tesco picked up a bumper pay deal totalling £4.74m over the last year, the supermarket giant revealed in its annual report. It comes as householders face rising food prices, amid surging inflation and a worsening cost of living crisis. The report, published on Friday showed Ken Murphy’s overall remuneration package was 224

It’s been a long time since I returned to Wigan. Situated equidistant between Liverpool and Manchester, the old mining town has stood proudly on the banks of the River Douglas, and later the Leeds Liverpool canal, since at least the seventh century. It’s been my family home since 1960. I went to school there in

Be in no doubt, today’s GDP figures are bad news indeed. Bad news as they show the economy is shrinking sooner than expected, down 0.1% in March. But bad news too, in terms of what it heralds for the rest of the year. All the signs and predictions were already that the worst is set

The chancellor has said “no option is off the table” when asked about the possibility of a windfall tax on oil and gas firms to help ease the cost of living. Rishi Sunak was speaking as energy companies continue to benefit from rocketing prices, helped by an increase in demand as the world emerges from

Chelsea FC is close to unveiling a £20m-a-year sponsorship deal with a fast-growing cryptocurrency group – despite a temporary ban on the club striking lucrative new partnerships while it operates under government supervision. Sky News can reveal that the Blues have agreed a shirt-sleeve contract with WhaleFin, a digital asset platform owned by Singapore-based Amber

The chief executive of TUI has said that 2022 will be a “good financial year” and also promised that the company has stopped cutting jobs. Fritz Joussen was speaking after the travel firm reported a strong recovery in customer demand for the summer, more than halving its losses for the past six months. He also

Billionaire Elon Musk, who is set to buy Twitter, has said he would reverse the platform’s “foolish” ban on former US president Donald Trump if his acquisition goes through. The tech tycoon said: “Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots or spam, scam accounts. I do think it

The soaring cost of living has seen consumers “put the brakes” on their shopping habits, new figures show. The latest retail monitoring from BRC-KPMG revealed sales dipped in April after a sharp downturn in consumer confidence. And separate figures from Barclaycard showed credit card spending on retail and eating out slowed last month as people

Cryptocurrencies and US tech stocks were taking a hammering on Monday night amid a continuing flight from risk as a toxic cocktail of worries for the global economy grip investors. Values for so-called growth assets have been falling particularly sharply since the day after the US Central Bank raised interest rates last week by 0.5%

The boss of a major Scottish energy company has called for “urgent action” to help the poorest households with energy bills, warning of another £900 increase this winter. Keith Anderson, who leads ScottishPower, called for ten million families to receive bill discounts of £1,000. The energy price cap rose by 54% in April, taking the

Morrisons has tabled a last-gasp bid to wrest McColl’s Retail Group from the clutches of its Asda-owning rivals just hours before administrators are formally appointed to oversee its sale. Sky News can reveal that Morrisons has lodged an improved offer with McColl’s lenders that would see them repaid immediately in full, satisfying their principal demand.

Plans to revive struggling town centres will form a key part of the Queen’s Speech next week as the prime minister tries to move on after his party’s poor local election performance. Boris Johnson will say on Tuesday that he wants to rid high streets of derelict shopfronts and restore “neighbourhood pride”, with councils given

Two companies behind large swathes of London’s West End are in advanced talks about a £3.5bn merger that would unite world-famous tourist destinations, including Covent Garden and Chinatown under common ownership. Sky News has learnt that Capital & Counties Properties – also known as Capco – and Shaftesbury are in detailed discussions about an all-share

A consortium led by LA Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly and backed by Clearlake Capital has signed a purchase agreement to buy Chelsea Football Club. Chelsea confirmed that terms had been agreed for the new ownership group led by Mr Boehly, Clearlake Capital, Mark Walter and Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss to acquire the club in a

The billionaire brothers behind one of Britain’s biggest fuel retailing empires are close to sealing a last-ditch swoop on McColl’s Retail Group that could lead to thousands of job losses. Sky News has learnt that EG Group was putting the finishing touches on Friday to a takeover of McColl’s through a pre-pack administration that would

Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, has been warned it must do more to help struggling pork producers or risk “the destruction of the UK pig sector”. The chairman of the National Pig Association (NPA) Rob Mutimer used an open letter to the Tesco boss Ken Murphy to argue that the company was uniquely positioned,

McColl’s Retail Group, one of Britain’s biggest convenience store chains, is on the brink of collapse, putting thousands of high street jobs at risk. Sky News has learnt that McColl’s, which has an extensive national partnership with the supermarket giant Morrisons, could call in administrators as early as Friday. The company’s imminent collapse is expected

The Bank of England is expected to increase its base interest rate to the highest level in 13 years in a bid to tackle inflation. It is predicted to rise to 1% amid soaring food, energy and fuel prices that saw inflation hit a 30-year high of 7% in March. The base rate is the