The new centre of the tech world?
Meta bosses move to London + Glasgow loses Batgirl + Fantasy Premier League
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Two senior executives at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, are moving to London. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, will make London his permanent base and look to build Meta’s team at its offices in King’s Cross. Sir Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs at Meta, who is pictured above, plans to split his time between London and Silicon Valley. The Financial Times broke the news of the moves.
This is a big deal for a few reasons. It suggests that Meta thinks London is a strong base for Instagram to compete with TikTok from, it confirms that Meta is one of the leading proponents of remote working (at least among its senior team)and, perhaps most importantly, it just looks great for the London and UK tech scene. Don’t underestimate the influence of high-profile moves like this. Even if there are personal reasons behind the move (New York-born Mosseri has apparently been keen to move to London for some time, Clegg has spoken of how much he misses Europe while living in California) it suggests that Meta and Mark Zuckerberg are comfortable with the idea of senior executives being in London and the UK. That will be noticed by other companies and investors.
Amid the concern about the outlook for the economy and the uncertainty surrounding the government, this is a reminder that the UK tech scene is in a promising place. Even if this Meta story is focused on London, which is now well-established as the leading European tech hub, investment in the UK’s capital will spread across the country. Research published in June during London Tech Week showed that UK tech companies and start-ups raised £12.4 billion in funding in the first few months of 2022, behind only the US and ahead of China. The report from Dealroom and the UK’s Digital Economy Council also found the UK had 122 unicorns (a business with a valuation of more than $1 billion) with more than 20 cities and towns having one of these businesses. Bristol, Oxford and Manchester are among the cities alongside London that have done well this year.
Obviously the squeeze on financial markets and tech valuations in recent months has put start-ups and venture capital funds under pressure. But the arrival of Mosseri and Clegg is a different sort of validation of the UK tech scene to investment numbers, it is the arrival of expertise, skills and influence. It also reminds me about this excellent Bloomberg piece on how King’s Cross could replace the City as the most influential financial hub in London…
Glasgow to miss Batgirl boost…
Warner Bros has described to scrap its Batgirl film despite around $90 million being spent on filming it. The film will never be shown in the cinema or on TV. The decision by Warner Bros, which was sold by AT&T and merged with Discovery to become Warner Bros Discovery last year, means the film is likely to go down in Hollywood as one of the most expensive flops ever. Leslie Grace played Batgirl in the film, with Michael Keaton, Brendan Fraser and JK Simmons also among the cast.
The move suggests that executives at Warner Bros Discovery have no issue overcoming the sunk-cost fallacy, a flaw in human decision-making that means we are reluctant to stop something we should because we have invested so much money, time or love in it already. It is also a blow to Glasgow, where most of the film was shot and where people were looking forward to their local streets being on the big screen….
A chart that helps you understand the world…
The online furniture retailer Made.com has had a terrible run since floating last year and this week its share price has dipped below 10p a share, valuing the company at less than £40 million and more than 95 per cent down on the 200p-a-share that it floated at. Made.com issued a profit warning on July 19, saying that sales were down 19 per cent amid worsening consumer confidence and concerns about inflation. It also said then that management were “considering options to allow the company to strengthen its balance sheet” - a rights issue, for instance - but nothing has been announced yet. Shares in the company fell more than a third that day and have continued their slide since.
Made.com was founded in 2010 by Ning Li, Chloe Macintosh, Julien Callede and serial tech entrepreneur Brent Hoberman. Its chairwoman is Susanne Given, the former chief operating officer at Superdry, while chief financial officer Patrick Lewis only joined on June 27 after leaving the same role at the John Lewis Partnership (he is the great-grandson of the founder).
You should also read this…
A follow-up to our interview with Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands, on Friday (you can read that here). Street said then that he was still considering whether to back Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak after asking them to make a series of commitments to the West Midlands. Well, he has backed Truss (Express & Star)
Brilliant piece from Sathnam Sanghera in The Times about how mixing with middle and upper-class kids while he was growing up in Wolverhampton helped him learn about the world (The Times)
Useful round-up of what the CEOs of big US and UK companies have been saying on calls with analysts and investors during the recent rush of results. Important because some are saying that they think the peak of inflation is close (or that it has already passed) and that demand from consumers is holding up well (The Transcript)
A summary of the latest developments in the electric vehicle industry in the UK, including electricians needing new training to install charging points and Shell putting up charging prices (The Fast Charge)
Another extraordinary story from the NFL, where billionaire property investor and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has been banned and fined for trying to poach Tom Brady while he was under-contract with the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Wall Street Journal)
There aren’t enough women in the venture capital world right now, with diversity remaining an issue. However, here is a collection of women who have been promoted or hired to new roles in Europe this year (Sifted)
The latest monthly report on bitcoin from Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest is bullish on cryptocurrencies, saying contagion “appears to be contained” after the collapse of Celsius and Three Arrows Capital, and that leverage “appears to be unwinding” (Ark Invest)
Interesting piece on Llanelli’s struggles to grow the local economy after the demise of key industries hit the Welsh town and made it one of the poorest areas in the UK. Some new businesses are emerging, like the craft beer brewery Tinworks, and the council is buying up empty units in the town centre to try to lead a regeneration (BusinessLive)
And finally…
Ahead of the start of the new Premier League season on Friday I have set up an Off to Lunch fantasy mini-league for those who want to play and compare scores. Please join! It is free to enter and a bit of fun for this season. The link to join is here.
For those looking for Fantasy Premier League help and analysis for the new season, please do check out Off to Lunch’s sister publication Fantasy Gameweek. You can sign-up here to get help on how to compete in your mini-league straight into your inbox. Here is a round-up of some of the pre-season pieces we have done:
Why ZeroForward is a strategy you should consider
The 50 most interesting FPL players
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Best
Graham