Category: News

Skype might have to shut down because of a dispute over the core technology used to make the internet telephone system work.

EBay, which paid $2.6 billion (£1.6 billion) for the voice-over-the-internet system in 2005, is facing a court battle with the original founders of the company who retained the rights to the technology at the heart of the system.

A war of words has erupted between clockwork radio inventor Trevor Baylis and James Caan, one of the multimillionaires who fronts BBC2’s Dragon’s Den.

Mr Baylis claimed that the programme was tantamount to “a virtual freak show” that “mocks, bullies and demeans” people like him and “takes pleasure in turning inventors into a laughing stock”.

Alistair Darling has this afternoon demanded to know from the heads of Britain’s biggest banks why they are reaping vast interest charges from small businesses when the cost of borrowing to them is so low.

The Chancellor summoned to Downing Street the chairmen and chief executives of HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Next year’s series of The Apprentice may have to be rescheduled if a general election is called, after the BBC Trust ruled that presenter Lord Sugar’s new role as government “enterprise champion” posed a “greater than normal risk to the impartiality, integrity and independence of the BBC”.

The star of TV’s The Apprentice, now named Baron Sugar of Clapton, was formerly introduced to his fellow peers on Monday afternoon. Flanked by trade minister Lord Davies and business minister Shriti Vadera, Baron Sugar stood in the House of Lords chamber dressed in a traditional ermine gown.

Over 400 business leaders and guests attended The National Business Awards Regional Programme, sponsored by Orange, in London on Tuesday 14th July, to celebrate the success of South of England’s most innovative, ethical and successful businesses.

Nine organisations were duly rewarded including London-based Clearlybusiness, a Barclays company, triumphed with The Orange Best Use of Technology in Business Award for the operational and financial success of its software services for small UK businesses. Octopus Investments, the leading London investment company, won the prestigious Grant Thornton Business of the Year Award.

Some franchisees of the off-licence chain Threshers are suffering a stock crisis and are furious about how its private equity-owned parent, First Quench Group, is running the operation.

The 62-year-old, who was appointed the Government’s Enterprise Tsar earlier this month, is embroiled in a legal battle with a senior female executive at one of his flagship companies.

The Conservative Party is lodging an official complaint with the BBC Trust about Sir Alan Sugar continuing to work on The Apprentice while a government advisor, after appeals to director-general Mark Thompson were rebuffed.

Britain may have come out of recession more than two months ago, a leading economic think tank has suggested.

Restaurant owner Yasmina Siadatan has won a coveted job with Sir Alan Sugar in the final of The Apprentice, the reality television show in which contenders vie for a £100,000 job with the business tycoon.

With many people now calling for a General Election, research conducted by Business Scene, the online business event community, found that 82% of SME business owners believe the Government could and should have done more to help SMEs in this recession. However when asked if a change in Government would make a difference, a third of SME business owners answered ‘yes’, with 29% saying ‘maybe’, but 30% believe the situation would be the same if the Conservatives were in power.

Sir Alan Sugar will take up a job as “Enterprise Tsar’ in Gordon Brown’s Government, paving the way for a peerage for the British entrepreneur.

The Apprentice final has been moved from its regular weekday slot to Sunday evening.

The conclusion of series five will air on Sunday, June 7 at 9pm on BBC One.

The new timeslot means that Sir Alan Sugar’s show will not clash with ITV’s coverage of an England World Cup qualifier with Andorra.

The BBC has confirmed that it is to launch a junior version of hit business reality show The Apprentice, in which Sir Alan Sugar will get to point his finger and tell 16- and 17-year-olds “You’re fired!”

Junior Apprentice, which will air next year as a five-part BBC1 series, will feature 10 candidates and follow the same format as the main show, although some adjustments will be made to take account of the age of those taking part.