Market Loop - Growing speculation over BT takeover

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24th August 2022

Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond

Good morning Does crime pay? According to the Minions movie franchise it does but that's a message China doesn't want to spread. Chinese authorities changed the ending of the Minions prequel for its domestic release by showing that the main character in the heist film didn't live happily ever after but instead was caught by police and served 20 years in jail.

Today's stories

Growing speculation over BT takeover
Apple workers revolt over return to office order

TELECOMS
Growing speculation over BT takeover

What happened?
Yesterday the government announced that it would not force French billionaire Patrick Drahi to sell his 18% stake in BT after concluding it was not a national security threat.

How did we get here?
In June 2021 Drahi bought a 12% stake in BT worth £2bn, becoming the telecom company’s largest shareholder. Six months later he increased the position to 18%, prompting speculation that BT could be bought out completely.

The government has new powers to scrutinise takeovers
In January this year new legislation came into force that means the government can examine, caveat or block the takeover of key national assets like BT on security grounds.

In May the business department launched a review into Drahi’s shareholding but concluded that there was no threat. This could pave the way for a 100% takeover of Britain’s biggest broadband and mobile network provider.

What’s behind the move?
Drahi said he believes BT has a compelling opportunity to deliver the expansion full-fibre broadband throughout the UK. BT is planning to invest billions in getting full-fibre broadband connections to 20m homes by 2026.

Who is Patrick Drahi?
He’s quite the globetrotter holding French, Moroccan, Portuguese and Israeli citizenship and now lives in Switzerland. He founded French media and telecoms giant Altice over 20 years ago and has made investments in telecoms businesses in the US, Portugal and Israel. He has a keen interest in art, owning works by Picasso, Matisse as well as the auction house Sotheby’s. Forbes estimates his net worth at over $7bn.

Other stories to keep you in the loop

Revised figures show UK economy shrunk by 11% in 2020, worst since 1709
Energy bills: Half of UK households face fuel poverty, EDF warns
National Grid doubles emergency planning exercises amid concerns over energy supplies
Gatwick cancels 26 flights after hailing return to ‘business as usual’
Ford to cut 3,000 jobs amid pivot to electric vehicles

TECH
Apple workers revolt over return to office order

What happened?
Apple employees have launched a petition to push back against the company’s rapidly approaching return-to-office deadline.

The petition is a direct response to an internal memo CEO Tim Cook sent all Apple employees last week, declaring that workers would have to report to the office at least three days a week beginning in early September. According to Cook’s memo, the hybrid plan will enhance employees’ ability to “work flexibly.”

But some Apple employees are unconvinced. Posted by a group of Apple workers known as Apple Together, the petition criticises Cook’s plan for not considering unique job demands or employee diversity. The group wants employees instead be able to work with their immediate managers to develop flexible arrangements. More than 10,000 Apple employees have reportedly joined a company Slack group called “Remote Work Advocacy.”

At least one senior employee has resigned because of Apple’s stance. Apple’s director of machine learning told staff in May that he was moving to Google partly because of the more flexible working arrangements.

Zooming out: Other tech companies have taken varying approaches to the workplace conundrum post-pandemic. Last year, Spotify rolled out a self-explanatory “Work from Anywhere” policy. Earlier this summer, Elon Musk famously told Tesla workers they would be fired if they didn’t turn up to the office, Google rolled out a hybrid working approach similar to the one Apple has proposed, and Meta has embraced the work from anywhere philosophy, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg who has spent months at his Hawaii compound.

Stat of the day

The average cost of raising a child to age 18 is £202,660 in the UK

Interesting links from around the web

4 common investing myths
How layoffs shed their taboo
17 mistakes tourists make when visiting New York

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Market Loop - Growing speculation over BT takeover

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