Business

When Elon Musk declared on 4 April that he had become the biggest single shareholder in Twitter there was much head scratching as to why the Tesla chief executive had taken his 9.2% stake. Some commentators assumed he was just having a bit of fun. A few days earlier, he had run a Twitter poll,

Billionaire Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $41.39bn, a regulatory filing showed. The Tesla CEO’s offer price of $54.20 per share represents a 38% premium to the closing price of Twitter’s stock on 1 April, the last trading day before his investment of over 9% in the company was publicly announced. It comes

A Californian investment firm would become the largest shareholder in Chelsea FC if a consortium spearheaded by a part-owner of the LA Dodgers baseball team wins the battle to buy the Stamford Bridge club. Sky News has learnt that Clearlake Capital would own at least 50% of Chelsea’s shares under a bid proposal to be

A court in Jersey has frozen $7bn (£5.4bn) in assets linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. The assets being targeted are either located in Jersey, or owned by Jersey-incorporated entities, the Law Offices Department of Jersey said. Police searched addresses suspected of being connected to Mr Abramavich‘s business activities on Tuesday. The island of Jersey

A second P&O ferry has been further detained by the authorities in as many days following a failed inspection, likely scuppering the scandal-hit company’s plans to run a service between Dover and Calais from Easter. It emerged earlier on Wednesday that the Pride of Kent – first detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)

P&O Ferries’ hopes of resuming cross-Channel services between Dover and Calais later this week appear to have suffered a big blow after the Spirit of Britain was further detained, according to the French authorities. The company, universally condemned for its treatment of almost 800 seafarers who were sacked without notice last month, had planned for

The annual rate of inflation shot up to a fresh 30-year high of 7% in March reflecting, for the first time, the immediate effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The largest contributors to growing inflation were increased fuel prices and energy bills, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The consumer prices index (CPI)

Wage growth in the UK struggled to keep up with increasing inflation between December 2021 and February 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Average weekly pay packets across Britain fell in December by 1%, reflecting how wages are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. Regular wages, excluding bonuses,

Prices have increased faster over the past 12 months than at any time in the previous 30 years, putting pressure on already stretched household budgets. The latest increases have been driven by rising household energy and fuel costs. But how much has your individual spending gone up in the past five years? Use our new

Ukraine’s finance minister has told Sky News that Russia should be made to pay post-war reparations to his country once the conflict between the two has ended. In an exclusive interview, Sergii Marchenko said there was an expectation among Ukrainians that Russia should pay for its aggression, highlighting a variety of ways in which money

The chairman of the world’s richest basketball league has joined one of the consortia preparing to table final takeover bids for Chelsea Football Club this week. Sky News has learnt that Larry Tanenbaum, who chairs the National Basketball Association (NBA) and owns a host of North American sports teams, is among the investors backing Steve

Elon Musk has decided not to join the Twitter board, despite becoming the company’s single biggest shareholder. The social media giant’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, said the Tesla and SpaceX founder relayed his decision on the very morning he had been due to be officially appointed. “Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open

One of Britain’s top boardroom headhunters is to oversee the search for a new chairman of the Premier League as a recruitment process gathers pace five months after the role’s last incumbent resigned. Sky News has learnt that MWM Consulting, which was set up by the veteran search consultant Anna Mann, has been charged with

Three multimillionaire businessmen have docked and entered the International Space Station in what has been hailed as a milestone for commercial space exploration. Alongside a retired NASA astronaut, the men launched from Florida on Friday as part of a private SpaceX launch. The four men were welcomed onboard the ISS on Saturday by the crew

The owner of the Cannes Lions global advertising festival is plotting a £1.5bn break-up that would see part of the company shift its stock market listing across the Atlantic to New York. Sky News has learnt that Ascential, which has a market capitalisation of £1.49bn, is working with investment bankers on plans to demerge its

Marine Le Pen is closing the gap on Emmanuel Macron in the opinion polls – and investors are getting nervous ahead of this weekend’s first round of voting in the French presidential elections. For months it has seemed that Mr Macron, who cruised to victory five years ago at the head of his newly-formed La

The owners of TalkTalk, one of Britain’s biggest broadband providers, have received tentative approaches about a possible £3bn sale of the company amid a frenzy of international telecoms industry consolidation. Sky News has learnt that Vodafone has been weighing whether to make a potential offer for TalkTalk in recent weeks. Sky, the Comcast-owned immediate parent

Energy bills might be rising but the standard of customer service at some suppliers is going in the other direction, according to Citizens Advice. The charity’s energy watchdog found that customer service is at its worst since 2017, with the highest score for customer service at just 3.85 out of five compared to 3.95 in

Boris Johnson has pledged to “do more” to help people with the rising cost of living after Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng admitted the government’s energy security strategy is “more of a medium three, four, five year answer”. Speaking to broadcasters from Hinkley Point C ahead of the release of the energy plan later today, the

Part of National Grid will be returned to public ownership under a new plan to help Britain reach its climate targets. The utility company will sell its Electricity System Operator (ESO) arm to the government and will then become part of a new Future System Operator (FSO). The new authority will oversee Britain’s electricity systems