TMT and digital analyst+investor. Rural life up North, with a bit of globetrotting. Musings on Biz, TMT, markets. Personal views
Europe
Joined November 2017
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Investor + analyst. M&A advisory. 25 years prof experience. Focussed mainly -but not exclusively- on Tech, Media, Internet sectors. Based in UK. Sharing content from pods, blogs and investment research on all asset classes, some of which I produce. Mainly business-related. DYOR.
Alex retweeted
More than third of post offices in TG Jones (formerly WH Smith) stores to shut by early 2027
WH Smith was bought by private equity, shut-down shops.
Many towns/districts are without a bank branch or a post office.
Cuts footfall, bad news for traders.
theguardian.com/business/202…
Alex retweeted
Elon Musk reportedly invests about $1 billion in Skydance cnbc.com/2026/10/22/elon-mus…
Alex retweeted
Reports suggest that the government is considering extending the TV licence fee to cover streaming sites like Netflix and YouTube, with the money raised used to support local journalism and countering misinformation
70% of Britons oppose extending the TV licence fee to cover streaming services in general; 65% still oppose doing so if the money is used as described
CNN - times are changin. Its now part of the media conglomerate Skydance that is run by David Ellison, with heavy backing from Larry Ellison, Oracle co-founder
Big hitter. Hard not to link her exit with new ownership, viewed skeptically by some CNN journalists because of perceived closeness to Trump administration🏴
Alex retweeted
It is an extraordinary failure that the BBC has the resources to do genuine public interest journalism that is much less viable commercially (from foreign correspondents to long-form local reporting) but instead we get relentless lowest common denominator nonsense
GTA 6: Can you cheat on someone with a video game character? bbc.in/4egQBjw
>> Under the proposed changes, the licence fee would expand to streamers including Amazon and Disney+, which are currently exempt from the licence fee <<
BBC licence fee has not been fit for purpose for some time, particularly with mass adoption of streaming. But this proposed law change will be hotly contested
Alex retweeted
One of the issues the UK government will have to contend with if it raises the Bank Levy is how much of a target will this make the UK banks for takeover.
UK Banks are already trading at a blended valuation discount to US and Eurozone banks based, in part, because of concern the the upside is capped (it is notable that prior to the Bank Levy in 2011 this wasn't the case).
That makes taking the underlying banking entity and reallocating its balance sheet towards alternative markets an attractive M&A proposition. Foreign suitors may judge that the NSI Act provides cover for a UK government block, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a bid forthcoming to test that view....
Healey signals Budget bank tax raid ft.trib.al/Ltxu2A2
27.1 %return - net of investment expenses - on endowment assets during 2026, more than double the 11.9 % realized in the prior year 😳 : Some performance
The average performance of college and university endowments for the year, was 15.5 %
Good post by the NUJ re Radio4 programme closures
The decision to close You and Yours should be reversed 🚩
BBC News Chief Warns Of Need To “Urgently” Win Over TikTok Generation deadline.com/2026/10/bbc-new… via @Deadline
BBCs obsession with youth audiences is misguided, particularly in news 😳
cnbc.com/amp/2026/10/09/nasd…
>> institutional interest in tokenization has grown over the past year, partly off the Genius Act in the U.S., which established the regulatory framework for stablecoins <<
Alex retweeted
BBC faces losing its best talent as cuts bite: 'Voluntary redundancy means the wrong people leave' inews.co.uk/news/bbc-losing-… @theipaper
