Peppa Pig company loses $54m

Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One has posted a $54.65 million loss – days before shareholders vote on a Hasbro takeover offer of $4 billion cash. The first-quarter loss was up from $8.4 million year-on-year, with revenue falling 7 percent to $215 million and EBITDA down from $21.5 million to $16.7 million. 

The media company, which started life in 1970 as a Canadian music tape distributor called Records On Wheels, blamed the loss on higher debt due to its acquisition of Audio Network. Shareholders will vote next Thursday on the Hasbro offer, which sent shares up by 31 percent.  

 

Royal Mint launches solid-gold debit card 

The UK's Royal Mint has produced its first payment card – made of 18-carat gold and costing at least $23,400. The Mint, established in the year 886 by King Alfred the Great, has produced the card in conjunction with Mastercard and payments tech provider Accomplish. 

The cards will be engraved with the customer's name and signature, and can be personalized with other details for an extra charge. The good news is there are no special criteria account holders must meet ... except the ability and desire to pay $23,400 for a debit card.

 

SAP CEO steps down

Europe's leading enterprise software company will have two new leaders, after Bill McDermott stood down as the CEO of German multinational SAP. Co-CEOs Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein will now lead the company as it attempts to complete its transition to cloud-based computing. 

During his decade in charge, New Yorker McDermott, now 58, struck a series of multi-billion-dollar deals to build SAP into Europe's leading technology group. However, he was accused of losing SAP's focus through acquisitions such as last year's $8 billion purchase of customer relationship platform Qualtrics. 

 

Pound surges on Brexit hope

The British pound has hit a three-week high of $1.25 as markets were boosted by optimism over Brexit negotiations. Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Irish leader Leo Varadkar yesterday for long discussions about the Northern Ireland border problem. 

European Council president Donald Tusk said Varadkar has sent "optimistic messages" and "promising signals" that a deal was possible, while Brussels sources suggest Britain is preparing a "pared-down free-trade agreement" to get a deal done before the end of October. Sterling rose 1.97 percent against the dollar on Thursday, the most in seven months. 

 

Facebook UK pays $35m tax on $2bn sales

Facebook's UK operations attracted a record $2.06 billion in sales last year, yet paid just $35 million in tax. Gross income from advertisers rose nearly 30 percent, with pre-tax profits surging by more than half, from $78 million to $121 million. Net revenue from advertisers rose 50 percent to $996 million. 

The low tax return was revealed a day after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) proposed a global restructuring of taxation rules to cut down on legalized tax avoidance.