Law and business: commercial news round-up 16.05.14
updated on 16 May 2014
With the glorious sunshine of mid-May comes the gloomy oppression of exams. Take a short study break to read our weekly digest of interesting business news stories, helping you to become not just a proficient exam-taker, but also a commercially-minded, lawyer in the making:
- Is the United Kingdom a billionaires’ playground and if so, why? (Favourable tax regime, perhaps – see Gary’s tale below.) There are more billionaires per capita living here than anywhere else in the world.
- The Pfizer bid to buy AstraZenca continues to be big news, with the US company having to defend its position and its CEO facing a grilling by politicians.
- Gary Barlow and his Take That chums are the latest celebs to have been revealed as having avoided paying millions in tax. Which takes us to that age-old question; what’s the difference between avoidance and evasion?
- Bank of England upgrades its growth forecast for next year – yay! – but that could mean rising interest rates – boo.
- Carphone Warehouse and Dixons merge to become Dixons Carphone (is the carphone still a thing?) in a £3.8 billion "merger of equals".
- Ofgem hands out its biggest penalty ever to E.On for its mis-selling of products to customers. The energy giant will have to repay customers to the tune of £12 million.
Be sure to check the LC.N Says section every Friday afternoon for this weekly commercial news round-up, produced by LawCareers.Net editor Isla Grant.
Follow @LawCareersNetUK and @CityLawLIVE on Twitter for instant business news updates.
