Law and business news round-up: Google, music sales, rogue trader, ARM deal

Here we are on another Super Thursday (ie, when several key economic announcements are made on the same day) and everyone is watching the Bank of England nervously to see if it will drop interest rates – the first time since 2009. Watch it unfold live here. In other business news:

• Google’s parent company Alphabet was delighted to announce a 21% second-quarter revenue increase, amounting to $21.5 billion.
• Nostalgia has driven up sales of the back catalogues of Prince and Bowie, in turn hailing a return to online sales of physical entertainment products, such as DVDs and CDs, which were being usurped by downloads and streaming.
• The dream slips further away than ever for many; figures show that levels of home ownership are at the lowest point for 30 years, as gap between earnings and prices increases.
• Former UBS employee Kweku Adoboli, dubbed the “rogue trader”, has warned that the culture of profits “no matter what” in the banking sector still exists and could lead to similar crimes being committeed.
• Following the £24 billion takeover of British microchip manufacturer ARM by Japanese Softbank, the bank has pledged to stay in the United Kingdom for at least five years and to double employee numbers.
   

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