London Stock Exchange merger, Premier League transfers, Shell and BP, UK fishing, Amazon, BBC, Google and Ford, Gamestop: your commercial news round-up

There are some big names in this week’s round-up and plenty more commercial news to be aware of than just these short snippets. It’s down to you to broaden your knowledge of the latest news, trends, and updates affecting the legal profession and the business world. LawCareers.Net’s commercial round-ups are a good place to start to find a story that interests you but don’t forget to do your wider reading. For now, here’s this week’s round-up:

• The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has merged with data firm Refinitiv in a deal worth £20 billion, creating a company that will rival the likes of Bloomberg and S&P Global. As part of the acquisition, the LSE will also take on Refinitiv’s £9 billion net debt and the investors involved in selling the data provider will receive a 37% stake.

• In football’s Premier League, January transfer window spending was at its lowest amount since 2012, as clubs spent just £70 million following the impact of the pandemic on club finances and the end of the Brexit transition period, according to a report from professional services firm Deloitte. Last year, the January transfer window saw Premier League clubs spend a total of £230 million, while an average of 46 transfers were made in January across the past three seasons. This year, there were just 24. The report said that the loss in revenue could “act as the catalyst in creating a shift in how clubs approach the transfer market over the next few seasons”.

• Oil giants Shell and BP have reported losses of £14.4 billion and £13 billion respectively for 2020, as energy demand plummeted, along with oil and gas prices, in response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to Sky News. Prices have started to rise following the roll-out of the covid-19 vaccines with demand expected to continue to increase in 2021, BP has said.

• A permanent ban will prevent UK fishermen from selling certain types of shellfish to the EU, including oysters, mussels and clams because they do not satisfy the bloc’s safety standards (ie, coming from unpolluted waters or being purified before being sold), CITY A.M reported. With British fishermen producing more than 25,000 tonnes of mussels each year, and around two-thirds being sold to the EU, the ban is likely to put many British businesses at risk of collapse. Speaking to The Times, UK shellfish exporter Rob Benson said: “We can’t change our business model and at the moment we’ve got nowhere to send our produce too.”

• Jeff Bezos has stepped down as chief executive of Amazon and will be replaced by Andy Jassy from the second half of 2021. Bezos will become executive chair of the e-commerce company, with plans to focus his energy on other ventures, including the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin and The Washington Post.

• The BBC is expecting to make cuts to programmes and services following a reduction in funding and increased pressure from other streaming rivals. Around £408 million worth of content cuts could be made in the upcoming financial year, despite previous programming cuts including the loss of Formula 1 broadcast rights and The Great British Bake off to Channel 4. Around 800 regional and news unit jobs will also be cut. The BBC revealed that it is on course to save £958 million in cost savings by March 2022.

• A new six-year partnership between Ford and Google will see millions of Ford and Lincoln-branded vehicles powered by an Android operating system starting in 2023. Team Upshift, the collaborative group that will be established as part of the partnership, will work on creating new consumer experiences and services that will be powered by the Android Automotive operating system, according to Tech Crunch. David McClelland, the vice president of strategy and partnerships at Ford, said that the “relationship between Google and Ford will establish an innovation powerhouse” and it “will accelerate the modernization of our business at Ford, and most importantly, it will let us exceed our customers’ expectations.”

• Shares in US video-game store GameStop have plummeted by 65% in early trading on Wall Street, according to the Guardian. This slump in shares came after a number of hedge funds bet on the struggling company to lose value, which prompted Reddit forum users to purchase shares in GameStop, increasing demand and forcing the hedge funds to buy their shares back at a higher price. The so-called ‘trading mania’ since lost momentum and resulted in a fall in shares. Shares in GameStop reached a high of $482 last Thursday, before falling to $80 once the market had opened. According to the Guardian, by mid-session its shares had recovered slightly to $117 but fell 60% from the day’s opening price to $90. For more insight into what happened with GameStop, read this BBC article.

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