#conglomerate

#conglomerate

Eight of the ten clubs in the top half of the Premier League table are owned by Americans. In the Championship, four of the eight clubs battling for promotion are U.S.-owned, including the Ryan Reynolds-Rob McElhenney Wrexham project.

UK businesses face some of the highest electricity costs in Europe, a situation that has worsened following the recent surge in global gas prices linked to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

English has quietly become the default working language in multinational companies, impacting communication and career advancement for non-native speakers.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took the unprecedented step of designating a U.S. firm-Anthropic-as a supply chain risk. Anthropic's crime? It refused to violate industry-wide protocols against using AI for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons. Hegseth's designation, which has until now been reserved for foreign firms, bars U.S. military contractors from doing business with the company.

The ETF holds 50 positions, but the top two dominate in a way that makes the rest almost incidental. Johnson & Johnson carries a 25.4% weight, and Eli Lilly and Company sits at 21.4%. Together they account for roughly 46.8% of the entire fund.

Rather than stolen data making headlines, it was business stoppage that triggered attention. Moving into 2026, the board's focus should be on ensuring business continuity and building resilience in the face of emerging risks generated by AI usage and attack vectors, quantum computing and geopolitics.

CEOs are struggling to find their footing these days. Their role seemed clearer during Covid, when many executives rose to the challenge of becoming inspirational figures. They led their businesses while guiding their employees through a challenging shared experience. That was the case as well for many U.S. CEOs in 2020 when George Floyd's murder shocked the nation, and employees looked to their leaders for guidance and assurance.

You have probably heard about voluntary carbon offset-if not from elsewhere, from buying plane tickets, where, after you have paid for the ticket, the tax, the seats, maybe the luggage fee, and the priority boarding, you have an option to also pay to offset your carbon footprint. Companies get to do this, too, and, unlike you, they get to brag about it.

As we enter 2026, is gearing up to release our fourth edition of the Fortune 500 Europe list, celebrating the region's most successful companies through the framework of one of business's best-known accolades. To truly understand these companies, we are embarking on a program of webinar masterclasses, executive interviews and strategy deep-dives, leading up to an exclusive London event for CEOs in September.

Silicon Motion Technology ( NASDAQ:SIMO) is a Hong Kong semiconductor firm that specializes in NAND flash controllers. These memory storage solutions are critical for the AI buildout, and investors have started to pick up on it. The company's stock has more than doubled over the past year and is up by more than 20% to start the year. Revenue increased by 14% year-over-year in Q3 2025, and most of the growth was driven by AI infrastructure.

Companies are under attack publicly and privately for policies viewed as "too progressive" or "woke." The reality, however, is that most companies have strongly reaffirmed their sustainability commitments but less so their DEI commitments. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) works in the grey area between the two. Many affirming companies have opted for "greenhushing," staying quiet about their strategies and leadership.

Companies enter new markets with momentum. Press coverage looks promising. Campaigns launch on schedule. Local teams are hired. Early dashboards suggest traction. Then progress slows. Customer interest plateaus. Partnerships take longer than expected. Internally, the conversation almost always turns to execution. Messaging must not be clear enough. The market probably needs more education. What I have learned is that this conclusion is usually wrong. What looks like market resistance is more often a signal that the brand is communicating from the wrong position.

Business Insider teamed up with Plant-A Insights, a leading insights and technology company that publishes business rankings in cooperation with world-class media brands, to find the 300 top management consulting firms in America. The list includes giants of the industry as well as a slew of more specialized and boutique firms. The list is based on a large-scale survey of around 25,000 professionals who have worked with consulting firms, who evaluated them on factors like industry and practice area expertise, as well as client satisfaction.

Small details often shape how people view a business, and one unexpected fall inside a store or office can quickly shift that perception. Many companies overlook the idea that a single misstep can lead to serious injuries, financial stress and long term reputational issues. While organisations spend resources on branding, client retention and digital visibility, they sometimes ignore basic safety features that protect customers and employees.

New analysis published today (6 February 2026) reveals a structural issue that is eroding valuations, limiting exits, and trapping founders in their businesses, with around 80% of UK private companies failing to sell. The White Paper, The Owner Dependence Problem in UK SME Businesses, published by Exit Factor, highlights how excessive reliance on founders is undermining business value across the UK SME sector. The White Paper analyses businesses with annual revenues between £3m and £30m and demonstrates how owner dependence materially restricts strategic options for owners.

As we kick off 2026, activist investor campaigns are no longer just prevalent; they are global, sophisticated, and have increasingly become an acute threat to corporate leadership. The escalating pressure is undeniable: Barclays data shows that activist investor campaigns hit a high last year - surpassing 2024 by 5% - with 32 CEOs resigning as a result (a record) - and showing no signs of slowing down.