Business

For most people, price hikes at the petrol pump and supermarket checkout have not been matched by proportionate salary rises. Inflation is expected to outpace pay growth until the end of 2023, according to official government forecasts. But in a few jobs, wages are keeping up with the cost of living. Sky News analysis of

Retail sales plunged by 1.4% last month – far more than expected – as consumers tightened their belts in the face of the squeeze in living costs, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the decline was largely driven by a drop in demand for online purchases and pointed to dented

Elon Musk has secured the financing for his takeover bid of Twitter, including £16.1bn of his own fortune, according to a new regulatory filing on Thursday. The remainder of the funding, amounting to more than £19.5bn, will be provided through two debt commitment letters offering a series of loans from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding. Twitter

Sir Lewis Hamilton and Serena Williams, two of the world’s biggest sports stars, are committing millions of pounds to one of the bids vying to become the new owners of Chelsea Football Club. Sky News can exclusively reveal the full line-up of investors backing the takeover offer for Chelsea spearheaded by Sir Martin Broughton, the

The billionaire backers of the Boston Celtics and Toronto Maple Leafs have committed to “lifetime ownership” of Chelsea Football Club if they triumph in the £2.5bn auction of the Premier League side. Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Steve Pagliuca and Larry Tanenbaum said they and their families wanted to make “a long-term commitment” to preserving

Streaming titan Netflix lost subscribers in the first three months of this year after years of explosive growth, sending the company’s shares plummeting. After losing 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter, Netflix indicated in its financial results that it could shed a further two million members in the second quarter of this year. The company

Netflix has hinted it could crack down on password sharing after losing 300,000 subscribers in the first three months of the year. This is the first time Netflix has reported a loss in subscribers in more than a decade, with the company warning another two million subscribers could leave in the three months to July.

Bosses of the UK’s largest energy firms have called on the government to intervene with “unprecedented” measures to prevent a fuel poverty crisis next winter. The chief executives told MPs investigating energy prices that while pre-payment customers were already reeling from the effects of rising bills, they expected the numbers in financial distress to only

The price of more than a million train tickets will be cut by up to half in April and May as the government seeks to ease cost of living pressures – but commuters will not benefit as only off-peak and advanced tickets are included in the sale. Dubbed the Great British Rail Sale, Transport Secretary

A billionaire brewing heir is backing one of the trio of consortia which remain in the hunt to buy Chelsea FC as the auction of the Premier League club enters its final stages. Sky News has learnt that Alejandro Santo Domingo, a Colombian citizen who sits on the board of the Budweiser-owner ABInBev, is part

The founder of one of Britain’s biggest privately held consumer finance groups is in talks about the sale of a minority stake that would yield a windfall worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Sky News has learnt that Together Financial Services, which specialises in areas such as mortgage lending and auction finance, has asked private

George Osborne, the former chancellor, has been parachuted in to help the Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly clinch a takeover of Chelsea Football Club that would rank as the most lucrative sports franchise sale in history. Sky News can exclusively reveal that Robey Warshaw, the City advisory firm that Mr Osborne joined last year,

Twitter’s board of directors unanimously adopted a “poison pill” defence in response to Elon Musk’s proposal to buy the company and take it private, the social media giant has said. The strategy is formally called a “limited duration shareholder rights plan” and is used to defend against hostile takeovers. Twitter said the move aims to

The Ricketts family-led consortium has withdrawn its bid to buy Chelsea Football Club. The Chicago Cubs owners and their partners opted not to submit a final bid for the Blues, due to “unusual dynamics around the sales process”. Tom and Laura Ricketts had partnered with US billionaires Ken Griffin and Dan Gilbert to place a

When Elon Musk declared on 4 April that he had become the biggest single shareholder in Twitter there was much head scratching as to why the Tesla chief executive had taken his 9.2% stake. Some commentators assumed he was just having a bit of fun. A few days earlier, he had run a Twitter poll,

Billionaire Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $41.39bn, a regulatory filing showed. The Tesla CEO’s offer price of $54.20 per share represents a 38% premium to the closing price of Twitter’s stock on 1 April, the last trading day before his investment of over 9% in the company was publicly announced. It comes

A Californian investment firm would become the largest shareholder in Chelsea FC if a consortium spearheaded by a part-owner of the LA Dodgers baseball team wins the battle to buy the Stamford Bridge club. Sky News has learnt that Clearlake Capital would own at least 50% of Chelsea’s shares under a bid proposal to be

A court in Jersey has frozen $7bn (£5.4bn) in assets linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. The assets being targeted are either located in Jersey, or owned by Jersey-incorporated entities, the Law Offices Department of Jersey said. Police searched addresses suspected of being connected to Mr Abramavich‘s business activities on Tuesday. The island of Jersey

A second P&O ferry has been further detained by the authorities in as many days following a failed inspection, likely scuppering the scandal-hit company’s plans to run a service between Dover and Calais from Easter. It emerged earlier on Wednesday that the Pride of Kent – first detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)

P&O Ferries’ hopes of resuming cross-Channel services between Dover and Calais later this week appear to have suffered a big blow after the Spirit of Britain was further detained, according to the French authorities. The company, universally condemned for its treatment of almost 800 seafarers who were sacked without notice last month, had planned for