Specialist Investor Gordon Brothers Explores Bid to Rescue Struggling Retailer Wilko
In a bid to salvage the ailing family-owned chain Wilko, specialist investor Gordon Brothers is reportedly engaging in discussions with the retailer’s advisers regarding a potential deal. Gordon Brothers, known for its support of British high street names such as Laura Ashley, is considering providing funding to facilitate a restructuring effort for Wilko. This restructuring could involve significant store closures and job losses, reflecting the challenging situation faced by the retailer.
Wilko had recently confirmed its intention to appoint administrators, putting up to 12,000 jobs in jeopardy. Insiders suggest that the likelihood of Gordon Brothers successfully rescuing Wilko remains uncertain.
Premium Bonds Prizes’ Odds Improve Amid Increased Competition
National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has taken steps to enhance the odds of winning Premium Bonds prizes, marking the highest improvement in over 15 years. With a focus on attracting savers, NS&I has reduced the odds to 21,000 to one, allowing for more chances of winning. The update includes an increase in the number of £100,000 prizes to 90 from the current 77, a substantial improvement from just six in May of the prior year. However, the number of monthly £1 million jackpot winners remains unchanged at two.
Dax Harkins, the CEO of NS&I, emphasised that these rate increases are intended to maintain the appeal of their savings products while balancing the interests of savers, taxpayers, and the broader financial services sector.
Zoom Updates Terms of Service to Address AI Privacy Concerns
Following concerns that Zoom’s AI models were being trained on customer calls without proper consent, the video-conferencing platform has updated its terms of service to clarify its data usage policies. The company’s blog post assured users that audio, video, and chats would not be utilised for AI purposes without explicit consent.
Zoom’s initial terms of service changes in March sparked fears that user data, including customer calls, could be used for unintended purposes. The company’s recent AI-powered features, launched in June, introduced novel capabilities such as meeting summarisation. Data protection specialists and experts had raised concerns about the broad language in the terms of service, prompting Zoom to address these concerns and provide clearer guidelines to users.
Late on Monday, Zoom added the statement “Zoom will not use audio, video, or chat customer content to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent” to its updated terms of service.
