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Netflix airs surprise Cloverfield Super Bowl ad
Netflix shocked Super Bowl viewers with an advert announcing the release of the third
Cloverfield film available to stream straight after the game.
Rumoured to have cost more than $40m to make, The Cloverfield Paradox was sold to
Netflix by studio Paramount which decided against plans to release the film in cinemas in
April. The film follows on from 2008’s Cloverfield and 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, and was
produced by J.J Abrams. The shift to streaming is significant as Paramount had previously
released both Cloverfield films in cinemas.
The surprise element of Netflix’s Super Bowl advert managed to steal the thunder of its
streaming competitors Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, the latter which aired its first-ever
Super Bowl ad for its latest adaptation of novelist Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan books.
READ MORE: Netflix Airs Super Bowl Ad for a Cloverfield Sequel to Be Streamed Right
After the Game
Lloyds Bank bans Bitcoin purchases
Lloyds Banking Group has banned its customers from buying Bitcoin on their credit cards
following a sharp fall in the value of the digital currency.
According to BBC reports the ban, which starts today, applies to eight million credit card
customers across Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA. These restrictions do
not extend to debit card purchases.
The banking group fears that while customers are buying Bitcoin to make a profit, it will have
to foot the bill for unpaid debts if the cryptocurrency’s price continues to fall. Bitcoin ended
last week down 30% in value, which was its worst week since April 2013.
The move from Lloyds comes just a week after Facebook announced it would block any
advertising that promotes cryptocurrency products and services.
READ MORE: Lloyds Bank bans Bitcoin purchases on its credit cards
JD.com to open first European AI research centre in the UK
JD.com is to open its first European research centre focused on artificial intelligence and big
data in Cambridge during the first half of 2019.
Only the ecommerce giant’s second research centre outside its native China, the group’s
founder and chief executive, Richard Liu, told the Financial Times that the cost of hiring
talent specialising in AI was now lower in Europe than in the US and China.
He also confirmed plans to spend at least €1bn over two years to build JD.com’s logistics
network in France, with plans to roll out to the UK and Germany in a bid to challenge
Amazon in Europe by 2019.
According to the Financial Times, JD.com also plans to launch in the US in the second half
of this year, as it looks to ensure 50% of the company’s profits come from outside China
within 10 years.
READ MORE: China’s ecommerce giant JD.com to take on Amazon in Europe
Trinity Mirror closes in on £125m deal to buy Express
Publisher Trinity Mirror is this week poised to seal a £125m deal to buy the Express and
Star newspapers, and celebrity magazine OK!, from media mogul Richard Desmond.
The talks originally collapsed three years ago over the publisher’s £406m pension deficit,
although these concerns now appear to be resolved. According to the Guardian, the current
editor-in-chief of the Daily and Sunday Mirror, Alison Phillips, is expected to take over as
editor of the Express.
Desmond will retain a minority stake in Trinity Mirror. He began his publishing career in
1974 at the age of 23, before going on to launch OK! magazine in 1993 and later purchase
the Express Newspapers for £125m in 2000.
READ MORE: Richard Desmond poised to seal £125m Express newspapers sale
GSK on track for record sales
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is expected to post record sales of over £30bn for the first time, as
chief executive Emma Walmsley’s first set of full-year results are released this week. This is
an 8% rise on the previous year.
She is expected to reinforce her main strategy to refine the firm’s medicines pipeline by
focusing investment on only those with the greatest commercial potential.
A former marketer, Walmsley became the most powerful woman in British business after
being appointed CEO of the pharmaceutical company in March 2017, taking over from
Andrew Witty who had held the position since 2008.
Prior to joining GSK in 2010, Walmsley worked at L’Oreal for 17 years across a variety of