The UK disallowed Microsoft from purchasing Activision. Microsoft says that the move is bad for business.
The UK government seems to think the move protects its other tech businesses.
PM Rishi Sunak is trying to encourage more homegrown tech in the UK. There was a time when the UK was home to innovation but currently the biggest tech firms are in other countries.
Many tech companies in the UK just want to be bought out my bigger US companies.
Brexit brought additional red tape according to some tech startups.
Can the tech in the UK be revitalized?
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently spoke of “Unicorn Kingdom” - a unicorn is a firm worth more than $1bn without being listed on the stock exchange - and talked of an ad campaign targeting Silicon Valley investors.
Britain has a long history of being good at tech innovation. Radio, the telephone, the Enigma World War 2 code-breaking machine, Dolby surround sound, the World Wide Web - all UK-based inventions.
So where, then, is our Apple, our Google, our OpenAI?
I’ve been to the unkindly nicknamed Silicon Roundabout tech hub in east London, and the beautifully titled Silicon Glen in Scotland.
We have a handful of big successes - look at semiconductor firm Graphcore - and plenty of much smaller ones. But we are seriously lacking Silicon-Valley scale corporations which are also household names.
I’ve interviewed countless tech start-ups here in the UK over the years. And often, although never on the record, I’ll hear a similar ambition: they hope to get bought up by a US tech giant waving a huge cheque.
Numerous entrepreneurs have told me that growing a company is a fragile time, because even though it appears to be doing well - there’s more scrutiny, regulation, tax rules, workers are stretched, there may not be the immediate cashflow to balance the extra work and facilities having to be bought in.
On top of that, Brexit brought about the introduction of a new layer of operational issues to be navigated by all businesses, and the long anticipated Online Safety Bill comes with strict new rules for tech firms in that space, and large penalties for non-compliance.
One investor told me that while Britain is a good place to start, it’s a much harder place to scale up.
With a corporation tax of 25%, up from 19%, I would not consider starting a company here, but would over in Jersey where CT doesn’t exist.
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UK firms in technical areas have been in cline for years. An example in my field (power electronics) was a paper mill. It ceased trading around 40 years ago. It was exported to Taiwan where it was put into operation with quite a few new parts. It was interesting for me - I managed the project in ressuracting it.
And it was not unique. Projects like that have been moved to other countries or, in some cases, just scrapped. And not just in papermills. Coal mines, steel mines, car plants etc. All very sad.
Sir Ian Livingstone says that the games sector in the UK wanted that deal to go through.
The UK games sector was in favour of Microsoft’s bid for US firm Activision being approved, according to the man who led the company behind Tomb Raider.
On Thursday, Microsoft president Brad Smith launched a fierce attack on the judgement, telling the BBC that it marked Microsoft’s “darkest day” in its four decades of working in the UK.
“People are shocked, people are disappointed, and people’s confidence in technology in the UK has been severely shaken,” he said, adding that the European Union was a better place to start a business.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Mr Smith’s claims were “not borne out by the facts”, adding that the UK games sector had doubled in size over the past 10 years.
Sir Ian, who is now co-founding partner of gaming investment group Hiro Capita, told the BBC’s Today programme: "I think the sentiment of the games industry itself in the UK is for it to go ahead.
“This is a highly competitive market and any negative sentiment is not good for the industry or indeed the UK economy.”
One of the UK’s largest tech firms has declined to sell its shares on the London stock exchange, opting to sell in the US.
British microchip designing giant Arm has filed to sell its shares in the US, setting the stage for what could be the biggest stock market listing this year.
The Cambridge-based firm is reportedly aiming to raise up to $10bn (ÂŁ8bn).
In a blow to the UK, the company said in March that it did not plan to list its shares in London.
Sometimes referred to as the “crown jewel” of the UK’s technology sector, Arm was founded in Cambridge, England, in 1990.
Earlier this year, Arm said it did not plan to pursue a London Stock Exchange listing.
Reports in January said that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had restarted talks with Softbank about a possible London listing.
Arm’s decision raised concerns that the UK market is not doing enough to attract tech company stock offerings, with US exchanges seen to offer higher profiles and valuations.
Its probably not good for an economy when it is dependent upon keeping nurdologists sweet.
It depends on what’s driving the economy. At this point, the country with the most advanced tech has the competitive advantage. Warfare is more about taking out a country’s infrastructure than it is about military weapons. The country with the most advanced tech will also lead the economy.
Microsoft is appealing this decision.
So, by that definition, we develop the “Tech” then flog it off? I think we have been there before in the pre-tech days.
Yes. Seems to be the trend.
So, how do isolated “Flog Offs” like this help the economy?
