‘From high flyer to dead parrot’: former billion-dollar eco-shoe brand Allbirds sold for $39m

Allbirds, the San Francisco sustainable trainer brand once valued at more than $4bn, is being sold for just $39m (£29.6m) after global demand for its wool-based footwear failed to materialise.American Exchange Group, the owner of a string of brands including the fashion label Ed Hardy and the accessories maker Born, is snapping up the struggling company once touted as the future of footwear.Allbirds listed on the US stock market in 2021, but its shares have since tumbled by more than 99%, leaving it valued at just over $20m.In its early years, the brand enjoyed rapid success, and in the first two years since its official launch in March 2016, Allbirds sold more than 1m pairs of its original merino wool trainers

‘If he’d stayed on the golf course, we’d be in a better place’: experts on Trump’s tariffs, one year on

Before Donald Trump declared “liberation day” on 2 April 2025 and shocked the world by raising import tariffs on nearly every country the US did business with, he had spent almost three months causing chaos in Washington.The wholesale slashing of government jobs under Doge (the “department of government efficiency”) and the defunding of US aid agencies had shown White House watchers that the US president was in a hurry to upset institutions he considered profligate or useless.Investors quickly understood that chaos was an essential tool in Trump’s armoury. Almost as soon as he was inaugurated, there was a steady decline in the value of the dollar against other currencies. Investors sold assets denominated in dollars and bought assets elsewhere: Europe, Asia, South America

Secondhand clothes sales forecast to hit $289bn as AI helps shoppers find deals

Secondhand clothing sales are forecast to surge 12% this year to $289bn (£217bn) and continue to step up, as AI and social media influencers help shoppers find the items they want.The rise of sites such as Vinted, Depop, Vestige and ThredUp is expected to power an average 9% annual growth over the next five years to reach $393bn, twice the pace of the overall clothing market.The prediction came in ThredUp’s annual resale report, which uses research from market analysts GlobalData. In 2021 the market was worth just $141bn, less than half this year’s expected total.Brands such as Dr Martens, Zara and Mulberry have begun selling their own secondhand items or repairing and reviving used items as demand booms

Thames Water ‘close to deal that would spare it new Ofwat fines until 2030’

Thames Water is said to be close to a deal with its regulator that would allow the company to avoid new fines for four years, as long as it commits to investing in the business.The controversial offer, reported by the Financial Times, has been put forward by creditors who are hoping to save the struggling utility from being temporarily renationalised.Thames has been trying to stave off financial collapse for more than two years, after building up a £17.6bn debt pile in the decades after its privatisation. Bosses tried to sell the company last year but faced embarrassment when their preferred bidder, KKR, pulled out of the deal at the last minute

Larva lamped: Colin the Caterpillar loses to eight lookalikes in cake taste test

After a busy 35 years as a British party favourite, not to mention a bruising court battle with an alleged copycat, you might think Colin the Caterpillar had earned his place at the top.But the “original” chocolate caterpillar cake has now been labelled the worst, bested by lookalikes in a taste test.In a contest against eight supermarket rivals including Cecil, Charlie and Wiggles, Colin came bottom with a score of 64%.Almost half (44%) of the 75-strong panel of cake-testers assembled by the consumer champion Which? complained Colin’s sponge was “too dry”. By contrast, the Waitrose progeny Cecil triumphed with 78% and was awarded a coveted “best buy” gong

Polymarket and other prediction platforms driving oil market, traders say

Online betting platforms are directly driving the global oil market as they increasingly rely on anonymous prediction markets to determine multimillion-dollar trades, energy traders have warned.Market experts have said that datafeeds from prediction platforms such as Polymarket are being used to create the algorithms that influence trading in the global Brent crude futures market.The “widespread” use of Polymarket in oil futures trading has emerged amid concerns that anonymous account holders may be using insider knowledge to place bets.Energy traders have raised concerns that the platform could also be used to influence pricing in the global oil market.One energy trader said Polymarket had become the best predictor of the oil market’s direction since the US-Israel war with Iran triggered a global oil crisis, making it an essential part of the algorithms used to determine trades