The Original Factory Shop calls in administrators, putting 1,200 jobs at risk

The Original Factory Shop homeware chain has called in administrators, putting 1,200 jobs at risk, putting the decision partly down to higher costs from government policies.Administrators from Interpath have been appointed at the 137-store discount retailer, which was bought by the private equity firm Modella Capital less than a year ago.On Wednesday, the video game chain Game Retail filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, while the fashion chain LK Bennett was bought out of administration by a restructuring specialist.Administrators said the Original Factory Shop would continue to trade on high streets while they “assess options for the business”. Its website ceased taking new orders on Wednesday but orders placed before 28 January would be delivered as usual

SpaceX mulls $1.5tn IPO timed to ‘align with Musk’s birthday and the planets’

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is considering a flotation valuing the rocket company at $1.5tn (£1.1tn) that will reportedly be timed for early summer to coincide with a planetary alignment and the multibillionaire’s birthday.The world’s richest person is targeting a symbolic date of mid-June for the initial public offering, according to the Financial Times. This would be around the same time as Jupiter and Venus appear in close proximity to each other and shortly before Musk turns 55 on 28 June

YouTube criticised after pulling out of UK TV audience measurement

YouTube has been criticised by the TV and advertising industry after suspending its participation in a key measurement system that compares viewership on the social media site with other streamers such as Netflix and TV broadcasters.YouTube’s owner, Google, has sent “cease and desist” letters to Barb, which publishes audience figures that are used as the UK industry standard, and Kantar Media, its research partner in the service.The decision came months after YouTube started to allow viewership of 200 of its channels on TV sets to be included in viewer measurements alongside broadcasters including the BBC, Sky, ITV and Channel 4.Google sent the legal letters blocking access to data to attribute viewing sessions to specific content creators citing a breach of its terms of service, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the story.“It does seem odd that YouTube has spent so much effort trying to convince advertisers that they are TV, and so gain the benefits of that reputation, but the moment there’s some TV-like scrutiny they go legal to avoid it,” said Lindsey Clay, the chief executive of Thinkbox, the TV body owned by ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and UKTV

Amazon tells workers it will cut 16,000 jobs worldwide in second big wave of layoffs

Amazon has told workers it is cutting 16,000 jobs around the world to streamline its operations, hours after sending out a message to staff about the layoffs apparently in error.It is the second big wave of job cuts at the US online retail company, and comes just three months after the company said it was slashing 14,000 roles. Amazon employs about 1.5 million workers worldwide.Most job cuts are expected to be in the US, although some roles in the UK may also be affected

Are England missing a trick by not taking Joe Root to the T20 World Cup? | Taha Hashim

The final night was Harry Brook’s but Joe Root still took the series, as he usually does in Sri Lanka. It was here that he began his stratospheric run against the red ball, a double hundred at Galle in 2021 the first of 24 Test tons in the next five years. Go back to 2014, his first visit to the country with England, and there’s an unbeaten 50-over century in Pallekele, a trick he repeated on Tuesday in Colombo.As Root and Brook sat on the Premadasa outfield after England’s 53-run win in the deciding one-day international, it was the former’s shirt that one supporter repeatedly pleaded for from the stands, never mind what the captain had just done. Local admiration is expected when the 35-year-old has never left a tour of Sri Lanka without at least one match winning knock

Sinner set for ‘toughest challenge’ in semi-final against Djokovic after swatting Shelton

Jannik Sinner is under no illusion about the difficulty of his semi-final meeting with Novak Djokovic after defeating Ben Shelton on Wednesday. “It’s one of the toughest challenges we have in our sport,” he said. “It’s great to have Novak playing at this very, very high level. It’s a grand slam, it’s always very difficult against Novak. Let’s see what’s coming