Africa’s largest social network already has MXit Moola as part of its mobile payment infrastructure, but they just got a little bit cleverer by partnering with Standard Bank and introducing MXit Money.
Over the past few weeks we’ve brought you several reports regarding the increasingly worrisome LIBOR scandal. The investigation into interest rate-rigging debacle is quickly snowballing and analysts have now begun wondering if “16 of the world’s largest banks have perpetrated the biggest fraud in history.”
Here’s a Friday-feel-good story for you all, executive chairman and CEO of Richemont, Johann Rupert, took home €3.6 million for the year and instead of buying a new yacht or diamond-infused body lotion he promptly donated it to charity.
Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before the word ‘irony’ stopped being able to quite cover it. The German bank Sparkasse Chemnitz have launched a Karl Marx credit card, after the father of Communism won in an online voting poll for new credit card designs. Somewhere a grave is spinning.
Mark Zuckerberg officially filed its IPO with Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday afternoon, announcing its intention to sell 337 million shares at between $28 and $35 a pop – in the biggest Internet stock offering since Google went public in 2004. They’ll be going roadshow for the next two weeks to let big investors see what they’re buying.
And you people wonder why they tried to switch the internet off. Khosrow Zarefarid, an Iranian software manager, warned Iran’s banks’ CEOs of a security flaw in the banking system. When nobody responded, Khosrow hacked 3 million accounts across 22 banks, then dropped these details — including card numbers and PINs — on his blog.
Signs suggest that Facebook is looking to have its initial public offering launch on on May 17th, assuming that the Securities & Exchange commission rubber-stamps all of the social network’s paperwork – including documents concerning Facebook’s recent billion-dollar acquisition of Instagram. Facebook is set to be initially valued at around $100 billion.
BBC1 will be broadcasting a special show on Thursday night (9pm UK time), entitled ‘The Honeymoon Murder.’ The show will be playing video from the footage caught on CCTV cameras at the Cape Grace hotel, where the Dewanis were staying during that fateful visit to Cape Town. Follow the link to see the stills from […]
In case you missed Thekiso Anthony Lefifi’s colourful Sunday Times’ interview with Ninja and Yolandi Vi$$er from Die Antwoord, we’ve got it for you right here. How responsible are you with money? Ninja: I never used to care about money because I never had it. Now I have money and I still don’t care about […]
President Jacob Zuma made a very cool announcement this weekend on the 22nd anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. Towards the end of this year South Africa will get a series of new bank notes which will have Madiba’s image as the main illustration instead of the animals we’ve come to know.
The award-winning documentary Inside Job drilled down into what caused the 2008 financial crisis by consulting some of the finest financial experts. Margin Call creates a fictionalised account of the most critical 24 hour period of the meltdown, featuring some of Hollywood’s most respected actors.
Plastic or plastic? Canada is set to join the list of countries that use polymer bank notes. These shiny plastic notes are smooth to the touch, practically impossible to tear, and will last much longer than the paper notes we’re used to. It’s also a lot more secure.
You may recall a previous article on the three-times widowed, fantastically wealthy Duchess of Alba’s proposed remarriage to Alfonso Diez, a man 24 years her junior. I’m pretty sure the last thing anyone (especially her) wanted popping up was a topless photo of that 85-year-old struck match, on the cover of a magazine. Lawsuit, here we come. [No pics. Naughty.]
Sure, why not. Tiny South Pacific island nation Niue will be accepting coins minted with the faces of Star Wars characters as legal tender, because if you’re a tiny South Pacific island nation there’s really only so much you can do to keep things exciting.
With the last film coming out soon, the Harry Potter franchise has almost been sucked dry of moneymaking potential. Almost. Because they’ve recently put up the super-secret-but-not-that-secret ‘Pottermore’ website, which seems to be promoting an upcoming treasure-hunt-type game where fans use online clues to find wands in the real world.
You guys remember that shipwreck they found last year in the Baltic, with the 168 odd ancient-but-preserved bottles of champagne? Well I do. And they did. And now two of those fancy old champagne bottles are going on auction because why not?
Google Wallet and Google Offers launched yesterday, both of which sound supremely cool – PayPal’s grumblings (and lawsuits) about commercial espionage notwithstanding. Google Wallet lets users swipe their phones in lieu of credit cards, even allowing subscription to a new prepaid Google debit card; Google Offers looks to work like a virtual loyalty card.
Hoo. While working their way through LAX airport, Kim Kardashian and her just-recently-announced fiance Kris Humphries made a point of flashing her new bling – you remember, that $2 million custom-designed, 20.5-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring? It’s, um, it’s kind of hard to miss. Click through for our engagement ring photo gallery.
What with IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn jailed on sex assault charges, there’s speculation about who’ll be replacing him. Calls from non-European countries to instate a non-European head have become increasingly vocal, especially after French Strauss-Kahn’s shenanigans – so it’s interesting that The Economist looked to Trevor Manuel, among others, as a potential succcessor.
So Heritage Auctions sold a 1997 edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for $29, 875. A book that you can remember the release of just sold at a rare books auction. You’re Old now. If you can’t remember 1997, please crawl back into the womb.
Google has set up the first of its startup-funding offices in Cape Town, under the ‘Umbuno’ flagship. “Umbono” is isiZulu for ‘vision’ or ‘idea’. Google also showed that it knows how to make a girl feel special, saying it chose Cape Town because the city is in “the process of positioning itself as a hub for innovation and technology”.
I love the internet. So we told you last week about Detroit’s Mayor, Dave Bing, shooting down the RoboCop statue proposal, and the KickStarter initiative that was trying to build the thing anyway. Well, they’ve raised the necessary $50,000 in a little under a week, so you know. Your move, Bing.
So this is pretty cool! Sort of. If you find random bits of information that you can start awkward conversations with cool. And you should. You really should. The folks at The Economist put together a map of the USA that matches each state with an economically comparable nation, using GDP to measure. And we match with Maryland!
There’s a restaurant in Pringle Bay, just an hour from Cape Town, called Hook, Line, and Sinker. When you walk in to this effortlessly cool establishment you are guided to a table hewn from American Poplar that is scrubbed daily with Sunlight liquid and once a week rubbed lovingly with Cobra wax.
The central bank of the United States of America, the Federal Reserve, in response to the recent Great Recession has acted swiftly, decisively and boldly. Its answer to a catastrophe that was caused by irresponsible lending by greedy banks to Ninjas (no income, no job or assets) has been to cut interest rates to the bone and flood the economy with cheap money in the hope it’ll be used to kick start the economy.
So in other words, as I see it, in order to fix a problem caused by cheap money they’ve made money even cheaper. I often do the same thing after a big night in (I don’t go out anymore) and the inevitable skull bursting hangover.
The finance minister Pravin Gordhan is not someone you’d want to take to the U2 concert. He might allow a brief period of foot tapping during one of their 80’s classics, but mostly he’d be working out how much the tour had swelled the country’s coffers and observe the discretionary spending habits of the assembled revellers.
That’s why he’s the head bean counter, and long may that last.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I sat in a mid-priced family car outside a pub. Having read the AA Guide to Southern England, and finished my bag of crisps and bottle of Coke, I waited patiently for my parents..