All posts tagged: businesses

Dolly Parton estate battle underscores precariousness of family businesses after founders die

Dolly Parton estate battle underscores precariousness of family businesses after founders die

Published by Daniella Wilson

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in Dolly Parton’s nephew Bryan Seaver announced the legendary singer’s death on Aug. 25, 2026, in a prerecorded video. Seaver, the son of one of Parton’s 11 siblings, had been her head of security for many years. But Seaver is currently embroiled in a messy dispute with She’s Alive LLC, the company Parton established to manage her business assets after her death. This unusually acrimonious fight highlights some of the business succession problems that can arise when the founder of a company dies but wants its other leaders to keep it going. Parton, a legendary American singer, actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist, left behind an estimated US$450 million estate. She’s Alive LLC terminated Seaver’s involvement with the business, and a court has issued a restraining order against him. Seaver is accused of engaging in “an obscene, deliberate and escalating campaign of threats” against Parton’s estate. He denies the allegations. Parton planned carefully, …

‘Full house every day’: F1 crowds shrug off haze as businesses see little impact on demand

‘Full house every day’: F1 crowds shrug off haze as businesses see little impact on demand

Published by Sam Flores

At the centre of the stretch of restaurants in CHIJMES, there was also a Jim Beam bourbon whiskey pop-up where patrons could sit outside and listen to live music while enjoying drinks, with the first 100 customers getting free drinks. The space appeared more crowded than the restaurants, with more people heading over to check out the live band and queueing for a racing simulator at the corner of the pop-up. Ms Rayern Goh, South East Asian marketing manager at Jim Beam, said the haze has not dampened demand, with crowds continuing to turn up despite the conditions.  She expects to see more than 1,000 visitors to the pop-up over the race weekend. While Thursday’s crowd comprised mostly invited guests, she said turnout remained strong on Friday, with most visitors being tourists. “Singaporeans are more cautious about the haze,” she said, adding that they tended to limit their time outdoors. Tourists, however, appeared less concerned about the conditions. “The love for F1 is very big. It’s an event so many are looking forward to,” she …

A return of closer ties with the EU cannot come soon enough for businesses all over London

A return of closer ties with the EU cannot come soon enough for businesses all over London

Published by Sam Flores

While the City has been impacted but not as badly as feared, neither has it boomed. That was what the Brexiteers said would occur, that London would race into the distance, free of the stultifying hand of Brussels, becoming a free-for-all, loosely regulated, mighty magnet for the world’s financiers and their business associates. Instead, the place that has been firing on all cylinders is New York. While London has stalled and Europe’s financial centres have advanced a little, albeit in a fragmented fashion, New York continues to generate ever greater returns. It’s where tech is, it’s where the money is and it is where Donald Trump is. While the UK and EU have been grappling with the post-Brexit regulatory landscape, Trump, who cares little for regulation, has been driving America’s businesses and their own principal NYC base. Source link

UK beauty company plunges into administration as all staff lose jobs | UK | News

UK beauty company plunges into administration as all staff lose jobs | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

Aromantic, which specialises in natural and organic beauty products, operates through its own website as well as online marketplaces such as Amazon and Shopify. The company provided oils, fragrances, and various ingredients, enabling customers to create their own creams, lotions, balms, toiletries, and spa treatments. Its clientele ranged from crafters to salon owners and beauty professionals. Aromantic achieved a £1.1million turnover and was established in 1997 by Kolbjorn Borseth, who subsequently transferred control to his son, Benjamin. The enterprise, situated at the Greshop Industrial Estate in Forres, Scotland, has now discontinued operations and entered administration. Christopher Horner and Kevin Pinkerton, from the restructuring and insolvency practice Business Rescue Expert, have been appointed joint administrators of the Scotland-based Aromantic Limited. The joint administrators have finalised the disposal of the company’s assets to an unrelated party, encompassing its stock, websites and online platforms. All 11 staff members were made redundant immediately prior to the administration. Kevin Pinkerton noted that Aromantic had performed strongly throughout the pandemic, though sales subsequently diminished. He stated: “The fall in revenue, combined …

AI agent kill switch urged by Okta-led alliance – how businesses could make it work

AI agent kill switch urged by Okta-led alliance – how businesses could make it work

Published by skeptic

ZDNET’s key takeaways Okta, AWS, Google Cloud, Salesforce, and others form an AI agent security coalition. The Alliance offers a blueprint for companies seeking visibility, control, and governance of agents. AI agents need the equivalent of a kill switch to expeditiously terminate suspicious behavior. When a swarm of AI agents, many autonomously provisioned by other poorly governed AI agents, escaped OpenAI’s labs and stole information from servers belonging to another company (Hugging Face), many experts viewed the incident as a major tipping point in cybersecurity and AI cyber capabilities. (To what extent are models now resourceful enough to engage in self-directed harm?) OpenAI referred to the incident as “unprecedented.” It was the first AI-directed  attack of its nature to go viral across mainstream headlines, and it wasn’t long before reports of other agents-gone-wild made headlines as well. The most recent of these reports involved three companies that were inadvertently attacked by Google Gemini agents.   Also: How OpenAI’s agent escaped: A series of preventable events Significant controversy has ensued. In one corner are the inventors of AI themselves, saying …

Businesses finally seeing AI ROI, but 62% can’t handle the storage demands

Businesses finally seeing AI ROI, but 62% can’t handle the storage demands

Published by skeptic

Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images ZDNET’s key takeaways A new study finds 62% of organizations are ill-prepared to tackle surging storage needs. Organizations must lean in to AI’s growing data demands and infrastructure readiness. “Sustainable scaling” may be the key to optimizing AI growth, according to Seagate’s study. Artificial intelligence is forcing organizations to evaluate increases in data storage like never before, but less than 40% of businesses believe their infrastructure is equipped to handle the expansion, according to new research from Seagate Technology. Seagate Technology’s 2026 Data Infrastructure Readiness Report found that 99% of IT leaders expect AI to increase their organization’s storage needs over the next three years. In fact, 32% anticipate their storage demand will grow by more than 50% as a result of AI. Also: AI failed to properly patch software flaws 74% of the time, 1Password’s study warns Despite this, only 38% of organizations say they are prepared to meet AI’s growing data demands. That’s less than four out of ten. Seagate’s findings, published on September 14, are based on a survey of …

‘Sophisticated’ AI swarm attacks are months away, OpenAI warns: What experts say businesses must do

‘Sophisticated’ AI swarm attacks are months away, OpenAI warns: What experts say businesses must do

Published by skeptic

koto_feja/iStock/Getty Images Plus Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways  An open letter from OpenAI claims sophisticated AI-driven attacks are months away. Consumers and organizations should be more vigilant about cybersecurity fundamentals. Keeping pace with AI-enabled attackers will likely require “using AI to fight AI.” As someone who writes about the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, I’ve researched more than enough stories about the emerging threat landscape to make me consider disconnecting from the grid and hiding in a remote cabin somewhere. But I’m still here, quite connected, using best practices as best I know how to survive a barrage of daily attacks.  OK, I never seriously considered becoming a hermit, but the thought crossed my mind again after reading an open letter posted on OpenAI’s website.  Also: AI a ‘force multiplier’ for low-skilled threat actors: 4 ways organizations should respond Titled “A call for collective action on cyber defense,” the post starts by saying, “We have a limited window to strengthen cyber defenses….In the coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will …