Desmond’s Datalex loans, Snowden’s Big Tech warning, and bulging tax receipts

Businessman Dermot Desmond may end up taking control of Datalex if the beleaguered travel retail software group fails to meet a set of strict sales, earnings and cash targets that he has tied to making additional emergency loans available to the business. Joe Brennan has the details.

Edward Snowden, the former US intelligence official who in 2013 blew the whistle on mass state surveillance through consumer technology platforms, told the opening night of the Web Summit in Lisbon that the data-hungry business model of so-called Big Tech web firms was based on "abuse". Mark Paul is in Lisbon to cover the event for us.

Corporation tax receipts hit a record of €6.9 billion for the year to October, more than €660 million ahead of the Government's target, according to the latest exchequer returns. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

In personal finance, Joanne Hunt looks at making a will and wonders why fewer than a third of us seem bothered by who benefits from our estate when we're gone.

Big tech business model based on ‘abuse’, says Edward Snowden

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Let the good times roll? State in clover on tax receipts

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Can Datalex get new investors on board?

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Germany to hike electric car subsidies as VW launches car

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In her media and marketing column, Laura Slattery examines the many challenges facing Netflix and rival video streaming services in India, a market that they all hope will deliver millions of new subscribers to their businesses.

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