Microsoft Offloads Game Studios

Microsoft's Xbox division is undergoing a major restructure, starting with dispensing game studios currently under its aegis.  

Already in 2024, Xbox cut more than 2000 positions and closed four studios, before acquiring Activision-Blizzard, makers of Call of Duty. 

The hardware cost pressures from AI have also made Xbox hardware development challenging. 1600 roles have now been eliminated at Xbox in the latest round of cuts.

Asha Sharma, Xbox's new Chief Executive, warned of major changes back in June.  She is the former Chief Operating Officer of Instacart.

On the studios side, Double Fine, acquired in 2019, moves back to independent ownership. It has declared its thanks for "seven great years together" as part of Microsoft. Compulsion also leaves Microsoft. 

Both firms retain their original IP.

Warburg Pincus Sell's Tech Driven Spanish Private Bank

Warburg Pincus has sold Singular Bank, a tech-driven private bank, created from Self Bank, which Warburg Pincus acquired in 2019.  

The sale was to an ING-led consortium.

Self Bank was rebranded during Warburg's ownership and transformed to pivot to private banking.

Javier Marin Romano, former CEO of Banco Santander, has led Singular since its inception and continues to do so post-acquisition.

Porton Down Gets £580m Investment

The UK is investing £580m in its DSTL's Porton Down (in the UK county of Wiltshire). This includes a new lab for biological threats named after NATO co-founder Ernest Bevin.  There is also a £1.6bn set-aside for founders in defence technology up to 2030.

Rokos to Enter the CLO Market as Issuer

Chris Rokos' hedge fund is preparing to launch a business issuing Collaterlatized Loan Obligations (CLOs) in the US, a $1.3 trillion market. The business will be built from scratch.

Flutter is Moving off the London Stock Exchange

Flutter is pivoting its listing to New York - delisting its London listing on 31 July 2026.

Anthropic Builds Out Formidable Talent Bench

The number of ex-builders at Anthropic is increasing. These folks are working on models and the chips for training.  Names include:

Andrej Karpathy (of course, founding member of OpenAI and former Tesla AI lead)

Rahul Patil (ex Stripe CTO)

Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram and former CTO)

Peter Bailis (former CTO, Workday)

Clive Chan (Ex OpenAI hardware lead)

In Silicon Valley lingo - talent density is on the up.

Tate & Lyle to be Acquired by Ingredion (£2.7bn Price Tag)

Legendary sugar producer Tate & Lyle is to be acquired by Ingredion.

Tate & Lyle's revenue in 2026 was £2bn; with adjusted EBITDA at £415m; giving an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20% (better than Ingredion's at 17.5%). Part of their strategy is targeting Asia for growth.

The name Ingredion was given in 2012 as the new identity of the then "Corn Products International" focused on corn-refining.