UK retail giant Marks & Spencer is still suffering from April’s cyber attack

Shares in the British icon have slumped almost 15% since it disclosed the breach.

5/15/25 7:26AM

On Tuesday, Marks & Spencer said that thousands of customers’ personal data was stolen in a cyberattack that’s blighted the company for about a month now. The supermarket giant confirmed that names, contact details, and order histories may have been taken.

Since the 141-year-old company first disclosed the hack on April 22, shares have fallen about 14%, while M&S shoppers have been unable to place online orders since the 25th and contactless payments were down in stores across the UK. Still, a few shoppers are seeing a slight upside of the ongoing issues — the retailer’s famous yellow discount stickers have been generously slapped on more products around the country recently, which some put down to knock-on impacts from the cyberattack.

This is not just food…

Marks & Spencer — or Marks & Sparks, to David Bowie and countless others — has a lot to shout about when it comes to food and drink. Whether it was being the first retailer to introduce “sell-by” dates in 1972, those iconic TV adverts in the mid-2000s, or its famous Colin the Caterpillar cake (accept no substitutes), M&S has cemented itself as a go-to for high-quality snacks, treats, and supermarket staples.

Surprisingly though, at least to some of the SnacksUK team, the company makes a much better margin on its clothing and home sales than its food.

Last year, Marks & Spencer’s clothing and home division was the most profitable part of the business, as it has been for the last three years in a row. Indeed, though food brought in £8.2 billion in 2024, the notoriously tight margins in the grocery game meant that that translated to just £395 million in operating profit. Despite the clothing and home division bringing in half of that revenue figure, it posted operating earnings of £403 million.

For a brand that predates the UK’s current ruling party and first started selling clothes in 1926, M&S is clearly managing to keep up with the latest fashion and homeware trends. Its online presence — cyberattack excluded, of course — has also been impressive, having doubled down on its social strategy after going viral on TikTok with jackets, dresses, and sweet treats.

Nia Warfield

Fox and News Corp slide as investors digest $3.3 billion Murdoch succession settlement

Fox and News Corp shares dropped on Tuesday after Rupert Murdoch’s heirs agreed to a $3.3 billion settlement to resolve a long-running succession drama.

Under the deal, Prudence, Elisabeth, and James Murdoch will each receive about $1.1 billion, paid for in part by Fox selling 16.9 million Class B voting shares and News Corp selling 14.2 million shares. The stock sales will raise roughly $1.37 billion on behalf of the three heirs.

The new trust for Lachlan Murdoch will now control about 36.2% of Fox’s Class B shares and roughly 33.1% of News Corp’s stock, granting him uncontested voting authority over both companies for the next 25 years. Originally, the Murdoch trust was designed to hand over voting control of Fox and News Corp to Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James after his death.

Investors are weighing the trade-off. Clear leadership under Lachlan may resolve conflict internally, but the share dilution, executed at a roughly 4.5% discount, means long-term investors now hold slightly less clout than before.

Both companies’ stocks were trading close to all-time highs prior to the announcement.

385 ✈️ 434

Max Knoblauch

Boeing on Tuesday announced that it delivered 57 commercial jets in August, its best total for the month in seven years. That brings its year-to-date delivery total to 385 planes, eclipsing its full-year 2024 figure by about 11%.

The August figure marked Boeing’s second-highest delivery total of 2025 and represented a 43% jump from the same month last year. Through August, Boeing has boosted its deliveries by 50% from last year.

The plane maker is still trailing its European rival Airbus, which delivered 61 planes in August and 434 year to date.

Nia Warfield

9/8/25

Tariffs finally crept into retail's latest earnings results. Who were the winners and losers?

The long-awaited levies took a toll on nearly every retailer, but execution separated who could steer through the costs.