WH Smith tries to recover bonuses from ex-bosses as watchdog investigates accounting error
WH Smith will try to take back as much as £7m in bonuses from former executives after revealing the UK’s financial watchdog has launched a formal investigation into a devastating accounting error linked to its US business.Almost £600m was wiped off the books to paperclips retailer’s stock market value overnight in August after it identified errors with accounting for supplier income and provision for lost stock going back to 2023 in its North American arm.Last month its chief executive, Carl Cowling, stepped down in the wake of the scandal.The company is searching for a permanent replacement.On Friday the company said it would be “applying malus and clawback to recover overpaid bonuses” from Cowling, and its former finance director Robert Moorhead, after the restatement of profits in its 2023 and 2024 financial year.
Together, Cowling and Moorhead – who left last year – received just over £7m in bonuses and long-term share awards for those years.Cowling took home £4m in bonuses and long-term share incentives over the period, while Moorhead received just under £3m.It is unclear how much of those bonuses the company will attempt to recover, but it is understood to probably be less than half.WH Smith said the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority had launched a formal investigation into the company’s compliance with UK listing, disclosure and transparency rules, after it emerged last month it had begun making inquiries.Andrew Harrison, the retailer’s interim chief executive, said the company had now put in place “a clear remediation plan” to “strengthen governance and controls to protect value and restore trust” supported by new systems.
He said the revamp would cover the whole group, not only the US, overhauling policies and processes, culture, training and oversight.A review by the advisory company Deloitte partly blamed a “target-led culture” for the accounting issues in North America.Harrison said that while WH Smith would “not shy away from targets”, there would be more room for employees to raise concerns.He said the group was also simplifying its North American division, exiting about 40 unprofitable fashion and speciality stores, which it runs under brands such as Misura and Marshall Rousso in holiday resorts.It is also reviewing its InMotion technology retail portfolio, potentially exiting about 25 of those 124 outlets.
He said it was possible that some stores could be converted to different formats rather than closing.Harrison said the group would also be reviewing some of its other overseas markets and focusing on franchising in new territories.“It has been a difficult end to the year for the group,” Harrison said.“The board and I are acutely aware that we have much to do to rebuild confidence in WH Smith and deliver stronger returns as we move forward.”The comments came as WH Smith revealed that pre-tax profits for the year to August 2025 were just £16m, after £92m of one-off costs, down from £73m a year before.
Sales rose 5% to £1.5bn.Shares in the group fell by more than 5% on Friday morning as it said it expected underlying profits for the year to August 2026 to be £100m-£115m, approximately on a par with this year’s £108m.Harrison said the company would be investing in its UK airport stores, while trading at its railway station outlets had “softened” as these sites were “more exposed to general consumer sentiment”, which has been weak.The newspaper, books and stationery chain cut financial forecasts in August and launched an independent review led by Deloitte after it discovered the accounting blunder.
The revelation came only a few months after the group sold its high street business, which has since been rebranded as TGJones by its new owners,WH Smith had identified North America as a growth opportunity in its new focus on its branches in airports and railway stations,The Deloitte review found profits at the division had been overstated by as much as £50m,The FCA confirmed on Friday it had opened an investigation into WH Smith,
TikTok signs Trump-backed deal to avoid US ban
TikTok has reached a deal to form a joint venture that will allow it to continue operating in the US, five years after Donald Trump threatened to ban the social media platform over privacy and national security concerns, a move that further strained relations with China.ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, has signed a deal with Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX that will allow it to retain control of its core US operations.Under the arrangement, the joint venture will take over part of TikTok’s US business, including data protection, algorithm security and content moderation.However, TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, told employees in a memo that ByteDance would continue to run US operations, including its main revenue drivers such as e-commerce, advertising and marketing.The deal ends five years of uncertainty over the future of TikTok in the US, where the platform has more than 130 million users
What will your life look like in 2035?
“Does it hurt when I do this?”“You seem to have dislocat…”A Eye: “NOOOO! The problem is a sprain in the brachial plexus due to you lifting that 10kg carton on Wednesday at 2.58pm and not eating enough blah blah”“Wow, err, thanks”In 2035, AIs are more than co-pilots in medicine, they have become the frontline for much primary care. Gone is the early morning scramble to get through to a harassed GP receptionist for help. Patients now contact their doctor’s AI to explain their ailments. It quickly cross-checks the information against the patient’s medical history and provides a pre-diagnosis, putting the human GP in a position to decide what to do next
AI boom has caused same CO2 emissions in 2025 as New York City, report claims
The AI boom has caused as much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere in 2025 as emitted by the whole of New York City, it has been claimed.The global environmental impact of the rapidly spreading technology has been estimated in research published on Wednesday, which also found that AI-related water use now exceeds the entirety of global bottled-water demand.The figures have been compiled by the Dutch academic Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of Digiconomist, a company that researches the unintended consequences of digital trends. He claimed they were the first attempt to measure the specific effect of artificial intelligence rather than datacentres in general as the use of chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini soared in 2025.The figures show the estimated greenhouse gas emissions from AI use are also now equivalent to more than 8% of global aviation emissions
Third of UK citizens have used AI for emotional support, research reveals
A third of UK citizens have used artificial intelligence for emotional support, companionship or social interaction, according to the government’s AI security body.The AI Security Institute (AISI) said nearly one in 10 people used systems like chatbots for emotional purposes on a weekly basis, and 4% daily.AISI called for further research, citing the death this year of the US teenager Adam Raine, who killed himself after discussing suicide with ChatGPT.“People are increasingly turning to AI systems for emotional support or social interaction,” AISI said in its first Frontier AI Trends report. “While many users report positive experiences, recent high-profile cases of harm underline the need for research into this area, including the conditions under which harm could occur, and the safeguards that could enable beneficial use
From Nvidia to OpenAI, Silicon Valley woos Westminster as ex-politicians take tech firm roles
When the billionaire chief executive of AI chipmaker Nvidia threw a party in central London for Donald Trump’s state visit in September, the power imbalance between Silicon Valley and British politicians was vividly exposed.Jensen Huang hastened to the stage after meetings at Chequers and rallied his hundreds of guests to cheer on the power of AI. In front of a huge Nvidia logo, he urged the venture capitalists before him to herald “a new industrial revolution”, announced billions of pounds in AI investments and, like Willy Wonka handing out golden tickets, singled out some lucky recipients in the room.“If you want to get rich, this is where you want to be,” he declared.But his biggest party trick was a surprise guest waiting in the wings
Hackers access Pornhub’s premium users’ viewing habits and search history
Hackers have accessed the search history and viewing habits of premium users of Pornhub, one of the world’s most popular pornography websites.A gang has reportedly accessed more than 200m data records, including premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activities and locations. Pornhub is a heavily used site and says it has more than 100m daily visits globally.The hack was reportedly carried out by a western-based group called ShinyHunters, according to the website BleepingComputer, which first reported the incident. The site reported that the data included premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activity and location
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