CITY WHISPERS: Will hacks stay mum as THG picks up City AM?

Perhaps the Square Mile shouldn’t have been surprised when Matt Molding was there THG bought the free newspaper City AM last week.

THG already manages a number of publications through subsidiaries.

And Molding has been unimpressed, to say the least, by the negative coverage he and THG have endured since his company went public in 2020 — and some of that came from City AM.

From skeptical op-eds that scrutinize his company’s use of unreadable jargon to an article describing his “final outburst” after another rant about the stock market, the publication hasn’t showered him with praise.

His mother won City AM’s ‘Mum of the Year’ award after calling Sunday Times journalist Oliver Shah and reading the riot bill on behalf of her son.

Molding maintains that the title will remain substantively independent. But Whispers can’t help but wonder if Mama Molding will have a hotline to the editors.

Palaniappan trades takeaways for toolboxes

We hear that a former Uber and Just Eats executive is going to trade takeaways for toolboxes.

Jambu Palaniappan will run Checkatrade, a website that directs consumers to local merchants.

While many of us may prefer personal recommendations, Checkatrade – a private equity owned subsidiary of HomeServe – is betting that will change.

Palaniappan, an old hands in Silicon Valley, will be responsible for accelerating growth in the UK.

New book by Varoufakis

Syrup-voiced Yanis Varoufakis will release his new book in September, sadly too late to be a summery beach book for his many swooning admirers.

Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, the latest tome from Greece’s former finance minister, promises to dissect how 21st century capitalism was usurped by a “new economic system” overseen by Big Tech and central banks.

“With every click, we work like serfs to increase his strength,” a blurb teases, suggesting in another line that we may not have noticed when we watched cat videos on TikTok.

Varoufakis has yet to expand his arguments with, er, Big Tech, on his Twitter, Instagram, and, yes, TikTok accounts.

Cat has your tongue, Yanis?

Poachers make the best gamekeepers

Former rogue trader Nick Leeson has spent the past few months as a private spy with the London-based Red Mist Market Enforcement Unit, investigating financial misconduct.

In his role with the Leeson group, the ex-derivatives trader who brought down 233-year-old Barings Bank in the 1990s, he helps investors seek compensation in court when regulators can’t help.

Now rumor has it that a major Middle Eastern client has enlisted his help to conduct due diligence on potential investments – aiming to scrutinize potential transactions with the same forensic attention to detail that goes for Red Mist’s other investigation. .

They say poachers make the best gamekeepers.