Here are the business stories making the headlines across Aberdeen, Scotland and the UK this morning.
Virgin Media O2 set to cut thousands of jobs to reduce costs
Thousands of Virgin Media O2 staff are facing redundancy as the telecoms firm attempts to save money in the face of billions of pounds of debt and tougher competition.
The broadband provider has not finalised the number of roles to be cut but it is likely be a sizeable chunk of its 16,000-strong workforce, the BBC understands.
Virgin Media O2 has billions in debt on its balance sheet and is tackling both smaller providers as well as giants like BT, which has agreed a deal to acquire rival TalkTalk, which Virgin Media O2 has firmly opposed.
Navy eyes speeding up warship production to update ‘rotting’ fleet
Navy chiefs are examining plans to speed up the delivery of new warships amid concern the current ones are rotting and unseaworthy, The Times has learnt.
Shipyard workers in Scotland could be asked to carry out double shifts to ramp up production of the five Type 31 frigates, after ministers asked the industry to shift toward a wartime footing.
Currently Babcock employees work only eight hours a day after their overtime shifts were cut to save money as part of government efforts to plug a £28bn hole in funding. They are not asked to work weekends.
Binance users withdraw $3.6bn after largest-ever crypto hack
Binance customers withdrew $3.6bn (£2.7bn) of assets from the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange as it reopened on Sunday following what is believed to be the largest hack in history.
The firm suspended all transactions in the wake of the incident, which impacted $6.3bn worth of digital assets.
Major organisations, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have accused North Korea of being responsible for the cyber-attack.
Read the BBC article here.
Lloyds launches redundancy round as rivals make sweeping job cuts
Lloyds Banking Group has launched a round of voluntary redundancies amid sweeping job cuts across its high street rivals.
The FTSE 100 lender has been gauging interest in redundancy offers by inviting staff to lodge their names on voluntary severance registers in a number of divisions. Employees who ultimately accept a severance package are set to leave the bank in the first quarter of 2027.
Lloyds’ peers have been announcing substantial headcount reductions in recent weeks, with Barclays cutting 5,000 roles, and NatWest Group revealing 1,000 job cuts. Santander’s unions are also fearful of more job cuts after it acquired TSB earlier this year, having pledged to drive through cost savings of £400m.
Read more in The Times.
UK companies switching to Chinese AI say savings outweigh risks
Companies have been ditching expensive US artificial intelligence models for their cheaper Chinese rivals despite privacy concerns, according to the chief executive of one of the world’s largest AI companies.
Ali Ghodsi, chief executive of Databricks, an AI and data company valued at $190bn, said increasing recognition of the costs of AI had prompted businesses to reconsider Chinese models.
“Two years ago, people were saying ‘we don’t want to use Chinese models. Give us a way to shut those off inside the organisation’. So we built all these capabilities to shut off Chinese models. In the last year, the same companies have been saying, ‘I want to use Chinese models to cut my costs’,” Ghodsi said.
Get the full story in The Times.
‘Scar on the nation’: Milburn report urges local drive on youth jobs
Local leaders will be told to move young people on benefits into work under radical devolution plans to tackle the youth unemployment crisis and reduce the welfare state.
Alan Milburn, a former Labour cabinet minister who is leading a review into the matter, will recommend that a major new “participation” system should be run at a local level with a “tough love” approach.
The Times understands that combined and local authorities, including those run by mayors, will be granted upfront funding from the Treasury to tackle youth unemployment in their areas.