Monday newspaper round-up: Elon Musk, SSE, Ikea
Elon Musk has asked Twitter users whether he should step down as the head of the company, promising to abide by the results of his poll. Musk assumed the role of CEO at the end of October after firing a host of senior executives and dissolving its board of directors. Within minutes of posting the poll, more than one million people had voted. – Guardian
The energy company SSE has begun work to develop an underground cavern in east Yorkshire to store hydrogen, aiming to stockpile the renewable source of power for when the freezing, windless conditions experienced in the last week occur in future. The project will produce hydrogen using renewable energy in a 35-megawatt electrolyser which will be stored in a cavern the size of St Paul’s Cathedral located a mile deep at an existing SSE site in Aldbrough on the Yorkshire coast. – Guardian
One of the co-founders of Roman Abramovich’s telecoms company Truphone is preparing to launch an audacious late $250m (£205m) bid to buy back the business, The Telegraph can reveal. Alexander Straub, one of the company’s two original co-founders, is in talks with financial backers about gatecrashing the sale of Truphone to Turkish-born entrepreneur Hakan Koç. The effort is backed by a publicly listed special acquisition vehicle from the US, The Telegraph understands. – Telegraph
The UK has already entered a “shallow and protracted recession” that will hit living standards and last until the end of next year, according to a new analysis. KPMG estimates that the economy entered a recession in the third quarter of this year and will contract by 1.3 per cent next year owing to a sharp drop in consumer spending amid rising interest rates. – The Times
Ikea UK enjoyed record revenues of £2.2 billion for the year to August 31 as its pandemic recovery continued. The figure was up 13 per cent year on year. Growth was seen across all areas, particularly within kitchen and dining equipment, textiles and storage, and included online and in-person sales. – The Times