Thursday newspaper round-up: Microsoft, energy price cap, benefits

(Sharecast News) - Microsoft has filed an appeal against the UK competition watchdog's decision to block its $69bn (£56bn) acquisition of the Call of Duty creator Activision Blizzard. The US tech company confirmed that it had formally lodged an appeal against the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) verdict against the deal last month. Its case will be argued before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). - Guardian The founder of Monzo has quit London in favour of San Francisco as he said the US was "much more accepting" of tech companies than Britain. Tom Blomfield, who co-founded the banking app in 2015 and left the company in 2021, said Britain was "not always favourable to ambitious founders who want to do something unusual". - Telegraph

Nearly 4 million people are being paid jobless benefits without ever having to look for work following a surge in claims of mental health and joint pain during lockdown. Around 3.7 million of the 5.2 million people currently claiming out of work benefits have been granted an exemption from finding a job, meaning that taxpayers face bankrolling their benefits indefinitely. - Telegraph

Energy bills will fall by 17 per cent to an average of £2,074 a year for a typical household from July, Ofgem has announced. Households have been paying record high prices since October - equivalent to £2,500 a year based on typical usage - under the government's energy price guarantee. - The Times

A lawsuit against the former boss of Barclays alleging that he hid what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein while working at a US bank has been allowed to proceed by a New York judge. Jes Staley, 66, faces a claim that could run to tens of millions of dollars from JP Morgan, the US bank where he filled senior roles between 1999 and 2013, before joining Barclays in 2015. - The Times