Wednesday newspaper round-up: Energy suppliers, Carl Icahn, Dyson

(Sharecast News) - Energy suppliers will be forced to offer vulnerable households dedicated phone lines in a drive by the regulator Ofgem to improve poor treatment of the most disadvantaged customers. The regulator is planning a crackdown on suppliers' conduct after a slump in customer service during the energy crisis with long call waiting times and difficulty contacting companies. - Guardian Ministers have announced a clampdown on the use of cold calls to sell financial products and on technology which allows mass texting of numerous phones as part of a strategy to combat fraud, now the UK's most common crime. The new fraud strategy, a response to the massive growth of web- and phone-based scams, will alsoresult in what was billed as 400 new specialist investigators across police and the National Crime Agency recruited as part of a revamp for how the the crime is investigated. - Guardian

Carl Icahn, one of Wall Street's best-known activist investors, has become the target of a short-seller which has accused the billionaire of inflating the value of his empire. Hindenburg Research accused the hedge fund manager of operating a "ponzi-like economic structure" through his $15bn fund, Icahn Enterprises, and claimed its value had been inflated by at least 75pc. - Telegraph

Dyson is to spend £100 million on a new technology centre in Bristol as part of a five-year programme of investments totalling £2.75 billion. Sir James Dyson's vacuum cleaner and home appliances business said it would employ hundreds of software and artificial intelligence engineers at the centre to develop new products and apps. Dyson's UK operations are already staffed with more than 3,500 engineers working in research and development across sites in London and Malmesbury in Wiltshire. - The Times

Sir Martin Sorrell pocketed less than half of the bonus he could have earned last year for running S4 Capital, the digital advertising business he founded. Sorrell, 78, was paid a basic salary of £250,000 in 2022 and could have received the same amount again in bonuses. However, S4's annual report shows that he only received £100,000. - The Times