this is the business briefing. i'm ben bland. a $12.7 billion valuation. online scrapbooking company pinterest is the latest in a slew of tech ipos. temporary suspension. unable to pay for fuel, india's jet airways cancels all of its flights. and on the markets, asian markets fell on thursday as investors in most countries wound down going into the long easter break. even positive comments on the china—us trade talks were unable to spark much buying activity.

shares in the image—sharing app pinterest will start trading in the us later today. it's the latest in a whole line of tech companies coming to market this year. the offer price of $19 per share values the online scrapbooking company at $12.7 billion. more than expected. last year it generated revenues of $756 million, a leap of 60%. but like many of its tech contemporaries, it's a long way from profitable. in fact, it lost $63 million last year — although that's half the amount it lost the previous year. so things seem to be heading in the right direction. the company is busily enticing new users — it added 51 million last year alone, 45 million of those from outside the us. it now has 265 million active monthly users, a figure that's bound

to interest investors. oliver smith, editor of altfi, joins me now. lots of millions, but none relating to profit. where has this valuation come from? i think there is lots of excitement around this company. it's demographics are two—thirds women, and a lot of children as well. it has a lock on this audience and advertisers love that, they can target that group, and among its users, it is loved. unlike facebook and some services getting a bad rap at the moment, pinterest is largely loved and does not have that reputation. that said, this coming

to market, the last tech company to doa ipo to market, the last tech company to do a ipo —— an ipo was the rider sharing up lyft, and its share price has fallen below what the initial price was. is there perhaps a note of caution? there is, i think lyft has fallen about i7% since it debuted a few weeks ago. lots of people are watching pinterest, priced above what was expected, which is good news. there are other companies waiting in the wings. you have the likes of uber, the right hailing giant, the chat app slack. they are lining up in considering whether it is the right time to ipo. people will be watching pinterest and thinking, right, it is above expectations to come in, but what will happen next? will it follow lyft or will it be more successful? how patient do you think investors will be, in terms of giving a breathing space to start making a profit? pinterest has a reputation

of being slow and steady but gradually winning the race. they have not done the move fast, break things approach of facebook or even uber. they have slowly and gradually build the business. in the prospectus for the ipo they painted a path to profitability. as you have said, they have halved their losses in the last year. clearly investors will be looking at starting to be thinking, right, a few more years, get it into profitability, with this fantastic audience they have, and they could be onto a winner. you mentioned the demographic, some people have a love hate relationship with it. one of my colleagues in the business units that she was up until the small hours, making elmo cupcakes, the small hours, making elmo cu pca kes, after the small hours, making elmo cupcakes, after her daughter saw that on pinterest stop perhaps they will take that into consideration. thank you. indian carrierjet airways has temporarily shut down operations from wednesday night onwards after it failed to secure emergency funds from lenders. the airline said it had no money left to pay for oil and other critical services. jet airways has been struggling due to high debt. sameer hashmi reports from mumbai.

after days of speculation, the inevitable has happened. jet has suspended all its operation starting thursday. the airline was trying to secure emergency funding from lenders, but the banks refused to release those funds. the banks believe the airline can be revived, and infact believe the airline can be revived, and in fact they are in the process of finding and in fact they are in the process offinding a and in fact they are in the process of finding a new investor. according to multimedia reports they have shortlisted four entities, which also includes at he had our ways, which is the minority shareholder in jet —— etihad airways. lenders are hoping to identify an investor by may. there are many questions about whetherjet could airways can be revived. lots of analysts say the liabilities are huge, $1.2 billion of debt. the airline has not paid aircraft leasing companies, so more

than 100 of their aircraft are grounded. and it has also not paid oil companies. so whichever investor comes in, they have to clear all those bills to restart the airline. the second big question is, in the last few weeks the civil aviation regulator gave away a lot of roots, or slots, on whichjet airways was flying, to other airlines, because there was a shortage of flights. so when the new investor comes in, will it get those roots back, because if the airline does not fly on those routes it will not make money. —— those routes back. those are to be questions about it, and there are also questions about the future of the employees. 16,000 jet airways employees are out of a job, they will be meeting with management on thursday to understand what happens next. as far as royal —— loyal customers go, it is a sad day for many of them, because jet airways was really a pioneer as far as india's aviation industry goes, and it played a key role in expanding that market over the last two and a half decades.

facebook has admitted it may have unintentionally uploaded the email contacts unintentionally uploaded the email co nta cts of unintentionally uploaded the email contacts of 1.5 million new users since may 2016. the magazine business insider has revealed the social media giant was importing uses' email contacts without permission when they opened new accounts. we asked journalist rob price, who broke the story, if it is still going on. it was going on up until the point that the news first broke about facebook asking for passwords, two weeks ago. they have now said they.. they have said they are going to delete the contact data and they are going to inform the 1.5 million people whose contacts were harvested without consent, obviously by this point there has been three or so yea rs of point there has been three or so years of this data being used to target people and learn about them. now let's brief you on some other business stories. ‘foldgate,’ a major pr problem unfolding for smartphone maker samsung. its new $2,000 galaxy fold

smartphone has been tested by the press and the results are disappointing. several reviewers reports serious screen issues after only two days of use. boeing says it's making "steady progress" towards certifying a software update to its 737 max planes which were grounded around the world after a crash in ethiopia. the chief executive, dennis muilenburg, said the final test flight with the updated software took place on wednesday. and all electric pickup and sports utility vehicle. this fledgling start—up has already secured a $700 million investment from amazon, no less, although talks with general motors appear to have stalled. michelle fleury caught up with the

american start—up‘s founder at the new york auto show. the rivian r1t is no ordinary pickup truck. due for production in 2020, it has generated the kind of buzz normally associated with another electric vehicle maker. remember when consumers waited hours in mock -- in line when consumers waited hours in mock —— in line to put their name down for a tesla model three? proponents of rivian seem equally keen. it doesn't hurt when you have endorsements from the likes of pop singer rhianna, and investments from standard chartered and amazon. but can it live up to the hype and avoid the pitfalls facing tesla, which has struggled to meet production and profit targets. one of the reasons we we re profit targets. one of the reasons we were so profit targets. one of the reasons we were so quiet for so long was that we wanted to make sure we had all those ingredients, all those pieces arranged, so that when we

showed the vehicles in los angeles, it was notjust showed the vehicles in los angeles, it was not just a show showed the vehicles in los angeles, it was notjust a show car, it was actually the real thing. it was notjust a show car, it was actually the real thinglj it was notjust a show car, it was actually the realthing. i want it was notjust a show car, it was actually the real thing. i want to talk to you about some of the backing you have received. in terms of the types of partners necessary to build this, it requires a long—term view. the shareholders we have today, we couldn't be happier, we are very committed, they actually allowed us to be so quiet for so many years and focus on the technology and the product and the execution. as we now get close to production, those investors and shareholders have been very supportive. is it true that talks in she —— with gm stalled in part because you are less interested almost keen to do a deal than before? this is not something we have disclosed or talked about here. going forward, you are starting to see some of the big car manufacturers taking electric much more seriously, putting more money towards it. are you worried about increased competition?” towards it. are you worried about increased competition? i think it is great. we need to have the world transitioning from a system based on

fossil fuels to a system based on storing electricity. really, we're looking at about 1% of sales, they are electric stop so we have 99% of consumers still needing to be brought into the world of electrification. up next, newsbriefing. see you soon. an extraordinary night of football is manchester city took on tottenham hotspur in manchester for a place is manchester city took on tottenham hotspur in manchesterfor a place in the semifinals of the champions league. moments of high drama, and a feast of goals. our sports correspondent katie gorman was there. a blue moon rising over manchester. for city's fans, this was a good omen. they had then told to bring the noise for this crunch

match, and early on they had all the right notes. 1—0 down from the first leg, city had to score. after four minutes raheem sterling gave them the perfect start with the perfect strike. city were not celebrating for long as tottenham hotspur is struck back. son heung—min was a hero last week and he came to the rescue again and again, with two goals in the space of three frantic minutes. city had to now score three. bernardo silva made it 2—2 before raheem sterling showed his value again, with five goals in 20 minutes, this was footballing chaos. at half time everybody needed a break. there was no let up from kevin de bruyne, who was pulling the strings for city. when they need a goal, one man always delivers. commentator: aguero! incredibly, there was still time for a few more twists, as this, bundled in by llore nte twists, as this, bundled in by llorente and upheld by var had dispersed through to the semifinals

before raheem sterling looks to have snatched it out to be death for city. but his goal was disallowed for offside. city's dream ending in the most dramatic of ways. we will have plenty more on that game in the sports section in breakfast, which is coming up at six o'clock with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. they will also have the rest of the day's news and sport for you. we have been talking about our talking point today, which is that from mid—july, the uk will be the first country to make porn sites verify the age of users. lots of tweets from you. more of those coming up in just a moment. this is the briefing from bbc news. the headlines: north korea says it's tested what it calls a new type of tactical guided weapon. it's the first missile test since the hanoi summit between kin jong—un and president trump. at least 29 people have died in a coach crash on the portuguese island of madeira.

many of the victims are thought to be german tourists. now it's time to look at the stories making headlines. we begin with the times this morning and the upcoming european elections, where popularation for nigel farage's brexit party has surged, heightening fears for theresa may's government. in the daily mail here on page 5 — a somewhat creative headline "the dawn of frankenswine" after scientists managed to bring dead pigs' brains back to life after 10 hours. now to the daily telegraph, with calls to extend the under—18s ban for pornographic websites to social media sites like facebook and instagram. next on the front page of the daily mirror, a striking image and a striking warning from sir david attenborough about climate change and the need

for urgent global action. and in the metro this morning, the climate protests which caused havoc across london yesterday, and today i'm sure, with demonstrators blocking roads and public transport. and finally to the guardian where an investigation has revealed half of england's property market is owned by less than one percent of the population. so let's begin with the front of the times. with me priya lakhani, founder and ceo of century tech, a uk—based education technology platform. hello. nice to see you. hello. nice to see you. is things were, we were meant to be talking about the uk's —— were not meant to be talking about the uk's participation in eu elections, but it looks like because of the delay the uk will be

participating in the deal is