Liberty, the 135-year-old London department store, is revealed to be in takeover talks with Marco Capello, the former managing director of Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, in an acquisition deal worth over £40m.

The retailer's shares registered a rise 7 per cent to 275p on the news, valuing it at £68.5m.

Liberty's confirmed that is close to being acquired to be via his investment fund BlueGem Capital Partners after months of speculations about the company.

The founder and management of SuperGroup, the trendy fashion tag and retailer favored by David Beckham and Jude Law, are revealed to be well prepared to yield almost £80 million after completing the transformation from market stall to the stock market company.

SuperGroup, which trades as SuperDry, Cult Clothing and 77 Breed, yesterday disclosed its plans to float with an offer price of £5, valuing the company at £395 million.

The Dell Mini 5 tablet computer is all set to make its presence felt in a range of colors, leaked information originally posted on Engadget claimed.

The leaked document described the Snapdragon-powered device as "Streak". The upcoming tablet will be equipped with a front-facing video camera, a dock connector and capacitive touch-screen.

Apple’s contracts with iPhone developers have been brought to light by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a move that provided experts with a chance to scrutinize the contracts.

The terms of the contracts have been described as ‘troubling’ by the EFF as the App store developers even require written permission to talk about the contracts. The EFF also described Apple as "a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord".

Retail sales bounced back in February after a tough January on the High Street, figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) showed.

UK retail sales recovered month-on-month by 2.2 per cent in February after January's tough weather conditions that kept people away from the High Street, the British Retail Consortium said.

In January, like-for-like sales dropped more-than-expected 0.7 per cent due to cold weather and return of VAT to its pre-recession level of 17.5 per cent.

British defense firm BAE Systems PLC announced on Friday that it had sold half of its 20.5 per cent stake in Swedish defense group Saab to Investor AB in a deal worth 1.066 billion kronor (equivalent to £120 million).

The deal, which is a part of BAE's divestment process, will convert London-based BAE's voting A-shares into non-voting B-shares, while after the sale Investor AB's voting rights in Saab have increased to 39.5 per cent.

New car sales in the UK jumped year-n-year 26.4 per cent in February owing to Government's car scrappage scheme, the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders said.

As many as 68,686 new cars were sold last month and car scrappage scheme accounted for around 20 per cent of the new car sales. It was the eighth consecutive month when new car sales surged in the UK.

Sales to private buyers jumped year-on-year around 70 per cent to 30,798 in February. Ford's two models viz. Fiesta and Focus were in great demand, with more than 3,000 of each were sold.

Hotel prices fell by an average of 14 percent globally in 2009, according to figures released March 2 by Hotels. com.

The average price of hotel rooms slipped 13 per cent in Britain last year, figures unveiled by Hotels. com revealed.

People paid an average of 84 pounds per night for a room in hotel in 2009, down from 97 pounds in the previous year.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has urged the Government to reform its takeover rules to ensure long-term benefits over short-term financial gains.

The Takeover Panel started reviewing the Takeover code last month after Business Secretary criticized the US food giant Kraft's takeover of British chocolate maker Cadbury. In a Mansion House speech yesterday, he said Takeover Panel should have the ability to block the deals approved by less than two-thirds of shareholders.

Russian billionaire and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev expects the takeover deal of the Independent titles to complete soon as major differences over the deal have been removed.

Alexander Lebedev has reportedly agreed to the condition that Trinity Mirror would continue to print the Independent after the purchase of the papers, removing the last impediment to the deal.

Speaking on the topic, he said, “As far as I understand most of the problems have been resolved.”

Japanese engineering giant Mitsubishi has announced that it would invest 100 million pounds in UK's offshore wind turbine research, in a move that will provide work for 200 skilled people by 2014.

Under the plans, Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe will build a prototype turbine within three years, while full-scale production will be started after four years.

The establishment of the factory, which will build extra-large turbine for offshore use, will create as many as 1,500 jobs.

IT services provider LBI International has announced an agreement to merge with UK-based search marketing firm Bigmouthmedia to create Europe's largest digital marketing group.

The companies said that the merged entity, which will trade under the name of LBi, will be able to provide better service to clients.

Speaking on the topic, chief executive Luke Taylor said, "Combining these businesses will enable us to offer our clients digital marketing, consulting and technology services wherever they operate, all under one roof."

UK sportswear giant Sports Direct has purchased 12 million shares in Blacks Leisure, acquiring 28.5 per cent stake in the outdoor goods chain.

Sports Direct's recent move is seen as an effort to scupper Blacks Leisure's recovery plan as it would strengthen Sports Direct's position to vote against a rights issue due to be endorsed by the investors of Blacks Leisure.

Blacks Leisure has plans to raise 22 million pounds but it requires 75 per cent of the shareholder vote to go on with its fundraising plans.

An Athens court is declaring a strike by customs officers illegal and the government says it expects them to return to work Sunday.

Source 2 A Greek court has ruled that customs officers' strike that led to petrol shortages over the past few days was illegal.

Speaking on the ruling, Finance Ministry said, "The decision will be transmitted today to the customs officers, who must return to work tomorrow."

As the currency flowed to a 14- year high against the dollar last year, Japanese exporters are becoming more flexible to the stronger yen. As long as the yen trades at 92.90 per dollar, the firm gains profit, shared the Cabinet Office in Tokyo. That’s more convincing than the coping points of 97.33, they provided last year.