Business Diary: 01/05/2010

Warren Buffett gets his own cartoon show

He has already made a cameo appearance in The Simpsons, but now the world's best-known investor, Warren Buffett, is to get a cartoon series all of his own.

A Squared Entertainment will today premiere its Secret Millionaire's Club, "inspired by the teachings of Warren Buffett". The great man apparently has to mentor a bunch of children who want to learn about the business world. "Together they explore concepts such as supply and demand," the producers tell us. Maybe we'll just stick to The Simpsons.

Kirkham came in from the cold to sell DFS

So what did it take in the end to persuade Lord Kirkham to sell his furniture group DFS to Advent, just weeks after insisting that he'd be keeping it as he didn't need the cash on offer? Well, £300m no doubt helped, but maybe the clincher was the promise of a warm welcome home – the DFS founder completed the deal via satellite phone as trekked to the North Pole with his mate Malcolm Walker, the former boss of food store Iceland.

Has the Co-op deal come a cropper?

In the run up to the takeover of Somerfield by Co-operative last year, more cynical retail analysts wondered about the clash of culture between a business built up by hardened private equity folk and the cosy world of mutuality. Now Retail Week reveals all is not going entirely well with the deal – Somerfield sales are down around 13 per cent. Co-op insists that simply reflects its decision to cut the grocer's high prices.

Bye-bye Crozier, hello better PR, says Royal Mail

Looks like Royal Mail wants to cleanse itself now boss Adam Crozier has quitto run the show at ITV. Despite employing the services of five separate public relations agencies, it's fair to say Royal Mail hasn't always had the best publicity under Crozier. Now he's off, it is putting the contracts out to tender.