Business Diary: No room for sentimentality

Deutsche Bank analyst Marc Geall didn't mince his words as he downgraded his rating of Autonomy from buy to hold. "Autonomy has neglected [investment]" he warned this week, adding "with management not confronting the issues, future volatility is still a risk". Geall should know – his profile on social networking site LinkedIn reveals that before joining Deutsche in July, he spent three years working at Autonomy, latterly as its head of corporate strategy.

Hollywood does the credit crisis

Hot on the heels of the Wall Street follow-up Money Never Sleeps comes a big-screen adaptation of Andrew Ross Sorkin's much admired account of the credit crisis, Too Big to Fail. HBO's cast list certainly makes impressive reading: Ben Bernanke will be played by Sideways star Paul Giamatti, while Lehman's Dick Fuld ought to be flattered that Hollywood veteran James Woods has been lined up for his part.

Fox takes swipe at Roubini

Good to see Fox News business reporter Charlie Gasparino on fine form yesterday with a long item dedicated to "calling out big name pessimists" – specifically Nouriel Roubini, the feted economist, who Gasparinoproceeded to rubbish. Roubini wasn't the only target in the sights of Gasparino, who also claimed only one persondisagreed with his analysis – the widely respected financial journalist Felix Salmon, now at Reuters. "He has a screw loose and is maybe the worst reporter in the world," says Fox's man.

No room for the fat controller

As we reported yesterday, BSM is to replace its fleet of 3,250 Fiat 500s in favour of Vauxhall Corsas despite dumping Vauxhall for Fiat only 18 months ago. The driving school put the U-turn down to customer feedback: now our spies tell us that the biggest problem was complaints from the inspectors who periodically sit in the back seat of instructors' cars to observe their teaching. Apparently, some are a little on the large side for the less generous accommodation the Fiats offer.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk