Pembroke: Wedded bliss

BILL GATES, 37-year-old head of the software giant Microsoft, has no fears that his forthcoming nuptials will hamper his business drive. Mr Gates, who is the richest man in the US and has been dubbed 'The Nerd', told a gathering of Britain's business leaders: 'I've been trying to tell people - it takes a lot of time being single. I think being married will be very efficient.' Romantic, huh?

NOTE THE varied wording of small ads offering offices to Bishopsgate refugees. It ranges from the infinitely delicate 'Displaced? Immediate occupation' to clumpy-booted 'Bomb blast victims move in today.'

DAVID McCALL, chief executive of Anglia TV, has benefited from some fancy financial footwork. Last year he enjoyed a massive pay rise at the same time as seeing his total annual remuneration cut by nearly a third. Anglia's accounts show that Mr McCall's total pay fell by pounds 93,000 to pounds 238,000 in 1992. But the inventors of Sale of the Century say the 1991 salary of pounds 331,000 included a bonus, equal to a year's pay, for Mr McCall's work in helping Anglia retain its ITV franchise. So Mr McCall's salary actually went up during 1992. Sadly he had no whacking bonus, but our calculations indicate a pay rise in the region of 44 per cent.

SIMILAR OPTICAL illusions at Guinness, the boys with the black stuff. Retiring chairman Sir Anthony Tennant trousered an extra 24 per cent in basic pay (or 'golden goodbye'), putting him on a measly pounds 777,000 in a year when earnings slipped back 11 per cent. Guinness justifies the rise by explaining that there was no performance-related bonus in the 1992 package. In fact Sir Tony's total renumeration fell from pounds 781,000 by dint of the pounds 156,000 bonus he earned in 1991.

THEY'LL BE drinking pints of Nescafe at Virgin 1215 when the commercial rock station launches on Friday. The coffee company has just signed up for a pounds 2m deal over three years - the biggest advertising-sponsorship deal in radio history. But Virgin 1215 has also lined up Labatt, Carling Black Label and Perrier, thereby catering for most tastes.

THE SENTENCING of Tony Cole, former chairman of Bestwood, ends a four-year inquiry into the group that did not start auspiciously. In June 1989, when DTI inspectors turned up self-importantly at Bestwood's City offices to trawl through documents, they were told Bestwood had moved three months previously to Essex.