The fragrance firm Coty has pulled out of its $10.7bn (£6.7bn) takeover bid for Avon Products after it said the US cosmetics group had taken too long making its mind up.

The billionaire founders of Cillit Bang cleaner group Reckitt Benckiser yesterday came calling again for door-to-door cosmetics giant Avon with a $10.7bn increased bid and a threat to walk away if the target's shareholders failed to enter talks in the coming days.

US Outlook It is always a treat and an education to be in the presence of Warren Buffett. The tens of thousands who make the annual pilgrimage to the Oracle of Omaha invariably come away with a few new pearls of investment wisdom, and a witty one-liner or two, as well.

The billionaire Warren Buffett sought to reassure his followers of his health last night, after disclosing that he will undergo treatment for early-stage prostate cancer.

Another director of Tesco has picked up shares just days after a profits warning knocked their price down by nearly 20 per cent.

Warren Buffett, known as the Sage of Omaha for his investment prowess, spent almost £400m on shares in Tesco within hours of the profit warning that battered its share price last week.

Warren Buffett, known as the Sage of Omaha for his investment prowess, spent almost £ 400m on Tesco shares within hours of the profit warning that battered its share price last week.

Tim Martin has been predicting the demise of the euro, sometimes with a reference to the pharaoh Tutankhamun (they are equally dead), since the day it was invented. Can't work, he kept saying. Won't work. Shouldn't work. The JD Wetherspoon chairman is now closer to being proved right, which might be cause for a celebratory pint down the local. His own business continues to do remarkably well. Yesterday he reported rising sales over Christmas, but took little credit. They're only up because we're comparing the sales with a period of bad weather a year ago, he said.

Only the departure of a particular man from a particular role at a particular company could have stolen the business headlines from stock market chaos, a surging gold price and the eurozone crisis.

US Outlook: For a man who says his company doesn't need to raise cash, Bank of America's Brian Moynihan has sure raised a lot of cash this week.

As the blue-chip index finished in the red for the first time this week, 3i managed to keep its head above water yesterday thanks to mutterings the private equity investor could attract bid interest from across the Atlantic.

In France and America the super-rich – including Liliane Bettencourt (Europe's wealthiest woman and the L'Oreal heiress) and Warren Buffett, (the US investor who pays just $7m on his fortune of around $50bn) – are clamouring to pay more tax. Yet in Britain, the Chancellor is thinking aloud about cutting the top rate of tax. What is going on?

Warren Buffett's complaint that he (and lots of other wealthy individuals) don't pay enough tax has prompted some withering attacks from those who do not share his views.