Times are tough for the embattled entertainment retailer, with terrible half-year results raising concerns over its future. James Thompson reports

French group Vivendi beat profit expectations in the third quarter, largely thanks to its computer game operation.

Growth in video games and in Brazil helped the telecoms and entertainment giant Vivendi post first-half profits in line with expectations yesterday, despite weakness in its key French telecoms business.

At the start of 2011, Berkshire chancers Brother launched themselves at the knuckledragger market temporarily vacated by the Gallaghers, declaring themselves "the future of music".

On her Geffen debut, Nerina Pallot seems to have reined in some of her musical ambitions, focusing on simple but stylish love songs.

Vodafone has agreed to sell its stake in the French mobile-phone group SFR to Vivendi in a deal worth €7.9bn (£6.9bn), bringing to a close months of negotiations.

Jean-Marie Messier, the French tycoon and self-styled business "visionary", was convicted of embezzlement and duping investors by a French court yesterday and given a three-year suspended jail sentence.

Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has mocked Arsenal for their lack of recent success and branded them nothing more than a "training centre".

This stage-schooled quintet have already justified their existence by inspiring the immortal headline "the Wanted attacked by window-licker".

Major sales for the likes of pop diva Lady Gaga, left, and Florence & the Machine failed to prevent falling half-year revenues at record label Universal Music, figures showed yesterday.

With passport glitches, illness, and death wreaking more havoc than usual in concert schedules, we’re seeing just how big the available pool of talent is.

You might call it a case of "Thank you for the music – but now please change your name". Abba tribute acts, who have kept the memory of Sweden's most famous export alive since the band played their last concert more than 25 years ago, have been told by band's record company they can no longer use the group's name.

Jean-Marie Messier, the tycoon who propelled Vivendi Universal to meteoric boom and bust in 2002, expressed limited remorse yesterday on the first day of his trial for embezzlement and misleading investors.

When Brian Roberts unveiled Comcast's $30bn deal to take control of NBC Universal this week, he declared his cable TV and internet firm had become a leader in the "anytime, anywhere" media that American consumers are demanding.