The 10 biggest business stories on Tuesday February 2

Sainsbury's offers £1.3bn for Argos; Alphabet is now the most valuable company on Earth; BP profit falls 91%

Alphabet, Google's parent company, has overtaken Apple to become the most valuable company in the world. (LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Image)

1. Sainsbury's has offered £1.3 billion to win control of Argos owner Home Retail Group. The supermarket says in a statement on Tuesday that it is offering to pay £1.1 billion for Home Retail Group, plus an additional £200 million paid out directly to Home Retail Group shareholders.

2. BP has said its fourth quarter earnings were down 91 per cent on a year earlier after the oil price fell off a cliff in the last 18 months. Fourth quarter profit adjusted for one-time items and inventory changes totalled $196 million in 2015, compared to $2.24 billion a year earlier.

3. TalkTalk said on Tuesday it had lost 101,000 customers in its third quarter after it suffered a high-profile cyber-attack in October. The Telecom group says the cyber-attack it suffered in October has lopped £15 million off trading revenue as well as forcing it to book exceptional costs of £40-£45 million.

4. UBS reported a surprise outflow of funds from its flagship wealth management business on Tuesday, threatening to overshadow its best annual results since 2010 and a higher than expected dividend payout.

5. Morrisons has announced plans to cut the cost of more than 1,000 “staple” products - in a move likely to add fuel to the ongoing supermarket price war. The UK’s fourth largest grocer said this week it will reduce the cost of items such as fruit and vegetables by an average of 19 per cent.

6. Ocado has posted double-digit revenue growth for the year, despite “challenging market conditions”. The online grocer’s retail revenue grew 14 per cent to £1.1 billion in the year to November 29, while pre-tax profits grew 65 per cent to £11.9 million.

7. Alphabet, Google's parent company, has overtaken Apple to become the most valuable company in the world.

8. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO, is expected to unveil a cost-cutting plan that would eliminate up to 15 per cent of the Internet company’s workforce, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mayer will announce the cuts Tuesday after the market closes when Yahoo is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2015 earnings, according to the WSJ report.

9. Nintendo reported a 36 per cent fall in third-quarter profit after a lack of hit game titles hurt holiday sales of its Wii U and 3DS hardware. Net income fell to 29.1 billion yen ($241 million) in the three months to December, the Kyoto-based company reported Tuesday.

10. WhatsApp now boasts more than one billion users and is used by one in every seven people, it has been revealed. Its user base has more than doubled since it was acquired by Facebook in 2014.