What The Sunday Business Papers Said

Independent in Sunday

Alliance & Leicester, the former building society, has in effect put itself up for sale after its chief executive, Peter White, resigned late on Friday after a boardroom row.

EasyJet, the low-cost airline, is planning to increase its fleet by more than a third and make Amsterdam its Continental hub via a bid for charter airline Air Holland.

Gordon Brown will admit to an admiration for Baroness Thatcher at the Confederation of British Industry's annual conference.

Coral, the bookmaker, is understood to have shelved expansion plans in the face of difficult trading conditions.

Sunday Telegraph

Alliance & Leicester is open to mergers and takeover discussions after the resignation of its chief executive, chairman John Windeler said.

Anglo American has been unmasked as the mystery bidder for Tarmac and is preparing to renew its pounds 1bn assault for the building materials group this week.

Arena Leisure, the racecourse group, is in talks to buy Windsor racecourse for up to pounds 10m. The deal would give its control of a fifth of the market.

Railtrack and Pillar, the property group, plan to put the London headquarters of Liffe, the futures and options exchange, on the market for pounds 140m

British Telecom is seeking to double its stake in Airtel, the second- largest Spanish mobile phone company, at a cost of $2bn.

Sunday Business

Anglo American, the South African miner, has asked investment bank Warburg Dillon Read to work on a renewed assault on Tarmac.

Chancellor Gordon Brown is to deliver a package of tax reforms to Britain's capital markets and will use the CBI conference to make entrepreneurship a priority.

Marks & Spencer is finally to accept credit cards in stores but will this week announce profits in the past six months have almost halved.

The Government will this week spark a pounds 2.5bn bidding war for the next generation of mobile phone licences, being auctioned next March.

Sunday Times

A revolutionary proposal to create a joint venture between Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is being considered by the Government.

The South African miner Anglo American is the mystery bidder behind a pounds 1.1bn offer for Tarmac.

The betting industry will be thrown into turmoil this week when Blue Square, the on-line operator, charges customers just 2.5 per cent for a bet.

Virgin Mobile, due to launch new week, has attracted a valuation of pounds 1.36bn before it has sold a single phone.

The chief executive of Colt Telecom has been named on Britain's most over-paid executive in a survey comparing earnings with shareholder performance.

Observer

The Woolwich is to reopen pounds 11bn merger talks with rival Alliance & Leicester following the dramatic sacking of chief executive Peter White.

The shock move of ITV chief executive Richard Eyre to become head of Pearson TV is expected to lead to a move being made for Channel 5.

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Stephen Byers will launch a stinging attack on pay rises in Britain's boardroom.

Marks & Spencer is set to announce figures this week that will prompt yet more cuts in profits forecasts.

The financial crisis engulfing Pex, the manufacturer of children's socks, has triggered a seizure of equipment on behalf of the Inland Revenue.

Sunday Express

Barclays' bosses have been subjected to a brutal appraisal of the bank's public image by Leigh Bruce, its corporate communications director.

Old enemies British Airways and Virgin will be on the same side of a courtroom this month when they defend a multi-million legal action brought by the Association of British Travel Agents.

Up to 4,000 angry callers a day have bombarded helplines for Egg's low- cost, on-line credit card after its website kept crashing.

The abrupt departure of Alliance & Leicester chief executive Peter White was the culmination of a series of clashes with fellow directors and managers over several years.

The e-commerce group Freecom.net is the latest company to take advantage of the Internet boom with a stock market flotation.

Mail on Sunday

Chancellor Gordon Brown was holding urgent talks with advisers this weekend in an attempt to defuse a bitter row among Bank of England economists in charge of setting interest rates.

Alliance & Leicester is sifting through a mass of merger proposals after the shock ousting of its chief executive.