After recent price increases by Centrica and other gas suppliers, it is now the turn of the water companies to announce future price rises. They have approached Ofwat, the water industry regulator, with details of how much they want to increase prices from 2010. (more…)

Schroders Fund Management profits fell by 27% as investors withdrew £700m worth of assets during the second quarter of 2008. Investors are unwilling to commit funds to the markets as economic uncertainties remain. A situation that is likely to remain until at least early 2009. (more…)

Blinkx, has tabled a $41 million bid for Miva, the US pay per click / search based advertising network as the company looks to expand its online advertising operation. Blinkx is an online video search engine (it claims the largest on the web) and so the acquisition of Miva would compliment its operations. The claim is not unfounded as it currently attracts over 5 million searches per day, making it more popular in the UK than Google Video. (more…)

Ladbrokes shares are deemed worthy of a bet, according to The Times on Saturday. Despite results going against them at Euro 2008, which led to lower profits the company’s performance has held up well despite falling consumer spending. And with the new football season now upon us, trade is bound to pick up for the bookies over the coming months.

Alliance & Leicester posted pre-tax profits of just £2m. Operating profits increased by 2% to £301m, however they also recorded £279m of extra costs, losses and write-downs due to the continuing turbulence in the mortgage markets.

Alliance & Leicester is to be taken over by Banco Santander as the bank believes it would be hard pressed to weather future shocks and write-downs. Being part of a larger group with a much more solid balance sheet is a sensible route for A&L to take.

Bingo is as popular as ever in the UK and whilst traditional Bingo Halls continue to pack the punters in, it is the explosion of online bingo that is really driving the industry forward. With new bingo sites appearing almost daily, it is difficult to know which is the best site to join and trying to compare features and prizes would take forever.

Thanks to Bingo Port you don’t have to. Bingo Port constantly monitors the web’s  new and existing bingo sites to see which are currently offering the the best deals in terms of the prizes and jackpots available, the number of players the site attracts and if there are any special prizes on offer. (more…)

The Co-operative Group’s £1.6bn deal to buy Somerfield looks set to be concluded this week. This is good news for the consortium who own Somerfield as they look set to pocket around £700m. The Co-op look set to shake up Somerfield and  sell-off as many as 150 stores to rival groups.