Microsoft has made an unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. Here’s an extract from the offer letter:

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of Microsoft to make a proposal for a business combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!. Under our proposal, Microsoft would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock [...]

When most entrepreneurs and small business owners choose an accountant they look for a firm that can help them handle the bureaucracy involved in running a business and most importantly can save them money by structuring their business to be as tax efficient as possible. Yet shockingly in a recent survey only 9.7% of business [...]

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2007 Global Report was released last Friday. It’s a global report on entrepreneurship directed by Babson College and London Business School.
I’ve yet to find time to read the full report, but their press release notes that:

Entrepreneurship is going global—in some GEM countries, 40% of early-stage entrepreneurs expected 24% or more [...]

Browsing the BBC’s news this morning I came across this article about the MacBook Air, Apple’s new ultra-thin laptop (sorry I think I’ll stick to my Asus EEE PC at 20% of the price), hidden away at the end of the article however was the news that:

Apple announced it had sold four million iPhones in [...]

This weeks pitches on Dragons’ Den were:

Tidy Tree Sack - Which is a “Two-in-One Christmas Tree Skirt & Tree Removal Bag”. Looking for £150K investment in return for 40% equity. I can see it selling, I’d buy one, but I don’t see why an investment of £150k would be needed. Nor do I believe that [...]

This weeks pitches on Dragons’ Den were:

tingotang - is a symbol for single people, described as a simple way to show people you are single, friendly and approachable. They were looking for an investment of £100K and offering 20% equity in return. They were intending to spend £13K on a PR campaign but didn’t explain [...]

This weeks pitches on Dragons’ Den were:

Fit-Fur-Life - A treadmill for our furry friends. She was looking for £100K in return for 25% equity. It’s aimed at vets, police and animal trainers for recuperation, although much as I hate to say it I can see a cheaper version selling to lazy people for their pet [...]

I saw over on TechCrunch UK that ex Dragon Doug Richards is looking for “very young startups who have web companies that think they could go big”. According to the TechCrunch UK:

Doug emailed [them] to say: “I will be arranging an informal pitching morning and from that I will choose one company who will have [...]

This week the business ideas pitched on Dragons’ Den were:

Back To The Movies - This was a new musical production playing tribute to movie sound tracks. Aimed at everyone unfortunately with only one night booked it didn’t look like it was going to be a success and a marketing budget of £300 per venue is [...]

A new study shows that Gordon Brown’s popularity with SME business owners is currently at an all-time low. A substantial 71% of SME business owners and managers now believe that Brown and Alistair Darling are bad news for UK enterprise, according to a survey by research consultancy FreshMinds.
Nearly half of those who took part were [...]