The markets have been alive with the rumour in the past week that WH Smith is preparing a bid for the rump of Simon & Schuster, the Viacom-owned publishing business. The company publishes more than 2,100 titles annually under 35 imprints from authors including Stephen King, Jackie Collins and Ernest Hemingway.
WH Smith, once a mere high street book retailer and stationer, is now a "clicks and mortar" business and the deal, denied by the company, certainly made sense to impatient investors.
Twelve months ago the markets were clearly convinced of its strategy as it became the latest, and somewhat unlikely, must-have stock. The detailing of the retailer's aims to build an online business helped its shares to an all-time high last year of 782p. Since then they have halved in value.
At WH Smith's disappointing half-year results last month, chief executive Richard Handover said he was looking for another publishing acquisition - preferably in the US - to add to Hodder Headline, which was bought for £185m in May last year. Little wonder that two and two should have been put together in the anxiety of seeing some flesh put on the web strategy bones by acquiring valuable new online content.
Since Viacom sold the educational and reference business of Simon & Schuster to Pearson last year there has been widespread speculation that it would accept an offer for the rest of the business - despite the insistance of the entertainment group that the consumer publishing division had more synergies with the wider organisation. WH Smith has done a string of smaller deals to boost its online business, including a tie-up with Carlton Communications to draw users of its TV and cinema websites to the retailer's site. But nothing has stemmed the fall of the share price.
WH Smith is thought to be Britain's second largest online book retailer after Amazon, and has been praised for developing a combined strategy. Yet a market which is starting to expect "old economy" firms to build an online presence is still anxious for the next big deal to show the seriousness of its intent.
Psion's epoc
Those sleek Palm gizmos from America, with their nice leatherette covers and little pointers, seem all the rage just now, leaving our homegrown rival Psion looking something of a laggard. But an upbeat trading statement from Psion yesterday, and an accompanying deal to develop Bluetooth technology for US computing group Dell, provided a reminder as to why this British company promises to bring the population rather more than electronic address books and little "to-do" lists.
Bluetooth is a simple short-range radio technology which allows all sorts of devices to communicate without cables. The spagetti of wires at every desk in every office might eventually disappear. The deal with Dell is particularly interesting in that it sees another global technology corporation coming to Psion for expertise.
It already has the world's top mobile phone makers in its Symbian joint venture, and recently Sony also said it will be taking the Psion approach.
The real draw is the company's Epoc operating system which runs twice as fast as Palm's version - 32-bit as opposed to 16-bit. This sophistication makes it much easier to integrate what is already advanced phone technology.
In the race towards the wireless world the US remains far behind Europe because Americans have not yet taken to gabbing on their mobiles like Europeans. Whatever Palm says about its work now on mobile data, its British competitor has a crucial advantage because of early work on making Epoc faster.
Extra suffering
For a group of cash-strapped South African backpackers, the chance to test one of Scotia's drugs must have been a complete no-brainer. The trial's organisers were offering around £500 for anyone prepared to have an injection and then sit under a lamp for a few minutes.
But their hopes of using the proceeds to fund a trek around Europe have been cruelly dashed. Nearly half the volunteers are sporting nasty scabs over their arms, and were obliged to spend three months away from bright light.
The South Africans are not the only ones suffering: Scotia's shareholders will be feeling badly burnt after yesterday's fiasco, which wiped more than £30m off the company's value.
In the heady days of 1996, the shares touched 800p before its products based on evening primrose oil were found wanting. Scotia insists the damage is only skin deep this time; recent changes to the drug make burns less likely.
But everybody is developing drugs for cancer and without better news, Scotia will struggle to raise shares sufficiently to avoid a £50m bill to redeem its convertible bonds in three years' time. The long term prognosis is critical.
