The fall-out from last year's West Coast mainline fiasco was the �final straw� that forced FirstGroup to launch a heavily discounted rights issue on Monday, according to its chief executive.

Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo, has made her first big bet to jump-start growth at the stalled web portal company with the $1.1bn purchase of New York start-up Tumblr.

In the tech/corporate world, Yahoo! just confirmed that it has agreed to pay $1.1bn for Tumblr, and promised not to "screw it up".

LONDON | Mon May 20, 2013 12:50pm BST. LONDON (Reuters) - British retailer Marks & Spencer is expected to report its lowest annual profit in four years on Tuesday as a struggling general merchandise division drags on the growth in food sales.

Retail sales increased at their fastest pace since December 2009 in a surprisingly upbeat set of data from the British Retail Consortium helped by sales of electronic items.

The Ernst & Young Item Club, which makes economic forecasts using the Treasury's own methods, says inflation has cost the UK �10bn over the last three years alone.

LONDON�Budget carrier Ryanair Holdings PLC is targeting expansion in Northern Europe as it pursues an ambitious growth strategy with plans to increase traffic by 25% over the next five years.

Mon May 20, 2013 6:51am EDT. (Rewrites first paragraph, adds details on impact of share offer, share price, background). By Clara Ferreira-Marques.

Pre-tax profits for the year to March 31 slipped 2pc to �47.4m but after adjustments for non-recurring charges and a 53 trading period rose 8pc to �49.3m.

The price of a new home in London soared by almost 7 per cent in April as first-time buyers fought to get on to the property ladder.