According to The Guardian BSkyB is set to buy Sir Alan Sugar’s electronics group Amstrad in a £125m takeover that will see the star of The Apprentice collect £34.5m.

For BSkyB the deal means bringing one of its main set-top box suppliers in-house and should speed up the development of new products as it seeks to stay ahead in the increasingly competitive pay-TV market. As it currently stands Amstrad supplies a third of the set-top boxes bought by Sky and the broadcaster accounts for the lion’s share of revenues at Sir Alan’s company, so it make sense to hook up – I wouldn’t like to be a shareholder in the competitors though as you have to wonder if BSkyB will continue to buy their boxes.

The again, maybe Rupert Murdoch wants to be the boss on The Apprentice? Perhaps not – TalkbackThames were quick to issue reassurances that there would no changes to popular business reality TV show The Apprentice. And they confirmed Sir Alan’s “eyes and ears”, Margaret Mountford and Nick Hewer, would not be disappearing from TV screens any time soon.

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