Alliance & Leicester is to be purchased by Santander of Spain for £1.3bn. Alliance & Leicester has 7,300 staff and 254 branches. The business will be merged with Santander's chain of 705 Abbey branche... [more]

CB Richard Ellis has bought Irving Rice, the Liverpool-based commercial property agency.... [more]

Pepper Post is to be bought out of administration by Partner Capital and the Megginson group for an undisclosed amount. It is expected that there will be no job losses from its London-based TV and fil... [more]

Jones Lang LaSalle is to buy Churston Heard, the London-based retail property agency with 80 employees, for roughly £20m.... [more]

Porvair has purchased Seal Analytical, the West Sussex-based manufacturer of water quality analysis equipment, for £3.8m.... [more]

ID Support Services, the Manchester-based CCTV and air conditioning group with 230 staff, has been bought by private equity firm, Penta Capital Partners, for £25m.... [more]

Phoenix Childcare, based in Tiverton, has purchased the Oakwood Court residential care unit in Dawlish and the Eldra Court care home in Teignmouth for about £3.6m.... [more]

BT Group has bought Ufindus, the online business directory with 300 staff in Lancaster, Chorley, Blackpool, Barrow and Huddersfield, from Iomart for £20m.... [more]

Rolls-Royce is to buy Scandinavian Electric Holding, the Norwegian supplier of diesel-electric marine propulsion systems, for £43m.... [more]

Danoptra has bought the pub gaming machines business of Inspired Gaming, including 30,000 machines and 850 employees.... [more]

Shearings Holidays has bought the George Hotel in Chollerford, Northumberland, the Eden Arms Hotel near Durham and the St George Hotel in Harrogate, as part of a £25m expansion plan.... [more]

Four Seasons Group has acquired HM Air Cooling, the High Wycombe-based air conditioning firm, for an undisclosed amount.... [more]

Bunzl is to buy A&E Russell, the Glasgow-based supplier of personal protection products with 11 sites nationwide and estimated gross assets of £10m.... [more]

Brakes is to buy Woodward Foodservice, the food wholesaler with eight distribution centres in the Midlands, the North, Scotland and Wales, from Baugur for £20m.... [more]

Kallo Foods has acquired So Good, the soya products brand, for an undisclosed amount.... [more]

Fayrewood is to sell Interface Solutions International, the computer distributor with 130 staff in Birmingham and Warrington, to Prime Properties Development for about £2m.... [more]

Gooch & Housego is to buy General Optics, the US optical components manufacturer with 87 staff, from GSI Group for £10m.... [more]

Lakeland Smolt has bought two fish farms at Armaddy and Port Na Gile in Argyll from Lighthouse Caledonia for £2.5m.... [more]

Arada has bought Villager Stoves, the Axminster-based fire manufacturer with 30 staff, and will relocate the business to its site in Bridport next year.... [more]

ScS Upholstery has sold its chain of 96 furniture stores out of administration to Sun European Partners. The future of 1,300 jobs have been secured.... [more]