Beazley is to acquire Momentum Underwriting Management, the insurance agency, for an amount nearing £21m.... [more]

All3Media has bought Illumina Digital, the London-based digital TV and multimedia production company with a turnover of £4.3m.... [more]

GNE Group is to sell its Petrol Express chain of petrol stations to Leopard 2 Investments for £52m.... [more]

Protherics, the biotechnology company with 300 staff at sites in Runcorn, London, Ceredigion, Australia and the US, is to be acquired by BTG for £218m.... [more]

Optical Fibres, the Morecambe-based cabling systems installation firm, has been acquired by Optech Fibres of Barrow-in-Furness.... [more]

Lloyds TSB is to acquire HBOS for £12bn, which could lead to the loss of up to 40,000 jobs from the 139,000 combined workforce.... [more]

Holland & Barrett is to acquire Julian Graves, the chain of 345 health food stores, for undisclosed terms.... [more]

Invensys has acquired Quantum Engineering, the US rail signalling and controls supplier, for £21m.... [more]

Barclays is to acquire PT Bank Akita, the Indonesian bank with ten branches.... [more]

VCS Timeless, the French retail software firm with 145 staff and an office in Milton Keynes, is to be sold by Christie Group to Cegid for £3m.... [more]

Kelman, the Lisburn-based power services firm with 300 staff, has been acquired by GE Energy of the US for undisclosed terms.... [more]

Randall & Quilter has acquired Continuum Holdings, the holding company for the London-based KMS insurance run-off services business, for £1.8m.... [more]

Charles Taylor Consulting has acquired Santam Europe, the Irish motor and property insurance firm that is now closed to new business.... [more]

Connaught has acquired Lowe Group, the Rotherham-based electricity services firm that trades as Necta, for £7.5m, as well as MSF, the Crawley-based fire compliance firm, for £6.5m.... [more]

Standard Life is to acquire Vebnet, the employee benefits company with 78 staff and offices in Edinburgh and London, for £24m.... [more]

Tindle Newspapers has acquired three local newspapers in Essex for undisclosed terms, including the Leigh & Westcliff Times, the Rayleigh & Eastwood Times and the Canvey Island & Benfleet Times.... [more]

Loch Duart has acquired Salar Smokehouse, the Hebridean fish processing firm.... [more]

Aegis Group has acquired Range Online Media, the US search engine marketing agency, so that it can expand its Isobar division.... [more]

John Wood Group has purchased MCS, the Irish subsea engineering consultancy with 200 staff in Galway, Aberdeen, Australia, France, Brazil, Malaysia and the US.... [more]

Topaz Computer Systems has been bought by Leicester-based Safe Computing, creating a combined software development group with 120 employees.... [more]