Synova Capital, a UK private equity fund focused on the lower mid-market, today announced the acquisition of Actimax PLC, a leading UK supplier of IT and telecoms infrastructure services.

Actimax services include the provision of VOIP, systems maintenance, data services, mobile and hosting services, mainly to the underserved SME market.

"We have been able grow Actimax throughout the economic downturn by combining best quality systems with best value pricing and market leading customer service standards,” said John Massey, CEO of Actimax. “

Journalists of a certain age all over the world are feeling a pang or two of nostalgia today, with the news that the last ever manual typewriter has been made in a factory in India.

Godrej and Boyce, the last company to make manual typewriters, has closed its plant in Mumbai, India, leaving the typewriter officially a product of the past.

Toronto-based Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold miner, is building up its copper portfolio with an agreement to acquire copper producer Equinox Minerals.

Equinox has two primary assets, the Lumwana mine in Zambia (100 per cent owned) and the Jabal Sayid development project in Saudi Arabia (70 per cent owned, but Equinox is in the process of acquiring the remaining 30 per cent).

The car manufacturing industry in the UK is under threat from a lack of local component suppliers, according to Nick Reilly, chairman of GM Europe.

Reilly told the BBC this weekend that the lack of home-based parts manufacturers was the most critical issue facing the UK motor industry, which was obliged to import a high proportion of parts.

Even overseas manufacturers like Toyota and Nissan were finding it hard to compete in their UK operations, he said, because of shipping costs and an extended supply chain.

Bristol Cars, the British manufacturer of iconic hand-built luxury cars, has been bought out of administration by Kamkorp Autokraft, part of the Frazer-Nash group.

The company, which makes only a handful of specialist cars every week at its factory in Filton, Bristol, UK, went into administration on 4 March 2011. The acquisition re-establishes the connection with Frazer-Nash which was influential in the foundation of Bristol Cars 65 years ago.

The Turkish Government has chosen US manufacturer Sikorsky to supply 109 Turkish Utility Helicopters, derived from the BLACK HAWK helicopter, for multi-mission use.

The aircraft will be assembled in Turkey by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) as the prime contractor and will include components supplied by Sikorsky and other American and Turkish companies.  

The Defense Industry Executive Committee (DIEC) has estimated the total program value to TAI at $3.5 billion, inclusive of work to be performed by Sikorsky and other program partners.

A year and a day after the Deepwater Horizon accident, BP has signed an agreement with federal and state agencies to provide up to $1 billion (£600 million) to speed up the implementation of projects to restore affected areas in the Gulf of Mexico.

There are people in every organization whose titles indicate they are leaders. Often, and unfortunately, their employees beg to differ. Oh, they don’t say it directly, not to the boss’s face, anyway. They say it with their ho-hum performance, their games of avoidance, their dearth of enthusiasm. Leaders—real leaders who have mastered their craft—don’t preside over such lackluster followers. If reading this makes you squirm with recognition, leadership expert John Hamm says you may have a problem lurking.

Marlon Bowser, CEO of HTK, looks at how companies can get the most out of the increasing number of customer communication channels.

Few would argue that over the last decade there has been a communications revolution. The explosive growth in web use, email and the whole range of mobile communications has given businesses the potential to dramatically improve the way they interact with their customers and increase satisfaction and brand loyalty.

If the numbers stack up, why do so many mergers fail? Phil Dunmore outlines what every CEO should know prior to embarking upon a merger or acquisition.