— Can Sir Crispin Davis bring his time at Reed Elsevier to a triumphant conclusion? A sale of Reed Business Information, the Farmers to Computer Weekly division, appears to be struggling, with no bids close to the mooted £1.25 billion price. One bidder to have made it through to the second round has indicated its bid was nowhere near £1 billion and there is talk the unit may be worth as little as £800 million.

Yet, there is still hope that Reed may be able to sell as a whole, with the likes of Bain Capital believed to be particularly interested. Exponent, the private equity group, tabled a first-round bid for just the UK trade magazines (RBI owns professional titles worldwide) and was turned away. But will Reed have to provide a larger vendor loan to encourage would-be buyers to pay up?

— Marillion, the band best known for Kayleigh, is still going, although Fish is no longer the lead singer. Despite the fact that the band hasn’t had a record contract for years, they have managed to keep churning out new material – their past two albums were launched after they raised funds from 12,000 fans. The latest wheeze – very much in the “can’t beat ’em, join ‘em” school – is to prerelease their next album, Happiness is the Road, free.

On Thursday, it was seeded on to music-sharing sites such as LimeWire, more than a month ahead of its formal release on October 20. Like Radiohead, they must be hoping that diehard fans will buy it anyway. Given that Marillion do have such loyal fans that may actually be possible.

— Richard Eyre, the former chairman of GCap prior to its takeover by Global Radio, has found himself back in adland. He has been appointed a senior independent adviser at Starcom MediaVest Group. The role will involve working closely with Stewart Easterbrook, the ad business’s chief executive, on strategy and how best to develop the group in Britain. Mr Eyre was a founding director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty and will probably be looking for a few more jobs to fill the portfolio.

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