Philips' Korean merger and Egg hatches high street plan

The merger is seen by both companies as the opportunity to strengthen their offering when 3G technologies take off.

LG is still involved in the allocation process for a UMTS licence in South Korea and the backing of Dutch electronics giant Philips should help soften the blow of the £780m fee...

The Financial Times also brings news of lastminute.com's relaunched, new look, website.

The redevelopment of the company's site was completed at a cost of £8m and the company claims it is now better equipped to deal with higher volumes of internet traffic as well as now offering personalisation facilities for its users.

The project was completed four months behind schedule and users wishing to visit the revamped site were kept waiting a further 45 minutes as 'contractor error' kept the site down for the best part of an hour shortly after the launch. The delay, the cost and the embarrassing outage however did not stop lastminute.com's share price taking a welcome upturn upon the relaunch...

Completing a hat trick of stories from the FT is news that internet bank Egg is rethinking its strategy with a refocusing of its route to market. In a twist that will not be lost on new economy cynics and internet sceptics alike the bank is considering a move into the high street with a network of branches.

While the move seems a step back in time, the company is making it clear that it will not replace its internet strategy but rather complement it. The company hopes to bring in those customers who stand by traditional forms of banking - a group within society that still vastly outnumbers those who have moved their finances online...