Last month Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse Group confirmed they were talking about a potential merger, although these discussions were described as being “at a very preliminary stage”.

Under the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, the two companies were required to either announce a firm offer or confirm they won’t be making an offer by 5pm today.

Mark Bridge writes:

New Apple products! New Android smart watches!

You’d be forgiven for not having noticed either of those news stories last week. Apple did indeed announce a new iPhone – but it was simply a new iPhone 5c with just 8MB of memory.

This weekend marks 30 years since Racal Electronics revealed the name of its new mobile phone service as ‘Vodafone’.

The name was announced at a press conference in London on 22nd March 1984, although it wasn’t until 1991 that Vodafone demerged from Racal and became a separate company.

Samsung has begin displaying its forthcoming Galaxy S5 smartphone, along with the Gear 2 smart watch and Gear Fit fitness tracker, at selected shops around the world.

Although the new flagship Galaxy S5 won’t go on sale until Friday 11th April, it’ll be shown off at more than 1,400 Samsung Experience Stores, mobile network shops and in other key retailers across 61 countries including the UK.

Vodafone and UK-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have announced a global partnership that’ll see them using mobile health services to help patients with cardiovascular conditions.

The collaboration will work in partnership with healthcare professionals, who’ll enable patients to use mobile and internet-based mHealth services during their treatment.