Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) is facing a fight to convince its own shareholders of the merits of its deal to buy wholesale group Booker.
Schroders and Artisan Partners have written to separately to Tesco’s chairman, John Allan, expressing their opposition to the deal and asking it to be pulled.
Between the two shareholders, they own 9% of Tesco.
Daniel O’Keefe, a fund manager at Artisan Partners, told the Financial Times he thought the bid was too generous. He added that the takeover was a distraction for Tesco during its restructuring.
Wags had already suggested the deal is the grocer’s way to make sure that Booker’s chief executive Charles Wilson is in place to take over as Tesco’s new boss in due course.
Elsewhere it was a day of launches for a string of essential and maybe not so essential household items.
Google is to kick-off its rival to Amazon’s in-the–home ‘smart assistant’ Alexa in the UK on 6 April.
Using the phrase "OK Google" will trigger the service.
It will cost £129 for the search engine giant’s voice-controlled smart speaker, with Google also to set up its own wi-fi to service make sure the connectivity end of the package is up to scratch.
Meanwhile, Jack Dorsey, the boss of Twitter and mobile payments firm Square, has rejected calls for him to ditch one of his jobs.
Square today launched in the UK and Dorsey told reporters present he was committed to both jobs.
"I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure both succeed," he said.
He also added that Twitter had a pretty good record in dealing with extremist content, but there was 'middle ground' on both encryption and security.
Finally the new pound coin has arrived and already the Royal Mint is already being overwhelmed by the demand.
“We are experiencing quite a demand at present from people interested in the new £1 coin – both circulating and commemorative editions.”
There is apparently a special security addition to stop it being counterfeited, which sparked a whole range of Twitter comment.
The BBC suggested there is material inside the coin that can only be detected when electronically scanned by coin-counting or payment machines, but this was not confirmed by the Mint.
Google Home, the search giant's smart assistant that rivals Amazon's Alexa, will be launched in the UK in April.
Google said it had "hidden a few British treats" in the device.
The speaker and assistant, which launched in the US in November, is part of a growing trend to make artificial intelligence available in homes.
The firm is also launching its own wi-fi service in the UK, in an attempt to solve the "frustration when wireless connectivity fails at home".
Like Amazon's Echo, Home can answer basic queries as well as control smart home devices, such as lights.