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Most followed: Pfizer, AstraZeneca, British Sky Broadcasting, Leni Gas & Oil, Motive Television, Wessex, Galasys

Published: 06:30 12 May 2014 EDT

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The charm offensive from Pfizer continues with the company releasing videos of interviews with their top brass extolling the virtues of a Pfizer/AstraZeneca combination.

According to Pfizer chief executive Ian Read, when the company looks at combinations – or “takeovers” as they are more commonly called – the company starts from a basis of “will it be good for patients?”

This assertion may come as a surprise to some pundits who thought the first thing Pfizer thought of was “will it save us a pile of money in tax?”.

On the BBC’s Today programme, chancellor George Osborne was questioned about the government’s willingness to talk to Pfizer even though the company has yet to launch a formal offer for Astra, and he maintained he is “prepared to get in the room and have a hard negotiation with very large companies and be very, very, hard-nosed about what we want to deliver in terms of good British science and good British jobs."

“My only interest is securing good British jobs in good British science,” Osborne said.

Another big company talking about “combinations” is British Sky Broadcasting (LON:BSY). It has initiated preliminary discussions with 21st Century Fox to evaluate the potential acquisition of its pay-TV assets in Germany and Italy.
BSkyB believes at the right value, this combination would have the potential to create a world-class multinational pay TV group,” the company said.

Elsewhere in the pay-TV arena, Motive Television (LON:MTV) occupies its usual place at the top of the most heavily traded (in volume terms) share in London, but at least today the company has released some news to drive all that trading. The company has brought on board a man it described as “the father of on-demand television”.

His name is Jeffrey Reiss, and he is a former executive at ABC and Viacom, as well as the creator of the world's first satellite-delivered Pay per View television service, Request TV.

He will get to work immediately on the development of strategic and product relationships with studios and content providers, major broadcasters, and key television platforms in the United States.

The second most heavily traded share is Leni Gas & Oil (LON:LGO) after the company pleased the market this morning with better than expected results from test drilling at a development well on the Goudron field in Trinidad.

Slotting in to the bronze medal position on the trading volumes contest is Wessex Exploration (LON:WSX), which has revealed the details of a proposal that will take the company into the Philippines and potentially transform its fortunes.

In the wake of an unsuccessful drilling campaign offshore Guyane the company has been looking for opportunities to acquire new assets. It has decided upon a deal to buy Hague and London Oil, or HALO, a vehicle of former Coastal Energy directors Andrew Cochran and Bill Phelps. HALO has a 15% stake in a group of oil discoveries offshore Philippines.

On the new issues front, Galasys (LON:GLS), a provider of ticketing systems and solutions to the fast growing theme park industry in Asia, has made its debut on AIM. The stock is sure to be a market report writer’s favourite, with lots of scope for puns along the lines of ‘roller-coaster ride’, but for now the roller-coaster is all up and no down, with the shares trading 2p above the flotation price of 22.5p.

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