News roundup--BrightMinds buys The Sleepover Company, more

Educational toys and games cataloguer BrightMinds has bought The Sleepover Company, a children’s furniture catalogue for an undisclosed sum. BrightMinds’ managing director Alison Quill told Catalogue e-business that The Sleepover Company brand will be run as a separate business, keeping the catalogue and website. There were no staff redundancies.

Shop Direct Group, the parent company of Littlewoods, Very, and Empire Stores, saw its pretax losses narrow by 81 percent from £141 million in 2009 to £21 million in the year to 30th April. The North West Business Desk reports that sales were flat at £1.7 billion but EBITDA rose 38 percent to £132 million.

Ocado has reduced for its shares to 180p “in order to attract investors”, reports the Guardian. This means the company is now at less than £1 billion, “roughly a third below the original asking price”.