Reagan Lancaster, appointed worldwide head of sales at i2 Technologies in May, and Larry Mueller, chief executive of Ariba since April, have left their respective companies “to pursue other interests”.

Receiver PriceWaterhouse-Coopers (PwC) has failed to secure a buyer for the Cammell Laird shipyards. PwC says it will mothball the yards at Birkhenhead, Tyneside and Teesside when work runs out this month, leaving them with a skeleton workforce of 695 staff.

The government is likely to buck general trends and increase spending on IT by 13 per cent a year for the next two years, according to a survey commissioned by Computer Weekly. It found overall IT spending is set to slow from 11 per cent at the start of this year to about 6 per cent at the year end.