Glaxosmithkline Share News (GSK)

The Treasury has buckled under pressure from the energy industry by trimming its £2bn windfall tax on North Sea oil producers to provide loopholes for early stage, less profitable offshore drilling operations. Just four months after George Osborne imposed a special levy on oil and gas exploration to fund a drop in petrol duty, the Government yesterday altered its plans by allowing companies to offset greater start-up costs against tax, the Times reports.Video footage of lawyers grilling Tony Hayward about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has found its way on to the internet, after the former BP boss was subjected to aggressive questioning in London last month. Four clips published on YouTube show the former chief executive in tense exchanges with lawyers for the plaintiffs and Transocean, the operator of the sunken rig that is being sued by BP for $40bn (£25bn), according to the Daily Telegraph.Mike Ashley, the founder of Sports Direct, is teaming up with Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter in an attempt to move the sports retail chain upmarket. Sports Direct is in the final stages of a deal to acquire an 80% shareholding in two of Sir Tom's fashion retail chains, USC and Cruise, for £7m, reports the Financial Times.GlaxoSmithKline is radically revamping the way it pays its sales force in response to costly legal challenges over its alleged pushy tactics in encouraging doctors to prescribe its medicines. Britain's biggest pharmaceuticals company revealed yesterday that it will no longer pay bonuses to the 5,000 sales people it has in the United States according to the number of drugs prescribed by the doctors they meet, says the Times.Britain's banks will never again be able to make reckless acquisitions such as Royal Bank of Scotland's disastrous purchase of ABN Amro under the new system of financial regulation, the Chancellor has claimed. Giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, George Osborne argued that moving regulation into a single institution, the Bank of England, and allowing supervisors to apply their judgement would prevent a repeat of what he described as "the biggest bank failure in the world," says the Daily Telegraph.The insurance takeover specialist Resolution is to close its offices in Manchester and Basingstoke, affecting 295 jobs, as it integrates the three acquisitions it has made since it launched in 2008. The offices will shut by the end of 2012 as part of Resolution's efforts to consolidate Friends Provident, Axa's UK life business, and niche life assurer BHA, says the Independent.Following the scandal that engulfed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the International Monetary Fund has tightened up the standards of behaviour expected from its managing director. The IMF has instructed new MD Christine Lagarde to observe the "highest standards of ethical conduct", as she began her tenure, the Guardian reports.Solar panels that cost up to £16,000 will knock just £70 a year off household bills, which is almost half the original estimate, energy experts have admitted. Environmental advisers the Energy Saving Trust (EST) has cut its estimate on how much households could save on their electricity bill using solar panels from the previous £120 a year, says the Daily Mail.The Office of Fair Trading is to probe internet giant Amazon's purchase of UK online bookseller The Book Depository. The OFT said it would consider whether the deal, for an undisclosed sum, "substantially lessened competition" and needed to be referred to the Competition Commission, the Daily Express reports.