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George Osborne's austerity budget will result in the loss of up to 1.3m jobs across the economy over the next five years according to a private Treasury assessment of the planned spending cuts.Unpublished estimates of the impact of the biggest squeeze on public spending since the second world war show that the government is expecting between 500,000 and 600,000 jobs to go in the public sector and between 600,000 and 700,000 to disappear in the private sector by 2015, the Guardian reports.The BBC was threatened with a strike yesterday as it became the first public sector body to take the axe to its pension scheme. About 18,000 employees will have future pension benefits watered down in a move the BBC said would eventually cut its pension bill by one third. New recruits will no longer be able to join the scheme, a defined-benefit plan that guarantees a decent pension regardless of the gyrations in share markets or life expectancy. They will be offered a cheaper defined-contribution scheme, the Times reports.BP's share price fell by a further 2%, after a prominent City expert suggested it should be bought by US rival Exxon Mobil in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Fred Lucas, an energy analyst at JP Morgan Cazenove, speculated that Exxon or Shell could swoop on the beleagured British oil giant for approximately £88bn. Exxon is the most financially strong oil company, he said, adding that it could make a cash and stock offer while spinning off $50bn (£33bn) of refining and marketing assets. "We must emphasise," Mr Lucas adds in the note, "that this is our idea and it is only an idea," the Telegraph reports.Anadarko, the US partner to BP in its ill-fated Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, approved several key aspects of the UK company's designs for the project that have been sharply criticised by Washington lawmakers. Anadarko, which owns 25% of Macondo, also knew of significant operational decisions made by BP that some lawmakers believe could have been a factor in causing the explosion at the well, according to senior executives at both companies, the FT reports.Shares of electric car maker Tesla Motors opened nearly 12% above their float price as investors bet on the future of battery-operated vehicles. Analysts say that Tesla's stock is an uncertain bet. The company is losing money and does not expect to be profitable for at least two years. Tesla has delivered slightly more than 1,000 of its $109,000 Roadsters after early setbacks and a slower-than-expected start of production. It is now planning to launch an all-electric luxury sedan, the Model S, in 2012, the Times reports.Fears that the European Central Bank was scaling back emergency support to eurozone banks too soon sparked sharp falls in financial markets on Tuesday, with the euro tumbling to an eight-and-a-half year low against the Japanese yen. Bankers warned that the ECB's decision not to renew one-year loans to financial institutions had stoked concern about the ability of some eurozone banks to access interbank borrowing markets for funding, the FT reports.Michael Grade came under renewed pressure yesterday to quit as chairman of the UK's leading independent film studio. Richard Bernstein, a director of Crystal Amber funds, which owns 18% of Pinewood Shepperton, labelled the former ITV executive chairman "clueless" and called on him to step down. The Times understands that Crystal Amber will now talk to other shareholders, including Aberdeen Asset Management and SVG Capital, to see whether they would support a change in leadership. If so, it may call an extraordinary meeting in an attempt to vote out Mr Grade.Shares in AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals group, jumped 9 per cent in late New York trading on Tuesday after a US judge overruled a patent challenge on one of its pivotal drugs. In a closely watched ruling, Delaware district judge Joseph Farnan upheld AstraZeneca's exclusivity until 2016 on rosuvastatin, known by the brand name Crestor, its cardio-vascular blockbuster, the FT reports.General Motors assured investors and analysts that its European business would break even by next year and make a profit in the future, as it set the stage for a return to the public markets. Speaking at an investor day in the US, Mark James, the chief financial officer of Opel/Vauxhall, the troubled car company's European marques, said that he expected the company finish its programme of 8,300 redundancies by the end of next year, the Times reports.It started with a rogue tweet, but rumours that Google is developing its own social network to rival Facebook are gathering momentum. Adam D'Angelo, founder of the social networking site Quora, and a former senior manager at Facebook, said "This is not a rumour. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it." Google declined to comment, reports the Independent.A decision by the Government to split up the biggest banks would have "catastrophic effects" on Britain's leading position in international banking and finance, a major global survey has found. Despite the financial crisis, the British banks HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Barclays are among the world's largest 10 banks in terms of capital strength, while Lloyds came 12th, according to The Banker magazine. Its annual survey of the world's top 1,000 banks also revealed that Barclays was the fourth most profitable in 2009, the Independent reports.