Sports Direct has moved to criticise Goals Soccer Centres following an abandoned bid to buy the football pitch business.
Mike Ashley's retail firm hit out at the five-a-side-football pitch operator, two days after confirming he had no intention to buy the business.
The retail tycoon claimed Goals "did not truly engage" with the offer process.
Mr Ashley said the fresh statement was in response to reported comments from Goals that it "provided Sports Direct with all of the information they have requested as and when it became available".
READ MORE: Sports Direct appoints RSM as new auditor
The East Kilbride-based Goals in March saw its share suspended after it reported £12 million of accounting errors.
Sports Direct is the biggest shareholder in Goals with a near-19 per cent shareholding.
Goals, which was delisted from the AIM stock market in September, declined to comment on the Sports Direct statement.
Pub group Fuller, Smith & Turner has agreed a £40 million deal to buy Cotswold Inns & Hotels.
Fuller's said it has taken control of the hotel-focused business which consists of seven freehold country inns, eight freehold cottages and two leasehold bars.
READ MORE: Bird's eye view: £1bn Edinburgh St James takes shape, from above
Cotswold Inns & Hotels, which was founded in 1997 by Michael and Pamela Horton, posted revenue of £17.5 million for the year to September 2018.
The London-listed pub group said the deal will be funded by Fuller's existing banking facilities and is expected to complete on October 31.
Chief executive Simon Emeny said the company expects to see benefits from the acquisition imminently, with the move expected to boost earnings for the next year.
"The inns and hotels being acquired are all iconic, character properties in sought-after locations in the Cotswolds," he said.
Firms in the creative industries fear they will lose their world-leading reputation after Brexit, a new report warns.
The CBI said the sector is facing a series of challenges, including uncertainty caused by the UK leaving the EU and increasing international competition.
READ MORE: Families reunite to acquire £10m Edinburgh office block
The business group made a series of recommendations to the Government, ranging from boosting the profile of smaller creative companies on trade missions, to tackling copyright infringement.
CBI director-general Dame Carolyn Fairbairn said: "Firms in the creative industries contribute more than the oil and gas, automotive and aerospace sectors combined. It's one of the few sectors more resilient to automation and can boost productivity.
"Aside from the economic benefit, the creative sector is a force for good. It has the ability to unite people in an increasingly polarised world, from the millions of people across the country that sit down together daily to watch the best of British TV, to the work our public service broadcasting does in tackling misinformation and 'fake news'.
"The creative industries can be a catalyst for regional growth by playing a central role in regenerating post-industrial towns. Channel 4's new HQ in Leeds or BBC's move to Salford are driving investment, creating jobs and attracting people into the local area.
"Across government, policies around education, immigration and global regulation should be built with this critical sector in mind. Creativity must be considered equally important to numeracy and literacy in all schools."
It said the current deal being debated in Westminster is harder than the original one negotiated by Theresa May.
While this could create an improved short-term economic trend, it said "the outlook over the longer-term could be even more challenging".
Investment has been the worst hit area of economic growth in Scotland, with businesses delaying decisions until after Brexit or cancelling them altogether according to the report.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article