Sugar not sweet on Viglen sale

Amstrad today dismissed a whispering campaign that suggests the firm will pull out of the PC market. While matchmakers link Amstrad's successful direct sales PC division Viglen with any number of vendors, a spokesman for the firm said the rumours were mischievous "nonsense". "Not a scrap of it is true," said the spokesman.

Although many pundits have suggested that Amstrad chief Alan Sugar is more interested in the performance of his Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, the spokesman insisted that Sugar has no plans to switch his focus from PCs to FCs. "Tottenham is still a small business compared to Amstrad. Alan's eye is firmly on the PC market."

A deal that would have given Psion control of Amstrad fell through last year and Sugar's company recently sold its Dancall cellular communications business.

Steve Bennett, managing director of Warks.-based mail-order giant Software Warehouse, laughed off suggestions that his company could be in the frame: "I wish I had the money to be able to afford Viglen," he quipped.