The rumoured supporter takeover of Manchester United stepped up a gear over the weekend with signs of a new publicity front being opened.

'Sources' close to the Red Knights group of wealthy fans claimed team manager Alex Ferguson was not only backing the bid, but prepared to invest his own cash.

Bananas, pineapples and melons are down but profits are up at Fyffes, the tropical fresh produce importers. Results posted for 2009 show a decrease in the volume of the salad of produce mentioned above, but the company still made a healthy €21.2m pre-tax profit, up 33.3% on 2008.

Commenting on the results, Fyffes chairman David McCann said the results were the "best since the change in European banana import regulations in 2005. The Group achieved the necessary increases in selling prices to offset the negative impact of higher costs and adverse exchange movements."

Trinity Mirror may have stemmed falling profits, but the way it did so and its future strategy raises fundamental questions.

Chief Executive Sly Bailey (pictured) says the results show TM is "continuing to develop the business for longer term growth", but commentators have used words such as "ominous" and "fragile".

Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Mirror, People and Record newspapers, made pre-tax profits of £72.7m in the 53 weeks to 3 January 2010. The group, which also publishes regional newspapers, saw circulation fall and advertising revenue decline, but reports an increase in online users.

The performance comes on the back of a year in which Trinity Mirror axed 1,700 jobs, 20% of the total, closed 15 offices and one print plant, and shut or sold 30 regional newspapers. New online brands such as mirrorfootball.co.uk and 3am.co.uk took the group's number of monthly unique users to 17 million.

Voting for your favourite act in The X Factor has made a major impact on ITV's profits. Revenue from phone voting and competition entries made £30m of the company's adjusted profits of £108m for 2009. There were almost 100 million 'viewer interactions', with 10 million votes cast in the X- Factor final.

But profits are down 4% on 2008, with advertising revenues falling 11% to £998m in what ITV says is "the worst television advertising downturn on record." The TV company's share of peak time viewing across all channels grew to 28.2% (up on 2008's 27.8%) and online users rose substantially.

As Real Madrid (team members pictured) are named as the first sports team to post annual revenues of €400m (£357m) and Roman Abramovitch's Chelsea are overtaken by London rivals Arsenal in the annual Deloitte Football Money League, grass roots organisation by football fans alarmed at the influence of big finance continues.

Hundreds of fans attended a Beyond the Debt rally organised by FC United of Manchester at Bury FC's Gigg Lane ground on Saturday, with speakers from Supporters Direct, the Football Supporters Federation and fan workers from Germany all stressing the need to act on the ownership issues facing football.

It's fair bet the TV advert you remember the most from last year featured a gorilla playing a drum kit to the strains of the Phil Collins hit In The Air Tonight. The latest issue of ad industry creatives magazine Shots gives a fascinating insight into how the ad came to be, and its affect on Cadbury's sales.

During the ad's on-air period, sales of Cadbury's Dairy Milk boomed by 9%, with sales figures helping to drive the return on investment to four times the normal level of the fast moving consumer goods market. Over the whole of 2009, Dairy Milk sales grew 11%, helping Cadbury post a 30% rise in profits.

Record profits for car insurer Admiral and feverish speculation about a new takeover bid for Carling Cup winners Manchester United dominates the early market round-up. Admiral's chief executive refers to "a great year", while success on the pitch for United is doing little to quell the turmoil off it.

Admiral posted a record £215.8 million profit before tax for 2009, a total that is 7% up on 2008, while turnover rose 18% to £1,077.4 million. Admiral says car insurance customer numbers rose 19% to 2.08 million. The results are good news for the company's 3,500 staff, who are in line for a £9m payout.

Publisher Pearson, which owns the FT and Penguin among other brands, saw sales rise 4% to £5.6bn last year, with adjusted operating profit also up 4% to £858m. The figures form part of the company's preliminary results statement. Digital products generated £1.7bn of sales, 31% of the total.

Chief executive Marjorie Scandino says, "We increased sales and profits while investing heavily in the future," pointing to an investment last year of £500m on new education programmes, FT journalism and author's advances. Savings such as a redundancy programme at Penguin have also been implemented.