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Great Universal Stores is planning to expand its chain of Argos stores at a rate of 35 outlets a year. 30-Nov-2001 Great Universal Stores is to close its chain of Scotch House woollen stores, having failed to find a buyer. 15-Oct-2001 Great Universal Stores has sold Breathe.com, the internet service provider, to Affinity Internet for £1.7m. 12-Jun-2001 Great Universal Stores has announced details of a £368m investment programme in stores and other projects, including 15 new Argos branches, an Experian data centre in Nottingham and store refurbishments in the US, Germany and France. 06-Jun-2001 Great Universal Stores has put Breathe.com, the recently-acquired internet service provider, up for sale. 18-Apr-2001 Great Universal Stores has bought Breathe.com, the internet service provider, out of administration for £1.4m, and will save at least 80 of the 140 jobs. 09-Jan-2001 Great Universal Stores has confirmed plans to float up to 25% of its Burberry luxury goods brand, which could raise up to £250m. 01-Dec-2000 Great Universal Stores is considering plans for the partial flotation of its Burberry luxury fashion brand. 16-Nov-2000 Great Universal Stores has acquired Jungle.com, the online retailer, for £37m, which will enable it to sell a wide range of office products through a number of channels. 01-Sep-2000 Great Universal Stores is selling its Highway Vehicle Management business in the US to Abbey National for £170m, and has also announced plans to close its General Guarantee Finance division with the loss of 600 jobs. 02-Aug-2000 Great Universal Stores is to buy the Spanish licensee of its Burberry upmarket fashion business for £130m, as part of a strategy to regain control of the brand. 03-Jul-2000 Great Universal Stores is to create up to 700 new jobs in Preston and Widnes, as part of an expansion of its Reality call centre division. 15-Jun-2000 Great Universal Stores is to shed 800 jobs throughout the country by merging its home shopping division with its Argos retail chain. 09-Jun-2000 Great Universal Stores is to create a new e-business services group called Reality, in order to provide customer service and delivery operations for internet-based companies. 17-May-2000 Great Universal Stores is looking to sell its two main finance operations - General Guarantee Finance and Highway Vehicle Management - in order to raise up to £400m for its core business. 02-May-2000 Great Universal Stores is to invest £8m in Mypoints Europe, a new loyalty scheme for the internet that will enable web sites to offer points that can be exchanged for products and services. 17-Jan-2000 Great Universal Stores is considering plans to offer service-related products, such as holidays and entertainment, in its home shopping catalogues. 18-Jun-1999 Great Universal Stores is looking to sell its finance division for up to £1.2bn, in order to focus on catalogue retailing and information services. 02-Nov-1998 Great Universal Stores has won its takeover battle for Argos having received sufficient acceptances from shareholders for the £1.9bn bid. 25-Apr-1998 Great Universal Stores has succeeded with its £545m takeover battle for Metromail, the US database marketer, having beaten off a rival offer from American Business Information. 14-Apr-1998 Great Universal Stores has increased its hostile takeover offer for Argos to £1.9bn, and says it will not raise the offer further unless a white knight bidder emerges. 09-Apr-1998 Great Universal Stores is acquiring Metromail, the US database marketing company, for about £500m, as part of a strategy to build up a US information services business. 14-Mar-1998 Great Universal Stores is linking up with Bank of Scotland to create a new business called GUS Finance that will offer a range of loan products. 13-Feb-1998 Argos has stressed that it will continue with plans to open catalogue-based stores in the Netherlands, despite the takeover approach from Great Universal Stores. 13-Feb-1998 Great Universal Stores has launched a £1.6bn hostile takeover bid for Argos and says it can help Argos with its plans to move into home shopping. 04-Feb-1998 The Wolfson Foundation has reduced its stake in Great Universal Stores from 6.6% to under 3%, following advice from the Charity Commissioners that charity trustees should diversify their portfolios. 14-Jan-1998 Great Universal Stores is acquiring Innovations, the mail-order gadgets company, for £20m, which represents a first major move away from agency mail order towards dealing directly with customers. 05-Dec-1997 Great Universal Stores has sold its Canadian finance division, Superior Acceptance Corporation, to a subsidiary of Ford Motor for £80m. 04-Sep-1997 Great Universal Stores is looking out for a major acquisition in order to offset the decline in its home shopping business, and is also considering other ways to use its "skills in information technology, telephone ordering and product delivery". 27-Jun-1997 Great Universal Stores has acquired Direct Marketing Technology, the US marketing database company, for £180m. 15-Apr-1997 Great Universal Stores has set up a joint venture with British Land, called BL Universal, which will manage GUS' investment property portfolio. 28-Feb-1997 Great Universal Stores is in discussions to set up a real estate joint venture with British Land, which would buy and manage the investment property interests of GUS. 18-Feb-1997 Great Universal Stores has acquired Experian, the US credit rating and information agency, in a £1.04bn deal. 15-Nov-1996 CCN, owned by Great Universal Stores, is making public a database listing the chassis numbers of 50m cars so that buyers of used cars will be able to check if the cars are stolen. 11-Dec-1995 Great Universal Stores has appointed Lord Wolfson from Next as its new chairman, sparking talk of a possible link-up between the two companies. 08-Dec-1995
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