Thursday newspaper round-up: Google-HTC, BHS, Sky

Google has announced a deal to acquire part of Taiwanese firm HTC Corp’s smartphone operations for about $1bn. The deal will not involve the purchase of a direct stake and HTC will continue to run its remaining smartphone business. Google has sought to beef up its hardware capability with deals and product launches, and last year hired Rick Osterloh, a former Motorola executive, to run its hardware division. – Guardian

The former owner of BHS has told a court he did not receive demands for information from the pensions watchdog as he was “offshore on a boat”. Dominic Chappell, who headed Retail Acquisitions which bought BHS for £1 from Topshop entrepreneur Sir Philip Green about a year before the department store fell into administration, has been accused of failing to provide information to the pensions regulator. – Guardian

The City's top lobby group has urged Theresa May to get a move on with a Brexit transition deal as she prepares for a landmark speech in Italy tomorrow. Echoing a warning made by the head of the Financial Conduct Authority earlier this year, TheCityUK has slammed the lack of progress made on agreeing a transitional arrangement since the EU referendum and called for urgent action to limit damage to the City. – Telegraph

Britain’s top competition watchdog has been forced to cut off his friendship with a senior City lawyer over potential accusations of bias in the investigation of the Murdoch family’s £11.7bn Sky takeover bid. Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), will “take the prudent step of ceasing social interaction” with Antonio Bavasso, an antitrust partner at 21st Century Fox’s law firm Allen & Overy. – Telegraph

MPs are to investigate the radical pension freedoms of two years ago that allow anyone over the age of 55 unfettered freedom to blow their retirement savings. The Commons’ work and pensions committee is to launch an inquiry into how the “freedom and choice” reforms are working in practice, in particular over concern that they are exposing vulnerable people to fraud. – The Times

The accounting watchdog is under pressure to publish a register of conflicts of interest after clearing KPMG of any wrongdoing in the HBOS scandal while 11 of the firm’s present or former partners sat on its key decision-making committees. The Financial Reporting Council is vulnerable to potential conflicts of interest and is at serious risk of regulatory capture as a result, some investors argue. More than 40 present and former Big Four partners sit on its main board or other key committees. – The Times