Colt gets new chief

And Vodafone's Gent gets jam on his bonus

Colt Telecom Group plc has appointed Peter Manning as the company's new president and CEO. Manning, Colt's COO since April 1999, takes over from Paul Chisholm, who had earlier announced his intention to retire this year. Chisholm has been president and CEO of Colt for nine years.

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BT could be about to land a £225 million windfall from BSkyB. According to the

FT

, BSkyB may be forced to buy back BT's share in the interactive TV outfit, Open, under an agreement between the two companies.

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Vodafone CE, Chris Gent, has exercised an option to buy 80,000 shares at 58.7p against a market price of 226.75p. Gent agreed to invest in the company after protests from shareholders concerning last year's £10 million no-strings bonus, says the

Telegraph

. He promised to increase his stake in the company to two million shares by July.

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AIM-listed entertainment portal - e-district - reports that the number of registered users has increased by more than 25 per cent over the last a three months, from 2.71 million people in September to 3.43 million in December.

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B2B dotcom Just2Clicks said yesterday that the markets it targeted had not developed as quickly as it had hoped. The company, which has lost 78 per cent of its value since floating last year, said it would shift strategy if necessary, but it was confident that the B2B sector would bear fruit in the long term. ®

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