Friday Papers: Laird rebuffs sweetened Cooper bid - tips, comment and bids

Financial Times

* Laird has rebuffed a sweetened £533 million takeover approach from Cooper Industries but left the door open to its suitor.

* The banks who control indebted high street hardware chain Robert Dyas are considering putting the business up for sale following a return to profitability.

* Antitrust officials in Brussels are expected in the next few days to open a probe into the UK government’s plans to privatise Royal Mail.

* Oberthur is in the final stages of an auction to sell large chunks of its business to private equity bidders.

* AstraZeneca plans to commit an extra $1 billion to its share buy-back programme this year.

* Safran, the French aerospace manufacturer, has been accused of obstructing a domestic asset swap with a rival company that has been backed by Nicolas Sarkozy.

* Sergio Marchionne, Fiat and Chrysler chief executive, has merged the management of the two carmakers.

The Lex Column

* Sprint Nextel: negatives cannot be dismissed - management has promised that the network questions will be addressed in October, but this still leaves the small issue of Sprint’s competitive position.

* Cyprus: latest headache for Eurozone - the scale of the island’s challenges, and the rise in political instability, suggest Cyprus’s creditworthiness has further to slide.

* BAE is striving to follow the trends in tools of destruction and protection. Investors wanting near-term certainty should steer clear, but long-term the shares could offer good value.