Britain wants bidders to improve their offers for Northern Rock, the teetering bank that already owes taxpayers 25 billion pounds ($49 billion). Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has been told it is a front-runner ahead of a rival offer led by the bank’s management team. Northern Rock has been a major headache for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government, which is keen to avoid nationalizing Britain’s fifth-largest mortgage lender.

Answers Corp, owner of Answers.com, has terminated a $100 million public offering, blaming unfavorable market conditions. The company had planned to sell shares to institutional investors to fund its purchase of Lexico Publishing Group, the owner of Dictionary.com. The agreement to buy Lexico will expire on March 1.

Global miner Rio Tinto touted its 9 percent rise in half-year underlying profit as more evidence that a hostile $147 billion takeover bid by rival BHP Billiton undervalued the company. “There is clear water between the offer and the fair value of the company,” said Rio Tinto Chief Executive Tom Albanes.