It's no mystery why shoppers choose Primark's flagship store over M&S These differing approaches are showing up in the figures, too. Primark like-for-like sales for the year to September are running at 3pc up while total sales are expected to be up 17pc. At M&S, clothing sales rose 0.2pc in the year to March while general merchandise, which includes clothing, saw like-for-like sales fall 1.8pc. In the first quarter of this financial year, clothing was hit again as general merchandising fell 5.1pc. The two stores" price points are different and quality may be an issue, but increasingly less so. However, I know which fashion I prefer and while there are plenty of M&S customers who would never be seen dead in Primark - or so they thought - there are plenty who will be tempted to try a different end of Oxford Street in future. BAE needs to fight its corner over merger BAE's mooted merger with EADS came in for more flak on Friday. Analysts reckon EADS is getting BAE on the cheap as defence spending goes through a cyclical dip and that rejecting the proposal in favour of higher dividends, or waiting for a higher offer, or both, is a better bet for BAE shareholders. Exploring a deal in the US appears at least as compelling for BAE as a deal to merge with EADS. But part of the frustration being expressed about the merger reflects the frustration with BAE's strategic position. It is in a hole and has nowhere to go. Swapping its shares for those in a new company with more diversified earnings (which will come from EADS" Airbus operation) may be the least worst option. But this only works if the 40pc of the enlarged group on offer to BAE shareholders proves a generous offer and the dividend policy remains intact. So far it's only being guaranteed through next year, after which it's under threat. These issues will become clearer at the end of the month when more details are expected. This deal may feel the wrong thing to do, but there's an awful inevitability about it given BAE's weaknesses. We'll see. EMI deal that finally hits the right note Now That's What I Call A Story 64. That's how many pieces I've got out of covering the takeover machinations of EMI over the past 15 years. The company has finally found a home, and a decent one at that, in Universal. Along with the rest of the music industry, EMI missed the significance of the internet in the late 1990s, having grown fat and grey on reformatting vinyl onto CDs. Just three years after EMI and AOL Time Warner announced their doomed merger in January 2000, Apple launched iTunes, which approached digital music in an entirely different way, leaving EMI and the rest for dead. Record labels weren't helped by the European Commission, which blocked consolidation to protect the physical music market without grasping the online threat. The regulators have played into the hands of digital music specialists, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but appears to lack even-handedness. That said, there's no guarantee music majors would have created a workable model online and may well have hindered innovation. Anyway, Universal gets its prize, minus some forced sales, but the deal still stacks up, while EMI should finally get the management expertise it has been lacking for years. No wonder rivals have been so outspoken in their opposition to the deal.