Many of Dell’s issues can be traced back to a product lineup that’s falling behind offerings from its competitors. Dell has continued to focus on home and business computing over the past decade, while its rivals – HP and Lenovo amongst them – have increasingly focused on mobile devices such as touchscreen tablets.

The company’s catalogue has resulted in an ongoing dispute between its founder Michael Dell and the company’s two largest investors. Mr. Dell wishes to take the company private once again and focus on developing mobile devices, while many shareholders argue that Dell should remain a public company.

A key point of dispute between Mr. Dell and the company’s two largest investors – Southeastern Asset Management and Carl Icahn – is over Dell’s value. Mr. Dell is bearish on Dell’s current valuation, offering to buy the company for $24.4 billion using his personal funds and the assistance of a private equity group.

Dell’s investors, however, claim that the company is worth far more than $24.4 billion, and that Mr. Dell’s offer is a ‘giveaway’. Dell’s revenue decreased by two percent in the last quarter, although income from new technology increased by 12 percent, making up for a nine percent drop in income from PC sales.

Whichever direction Dell chooses, the company faces a dilemma: to reduce its involvement in the home PC market and focus on mobile devices, or continue with its – in the past – most profitable enterprise and continue to manufacture home PCs and business workstations.

Retail chain Marks and Spencer is the UK’s largest user of contactless payment terminals, with over 644 installations across its UK stores. For the most part, it has seen great results from the terminals, with almost 250,000 retail payments made every week using the new technology.

However, the technology also appears to be producing some unwanted glitches for shoppers. Marks and Spencer has reported five complaints from contactless card users that claim the technology double charged them – requesting payment from both the contactless card and the standard card used at the checkout.

Contactless card readers are designed to only charge cards that come within two inches of the machine. This technology aims to prevent unauthorized charges to consumer cards. However, many consumers have reported charges coming from cards that were located as far as eleven inches from the checkout card reader.

M&S, and the various other retailers that use contactless cards at their checkout, are working with consumers affected by card reader glitches. The customers that have complained about the technology have been refunded for the extra charges, and M&S has noted the most customers are happy about the new technology.

The contactless system is currently designed to limit transactions to a maximum of £20, possibly to prevent misreading issues from occurring. However, it seems like this technology, which is undoubtedly designed for convenience, may end up producing some serious headaches for consumers before it becomes standard.

Matt Brittin, Google’s head of Northern European sales, was grilled during a hearing with MPs over the company’s tax status. Google has claimed that its taxes are fair, as the company’s UK-based sales were managed by employees in Ireland. Several MPs, however, believe that Google’s UK-based sales should be taxed as UK earnings.

It’s an understandable position – after all, Google’s sales were reportedly made from the United Kingdom, with only administrative ‘account closing’ efforts based outside the nation. As the United Kingdom is one of Google’s largest markets, a large scandal could have serious negative consequences for the search firm’s image.

Google’s famous motto – “Do No Evil” – was thrown on its head during recent court proceedings, as MPs declared that Google’s tax policy was evil. Google’s former top-ranked executive Eric Schmidt – currently serving as Google’s executive chairman – plans to meet with David Cameron as part of a technology advisory group.

Spokespeople claim that the meeting has been planned for several months, and that the company’s current tax issues are unlikely to be on the agenda. However, with an extremely large market potentially at stake, Schmidt may certainly see the value in capitalizing on the opportunity to speak directly with the Prime Minister.

Google isn’t the only company to have experienced corporate tax issues. Amazon, one of the world’s largest online retailers, is currently facing claims of tax evasion after a journalistic investigation revealed that many UK-based suppliers worked with the company’s Slough office, rather than its Luxembourg headquarters.

The job cuts are one of several major decisions aimed at returning RBS to health in order to sell the bank back to private investors. RBS has reduced its workforce over the last four years in order to limit expenses and return the bank to profitability.

David Cameron has weighed in on the bank’s decision to cut costs, stating that the end goal of the layoffs is to make RBS a viable private business once again. The jobs that have been removed were primarily administrative positions in RBS’s offices.

The bank plans to restructure its UK-based retail banking business and will slowly cut back its employment numbers over the next two years. The move is one part of RBS’s long-term plan to return to its pre-crisis financial position.

Despite its unique financial situation, RBS isn’t the only bank engaging in sizable layoffs. Global banking giant HSBC is considering cutting its workforce by 14,000 due to the increasing regulatory costs of operating its business in certain markets.

The large bank would focus heavily on Asian investments, aiming to earn more from a market that’s historically been it’s top performer. The East Asian banking giant has over 260,000 employees currently, making it one of the world’s largest banks.

Chief executive Stuart Gulliver claimed that the job cuts were one of several moves aimed at making HSBC more ‘ready to take advantage of growth opportunities. The bank recently reported earnings of $8.4 billion during the first quarter of 2013.

Mr. Halfon claims that the potential for petrol price fixing is an issue that affects millions of people across the nation, and that if a conspiracy exists, the people responsible for it should serve time in prison for their involvement. Concerned at the lack of deep probing by the government, Halfon has claimed that the affair should be a ‘national scandal’ and that the enquiry deserved more attention.

While Mr. Halfon stands out as a leading voice on the scandal, he’s certainly not the only MP to be concerned about the possibility of petrol price fixing. David Cameron has also commented on the issue, claiming that he would be ‘deeply concerned’ if it came to light that petrol companies were artificially manipulating the price of oil in order to increase their profit margins.

Britain has faced rising fuel costs for over a decade, with the cost of petrol steadily increasing since the start of the millennium. Aside from a dip in price at the beginning of 2009, at which point petrol prices were at parity with their 2000 price, the cost of a litre of petrol has almost doubled since the year 2000. It’s a worrying trend with real financial repercussions for millions of British families.

As investigations continue into companies such as BP and Shell, the public – and the public sector – is bracing itself for a potential scandal. With the Libor banking scandal now out of the public eye, it appears that Petrolgate, as it’s being described on Twitter, could be the biggest business scandal of 2013.