retailer hmv and pulled out of the bidding for patisserie valerie when it face well documented financial woes. but his ambition has surprised many, givenn record, unbelievably bad". what happens next? george macdonald is editor of retail week. good to see you, as always. let's talk about these delayed results, we might get them up until the end of august. what does it tell us about what is going on at the farm?m tells us that is quite a lot of uncertainty about house of fraser. we have not had an update about it since the end of last year. at that time, it had lost more than £30 million injust 11 weeks. we are several months on now. high—street conditions very difficult. you have just got to wonder how sensible that acquisition was, how far he has made progress with his strategy with it, whether or not he is justjuggling too many balls and getting involved in rows with the likes of debenhams, where he managed to oust some members of the board and where he spent quite a bit of time demanding a lie detector tests when he was trying to get control of it. you do wonder if he has spent enough time on the sports direct business. when you tal