The Margin was intrigued by the reflections of Alan Sugar on the vagaries of the Net in last week's Sunday Times.

Mr Sugar, a businessman who has made a pretty penny out of the computer industry, recalled his first encounter with the "Netaholic", an employee who "lost his marbles" and spent 60 per cent of his working day surfing the Net. He disclosed that the chief executive of his company had secretly installed software which sounded an electronic bell if an employee went online during office hours.

And he spoke of the new phenomenon of "pyramid buck passing" where people believe they have completed a task by e-mailing a message to someone else who, in turn, has a quick look before emailing it to someone else.

But Mr Sugar saved his most strident remarks for alliances between various computer companies. "I have stopped counting the companies that have boosted their share prices by announcing they have ventures with Microsoft. I sometimes imagine one morning I will wake up at 7 a.m. to Sky Business News to hear about a new joint venture between Microsoft and Morry's Delicatessen, Golders Green."

And Mr Sugar's bottom line for all those companies riding on the high-tech bandwagon? In the words of Tom Cruise in the film Jerry Maguire, "show us the money".