Lane Fox to take a back seat

Martha Lane Fox, the face of the dotcom boom, is quitting as an executive director of lastminute.com, the travel and holiday website she co-founded six years ago.

Her shareholding in the company is worth just over £30 million but Miss Lane Fox, 30, said she had no plans to sell shares immediately.

She said: "It has always been my ambition to see lastminute deliver a full year of profitability. Now this has been achieved it is the right time for the business and for me to explore other challenges."

Miss Lane Fox will stay on at the company as a non-executive director.