The owners of a bar and a night club are doing battle for business at the bottom of West Street in Brighton.
Revolution Bars Group, which owns Revolution and more than 70 similar bars, hopes to buy the Deltic Group, which owns Pryzm, formerly the Top Rank Suite.
Last autumn Revolution’s owners tried to buy the Stonegate Pub Company, which owns Walkabout, also in West Street.
And at the same time Deltic tried to buy Revolution but, like an unsuccessful dance floor wolf, found its approach rebuffed.
An announcement this evening (Friday 7 September) suggests that Revolution and Deltic could still couple up.
Revolution said: “The board confirms it is in the very preliminary stages of considering a transaction involving a possible acquisition of Deltic.
“The board also clarifies that it is only in very preliminary dialogue with Deltic regarding such a potential transaction.
“Furthermore, no agreement (in principle or otherwise) has been reached with Deltic regarding such a transaction, so there can be no certainty as to the terms, timing or structure of any such transaction, nor as to whether any such transaction will occur at all.”
Deltic emerged from the financial ruins of night club operator Luminar under chief executive Peter Marks, who has put the company on a much sounder financial footing.
The business has 57 venues across the country and the board has been rumoured to be considering floating on the stock market which could provide funds for further growth.